Editorials
Iraq's Foreign Minister Has a Chat with Obama - Washington Post
The EU Reveals Its Anti-Democratic Nature - Daily Telegraph
Keep D.C.'s Vouchers Program Going - Washington Post
California Leads the Way in Gay Marriage - Chicago Sun-Times

Political News & Analysis
McCain Plays with Fire on Drilling - The Politico
Candidates Clash on Terrorism - Washington Post
Clinton & Obama Plan Event - New York Daily News
Club For Growth Balks at McCain Support - The Hill

The Unity Weapon
David Bueche
Next time you hear a liberal politician speaking, check your watch and count the seconds until you hear a call for unity. More

The Mistakes That Launched 3,000 Rockets
Richard A. Baehr
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza has been disastrous -- leading to the creation of a lawless terrorist haven from which come thousands of crude rockets lobbed indiscriminately into southern Israel. More

The Problem with Obama's Father's Day Speech
Bruce Walker
Barack Obama's gave carefully calculated political speech on Father's Day made one good point, but left out something important. More

Moran, Baehr Together Again on the Air
June 17, 2008
Join American Thinker Political Correspondent Rich Baehr as he co-hosts The Rick Moran Show, one of the most popular conservative political shows on Blog Talk Radio. More

Will someone please ask Obama this question?
June 17, 2008
Let's see him talk his way through this one. More

Haditha Hoax: Apparent Last Chapter
June 17, 2008
A military judge has dismissed the charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. More

Another Obama falsehood
June 17, 2008
Here is the latest item to add to the ever-growing file labeled "Obama Misstatements, Gaffes and Outright Lies" More

Obama Channels Tz'u-hsi
June 17, 2008
Tz'u-hsi ,the dowager empress of China, took sadistic delight in discomfitting those around her. Obama appears to have learned a lesson from her. More

Taliban Ready an attack on Kandahar
June 17, 2008
Thanks to our good friends in the Pakistani government, several hundred Taliban fighters have inflitrated across the border from their bases in the northwest frontier provinces and are seizing villages on the outskirts of Kandahar: More

Eeyore for Secretary of Defense!
June 17, 2008
Jennifer Rubin has a jaw dropping quote from Obama's national security advisor Mark Danzig on why Obama's foreign policy sounds so infantile More

McCain gains among Independents in WaPo Poll
June 17, 2008
The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll confirms what other polls have been saying for about a month - that John McCain is competitive with Barack Obama in capturing the independent vote: More

McCain seeks end to ban on offshore drilling
June 17, 2008
Just drill, baby. More

Obama the Gaffemeister Strikes Again
June 17, 2008
Obama would be getting something of a reputation for incompetence - if anybody bothered to report what he was doing. More

Obama's Pals: From Chicago Corruption to anti-US Iraqi Thieves
June 17, 2008
Talismangate connects a bunch of dots from Obama to Rezko to a corrupt Iraqi minister. It may be that by comparison Ayers and Wright are small skeletons in Obama's closet. More

How to overcome opposition to oil drilling
June 17, 2008
The solution is surprising, but really shouldn't be. More

Democracy in Decline by Tony BlankleyThe broad, sneering European-elite response to the plucky Irish vote to oppose the further …

Tim Russert (1950-2008) by Thomas SowellOnly with Tim Russert's sudden death at the age of 58 has his true stature as a landmark …

America, Are You Still Sitting on Your Gas? by Chuck NorrisIn my column last week ("Congress, Get Off Your Gas, and Drill!"), I called upon …

Restoring The Constitution
In a landmark decision last week, the Supreme Court ruled that habeas corpus protections -- a time-honored principle entitling all who are imprisoned to challenge the basis for their confinement in a court of law -- apply to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. "We hold these petitioners do have the habeas corpus privilege," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy. The Guantanamo "review process is, on its face, an inadequate substitute for habeas corpus," he added. The decision in Boumediene v. Bush "is a stinging rebuke of the Bush administration's flawed detention policies," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) stated. President Bush, unsurprisingly, disagreed with the decision. "We'll abide by the court's decision. That doesn't mean I have to agree with it," he said. On Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol hinted that Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) would introduce legislation undermining the decision by setting up a "national security court." Rejecting such calls to reopen debate on the issue, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) remarked, "Follow the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court says these people have right to know why they're being held and what the charges are. That's so basic and fundamental."

STRIKING DOWN POOR LAWS: "The Court repudiated the efforts of Congress and the Bush administration to strip the federal courts of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus petitions on behalf of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and to substitute constitutionally-defective procedures in their place," noted Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Mark Agrast. The decision found that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, mandated by Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, do not constitute an adequate substitute for habeas, resulting in a "considerable risk of error" in the tribunal's decisions. The Court declared unconstitutional Section 7 of the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, legislation that allowed Bush to imprison indefinitely any "unlawful combatant" and suspend the habeas writ for detainees. The MCA abolished habeas "despite the fact that the Constitution permits suspension of that writ only 'in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion,'" the Court noted. The decision does not address, however, whether the Bush administration had been "holding a single person illegally" at Guantanamo. "[O]ur opinion does not address the content of the law that governs petitioners' detention," Kennedy wrote. "That is a matter yet to be determined."

TAMING THE EXECUTIVE: The decision is the fourth blow to the administration's detainee policies, each of which rein in Bush's sweeping claims of executive power. In June 2004, the Court issued two opinions on detainee issues. The Hamdi v. Rumsfeld case "ruled that a U.S. citizen seized on the Afghanistan battlefield and detained in a U.S. military brig can challenge his detention in U.S. courts."s In Rasul v. Bush, the Court "held that foreign-born detainees can challenge their detention in U.S. courts." In 2006, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Court held that the military commissions system established by a 2001 order from Bush violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions. "[T]he Executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law that prevails in this jurisdiction," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote. Last week's decision also restrains Bush's power grab. Chief Justice John Roberts "unwittingly provides a fitting epitaph for the president's disastrous legal adventures," Ken Gude, Associate Director of the International Rights and Responsibility Program at CAP, noted. "One cannot help but think...that this decision is not really about the detainees at all, but about control of federal policy regarding enemy combatants," Roberts remarked.

CONSERVATIVE FEARMONGERING: Several conservatives have responded to the decision with inflammatory rhetoric. In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia devoted an entire section to "a description of the disastrous consequences of what the Court has done today." "The game of bait-and-switch that today's opinion plays upon the Nation's Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed," Scalia wrote. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich remarked, "This court decision is a disaster, which could cost us a city." Graham called it "dangerous and irresponsible." In contrast, Graham wrote a letter to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2003 stating, "A serious process must be established in the very near term either to formally treat and process the detainees as war criminals or to return them to their countries for appropriate judicial action." As Graham seemed to realize then, granting habeas rights to detainees is unlikely to result in threats to public safety. The Court's decision, in fact, will not result in the release of a single dangerous person.

HUMAN RIGHTS -- WARS IN IRAQ ANDAFGHANISTAN CONTRIBUTING TO ESCALATING NUMBER OF GLOBAL REFUGEES: A report issued yesterday from Antonio Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, shows refugee numbers are at the highest levels in history rising from 9.9 million to 11.4 million by the end of 2007. Anorher 26 million are displaced by internal conflict or persecution. Guterres expressed concerned that, "after a five-year decline in the number of refugees between 2001 and 2005, we have now seen two years of increases." Nearly half of the world's refugees are fleeing from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with 3.1 million Afghan nationals seeking protection in 72 countries and 2.3 million Iraqis displaced. Though the State Department had committed to resettling 12,000 "of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees by September 30, 2008," the program had accepted a mere 4,742 people as of May 31. President Bush's Special Immigrant Visa program to resettle Iraqi and Afghani interpreters working for the U.S. military and State Department has come under fire for being too restrictive, granted to only 616 Iraqis as of April. Soaring food prices and the effects of global warming threaten to drive more people from their homes and exacerbate problems faced by current refugees, the U.N. agency also warned.

ETHICS -- PENTAGON REPORT REVEALS MASSIVE OVERCHARGING BY CONTRACTOR KBR: Yesterday, the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) released an audit finding that KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton, "overcharged the U.S. Navy for providing meals to workers and service personnel in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina." The audit found that the Navy "paid approximately $4.1 million for meals and services we calculate should have cost $1.7 million, more than a $2.3 million difference." The audit also found that KBR's repairs of hurricane-damaged Navy facilities were "shoddy and substandard." "[O]ne technical advisor alleged that the federal government 'certainly paid twice' for many KBR projects because of 'design and workmanship deficiencies.'" The IG "recommended that the Navy try to recoup about $8.4 million in 'excessive' equipment lease payments and material profits, and another $1.4 million for more than 110,000 meals that were paid for and thrown away over a 34-day period." Yesterday, Charles Smith, an Army official who managed KBR's Pentagon contract for work in Iraq, said he was fired "when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR." KBR "had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn't justify," he said.

Can Obama Defend America? - Michael Tomasky, The Guardian
Promises Aren't Plans, Senator Obama - Ralph Peters, New York Post
It's Not What They've Done, But What They'll Learn - John Ibbitson, G & M
Obama and McCain Spout Economic Nonsense - Karl Rove, Wall St. Journal
Obama Goes Soft on Free Trade - John Nichols, The Nation
Oil Lessons - Debra Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle
Sue OPEC - Thomas Evans, New York Times
Can the Volt Save Chevy? - Jonathan Rauch, The Atlantic
Obama's Promise of Change - Victor Davis Hanson, RealClearPolitics
Dismantling the Myth of McCain - David Moberg, In These Times
The '08 Battles for the U.S. Senate - Larry Sabato, UVA Center for Politics
Terrorized by the Supreme Court - Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune
Iran on Its Heels - Vali Nasr, Washington Post
Victims of Our Own Progress in Iraq? - Trudy Rubin, Miami Herald
What Obama Meant By 'Undivided' Jerusalem - Joel Mowbray, RCP
Petraeus Steps In To Fix the First War - Michael Hirsh, Newsweek
Tim Russert, My Friend and My Source - Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times
RCP Blog: AM Report / Politics Nation: Strat Memo: Companion Fare

Editorials
The Tehran-Caracas Connection - New York Sun
Legacy of AQ Khan Poses Grave Threat - USA Today
AP pulls a Metallica - Los Angeles Times
Taliban Flex Their Muscles in Afghanistan - The Economist

Political News & Analysis
Obama Campaign Tightens Control of Access - New York Times
Obama: U.S. Should Avoid Making bin Laden a Martyr - Reuters
McCain Stops in Southwest Missouri - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
McCain Wants 45 New Nuclear Reactors - New York Times

Time For Obama to Slaughter Some Sacred Cows
- Blake Dvorak, RCP
What Should We Do Next in Iraq?
- Thomas Friedman, New York Times
Russert Took Media Bias Seriously
- Bernard Goldberg, Wall Street Journal
The Quiet Rebellion in Europe
- John O'Sullivan, New York Post

Reuters images
McCain on Iran: Bush all over again
An alarmist John McCain is using Iran as a political weapon against Barack Obama -- even as he misjudges our Middle East adversary

By Hooman Majd

Obama, telecoms and the Beltway systemWhy is the Democratic nominee intervening in a Democratic primary to support one of the worst pro-war, Bush-enabling Blue Dogs against a highly credible, progressive challenger?

By Glenn Greenwald

Opinion




Pipe down, Cindy McCainNobody wants to see a future First Lady catfight. Do they?

By Joan Walsh

Opinion

The Dems and their Lumpy Obama Bed
Kyle-Anne Shiver
Politics makes strange bedfellows. And when you try the straighten the sheets afterward, stubborn telltale lumps remain. More

McCain's Elevator Speech Needs Work
Lee Cary
Elevator speech: A succinct monologue promoting a business concept or action delivered by an advocate to a decision-maker during the elevator ride up to the executive offices. More

War and Its Moral Equivalent
Christopher Chantrill
There is a big difference between the issue of the Guantanamo detainees and the problem of energy prices and climate change. It is the difference between war and the moral equivalent of war. More

Another Democrat calls for Nationalizing Oil Refinery Industry
June 19, 2008
Even at the height of liberalism's power back in the 1960's, no Democrat would have seriously entertained the notion. More

Battling Diversity at the University of Chicago
June 18, 2008
An outspoken, hostile but decidedly minority (so far) group of professors at the University of Chicago are protesting against a proposed new research center: More

Obama's undivided inattention
June 18, 2008
Barack Obama has no grasp of the basics of diplomacy, and doesn't even realize it. That is a frightening thought about a potential commander in chief. More

Worst Midwest Flooding in15 years
June 18, 2008
The Mississippi River is overflowing levees in Illinois leaving millions of acres of prime farmland underwater and driving up the cost of corn More

Obama Advisers Say Bin Laden Can Appeal to US Courts
June 18, 2008
If we capture him alive, Osama Bin Laden will be able to appeal to US courts -- the same US courts that protects the rights of American citizens and now, evidently, the terrorists who are trying to kill us. More

Al Gore proves the futility of his policy recommendations (updated)
June 18, 2008
I am thankful to Al Gore for proving that even in a high profile demonstration project his "solutions" to the energy crisis won't work. More

Associated Press and the Bloggers: E.L.E.
June 18, 2008
An E.L.E. is what got the dinosaurs and is what may be occurring with the escalating war between bloggers and the Associated Press. More

What we taught the Taliban
June 18, 2008
Last night I heard Brit Hume report the strange discrepency between press accounts of Taliban activity in Afghanistan and official reports from the area. More

Progress in Isarel-Syria talks?
June 18, 2008
Egypt is leaking word of a ceasefire to begin Thursday between Gaza and Israel, More

Michelle's Makeover
June 18, 2008
No more "tough girl" Michelle. She is now officially as tame and domesticated as my pet cat Snowball. More

Iraqi Foriegn Minister Lectures Obama about "new realities"
June 18, 2008
Will Obama ever alter his outdated policy on Iraq? More

Did Barack Obama disparage his trip to Israel?
June 18, 2008
Was Congressman Robert Wexler correct when he proclaimed that Barack Obama "loves" Israel? The candidate's own words would tend to discount that claim. More

The Startling Truth About Doctors and Diagnostic Errors

Maggie Mahar, Niko Karvounis, Health Beat

Health and Wellness: Diagnostic errors happen at alarming rates but remain underdiscussed. Doctors' overconfidence is just one reason why.


Naomi Klein: What Does Obama's 'Love of Markets' Mean for Our Economic Future?

Naomi Klein, The Nation

Election 2008: The head of Obama's economic policy team is one of Wal-Mart's most prominent defenders.


Did You Know AAA Is Bad for the Environment? But You Can Get Green Roadside Assistance

Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet

Environment: Better World Club offers an eco-friendly alternative to AAA.

Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater is Still in Charge, Deadly, Above the Law and Out of Control

By Antonia Juhasz, AlterNet

War on Iraq: Think Blackwater's days are numbered? Think again. Jeremy Scahill explains why its slaughter of Iraqis has not stopped the notorious mercenary firm.

NY Times Hypes McCain Credentials

Jeffrey Klein, AlterNet

Election 2008: Looks like McCain's national security adviser is inventing history.


Shaky Economic Times Are Shakier for Women

Heidi Hartmann, The Women's Media Center

Reproductive Justice and Gender: In general, women need to stretch their resources to accommodate more mouths to feed and more years to live than men.


Does the E.U. Hate You?

Paul Hockenos, In These Times

There's no need for Americans to take offense or cancel their vacations -- most Europeans are angry at our government, not us.

Generation Y Refuses Race-Gender Dichotomy

Courtney E. Martin, AlterNet

Election 2008: At a stimulating confab on the election, our author declares: My feminism is about gender and racial justice, global security and community ethics.


Can the U.S. Thrive as Other Powers Rise?

Terrence McNally, AlterNet

Author Nina Hachigian shows that some of the biggest threats to our security don't come from rival nations. They come from us.


Exposed: Harvard Shrink Gets Rich Labeling Kids Bipolar

Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet

Health and Wellness: Meet the man who got rich by popularizing bipolar disorder for children. Congressional investigators and the NY Times expose the scandal.


Afghan Prisoners Abused by U.S. Military in Retaliation for 9/11

Anand Gopal, Christian Science Monitor

Rights and Liberties: An eight-month investigation by McClatchy newspapers finds the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned, and routinely tortured, scores of terrorist suspects.


Democrat Hypocrites Drive the Gas Guzzlers

Jasmyne Cannick, New America Media

Environment: Democrats rail against big oil yet ride around in chauffeur-driven high-polluting Lincoln Town cars.


Could McCain Have Come Up with a More Ill-Suited Economic Advisor Than Phil Gramm?

Patricia Kilday Hart, Texas Observer

Election 2008: McCain is relying on a self-described "political zealot" who helped bring you the mortgage crisis for economic advice.

Ralph Nader
Why Won't Corporations Take On Big Oil?

Chellis Glendinning
Techno-Fascism: Every Move You Make

Neve Gordon
Learning to Drive in Rafah

Dave Lindorff
Killing the News in Iraq

Sheldon Richman
Habeas Corpus Saved--Barely

George Bisharat
Obama's Missteps

Nicole Colson
Hunger and Humiliation in the Belt-Tightening Economy

Rev. William E. Alberts
The "F" Word and the White Press

Vijay Prashad
Obama's Genuflections to the Swing Lobby

Parvez Ahmed
Oil Prices, Market Regulation and the Election

Bob Moss
Judicial Warfare in Boumediene

Dave Lindorff
The Elephant in the Room

North Korea: A Global Crisis Canary

by: John Feffer, TomDispatch.com

OPINION



Mr. Bush v. the Bill of Rights

OPINION



There Will Necessarily Be a Break

by: Clotilde Cadu Interviewing Jean-Gabriel Fredet, Le Nouvel Observateur

OPINION



"Love, Tom"

by: Leslie Thatcher, t r u t h o u t | Book Review

OPINION



After 75 Years, the Working Poor Still Struggle for a Fair Wage

by: Adam Cohen, The New York Times

OPINION



Shaky Economic Times are Shakier for Women

by: Heidi Hartmann, The Women's Media Center

OPINION



The Biggest Election Story Not on Your TV

by: David Swanson, The American Chronicle

OPINION



Europe Must Be Built With Respect for Its Peoples

by: Jean-Pierre Chevènement, Le Figaro

OPINION



Forty-Two Days? Try 18 Months.

by: Evo Morales, The Guardian UK

OPINION



This Land Is Their Land

by: Barbara Ehrenreich, The Nation

OPINION

ENERGY
Pandering To Big Oil
President Bush, "reversing a longstanding position," called yesterday for an end to the federal ban on offshore oil drilling and reaffirmed his call to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Bush's flip-flop followed an even more egregious policy shift by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who pushed for offshore drilling in a speech before oil executives in Houston on Tuesday, though he had campaigned against it as recently as three weeks ago. Following Bush and McCain's lead, a number of conservatives reversed their former opposition to offshore drilling, including Florida's Gov. Charlie Crist ®, Sen. Mel Martinez ® and Rep. Connie Mack ®. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been leading the charge to expand domestic drilling, with his "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" campaign. Yet the election-year gimmick of expanding offshore drilling does nothing to solve America's energy crisis, nor will it have an ameliorating effect on soaring gas prices. Under McCain's assumption of 21 billion barrels of oil in the banned areas -- higher than the Department of Energy's estimation of 18 billion barrels -- there is still only enough to support America's total consumption, at 7.5 billion barrels per year, for three years. The bottom line is that America consumes 25 percent of the world's oil but has just 3 percent of the world's reserves, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pointed out. "We cannot drill our way out of this problem," he said. David Sandalow, a Brookings Institution energy expert, said of offshore drilling, "It's like walking an extra 20 feet a day to lose weight. It's just not enough to make a difference."

ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING: Over two years ago, Bush declared, "America is addicted to oil." But the latest Bush-McCain proposal will do nothing to solve that problem. "Feeding that addiction by tapping another vein just drills us into a deeper hole," said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ). Bush declared that expanded drilling would "bring enormous benefits to the American people." In his Tuesday speech, McCain explained his flip-flop by saying he wanted to "address the concerns of Americans, who are struggling right now to pay for gasoline." Yet as the New York Times writes today of expanding offshore drilling, "This is worse than a dumb idea. It is cruelly misleading." The Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicted that "access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030." Even McCain's own top economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said offshore drilling would have "no immediate effect" on gas prices. Just yesterday, McCain seemed to reverse his long-standing opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- something Bush continued to push for in his speech -- even as he declared Tuesday that the "next president must be willing to break with the energy policies...of the current Administration." Bush's own Department of Energy estimated that drilling in the Arctic refuge would cut oil prices by only about 75 cents a barrel. What's more, even if the refuge were opened this year, its extracted oil would not reach the market for 10 years.

FALSE ARGUMENTS: Bush blamed "Democrats on Capitol Hill" who he said "have rejected virtually every proposal" to increase oil production, adding "now Americans are paying the price at the pump for this obstruction." Congress is not blocking domestic drilling. In fact, the number of drilling permits both on- and off-shore has exploded from 3,802 five years ago to 7,561 in 2007. Congress and the Bush administration have opened up so much land to drilling that oil companies can't keep up: In the last four years, the government has issued 28,776 permits to drill on public land, yet only 18,954 wells were actually drilled. Congressional obstruction is just one of the false arguments conservatives are peddling. Another is the idea that we can drill and still "ensure that our environment is protected." McCain declared drilling is so "safe" that "not even Hurricane Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston." This is patently false. Hurricane Katrina caused 44 oil spills, resulting in more than seven million gallons of oil spilled, according to the Coast Guard., nearing the nine million gallons spilled in the 1989 Exxon-Valdez disaster.

BOON FOR BIG OIL: "The only real beneficiaries will be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public land before their friends in power -- Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney -- exit the political stage," the New York Times writes today. It is not surprising that oil executives praised the idea when McCain presented it to them on Tuesday. Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. CEO Jim Hackett called McCain's drilling plan "a positive development for American consumers," adding, "We need to get serious about producing our own resources for the benefit of Americans." Larry Nichols, CEO of Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy, called McCain's proposals a "truly honest assessment of what our energy policies have been and need to be." Big Oil has also vigorously backed McCain's campaign. McCain ranks second in the Senate for donations from the energy industry and has raised over $700,000 from oil and gas this election season alone.

ETHICS -- JUSTICE DEPARTMENT GRANTS BEING INVESTIGATED FOR FAVORITISM: The Justice Department (DOJ) Inspector General and the House Oversight Committee are investigating millions of dollars of DOJ Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) grant money for evidence of favoritism, the Washington Post reports. Last year, Congress approved more than $150 million in 2007 in grant funds for the DOJ to distribute freely. But "according to documents and three sources familiar with events," DOJ officials "disregarded independent reviews and steered awards to favored groups." The OJJDP passed over programs that were ranked high on a DOJ merit scale -- including the National Child Protection Training Center and the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network -- to instead reward politically-favored groups, such as thepro-abstienence Best Friends program, even though it ranked 53rd on a list of 104 applicants. The program's founder and president is Elayne Bennett, the wife of former Republican administration official and conservative pundit Bill Bennett. Best Friends, which was awarded double the money they had originally requested, had previously held "pricey society fundraisers" that OJJDP administrator J. Robert Flores and his top aides often attend. Flores is set to testify today before the House Oversight Committee.

CONGRESS -- FEITH CHICKENS OUT OF CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON TORTURE, REFUSES TO APPEAR WITH WILKERSON: Former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith withdrew from a scheduled appearance before a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on torture yesterday because he did not want to to appear with Colin Powell's former chief of staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who was also testifying. Feith was to speak about his role in helping the Bush administration evade the Geneva conventions, but informed the committee through his counsel that he "would not appear today because he is not willing to appear alongside one of our other witnesses," said Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). "Mr. Feith's unwillingness to attend voluntarily and provide the truth about this government's actions shows a fundamental disrespect for Congress and the American people," Nadler said. Wilkerson, who left the Bush administration in protest over Bush policies, has criticized Feith's competence, saying "seldom in my life have I met a dumber man." Seated next to Feith's empty chair, Wilkerson testified that Vice President Cheney probably knew that the U.S. was using torture at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq. "At what level did American leadership fail?" Wilkerson asked. "I believe it failed at the highest levels of the Pentagon, in the Vice President's Office and perhaps even in the Oval Office."

TORTURE -- MEDICAL EXAMS BACK UP CLAIMS OF DETAINEE ABUSE UNDER U.S. CUSTODY: In an interview with the New York Times, Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, military lawyer for a Guantanamo detainee and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, said "the Bush administration's war crimes system 'is designed to get criminal convictions' with 'no real evidence.'" Military prosecutors "launder evidence derived from torture," Kuebler said, adding, "You put the whole package together and it stinks." At the same time, a report released yesterday by the Physicians for Human Rights gives credibility to Kuebler's claim of detainee abuse. "The first extensive medical examinations of former detainees in U.S. military jails offer corroboration for prisoners' claims of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of their American captors," the report found. "The assessments of 11 men formerly held in U.S. detention camps overseas revealed scars and other injuries consistent with their accounts of beatings, electric shocks, shackling and, in at least one case, sodomy." Physicians for Human Rights used "teams of medical specialists" to conduct the "physical and psychological tests, including exams intended to assess if the subjects were lying." In a statement, ret. Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, "who led the Army's first official investigation on Abu Ghraib, said the new evidence suggested a 'systematic regime of torture' inside U.S.-run detention camps."

The Two Obamas - David Brooks, New York Times
After Shift, Obama Poised For Huge Cash Edge - Rick Klein, ABC News
McCain's Oil Epiphany - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
Drilling: A Cynical Political Calculation - Paul Krugman, New York Times
The Problem with the 'New Kind of Politics' - Mona Charen, NRO
Why 9/11 Won't Defeat Obama - Jonathan Chait, The New Republic
Social Security is Not a Welfare Program - Larry Lindsey, Wall St. Journal
The Party of Lincoln Was Left Behind on Civil Rights - John Avlon, RCP
McCain is No Maverick - E. Alterman & G. Zornick, Los Angeles Times
Obama's Chicago vs. McCain's Phoenix - Tristram Hunt, Times of London
All Eyes on New Hampshire -- Again - E. J. Dionne, Seattle Times
Will There Be Coattails in November? - Reid Wilson, RealClearPolitics
The Global Warming Bubble - Rich Lowry, New York Post
Saving the Planet is Difficult but Possible - Philip Stephens, Financial Times
The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is Obsolete - Rep. Jane Harman, WSJ
The American Public is Pro-Israel - Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs
What Gender Theorists Can't Explain - Kathleen Parker, RealClearPolitics

Editorials
Public Funding on the Ropes - New York Times
Obama Flips, Blames It on McCain - Wall Street Journal
Yes, Drill - but Research, Too - Dallas Morning News
A Better Surveillance Law - Washington Post

Political News & Analysis
Obama Rejects Public Funds - Washington Post
Obama's Decision a Threat to Financing System - New York Times
McCain Woos Independents in Minnesota - Star Tribune
McCain Inspects Damage - Des Moines Register

How Big Money is Hijacking a Small Business Technology Program
Paul Shlichta
Congress has inflicted a death blow to one of the great incubators of technological small businesses. More

Know your enemy
Raymond Ibrahim
Although military studies have traditionally valued and absorbed the texts of classical war doctrine, Islamic war doctrine, which is just as if not more textually grounded, is totally ignored. More

The Fairness Doctrine at Work
William Tate
While some Democrats push to re-impose the Fairness Doctrine, an example of the harmful effects of doing so has played out in the most unlikely of places--the Aspen airport. More

Obama On Rejecting Public Finance System
June 20, 2008
Slicker than Bill Clinton ever dreamed of being. More

CBS Pulls Unvetted Story Blaming Earthquakes on Global Warming
June 20, 2008
Some people (and news agencies) will believe ANYTHING if it fits their agenda. More

Michelle Obama's pander
June 19, 2008
James Taranto calls out Michelle Obama for appalling pandering to the lie that the government deliberately injected black men with syphilis in the notorious Tuskegee Study. More

Top Sadrist Arrested in Amarah
June 19, 2008
The Iraqi army moved into the militia hot spot of Amarah and promptly arrested the town's mayor - a top member of Muqtada al-Sadr's party: More

The Last Liberty?
June 19, 2008
We've reach a point in the political and economic life of America where nearly all liberties have been infringed upon. So what is really left? More

Al Sharpton on IRS Hot Seat
June 19, 2008
From our "It couldn't happen to a nicer fella" department... More

Obama's Latest Proposal to Increase Taxes
June 19, 2008
Barack Obama has unveiled his plan for saving Social Security and it consists, unsurprisingly, of a massive tax increase. In addition to his plans for raising tax rates on capital gains and dividend income and repealing the Bush tax cuts,... More

Obama Lied to Ohioans About NAFTA
June 19, 2008
This is pretty shameless - even for a politician who claims to practice a "new kind" of politics. More

Obama Renegs on Promise to take Federal Financing of the Election
June 19, 2008
Today Obama became the first candidate of a major party to ever opt out of the federal financing system for elections. More

Murtha's opponent
June 19, 2008
Pork king Rep John Murtha (D-PA), who pre-judged the Haditha defendants as guilty, will face a highly decorated veteran next November. More

Obama Backtracks on Pledge to Consider Military Option Against Iran
June 19, 2008
A subtle yet clear message to the Iranians that they have nothing to fear from an Obama Administration. More

Hugo Chazvez and Hezb'allah
June 19, 2008
Hugo Chavez is found to host within his diplomatic corps a supporter and facilitator of the Hezb'allah terror group. More

Robert Oscar Lopez
Brownout in Black Camelot: Obama and Latino Voters

Paul Craig Roberts
John Yoo, Totalitarian

Bouthaina Shaaban
The Real Arab AIPAC

Bill Quigley
The Big Lock-Up

Moshe Adler
Is Cuba Done With Equality?

Patrick Cockburn
An End to Iraq Contractor Immunity?

Andy Worthington
John McCain, Torture Puppet

Broken Laws, Broken Lives: The Consequences of TortureReview of Physicians for Human Rights' Report- by Spencer Spratley - 2008-06-20

Trouble at the PentagonRevolving Door: Spinning for Profit - by Frida Berrigan - 2008-06-19 The Elephant and the Ant - by Fidel Castro Ruz - 2008-06-19

Bush Adminstration Post-Constitutional Order: "It Was Real 'Manchurian Candidate' Stuff"- by Tom Burghardt - 2008-06-19

The Food and the Energy crisis, fiction or reality?- by Rev. Richard Skaff - 2008-06-19

SuperCorridor Defeat? Don't Bet On It- by Stephen Lendman - 2008-06-20

Czech Republic opposes US Missile Shield in Eastern Europe - 2008-06-19

Dangerous Crossroads: Congressional approval before attacking Iran is no longer required - 2008-06-19

Kucinich threatens 60 impeachment articles if Judiciary doesn't act- by Nick Juliano - 2008-06-19

Spying on Swedish Citizens: Orwellian Legislation Challenged - 2008-06-19

Where do calls to intervene in Somalia come from?- by Abayomi Azikiwe - 2008-06-19

Unfolding Financial Meltdown on Wall Street - by Dr. Ellen Brown - 2008-06-15 What’s The Difference Between Lehman Brothers & Bear Stearns? Lehman’s CEO Sits On the Board Of The NY Fed

AMY GOODMAN
The Real Story Behind the Midwest Floods? Climate Change alternet.org — Scientists acknowledge an uncomfortable fact long ignored by the media: global warming is the real cause of extreme weather like the Midwest floods.

MICHAEL MOYNIHAN
Why More Drilling Is Not the Answer ndnblog.org — Of the various false solutions being proposed to the current oil shock perhaps none is more disingenuous than the idea that it can be solved by drilling in the Alaskan wilderness and along the Outer Continental Shelf. Is more drilling the answer? No, for three reasons.

RYAN AVENT
The Grand Ostrich Party gristmill.grist.org — It would be a hell of a lot easier to pass climate change legislation, if conservative journalists out there didn't sign on to the harebrained idea that the best response to warming, politically, economically, and morally speaking, is for us to sit back, wait for (surely inevitable!) economic growth to work its magic.

CENK UYGUR
Why Doesn't the Press Ever Talk About the Oil? huffingtonpost.com — One of the principal problems with American media now is that they print and repeat government slogans and propaganda as if they have some credibility. It's not just that they can't see that the government might be lying about its real aims. It's that they view the government as the most legitimate source of news. This turns the point of the press on its head. You're supposed to challenge the government, not re-print its press releases.

IRA CHERNUS
It's Time for a Radically Different View of Patriotism alternet.org — Republicans do not own the rights to this word. Obama has an opportunity to change how we think about patriotism. Will he take it?

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD
Capitulation Row for Dems progressive.org — Before heading out for summer recess, the Democratically controlled Congress is on the cusp of handing Bush two big victories — and the American people two big defeats.

MICHAEL T. KLARE
Anatomy of a Price Surge thenation.com — It's true that greedy oil companies, heartless commodity speculators and OPEC have contributed to and benefited rising oil prices. But the sharp growth in petroleum costs is due far more to a combination of soaring international demand and slackening supply — compounded by the ruinous policies of the Bush Administration — than to the behavior of those other actors.

BILL SCHER
One Final Solid For Big Oil The Bush administration appears to be trying lock in whatever goodies it can for Big Oil before it exits, stage far right.

ISAIAH J. POOLE
Bush's Obstruction Binge After having issued 10 veto threats in May, President Bush has issued another nine in the first three weeks of June, obstructing bills that would help fight global warming, help the long-term unemployed, continue passenger rail funding and provide a comprehensive set of remedies to the subprime mortgage crisis.

RICK PERLSTEIN
SCHIP: The Moral Issue Let's hear from the people who have the biggest stake in the children's health care debate: the children themselves.

TERRANCE HEATH
Money to Learn It's the kind of thing that's easily written off as a photo opportunity: a presidential candidate sitting down with a worried student and a financial aid administrator, working out a plan to help the student pay for her education. But, not if the candidate understands the importance of education, and has experienced the difficulty of paying for it.

Why Do We Call Them 'Democrats'?
Lance Fairchok
We all knew it even though Democrat spokespersons denied it. Apparently, the camouflage is no longer needed. The masks are off. They now openly call for the nationalization of private business More

High Gas Prices and the Marxist tactic of Crisis revolution
AWR Hawkins
For the Democrats, every crisis is but a segue toward the passage of more and more legislation. There's some history to that tactic. More

Will Estonia Liberate the United States?
Nicholas J. Kaster
Estonia, liberated from communism in part by music, has embraced supply side economics and economic freedom. This small Baltic nation may have some lessons for America. More

Every therm is sacred (a song parody)
June 21, 2008
With apologies to Monty Python's The Meaning of Life More

Putting Obama and the Dems on the Defensive
June 20, 2008
Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats find themselves in a no-win situation. More

Beginnng of the End of Al-Sadr
June 20, 2008
A sure sign of the weakening power of Moqtada al-Sadr is that his militia is just a shadow of its former self. More

Analysts Believe Hezb'allah Preparing an attack
June 20, 2008
ABC News is reporting that western analysts believe the Iranian-Lebanese terrorist group Hezb'allah is preparing to attack "Jewish targets" someplace in the west, More

Jeez guys. You couldn't wait until the body was cold?
June 20, 2008
Tim Russert has been dead a week but that hasn't stopped the nakedly ambitous potato heads at MSNBC from lusting after his Meet The Press job. More

Obama seen as a Muslim overseas
June 20, 2008
The Obama campaign faces a burgeoning problem: the tendency of certain highly-placed Muslims overseas to declare that he is of their faith. More

Obama Fights Phantom 527 Groups
June 20, 2008
The main reason Barack Obama has given for eschewing public financing of his campaign was based on a lie: More

Israel in Dress Rehearsal for Iran Strike?
June 20, 2008
American officials report that an Israeli military exercise earlier this month involving more than 100 planes and dozens of helicpoters could have been a dry run for a strike against Iran: More

NY Times Editorial Writers Don't read their own newspaper
June 20, 2008
A case of the left hand not knowing what the far left hand was doing. More

McCain's veepstakes
June 20, 2008
McCain's campaign is, sad to say, a disorganized mess. Who can change this? More

Obama On Rejecting Public Finance System
June 20, 2008
Slicker than Bill Clinton ever dreamed of being. More

CBS Pulls Unvetted Story Blaming Earthquakes on Global Warming
June 20, 2008
Some people (and news agencies) will believe ANYTHING if it fits their agenda. More

The Trade Debate We Need
Robert Kuttner
June 20, 2008
America's economic elite continues to promote an absurdly simplistic theoretical case for the necessity of "free trade." But, as more thoughtful globalizers are starting to admit, the reality is more complicated.

From the archives: Kuttner on the trade and labor policies the next president should pursue.

Image by Flickr user Elblicht used under a Creative Commons license.

A respectable liberal blog
The voucher system part 3: the case against.[/color]
Posted at 3:46 p.m.


Dean Baker's economic commentary
[color="#800000"]Does McCain think that the September 11 attacks created 5 million jobs?

Democrats Have Legalized Bush's War Crimes

Robert Parry, Media Consortium

Rights and Liberties: The Democratic leadership cleared the way for the president and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.

Jeb Bush And His Cronies Have Big Plans for Govt.-Funded Religious Schools in Florida

Joseph L. Conn, Church & State Magazine

Rights and Liberties: Religious school scheme backed by the former Fla. governor has provoked a church-state showdown with national ramifications.

Big Oil Returns to Iraq

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent UK

War on Iraq: The return of the four major Western oil companies will be greeted with dismay by many Iraqis who fear losing control of their vast oil reserves.