The Nightowl Newswrap - a roundup of news you might have missed

Rest in Peace, Specialist Dwyer In the early days of the Iraq war, a photographer for the Military Times captured the image of an American Army Medic running toward an improvised hospital with an injured Iraqi child in his arms. The image became iconic, and was splashed all over the front pages of newspapers world wide. But the medic in the photo soon faded from memory as Americans were told to sacrifice for the war effort by shopping. He came home with adjustment difficulties and inadequate help, and eventually came to be just another vet who ran afoul of the law. “Of course he was looked on as a hero here,” said Capt. Floyd Thomas of the Pinehurst, N.C. Police Department. But, he added, “we’ve been dealing with him for over a year.” Late last month, he became another casualty after the fact when he died of a drug overdose after years of struggle, suffering and self-medication. Our hearts go out to his family.


Maliki says the "t" word Earlier today, Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki raised the prospect of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops as part of negotiations over a new security agreement that Washington is anxious to have settled. It was the first time that the Shi'ite-led, Washington-backed government has floated the idea of a timetable for the removal of American forces from Iraq. The Bush administration has always opposed such a move, saying it would give militant groups an advantage. The current U.N. mandate ends on the last day of the year. "Today, we are looking at the necessity of terminating the foreign presence on Iraqi lands and restoring full sovereignty. One of the two basic topics is either to have a memorandum of understanding for the departure of forces or a memorandum of understanding to set a timetable for the presence of the forces, so that we know (their presence) will end in a specific time," Maliki told Arab ambassadors on an official visit to Abu Dhabi.


Zogby has Obama up by six but it gets better...he leads the electoral college count 273-160. The online survey was conducted from June 11-30, 2008. It carries a margin of error of 0.5 percentage points. After nearly a decade in development, the Zogby Interactive survey on a state level was remarkably accurate in the 2006 midterm elections. In 18 U.S. Senate elections polled two years ago, the Zogby online survey correctly identified the winner of 17 of 18 races, and in the 18th race – in Missouri, it was still within the margin of error, though it had Republican Jim Talent winning (he was defeated narrowly by Democrat Claire McCaskill).



We have seen this movie before In a scene reminiscent of aWol's tightly controlled, in-the-bubble campaign events, the McCain security detail ordered the local police to remove a 61-year-old librarian a hand-made posterboard sign that read "McCain = Bush" from the queue waiting to get inside a townhall meeting that was billed as open to the public. She was also cited for trespassing - on a public sidewalk.

The other shoe drops We have known this was coming since we earned that a class-action suit had been filed against a couple of the loyal bushies who hijacked the DoJ and disqualified out of hand anyone perceived to differ from the radical right-wing movement conservative philosophy who applied for non-political career jobs at the DoJ. Today, that shoe fell: CREW filed bar complaints against two of the goose-stepping ideologues. Us? We wonder how stupid the lawyer is who discriminates against the brilliant lawyers these two chuckleheads singled out (those are some damned impressive resumes!) and figure that disbarring these boobs now would constitute a public service to all of their future clients.


We told you there is a McCain Media Mancrush™ Josh Marshall thinks we have come to "that moment, that quick turn of events, that encapsulates the fact that there is apparently no limit to the howlers and nonsense that John McCain can throw out and still not generate collective guffaws or even scrutiny from the national political press." He is, of course, talking about the impossible math he proposes - like paying for perpetual wars with ever more tax cuts and realizing $100 billion in savings by eliminating earmarks - which amount to just over $16 billion - and by the way, they represent your tax dollars returning to your district, usually in the form of infrastructure improvements.


Yep, it's a Media Mancrush™ alright. Need more proof? Bob Schieffer (is it coincidence that his initials are BS?) yesterday accused John Kerry of “challenging John McCain’s integrity.” Except he didn't - here is what he said: can’t–I have to tell you, Bob, I just came back from the
Middle East. I just met with the king of Saudi Arabia. I met with President Mubarak of Egypt. I met with others. You know what they said to me? They said, `You, America, have served up to Iran, Iraq on a platter.’ They are outraged by this sort of, you know, ineptitude of what has been done by those who decided it was smart to go into Iraq." Maybe Bob was emboldened (or perhaps embiggened?) by the previous weeks interview with GENERAL Wesley Clark - but Senator Kerry was ready for him and shot back "I’m challenging Senator McCain’s judgment, his judgment that says there’s no violent history between Sunni and Shia. That’s wrong. His judgment that says this is going to increase the stability of the Middle East. It hasn’t. It’s made it less stable. The judgment that says this will, quote “This will be the best thing for America and the world in a long time.”