Overnight - a roundup of news items you might have missed

I think we can safely file this under "No shit, Sherlock" Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says Zimbabwe "is effectively being run by a military junta". Since the disputed presidential election in March, 66 people who supported Mugabe's political opponents have been killed in the political violence that has rocked the country. At least 200 opposition supporters have gone missing, and 3,000 have been treated in hospitals for injuries sustained in violent acts against supporters of Tsvangirai. Mugabe, of course, blames the opposition MDC party for the violence.

The Nepalese won't have Guyanendra to kick around any more The recently outlawed monarch has given up and will quit his occupancy of the palace and relocate to his summer home in a suburb of Kathmandu. Most of the property previously owned by the monarch and transferred via succession has now been nationalized. It is even expected that the royal accouterments such as the kings crown and scepter and the queens tiara will become the property of the state. The Maoists who have taken over the government had "urged" the king to bow out gracefully (by urged we mean "threatened with prosecution for corruption") was so very...Maoist...in their commentary on the kings decision to quit the palace. "It's a very positive step that the king has peacefully accepted the decision to vacate the palace. We are thankful to him," said Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara. "It has started a new era for peaceful political transition, and we honor his decision to live as a common citizen."

So when do we stop calling it a trade gap and start calling it a trade chasm? Driven by the high cost of importing foreign oil for our junkie populace to mainline, the U. S. trade deficit grew to $60.9 Billion in April. Crude oil imports alone increased $4.3bn to $29.3bn over the month, reflecting the higher prices for fuel on global markets. The increase totally negated the gains from strong US exports, which grew 3.3%.


Dude, where's my plane? One night in late 2007, a Boeing 727 flew in to Hanoi's Noi Bai airport from Siem Reap in neighbouring Cambodia - and that's about all that's known, the plane has been abandoned ever since. This is the sort of thing that never happens in the United States, but that makes the emerging world so very, very interesting.

Ron Paul plans parallel convention in Minneapolis After the Republican National Committee denied him a speaking slot at the party convention, Ron Paul - who does not support John McSame, nor his pet war - has decided to stage an alternate convention in the shadow of the party nominating convention. "There is a growing surge of people out there just craving" for a return "to traditional American government, limited government that places personal liberty first and places an emphasis on personal responsibility and essentially gets out of the way after that," Paul spokesman Jesse Benton told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. "The buzz we get from supporters is that they are very eager to come to St. Paul and very eager to send a strong message." At first, Ron Paul's campaign was seen as little more than a quixotic flash-in-the-pan, but then he gained momentum during the primaries, raising approximately $35 million dollars, and earned the votes of over a million republican primary voters. But the republican powers that be don't think he's influential enough to speak at the convention.

Will they or won't they? Will the Fed Raise Rates in August? The buzz on the street is that the Fed might raise the Fed Funds rate 25 bps at the August meeting.

Here's another great issue to use in the general--Republicans giving oil companies shelter from paying taxes: Senate Republicans blocked a proposal Tuesday to tax the windfall profits of the largest oil companies, despite pleas by Democratic leaders to use the measure to address America's anger over $4 a gallon gasoline. The Democratic energy package would have imposed a tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies and given the federal government more power to address oil market speculation that the bill's supporters argue has added to the crude oil price surge. "Americans are furious about what's going on," declared Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and want Congress to do something about oil company profits and "an orgy of speculation" on oil markets. But Republicans argued the Democratic proposal focusing on new oil industry taxes is not the answer to the country's energy problems. "The American people are clamoring for relief at the pump," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., but if taxes are increased on the oil companies "they will get exactly what they don't want. The bill will raise taxes, increase imports." Note that that's RETIRING Senator Domenici who's out front on this issue...

Would they talk about Jewish issues with Billy Graham if they did meet? Kind of like how Billy and Tricky Dick talked about Jewish issues? A half-baked Internet news "story" that said Sen. John McCain had declined a meeting with Billy Graham dominated the Christian blogosphere Monday. It sent McCain staffers scurrying to deny the rumor and insist they've been working behind the scenes to set up such a meeting with the Charlotte-born evangelist. But spokesmen for Graham and his son, Franklin, insist neither of the evangelists have initiated a McCain sit-down or have talked with McCain staffers about holding one. The chain of events began Sunday night with a startling online headline: "McCain Campaign Declines to Meet with Billy Graham," read the headline atop a story on Newsmax.com, a conservative site that claims to report news.

Plane bursts into flames in Sudan: A Sudanese Airbus carrying 214 people veered off the runway in a thunderstorm and burst into flames late Tuesday, killing dozens unable to escape the inferno. Officials said more than 100 people fled the plane before it was engulfed by towering orange flames. The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that 103 passengers and all 11 crew members survived. But it said some other passengers may have gone home directly from the crash on the rain-soaked runway after crew members helped them through the emergency doors. The death toll wasn't immediately clear. Reports right after the crash said about 100 were killed, but officials later put the toll at dozens without being more precise. Deputy parliament speaker Mohammed al-Hassan al-Ameen said ''about 30 people'' died, while police spokesman Mohammed Abdel Majid al-Tayeb said 23 bodies were brought to the morgue.

A Shift in Real Estate Books A few years ago, when the housing market was white-hot, companies that publish how-to books were tripping over themselves to pump out titles about buying property and making money in the real estate business. Now that the bottom has fallen out of the housing market, the opposite is true: publishers are updating their backlist titles as well as rushing out newly acquired manuscripts to advise consumers who may have stumbled in the housing game. These two covers tell the story: From "Flipping Houses" to "Foreclosure Investing" in just a couple of years. And, yes, both books are by the same authors.

Yeah, but it's not like anyone is going to do something about it The U.S. government has photographic evidence that a Guantanamo Bay inmate was tortured with a knife after being taken to Morocco by U.S. forces, a British human rights group said Tuesday. Reprieve said their client, Binyam Mohamed, had his genitals slashed repeatedly with a doctor's scalpel while in custody in Morocco after he was flown there from Pakistan by American officials in 2002. It also said his U.S. captors later took pictures of the abuse to show authorities that his wounds were healing. Mohamed, an Ethiopian national and former British resident, is charged by the United States with plotting with al Qaeda to bomb American apartment buildings. Reprieve maintains the charge is based on information coerced from Mohamed using torture. Reprieve quoted Mohamed as saying that an American female photographed his wounds before he boarded a plane in the Moroccan city of Rabat on the night of Jan. 21, 2004. Were those pictures destroyed? Will we ever know?

What would you pay? Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones are offering Internet viewers the lurid details of encounters they claim they had with former President Bill Clinton - for $1.99 a pop. The women, who gained notoriety in the early 1990s, have created a Web site offering videos of their thoughts on Clinton, his wife Hillary and other matters. Each video segment is available for $1.99. "It's a way we can get our story out there in our own words, without someone making their own interpretations or corrections," Jones said. During the 1992 presidential race, Flowers claimed to have had a 12-year affair with then-candidate and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton. Clinton initially denied the allegation, but later, during his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, acknowledged a single sexual encounter with Flowers. Jones accused Clinton of sexual harassment, saying he made an unwelcome sexual advance in 1991 in a Little Rock hotel room while he was Arkansas governor and she was a state employee. Her lawsuit set in motion the events that led to the impeachment of Clinton. More like the last gasp of two pathetic idiots who pissed away the money they got the first time they extorted it, but oh well. Kinda cool that they are going to see the bottom drop out of their scheme now that Hillary is out of the race, isn't it?

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Overnight - A roundup of news items that you might have missed

How does 58 bases in Iraq grab ya? Iraqi lawmakers say the United States is demanding 58 bases as part of a proposed "status of forces" agreement that will allow U.S. troops to remain in the country indefinitely. Leading members of the two ruling Shiite parties said in a series of interviews the Iraqi government rejected this proposal along with another U.S. demand that would have effectively handed over to the United States the power to determine if a hostile act from another country is aggression against Iraq. Lawmakers said they fear this power would drag Iraq into a war between the United States and Iran. "The points that were put forth by the Americans were more abominable than the occupation," said Jalal al Din al Saghir, a leading lawmaker from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. "We were occupied by order of the Security Council," he said, referring to the 2004 Resolution mandating a U.S. military occupation in Iraq at the head of an international coalition. "But now we are being asked to sign for our own occupation. That is why we have absolutely refused all that we have seen so far." Other conditions sought by the United States include control over Iraqi air space up to 30,000 feet and immunity from prosecution for U.S. troops and private military contractors. The agreement would run indefinitely but be subject to cancellation with two years notice from either side, lawmakers said.

Climbing Mt McKinley isn't a joke: One hundred people have lost their lives climbing North America's tallest peak, and an astounding number of them have been Japanese. The most recent to perish were Tatsuro Yamada, 27, and Yuto Inoue, 24, who were scheduled to return from Mt. McKinley's Cassin Ridge May 22. Officials at Denali National Park and Preserve called off the search for them May 29, estimating they'd been without food and water for as long as 14 days. Of the 100 climbers who have died on the mountain since 1932, 17 have been from Japan. Japanese climbers perish at an even higher rate when you include fatalities on other Alaska Range peaks, such as Foraker and Hunter. Nine of the 39 climbers who've died on peaks other than McKinley have been from Japan. That means 19 percent of Alaska Range climbers who've gone up but never come down are Japanese. Darryl Miller, a mountaineering ranger at Denali National Park, said many Japanese climbers attempt riskier, more difficult routes than the average climber, most of whom use the traditional West Buttress route to reach the 20,320-foot summit.

Yeah, what is the deal with that truck they sell tacos out of anyway? A philosophical question: When does a taco truck become a restaurant? Mariscos Camino Real opened two months ago with a food wagon and seafood-only menu in an empty lot next to a small car dealership. Owner Ignacio Ochoa went to the Planning Department shortly after with ideas for improvements, including a concrete pad and heavy canopy tent under which patrons can eat. No concrete and no construction, he was told. So Ochoa and his partner, Rudy Yanez, put down brick pavers, planters filled with small palms and ficus trees, a fountain and a 24 foot-by-40 foot collapsible outdoor-event tent. Ten stone tables with custom tile tops were installed. Two speakers were hung high in the tent rafters. The men spent $80,000 and ended up with a polished outdoor eating space on a patch of leased land. City officials weren't exactly charmed. "We went out there for another call and saw it," said Debbie Whitmore, the city's planning director. "The reaction was 'Oh, my God!' It grew beyond how it was described to us." "Our goal was to change perception," Yanez said. "All taco trucks are not the same. It's not filthy. There's space to eat."

FBI tries to sort out the latest crime statistics: "We shouldn't be fooled into thinking our problems are over," said [James Alan]Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University. Fox said that from 2002 to 2006, the rate of murder committed by black male teens rose 52 percent. "Violence is down among whites of all ages and both genders; it's up among black males, not black females," Fox said. "When you blend all the national numbers together you fail to see this divergence. There are many more whites in the population, so their decline can dwarf the increase among young black males." Fox said black males are "feeling the impact of the economic decline and an increase in gangs and illegal gun markets. Gangs and youth crime are a growing problem despite these rosy statistics." FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said, "One preliminary report does not make a trend, but it's going the way we want it to go." Kolko cautioned against putting too much significance on any shift that hasn't lasted at least two years. Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr called the report "very encouraging" though he noted the final report could alter the figures.

Well, duh: Iran's supreme leader told the visiting Iraqi prime minister Monday that the U.S. military presence is the main cause of Iraq's problems, according to Iranian state television, making clear his opposition to a U.S.-Iraqi security pact. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's talks with Iranian leaders during his three-day visit here have focused on the proposed security agreement that Iran fears will keep the American military in neighboring Iraq for years. Al-Maliki has tried to push Iranian leaders to back off their fierce opposition to the proposed pact, promising that Iraq will not be a launching pad for any attack on Iran. But the agreement has become a point of contention as Baghdad tries to balance its close ties to rivals Washington and Tehran. Iran, which has repeatedly said the way to end instability in Iraq is for U.S. forces to withdraw, believes the proposed pact could lead to permanent U.S bases on its doorstep amid fears of an eventual American attack.

Make sure you tell them about the time Rove told you something that wasn't true...wait, that could take weeks: CBS News confirmed today that President Bush’s former spokesman Scott McClellan will accept an invitation to testify on Capitol Hill next week about the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity. McClellan tells CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante, “I have accepted. I am happy to share what I know.” House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers, D-Mich, asked McClellan to testify after he claimed in his new book: “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” that he was mislead about Scooter Libby’s role in the leak by Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the Bush Administration.

It's tough in Wisconsin and Indiana, too: Floodwater washed away three houses and threatened dams in Wisconsin on Monday as military crews joined desperate sandbagging operations to hold back Indiana streams surging toward record levels. The East Coast simmered through temperatures climbing toward the century mark. Ten deaths were blamed on stormy weekend weather, most in the Midwest. Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle declared an emergency for 29 counties and President Bush late Sunday declared a major disaster in 29 Indiana counties. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said nearly a third of his state's 99 counties need federal help. Rivers in several parts of the Midwest swelled with the runoff from heavy weekend rainfall, topped by the 11 inches that fell Saturday in Indiana. Water was pouring over the top of Wisconsin's Dell Creek Dam on Lake Delton in Sauk County, and had swept away three houses, county emergency management director Jeff Jelinek said. He was not sure whether there were any injuries, but said people had been told to evacuate the area, which is about 50 miles north of Madison.

Leave off the tomatoes, please: McDonald's, Wal-Mart and other U.S. chains have halted sales of some raw tomatoes as federal health officials work to trace the source of a multistate salmonella food poisoning outbreak. Burger King, Outback Steakhouse and Taco Bell were among other restaurants voluntarily withdrawing tomatoes from their menus, following federal recommendations that consumers avoid red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes unless they were grown in certain states and countries. McDonald's Corp., the world's largest hamburger chain, stopped serving sliced tomatoes on its sandwiches as a precaution until the source of the bacterial infection is known, according to a statement Monday from spokeswoman Danya Proud. The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company will continue serving grape tomatoes in its salads because no problems have been linked to that variety, she said.

Watch out for bogus charities: The state is investigating the charitable foundation of Anne Hathaway's boyfriend, a spokesman for the attorney general said Monday. Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri, 29, who dates the "Devil Wears Prada" star, heads the Follieri Foundation, a charity whose work includes vaccinating children in Third World countries. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is heading the probe, Cuomo spokesman Matt Glazer said. He said he could not comment further on the ongoing investigation. The Foundation has not filed IRS tax disclosure forms required from charities, according to a review of records by the Associated Press. The New York Post, which first reported the investigation, said Hathaway was previously on the foundation's board of directors, but it was unclear when or for how long. "There is an investigation going on that does not involve Anne," said Stephen Huvane, Hathaway's publicist, in an e-mail. "She is no longer a board member of the Follieri Foundation. Other than that we will not be commenting."

Oh, really? Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired Air Force Chief of Staff General "Buzz" Moseley after repeatedly accusing the service of being unable to focus on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a fascinating interview with Air Force Times, conducted right after his removal, Moseley said the critiques were dead-on. It's an eye-opening admission. For years, Moseley's generals have been warning about the dangers of China and a resurgent Russia -- and downplaying today's counterinsurgency conflicts. Now, Moseley is saying there is "an almost zero chance we will fight a nation-state" like Russia or China. Which makes you wonder why the Air Force has been so preoccupied with these countries.

Kucinich introduces articles of impeachment, Nancy's desires be damned. The first of the 35 articles introduced involved the creation of the Pentagon Prapaganda unit that was created to sell the war.

Speaking of that Pentagon Propaganda unit...Four Democratic Senators (Kerry, Menendez, Lautenberg and Dorgan) introduced legislation on Monday to prohibit the Defense Department from using money for “propaganda.” The legislation as written also requires the DoD inspector general and the Government Accountability Office to deliver related reports to Congress within 90 days. “[T]he American people should not have to wonder whether the purportedly nonpartisan expert analysis they see on television might have been shaped by a government propaganda campaign,” said Kerry. (For the record, it is already illegal to propagandize the American people.)

Synthetic gravity achieved Independent verification by peer review is still pending, but it looks like McCain economic adviser and AEI douchebag fellow Kevin Hassett has managed a degree of spin that a gravitational field was temporarily observed. Here's the gyst: The media (they of the McCain Mancrush™) is hyping a recession that doesn't exist to hurt McCain's chances. Really the economy is just fine. Unless you're a middle or working class loser who wouldn't know how to handle your money if it wasn't being transfered to Exxon, anyway, so stop sniveling and get another job or sell a pint of blood or something.

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Overnight - A roundup of news items that you might have missed

High Court overturns Zimbabwe's ban on opposition rallies The police ban on opposition political rallies in advance of the June 27 runoff election has been roundly criticized outside Zimbabwe. South Africa's ruling ANC party issued a statement in which it strongly supported free campaigning, saying that it was critically important for all candidates to be able to make their case to the people.

Given Mukasey's track record, we're not holding our breath on this one, either: Nearly 60 House Democrats yesterday urged the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to examine whether top Bush administration officials may have committed crimes in authorizing the use of harsh interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists. In a letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, the lawmakers cited what they said is "mounting evidence" that senior officials personally sanctioned the use of waterboarding and other aggressive tactics against detainees in U.S.-run prisons overseas. An independent investigation is needed to determine whether such actions violated U.S or international law, the letter stated. "This information indicates that the Bush administration may have systematically implemented, from the top down, detainee interrogation policies that constitute torture or otherwise violate the law," it said. The letter was signed by 56 House Democrats, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and House Intelligence Committee members Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y). The request was prompted in part by new disclosures of high-level discussions within the Bush administration that reportedly focused on specific interrogation practices. Some of the new detail was contained in a report last month by the Justice Department's inspector general, which described a series of White House meetings in which the controversial tactics were vigorously debated.

This is the summer of tornadoes: At least five people are injured after damaging tornadoes ripped through parts of Wisconsin.The powerful storms swept across central and southeastern Wisconsin on Saturday with baseball-size hail and high winds. Authorities say roofs were blown off homes and trees and power lines were toppled. Flash flooding was also reported in areas. Wisconsin emergency management spokeswoman Lori Getter says five people suffered minor injuries north of Madison.

Do you think some of these countries abandoned their embassies because they don't have a functioning State Department than can pursue these matters? The front door to one of Washington's finer addresses, a four-story townhouse valued at $3.9 million, is padlocked and covered with plywood. The brass-toned plate above the entrance reads: "Embassy of the Republic of Malawi." Next door, a barren nine-bedroom residence is assessed at $6 million, even with the bare flagpole out front, the weeds growing in the driveway, the paint-peeled columns and boarded-up windows. The owner: the United Arab Emirates. Across the street, along a portion of Massachusetts Avenue known as Embassy Row, the grass outside a century-old mansion recently reached hip high, Venetian blinds twist sloppily in a corner window and the front door is missing its doorknob. The owner, the Pakistani government, moved out in 2004. Over the past year, the District has fought to eliminate thousands of vacant buildings, sharply raising property taxes to force owners to sell, lease or occupy their real estate. But officials can exert no such pressure on more than a dozen derelict properties that have added a dose of blight to some of Washington's grandest neighborhoods. Each of the buildings served as an embassy or diplomatic residence for countries including Liberia and Malaysia, the Philippines and the Republic of Togo. Legally considered foreign soil in almost all cases, the buildings are exempt from property taxes and the fine print of the city's building code. In some cases, the properties are vacant because the countries have decamped to more palatial confines in the diplomatic enclave off Van Ness Street. In others, the disrepair is a sign of trouble back home as the countries struggle to finance renovations. Then there's the empty brick house on Quincy Street NW, the one with the dead leaves piled at the front door, the ungainly forest consuming the back yard and the collapsed remnants of what was once a garage roof. Neighborhood children refer to it as the "haunted house." Property records show the owner as the Embassy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was dissolved in 1991.

Jim McKay passed away today...the venerable and eloquent sportscaster thrust into the role of telling Americans about the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics, has died. He was 86. McKay died Saturday of natural causes at his farm in Monkton, Md. The broadcaster who considered horse racing his favorite sport died only hours before Big Brown attempted to win a Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes. He was host of ABC's influential "Wide World of Sports" for more than 40 years, starting in 1961. The weekend series introduced viewers to all manner of strange, compelling and far-flung sports events. The show provided an international reach long before exotic backdrops became a staple of sports television. McKay - understated, dignified and with a clear eye for detail - also covered 12 Olympics, but none more memorably than the Summer Games in Munich, Germany. He was the anchor when events turned grim with the news that Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes. It was left to McKay to tell Americans when a commando raid to rescue the athletes ended in tragedy.

Speaking of the Olympics and politics: Police in Nepal's capital broke up a protest Saturday by hundreds of Tibetan exiles against Chinese rule in their homeland, detaining many of them, officials said. The protesters marched about three miles in the heart of Katmandu before police in riot gear blocked them. Police used bamboo batons to beat some and detained at least 450, police official R.P. Dhamala said at the scene. Scuffles between police and protesters left many with minor injuries. Many of the protesters were Buddhist nuns and monks. "Stop killing in Tibet, we want freedom," the protesters chanted as they marched through the narrow streets of Katmandu. Once they reached the main roads, police blocked them, and when they tried to break through the police lines they were detained and taken away in vans and trucks. Officials say they cannot allow protests against friendly nations such as China.

As the ongoing violence of a brutal drug war has disrupted lives from Tijuana to Nuevo Laredo, the elite are increasingly simply picking up and moving across the border to the safety and security of the United States. So many upper-class Mexican families live in the Eastlake neighborhood, a suburb of San Diego, that residents say the area is becoming a gilded colony of Mexicans, where speaking English is optional. "I always say that Eastlake is the city with the highest standard of living in all of Mexico," joked Enrique Hernandez Pulido, a San Diego-based attorney whose practice serves many Mexican emigre clients.

Ouch. University of Missouri receiver Danario Alexander will miss at least the non-conference part of the upcoming season after re-injuring the ACL graft that he underwent after sustaining the original injury in last seasons Big 12 Conference Championship against Oklahoma. “The rest of the knee looked good,” MU spokesman Chad Moller said Saturday afternoon. “There’s no damage to the meniscus or anything else"...“If you get into the middle of the season and something isn’t right,” Moller said, “he’d have the option to redshirt. But right now the hope is that he will be ready to play.” Alexander, who played as a true freshman and just finished his sophomore year has a redshirt season available should he need the additional time to heal properly.

Juan Cole points us to this story from Helena Cobban: Speaking to a civil-society audience of 60 people here in Washington DC today, Iraqi MPs Sheikh Khalaf al-Ulayyan (National Dialogue Council) and Dr. Nadim al-Jaberi (al-Fadhila) both roundly rejected the idea of negotiating any binding longterm Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States as long as US forces remain in their country. Both also, intriguingly, said that the Arab League might be the outside party best placed to convene the negotiation required to achieve intra-Iraqi reconciliation. Ulayyan and Jaberi were speaking at a lunch discussion hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They have spoken to a number of civil society groups here in the past two days. On Wednesday-- as I noted here earlier today-- they testified about their country's situation at a hearing held by the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight. While with the Subcommittee, they handed chair Rep. William Delahunt a letter spelling out the view of a majority of Iraq's MPs that any SOFA completed between the two countries should stipulate a total withdrawal of US troops from the whole of Iraq before a date certain.

Yes, the Russians have a can of whup-ass: The Russians are usually credited with building good, simple weapons (like the Kalashnikov series and RPG-7 ) but considered weak when to comes to high tech. A close look at one of their tank-busting smart bombs shows how far they've come, however. The sensor-fused weapon is one of the most sophisticated weapons in the US air-to-ground arsenal. This is a 1,000-pound bomb which releases forty small BLU-108 submunitions, over an area the size of 20 football fields. Each BLU-108 (or "cans of whup ass" as some call them) scans the area below with an infra-red sensor; on detecting an armored vehicle below, it fires an explosively formed penetrator with lethal accuracy. The EFP is capable of piercing the thin top armor and scoring a mobility kill any known tank: basically, there goes your engine. A single sensor-fuzed weapon will knock out several vehicles in a formation; an aircraft armed with several of them could stop a large-scale armored assault in its tracks. (The video, above, is a reconstruction of a B-52 which took out a battalion-sized Iraqi force in one pass using sensor-fuzed weapons.) It turns out the Russian have their own version. This is a 500-kilogram bomb made by Bazalt, termed SPBE-D.

Musharraf refuses to become a useless vegetable: Embattled, U.S.-backed Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf Saturday warned Barack Obama that if he wins the White House, he'd have to change his policies towards Pakistan. Musharraf, whom President Bush considers one of America's closest allies in the war on terrorism, denied that Bush gives orders to Pakistan, a charge that's constantly levelled against both men. The Pakistani president also used his first press conference in six months to reject speculation that he's about to be forced out of office, rumors that have grown so strong that Bush called him at the end of last month to pledge continued American support. Musharraf came out fighting, saying that he isn't willing to accept the newly elected Pakistani government's plan to reduce him to a ceremonial role. "I can't become a useless vegetable," said Musharraf, looking relaxed and confident. "I am elected as president of Pakistan constitutionally. I cannot preside over the downfall of Pakistan." Yeah, well, we have a useless vegetable running things in this country right now, so we know what ya mean.

Hey, just saying what's on everybody's mind: Ever since Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius turned a red state blue six years ago, she's been a potential vice-presidential pick. She was the rare Democrat who could win Republican votes. That's why she's been a fixture all these months in the speculation surrounding Sen. Barack Obama's choice of a running mate. "I think she is being considered," said Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, an Obama ally and adviser whose name also has gotten some buzz, although she discounts the possibility. "She has great executive skill, has had success in a very difficult terrain and is thought of very highly by her peers, Democrats and Republicans."

Laura Rozen and Dave Wagner continue the narrative: Enlisting high-level contacts in the White House, Pentagon and Congress, Iran-Contra figure Michael Ledeen relentlessly pushed a freelance intelligence collection and Iran regime change plan on behalf of another veteran of the scandal, according to a report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released Thursday. The proposed plan to change the Iran regime, which requested $5 million in initial "seed" money from the U.S. government, was outlined on a cocktail napkin by Iran contra arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar at a Rome bar during a three-day meeting in December 2001 that brought the Iran contra actors together with two officials from the Pentagon. The Pentagon officials’ attendance at the meeting was authorized by Stephen Hadley, now the top White House national security advisor, the report found. Revelations that Iran Contra figures Ledeen and Ghorbanifar were involved in a new channel to the Bush administration set off alarm bells throughout the US government, and prompted multiple inquiries into whether the channel amounted to an unauthorized covert action and a possible counterintelligence threat. The latter issue was never resolved, after a top Pentagon official shut down the counterintelligence inquiry only a month after it had begun. Later operations would require as much as $25 million, Ledeen and Ghorbanifar advised US officials, but could be financed in part, they said, by a foreign government in exchange for commitments of future Iran oil contracts to the foreign government’s state energy company, believed to be Italy’s ENI. Italy’s military intelligence service Sismi facilitated Ledeen’s Rome meeting, which, highly unusually, was not cleared with the US embassy in Rome or the CIA, even though it involved interaction with a foreign intelligence service.

Put on your troll hat and mask that IP: Bob Cesca points out that Paddy has discovered that Senator John McCain has started a "blog" of sorts, trying in vain to compete with Barack Obama. I smell the golden opportunity for major mockery, and so does everyone else. Must. Monitor. Every. Day. The McCain campaign has unveiled a new blog, dubbed "The McCain Report," that will allow supporters, reporters and bloggers to interact with the campaign. According to the campaign Website: The goal of this project is pretty straightforward: to provide journalists and bloggers with a little more insight into what's going on over here, to provide quotes and information you won't be able to get anywhere else, and to serve as a point of contact for online media. Right, because the media and the McCain campaign were having a huge lover's quarrel over who could kiss each other's ass more...

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Overnight - A roundup of news items that you might have missed

Getting uglier every day in Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's authorities have banned several opposition rallies ahead of the 27 June presidential elections. The order came after police briefly detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of a rally in the second largest city of Bulawayo. The Movement for Democratic Change cited a police letter that said "several future public rallies" were to be banned because of security fears. It comes soon after the government banned the distribution of food aid. The authorities accused aid agencies of helping the opposition. Relief organisations reject the charges, warning that Zimbabwe's "desperate" situation could get even worse. Some four million people - a third of the population - rely on aid after poor harvests and an economic crisis.

You can see Putin's hand sticking out of his back, can't you? Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned Georgia and Ukraine of serious consequences if they press ahead with plans to join Nato. Mr Medvedev and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Georgia's president that joining the alliance would lead to a "spiral of confrontation". Mr Medvedev said Ukraine would be in breach of a friendship treaty if it joined Nato, Mr Lavrov said. The leaders are at a summit of 12 ex-Soviet states in St Petersburg.

Rudd rides the porcelain bus: Australian PM Kevin Rudd has said a simple stomach upset was blown out of proportion by speculation he is ruining his health through over-work. His pale appearance at a conference in Sydney last month prompted reports that he might have cardiac trouble. He said he had been hit by a vomiting bug after watching a rugby match, and blamed a pie he ate. Mr Rudd has been dubbed "24/7 Kevin" because of his hectic work schedule since being elected last November. Rumours circulated that the 50-year-old had suffered a minor heart attack after he looked unwell while making a speech at the New South Wales Labor Party conference on 3 May. Mr Rudd said he had been struck down with severe stomach pains the night before, hours after watching his beloved Brisbane Broncos beat the Wests Tigers in Sydney.

Will the Israelis enter Gaza? A newswire story today sounds the alarm on a probable Israeli incursion into Gaza to address repeated Hamas terrorist attacks into Israel. "Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday raised the spectre of a full-scale military operation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip despite Egyptian attempts to mediate a truce. 'According to the information as it is now, the pendulum is much closer to tough military action,' Olmert told journalists on arrival in Israel following a three-day trip to the United States.'" The article includes statistics on the continued cross-border warfare. "At least 491 people, nearly all Palestinians and mostly Gaza militants, have been killed since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed in November, according to an AFP count. The Israeli military said on Friday that Palestinians fired more than 2,300 rockets and mortar bombs at Israel in the past six months." The article predicts the move will come "within days." None of this is news to the Bush Administration or Congress. They've already been briefed that the incursion is inevitable and top leaders from both parties will support it. The Egyptian government, which fears a Hamas-led Gaza as much as Israel does, has tried to mediate. But Hamas showers Israel with rocket fire, continues arms smuggling through tunnels built between individual houses inside and outside of Gaza, and won't release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, kidnapped in 2006.




I never thought $100 bbl would seem quaint But at $138 bbl, it sure does. Morgan Stanley analysts predict $150 bbl by July 4.


UPPITY?!?!?!? Yes, that is exactly what Courtney Hazlett said about Spike Lee and his political differences with Clint Eastwood.


Make that 200 point drop a 400 point drop Todays decline was the sharpest single-day drop since February 2007. President Bush is considering new measures to stimulate the economy, the White House said, although officials acknowledged that time is short. Bush, in his speech on the economy, also said "the stimulus may be working."


It is going to get really ugly out there between now and November. The ugly, embarrassing, racist crap is only getting started. Decent people, because they are decent people, really have no idea the depths to which the vermin will sink, practically as a default position.


23 dead, 67 wounded in two separate bus bombings in Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers were blamed for the attacks.


Energy Secretary says fuel subsidies "ought to stop" U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman called on more countries to scrap fuel price subsidies that stoke oil demand, and warned the world to brace for more "shocking" volatility. "It's a shock, but if you look at the rate of oil production globally, it has been 85 million barrels a day for three years in a row," Bodman told a group of reporters. "We know demand is increasing because a lot of nations are still subsidizing oil, which ought to stop," he said.


NYC's top crane inspector arrested, accused of taking bribes The top inspector charged with assuring the safety of the cranes that make high-rises possible was arrested on Friday and accused of allowing cranes to pass inspections and unqualified operators to obtain licenses.

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Overnight - A roundup of news items you might have missed

The Mike Alstott Theorem, for those of you who care.

Always respect farm equipment--better to be safe than sorry: [Maryland] State police say a Carroll County man died when the tractor he was operating rolled over as he worked in his yard. It happened around 10 a.m. Wednesday in the 4600 block of Kridlers Schoolhouse Road in Manchester. Police say the tractor toppled over and caught fire after 63-year-old Eugene Woodhouse drove up a slight incline with the front-loader bucket filled with rocks, trapping him beneath the tractor.

That intense burning sensation could be lightning, and not just that freaky crowd control weapon they built: "Things not people" now appears to be the focus of the the famed lightning weapons maker once known as Ionatron. The company, now known as Applied Energetics, was presenting this week at the Department of Homeland Security's science and technology conference in Washington. I missed the talk, but lucky for us, MountainRunner was there and can bring us up to date. Perhaps the most interesting news is that the company, which initially attracted investors with ambitious promises of a revolutionary nonlethal lightning gun, appears now to have thrown this idea out the window. "[T]hey are NOT looking to anti-personnel applications," MountainRunner tells us. "They said that's just an area that's too much of a headache and they'd rather let Taser walk that minefield and they'll focus on anti-IED and anti-vehicle application (things not persons)." Given the company's change in name, this isn't totally surprising, but it is the first time I remember hearing about the company actually jettisoning its focus on nonlethals. The key company pitch these days appears to be countering improvised explosive devices, which is also not a surprise. But the presenter, company VP Tom Donaldson, a retired rear admiral, apparently talked a lot about moving into vehicle-stopping applications. "They found that for disabling cars, the best place to aim for is the base of the windshield," says MountainRunner, who attended the talk. "This stalls, not disables, the car by shorting - not frying, but the amount of electricity is adjustable. They found that targeting the hood looks neat but isn't the best place to aim."


We have known for seventeen months that the minority republicans in the Senate are petty, vindictive assholes; and now that fact is part of the congressional record because Harry Reid got hold of one of their strategy memos and read it in. I particularly like this part, about how the world can do a slow burn so far as Chinless Mitch McConnell is concerned, he has political hay to make! The thinking now is to still use as much of the 30 hours post-cloture on the motion to proceed for debate on thematically-grouped amendments. The goal is for a theme (example: climate bill equals higher gas prices) each day, and the focus is much more on making political points than in amending the bill, changing the baseline text for any future debate or affecting policy...GOP anticipates a struggle over which amendments are debated and eventually finger- pointing over blame for demise of the bill. In the GOP view, this will take at least the rest of this week, and hopefully into next week.... There it is folks, your republican party circa 2008. What a pathetic, fetid, quivering, cowardly bunch of chickenshits. Kentucky, you gotta get rid of McConnell. The state that gives us the Thoroughbreds from Claiborne Farm, kick-ass bluegrass, and Makers Mark fine Kentucky bourbon deserves better than to be represented by that diseased old prick.


The Media Mancrush™ continues unabated In an article discussing Sen. Barack Obama's and Sen. John McCain's positions on direct diplomacy with Iran, the AP reported that "Condoleezza Rice, a key player for eight years in the Bush administration's strategy to try to isolate Iran, told AIPAC on Tuesday that there is no point engaging Iran 'while they continue to inch closer to a nuclear weapon under the cover of talks.' " But, while noting that Madeleine Albright took a different position in a speech two years ago, the article did not note that President Bush's own secretary of defense, Robert Gates, has also reportedly said the United States should "sit down and talk" with Iran.


Obama goes after Mc$ame on health care Enjoying his first campaign foray as the nominee, Obama took the opportunity to mock McCain for his pathetic healthcare proposals. "Like George Bush, Senator McCain has a plan to only take care of the healthy and the wealthy," Obama said, calling McCain's plan 'Bush-lite.' "Instead of offering a comprehensive plan, like I have, to cover all Americans, and control rising costs, he's offering a tax cut that doesn't even amount to half of the cost of an average family health care plan, and won't make health care affordable for the hard-working Americans," he said.


Home equity plummets to lowest level since WWII The portion of home equity held by Americans fell to just 46.2% in the first quarter. It was the fifth consecutive quarter that the rate was under 50%. The total dollar value of equity also fell for the fourth straight quarter to $9.12 trillion from $9.52 trillion in the fourth quarter, while Americans’ total mortgage debt rose to $10.6 trillion from $10.53 trillion. Equity is expected to continue declining as falling home prices erode home values, dragging more homeowners “upside down” on their mortgages.


Shall we start the Musharref-steps-down pool? We are keeping an eye on the situation in Pakistan, where the new government is in power and pressure is mounting on Musharref to step down as the countries President. Pakistan is always a concern, because they have nuclear weapons, and it is in the interest of the entire world that they not fall into the wrong hands. Oh well, if you're goin' to hell on a handcart, you might as well enjoy the ride, so let's have a little fun with this. Leave your guess on when he caves to the pressure and steps down in comments, and we will send the winner one of the "McSame" bumper stickers like the one at the top of the blog.


Turkey's Constitutional Court throws our headscarf reform, ruling that a vote by parliament to ease a ban on scarves being worn on campuses violated the constitution's secular principles. The government had argued that the ban on headscarves prevented some women from being educated. The secular establishment had resisted the loosening of the ban, saying it was a step towards allowing Islam to figure more largely in Turkish public life. The ruling could foreshadow the outcome of a separate court case in which the ruling AK Party (AKP) could be banned for anti-secular activities. 71 members of the party, including the prime minister and the president, could also be banned from belonging to any political party for five years.


France deports genocide suspect The French government has deported Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, a former regional governor, to the UN Rwandan war crimes tribunal convened in Tanzania. He stands accused of taking part in the massacre of some 25,000 Tutsis over a five-day period in April 1994.


There is a big damned difference between losing and quitting and we get that. That is why we never begrudged a primary season that saw all 50 states matter and the numbers finally come together only after the last polls were closed. She ran a hell of a race and might have won it all if she had only fired never hired Mark Penn...


Comandante 2 is back Actually, she never went away - and neither did her determination to defeat dictatorial elements in Nicaragua. Dora María Téllez, now 52, set up a hammock in downtown Managua a few days ago and started a hunger strike. Her intent is to ''sound the alarm bell'' against what she says are President Daniel Ortega's authoritarian intentions. Téllez, who is on a water and salt diet, says that Ortega and incarcerated former President Arnoldo Alemán -- who is still considered the ''maximum leader'' of the opposition Liberal Constitutional Party -- are in the process of reworking their infamous power-sharing pact to re-divide state institutions and cut out minority parties.

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Overnight - A roundup of news items that you might have missed

The Chuck Hagel interview in Spiegel Online is definitely worth a read, but here is my favorite q&a...SPIEGEL: Is the era of the hawks in your party definitely over? Hagel: I hope so. That segment of the Republican Party, the so-called neocons, held the Republican Party hostage much of the time. What this element has done to our party is clear now and I would hope that it will come back to the party of Eisenhower, even the party of Ronald Reagan. Today’s party is no longer Ronald Reagan’s party, who, contrary to his reputation, governed from the center. But he sat down with the Soviets, the great evil empire, and was able to get results, for example in nuclear disarmament.


In a desperate attempt to cling to power, Mugabe cracks down on aid organizations that the 84-year-old dictator absurdly claims are backing the opposition party. Among the groups that have been thrown out of the country is CARE. This month alone, CARE would have fed more than 110,000 people in schools, orphanages, old-age homes and in various programs, it said. Muktar Farah, deputy head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Zimbabwe, said Tuesday that millions of people had lost assistance because of what he called “the shrinking of humanitarian space. NGOs have been told to scale down or stop operations throughout the country.”


America's favorite second banana is threatened by foreclosure Countrywide mortgage has filed foreclosure action against Ed McMahon and his wife Pamela. They are approximately $644,000 in arrears on the mortgage on their Beverly Hills mansion. Mr. McMahon, 85, broke his neck in a fall about 18 months ago and has been unable to work. A spokesman said that the McMahon's were having "very fruitful negotiations" with representatives of the lender, and was hopeful that a solution could be reached that would allow them to stay in their home until it sells. It has been on the market for a little over two years.


The "blue dogs" screw us again This is reason number - hell we have lost count - why we need more and better Democrats who have their priorities in the right order. House Democrats, caving to the dastardly blue dogs, are planning to ax a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits to find a way to pay for the Iraq war.


Gas lines, ugly clothes, platform shoes, high gas prices, inflation, recession and Disco Ask us, "what are the things we hated most about the seventies?" and that list leaps off the keyboard. Well, dig through that old box of buttons and find your WIN button and put it on your lapel. U.S. consumers expect prices to rise 7.7 percent in the coming year, according to the Conference Board, a research company. Investors expect inflation over the coming decade to average 3.4 percent based on bond market data analyzed by the Cleveland Fed. That is well above the Fed's unofficial target of about 2 percent.



McKahane at AIPAC sent chills up the spines of moderate and liberal Jews the world over when he invoked the "Never again!" mantra of the most rabid Jewish racist of the past 50 years. Our friend Richard Silverstein puts it this way, and we agree enthusiastically, so we quote him directly: It’s a nifty sound bite, especially before a hard-right Jewish audience like AIPAC. However, it completely twists political reality. While Ahmadinejad articulates hatred for the U.S. and Israel and the wish that they would disappear (and don’t we feel the same way about his regime?), he has never advocated genocide against Israel. He certainly realizes, unlike McCain and Israeli right-wing politicians like Bibi Netanyahu, that Iran doesn’t have the capacity to seriously damage, much less eradicate Israel. This is yet another example of misusing the Holocaust for pure partisan political gain...Another point to keep in mind is that the slogan “Never Again!” was first popularized by Meir Kahane. Is this the Jewish model that McCain wishes to embrace? It tells you how poorly McCain’s advisors are guiding his efforts that he should embrace the words of the foremost Jewish racist of the past 50 years. Whoever’s advising him is either Jewishly ignorant or has a very bad case of amnesia. The Nightowl would remind you that the categories are not mutually exclusive, and sheer, unadulterated dumbassery can never be ruled out.


The German Marshall Fund website has a spiffy new feature to help Europeans interested in tracking the U.S. election keep abreast of good, factual information. (h/t Steve Clemons at the irreplaceable Washington Note)


U.S. Navy withdraws from waters off Myanmar after the military junta refused to allow the ships to offload their relief supplies for the victims of last months Cyclone Nargis more than 1 million of whom still don't have adequate food, water or shelter, and junta policies are hindering relief efforts. Myanmar's state media has said that it feared a U.S. invasion aimed at seizing the country's oil deposits. (We wonder where they would get a notion like that?)


Japanese Supreme Court finds "Nationality Law" unconstitutional, clearing the way for children born out of wedlock to non-Japanese mothers and Japanese fathers who had not stepped forward before the children were born. Yesterdays ruling granted nationality to ten children but is certain to affect thousands more.


Following mortar attack on depot, Israel again freezes fuel shipments to Gaza A mortar fired by Palestinian militants struck the territory’s only fuel depot at Nahal Oz, wounding a Palestinian worker. There was no immediate effect on delivery of utility services because no immediate deliveries were scheduled, but if the situation isn't resolved quickly, that will be a likely outcome.


Opposition leader jailed in Mugabe's pre-vote crackdown Morgan Tsvangirai, who faces President Robert Mugabe in the June 27 run-off, was detained for several hours after addressing a rally, accused of failing to have the proper authorization to address the gathering. "It is nothing but the usual harassment which is totally unnecessary," Tsvangirai said after his release. "We have seen worse things than this."


Construction slump drives unemployment spike among Latinos The unemployment rate among Hispanics has seen sharper increases than that for any other group, currently pegged at 7.3% for the first quarter of 2008, compared with 6.1% for the same time period last year.


The next man on the moon will probably be from China The head of NASA's lunar exploration program said Wednesday that the Chinese are on schedule to beat the United States back to the moon by two or three years. ``If they keep on the path they're on, they can" land before Americans do, said Rick Gilbreth, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems. The goal of NASA's Constellation program is to return astronauts to the moon by 2020, as proposed in President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration. Gilbreth said the Chinese could accomplish that by 2017 or 2018.


Judge allows Blackwater to resume work on San Siego training facility A federal judge cleared the decks for Blackwater International to open and operate a training facility in San Diego. We are still nonplussed that an outside source is the preferable entity to provide weapons training and other "force protection" techniques to U.S. Navy sailors. WTF, over?


Waxman wants transcripts of bu$h and ¢heney interviews on Plame leak Citing passages from Scot McClellan's new book. The passages of interest to Waxman relate McClellan's tale of being deceived by Rove and Libby, manipulated into telling reporters that then-White House aides scooter and Turd blossom were not involved in the episode. Aside from receiving assurances from the two men, McClellan described a meeting in which Bush and Cheney decided to have McClellan issue a special statement saying that Libby had no involvement.

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Overnight - A roundup of items that you might have missed

Abramoff scandal is still yielding convictions A former chief-of-staff to a former congressman who held a high-ranking seat on the House Appropriations Committee pleaded guilty on Monday to accepting bribes and gifts when he was cos for former congressman Ernest Istook, republican of Oklahoma. Albaugh has agreed to become a cooperating witness and will be sentenced in September.

"Socialized Medicine" isn't an obscenity - but this is Hospitals have long relied on outside collection agencies to recoup losses from patients that fall into arrears on their bills, but now they are adding a new twist...they are auctioning the debt on-line. Auctions can drive up the amount paid for debt, meaning a collector must recoup more money from patients to cover its initial investment and turn a profit. The winning bidders often get to keep all the money they collect on the auctioned debt. The same agencies have begun to buy the debt outright, or agreed to provide guaranteed payments to hospitals for access to the unpaid accounts, and then they step up their aggressive collection tactics. For the record, this appears to be the point at which the bean-counting inmates have taken over the underfunded asylum.

A note to all congresspeople: Your oath is to the Constitution, not to your party, and certainly not the president, but most of them seem to have forgotten that and the whining is voluble as the entire House and 1/3 of the Senate stand for reelection in five short months. The affliction is bipartisan. On the republican side you hear synchronized simpering about how hard it's going to be to "show independence" (this nonplusses us, as that is what all cengresspeople are supposed to do in the forst damned place - represent the interests of the constituents in their district. Independently.) Then, last week on NPR we heard Nancy Pelosi say that her job is to assure a Democratic majority! BZZZZTTTT! Wrong! As much as we desire that end, that is NOT Nancy's job. Her job, as Speaker of the House, is to legislate, and to assure that the House of Representatives operates in a Constitutionally proscribed manner. We are ready for the curtain to come down on the Kabuki Theater and a return to the basics.


The fear of crisis is as paralytic as actual crisis Argentina stands of the precipice of social-upheaval-by-self-fulfilling-prophecy. Strikes by farmers, angered by government policies, have inspired fear of economic damage; which has prompted the populace to exchange their pesos for dollars and forced the government to dip into currency reserves to stabilize the economy. Utility customers are bracing for blackouts, based on the news that the country faces natural gas shortages. A 60 year old taxi driver was blunt in his assessment: "Argentina is like a kid who makes a really good sand castle at the beach, takes a lot of care in building it just right, then steps on it himself. Things have been good recently. Now we have to put a question mark on everything."

Another rat runs screaming off the sinking ship: With President Bush's popularity hovering in the 30s, one of Florida's most conservative members of Congress has decided that a little breathing room might be a good thing. Facing what could be her first significant reelection challenge in two decades, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Miami, shot out two press releases Tuesday intended to distance herself from the president. One was entitled "list of domestic initiatives where Ros-Lehtinen has broken with the current administration.'' The other was headlined "list of foreign policy initiatives where Ros-Lehtinen has broken with the current administration.'' Her office said it was interested in debunking any perception that the generally reliably Republican is a "rubber stamp'' for President Bush. "For the past seven years, Ileana has been mistakenly classified for partisan purposes as a rubber stamp for Bush while she has actually been an independent voice for her district,'' said campaign coordinator Keith Fernandez. "Ileana has deep roots to her district and understands the needs of her constituents. She has never come down with Beltway fever.'' Ros-Lehtinen is a lightweight idealogue who ought to go down in flames with the rest of her ilk--she has no business being re-elected dogcatcher.

Something really is amiss here: In an extraordinary defense of a military commissions decision, the chief of the Guantanamo court on Monday blamed Army bureaucracy for the need to replace a judge at the trial of Canadian captive Omar Khadr -- not pressure to proceed by Pentagon prosecutors. But, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann added that, contrary to an earlier Defense Department announcement, Army Col. Peter E. Brownback III did not voluntarily retire from active-duty status and had sought to see the trial to completion. Khadr, now 21, is accused of the July 2002 grenade killing of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. He was 15. Brownback, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army, was the longest serving commissions judge, until he was relieved last week. Kohlman's abrupt replacement of Brownback without explanation stirred controversy. Defense lawyers have accused the Pentagon of rushing cases so they'll come to trial at the height of the presidential campaign season. Remember--the world is paying attention, and the rule of law is really taking a beating here.

Wingnut welfare to the rescue: A prominent conservative foundation is lavishing a $250,000 award on Victor Davis Hanson, the Fresno-area farmer and classics professor turned public intellectual. The Bradley Prize becomes the latest and far-and-away most lucrative in a line of honors bestowed on Hanson, who now holds emeritus status at California State University, Fresno. While the prize is novel, the dollars send a deliberate message. "Quite a shock," Hanson said by e-mail Tuesday, shortly after arriving in Washington from Europe. "I'm very appreciative, and did not think someone from rural Selma would have his voice heard with other more distinguished authors and thinkers." Quite a travesty is more like it.

Everything you wanted to know about North Korea but didn't have the time to look up on your own.

McSame, McSame, McSame: Confronting what his aides expect to be Obama's principal attack against him, McCain explicitly rejected the idea that he represents President Bush's third term. "Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again?" he asked. "Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false." As evidence of his independence, McCain highlighted his breaks with Bush on Iraq, energy and climate change. As further evidence, the fact that McCain voted with the President a hundred percent of the time this year? The Media Mancrush forgets to tell you that.

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Overnight - A roundup of news items that you might have missed

We know what to do, but showing a little fortitude and actually doing it is another matter entirely If you want to save money and gasoline, drive 55. We have known for 35 years that reducing our highway speed to 55 mph saves both gas and money (and lives, but that is a separate rant). But there is just no political will for bold strokes, so legislative fiat won't be responsible for what would amount to a lifestyle change. If it happens, it is going to happen because fleet managers install governors on their cars and trucks that limit speeds to 60 mph, and if enough people feel the pinch that they start using their cruise controls and taking their time in the slow lane, and sneering at people who go zipping by like they are the most selfish pricks in the world. You know, that "sorry about your penis/eating disorder" look we give people in Hummers and Escalades already, we will have a lasting social impact.


Syria to allow IAEA inspectors? Dr. Mohamed Elbaradei announced earlier today that Syria would allow a team of U.N. inspectors into the country from June 22-24 investigate the bombing of a suspected nuclear facility that was bombed by Israeli war planes last September. It was unclear if investigators would have access to the site itself, but Syria has vigorously protested the accusations that it was a nuclear weapons facility. Few details were released, but if the visit goes forward as planned it will be the first time since the September incident that Syria has opened up to inspections. “It has now been agreed that an agency team will visit Syria during the period 22-24 June,” Dr. ElBaradei said in a statement released on the agency’s Web site. “I look forward to Syria’s full cooperation in this matter.”


If you plan to spend your stimulus check on ammo, get ready to bite the bullet as ammo prices head toward 200% price increases in the last year. You may think this doesn't affect you if you don't engage in those activities, but you would be mistaken in that. It affects the amount of money the military has to spend on ammo, and it affects your local police department and the amount of firing range and live ammo training they get to do.


New Democracies are unsteady things, that's for sure and Thailand is finding that out first hand right now. A mere five months after emerging from military rule, a week of street protests is threatening the fledgling coalition government. What has sent them to the streets is the same thing that has paralyzed government for two years: They want to see the former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown in a 2006 coup, returned to the country in February as an ally of the current government, put on trial for corruption. The protesters also support the aging king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, from what they see as attacks on the institution of the monarchy, and they are distrustful of a government that received the core of its support from the countryside. Thailand is just about the most liberal and pluralistic of the Asian nations, and street protests are quite familiar, and garner wide support as a general rule, but this time there is concern as well. This time the protests are directed at a democratically elected government rather than at bringing down a military dictatorship. “It’s a dangerous trend,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University. “I’m not a fan of the PPP,” he said of the governing party, “but you have an elected government, and you have 10,000 people taking to the streets who want to overthrow it.”


This is something that readers of this blog won't consider "news" because Blue Girl has been saying for at least a year that public transit ridership is way up, and the American Public Transportation Association has quantified the increase. Americans took 2.6 billion trips on public transportation in the first three months of 2008, almost 85 million more trips than last year for the same time period, a 3.3 percent increase. "There's no doubt that the high gas prices are motivating people to change their travel behavior," APTA President William W. Millar said in a statement. (Kansas City readers take note: Light rail had the greatest increases in ridership, increasing 10.3 percent for the first quarter over the same period last year, with some cities showing increases that outstripped the national average. Baltimore's saw an increase of 16.8 percent, Minneapolis rose 16.4 percent, St. Louis increased 15.6 percent and San Francisco increased 12.2 percent.)


They are so cute when they pretend to be relevant! The 38th annual General Assembly of the (much derided, and deservedly so) Organization of American States convened in Medellin, Colombia on Sunday night, with the most pressing issue before the stymied alliance the rift between Ecuador and Colombia. Tho post-cold war world has left deep divisions among the Latin American states, with Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador breaking left; Colombia, Peru and El Salvador breaking right - and Brazil caught in the middle. Prediction: Three days of chest beating will ensue, but absolutely nothing will be accomplished. But the potentates sure look nice all dressed up and wearing their most serious expressions...


No AIPAC whack-jopbs are going to vote for Obama anyway so the correct response to McSame's chest-thumping in front of those slavering, war-mongering fuckheads is mockery and derision. In a conference call organized by the Obama campaign, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., dismissed McCain's speech as "nothing different" from the foreign policy of the Bush administration. "Why should anyone expect (McCain) will have better results than this president has?" Schiff asked. "He continues to cling to a foreign policy that has not made the United States or Israel safer."


Ted Kennedy surgery successful Senator Kennedy underwent a three and a half hour procedure today to remove the main body of the malignant glioblastoma that was diagnosed just days ago. The surgery was performed at Duke University by Dr. Allan Friedman, who is probably the preeminent neurosurgeon in the nation, if not the world.


Six dead and 30 injured in car bomb attack on Danish embassy in Islamabad The bomb was massive, and if the carnage matched the wreckage, a hell of a lot more people would be dead. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the leading Pakistani Taliban militant, Baitullah Mehsud, is in peace talks with the government and has declared a cease fire. The BBC's Barbara Plett, reporting from Islamabad, said that suspicion for the attack has fallen on al-Qaeda, as the network's number two Ayman al-Zawahri denounced the Danish cartoons (yet again) in a recently distributed video. Pakistan is about to get very, very volatile...and they already have nukes. (How's about we think about putting out the fire in the garage (Pakistan) before we start another one in the kitchen (Iran)?)


Discovery successfully docks with space station and delivers the $1 Billion JPM (Japanese Pressurized Module) to the station. The JPM joins two other modules that have already been secured to the platform. The shuttle also delivered a toilet pump to unclog the facilities...facilities.


Missionary Marine reassigned The military confirmed late last week that the Marine who passed out coins with a bible verse to Sunni Muslims at a checkpoint into Fallujah has been reassigned. The coins angered the residents of the city who said they felt that the occupying American forces were also acting as Christian missionaries in a predominantly Muslim nation. "It did happen," said Mike Isho, a spokesman for Multi National Forces West. "It's one guy and we're investigating." The Marine was passing out silver coins to residents of the Sunni Anbar province with Arabic translations of a Bible verse on them. On one side, the coin read, "Where will you spend eternity?" and on the other, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."


It's like the RNC outsourced their hiring to us! This November, the republican GOTV effort will be run by a whole bunch of former Giuiliani staffers. We remember the brilliance of that campaign and say a heartfelt "Thank You!" to them for the unintended assist.


What Michael Ware said when asked about McCain's feeble attempt to hammer Obama for having better things to do than go shopping in Baghdad four times a year: "I’ll issue a word of caution, too. I mean Senator McCain has been here, what, more than half a dozen times. And we’ve seen him get assessments of Iraq terribly wrong. So I wouldn’t be hanging my hat on the fact that your opponent has only been here once."



The Chinese wrote a book on sensitivity for the Olympics--and boy, is it sensitive: The 200-page volunteer manual offers guidance for volunteers in areas ranging from serving the disabled to basic rules. About 70,000 volunteers will work on the Aug. 8-24 Olympics and 30,000 more will serve during the Paralympic Games on Sept. 6-17. A section dedicated to the disabled said that "paralympic athletes and disabled spectators are a special group. They have unique personalities and ways of thinking." To handle the "Optically Disabled," the guide said: "Often the optically disabled are introverted. They have deep and implicit feelings and seldom show strong emotions. ... Remember, when you communicate with optically disabled people, try not to use the world `blind' when you meet for the first time." On the "Physically Disabled," the guide said: "Physically disabled people are often mentally healthy. They show no differences in sensation, reaction, memorization and thinking mechanisms from other people, but they might have unusual personalities because of disfigurement and disability. "For example, some physically disabled are isolated, unsocial and introspective; they usually do not volunteer to contact people. They can be stubborn and controlling; they may be sensitive and struggle with trust issues. Sometimes they are overly protective of themselves, especially when they are called `crippled' or `paralyzed."' The guide said volunteers should "not fuss or show unusual curiosity, and never stare at their disfigurement." It also advised volunteer to steer away from words like "cripple or lame, even if you are just joking."

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Overnight - A roundup of news items that you might have missed

Of pots, kettles and degrees of blackness John McSame would have done well to keep his mouth shut about Barack Obama not flying off to Iraq for a whirlwind shopping trip and some of the finest Kabuki Theater found outside Japan every time the wind blows. Well, it turns out that he has been remiss in a duty right here at home! Prior to last month's stroll through the Lower Ninth Ward, he had been to the Gulf Coast exactly once since the day Katrina made landfall. By contrast, Obama has visited the region five times. Mapquest says it is only 1089.87 miles between Washington DC and New Orleans, and it is not necessary for a visiting potentate to be escorted on a stroll by a full company of armed soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters and two apache gunships to make sure the potentate stays safe. And by not monkeywrenching operations in a war zone six soldiers didn't get dead on any of the five trips that Obama has made to New Orleans. Not only has McShame been aWol in NOLA, he has failed to vote for reconstruction because it might saddle the future with debt, but the old hypocrite supports the occupation of Iraq - the single biggest expense and burden upon the backs of our grandchildren - without fail.

McClellan apologizes to Richard Clark According to Clarke, McClellan apologized to him last night, stating, “I should have known how personal it would get when they went after me, well, I mean, after what I said about you.” On MSNBC today, Clarke said the apology was “genuine.” (h/t TP)

Being called a "miserable creature" by Bob Dole is kinda like being called hard on the eyes by a horny-toad, innit? Bob Dole sent out a scathing email to Scotty McClellan yesterday, so angered was he at McClellan for verifying what the reality-based community has known all along. "There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues," Dole wrote in a message sent yesterday morning. "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique." Huh. Bob Dole's type cleans up pimping an erectile dysfunction drug.


Don't think for a second the wingnuts will go quietly and accept gay marriage. They will fight it to the last dog dies, so don't get complacent just because the recent California Supreme Court decision was met with a collective shrug of the shoulders. “There is no reason to think [gay marriage] should be less potent of an issue in 2008 than in 2004,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “It is an issue that could cause further problems with those voters [with] whom Obama is already having trouble — white working-class voters.” Well, maybe. But if they have a family member or family friend in the military, or have depleted their savings buying gasoline, or maybe they have an ARM that has reset or is about to, it might not be such as big damned deal as those on the lunatic fringe will try to make it. (BG adds: For the record - my Uncle Billy and Aunt Richard have a loving relationship that has outlasted both of my moms marriages, and their relationship didn't "undermine" those consecrated unions in any way.)

But Hastert kinda undermined the wingnuts by taking a job with a "tranny" lobbying firm. Those "family values" he cast votes to uphold as recently as November of last year flew right out the window when it was beneficial to him to abandon them. How very...republican... But it does bring to mind a quote by that good Democrat Will Rogers..."It's hard to get a man to understand something if his paycheck depends on him not understanding it."

This church needs to be scrutinized by the IRS because it obviously engages in partisan politics. I mean, the IRS goes after liberal churches that oppose the war, so when a priest is openly identified as a "GOP priest" that is pretty damning - or ought to be, in a sane world. But we live in Bu$hWorld these days...

One of these things is not like the other Johnn McCain is finally getting a little heat from the media over his use of a picture of him and General Petreus glad-handing one another in a fundraising letter. The McSame campaign tried to justify it by pointing to a picture of Obama on the campaign website that shows him talking to an unidentified member of the armed forces - who is decidedly NOT an O 10. (After the roundup was complete, we learned that McSame, after getting some well-deserved heat, has admitted that the use of the photo was inappropriate.)

Flashback Five years ago today, Tom "douchebag" Friedman told Charlie Rose that invading Iraq was the United States' way of telling the middle east to "suck on it" after the attacks of September 11, 2001. How is it this guy is still considered a Serious member of the commentariat?

So let us get this straight...being off in your numbers by 25,000 is "nitpicking"? Damn! I gotta try that sort of math with my bank! Yesterday, John "Warhead" McSame said that the number of American service personnel in Iraq has returned to "pre-surge levels." He was either deliberately lying or he is clueless (they are not mutually exclusive categories) because "pre-surge" there were 130,000 troops deployed to Iraq, and today, there are 155,000. When he was called on it, he dismissed the critics as "nitpicking." For the record - 25,000 soldiers is damned near enough to man two entire frickin' DIVISIONS. That's a pretty damned daunting nit to pick!

111 countries sign treaty agreeing to ban cluster bombs...but the United States wasn't one of them. Nor was Russia, China, Israel, India nor Pakistan - the primary offenders. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged every nation in the world to sign the painstakingly negotiated pact "without delay" but the countries listed didn't even participate in the negotiations. The pact that was hammered out leaves the door open for new types that could pick targets more precisely and contain self-destruct technology.

Bainbridge gets one right! (We know - we are as shocked as you are!) And he even gets bonus points for reminding us of one of our favorite Monty Python skits!

A point to ponder....Listening to a segment on NPR this afternoon in the basement of the Gun Club & Home Brew Supply that serves as the international headquarters for WTWC, we heard people-on-the-street being interviewed, talking about McCain and his experience, and we have come to the conclusion that his lauded "experience" is all for naught. It certainly didn't give him the foresight, insight, or clarity to get a single thing right in the last eight years.

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Overnight - A roundup of news items that you might have missed

FCC proposes free, but censored, broadband Kevin Martin, chairman of the FCC, is proposing that the (unused) 25 Mhz spectrum be auctioned off with a catch...the winning bidder would have to agree to provide free broadband access - and filter out obscene content.

State Department withdraws Fulbright Grants from Palestinain students in Gaza Israel has isolated and choked off the Gaza Strip, and had stalled and stonewalled, refusing to grant the students the right to leave to study abroad. The United States Consulate in Jerusalem said the grant money had been “redirected” to students elsewhere out of concern that it would go to waste if the Palestinian students were forced to remain in Gaza. Students were informed by email on Thursday of the life-altering decision. “If we are talking about peace and mutual understanding, it means investing in people who will later contribute to Palestinian society,” he said. “I am against Hamas. Their acts and policies are wrong. Israel talks about a Palestinian state. But who will build that state if we can get no training?”

We suggest starting with Ann Coulter if you want to investigate an actual case of voter fraud. "Could illegal immigrants sway an election?' Eric Shawn of Fox News asked on Wednesday, raising the terrifying specter of "people who are not even citizens voting for whomever they want." He went on to ask the know-nothings that Faux Noise panders to to contact them at voterfraud@foxnews.com with their tales of voter fraud. You know the ones - the ones that the Justice Department couldn't find? Well, we do know of one case...but Brad Friedman already did the heavy lifting on this one.

Emptywheel lays out her case that aWol personally approved the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson. If I was on the jury, I would vote to convict.


Army suicides reached an all-time high in 2007 Strained by repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers are reaching their breaking point and suiciding at the highest rate ever recorded. Thirty-two suicides, or more than one-quarter of the actual 2007 total, occurred in Iraq as President George W. Bush poured extra forces into the country in an effort to quell sectarian violence. Another four occurred in Afghanistan.

This is what cultural sensitivity and historical understanding looks like. Japan has scrapped plans to use a military jet to airlift supplies to the survivors of earthquake and will instead deliver the aid in a civilian chartered airliner. There is still a lot of lingering anger in China over the brutality Japan heaped on their neighbors during WW II. Chinese officials were concerned about a backlash among people who remember Japan's war-time militarism.

Stonehenge gives up a secret For the entirety of modern history, people have speculated about the 5000 year old monument on the Salisbury Plain. Now, a team of archaeologists have determined that it was a monument for the dead. Radiocarbon dating of human cremation remains have been isolated and verified that the monument was the centerpiece of a burial ground. "It's now clear that burials were a major component of Stonehenge in all its main stages," said Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield in England.

They come with empty suitcases and leave with full ones Spurred by the weak dollar, tourists from countries with strong currencies are coming to the U.S. to shop. According to the Commerce Department's Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, the number of foreigners visiting the U.S. reached nearly 57 million in 2007, up from 41 million in 2003. Last year, they contributed $122 billion to the American economy, up from $80 billion in 2003.

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