Bush Administration Re-Asserts Right to Torture (by Jonathan Turley)
The Bush Administration is continuing to claim that it can torture prisoners in violation of international law despite the so-called “torture bill” and pledge of the President to comply with international rules. Congress, which has protected the president from any criminal investigation, is again professing shock and outrage in the longest institutional imitation of Claude Rains in history. In a series of letters, the Justice Department has informed Congress that it continues to believe that torture can be ordered to fight terrorism.

Investigators: Millions in Iraq contracts never finished
WASHINGTON – Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say.
Oh, who cares?  The objective was never to complete projects.  It was to funnel money from the treasury to Republican contributors.  At that, the Bush administration has succeeded extremely well.

Atheist soldier files suit against military
By JOHN MILBURN JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — Like hundreds of young men joining the Army in recent years, Jeremy Hall professes a desire to serve his country while it fights terrorism. But the soft-spoken specialist and Iraq war veteran is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging that he’s been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn’t believe in God.

Combat veterans face hurdles as college students
RALEIGH, N.C. – Spc. Natasha McKinnon survived losing part of her left leg to an improvised bomb in Iraq. Now that she’s back, she’s trying to find her balance in college life. Sometimes she can’t recall a professor’s name. She loses track of test dates. Occasionally, she forgets she has pulled off her prosthetic leg to rest her stump during a long lecture, only to tilt off balance when she tries to stand.

Time to stock up on Forever stamps
WASHINGTON – With a postal rate increase just two weeks away, Americans are buying 30 million Forever stamps a day.

Negotiators reach tentative farm bill deal
WASHINGTON – Congressional negotiators reached a tentative agreement Friday on a multibillion-dollar farm bill that includes a hefty increase for nutrition programs at a time of rising food prices.

Supreme Court upholds photo ID law for voters in Indiana
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.

Poll: Clinton has better chance than Obama of beating McCain
WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton has a better chance than Barack Obama of beating Republican John McCain, according to a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll that bolsters her argument that she is more electable in the fall than her rival for the Democratic nomination.

Wright says criticism is attack on black church
WASHINGTON – The Rev. Jeremiah Wright says criticism surrounding his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church.
Stop digging, Rev. Wright.  Really, stop digging.

Obama, Clinton clash over gas tax as Indiana looms
ANDERSON/SOUTH BEND, Indiana (Reuters) – Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton touted their economic agendas and sparred over fuel taxes on Saturday as they crisscrossed Indiana ahead of its must-win presidential nominating contest in May.

Clinton: Afghanistan needs more US attention
WILMINGTON, N.C. – Hillary Rodham Clinton said the assassination attempt Sunday on the Afghan president shows that the U.S. has failed to give proper attention to Afghanistan.

McCain calls Obama insensitive to poor people
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Sunday called Democratic rival Barack Obama insensitive to poor people and out of touch on economic issues.

McCain’s poverty tour filled with contradictions
GEE’S BEND, Ala. — For John McCain, it was either the perfect political photo op that reflected an image he’s worked years to polish or a moment of striking, and potentially damaging, political dissonance.

McCain focuses on lower costs on health-care tour
MIAMI (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday will argue the way to improve U.S. health-care coverage lies in lowering costs and increasing competition rather than the “big-government” schemes he says the Democrats advocate.
Yeah, but how?  HOW will you lower costs, Senator McCain?

Mccain Vs. Mccain (by Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek)
On March 26, McCain gave a speech on foreign policy in Los Angeles that was billed as his most comprehensive statement on the subject. It contained within it the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years. Yet almost no one noticed… What McCain has announced is momentous—that the United States should adopt a policy of active exclusion and hostility toward two major global powers. It would reverse a decades-old bipartisan American policy of integrating these two countries into the global order, a policy that began under Richard Nixon (with Beijing) and continued under Ronald Reagan (with Moscow). It is a policy that would alienate many countries in Europe and Asia who would see it as an attempt by Washington to begin a new cold war.

Romney pushes McCain’s endorsed-by-Hamas line. (Think Progress)
On Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), referring to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), told conservative bloggers that “it’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States.” Now one of McCain’s top surrogates, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, has picked up on the line of attack, telling the Reno Gazette-Journal that “the recent endorsement by Hamas” was “revealing”.
Romney REALLY REALLY REALLY wants to be McCain’s vice presidential candidate.

Few states let overseas troops vote by e-mail
WASHINGTON – U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan can speak to their families by Web camera and fight insurgents using sophisticated electronic warfare. Yet when it comes to voting, most troops are stuck in the past.

Florida moves to ban fake testicles on vehicles
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) – Senate lawmakers in Florida have voted to ban the fake bull testicles that dangle from the trailer hitches of many trucks and cars throughout the state. Republican Sen. Cary Baker, a gun shop owner from Eustis, Florida, called the adornments offensive and proposed the ban. Motorists would be fined $60 for displaying the novelty items, which are known by brand names like “Truck Nutz” and resemble the south end of a bull moving north.
Because there’s nothing more important facing the Florida legislature right now.

Election Day in Florida May Look Familiar
Eight years after the debacle of “hanging chads”, Florida once again seems to be courting electoral trouble. ‘Election’ Day may end up looking oddly familiar. According to independent elections experts, it is now harder to vote here than in nearly every other state in the nation. Some critics predict that tens of thousands of potential voters will be kept off the rolls — many of them poor, black or Hispanic. Election lawyers say Florida’s Republican-controlled government has introduced more restrictions on the voting process than other states since 2000 and has fought harder to keep them.

Daley: Chicago police to get assault rifles
Mayor Richard Daley said Saturday Chicago police officers will he armed with high-powered assault rifles when they’re on the streets fighting gangs and ‘other criminals.’ The city’s police officers carry pistols, and Daley suggested they will start carrying “M4 rifles.”

Economy & Finance

Tax rebates start showing up in bank accounts Monday
WASHINGTON – The government started depositing thousands of rebate checks in taxpayers’ bank accounts on Monday, earlier than originally scheduled, with the Bush administration hoping the payments will give a jump-start to a weak economy.

Stocks flat as financials offset M&A
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks were little changed on Monday as financial shares fell on fears of more dividend cuts and weak profits, but optimism about a proposed $23 billion takeover in the confection sector cushioned the market.

Gas hits $3.60 a gallon, crude nears $120 on supply outages
NEW YORK – Gas prices hit $3.60 a gallon and oil futures rose to their own new record near $120 a barrel on Monday as labor actions overseas threatened crude supplies. Oil prices later retreated to alternate between gains and losses as the dollar stabilized against foreign currencies.

White House: No short-term fix to high fuel prices
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Monday there was no short-term fix to record-high gasoline prices and the United States should try to increase domestic production and seek alternative fuel sources.

U.S. slims down after bloated credit: Pimco
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Consumers, banks and financial companies are “slimming down” after a bloated era of easy credit, but face an extended period of fixing their finances, Pacific Investment Management Co said in a new report.

Buffett says recession may be worse than feared
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Warren Buffett, the world’s richest person, said on Monday the U.S. economy is in a recession that will be more severe than most people expect.

Greenspan, Bush to blame for U.S. crisis: Stiglitz
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and the government of President [sic] George W. Bush were to blame for the U.S. financial crisis, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz said in a magazine interview.

MORE ON RATINGS…. (by Kevin Drum at Political Animal, the Washington Monthly)
Speaking of rating agencies, I want to highlight a single passage from the Roger Lowenstein article that I blogged about below. It’s about how investment bankers create complex financial instruments that receive high ratings: “…The challenge to investment banks is to design securities that just meet the rating agencies’ tests….” Go ahead and call me a rube, but is this for real? The rating agencies just hand over their models to the Wall Street rocket scientists so they can probe for every weakness and tweak every loophole in order to put together a package that — just barely! — meets the agency’s parameters for a high rating? Does this sound like a recipe for disaster to you? It does to me.