Transcripts & Speeches


McCain's July 12 Radio Address - John McCain
A Secure Energy Future - Barack Obama
Panel on Candidates & Women Voters - Special Report w/Brit Hume
Sheilds & Brooks Discuss U.S. Financial Woes - The NewsHour
John Bolton Discusses Iran - Hannity & Colmes

Best of the Blogs
Rest in Peace, My Friend - Shannen Coffin, The Corner
Newsweek Giveth and Taketh - Steve Benen, Carpetbagger Report
Dueling June Obama Fundraising Claims? - Moe Lane, Redstate
Do Blogs Suck? - Andrew Sullivan, Daily Dish
Can McKinney Hurt Obama? - Earl Hutchinson, Huffington Post

Democrats Wave Goodbye to Lieberman
- Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times
Newsweek Poll: Is Obama's Glow Fading?
- Jonathan Darman, Newsweek
Doubts About Obama McCain's Best Bet
- Ronald Brownstein, Nat'l Journal
Dems Face Defeat If Clintonites Don't Get Over It

Obama: Troops in Afghanistan Need Help - Jef Zelney, New York Times

Senator Barack Obama is proposing that the United States deploy about 10,000 more troops to battle resurgent forces in Afghanistan, a plan intended to shift the American military focus from the Iraq war to the marked rise in violence from the Taliban. “As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, wrote in an Op-Ed article published on Monday in The New York Times. “We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there.”

My Plan for Iraq - Barack Obama, New York Times opinion

The call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated, and that is needed for long-term success in Iraq and the security interests of the United States. The differences on Iraq in this campaign are deep. Unlike Senator John McCain, I opposed the war in Iraq before it began, and would end it as president. I believed it was a grave mistake to allow ourselves to be distracted from the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban by invading a country that posed no imminent threat and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Since then, more than 4,000 Americans have died and we have spent nearly $1 trillion. Our military is overstretched. Nearly every threat we face - from Afghanistan to Al Qaeda to Iran - has grown.

Timetable Dilemma - Gary Jarmin, Washington Times opinion

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki threw Sen. John McCain a political curve ball recently when he demanded that the United States accept a timetable for the withdrawal of our troops as a condition for a new security agreement with Washington to replace the United Nations mandate for the presence of U.S. forces that expires on Dec. 31. Mr. Maliki's announcement has radically undermined Mr. McCain's attacks against Sen. Barack Obama's advocating a withdrawal timetable - "fine tuned" or not -and, worse, Mr. McCain flubbed a great opportunity to use Mr. Maliki's call for a "timetable" to his advantage.

Terms of (Dis)Engagement - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post opinion

Barack Obama has been teetering between two imperatives on Iraq. He needs to adjust his withdrawal plan, drawn up more than 18 months ago, to the dramatic changes on the ground during the past year -- so that he will have the political mandate to pursue a sensible policy if he becomes commander in chief. But he also needs to keep his antiwar base happy and not blur what looks like a big contrast between his strategy and that of John McCain. This month he learned that his dilemma can't be easily finessed. When he tried hinting that he would "refine" his policy based on "more information" from "commanders on the ground," the blowback was so fierce he had to hold a second news conference the same day denying that he had altered his scheme to withdraw all US combat forces within 16 months of taking office.

Slouching Toward the Center - Linda Chavez, Washington Times opinion

The Senate finally passed the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), 69-28, after months of dithering, but one vote among the yeas came as quite a surprise. Sen. Barack Obama, who just a few months ago threatened to filibuster the bill, had a change of heart - or was it just a change in campaign strategy? The legislation authorizes continued warrantless wiretaps of suspected terrorists' overseas communications, so long as they are not US citizens, and gives retroactive legal immunity against lawsuits to telecommunications companies that assisted the government in earlier warrantless searches.

Iraq and the Surrounding Region, As Obama Wanted It
Patrick J. Casey
It's worthwhile for us to imagine what Iraq would look like today had Barack Obama been in control way back in 2007 More

Yet Another Obama
Michael J. O'Shea
Behold Barack doing yet another Obama, this one vintage 2006 More

Slowing to 55 MPH Could Speed us into Recession
C. Edmund Wright
There is no better example of how out of touch Washington is with reality than the idea that our energy crisis can be addressed with a reduction of the national speed limit to 55 miles per hour. More

Get Spied on Without Doing Anything Wrong by D. Parvaz

The Lesson From Obama's Cowardly Flip-Flop by Jacob G. Hornberger

Suing George W. Bush: A Bizarre and Troubling Tale by Jon B. Eisenberg

The Shoot-Down of Iran Air Flight 655
by Sasan Fayazmanesh

Stop the New FISA by Chris Hedges

Terrorism Expert Downplays Shock Bracelets for Airline Passengers

Obama Re-invents his Trinity Church History
July 14, 2008
Newsweek swallows the revisionist history lock, stock, and both barrels More

Was Schumer's Attack On Indymac Coordinated with 'activist' group?
July 13, 2008
CNBC is suggesting that Senator Schumer's unprecedented role in breaking Indymac, a Pasadena bank, was part of a coordinated scheme with The Center for Responsible Lending More

American Deserters Not Welcome in Canada
July 13, 2008
Times have changed. And army deserters are on notice. More

Top Democrat Blames Darfur, 'Black Hawk Down' on Global Warming
July 13, 2008
Some entertaining nonsense from a leading Democrat. More

America sizzles under heat wave - 72 years ago today!
July 13, 2008
A heat wave is now scorching California and Texas -- giving global warming advocates yet more ammunition to support their contention of impending climatic catastrophe. Yet 72 years ago today -- on July 13, 1936 -- America also was swooning... More

The New Yorker investigates Chicago influences on Obama
July 13, 2008
Ryan Lizza writes a New Yorker article entitled "Making it: How Chicago shaped Obama." If you ask me, Barack Obama does not come off well here. More

Is It Bailout Time for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
July 13, 2008
The TimesOnline is reporting that the federal government is preparing to inject a combined $15 billion transfusion of liqiudity into Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to keep the two "government sponsored enterprises" from going under. More

Subscriber sues newspaper over cutbacks
July 13, 2008
A subscriber who renewed his subscription to a newspaper, only to read about major staff cutbacks in the newsroom after the check was cashed, is suing the paper More

GOP Veepstakes
July 13, 2008
Via American Thinker Political Correspondent Rich Baehr, we get an interesting update on the race as well as a look at how the odds for GOP Vice Presidential nominee are shaping up. More

Tony, We're Proud We Knew Ye (a poem)
July 13, 2008
A tribute to a great American from our poet laureate Russ Vaughn. More

Bush Fund Raiser Caught on Tape offering access for Library Donation
July 13, 2008
Buying access isn't a crime - but it should be. More

Pentagon Mulls Further Troop Reduction in Iraq
July 13, 2008
With violence down to levels not seen since the beginning of the war, the Pentagon is considering the withdrawal of additional American forces from Iraq More

The Bad Frame: Why Are the New Yorker, Salon and Other Liberal Media Doing the Right's Dirty Work?

Don Hazen, AlterNet

Media and Technology: This week's New Yorker cover image of the Obamas is shocking in the racism and gross stereotyping that is built into its supposed satire.


Canada's Status as a Safe Haven for War Resisters Is Under Attack

Jessica Pupovac, AlterNet

War on Iraq: As Canadian immigration officials stand poised to deport U.S. war resisters, activists and Parliament work to provide a safe haven.


John Cusack: Bypassing the Corporate Media

Joshua Holland, AlterNet

Movie Mix: Cusack's anti-war polemic, War, Inc., continues to defy expectations, despite the traditional media's dismissive reception.

Progressives Have a Big Tent at the Dem Convention

Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet

Election 2008: A tent for 800 journalists, bloggers and activists will be set up at Denver's Democratic Convention site.


Worries About War Crimes Heat up in the White House

Frank Rich, The New York Times

Rights and Liberties: Top Bush hands are starting to get sweaty about where they left their fingerprints on U.S. torture policies.

Africa: The Next Victim in Our Quest for Cheap Oil

By Scott Thill, AlterNet

ForeignPolicy: The new book Curse of the Black Gold shows how Nigeria may be the epicenter of the full-blown resource wars to come.

Who Voted for FISA? And How Much $$$ Have They Received From Telecom Companies?
Video: ANP looks into who was for immunity, and how much telecom money is in their campaign coffers.

David Sirota:

Homogeneity Threatens Democracy
Across America, local culture has been supplanted by fast food and sub-par Will Smith movies. No wonder people don't care about hometown issues.


Mark Weisbrot:

Senator McCain Has a Serious "Knowledge Gap": It's an Issue
The Senator appears clueless on a number of crucial policy areas.

Chomsky: Bush & Cheney Always Saw Iraq as a Sweetheart Oil Deal

Noam Chomsky, Khaleej Times Online

War on Iraq: U.S. war planners want an obedient client state that will house major U.S. military bases, right at the heart of the world's major energy reserves.

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac


THE EDITORS: For now, the U.S. has to make clear that it is standing behind Fannie and Freddie and will not allow them to fail. But to prevent an even worse catastrophe in the future, Fannie and Freddie should be broken up or dramatically downsized. “Mac, the Knife” 07/14 6:00 AM

David Swanson: Obama's Plan for Iraq The good, the bad, and the ugly.

William Fisher: Free at Last, Free at Last! Or Not.. Will the government again find a way to thwart the ruling of a federal appeals court?

steve young: BREAKING: MCCAIN DROPS ENTIRE CAMPAIGN STAFF "I was spending more time separating myself from their comments than I was listening to their advice," said McCain

Bush For Sale
In February, Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, TX announced that the university will be home to President Bush's $200 million library. The announcement has been met with widespread protests from faculty, administrators, staff, and even Methodist ministers. The library will sponsor programs designed to "promote the vision of the president" and "celebrate" Bush's presidency, while minimizing the involvement of historians. Former Bush adviser Karl Rove is reportedly advising the project in "an informal capacity." On Sunday, the Times of London reported that Stephen Payne, a major Bush-Cheney campaign fundraiser, was caught on tape offering access to key members of the Bush administration inner circle in exchange for "six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush's presidency." As the Times notes, "The revelation confirms long-held suspicions that favours are being offered in return for donations to the libraries which outgoing presidents set up to house their archives and safeguard their political legacies." Asked about the report, White House spokesman Tony Fratto simply responded, "[T]here's no connection between any official administration actions and the library."

MONEY = ACCESS: In the Times' video, Payne is seen promising to arrange a meeting for an exiled Kyrgyzstan leader with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, or Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, in return for a payment of $250,000 towards the Bush library. When asked whether he could arrange a meeting for the former central Asian president, Payne solicited a bribe. "The exact budget I will come up with," he said. "But it will be somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it going directly to the Bush library." Payne said the remainder of the $750,000 would go to his lobbying firm, Worldwide Strategic Partners (WSP), which has worked closely with several Bush administration agencies, including the White House, Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, and Treasury, and the FBI. Payne is a political appointee to the Homeland Security Advisory Council and was George W. Bush's "personal travel aide" during his father's 1988 presidential campaign. He currently "assists the White House as a Senior Advance Representative" for Bush and Cheney. In a lengthy statement alleging that "that the Times attempted to entrap me," Payne responded that "isolated comments can be taken out of context."

LIBRARY'S SHADY DONATIONS: Payne told the Times' undercover investigators that publicly, the donation would be made in the politician's name "unless he wants to be anonymous for some reason." In February, Bush said he was considering keeping foreign donors' names to the library confidential. "There's some people who like to give and don't particularly want their names disclosed," Bush said. In November 2006, the New York Daily News reported that Bush hoped to get roughly $250 million in "megadonations" from some key allies, including "wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and captains of industry." The Bush administration has also given special favors to some library donors. Dallas billionaire Ray Hunt was listed as a Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign "Pioneer" and previously served on the board of Halliburton. Hunt donated $35 million to SMU to help build the library. When Bush announced he would extend the U.S.-Mexico border fence by 700 miles in 2006, he apparently granted a favor to Hunt: the border fence would "abruptly end" at Hunt's property in the small town of Granjeno, TX.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: The revelations about the Bush library uncovered by the Times further confirm the legacy of corruption that the Bush administration will leave behind. Recently, the New York Times reported that the State Department actually had an "integral role" in the awarding of no-bid contracts to develop Iraq's oil fields, despite the White House denying the adminstration had a role. One of those donors was Hunt Oil (owned by the same Ray Hunt). In 2007, Bush nominated Sam Fox, a major right-wing donor who gave $50,000 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, to be the U.S. ambassador to Belgium. Randal Tobias, who until recently led U.S. foreign aid efforts but resigned in connection to the DC Madam, was a former pharmaceutical executive and Bush campaign donor. The list of Bush donors with special privileges granted by the administration goes on and on -- and will apparently continue at the Bush library as well.

MILITARY -- SPENDING BILL SUGGESTS LONG TERM MILITARY PRESENCE IN AFGHANISTAN: Congress recently approved a spending bill that suggests that the U.S. will have a long-term military presence in Afghanistan. The $162 billion bill, which funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of President Bush's final term, includes "construction of a $62 million ammunition storage facility at Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base, where 12 planned 'igloos' will support Army and Air Force needs," as well as "$41 million for a 30-megawatt power plant at Bagram." The power plant will be "capable of generating enough electricity for a town of more than 20,000 homes." In its money request, the Army explained that "as a forward operating site, Bagram must be able to provide for a long term, steady state presence which is able to surge to meet theater contingency requirements." In the same bill, Congress refused a request for "$184 million to build power plants at five bases in Iraq," because it "did not want to do anything in Iraq that seemed long-term, and the power plants would have taken up to two years to complete." The shift in money comes amidst increasing calls from lawmakers to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.

ENVIRONMENT -- SCHWARZENEGGER CRITICIZES BUSH'S INACTION ON GLOBAL WARMING: Yesterday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ® appeared on ABC's This Week and hit the Bush administration for refusing to act on climate change. "It just really means basically aspx?s=785&lid=7429&elq=13C98CA7A67F4D829B894F3D6C2E48A8", or they do not believe that they should do anything about it," he said. Schwarzenegger slammed the administration for delaying action throughout its eight years in office, saying that even if Bush decided to do something about global warming now, it would be "bogus" because "you don't change global warming and you don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you leave office." Schwarzenegger also discussed the massive wildfires burning in California, saying, "I'm sure partially it has something to do with global warming." Schwarzenegger has leveled stinging criticism at the Bush administration on climate change in the past. After Bush announced a "national goal" to halt the growth of carbon emissions by 2025, Schwarzenegger declared that "by that time we'll have no more glacier left."

ECONOMY -- REGULATORS PREPARE FOR 'DOZENS OF AMERICAN BANKS TO FAIL': Just days after the "second largest" bank failure in U.S. history, and on the heals of the federal government's commitment to "bolster troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" by "extending unprecedented support to the companies," some analysts now predict that "as many as 150 out of the 7,500 banks nationwide could fail over the next 12 to 18 months." Over the next three years, that number could exceed 300. The at-risk banks "vary in size and location, but their common woe is the collapsed real estate market and souring mortgage loans." As the Wall Street Journal reports, depositors today are at greater risk than in previous years because "the percentage of uninsured deposits has doubled since 1992, climbing to about 37 [percent] of the nation's $7.07 trillion in deposits." The former president of the American Bankers Association, Donald G. Ogilvie, said of the expected failures, "This is a very serious banking crisis. There's just no question about that."

Nine American soldiers died yesterday, in "the worst against Americans in Afghanistan in three years." The killings "illustrated the growing threat of Taliban militants and their associates, who in recent months have made Afghanistan a far deadlier war zone for American-led forces than Iraq."

As a result of eroding confidence in the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the administration "asked Congress to approve a sweeping rescue package that would give officials the power to inject billions of federal dollars into the beleaguered companies." Paul Krugman writes that the storm of concern over these lenders "is overblown."

$4.109: The average price of a gallon of gasoline today, setting a new record. According to AAA, gas prices have risen 40 percent in the last year.

"U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have abandoned efforts to conclude a comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S troops in Iraq before the end of the Bush presidency." Instead, the two governments are now working on a "bridge" document that would "allow basic U.S. military operations to continue beyond the expiration of a U.N. mandate at the end of the year."

The "memorial to an estimated 1,600 fatalities" and "the resting place for 85 bodies that remain unclaimed nearly three years after" Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast has "dissolved into a project that is forgotten, frustrated and delayed -- much like the Katrina recovery itself."

The ACLU will today announce that the federal government has added the millionth name to its terrorist watch list. The estimate "stems from a Justice Department inspector general’s report last year that put the watch list roster -- four years after its creation -- at more than 720,000 in April 2007, and growing by 20,000 records a month."

And finally: Where in the world is Vice President Cheney? Evidently, he's spending time at pony camps. U.S. News caught Cheney recently at a pony camp in Maryland, where "lots of kids and parents approached him for snapshots and he stayed until everybody got their picture." (See a photo of Cheney looking sunburnt and posing with campers here.) "It's quite nice to see that he is just like us sometimes," said Jeanne Coley, a mom of the campers.

DEAN BAKER
Rescuing Fannie and Freddie: Let's Draw Blood tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — Okay, we all should know that economists generally don't have a clue, but what should we do about the impending collapse of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? We have to keep them going, but we also have to make sure the clowns that wrecked these huge companies feel the pain.

CLIVE CROOK
Guarantees for America's Guarantors ft.com — Here is a great irony: Fannie and Freddie were the inventors of the mortgage-backed security, a principal cause of the housing bubble and its subsequent deflation. They won plaudits for it: for years, the unbundling and reselling of mortgages was deemed a good thing, the secret of the U.S. housing market's success.

JONATHAN TAPLIN
Too Big To Fail tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — This is what we call Corporate Socialism — the privatization of profit and the socialization of risk and misconduct. Both our current President and Vice President are experts at this since their fortunes are owed completely to corporate socialism.

DAVE JOHNSON
Right Develops Economy Blame Narrative huffingtonpost.com — The right is orchestrating a campaign to blame Democrats for the economic collapse. In cases like this it is often a matter of being the first out there with a story.

NOAM CHOMSKY
It's the Oil, Stupid! khaleejtimes.com — Iraq contains perhaps the second largest oil reserves in the world, which are, furthermore, very cheap to extract: no permafrost or tar sands or deep sea drilling. For U.S. planners, it is imperative that Iraq remain under U.S. control, to the extent possible, as an obedient client state that will also house major U.S. military bases, right at the heart of the world's major energy reserves.


JASON D SCORSE
Yes, Americans are a bunch of whiners ... gristmill.grist.org — Americans wanted to drive huge SUVs that trash the environment, kill innocent people, and feed our oil addiction (as well as the terrorist-sponsoring states we are supposedly at war with). And now the worst of scenarios has come to pass. America has no right to complain.

ALBERT R. HUNT
Offering McCain help in Econ 101 iht.com — The Republican standard-bearer isn't comfortable in the economic arena. He started off the week talking about a "slowing" economy. Slowing? Most Americans think it's going overboard and threatening to take them down.

RICK PERLSTEIN
What goes around Pundits in the traditional media might find cause for celebration in the findings of political scientists John Sides and Eric Lawrence.

Moyers Show Details Conservative Failure Watch Bill Moyers, Mickey Edwards, and Ross Douthat discuss the failure of conservatism, with a nod to yours truly.

Leadership Secrets of George W. Bush Watch this video of a Bush Homeland Security official arranging a bribe with an exiled former dictator.

Leadership Secrets of Richard Nixon An article in the Canadian magazine Macleans arranges passages from my book to explain a key facet of contemporary conservatism with a bit more clarity than I have myself.

Leadership Secrets of Richard Nixon (II) Brad DeLong, in another overgenerous but penetrating explication of my book, gets at something very important, again, more clearly than I have. TERRANCE HEATH

Weekend Watchdog Wrapup It was almost a 1-in-3 weekend for the watchdog, in which — once again — a question that wasn't asked was very nearly answered.

U.S. Bolsters Mortgage Giants - Hagerty, Solomon & Reddy, Wall St. Journal
Guarantees for America's Guarantors - Clive Crook, Financial Times
My Plan for Iraq - Senator Barack Obama, New York Times
Caught Between Iraq and a Hard Base - Noemie Emery, Weekly Standard
McCain Running Hillary's Campaign? - John Heilemann, NY Magazine
Obama's Charisma in the Age of Oprah - Michael Knox Beran, City Journal
The Truth About Obama's Faith - Lisa Miller & Richard Wolffe, Newsweek
McCain vs. the Eight-Year Electoral Jinx - Robert Sullivan, Boston Globe
Net-Roots Ninnies Need to Grow Up - Kirsten Powers, New York Post
Snow Was Breath of Fresh Air at the White House - Byron York, NRO
The Liberation of The Associated Press - Michael Calderone, The Politico
Foreign Courts Aim at Our Free Speech - Sens. Specter & Lieberman, WSJ
Back In the USSR? - Leon Aron, Washington Post
Debate on Offshore Drilling Heats Up - Jervis, Welch and Wolf, USA Today
Oil Paranoia - Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times
Self-Interest Is Bad? - Andrew Ferguson, Weekly Standard
Thank You, Jesse Jackson! - Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Editorials
Downsize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - Christian Science Monitor
T. Boone Pickens is on to Something - Chicago Tribune
Barack Obama is Coming to Town - Financial Times
Tony Snow: Happy Political Combatant - Wall Street Journal

Political News & Analysis
Obama Tells La Raza Immigration Reform is a Priority - San Diego U-T
McCain to Say "I've Earned Hispanics' Trust" - Associated Press
Not All Democrats Want to Ride Obama's Coattails - Wall Street Journal
Troops in Afghanistan Need Help, Obama Says - New York Times

Transcripts & Speeches


Obama's Speech to La Raza - Barack Obama
Remembering Tony Snow - Fox News Sunday
Interview with Barack Obama - GPS
Interviews with Sens. Dodd & Kyl - Late Edition
Interview with Sens. Lugar and Levin (PDF) - Face the Nation

Best of the Blogs
The Truth About ACORN - Betsy Newmark, Cross Tabs
Schumer Owes the Public an Apology - Erick Erickson, Redstate
Are Political Blogs Important? - Mata Harley, Flopping Aces
Obama and 9/11 - Byron York, The Corner
Downplaying Their Differences - Steve Benen, Crooks and Liars

Memory and the Left
J.R. Dunn
It's difficult to avoid exasperation over the left's absolute refusal to acknowledge the new realities of the Iraq war, as if one the most impressive turnabouts in modern military annals never took place. More

Stabilizing the Middle East -- then and now
Bruce Walker
Fifty years ago today, an American president successfully stood up against the Moslem tide in the Middle East and won a victory. Too bad the event and its lessons have been forgotten. More

When is Obama Not Lying?
James Lewis
Barack the messiah has fallen from grace. The liberal media are down on him today -- but of course they're counting on the Braindead Vote to forget all about that in November More

The Incredibly Thin Skin of Barack Obama (updated)
July 14, 2008
What's he going to do if he gets elected and the cartoonists have a field day as they do with every president? More

Obama's About Face on Undivided Jerusalem Complete
July 14, 2008
Classic about face from a serial flip flopper. More

Obama's 'Plan for Iraq'
July 14, 2008
Barack Obama has an op-ed in this morning's New York Times: My Plan for Iraq. It's just priceless. I thank him for timing it to accompany my article today, "Iraq and the Surrounding Region, As Obama Wanted It." More

Bush to lift Ban on Offshore Drilling
July 14, 2008
Just drill, baby... More

A refugee from jihad who benefitted humantiy as an American
July 14, 2008
The late Michael Debakey, one of the 20th century's most famous medical pioneers, ended up in the United States courtesy of jihad in his family's native Lebanon. More

Olympics to be an 'Anti-Free Speech Zone' - Again
July 14, 2008
Don't blame this on the commies because the rules banning posters and banners with a political or religious message were promulgated by the super-annuated mummies that make up the International Olympic Committee More

Obama's Hypocrisy on School Vouchers
July 14, 2008
This New York Sun editorial today "Obama and the AFT" is an eye opener regarding the candidate's hypocritical stance on school vouchers. More

Obama Re-invents his Trinity Church History
July 14, 2008
Newsweek swallows the revisionist history lock, stock, and both barrels More

Obama Re-invents his Trinity Church History
July 14, 2008
Newsweek swallows the revisionist history lock, stock, and both barrels More

The spread of advanced mathematics (continued)
July 14, 2008
I just learned the astonishing fact that Tenth-Century Pope Sylvester II personally introduced into Western Europe both Arabic (Hindi) numerals and the abacus. More

Was Schumer's Attack On Indymac Coordinated with 'activist' group?
July 13, 2008
CNBC is suggesting that Senator Schumer's unprecedented role in breaking Indymac, a Pasadena bank, was part of a coordinated scheme with The Center for Responsible Lending More

American Deserters Not Welcome in Canada
July 13, 2008
Times have changed. And army deserters are on notice. More

Top Democrat Blames Darfur, 'Black Hawk Down' on Global Warming
July 13, 2008
Some entertaining nonsense from a leading Democrat. More

The Wedding Crashers: U.S. Jets Have Bombed Five Ceremonies in Afghanistan

Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com

War on Iraq: We have become a nation of wedding crashers, the uninvited guests who arrived under false pretenses, tore up the place, offering nary an apology.


Why Brides-to-Be Are Starving Themselves Skinny

Allison Gaudet Yarrow, Women's eNews

Reproductive Justice and Gender: A multi-billion-dollar wedding industry peddles the perfection myth more intensely than ever before.


Fannie, Freddie and the Threat of Economic Meltdown

Paul Krugman, The New York Times

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in the headlines, with dire warnings of imminent collapse. How worried should we be?

Iran's Missile Test: A Clear Reminder That an Attack Would Be Disastrous

Scott Ritter, Truthdig

ForeignPolicy: Iran’s recent missile test should remove all doubt that an attack by either the United States or Israel would be a terrible mistake.

onight on GRITtv: The New Yorker's Obama Cover Controversy

Post by ZP Heller
Video: Laura Flanders, Hendrik Hertzberg, and Danny Schechter discuss the magazine's inflammatory cover. More »

• Full Post

Africa: The Next Victim in Our Quest for Cheap Oil

Scott Thill, AlterNet

ForeignPolicy: The new book Curse of the Black Gold shows how Nigeria may be the epicenter of the full-blown resource wars to come.


The Bad Frame: Why Are the New Yorker, Salon and Other Liberal Media Doing the Right's Dirty Work?

Don Hazen, AlterNet

Media and Technology: This week's New Yorker cover image of the Obamas is shocking in the racism and gross stereotyping that is built into its supposed satire.


U.S. Mercenary Company Implicated in Mexican Torture Videos

Laura Carlsen, Huffington Post

Rights and Liberties: Videos depicting torture-training sessions with Mexican police raise alarm over human rights under Calderon's US-assisted war on crime.


John Cusack: Bypassing the Corporate Media

Joshua Holland, AlterNet

Movie Mix: Cusack's anti-war polemic, War, Inc., continues to defy expectations, despite the traditional media's dismissive reception.

John Cusack: Bypassing the Corporate Media

Joshua Holland, AlterNet

Movie Mix: Cusack's anti-war polemic, War, Inc., continues to defy expectations, despite the traditional media's dismissive reception.


Progressives Have a Big Tent at the Dem Convention

Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet

Election 2008: A tent for 800 journalists, bloggers and activists will be set up at Denver's Democratic Convention site.


Canada's Status as a Safe Haven for War Resisters Is Under Attack

Jessica Pupovac, AlterNet

War on Iraq: As Canadian immigration officials stand poised to deport U.S. war resisters, activists and Parliament work to provide a safe haven.


Worries About War Crimes Heat up in the White House

Frank Rich, The New York Times

Rights and Liberties: Top Bush hands are starting to get sweaty about where they left their fingerprints on U.S. torture policies.


The Only Diet for a Peacemaker Is a Vegetarian Diet

John Dear, National Catholic Reporter

Environment: Vegetarianism a key ingredient in the new life of peace, compassion and nonviolence.


Corn, Incorporated: The Ethanol Scam

Nicole Colson, CounterPunch

Environment: The ethanol scam shows that corporate, market-based "solutions" to global warming and oil dependence are no solution at all.

As Facts Emerge, the False Promise of Offshore Drilling Becomes Clear

by Bill Scher, Campaign for America's Future - 5:28 AM

Phil Gramm is Gone, But His Porn Lives on

by Max Blumenthal, Huffington Post - 5:06 AM

Progressives Discover That Obama's no Messiah

by David Sirota, Huffington Post - 5:00 AM

If the Rest of the World Had A Vote, Obama'd Win in a Landslide

by tremayne, Open Left - 4:55 AM

Investigation Confirms Army Taking More and More Recruits with Criminal Histories

by Greg Mitchell, Huffington Post - 3:53 AM

Decisions, Decisions -- Who Should Obama Pick as his Veep?

by Kathy G, The G-Spot

Is the U.N. Making Things Worse in Darfur?
David Axe
July 14, 2008 | web only
Refugee camps in Chad, protected by a U.N.-backed peacekeeping mission and financed with Western aid, may be prolonging the conflict in Darfur. The camps are a safe haven where rebels can leave their families and recruit new soldiers -- some of them children.

An Irish EUFOR soldier near Iridimi, Chad on June 23, 2008. (David Axe)

The group blog of The American Prospect
Veep notebook.[/color]
Posted at 5:04 p.m.



A respectable liberal blog
Obama on Iraq.
Posted at 3:44 p.m.


Dean Baker's economic commentary
[color="#800000"]Why do Republicans support insurers?
Posted at 5:42 a.m.

On Our Own
Mark Schmitt
July 14, 2008
Liberal institutions that once imitated conservative ones are now far surpassing their role models.The quick-moving, imaginative progressive think tank now makes its conservative analogue look like a threadbare brand name from the 1970s.

Worse Than McCain
by Mike Whitney / July 14th, 2008

Every four years, liberals and progressives are expected to set aside their beliefs and stand foursquare behind the Democratic Party candidate. This ritual is invariably performed in the name of party unity. It doesn’t matter if the candidate is a smooth-talking politician who’s willing to toss his Pastor of 20 years overboard for a few awkward comments, or whether he refuses to defend basic civil liberties like the 4th amendment’s right to privacy. All that matters is that there’s a big “D” following his name and that he shows he’s willing to engage in some meaningless verbal jousting with his …

(Full article …)
Bush Looks to His (Secret) Legacy
by Jason Leopold / July 14th, 2008

George W. Bush, who has expanded his power to access the e-mails and other electronic communications of Americans, is resisting congressional demands that White House e-mails be saved for later research by historians.

Bush signaled he would veto a House-passed bill that seeks to overhaul the Presidential and Federal Records Act to ensure that e-mails and other government documents are preserved in the age of the Internet.

The measure passed the House, 286-137, on Wednesday, after congressional investigations revealed that the Bush administration apparently purged millions of e-mails and that dozens of administration officials used e-mail accounts maintained by the Republican National …

(Full article …)

Scott Ritter:
Iran Shows Its Cards


Eric Stoner:
Outsourcing the Iraq War: Mercenary Recruiters Turn to Latin America


Tom Engelhardt:
Collateral Ceremonial Damage


Johann Hari:
Our Cry for Cheap Oil Is Crude and Deadly


Danny Schechter:
Freddie Mac, When Are You Coming Back?

Great Moments in Schumer History by Mac Johnson Like yelling 'Fire!' in a crowded nitroglycerin factory.

Voters Split on Iraq Stances - J. Weisman & J. Cohen, Washington Post
Obama Planning to Ignore the Facts - Rich Lowry, New York Post
Obama Isn't Jimmy Carter - He's Ronald Reagan - Eli Lake, New Republic
Stop Pitting Iraq Against Afghanistan - Christopher Hitchens, Slate
The Hidden Face of Political Islamism - Dean Godson, Times of London
The Saga of Fannie and Freddie - Larry Kudlow, RealClearPolitics
Mortgage Scandal a Bipartisan Affair - Froma Harrop, Providence Journal
Economic Discontent is Well Founded - Irwin Stelzer, Weekly Standard
McCain's Immigration Two-Step - James Antle, American Spectator
New Yorker Pics Speak Louder Than Words - Jonathan Alter, Newsweek
Quit Whining About the New Yorker Cover - Jack Shafer, Slate
Are Facts Obsolete? - Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics
Yes Virginia, Obama Can Win - E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
Dems Expand House Playing Field - Reid Wilson, RealClearPolitics
Politics & the Fading Promise of Behavorial Genetics - David Brooks, NYT
The Whale Oil Economy - Michael Gerson, Washington Post
Descent From Entebbe - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
RCP Electoral Maps: Obama 255, McCain 163, Toss Ups 120, No Toss Ups

Editorials
The Fannie-Freddie Bailout: Rescue or Respite? - Washington Post
Schumer's Scream Costs Taxpayers $4 Billion - Wall Street Journal
If Obama Can't Handle Satire, How Will He Handle Real Attacks? - LAT
Snow a Compassionate Voice for Conservatism - Detroit News

Political News & Analysis
At NAACP, Obama Urges Responsibility - Chicago Tribune
McCain Defends His Position on Immigration Reform - San Diego U-T
Obama Would Send More Troops to Afghanistan - Associated Press
Hispanics Mixed on McCain's Compassion for Migrants - Reuters

Transcripts & Speeches


Reps. Frank & Garrett Discuss Freddie & Fannie - The NewsHour
McCain's Speech to La Raza - John McCain
Roundtable on Freddie & Fannie - Special Report w/Brit Hume
Huckabee on New Yorker Cover, Campaign - Hannity & Colmes
Mayor Bloomberg on the Banks - The Situation Room

Best of the Blogs
Obama's Dishonest Op-Ed - John Hinderaker, Power Line
Jamie Gorelick's Ties to Fannie Mae - Jim Lindgren, Volokh Conspiracy
McCain's Organization Gap Persists - Jonathan Singer, MyDD
The Obama New Yorker Cover - Jon Swift
On Iraq, Partisanship is Back - Marc Ambinder, Atlantic

The Surprising Closeness of the Contest
- Chris Cillizza, Washington Post
Thank You, Jesse Jackson!
- Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Oil Paranoia
- Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times
Obama Was Dead Wrong on the Surge
- Peter Wehner, Commentary

• Pull Up a Chair, Mr. Rove
  
  by: Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
• Is the Fourth Estate a Fifth Column?
  
  by: Bill Moyers, In These Times
• The Death of Reaganomics
  
  by: E.J. Dionne, Truthdig.com
• Obama and the Progressive Base
  
  by: Norman Solomon, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
  
  TRUTHOUT ORIGINAL
• Cheney Aides Altered Congressional Testimony
  
  by: Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post

Bring Me the Head of Osama bin Laden

by: Steve Weissman, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

OPINION

Poll Shows Split on Iraq Stances Washington Post-ABC News poll | Survey shows Americans are equally divided over withdrawal.

Jonathan Weisman and Jon Cohen

• Washington Post-ABC News Poll Data | Podcast

f Mass Deception
Note: The team that brings you The Progress Report is heading to the Netroots Nation conference in Austin, TX this week. There will be no Progress Report July 16-18, but we will resume again on Monday, July 21. In the meantime, check out our blog ThinkProgress.org for news and updates throughout the day. (By the way, if you're planning to be in Austin, please join us for our media training workshop, "The Pundit Project: How To Outtalk The Talking Heads," on Thursday at 9:00 AM or 1:00 PM CST. Members of The Progress Report team, along with progressive commentators Cliff Schecter and Matthew Yglesias, will be hosting the session.)

Yesterday, citing the "squeeze of rising prices at the pump," President Bush rescinded the presidential moratorium on offshore drilling. The moratorium on lease sales in the Outer Continental Shelf was established in 1990 by his father, George H.W. Bush, in response to the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill and extended by President Clinton. Bush's action pressures Congress to follow him in "capitulation to the oil companies" by lifting their moratorium, which must be renewed annually. In response, Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) said at a press conference that Bush "is invoking the specter of another WMD: wells of mass deception." At the Huffington Post, activist Martin Bosworth wrote, "Americans are smarter than we are often given credit for, and many of us do realize that destroying precious environmental resources and wildlife reserves to allow more domestic drilling is a psychological panacea -- a placebo to make us feel like 'something is being done.'" However, polls show increasing support for expanded offshore drilling. Conservatives are preying on Americans' concern over skyrocketing gas prices by propagating false myths that drilling for oil off our coasts will allow us to "pay less" at the pump, that it's "environmentally safe," and that drilling is already underway by communist China. Because "only real beneficiaries will be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public land," their political allies must resort to selling falsehoods.

MYTH #1 -- 'DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, PAY LESS': Newt Gingrich's 527 organization, American Solutions, is promoting a "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less" campaign, collecting over one million signatures on its petition to Congress to "act immediately to lower gasoline prices" by "authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves" off our coasts. American Solutions is funded by right-wing Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who wants Americans to place another bad bet on oil drilling. As the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has explained, "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." But because United States demand for oil far outstrips production -- we consume 25 percent of the world's supply but have two percent of the proven reserves -- further exploitation of domestic resources will not have a long-term impact either. After 2030, the EIA found, "any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant." There are numerous ways to immediately affect prices, from use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to improved oversight of the oil markets. Over the long term, we must fight global warming and break our addiction to oil through modern technology like plug-in hybrids and smart growth planning.

MYTH #2 -- CHINA ON OUR COASTS: Conservatives from Rudy Giuliani to Dick Cheney have repeatedly claimed that the United States needs to start drilling for off-shore oil because China is taking "American oil" off the coast of Cuba, just "60 miles off the coast of Florida." Cheney exhorted, "Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply." That same day, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) wrote that Castro was allowing drilling "45 miles from the Florida keys." Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) have also raised the specter of Chinese drilling just off U.S. shores. However, this modern invocation of the Red Scare the claim is completely false. As Cheney was forced to acknowledge, "no Chinese firm is drilling" off Cuba's coast. Talking Points Memo has recorded the large number of conservatives hyping the false story. The Washington Post’s Ben Pershing said the China/Cuba oil drilling claim is the "myth that keeps on giving," calling it "just too juicy not to repeat."

MYTH #3 -- 'NOT A DROP WAS SPILLED': Offshore drilling advocates know that the specter of oil-slicked beaches would doom their campaign, so they are desperate to wish its environmental impact away. Yesterday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed "not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita." This myth has been told again and again by the likes of Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Mike Huckabee, George Will, and Bill O'Reilly. There were, in fact, major onshore and offshore spills due to the hurricanes. According to the official Minerals Management Service report, the hurricanes caused 124 offshore spills for a total of 743,700 gallons, six spilling 42,000 gallons or more. The largest of these spills dropped 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a "major spill." In addition, the hurricanes caused disastrous spills onshore throughout southeast Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast as tanks, pipelines, refineries and other industrial facilities were destroyed, for a total of 595 different oil spills. The nine million gallons reported spilled were comparable with the Exxon Valdez's 10.8 million gallons, but unlike the Exxon Valdez, they were distributed throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf Coast states, many in residential areas.

HEALTH CARE -- BUSH SETS NEW ABORTION CONDITIONS FOR FEDERAL HEALTH AID: A draft of a new proposed rule by the Bush administration would require state and local governments and medical facilities to sign "written certifications" pledging to "not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control" before receiving any federal money. The proposal states that the rule is needed to prevent "morally coercive or discriminatory practices or policies in violation of federal law" and to protect doctors from being forced to perform abortions -- even though such practices are already prohibited by law. But the proposal's expansive definition of "abortion" -- as any procedure "that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation" -- is so broad that is could cover even oral contraceptives and emergency contraception. Mary Jane Gallagher, the president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, told the New York Times, "We worry that under the proposal, contraceptive services would become less available to low-income and uninsured women." In March, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt wrote that OB/GYNs with objections to abortion should not have to refer patients to different doctors, contravening American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ethics guidelines.


ETHICS -- DHS AND HOUSE COMMITTEE OPEN INVESTIGATIONS INTO PAYNE'S CASH-FOR-ACCESS SCANDAL: Stephen Payne, a longtime Bush associate who was recently revealed to be selling access to top Bush administration officials, is now under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) -- where Payne serves on the Homeland Security Advisory Committee -- and the the House Oversight Committee. A spokesman for DHS called the revelations a "horribly unfortunate story" and said the department is currently "looking into the facts." House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote to Payne, "If true, this raises serious concerns about the ways in which foreign interests might be secretly influencing large donations to the library." Yesterday, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington explained the legal basis for a criminal investigation of Payne: "By offering to serve as a conduit to deliver contributions to the Bush library in exchange for meetings with administration officials, Mr. Payne may have violated federal law." Though Payne has admitted that his actions could be "perceived to be bribery," he insists they are legal. Both Payne and the Bush administration deny that he had "top-level access" to the White House. Noting the six-figure sums Payne solicited, CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said, "He wouldn't get paid that way if he couldn't deliver."

IRAN -- BOLTON CLAIMS HE HAS 'ALWAYS SAID' ATTACK ON IRAN WAS 'UNATTRACTIVE':Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton has long pushed vigorously for the Bush administration and Israel to attack Iran. But when asked on Fox News last week if his past statements advocating military action against Iran still represent an "accurate reflection" o