Report: U.S. ‘preparing the battlefield’ in Iran
The Bush administration has launched a “significant escalation” of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country’s nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic’s government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.
Hersh’s New Yorker report is “Preparing the Battlefield”.

Think Progress 3/21/06

In Maliki’s hometown, grief and questions after deadly U.S. raid
JANAJA, Iraq — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki grew up in this village of lemon and date orchards about half an hour from the southern Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala. He attended school in the area, according to his official biography, and members of his extended family keep elegant villas here.

Hamas emboldened by Israel-Hezbollah swap
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Gaza’s Hamas rulers hinted Monday they would raise the stakes for a captured Israeli soldier, emboldened by Israel’s decision to trade a Lebanese prisoner convicted in a brutal attack for the bodies of two other Israeli servicemen.

Egypt to reopen Gaza border
CAIRO, Egypt – Egypt will reopen its Rafah border crossing with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip for two days this week to allow hundreds of stranded on both sides to cross, a Palestinian diplomat in Cairo said Monday.

Iran says Gulf oil route at risk if attacked
The Revolutionary Guards said Iran would impose controls on shipping in the vital Gulf oil route if Iran was attacked and warned regional states of reprisals if they took part, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Pentagon: Taliban growing into a ‘resilient insurgency.’ (Think Progress)
According to a new Pentagon report released today, “the Taliban has regrouped after its initial fall from power in Afghanistan. The new report offers a rather dim view of progress in the nearly 7-year-old war, declaring that the Taliban has ‘coalesced into a resilient insurgency’”… The report comes as the “number of foreign forces in Afghanistan killed in June has reached 39, the highest monthly toll of the war,” as CNN reported.

Pakistan claims success in battling militants
BARA, Pakistan — Pakistan’s new government claimed success Sunday in its first military operation against Islamic extremists, moving against warlords who were threatening to overrun the major city of Peshawar.

Deadly blast destroys Pakistan militant’s house
PAR QAMBARKHEL, Pakistan (AFP) – An explosion killed six people at a Pakistani militant’s house Monday on the third day of a government offensive, as a US official arrived in Islamabad for counter-terrorism talks.

Row over land to Hindus fails to die down in Indian Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) – Shops, schools and offices in Indian Kashmir remained shut for the eighth day running Monday as protesters demanded formal revocation of an order to hand over land to a Hindu pilgrim body.

Indian PM hopes to rally support for nuclear deal
NEW DELHI (AFP) – India’s prime minister promised Monday to bring a nuclear pact with the US before parliament before going ahead with the deal that is fiercely opposed by his communist allies, a report said.

Russia charges gang with 20 racist murders
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian prosecutors said on Monday they had charged a gang led by two teenagers of murdering 20 people in a series of racist killings over eight months.

UN: US food aid arrives in North Korea
SEOUL, South Korea – A U.S. ship carrying thousands of tons of food aid has arrived in North Korea, after the communist nation agreed to expanded international assistance for its impoverished people, the U.N. food agency said Monday.
How long was this in the works?  Ships don’t get loaded and travel that kind of distance overnight.

Australia welcomes Iraq troops home
BRISBANE, Australia – Australian troops who served in Iraq were celebrated at a welcome home parade on Saturday that also marked the withdrawal of the country’s combat operations in the war zone.

Commodity boom blinds Canada to problems: report
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadians shouldn’t be fooled by high commodity prices into thinking their economy is on the right track because, in fact, it is slipping badly in comparison with other rich countries, a report said on Monday.

Colombian president calls for new elections
CARACAS — Colombia plunged into political uncertainty Friday as opponents of President Alvaro Uribe accused him of acting like a ”dictator” because he called for new elections that could allow him to extend his stay in office beyond the end of his current term in 2010.

Chavez says Venezuela will not raise gas prices
CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela has no plans to raise state-subsidized gasoline prices anytime soon.

Argentine farmers at crossroads in export-tax protest
INES INDART, Argentina — For more than a century, the farmers who work the vast plains of central Argentina have prided themselves on growing enough food to feed much of the rest of the world.

Conservative Anglicans form breakaway church
LONDON (AFP) – A new Christian orthodox movement that rejects a liberal stance towards homosexuality and claims to represent half the world’s 80 million Anglicans has been formed following a conference in Jerusalem.

France’s Sarkozy blames army accident on negligence
TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy blamed “unacceptable negligence” on Monday for an accident at the weekend in which a soldier fired live ammunition instead of blanks, wounding 17 people.

Mugabe declared winner of discredited Zimbabwe vote
HARARE, Zimbabwe — President Robert Mugabe was declared the overwhelming winner Sunday of an election marred by the murders of scores of political opponents, death threats against voters and widespread international condemnation.

Mugabe looks for support at African summit
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt – Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was welcomed by his peers Monday, strolling into an African Union summit where leaders were unlikely to criticize him despite Western calls for them to condemn his widely discredited re-election.

Dick Cheney ‘tried to block North Korea nuclear deal’
Vice President Dick Cheney fought furiously to block efforts by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to strike a controversial US compromise deal with North Korea over the communist state’s nuclear programme, the Telegraph has learned.

Bush signs $162 billion war spending bill
WASHINGTON – President Bush on Monday signed legislation to pay for the war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of his presidency and beyond, hailing the $162 billion plan as a rare product of bipartisan cooperation.

US wars have helped al-Qa’eda, says report
American military intervention in Muslim countries has bred a generation of “angry young men” vulnerable to al-Qa’eda recruitment, a report from a leading security analysis group has said. 

Bush administration freezing cuts in Medicare fees
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration said Monday it is freezing a scheduled 10 percent fee cut for doctors who treat Medicare patients, giving Congress time to act to prevent the cuts when lawmakers return from a July 4 recess.

Army study: Iraq occupation was understaffed
DENVER – A nearly 700-page study released Sunday by the Army found that “in the euphoria of early 2003,” U.S.-based commanders prematurely believed their goals in Iraq had been reached and did not send enough troops to handle the occupation.
Those of us who were paying attention knew this before the invasion.

Bush’s top general quashed torture dissent
New evidence shows that despite warnings from across the military, former Gen. Richard Myers shut down legal scrutiny of brutal interrogation tactics.
By Mark Benjamin

U.S. to Settle Scientist’s Anthrax Lawsuit
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle a lawsuit with former Army scientist Steven Hatfill, who was named as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks. Hatfill claimed the Justice Department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case.

U.S. and Europe Near Agreement on Private Data
WASHINGTON — The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information — like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits — about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean… But the two sides are still at odds on several other matters, including whether European citizens should be able to sue the United States government over its handling of their personal data, the report said.

Is unsolved tomato/salmonella mystery the FDA’s Katrina?
As the number of people sickened by a salmonella outbreak continues to rise, federal officials say they are no longer certain that tomatoes are the cause of the illness.

Washington’s National Mall needs multimillion-dollar face-lift
WASHINGTON — “America’s front yard” needs a cleanup crew. Several million in cash would help, too.

Sen. Kerry facing first Democratic foe in decades
BOSTON – Sen. John Kerry is facing his first primary opponent since he first took office 23 years ago, and his challenger has one issue in mind: The senator’s 2003 vote authorizing President Bush to launch military action against Iraq.

Judges cite nonsense poem in Guantanamo case
WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court is comparing a military decision at Guantanamo Bay to a nonsensical 19th-century poem by Lewis Carroll.

Kentucky lawmakers push coal as America’s fuel of the future
WASHINGTON — As fuel costs rise and the quest for alternative energy sources accelerates, lawmakers from coal-rich Kentucky are pinning their hopes on the continued role of coal in electricity generation and an environmentally controversial technology that converts coal to a liquid that can fuel cars.

Texas Supreme Court rules church can’t be sued in exorcism
A divided Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of a former Colleyville church Friday, saying church members who were involved in a traumatic exorcism that ultimately injured a young woman are protected by the First Amendment.

Famed anti-tobacco attorney Scruggs sentenced to prison
OXFORD, Miss. — Attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who earned his reputation in the 1990s by winning a $206 billion settlement from tobacco companies, was sentenced to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines for trying to bribe a Mississippi district court judge in an insurance case stemming from Hurricane Katrina.

Major delay looms for World Trade Center rebuilding
NEW YORK (AFP) – Construction of skyscrapers and an underground transport hub to replace the World Trade Center destroyed in the September 11 terror attack will be delayed for years and cost much more than planned, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Poll: Schools not properly preparing kids
WASHINGTON – It’s not much of a report card. Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force. Even more feel that way about the skills kids need to survive as adults, an Associated Press poll released Friday finds.

Stocks trade mixed after oil tops $143
NEW YORK – Stocks were narrowly mixed early Monday as investors contended with another spike in oil prices and awaited a regional manufacturing reading for hints about economy.

Oil hits record on Israel-Iran tensions
LONDON (Reuters) – Oil rose more than $3 a barrel on Monday to a new record above $143, propelled by heightened market fears of conflict between Israel and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program.

9 in 10 see rising gas prices causing family hardship
WASHINGTON – Like a plague that does not discriminate by economic class, race or age, soaring gas prices are inflicting pain throughout the U.S. According to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll, Nine in 10 voters expect the ballooning costs to squeeze them financially over the next half year.

Feds tackle sub-prime credit cards’ high fees
WASHINGTON — Subprime credit cards might be the worst consumer credit product ever marketed.

Relief agencies are desperate for funds
Disaster relief agencies, facing natural disasters that won’t quit coming and a challenging economy that’s crimping fundraising, need a little relief themselves these days.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Jamiol’s World

David Bromwich: Congress to Bush and Cheney: Do What You Want in Iran
In late 2007, after winning an election whose central issue was a more prudent and rational policy in the Middle East, congressional Democrats, obedient to the wishes of a Presidential Finding, signed away $400 million for secret operations against Iran. A more craven act of submission would be hard to imagine; and they did this in the glow of victory, in direct contradiction of their mandate. What were they signing for? Sabotage, assassination, covert support for political clients and “destabilization” generally are predictable parts of such a design; but the Democrats, in the months between their capitulation and Hersh’s article, made no mention of dissatisfactions at having been cut off from oversight. The truth seems to be that in this area, as in so many others, only the Office of the Vice President oversees the Office of the President.

“The process is broken,” one of Seymour Hersh’s informants told him, “and this is dangerous stuff we’re authorizing.” Yet the Democrats in the “Gang of Eight” whom the president consults on classified programs — Reid, Pelosi, Rockefeller, Reyes — may prefer to have things broken. What they don’t know, can’t hurt them at the polls, or so they seem to believe. It is the same passive obedience that led the Democrats to close the debate early for the authorization of the Iraq war in 2002, so they could clear the decks for the election; to banish all use of the words Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, in late 2004, so they could clear the decks for the election; and to confine themselves to flawless platitudes about Iraq in 2008, so they can clear the decks for the election. The desertion of principle is exceeded only by the evasion of responsibility.

FISA: Jonathan Turley says, Dems are protecting THEMSELVES. (by BonzoDogBand at Daily Kos)
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley was a guest on Countdown last [Wednesday] night (watch the MSNBC video here), where Turley concluded to Keith Olbermann that the FISA immunity compromise now happening is most likely because top Dems themselves fear retribution for their complicity in Bush’s illegal spying activities. Jonathan Turley makes the point that several years ago, certain top Dems were intimidated by Bush into quietly going along with Bush’s illegal spying activities, and now those same Dems are afraid that they themselves could be held liable for any illegal spying committed by Bush and the Telecomm companies (Turley used the words “an obvious level of [Dem] collusion”.) Keith Olbermann then concluded by saying that the Dems are thus “covering their own asses here”.
Dang!  I should have caught this.  I was suspicious early on, and then it slipped my mind.  I hate to link to Daily Kos, but this is an important catch.  Obama has obviously bought in to this total capitulation to the neocons—who originated at the University of Chicago, where he taught law, by the way.

This Week: Gov. Pawlenty Wants To Know When Obama Has Ever Stood Up To His Party (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) on This Week with George Stephanopoulos thinks he’s come up with a great gotcha for Rep. Rahm Emanuel: when has Barack Obama stood up against his party for what’s right for the country?  “PAWLENTY: And, actually, John McCain is the one person who says, I’ll stand up and do what’s right for my country even before party. And I’ll challenge you once again. Name me one instance, even one, where Barack Obama has stood up and said, I will take on my party on a matter of principle, on something large…” While Rahm Emanuel doesn’t take the bait, he also fails to point out that the reason that Obama hasn’t needed to take on his party is that it is the Democratic Party trying to do the best for the country, instead of the corporate elite and cronies.
Nicole really said that.  After the Democrats sold us out on two major issues last week.  Click through to watch the video.

Keith Olbermann’s reply and Obama’s secret plan to protect the rule of law (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Keith Olbermann went to Daily Kos to respond to what I wrote [Thursday] regarding his and Jonathan Alter’s statements on Obama’s support for the FISA bill…  Olbermman … denies that he was justifying Obama’s support for the FISA bill but then goes on to do exactly that… Olbermann… also suggested that Obama is harboring a Secret Benevolent Plan that he isn’t telling anyone about whereby he is supporting the FISA bill so that he can prosecute the telecoms criminally once he’s in office… In fact, it doesn’t seem to be through sloppiness or neglect — but rather through deliberate intent — that the bill only immunizes telecoms from civil, not criminal, liability… [But] Bush, on his way out, can pardon telecoms from criminal but not civil liability. So it’s far from certain that Obama — even if he did have a Secret Plan criminally to prosecute telecoms once in office — would even be able to do so.

What is most disturbing here is that people (including Olbermann) who for so long have vehemently criticized Democratic leaders for capitulating to Bush and trampling on the Constitution out of fear of looking “Weak” are now invoking that very excuse to justify what Obama is doing here (that’s what Olbermann explicitly did in his Kos reply). To excuse Obama’s conduct on that basis is to perpetuate Democratic complicity. Obama had — and will continue to have — a critical opportunity to reject and debunk that rancid framework, and it is his embrace of that framework here (“I’m going to give Bush what he wants and trample on the Constitution in order to avoid being ‘weak’”) that makes what Obama has done here so harmful and worthy of criticism.
As readers of MakeThemAccountable know, I believe that Bush will pardon every member of his administration for any and every crime they MAY HAVE COMMITTED, including himself, just before leaving office.  Either that, or he’ll leave the pardoning job to John McCain.  Even some of Obama’s dedicated fans are disgusted with his stance on this issue.  See below.

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying
[S]upporters worked furiously over the weekend to organize a new MyBo campaign to protest and pressure Obama. Many activists are outraged by the Senator’s recent announcement that he will back a controversial bill to grant the Executive more spying powers and immunize telephone companies accused of illegal surveillance…. Since launching last week, the protest group, “Senator Obama Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity – Get FISA Right,” swelled to one of the ten largest campaign groups on Sunday.

Glenn’s reply to my open letter (by vastleft at Corrente)
The premise of my letter/post [to Glenn Greenwald] was not that you were an Obama supporter (or an uncritical one, if you were). It was that the left blogosphere, with staggeringly few exceptions, joined the mainstream media in embracing the kind of malignant Manichean mentality that you wrote a book about. The “intellectual,” “activist,” and “creative classes” of the Democratic Party collectively decided and ritually repeated that Obama was a transformative savior and that Hillary was a Rovian racist warmonger-assassin witch with Multiple-Personality Disorder, bent on destroying her own party in pursuit of her selfish, entitled aims. A small bit of searching on leading sites like Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, and most any A-list blog’s comments threads (and, frequently, the posts themselves), will show how routinely these ridiculous positions were put forth, often with the barest of criticism…

[M]y goal is to encourage you to tell the story of how progressive netroots helped get us into this fix, how the Left — just when the public was truly ready for real change — got just as lost in truthiness as the Right has been since St. Ronnie ascended to the White House. It seems an awfully fitting theme to envelope into your arguments about the hazards of placing Obama beyond criticism, as his own set of angel wings prepare to waft him into that stately home… My goal is to enlist those who would listen into helping us all understand and learn from what went wrong in the blogosphere during this campaign and to help determine what steps should be taken to build a Progressive Blogosphere 2.0 that won’t fly off the rails at the first glimpse of shiny, hopey promise or at a suddenly tempting whiff of old, unfounded smears against Democrats.

For Obama, winning is everything (by Michael Tomasky, Guardian America)
It’s acceptable – and necessary – for Barack Obama to compromise his liberal principles in order to get elected
Wait, wasn’t that what “liberals” not just criticized, but EXCORIATED, both Clintons for?  But it’s not just okay, but NECESSARY, for Obama?  Besides, as Prof. Thoma at Economist’s View asks, “Are we sure these are positions of convenience rather than what he actually believes?”  How do we know what people believe, if they lie to us whenever it’s convenient to do so?

Obama: Bush Term 3? (by Truth Partisan at Corrente)
Now Mr. Obama and his campaign advisors are floating the idea of keeping Sec’y of Defense GATES on as Sec’y in the “anti-war,” Democratic Obama Administration? Admittedly Mr. Gates’s no Rumsfeld. But gee, this makes Obama’s idea of nominating Sen. Lugar for Sec’y of State (R., Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, one of 8 congressional members briefed by Bush during this war, and famed Obama mentor) look merely conservative. Our new war policies: same as our old war policies?

Hagel Would Consider Post With Obama (Political Wire)
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) “declined to endorse his party’s likely presidential nominee, John McCain, and said he would consider serving as secretary of defense in a Barack Obama administration,” according to Bloomberg. However, Hagel did say he would remain a registered Republican — at least for a while. Said Hagel: “I don’t know forever, but right now I’m not considering changing my registration.”

Obama headed to Europe & Middle East soon (On Politics, USA Today)
Saying it will be “an important opportunity to have an exchange of views with leaders in these countries about these and other issues that are critical to American national security — and global security — in the 21st century,” Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama announced this morning that he will travel to France, Germany, Israel, Jordan and the United Kingdom this summer.
Is it really a good idea to keep the attention focused on his lack of experience in foreign affairs?  Unless, of course, his handlers can arrange huge, swooning crowds for him, the way they did here in the U.S..  See below for more of the Obama tactics borrowed from Microsoft via the right wing.

Red Dirt Talk – Part 1, the Setup (by Craig Della Penna, from his blog The Heraclitan Fire)
In the technology world there’s a thing called “FUD”, it stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Dismay. It’s a propaganda strategy that Microsoft used effectively for years to destroy its rivals. Keep overhyping your (usually mediocre) accomplishments, trumpeting the crushing inevitability of your overwhelming (potential) victory, demeaning the quality and value of your competition with innuendo and implications of questionable moral lapses. Your target audience may not like you very much but they become afraid to stand against you… and your success is assured. If this feels familiar it is because the Obamabot/bolsheviks are waging a FUD campaign against you right now. To recognize this is to resist it, be aware.

Oh Frabjous Day Upon Which Barry & Hilly Will Strongly Assert the Utter Non-Death of Unity Pony !!! (No Blood for Hubris, thanks to lambert at Corrente)
It’s Unity Day, progressive Dem boyz and girls!… [L]et’s all cheer for the Barry-Hilly Dog & Pony Unity Pony Show in Unity, New Hampshire!! In celebration of this important media event occasion, I announce my a new personal political career goal — turning timid centrist Barry into a dyed-in-the-wool progressive!… Every solicitation for money I get — and I’m getting a lot — I am returning by mail, marked with comments, like “FISA?”? “Single payer universal health care?” “Endless list of liberal dem pet cause principled stands to be taken asap?”… I want a real progressive president. Why can’t I just make one up?

A study with wide implications…. (by lambert at Corrente)
Scientific American: “Scientists have discovered that novel [and bright, shiny?] objects perk up the reward system of our brains, indicating our sense of adventure—exploring or learning something new—may be just as tempting as cash and other prizes in the choices we make…” Yeppers. Any “buy local” or indeed “play local” movement is going to have to take account of this…
And that’s why people can be persuaded to vote for what they’re told is a bright, shiny, new candidate, even if that candidate has bought in to all the old crap put forth by his party.

PUMAS at Unity (by garychapelhill at The Confluence)
There was quite a lot of dissent at the rally. The Obama campaign people were rude and thugish (more to come on that). One quick note: The Obama campaign tried to have access to this event tightly controlled, but from our standpoint local law enforcement seemed to be doing everything it could to let those of us who wanted to protest “slip through the cracks”. We ended up being able to park right beside the event while the Obama people had to be bussed in from about 8 miles away. so special thanks to the Sullivan Co. Sherrif’s Dept, honorary PUMAS for a day,,,

PUMAS were joined by anti-war protesters (at first we thought they were there to support him, but they were protesting him as well)–wasn’t the Iraq war supposed to be Barack’s strong point?? Guess not!!!

Fla. Cars Tagged With Anti-Obama Slogans
(AP) Police on Sunday were investigating vandals’ spray-painting of dozens of city vehicles here, some with disparaging messages about the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Authorities think the vandalism to about 60 vehicles, estimated at $10,000 in damage, was done Saturday afternoon, police spokeswoman Sgt. Barbara Jones said. The vehicles were parked across from City Hall and investigators said culprits tagged messages including “Obama smokes crack” and a racial epithet. They even left business cards on the vehicles that disparage both the Illinois senator and his rival, Republican John McCain. The cards voice support for Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama’s former opponent.
Oh, sure, that sounds like a bunch of Hillary supporters, all right.  Vandals.  Every one of us. Please try to imagine the Clinton supporter above letting go of her walker long enough to spray paint a car.

Nobama blogs kerfuffle (by Jeff Jarvis)
A bunch of anti-Obama blogs were apparently shut down on Google’s Blogspot as suspected spam. They say that Obama fans reported them as spam to get rid of them. I have no idea what the truth is. The fear online has been that false information could be spread. It’s another fear that speech can be silenced. (I suppose I should make clear that I don’t think any official Obama campaign effort is remotely behind this if it’s true. The point, instead, is that rogues can cause trouble. This would seem to be a variation on Swiftboating but rather than try to get a message out, the goal would be to bat an opposing message down.)
Yes, and that is exactly how the Bushbots behaved, especially in 2000, but also in 2004.

Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must ‘kiss my ass’ for his support (The Telegraph, U.K.)
Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president’s future campaign role is a “sticking point” in peace talks with Mrs Clinton’s aides. The Telegraph has learned that the former president’s rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence. A senior Democrat who worked for Mr Clinton has revealed that he recently told friends Mr Obama could “kiss my ass” in return for his support.
I’m with you, President Clinton.

Saturday: Ed, you’re making this too easy (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Governor Edward G. Rendell[:] “We have formed HOUND (Hillary-Obama-United-Not-Divided) in response to the creation of PUMA (party unity, my ass — or its cleaned up moniker, People United Means Action)…. HOUND is not anti-PUMA. We agree with many of your grievances. For example, we, too, believe that the Democratic Party’s nominating process is unfair and undemocratic…”

Nice try, Ed, but HOUND sounds an awful lot like Yellow Dog Democrats and that’s exactly what we are not… Either we all go forward together or the party deserves to lose in November. Either Senator Obama connects with the base or he loses them in November. Either the party power elite listens to the voters or it deserves to lose in November… Here’s what we want: We want a fair, open and transparent convention in Denver. We want Florida and Michigan’s delegates to be restored to full strength. We want Obama to give up his Michigan delegates. After all, he keeps insisting that he never wanted his name on the ballot in the first place…

Pumas are watchful and patient. And when the time is right, they strike. There is still time to achieve unity. There are two months before the convention. But if the voters aren’t honored by then, we strike.

PUMA Action! (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
[T]here are some interesting things in store this week:
• There are now entries at the action page of JustSayNoDeal.com.  There are links for making phone calls, writing letters, donating to Hillary, etc.  Check it out at the action page.
• There is an opportunity coming up to make a viral video/ad featuring the many ordinary Ammericans who are disenfranchised Hillary supporters in “1 in 18″.  Check out the page 1in18 and submit your photo.
• There will be a mass action fundraiser for Hillary Clinton on July 4, 2008.  We want to give Hillary her independence so all of us in the coalition will be out in force asking our members to contribute $20 to the cause.  Think about it.  Think who you can hit up for a yuppie food stamp.  Or I will sic Carol on you.
• There is a coalition blogtalkradio show…  NO WE WON’T.

Women For Fair Politics: On Larry King Live (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter)
On CNN’s Larry King Live Thursday night, Cynthia Ruccia of Women For Fair Politics debated Ellen Moran … who represents Emily’s List — which has disappointingly decided to back Barack Obama instead of sticking to its founding charter of supporting women candidates… The last thing that Emily’s List should be doing is seeking to dilute its funds needed for female candidates by backing Barack Obama, who permitted and participated in the sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton.
Click through to watch the video.

Jessie Loren of justsaynodeal appears on MSNBC (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter)
Jessie Loren is interviewed on MSNBC about PUMA voters and her individual stance on the presidential race.
Click through to watch the video.

Obama’s wife says he’ll fight for gay equality
NEW YORK (AP) – Barack Obama will fight for equal rights for gays just as he fought to help working-class families overcome poverty, the Democratic presidential hopeful’s wife told a gay Democratic group Thursday.
When did Obama fight to help working-class families overcome poverty?  When did he “fight” for anything or for anyone except his rich contributors?

Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy (Boston Globe)
The candidate endorsed subsidies for private entrepreneurs to build low-income units. But, while he garnered support from developers, many projects in his former district have fallen into disrepair.
One of those developers was Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who helped Obama buy a huge mansion that he couldn’t afford on his own.

The Blood Money of Barack Obama’s Money Men (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter)
A little boy is dead because Barack’s key fundraisers cared more about profit than a safe environment for children. While his mother watched him to be sure he was safe, Curtis Cooper, a three-year-old boy riding his tricycle, was crushed to death by a heavy iron fence that suddenly fell over on top of him at a housing project run by Obama contributor Cullen Davis — whose family received huge government subsidies as well as a $1,000,000 grant for the properties from the Woods Fund’s board, whose members included Barack Obama and unrepentant terrorist William Ayers.
Click through for CBS video reports.

Prosecutors held back on using Obama’s name (Chicago Sun Times)
Barack Obama’s name could have been invoked more at the corruption trial of his former fund-raiser Tony Rezko. But it appears prosecutors opted against bringing Obama into the mix during the two-month trial. Newly unsealed documents show that prosecutors sought to call witnesses to testify about Rezko’s ties to Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president… [P]rosecutors apparently opted not to invoke Obama’s name.
And why did they hold back?  Easy.  The Republicans wanted Barack Obama to be the Democratic nominee.

NPR’s Scott Simon on Obama’s Exploitation of the Race Card (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter)
Eloquent, elegant, and eminently fair — to John McCain who, Simons makes very clear, has NOT attacked or in any way insinuated Obama’s race. Instead, as we know here, it is Barack Obama who has played the race card. I can only imagine the torrent of nasty e-mails that Scott Simon, a revered longtime NPR reporter and commentator, had to endure for having the courage to speak his mind.

Liberal Rapture

Pick a meme, any meme (by Steve Benen at Crooks and Liars)
As a rule, Republicans appreciate the value in defining the Democratic presidential nominee, and the GOP is usually pretty good at it. In 2000, Al Gore, they said, was an “exaggerator.” In 2004, John Kerry, they said was a “flip-flopper.” Four years later, the effort to define Barack Obama is proving to be more difficult. The GOP has experimented with a few different memes, but they haven’t stuck yet. Some even contradict each other… The bad news for Republicans is that they’re stuck with garbled message and an undefined opponent four months before Election Day. The worse news is, these memes are largely nonsensical and easy to disprove.
My comment: If it were only a matter of disproving, the Republicans would never have been so successful with their memes. I’m very surprised that as sophisticated a political observer and commentator as you, Steve, doesn’t know that. Republican memes are successful because they resonate with emotions, often petty and hateful ones, and cannot be dispelled with logic. Besides, there’s almost always a kernel of truth in those memes, even if it’s only perceived truth. There’s a lot more work to be done to improve the Democratic “brand” before a lot of the hateful Republican memes can be overcome.  I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops for almost eight years, and still nobody will listen.

How Obama can lose (by Paul West at The Swamp, Chicago Tribune)
Barack Obama is on his way to a blowout victory this fall, if you believe recent polling that shows him leading John McCain by 15 percentage points. Big, summertime leads in presidential contests can vanish, though. Comparisons are already being drawn with 1988 Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, who looked like a mortal lock after he bounced, in late July, to a 17-point advantage over George H. W. Bush. Obama could lose, too, if he can’t make a convincing case to millions of undecided voters who regard him as a stranger, despite the fact that his name and face are recognized around the world.

Clark Blasts McCain’s Military Service (Political Wire)
In a personal attack that will almost certainly backfire, retired Gen. Wesley Clark blasted Sen. John McCain’s military credentials on Face the Nation. Said Clark: “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”
Do not go there, Democrats, unless you’re willing to go the whole route, with the equivalent of purple heart bandaids and all the rest.

Media Tenor: Economic Worries Pose Problems for Both Candidates
• Obama strikes out on energy and the environment as gas prices continue to rise
• When it comes to the issues, McCain favored, despite negatives

Both McCain, Obama vow to push immigration overhaul (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — With an estimated 9.2 million Hispanic voters poised to play a critical role in November, John McCain and Barack Obama each pledged Saturday to make overhauling immigration laws a priority as they courted influential Hispanic leaders who could be pivotal in key swing states like Florida.

After Impeaching Clinton, McCain Now Dismisses Idea Of Impeaching Bush: ‘I Do Not Agree With It’ (Think Progress)
[Thursday] during a town hall event at Xavier University, an attendee forced Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to respond to Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) impeachment articles against President Bush. McCain immediately brushed off the question, saying that he opposes them… Yet in 1999, he voted for the impeachment of President Clinton. At the time, McCain stressed that a president must be held “accountable to the rule of law“.

Lack of funds hobbling the ‘Republican attack machine (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — Democrats and the media have used the term so much that it’s almost an article of faith. But the so-called “Republican attack machine” waiting with piles of unregulated cash to chew up Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is anything but.
That’s what they’re saying now, but don’t count on this, Democrats.  They’re lying in wait.  Trust me.

Ban on gay marriage on state ballot (Arizona Republic)
06-28-2008  In the final hours of one of the longest state legislative sessions on record, state senators approved a measure sending a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the fall ballot.
I predict that this is the first of what will be many.  Republicans will get their troops to the polls.

Political Freelancers Use Web to Join the Attack (New York Times)
[I]n the 2008 race, the first in which campaigns are feeling the full force of the changes wrought by the Web, the most attention-grabbing attacks are increasingly coming from people outside the political world. In some cases they are amateurs operating with nothing but passion, a computer and a YouTube account, in other cases sophisticated media types with more elaborate resources but no campaign experience… Already there are signs that these less formal and more individual efforts are filling a vacuum created by a decline in activity among the independent advocacy groups — so-called 527s and similar operations — that have played a large role in negative politics in the last several election cycles. Especially on the conservative side, independent groups have reported trouble raising money, and some of the biggest players from 2004 have signaled that they will sit it out this time around.

Digg the Candidates Updated for the Final Showdown (Mashable)
Digg has just released a new version of Digg the Candidates today. This portion of Digg is a dedicated segment for candidate-related news items, and has become a hub for aggregated political content and crossfire. The updated version isn’t very different from the previous one, but it does boast a cleaner look. Introduced some months ago, Digg the Candidates takes full advantage of this historic election year as well as its own social news and bookmarking utilities, such as the ability for Digg users to submit relevant content from across the Web.

Meet the New ‘Press,’ Without the Pinned-Down, Wriggling Interviewees (New York Times)
[Tom] Brokaw proved himself a seemly caretaker. The emeritus anchor didn’t try to imitate or compete with Mr. Russert, and he kept the mood at a sober but easygoing tempo. Had NBC immediately tapped some of its more junior stars, like David Gregory, Lester Holt or Andrea Mitchell, to fill in so soon, they might have looked like ambitious careerists auditioning to take over while the chair was still warm. But in the middle of one of the fiercest and most exciting presidential races in years this “Meet the Press” had a little too much comity.

Ben Affleck to Report for Nightline From Congo
Oscar winning actor Ben Affleck has taken on a new job, if only for one assignment, traveling to the war-torn eastern Congo to do a report for Thursday’s Nightline. Affleck has gone to the Congo three times this past year, and in an essay posted on ABC’s Web site, he said he wanted to draw attention to the violence, starvation, and disease in the region that kills 1,200 people a day.
Infotainment at its best!

Imus Rants and America Yawns (by Jon Friedman, Marketwatch)
I don’t really care what Don Imus said or what he intended. What I find interesting is that not many people seem to get excited about Imus anymore. Imus’ tumble from his pedestal underscores, among other factors, the tremendous speed with which the media move and how quickly a star’s luster can dim. When one celebrity slips, someone else will be standing by to grab the spotlight.

Thought Process Flowchart: Maureen Dowd (236.com, thanks to lambert at Corrente)
Maureen has finally been explained—by Maureen Dowd. [I]n response to a column by the Times’ public editor Clark Hoyt in which he said that Dowd’s writing about Hillary Clinton was “loaded with language painting her as a 50-foot woman with a suffocating embrace,”… Modo fired right back, explaining that she’s forcing “the reader to be conscious of how differently we view the sexes.” Which always seems to work out like this: Maureen likes Republican tough guys, helps them get elected, and then about a year into tough guy Republican’s administration, Maureen realizes the election wasn’t about which guy she’d rather have sexual intercourse with.
Click through to see the hilarious thought process flow chart.

Senators Craig and Vitter Team Up to Save Marriage (by Jonathan Turley)
The cherished institution of marriage in the United States is about to be saved. Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), fresh from his bathroom arrest, and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), fresh from his call-girl scandal, have co-sponsored S. J. RES. 43, dubbed the Marriage Protection Amendment, to bar same-sex marriage. They have joined their colleagues to amend the United States Constitution to state that marriage “shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.” Now, that is a wide constitutional stance.

Testosterone poisoning… (by lambert at Corrente)
The latest W (please, don’t ask) supplies the following data point on “our” ongoing financial meltdown: “When Stanford University released a recent study saying that men are more prone to taking financial risks when faced with erotic images, it was no surprise to the car-show marketers who drape models over their vehicles or to the Hollywood studio execs who employ the infamous ‘D-girls’ to woo producers. Strategic mixing of business and pleasure has been around for eternity. But in recent years, such strategizing has infiltrated even the most buttoned-up of enclaves: the world of finance. Nowhere is the phenomenon more blatant than at hedge funds, where the term ‘marketing executive’ has become all but synonymous with a blond in Theory trousers (the rule being figure-hugging is a go, Roberto Cavalli a no). ‘Hedge funds aim to hire hot women [to work in marketing],’ claims Bess Levin, a writer at the insider-y finance blog dealbreaker.com…” Hedge funds and Big Pharma, eh? We. Are. So. Fucked.

The blame for high gas prices rests on simple-minded Republican ideology not speculators (by Richard H. Serlin, adjunct professor for the University of Arizona, thanks to Economist’s View)
Republicans want to blame speculators for sky high gas costs [because] they don’t want the public to put the blame where it’s really due – on them. For decades Republicans have constantly blocked Democratic attempts to increase fuel mileage and many other efficiency and conservation measures. They’ve also constantly blocked or cut spending on alternative energy, all the while mindlessly chanting “Free market”… Now we’re paying a big price for Republican ideology in energy and so many other things.

Media Matters for America headlines

• WSJ’s Moore didn’t note that McCain’s own words contradict Gramm’s claim that McCain “wants to cut defense”

• Kristol, who previously said “[w]hite women are a problem … we all live with,” is “appalled” by the “sexism and misogyny the Democratic primary voters demonstrated”

• Media figures continue to cite National Journal ranking of Obama as “most liberal” senator in ‘07 without noting subjectivity

• IBD cited McCain’s ” ‘maverick’ positions” on taxes and immigration, failed to note his reversal on those issues

• Crowley falsely claimed Obama “stole” Ahmadinejad’s campaign slogan

• Blitzer on McCain: “I know he’s a straight-talker”

• Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee falsely claimed “not one drop of oil was spilled” during Hurricane Katrina

• Blitzer lets Graham off hook on how McCain would “pay for $300 billion in new tax cuts”

• Charlie Rose did not challenge Scalia’s false claim that “the press unanimously” agreed that Bush won Florida in 2000

• Savage: Israelis speculated shooting was attack on Olmert because “he is leading them to the gas chamber”

The Netflix Hope: Time Inc’s Maghound Set To Launch in Sept (Paid Content)
Time Inc’s long-in-development magazine subscription website Maghound, which borrows concepts heavily from Netflix, is slated to launch this September… this comes after four years (yes!) of continuous development and testing, according to Dave Ventresca, president of Maghound Enterprises, who spoke at an industry conference this week and explained the concept, reports Folio. Currently about 280 titles are on board, an plans to have about 100 more through this year. The service will be a flat-rate magazine subscription site, where uses pay a monthly fee, and have access to these magazine on a per-copy basis, instead of being locked into a yearly subscription. Users will have the ability to switch titles at any time and can cancel whenever they wish.
We definitely need an alternative to the advertising only model.  Why aren’t newspapers cooperating on similar efforts?  Why aren’t blogs doing the same?  I fear the day when all media are dependent for revenue on corporate advertising only.  The multiple-in-one subscription idea is one of the recommendations I made in my proposal for a progressive media strategy.  I expanded the subscription idea in another post.

“Lou Grant” decided against journalism because of the pay
Ed (Lou Grant) Asner says: “I was a high school journalist and wanted to go into it because it was dashing and exciting. One day in college, my instructor, whom I revered, passed by my desk and said, ‘Are you thinking of journalism as a career?’ And I said, ‘yeah.’ She came back and said, ‘I wouldn’t … you can’t make any money at it.’ With that, I washed away any plans that I had.”
Too bad Ed didn’t like my suggestion for a series that would resurrect Lou Grant.  He could have had a whole new series.

Kenyan Govt. Threatens To Shut Radio Station
The Kenyan government has threatened to shut down a radio station for allegedly stoking ethnic tensions that culminated in the post-election violence.

CBS Plans To Appeal Ruling On Haditha Interview
CBS News said it plans to appeal a ruling by a military appellate court that ordered a judge to review unaired footage of an interview given by a Marine squad leader from Meriden, Conn., charged in the killings of 24 Iraqis.

Canadian politicians OK’d for radio gigs
TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) – Former politicians routinely morph into radio talk show hosts. But should radio hosts elected to political office use the airwaves to promote their own political agendas?

New AP Stylebook Cuts the ‘Malarkey’
The newest version of the Associated Press Stylebook is available, and if you follow it, “WMD,” “iPhone,” and “anti-virus” are in, while “barmaid,” “blue blood,” and “malarkey” are out. Those are just some of the changes to its rules for certain often-used phrases and words. There are also new acceptable forms of describing the Sept. 11 attacks, and a different rule for use for “African-American.”

New-Media Focus Splits Associated Press Members
Long a newspaper-centric organization, the AP has shifted its focus. With readers and advertisers migrating away from news on printed paper and toward cable TV and the Web, the AP is devoting more of its resources to producing content for other news outlets. For some editors, the AP’s strategy, coupled with its high prices, amounts to a betrayal at a time when the industry is under threat.

Gannett Reorganizes Newspaper Division — Pares Two Top Execs
Gannett Co. Inc. said Friday it is reorganizing its U.S. Community Publishing division, reducing the number of regional groups by one to four and seeing off two retiring top executives.

NBC’s Totalitarian Olympics: More on Restrictions; Online Video Only After TV Broadcast (by Rafat Ali at Paid Content)
And here I was rejoicing that finally we could do away with the lame soft-focus athlete stories and parochial commentary from NBCU with this Olympics: Yes, the company will have 2,200 hours of live competition from Beijing available online on NBCOlympics.com, but with some heavy restrictions…we mentioned some of this heavy handedness earlier about Olympic trials. Now, during the main Summer Olympics, some more restrictions on watching the action live, according to [an] AP story:
– Other TV networks have a limited window in which to show Olympics highlights, but no video of Olympic events is permitted to be shown on any website besides NBCOlympics.com
– No events that are scheduled to be televised (on NBCU’s six TV channels) will be available online until after they are seen on TV. If this is the case, what’s this about 2,200 hours of live coverage online? Is it only on-demand later?

My Last Post About Twitter, Ever (by Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins at Mashable)
Obviously I can’t possibly keep the promise I make in the title, but with all the end of week hyperbole being bandied in the name of Twitter-bashing, I couldn’t say something else reasonable like “Twitter is still having problems,” and “A Few A-Listers Are Still Upset About Twitter.” All of this seems to stem from the fact that the replies tab has been disengaged for going on a week now. Some folks have today very loudly proclaimed Twitter dead and that FriendFeed is the new reigning champion. As much as I’d love to see FriendFeed the new “it” thing (as I spend a lot of my days there recently), I don’t think we can quite proclaim the lifecycle of Twitter finished.

Online Encyclopedia Gets New Push From Discovery
Last fall Discovery spent $250 million buying the United States portion of HowStuffWorks; now it is striving to make the site more appealing to users and advertisers.

Learn NYC’s Street Parking Landscape With PrimoSpot (Mashable)
So you live in New York City, or perhaps travel Manhattan and outer boroughs frequently. And maybe you’re one to buck the mass-transit trend and drive around in your own vehicle. If so, you know how precious a commodity street-side parking spaces can be. If you’re in need of guidance as to rules and regulations for various points on various avenues, PrimoSpot can help. A mash-up involving Google Maps and lots and lots of colored pins, PrimoSpot is only applicable to NYC at the moment, and even then only to Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Verizon Wireless gets Rhapsody music subscriptions
NEW YORK (AP) – Cell phones are becoming more useful devices for listening to music. Verizon Wireless is introducing Rhapsody’s subscription music service Monday, allowing its customers to download as much music as they want to their phones for $15 per month.

Vodafone in music deal with MySpace
LONDON (Reuters) – Shares in Vodafone rose after the UK mobile operator announced a deal with News Corp’s (NWSa.N) MySpace under which footage from Vodafone-sponsored music events will be made available to users of the social networking website.

Sony Will Offer News, Weather, Video Through PlayStation
In addition to keeping up with battles on alien planets, PlayStation 3 will soon be able to help you stay current with planet Earth. On Thursday, Sony Computer Entertainment President Kazuo Hirai announced both Life with PlayStation, a service that allows users to see current news and weather around the world through a spinning-globe menu, and a PS3 download service for movies, music and TV shows.

A Movie on Your TV at Home, Before You Can Rent It
In an industry first, Sony Pictures’ movie “Hancock,” will be available after its theater run over the Internet, directly to Sony Bravia TVs with a Web connection.

FCC Regs Opening Pay TV Service To Telcos Upheld By Appeals Court (Paid Content)
Telcos scored a victory in federal court Friday upholding an earlier Federal Communications Commission ruling that will ease the path for companies like Verizon and AT&T to compete against cable in the pay TV arena, Reuters reported. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati denied a petition by cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner, asking judges to overturn the FCC regs that set time limits on local officials to approve or reject applications by companies offering subscription video services… The FCC rules also prevent government officials from demanding that new applicants meet requirements unrelated to video services, such as building a new swimming pool in exchange for approval. 

Google’s Latest App Connects PCs To TVs
Devices that could communicate with the Google software include the video-game consoles PlayStation and Xbox 360 as well as HP’s high-definition TVs.

Clear Channel censors ads for Harry Shearer’s new Bush-mocking CD. (Think Progress)
Comedian and actor Harry Shearer’s new album, Songs of the Bushmen, pays comedic “homage” to current and former Bush administration officials like Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove. But media giant Clear Channel doesn’t want people to buy it. The New York Post reports today that the “notoriously conservative” company’s outdoor advertising arm has banned signs for the album “because the cover depicts the president with a bone through his nose.” Here’s what they don’t want you to see:

Before the Iraq war, the company banned music by the Dixie Chicks from their radio stations after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush.

Need Press? Repeat: ‘Green,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Cancer,’ ‘Secret,’ ‘Fat’
Strategic word selection can catapult an announcement about a product or a “breakthrough” onto the evening news instead of to the spam folder or circular file.

A Cover, 40 Pages, 4 Faces and One Perfume
High-fashion magazines typically dedicate a page or two — or even just a blurb — of editorial space to a new perfume. But the July issue of Bazaar, published by Hearst Communications Inc., devotes 40 of its editorial pages to four celebrities and models — Gwyneth Paltrow, Elizabeth Hurley, Carolyn Murphy and Hilary Rhoda — who also star in the advertising campaign for Sensuous, a new fragrance from Estée Lauder.  “Boy, they really sold out — Hearst — didn’t they?” said Allan Mottus, a beauty industry analyst who publishes the Informationist, a trade publication. Mr. Mottus added: “You have to take your hat off to Lauder. It is an enormous coup.”

AOL To Guarantee CPM Rates To Bebo, Facebook Developers (Paid Content)
AOL’s Platform-A is trying to entice developers to make apps that carry its ads by promising guaranteed rates for CPMs on Facebook and Bebo, which AOL bought for $850 million back in March. AOL isn’t disclosing the amount of the guarantee but, on average, CPMs on remnant networks tend to be around the 10-cent range and often less; one source told paidContent that AOL’s guarantee will be around 40 cents. So for some developers, it could add up. The guaranteed CPM rates will apply to the first three impressions for each unique U.S. visitor who visits an approved developer’s application.

AdSense Becomes a Video Distribution Network with Help from Family Guy (by Adam Ostrow at Mashable)
According to The New York Times, the Google Content Network will soon launch, debuting with short webisodes of a show called “Cavalcade” developed by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. The shows will be distributed via the thousands of web sites that run Google AdSense code, featuring pre-roll advertising and a few other formats so the publisher still earns revenue. Here’s the really interesting part though: the web sites where Cavalcade will be shown are being selected by Google’s existing contextual algorithms. That means that Google will be able to display the show only to those likely to be interested – in Cavalcade’s case “typically young men” according to the Times.

Sell Out Your YouTube Clips, Win $10k from Sprint (Mashable)
We’ve seen video promotions where participants get to put their own spin on marketing material. But it’s not too often you see things work the other way around. Sprint’s upcoming promo for the Samsung Instinct handset will pay you to put blatant product placement in your YouTube content. See YouTube video content to participate in the contest. Just use the provided editing tool to select when and where you’d like to insert a prominent “Add Instinct” button into their video, which is pure marketing fodder for Sprint. It’s beyond product placement–it’s a sell out. And that’s the idea.

Cascada Breeze: Create, Test and Launch Mobile Applications (Mashable)
Cascada gives you a link that can be placed on your site that allows end users to download your mobile application by providing their phone number (no extra registration necessary). This process seems to work best for gaming and other casual applications, and those that aren’t heavily integrated into your existing content. Cascada’s Breeze applications are also ad-supported, which allows the company to provide the application-creation program to publishers for free. Combine casual mobile apps with advertising on mobile distribution, and Cascada has a decent set of demographics to work with.

 U.S. Stocks Tumble, Sending Dow to Worst June Since Depression
 U.S. stocks tumbled, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst June since the Great Depression, as record oil prices, credit-market writedowns and a slowing economy threatened to extend a yearlong profit slump.
 Time magazine has an article on “The Incredible, Edible Front Lawn”, but we may need more than front yards, if things get really bad.  See below.

Depression Relief Gardens: 1930-1938

Youngstown Depression Relief Gardens, 1932.

Bombings kill dozens, 3 US Marines in Iraq attacks
A suicide bomber attacked a meeting of pro-government Sunni sheiks west of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 23 people, including three U.S. Marines. At least 18 more people died in a car bombing in the northern city of Mosul.

Baghdad’s walls keep peace but feel like prison
BAGHDAD – Baghdad hasn’t been this quiet in years. But the respite from bloodshed comes at a high price.

US delays Anbar handover due to weather
BAGHDAD – The U.S. military on Friday postponed a ceremony to hand over Anbar province to Iraqi security control, citing forecasts of sandstorms. The announcement came a day after a suicide attack in the western province killed more than 20 people, including three U.S. Marines.

Israel closes Gaza, Palestinians fire mortars
JERUSALEM – Israel refused on Friday to fully open crossings with the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants attacked Israel with mortars, further testing an already fragile truce.

Political theater seen in Israeli drill
JERUSALEM – An Israeli military exercise over the Mediterranean appears to have been less a dry run for an attack on Iran than a message that Tehran must curb its nuclear ambitions, according to officials and experts.

Israeli settlement activity surges despite peace talks
TALMON, West Bank — Blue and yellow signs advertising new homes pepper the narrow West Bank roads that wind up to gated hilltop Jewish settlements.

U.N.: Opium Trade Soars in Afghanistan
Afghan opium cultivation grew 17 percent last year, continuing a six-year [US] expansion of the country’s drug trade and increasing its share of global opium production to more than 92 percent, according to the 2008 World Drug Report, released Thursday by the United Nations.

Crowd sees Pakistan militants kill 2 alleged spies
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A gang of Pakistani militants executed two alleged U.S. spies in front of thousands of cheering supporters Friday as a top U.N. official expressed fears that Pakistani government peace deals with the gunmen were sparking a wave of human rights abuses.

Tens of thousands burn flags to protest in Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India – Tens of thousands of angry demonstrators filled the streets in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday, burning flags and effigies of Indian leaders on the fifth day of protests against the transfer of land to a Hindu shrine in the Muslim-majority region.

Nepalese police break up Tibetan protest, detain 50
KATMANDU, Nepal – Nepalese police detained about 50 Tibetan exiles who were protesting Friday against China’s crackdown in their homeland, a day after the United States raised concerns about Nepal’s treatment of Tibetan demonstrators.

Sri Lankan military says it has killed 49 rebels
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lankan forces captured a Tamil Tiger supply center and bombed a rebel training base amid a surge in the island’s civil war that killed 49 insurgents and two soldiers, the military said Friday.

North Korea destroys nuclear reactor tower
YONGBYON, North Korea – North Korea destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program Friday, blasting apart the cooling tower at its main atomic reactor in a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs.

Analysis: Complex issues remain on NKorea nukes
SEOUL, South Korea – It took years of talks, coddling and concessions to prod North Korea to step back from its decades-long effort to make atomic weapons, leading to Friday’s dramatic destruction of its nuclear reactor cooling tower.

Ramos-Horta won’t take UN rights job
DILI, East Timor – East Timor’s president said Friday he would not take a new job as the U.N. human rights commissioner, citing possible political instability in his fledgling democracy.

Canada high court scolds spy agency in terror case
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Canada’s highest court on Thursday scolded the country’s spy agency for destroying evidence about a man fighting deportation over alleged terror links, in the government’s second loss in a high-profile security case this week.

Chretien wins kickbacks lawsuit
OTTAWA (Reuters) – A federal judge has delivered a scathing rebuke of a 2005 official inquiry that found former Prime Minister Jean Chretien was partly responsible for a kickbacks scandal that helped knock the Liberal government from power.

Mexico welcomes approval of US drug aid package
MEXICO CITY – Mexican officials say they welcome the U.S. Senate’s approval of a $400 million anti-drug aid package that drops restrictive conditions attached to previous proposals.

Colombia’s president wants vote on new elections
BOGOTA, Colombia – Colombia’s president on Thursday called for a referendum to decide if new presidential elections should be held in the wake of a court decision that is questioning the legitimacy of his 2006 re-election.

Haiti halts gasoline subsidy; prices soar
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Cuts in Haitian gasoline subsidies pushed the price of fuel to $6.14 a gallon on Thursday, further burdening an impoverished people as the government redirected money to other programs.

Basque parliament approves referendum, in challenge to Madrid
VITORIA, Spain (AFP) – The Basque parliament on Friday approved a plan for a regional referendum on self-determination, setting the stage for a confrontation with the government in Madrid which has condemned the poll as illegal.

Romanian 11-year-old can legally abort pregnancy
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – A Romanian government commission ruled on Friday that a pregnant 11-year-old girl could legally have a late-term abortion, in a case that has split the Black Sea state’s conservative society.

Medvedev, EU hail new page in relations
KHANTY-MANSIYSK, Russia (AFP) – Russia and the European Union on Friday announced the start of talks on a new strategic partnership agreement, with President Dmitry Medvedev hailing a new chapter in relations.

South African parliament honors Mandela’s birthday
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Tributes to Nelson Mandela’s dignity, humanity and humor poured in at a special sitting of South Africa’s Parliament on Friday to mark the anti-apartheid icon’s 90th birthday.

Mugabe using force to raise turnout in one-man election, critics say
HARARE, Zimbabwe — President Robert Mugabe may be the only candidate contesting Friday’s internationally condemned election in Zimbabwe, but opposition party officials said Thursday that militias loyal to him have threatened people across the country: Show up to vote or else.

African FMs bicker over how to handle Zimbabwe
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) – African Union foreign ministers bickered behind closed doors on Friday over how to handle Zimbabwe as they prepared for a summit next week under the shadow of its political crisis.

UN envoy for Darfur makes way for new mediator
KHARTOUM (AFP) – The UN special envoy for Darfur said Friday that he would relinquish to a new mediator main efforts to find a political solution to the five-year conflict in the troubled region of Sudan.

How did Bush policy lead to a deal with North Korea?
WASHINGTON — Meeting in Berlin, Germany in January 2007, in what was portrayed at the time as an accidental encounter, Christopher Hill, the State Department’s top Asia hand, and his North Korean counterpart sketched out a deal to resume nuclear negotiations.
Put Christopher Hill to work on Iran.  NOW.

Military faces $100 billion in equipment repairs. (Think Progress)
After more than five years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military’s equipment has been worn out, and repairs will cost the Pentagon more than $100 billion. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), chair of the House committee that oversees military spending, notes that the Bush administration’s failures to plan for the long wars makes the Pentagon’s plan “to add 92,000 new soldiers and Marines unrealistic.”

Judge sees no reason to delay Guantanamo trial
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A judge has refused to postpone the trial of former Osama bin Laden driver Salim Hamdan, saying the defense has enough time to study a recent Supreme Court decision and see how it might apply to the first Guantanamo war crimes tribunal.

ATF agents seize weapons from Blackwater’s N.C. facility
Agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have confiscated nearly two dozen automatic rifles from Blackwater Worldwide, the private security contractor and firearms training company in Moyock, N.C.

Congress passes $162B spending bill for Iraq, Afghanistan wars
The Senate passed a $162 billion war spending plan Thursday, sending to President Bush legislation that will pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan until the next president takes office. The Senate, however, narrowly failed to approve a House-passed bill to cancel a scheduled cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

You’re on Candid Camera
A Bush administration program to expand domestic use of Pentagon spy satellites has aroused new concerns in Congress about possible civil-liberties abuses… Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on intelligence, told Newsweek that majorities in both the House and Senate intend to block all funding for the domestic intelligence center at least until August, when the Government Accountability Office, an investigative agency that works for Congress, completes a report examining civil-liberties and privacy issues related to the domestic use of picture-taking spy satellites.
So why is Congress willing to give the administration permission to listen to our phone calls at will, but not to take our pictures from the sky?

Government says FBI agents can’t testify about 9/11
Government lawyers say the ongoing investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks could be compromised if the airline industry is allowed to seek more information from the FBI to defend itself against lawsuits brought by terrorism victims. In papers filed late Tuesday, the government urged a judge to block aviation companies from interviewing five FBI employees who the companies say will help them prove the government withheld key information before the 2001 attacks.
OF COURSE they withheld key information.  Otherwise, certain people would not have been warned not to fly that day.

Cheney aide Addington says he didn’t write memos
WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney’s top adviser on Thursday refused to claim any responsibility for the adoption of harsh interrogation methods following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks during a combative exchange with congressional Democrats.

Honey bee crisis could lead to higher food prices
WASHINGTON – Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday.

Witnesses link chemical to ill US soldiers
US soldiers assigned to guard a crucial part of Iraq’s oil infrastructure became ill after exposure to a highly toxic chemical at the plant, witnesses testified at a Democratic Policy Committee hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill. “These soldiers were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood,” said Danny Langford, an equipment technician from Texas brought to work at the Qarmat Ali Water treatment plant in 2003. “They were sick. Hundreds of American soldiers at this site were contaminated” while guarding the plant, Langford said, including members of the Indiana National Guard. Langford is one of nine Americans who accuse KBR, the lead contractor on the Qarmat Ali project and one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, of knowingly exposing them to sodium dichromate, an orange, sandlike chemical that is a potentially lethal carcinogen.

Transgenders air their plight on Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON — After getting hired as a national security analyst with the Library of Congress, David Schroer took his new boss out to lunch to share some news: On his first day of work, he planned to show up as Diane.

Justices add 2 cases to docket, break for summer
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court agreed Friday to step into an environmental dispute over a gold mining operation near Juneau, Alaska and a California criminal case in which a convicted killer was granted a new trial.

Justice Antonin Scalia: Al Gore to blame for 2000 US election mess
The 2000 presidential election debacle was the fault of Al Gore, who should have followed Richard Nixon’s 1960 example and conceded without legal action, according to the Supreme Court’s leading conservative judge.
Look, Nino, if that suit didn’t belong in the courts, and it didn’t, you should have refused it.  That’s what the Atlanta circuit did, and they were right.  You were wrong. As Lori at Citizens for Legitimate Government said, “If Bush was prevented from stealing the presidency in 2000, the 9/11 attacks, Iraq invasion, countless war crimes and millions of environmental acts of terror would never have happened.” Not to mention the theft of our civil liberties.

Mayors: Gun ruling won’t stop prevention efforts
Washington’s blanket ban on handguns will fall and tight gun laws in places like Chicago and San Francisco are sure to come under attack. But most of the nation’s firearms regulations will probably stay on the books, and some politicians said Thursday’s Supreme Court decision won’t hinder their efforts to prevent bloodshed.

N.Y. millionaire gets prison for enslaving workers
A millionaire who inflicted years of abuse on two Indonesian housekeepers held as virtual slaves in her Long Island mansion was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison. Varsha Sabhnani, 46, was convicted with her husband in December on a 12-count federal indictment that included forced labor, conspiracy, involuntary servitude and harboring aliens. The trial provided a glimpse into a growing U.S. problem of domestic workers exploited in slave-like conditions.

Dow, Nasdaq drop as oil, banks drag
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Dow and the Nasdaq fell on Friday, as concerns about the impact of record oil prices on the economy and fears of more credit losses in the bank sector rattled investors, putting the Dow on the cusp of entering a bear market for the first time since 2001.

Oil reaches $142 on view dollar will keep falling
NEW YORK – Oil futures climbed briefly to a new record above $142 a barrel Friday on expectations that the weakening dollar, a major factor in crude’s stratospheric rise, will extend its decline and add to oil’s appeal.
CNN Money reports that “an OPEC official said crude could hit $170 a barrel this summer.”

Consumer spending jumps as stimulus checks land
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Consumer spending jumped last month as stimulus checks boosted household budgets and pushed the saving rate to the highest level since 1995, but another report released on Friday showed confidence took a hit.

Fed aided Wall Street to avert “contagion”
WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve was scrambling to prevent a “contagion” from infecting the nation’s financial system when it took unprecedented actions to back a Bear Stearns rescue package and provide emergency loans to big Wall Street firms.

BofA to cut 7,500 jobs after Countrywide deal
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Bank of America said Thursday it will cut about 7,500 jobs after it closes its acquisition of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Michelle Obama promotes Unity in New Hampshire (On Politics, USA Today)
Michelle Obama is on the unity bandwagon. Speaking to an audience of women in Manchester, N.H., some of whom supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries, Obama just called Clinton “an extraordinary woman” and praised her work to help children and families. Obama noted that Clinton would be traveling with her husband [Friday] to Unity, the little New Hampshire town that gave Clinton and Barack Obama 107 votes apiece.

N.H. Clinton supporters slow to follow her embrace of Obama (McClatchy)
UNITY, N.H. — Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton plan a show of unity in this tiny New Hampshire town on Friday, but much of the crowd that will be watching them, as well as Democrats throughout this swing state, isn’t yet ready to follow their lead.

PUMAs stalk Unity Pony (by mawminc at The Confluence)

Good Evening Conflucians.  It is almost the witching hour.  The PUMA spirit is coming alive as garychapelhill and I speed through the night towards New Hampshire.  [Friday] we will make our voices heard and draw the curtain back to expose this “Unity” rally for what it is, a big staged performance designed to fool the country that we are all uniting behind the presumptuous nominee. Stay tuned…  We can’t promise live blogging, but we will definitely have a wrap up and plenty of video.
Keep up with PUMA doings at PUMA Action.

Obama Gives $2,300, Intended as a Spur, for Clinton Debt
In a ballroom at the Mayflower Hotel [in Washington], Mrs. Clinton introduced Mr. Obama to about 300 of her leading contributors, most of whom raised at least $100,000 for her campaign. It was the first time the senators shared a stage since she suspended her candidacy and endorsed him nearly three weeks ago. “I wrote my check to the Hillary for President Committee,” said Mr. Obama, who was greeted with booming applause. His wife, Michelle, also contributed $2,300. “I recognize that this room shares the same passion that a roomful of my supporters would show,” Mr. Obama added. “I do not expect that passion to be transferred. Senator Clinton is unique, and your relationships with her are unique. Senator Clinton and I at our core agree deeply that this country needs to change.”
If we knew what you intend to change and what you intend to keep the same, Senator Obama, we might be more willing to listen to what you have to say.  So far, all we’ve seen is a lot of the same old gutless Democratic lack of leadership.  Vernon Jordan, a long-time Clinton friend, was reported in this article as saying that now “There’s only one issue: winning.”  But if that were the case, the Democrats wouldn’t have gone against their own electorate to nominate the weakest candidate ever.  If we reward them for that, they’ll never change.

Oh, and in case you’ve forgotten, there is an anti-war activist running against prime capitulator Nancy Pelosi.

Breaking News: Obama Bombs (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
Barack had his opportunity tonight to start healing the rifts in the Democratic party and, to put it bluntly, he flopped. (CNN is giving the Barack spin, but don’t believe it.) I am told from people who attended the fundraising soiree at the Mayflower Hotel that the One was a dud… Folks from the Hillary camp described [his] speech as snobbish, arrogant, and boring. But it was Barack’s response to questions from Hillary’s supporters that produced sour bile.

1. What about the Vice President slot? The questioner told Barack that if he named Hillary as the Vice President that the Democrats would be in a position to own the White House for the next 16 years. Barack said nothing to give Clinton supporters hope that he would consider the Senator from New York.

2. Will you help Hillary retire her debt? On this one Barack said he had written a check for $2300…, but that his real interest was getting access to the phone lists of Hillary’s donors and contacts. Hillary supporters at the gathering sat on their hands, their checkbooks, and their lists.

3. What will you do to stop the sexist smear of Hillary? The questioner noted that Barack did nothing to quell the rampant sexist attacks on Hillary during the campaign and that she continues to be brutalized. Barack said, “Yes, I know. But there is another woman who has been brutalized as well. The healing will take a long time to fix.”

So there you have it. No vision. No magnanimous gesture. It is still all about Barack and Michelle. Most of the Hillary supporters left unassuaged. Instead of a promise from Barack to tell his supporters to stop the attacks on Hillary and her supporters, he essentially put his hands in his pockets and shrugged his shoulders.

She’s Back (by Taylor Marsh)
…and not a moment too soon… It’s been ugly. Some Hillary supporters have unfortunately chosen the petulant mode, wherein they decided that sticking it to Obama no matter the cost for the country is the appropriate response for Clinton not prevailing. Obama’s done wrong! Sexism! (No kidding.) Hillary was wronged! We’ll fight all the way… to irrelevance. So be it. I’ve been involved in politics long enough to know that people with a grudge can never be convinced of anything. They’re in it to feed their anger, slapping a bumper sticker over it to convince themselves they’re fighting out of principle.
Thanks for the characterization, Taylor, but it’s not about petulance and it’s not about “convincing” ourselves that we’re fighting out of principle.  We’re fighting out of a sense that if you give in to tyranny, all you get is more tyranny.  Just ask Jo Frost, the Supernanny, how you treat children who misbehave.  Do you just give them their treats anyway, and hope that they misbehave less in the future?  I don’t think Jo would say yes.  And neither would I.  And neither does Riverdaughter—and many others.

Thursday: How to depress a rat (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
[W]hat do the polls really show? Well, they probably reflect somewhat realistically that some Hillary supporters have moved to Obama. Obama shouldn’t kid himself into believing that they actually *like* him. I’m pretty confident that they do not. But I’m guessing that a lot of them have bought the previous troll bait on the SCOTUS and with Hillary suspending her campaign, they might feel that the lesser of two evils, yada-yada-yada… Of course, I’m not absolutely convinced that Obama *is* the lesser of two evils, but that’s neither here nor there. The frequency and intensity of the polling data in the news is intended to make us “shrieking bands of paranoid holdouts” feel like we can’t do anything to fight the tsunami of Obama’s inevitability. It is designed to make you passive just when your activity has the most power to affect some kind of change- before the actual convention. Are you going to let them box you into a corner?

The GOOD thing is that this PUMA movement that started here at The Confluence, has gone viral. We now have many coalition members fanning out across the media, thanks to Diane at JustSayNoDeal, who are getting the message out that we are not giving in. And as long as we have our votes, we are not helpless.

Objections by Feingold delay FISA. (Think Progress)
The Hill reports that because of Sen. Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) objections to legislation overhauling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Senate leaders have decided to push back consideration of the bill until after the Independence Day recess. Feingold, along with several other lawmakers, are fighting against granting immunity to telecomms that participated in the Bush administration’s illegal spying program.
American heroes, all of them.

Keith Olbermann: Then and now (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
On January 31 of this year, Keith Olbermann donned his most serious face and most indignant voice tone to rail against George Bush for supporting telecom immunity and revisions to FISA… [Wednesday] night, Olbermann invited Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter onto his show to discuss Obama’s support for the FISA and telecom amnesty bill… There wasn’t a syllable uttered about “immunizing corporate criminals” or “textbook examples of Fascism” or the Third Reich. There wasn’t a word of rational criticism of the bill either… The real danger is that those who defend Obama the Candidate no matter what he does are likely to defend Obama the President no matter what he does, too… Those who spent the last five years mauling Bush for “shredding the Constitution” and approving of lawbreaking — only to then praise Obama for supporting a bill that endorses and protects all of that — are displaying exactly the type of blind reverence that is more dangerous than any one political leader could ever be.

[Thursday’s] Wall St. Journal has an article on the new Strange Bedfellows coalition and the campaign to punish and remove from office selected members of Congress who support civil-liberties-destroying measures such as the current FISA bill…  [Wednesday], Jane Hamsher recorded a Bloggingheads session with former Rep. and current third-party presidential candidate Bob Barr (who Republicans are petrified will destroy McCain’s chances) and discussed with him the ideologically diverse efforts to battle against the political establishment’s assault on core constitutional liberties. For now, contributions to the [anti-FISA] campaign — which now has more than $320,000 — can be made here.

Obama: Change agent goes conventional (Politico)
As an Illinois state legislator, Obama generally supported tighter restrictions on firearms and served on the board of a foundation that funded legal scholarship advancing the theory that the Second Amendment does not protect individual gun owners’ rights, as well as 14 separate groups that ultimately signed an amicus brief supporting the D.C. ban.  Though he had tried to avoid taking a firm stand on either the ban or the case, an unnamed staffer last year told The Chicago Tribune that “Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional.” On Thursday, though, the Obama campaign distanced itself from that record, which would have considerable downside risk for a presidential candidate running on a 50-state landscape. Obama’s top spokesman, Bill Burton, said that the statement to the Chicago Tribune “was not worded as well as it could have been” and that Obama believes that generally the Constitution “doesn’t prevent local and state governments from enacting their own gun laws.”
Change you can believe in—Obama will change to fit the political landscape he’s running in.

How is it under that bus, Comrade Klonsky? (by Steve Diamond at No Quarter)
Easy come, easy go. No sooner than Global Labor blogged … at No Quarter … in ““White Guilt” Politics of Obama Crowd Undermined” — about the role in the Obama campaign of Mike Klonsky, former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers’ longtime comrade-in-arms from their days in SDS to the Chicago School Wars they fought in the 80s and 90s alongside Barack Obama, and presto he’s gone.  As of [Wednesday] night, Klonsky is no longer blogging on the Barack Obama for President website. In fact, it’s like he was never there. 

Priest who mocked Clinton stands by message (Chicago Tribune)
The Roman Catholic priest who mocked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s former church says he regrets that his passionate delivery may have detracted from his message. But he stands by the message.

News Flash: Obama Tells Lies (by Paul Street at the Black Agenda Report)
The author has kept a scrupulous record of untruths, half-truths and evolving reconstructions of truth from Barack Obama’s mouth, over the years – and there’s always a fresh supply to chronicle. It’s hard – truly – to woo Black and progressive voters while plotting a wholly different agenda with captains of industry and finance and military expansionists. However, Obama’s many transgressions against truth don’t set him apart. “The American narrow-spectrum corporate-crafted presidential

Will Obama’s shifting stances undermine his true-blue image?
WASHINGTON — From the beginning, Barack Obama’s special appeal was his vow to remain an idealistic outsider, courageous and optimistic, and never to shift his positions for political expediency, or become captive of the Inside-the-Beltway intelligentsia, or kiss up to special interests and big money donors.

Netroots jilted by Obama FISA stand (Politico)
When former Sen. John Edwards dropped out of the presidential race, the progressive Netroots took their affections to Barack Obama, defending him against attack from Hillary Rodham Clinton and others. But with his support of a government surveillance bill that offers retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies — a bill that he vowed last year to filibuster — the honeymoon has ended. Disappointed over his position on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the online activists feel jilted and betrayed and have taken to questioning his progressive credentials. One prominent blogger, Atrios, has even given him the moniker “Wanker of the Day.” “He broke faith,” said Matt Stoller, a political consultant and blogger at OpenLeft.com. “Obama pledged to filibuster, and he is part of that old politics, in this case, that he said he wasn’t. It will spur us to challenge him.”
So does that mean I’m no longer persona non grata for challenging him from the beginning?  Somehow I doubt it.  There’s probably ACCEPTABLE criticism and UNACCEPTABLE criticism—which is exactly what David Limbaugh told me about his criticism of George Bush vs. mine..  By the way, I said back in February (I think it was) that I wouldn’t get any pleasure out of saying I told you so about Obama.  And I don’t.  I’m just disgusted that so many people I liked and trusted let themselves be taken in.

The Democrats’ Risky Strategy (by danps at Corrente)
The GOP faces a disaster this year because they gained control of all major parts of government and then engaged in an orgy of excess, alienating moderates and depressing their loyalists… Democrats seem to be in the process of a sellout of a different sort. They seized control of both houses of Congress but seem oblivious (or indifferent) to the public’s anger. Instead they seem to be playing a game of political jujitsu, using the overexertions of the right to give them leverage to flip them totally off the mat. It may be a brilliant tactical move but one with long term risks. First, urgent policy issues fester because no meaningful action can happen under such a strategy. That leads to the second problem, deep dissatisfaction with what comes to be seen as a lesser of two evils. By eschewing opposition the Democrats are creating a pool of thwarted activists. Such people are primed to create new realities or respond to the latest version of a quirky billionaire with homemade charts.

McCain, GOP unleash anti-Obama plan (Politico)
Republicans might have a reason to smile: John McCain and his allies seem to have finally settled on a way to draw a stark contrast with Barack Obama. After weeks of criticism from Republicans about the leisurely pace at which they seemed to be preparing for the general election, McCain’s campaign has apparently settled on a highly personal campaign theme that aims to differentiate McCain and Obama on both character and issues. The strategy: Paint Obama as conventional politician who always takes the safe and easy political road, then amplify the distinction by framing McCain as a patriot, somebody who has put sacrifice above self.
They won’t even have to lie.

Terror “Threats” Timed to Thwart Kerry in ‘04
Beginning with the immediate aftermath of the Democratic Convention in 2004, and continuing through the fall campaign, the Bush Administration formally announced a rise in the terror threat every time polls showed the Kerry/Edwards campaign achieving some positive momentum. Just like, as Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card said in September of 2002, you don’t “sell a war in August”, there apparently was no “need” of multiple terrorist alerts prior to the Democratic Convention in 2004.
Of course they were, and the only difference for 2008 may be that George Bush will bomb the hell out of another country just to scare everyone into voting Republican.

Obama’s one word for McCain: ‘Honorable’ (On Politics, USA Today)
During a word association game today on FOX Business Network, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama came up with “honorable” when asked about his Republican rival, John McCain.

Under debate plan, Obama loses height advantage (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama would sit at a table at two of three presidential debates this fall, according to a formal proposal unveiled Thursday, which, perhaps unintentionally, would neutralize Obama’s height advantage.

Social Network E.Factor Connects Entrepreneurs and Investors… (Mashable)
With over 47,000 members in 3 short months, the niche social market is binding entrepreneurs and investors through a virtual platform, unparalleled by anything else. Launching July 1st, entrepreneurs will no longer have to worry about health insurance or a 401K plan as both will be offered to premium members. In addition expect to see new satellites popping up like the Cambridge University E.Factor site
Why aren’t we doing something similar in progressive media?  Oh, that’s right, Barack Obama is hogging all the money.  He wants complete control of EVERYTHING.  See below.

Dem-Aligned Fund For America To Close Its Doors (by Chris Cillizza, washingtonpost.com)
The Fund For America, a Democratic-aligned group organized to disburse contributions from wealthy individuals to progressive organizations, will close its doors Thursday. The announcement is expected to be made tomorrow; the decision will be attributed to the difficult environment for soliciting major contributions. That environment was largely created by Barack Obama, who publicly declared he was did not want his donors funding outside organizations; instead, the presumptive Democratic nominee said he wants donors spending all of their time collecting cash for his campaign.

Why the Stock Market Had a Terrible Day (by Robert Reich)
The big surprise is why anyone should be surprised the stock market dropped 3 percent [Thursday]. The immediate trigger was the price of oil moving above $140 a barrel for the first time. A secondary trigger was yesterday’s decision by the Fed not to reduce interest rates… Another was the implosion of the US autos sector, and additional writedowns by major Wall Street banks. But behind all of this is the one fundamental fact that economic analysts would rather not dwell on: American consumers are at the end of their ropes. High energy prices have contributed to it, as have high food prices. Consumer confidence is plunging. Housing prices are still dropping, which means the piggy banks of home equity and refinancing are closing…

What to do? Two things. We need an expansive fiscal policy that stimulates the economy with infrastructure spending — especially mass transit, levees, and bridges, as well as investments in green technologies. We also need a more progressive tax system that puts more money into the hands of the middle class and working class — which will spend it.
So will you use your leverage with your chosen candidate, Barack Obama, to talk him into implementing some of these ideas, Secretary Reich?  He’s strangely silent on what it will take to rebuild the middle class and the nation’s infrastructure.

David Addington and John Yoo Testify on Torture (by Jeralyn at TalkLeft)
David Addington, Dick Cheney’s former legal counsel and current Chief of Staff (post Scooter Libby) testified before a House subcommittee [Thursday] on the Administration’s interrogation practices and torture… Human Rights First has the lowlights of both men’s testimony… In other torture news, the American Civil Liberties Union is calling on the United States government “to appoint an independent prosecutor for U.S. torture crimes, to put an end to practices that involve torture and abuse and to fulfill its obligations under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). ”
Crooks and Liars has the video of Rep. John Conyers grilling Yoo.

David Addington: I can’t talk about torture because al-Qaeda may be watching CSPAN (by SilentPatriot at Crooks and Liars)
David Addington today offered a preposterous reason for refusing to answer a question about whether or not he was party to talks about torture with his superiors — al-Qaeda may be watching CSPAN and he can’t give away any information that may benefit them. Really.
Click through to watch the video.

Law School Dean Calls Conference to Plan Bush War Crimes Prosecution
The dean of Massachusetts School of Law at Andover is planning a September conference to map out war crimes prosecutions, and the targets are President Bush and other administration officials. The dean, Lawrence Velvel, says in a statement that “plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth.” Other possible defendants, he said, include federal judges and John Yoo, the former Justice Department official who wrote one of the so-called torture memos.
Velvel is another American hero.

Non-voters: It’s all in God’s hands
People who believe that God is involved in worldly affairs are less likely to participate in national elections than others, according to a new survey.

Gutter politics (by vastleft at Corrente)
OK, so it’s not Mt. Rushmore… “San Francisco is to hold a vote on whether to rename one of its largest sewage treatment facilities after George W. Bush, in what supporters describe as ‘a fitting monument to the President’s work’.”

New White House Pool Report Restrictions Inspire Pushback
New rules for White House pool reporting will limit distribution of press pool reports to those who are traveling with the president — a move that has already sparked some opposition. “You don’t want to keep the information so closely held, you want it widely available,” says Marsha Mercer, Media General’s D.C. bureau chief.

George Carlin: A Funny Man in an Unfunny World (by Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate, posted at AlterNet)
Carlin gave voice to dissident perspectives that have been almost entirely blocked from mainstream media.

‘Royal funeral’ says much about society (by Gene Lyons)
In the sport of beagling, two bad faults can get a hound disqualified. One is “cold-trailing.” I had a beagle named Leon who’d hoot down scent trails so old the rabbits that left them were probably being digested by coyotes. Leon made so much noise about nothing that my pals dubbed him “The Journalist.” Then there’s “ghost-trailing.” Unable to keep up, a hound will sometimes invent a fictitious rabbit and make a great show of running it. Other dogs learn to ignore him. Washington courtier-journalists have done plenty of both recently. [Tim] Russert was among the worst. Like most, he obsessed over Bill Clinton’s sexual sins, but handled the Bush administration’s Iraq war propaganda like the Baltimore Catechism: Memorize, regurgitate. Linda Hirshman nails it in The Nation: “…The Russert Test was a disaster because it rewarded people willing to lie unabashedly on TV.” And that’s the truth.

In France, the doctors make house calls, even in the middle of the night (by hipparchia at Corrente)
All of Michael Moore’s SICKO, in 13 parts, can be found here.

Bill Gates Secret to Success: Cheating (by Dean Baker)
The NYT had a brief assessment of Bill Gates career in building up Microsoft as he prepared to leave his position with the company. The article mentions the anti-competitive practices that caused it to lose an antitrust suit in connection with its Internet browser. However, it did not discuss the earlier practices that helped give Microsoft near monopoly status in the operating system market. In the late 80s, Microsoft signed contracts with several major computer manufacturers under which they got a discount price, but agreed to pay Microsoft for every computer they shipped, whether or not it included the Microsoft operating system. This meant that the marginal cost of including the Microsoft system was essentially zero, since the manufacturer had already paid for the system, even if she decided not to use it. The result was [to] discourage the use of any other operating system… It would have been worth mentioning this background in this piece.
Dean is much nicer than many Microsoft critics.  They say that Microsoft didn’t just “sign” contracts with the manufacturers—it “strong-armed” them, threatening to keep them from distributing the Microsoft operating system at all unless they “signed”, which would have put them out of business completely.  The manufacturers had not choice but to “sign”.

Everyone Wants More Hedge Fund Control of Banks (by Dean Baker)
That’s the word from the Washington Post. The Post reported that the Fed is seeking to structure its rules in a way that facilitates investment from hedge and equity funds… Since we are seeing the fallout of a large set of dubious, if not illegal, practices in the financial sector, it might be a very bad time to adopt regulations that will make it easier for secretive private equity and hedge funds to play a larger role in the sector. It may well be better to let failed institutions collapse and then to start over with clean books, after their incompetent and/or corrupt management has been removed.

Fuels on the Hill (by Paul Krugman)
Congress has always had a soft spot for “experts” who tell members what they want to hear, whether it’s supply-side economists declaring that tax cuts increase revenue or climate-change skeptics insisting that global warming is a myth. Right now, the welcome mat is out for analysts who claim that out-of-control speculators are responsible for $4-a-gallon gas…Why are politicians so eager to pin the blame for oil prices on speculators? Because it lets them believe that we don’t have to adapt to a world of expensive gas… [W]e won’t have even the beginnings of a rational energy policy if we listen to people who assure us that we can just wish high oil prices away.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Purporting to cite Obama’s “arrogance,” Rove misrepresented Obama’s comments in latest WSJ column

• Network evening newscasts ignore IG report finding politicization of hiring practices in DOJ honors program

• Reuters uncritically reported McCain adviser’s assertion that McCain no longer believes Russia should be excluded from G-8

• CNN’s Borger claimed Obama’s decision to forgo public financing gives McCain “opening” to attack Obama’s character, didn’t note McCain’s loan

• Kilmeade, who once falsely said Obama “[e]vidently … went to a madrassa” asked Muslim guest if he is insulted when Obama says, “I am not a Muslim’”

• Hume falsely claimed Obama “contradicted what he wrote in his book” about town hall meetings

• Hugh Hewitt on OSU-USC football game: “[I]t’s probably the last football game we’ll ever get to see before the United States gets blown up by the Islamists under Obama”

• On Reliable Sources, Kurtz said “press is cutting [Obama] a break” over public finance decision, but Kurtz has yet to discuss McCain’s loan on the show

• Monica Crowley forwarded smear that Obama has lied about his ethnicity

• What you’ve been missing: NBC, CBS nightly news shows fail to report on McCain’s campaign loan

Keep Your Hands Off My Internet… (by Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins at Mashable)
Ars Technica is currently running a story about a bill [Representative Edward Markey is] proposing, that upon deeper introspection, has quite insidious overtones in terms of the increase of government regulation on the world’s Internet. Unfortunately, Ars seems to miss a bit of the implications of this in their coverage of the bill… [P]erhaps the most interesting and debated section of the bill will be its Internet video captioning requirements… In terms of low-budget video production, I think it’s safe to assume that around 99% of all video producers couldn’t afford to close-caption their video.

CBS to Appeal Military Court Ruling on Haditha Interview
A First Amendment case has escalated between CBS News and a military court over a 60 Minutes report about an attack at Haditha, Iraq. The network is seeking to prevent the government from reviewing the unbroadcast parts of an interview with an officer who is being prosecuted over the incident.

‘Opie’ Fiancée Wants $10M for Bogus Page Six Item
The fiancée of Opie & Anthony co-host Gregg Hughes has filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against the New York Post over an erroneous gossip item claiming she made a sex tape with one of the stars of MTV’s Jackass. The item claimed a disgruntled former Opie & Anthony employee “recently acquired rights to the video from Margera.”

Spurned N.Y. wife-turned-YouTube star defends videos
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A British actress who found YouTube fame after posting monologues about her failed marriage to a Broadway theater owner and producer defended her popular videos in a New York court on Thursday.

News sites should invest in journalism, says Lords report
The boom in online news sites does not mean the UK should relax its media ownership laws, according to an influential House of Lords report. It is even more important that the regulator, Ofcom, and the government should protect and promote quality journalism, it says.

Study: Newspaper Sports Departments Mostly Male, White
The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports surveyed 378 member newspapers of the Associated Press Sports Editors, and concluded they earned a “C” for “racial hiring practices” and an “F” for gender hiring practices. Check out the full breakdown.

British reporters have fun, don’t take themselves too seriously
“Consequently, British newspapers are fun to read,” writes Kevin Cullen. Of course, some of the stories, not to mention some of those who write them, are bought and paid for, and others are complete rubbish. But once you get over those minor quibbles, reading a British newspaper is as refreshing as taking an outdoor shower in August on the Cape.”
Kinda like blogs.

Steiger: “It’s great to be in a position where the funding is secure”
ProPublica editor-in-chief Paul Steiger said on Tuesday’s “NewsHour” show:
* “I know what my news budget is going to be for the next three years, whereas in the environment of even a great newspaper like the Wall Street Journal, every few months the estimates of revenues would change.”
* “What could be better than ‘60 Minutes’ [to air ProPublica's first story] with an audience on a slow weekend in June of 10 million and in a strong weekend during football season in the fall of 20 million or 25 million?”

McClatchy’s Gitmo series isn’t getting the attention it deserves
Adam Reilly says although the subject matter of “Guantanamo: Beyond the Law” isn’t exactly new, “the depth of McClatchy’s treatment was unprecedented, and its conclusions were startling.” He fears neither the investigation nor the subject will ultimately get the attention they deserve, and suggests that McClatchy’s competitors help promote the series.
But how can you promote the work of others if you can’t quote from them?  The AP is still living in the 1980s.  See below.

AP, others use new technology to sniff out content thieves
Peter Burrows got a demonstration of the software earlier this year. “With a glance, a publisher or studio head can plainly see where, when, and how their content is being viewed,” he writes. “Availability of [the technology] represents a sea change for companies that until recently had to track online content manually or hire an outside company to do it. The new systems can automate the job and do it more cheaply.”

Oft-Corrected NYT Critic Cleans Up Her Act (by Jeff Bercovici, Portfolio)
Alessandra Stanley may not be the most influential TV writer in the country, and she may not be the most error-prone, but she’s almost certainly the most influential error-prone TV writer, and vice versa. Or was. For Wednesday marked the New York Times critic’s 103rd consecutive day without a story that required a correction.

Sun Also Sets: Baltimore Paper Joins Tribune Job Cut Brigade
The Baltimore Sun will cut about 100 jobs, including 55 to 60 in the newsroom, through buyouts, layoffs and the closing of open positions. The latest in a series of cuts to the venerable newspaper were announced Wednesday in a memo from publisher Tim Ryan to staff.

Conrad Black Eyes Another Appeal
Conrad Black refuses to sit quietly in his prison cell — and vows to keep spending money to clear his name. Hours after a federal appeals panel yesterday rejected his latest plea to toss his conviction on fraud and lying about looting $6.1 million from his media empire, Black’s lawyers said they’re considering another round in court.

Ohio is ground zero for widening rift between AP, member papers
“What has happened is we’ve become the wire service for the wire service,” complains Columbus Dispatch editor Ben Marrison. The eight largest newspapers in Ohio recently created a cooperative called the Ohio News Organization, or OHNO, which allows its members to sidestep the AP by sharing stories.

Condé in Talks to Buy Rolling Stone?
Near the end of an otherwise unremarkable interview with Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner about an upcoming Hunter S. Thompson documentary, PBS’ Charlie Rose slipped in this little question: “So what’s this story that Condé Nast wants to buy Rolling Stone?” Coy, befuddled yet uncomfortable responses ensued.

Graphic Novels are Hollywood’s Newest Gold Mine
Graphic novels — long comic books for grownups — have always had mostly cult appeal. Last year’s most successful sold 80,000 copies, far short of 2007’s hottest novel, which sold more than 1.5 million copies. But the creations of oddball loners scribbling at drafting tables have also become the movie industry’s most reliable development tool.

Fox News Back on Top
Fox News is poised to reclaim the title of the most-watched cable news network in the key advertising demographic in the second quarter of 2008. The cable channel attracted the most 25- to 54-year-old viewers in prime-time this quarter, according to preliminary Nielsen Media Research data, drawing an average of 346,000 in that age group through Tuesday.

News Corp. Hunts Europe Pay TV Again
In a move that could significantly expand the responsibilities of James Murdoch, the youngest son of Chairman Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. is considering bids for two major players in their local pay-TV markets, Germany’s Premiere AG and Spain’s Digital+, according to people familiar with the situation. The two satellite broadcasters together would likely cost more than $6.3 billion, analysts say.

Emmy Semifinalists Announced
AMC’s Mad Men and FX’s Damages are among the 10 semifinalists for the Primetime Emmy Award for best drama series, bringing them one step closer to becoming the first basic-cable series to ever snag a best-series nomination. For the first time, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences yesterday released the names of the top 10 vote-getters in the race to be among the five nominees.

Ratings Soar for Summer Competition Shows
Turns out what people really crave this summer is a competition series in which people risk bodily harm so we can point at them and laugh. Tuesday’s unveiling of ABC’s reality series Wipeout became the highest-rated debut of the summer among the younger viewers advertisers covet, and ABC’s best summer-series premiere in three years.

The good and bad news: More TV shows on the Net
There’s no doubt the pool of TV programs available on the Internet is getting deeper and wider every day. Before you jump in, though, you might want to consider whether the water is really to your liking.

YouTube’s Dominance Of Web Video Grows
YouTube accounted for more than 75% of U.S. traffic to video sites, an increase of 26% from a year ago, said Hitwise.

iGoogle Tests Chat, Open Social, and Activity Feeds (Mashable)
The latest update to iGoogle’s sandbox promised more social capabilities for developers, with the biggest enhancement being the support for Open Social applications in activity streams. This version of iGoogle is now available for limited testing, pushing the social capabilities of the start page even further. Other big changes occur around communications with friends: Gchat has been added so you can talk with friends and see their updates. Just as with Gmail, this appears in a new left-hand sidebar that’s also been added to your iGoogle start page.

Disney’s Family to Re-Launch as Social Network (Mashable)
Maria McManus is the Director of Interface Design and Community at Disney’s new Family.com community. She sat down last week briefly to discuss the re-launch of the site as a social network and collected resource for parents, set to launch this summer. The service started as a simple resources site, but with the rise of niche social networks, it became clear to the team at Disney that folks wanted resources to develop community around the site. The site includes most of the standard social networking features, though they’re trying to take different approach to the typical blog feature found on most social networks. Similar to Tumblr, they’re attempting to bring together the snippets that could go into a digital scrap book and make it available to the parents to push out their stories and life experiences in format that isn’t meant to appease the person who thinks they’re there to author the next Great American Novel.

Several Days In May: PBS Claims Its Web Traffic Tops Broadcast; Depends Who You Ask (Paid Content)
PBS is crediting improved video offerings and search engine optimization efforts for helping propel its traffic upward 25 percent [according to Hitwise] over last year, a leap that helped it beat the broadcast nets’ sites… But when it comes to metrics, it depends who you ask. Looking at the entire month of May, comScore ranks ABC.com highest for broadcast TV networks with 9.7 million uniques compared to PBS.org with 3.8 million uniques. The year-over-year leap for PBS wasn’t that great either, according to comScore figures: in May 2007, PBS attracted 3.6 million uniques for a gain of 5.6 percent.

Microsoft Acquiring Semantic Searcher Powerset For $100 Million: Report (Paid Content)
Well if it can’t get Yahoo’s search business… Microsoft will acquire semantic search engine Powerset for more than $100 million, according to Matt Marshall at VentureBeat. His exact language is that the company “has agreed to acquire” the company and that it will be announced next month.

Microsoft Acquiring Mobile Social Software Maker MobiComp (Mashable)
Microsoft announced [Thursday] its intention to acquire mobile services and solutions specialist MobiComp, a company headquartered in Braga, Portugal and with international bases in the UK, Malaysia, and Dubai. MobiComp provides the mobile backup and data sharing solution MobileKeeper as well as Active mTicker, a system which delivers automated notifications via information subscriptions. Uses for mTicker can range from basic news alerts to advertising.

introin Connects Renters, Landlords, and Prospects (Mashable)
introin is a new apartment search and resource site that connects renters, landlords and prospects all in one place. If you’re looking for a new apartment and you’d like to hear firsthand about the complex or property you’re considering, you can search for it on introin and see what existing renters have to say. If there’s not yet any available resource (renter or owner) for that property, you can set an alert so you’ll be notified when a new resource for that property joins the site.

Find a Place to Crash, That’s Better Than the Van (Mashable)
If you recall services like Couchswap, then you’ll appreciate a new, similar service called Better Than the Van. It’s a niche “couch swap” search engine that’s designed for band members on tour. At Better Than the Van, you can search for kind souls willing to give up their spare bedroom/sofa/floor space for roaming musicians.

Blogger Adds Slew of New Features (Mashable)
If you use Google’s Blogger platform, head on to draft.blogger.com and you’ll find several new interesting features for your blog.

What’s to Be Done with AOL? (by Jon Fine, BusinessWeek)
It’s always been easy to hate on AOL. It’s a New Media property with Old Media problems, dependent on outmoded businesses — hello, dial-up subscribers! — and in need of reinvention. It’s a technology company based on lousy technology. But in an ongoing mystery of modern media, it persists.

FCC Opens Inquiry Into TV Product Placement
A stealthy form of advertising in which products are featured on television shows as props and even woven into story lines has drawn the government’s attention. The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday it will consider new rules to make it clear to viewers when brand-name products appear in shows in exchange for money.

Watch These Ads
ABC Makes Commercials the Price of On-Demand Content

Cross-Platform Ads: What’s Working?
ABC, ESPN, MTV Share Research on Web vs. TV Viewers

Microsoft Gives Zune Players To Students In Exchange For Research Data (Paid Content)
In hopes of possibly expanding its products into schools across the country, Microsoft gave Zune players to high school and middle school students to watch videos and listen to podcasts recommended by their teachers, along with sharing content among their peers, AP reports. Microsoft handed out the devices to roughly 100 Fort Sumner High School students in New Mexico and about 25 South Valley Junior High students in Missouri last winter in exchange for usage data—expected to be more qualitative than quantitative—on how helpful the devices are in the classroom and how they enrich students’ education. The company plans to post a case study on the project following this summer’s National Education Computing Conference.

NKorea hands over nuclear dossier
BEIJING (AFP) – North Korea handed over details of its nuclear programmes Thursday, clearing the way to be removed from the US terrorism blacklist amid years of efforts to persuade the North to abandon the atom bomb.
Is Kim one of the good guys now?

All Hat No Cattle

15 die in attack on meeting west of Baghdad
BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber struck Thursday inside a municipal building west of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people at a meeting of tribal sheiks opposed to al-Qaida, police said. The U.S. confirmed American casualties but gave no further details.

Iraq authorities say US soldiers killed 9 civilians
BAGHDAD — Nine Iraqi civilians were killed Wednesday in two armed clashes involving U.S. soldiers, local authorities reported. The military said U.S. soldiers were fired upon first in both incidents.
In the capital, three people were killed in a fiery crash after gunfire erupted as their vehicle passed U.S. soldiers with a convoy stopped near the Baghdad international airport to recover a stalled vehicle.

Rocket hits Israel, second violation of Gaza truce
JERUSALEM – Gaza militants fired a rocket into southern Israel on Thursday, causing no injuries but undermining a shaky, week-old truce meant to halt a violent cycle of attacks and harsh Israeli reprisals.

Syria planned to supply Iran with nuclear fuel, Israel says
Israel believes that Syria was planning to supply Iran with spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing into weapons-grade plutonium from the site it bombed last September, and which is currently being inspected by the UN’s nuclear watchdog. The claim from an adviser to Israel’s national security council came yesterday as speculation mounts about a possible Israeli attack on Iran.

UN expert: Deeper Syrian nuclear inquiry needed
VIENNA, Austria – An initial probe of U.S. allegations that a Syrian site hit by Israeli warplanes was a secretly built nuclear reactor is inconclusive and further checks are necessary, a senior U.N. atomic inspector said Wednesday.

Iran issues warning over nuclear program
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s parliament speaker on Wednesday warned that the West could face a “done deal” if it provokes Iran, in a rare hint by an Iranian official that Tehran could build nuclear weapons if attacked.

U.S. strike may delay, not stop Iran nuclear program
A U.S. military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities could set Tehran’s program back years but would raise the risk of retaliation against American troops in the region and of driving Iran to work even harder to make atomic weapons, U.S. experts and officials say.

Pakistanis “won’t allow” attacks into Afghanistan
Pakistan said on Wednesday it would not allow militants to attack Afghanistan from its territory and it would never let foreign troops operate on its soil. The declaration came after threats from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to send troops into Pakistan to fight Taliban militants he says operate from border sanctuaries, and after 11 Pakistani border soldiers were killed in a U.S. air strike.

Sri Lanka says 69 Tiger rebels killed in fresh fighting
COLOMBO (AFP) – At least 69 Tiger rebels and two soldiers have been killed in heavy fighting in Sri Lanka’s north where security forces wrested more territory from the guerrillas, the defence ministry said Thursday.

New Zealand Maori sign major grievance settlement
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Seven indigenous Maori tribes signed New Zealand’s largest-ever settlement Wednesday over grievances arising from 19th century losses of lands, forests and fisheries during European settlement of the country.

Canadian judge criticizes Guantanamo tactics
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A Canadian judge said in a ruling Wednesday that the U.S. military’s treatment of a teenage detainee at Guantanamo Bay violated international laws against torture.

Ecuador buys planes, radar for border
QUITO, Ecuador – Colombian rebels in northern Ecuador are an old problem that previous governments failed to confront, Ecuador’s defense minister told The Associated Press, announcing additions to a growing arsenal aimed at securing the Andean nation’s borders.

Move to renew Colombia-Ecuador ties collapses
BOGOTA, Colombia – Moves to renew relations between Ecuador and Colombia collapsed on Tuesday as part of a smoldering feud between South American neighbors of the left and right.

Chavez defends candidate blacklist
CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez defended Venezuela’s top anti-corruption official on Tuesday for barring roughly 400 potential candidates — most from the opposition — from running in upcoming elections.

U.S. withdraws nuclear weapons from Britain: watchdog
LONDON (Reuters) – The United States has quietly withdrawn its last nuclear weapons from Britain after more than half a century, a watchdog said on Thursday.

Silvio Berlusconi’s ‘iron fist’ laws approved
The senate voted 166 to 123 to approve a wide-ranging package of measures which will allow Silvio Berlusconi to govern Italy with an iron fist.

Mugabe holds final rallies ahead of Zimbabwe vote
HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe held final campaign rallies Thursday on the eve of a one-man election denounced as a sham by the West after the opposition leader pulled out of the contest.

Mugabe is ’self-destructing’: Tsvangirai
LONDON (AFP) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is “self-destructing” and will ultimately fail even though he will claim an election victory, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told BBC radio Thursday.

Bush’s approval hits new low: 23 percent. (Think Progress)
Only 23 percent of Americans said they approve of President Bush’s job performance in a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey, which is a new low for him in that poll. Seventy-three percent of respondents said they disapproved of the job Bush is doing.

Bush administration lifts North Korea sanctions
WASHINGTON – President Bush said Thursday he will lift key trade sanctions against North Korea and remove it from the U.S. terrorism blacklist, a remarkable turnaround in policy toward the communist regime he once branded as part of an “axis of evil.”

Bush, Talabani discuss complex Iraq security deal
WASHINGTON – President Bush and Iraq’s president expressed cautious optimism Wednesday about prospects for completing a complex agreement that would keep U.S. troops in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year-end.

Pentagon cannot account for $2 billion in anti-terror funds to Pakistan
The United States has paid more than $5 billion to reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism expenses that have often been exaggerated, if not fabricated, according to a government audit released Tuesday that blasts the Pentagon for poor management of the program. The report concluded that the Pentagon could not properly account for as much as $2 billion in payments to Pakistan over a three-year period from 2004 to 2007. Auditors uncovered an array of questionable costs, including $45 million for roads and bunkers that may never have been built; $200 million for the operation of air defense systems even though Al Qaeda has no known aircraft; and overcharges for meals and vehicles used by Pakistani troops.

Army flayed over 21-year-old’s $298 million arms deal
WASHINGTON — Military officials came under withering attack Tuesday in Congress from both Democrats and Republicans, who expressed anger and astonishment that a 21-year-old Miami Beach man with a spot on a State Department “watch list” and a history of failing to deliver on military contracts was awarded a $298 million deal to provides arms to allied forces in Afghanistan.

Boeing could have won tanker contract, GAO says
WASHINGTON — The Boeing Co. had a “substantial chance” of winning a $35 billion contract for aerial-refueling tankers if the Air Force hadn’t made a number of errors in awarding it to a team that includes a rival European aerospace company, government auditors concluded.

America’s fastest train moves ahead
After 20 years of planning, America’s fastest train moves forward — thanks to a $45 million infusion from a transportation bill, signed by President Bush in early June.

IG report: Justice Dept. wrongly considered politics in hiring
WASHINGTON — A former high-ranking Justice Department official broke the law and another official violated department policies by weighing the political leanings of law students and young attorneys who were applying for coveted internships and jobs, according to a Justice Department watchdog’s report made public Tuesday.

Justice Department report shows overwhelming Federalist Society bias. (Think Progress)
As ThinkProgress has noted, the Bush administration has extremely close ties to the Federalist Society. Political appointees in the Justice Department, such as Monica Goodling, assessed U.S. attorneys partly based on whether they were members of the right-wing group. In its new report, the DOJ Inspector General reveals that the Department’s internship and Honors programs were also heavily pro-Federalist Society:

Labor Dept. probes work of major immigration law firm
The nation’s largest immigration law firm is under federal scrutiny over whether it helped major U.S. corporations disqualify American job applicants and give thousands of high-paying positions to immigrants.

Illicit online pharmacies blamed for prescription drug abuse
WASHINGTON — Illicit Internet pharmacies are helping abusers obtain controlled drugs such as the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, the painkiller Vicodin and anabolic steroids, the Drug Enforcement Administration told a House subcommittee on Tuesday.

Pursue criminal aliens, not workers, Congress urges administration
WASHINGTON — While the nation’s immigration cops have raided job sites and picked up illegal aliens across the country in the past year, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants sit in jails, already convicted of crimes. Yet they often are released back into the community instead of being deported.

Senate nears end of debate over surveillance bill
The Senate signaled an end Wednesday to months of rancorous debate over surveillance legislation that would protect from civil lawsuits the telecommunications companies that helped the government [illegally] wiretap American lines. By an 80-15 vote, the Senate turned back a last-ditch effort to kill the bill, setting up a vote to approve the measure on Thursday.

Laptop Searches in Airports Draw Fire at Senate Hearing
Advocacy groups and legal experts told Congress that it was unreasonable for federal officials to search the laptops of United States citizens when they re-enter the country from traveling abroad.

Senate reaches an agreement on global AIDS bill
WASHINGTON – Senate negotiators said Wednesday they had reached a tentative agreement on a key obstacle to one of the most ambitious federal health initiatives ever, a $50 billion act to combat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa and other countries hard-hit by those diseases.

Democrats press funding increases for veterans, education
WASHINGTON – A Senate panel awarded sizable spending increases for health research, education and community health centers on Tuesday, though they appear dead on arrival so long as President Bush remains in office.

Senate housing bill snags on lone lawmaker
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate progress toward approving a sweeping housing rescue plan was delayed on Wednesday by the objections of a Republican lawmaker who wants to attach an amendment dealing with renewable energy.

Senate vote would put election watchdog back in business
WASHINGTON — Some say it’s been like having a World Series without an umpire: In the costliest election year in history, the Federal Election Commission has been a dysfunctional agency, essentially out of business.

7 Republican senators block Bush’s bill to fight AIDS in Africa
WASHINGTON — President Bush’s efforts to broaden a widely respected, bipartisan program to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa have faced roadblocks by seven Republican senators.

House subcommittee subpoenas Feith. (Think Progress)
Last week, former undersecretary of defense Doug Feith was scheduled to testify before a House Judiciary subcommittee, but he refused to appear at the last minute to avoid testifying alongside Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson. [Tuesday], the subcommittee issued a subpoena to compel Feith’s testimony.

House passes alternative minimum tax relief
WASHINGTON – The House voted Wednesday to protect more than 20 million mostly upper-income taxpayers in danger of being slapped with a tax increase averaging $2,300 because of the alternative minimum tax.

House votes to expand disabilities law
WASHINGTON – People who take medicine to control epilepsy, diabetes or cancer or use prosthetic limbs or hearing aids could use the Americans With Disabilities Act to fight workplace discrimination under legislation the House passed Wednesday.

House sets standards for juvenile boot camps
WASHINGTON – The House approved national standards on juvenile boot camps and other public and private programs intended to help troubled youth. Lawmakers acted Wednesday following reports of abuse and deaths involving young people with behavioral, emotional or mental problems.

House passes bill stopping Medicare cut for doctors
WASHINGTON – In a matter of days the federal government is scheduled to start paying doctors 10.6 percent less when they treat Medicare patients.

House fails to move gas pump price gouging bill
WASHINGTON – House Democrats failed Tuesday to resurrect a bill to punish price gouging at the gas pump, while maneuvering to block Republican attempts to expand offshore drilling, an idea gaining in popularity amid $4-a-gallon gas prices.

Mining temporarily halted near Grand Canyon
WASHINGTON – One million acres of public land near the Grand Canyon would be off limits to new uranium mining under an emergency declaration adopted Wednesday by a House committee.

Lawmakers disagree over defining online gambling
WASHINGTON – Lawmakers failed Wednesday to agree on setting a clear definition of illegal Internet gambling to go along with a ban on online betting passed in 2006.

NY judge: NSA can refuse to discuss wiretapping
The National Security Agency does not need to tell lawyers for Guantanamo Bay prisoners whether their phones were tapped as part of the Bush administration’s domestic surveillance program, a federal judge in New York ruled Wednesday. The NSA has refused to say whether it listened in on the conversations of the lawyers who are advising prisoners being held at the U.S. naval facility in Cuba. The NSA says even confirming the existence of such wiretaps would jeopardize national security.

Supreme Court strikes down ‘millionaire’s amendment’
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has struck down the “millionaire’s amendment” as an unfair way to help opponents of wealthy candidates who spend from their personal fortunes.

Court rules in favor of Second Amendment gun right
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history. The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

Supreme Court rejects death penalty for child rape
WASHINGTON — A closely divided Supreme Court on Wednesday prohibited states from executing those who rape children but don’t kill their victims, retaining limits on the death penalty that have been in place for more than 30 years.

Unbowed, politicians vow to execute child rapists
Angry politicians vowed to keep writing laws that condemn child rapists to death, despite a Supreme Court decision saying such punishment is unconstitutional.

Exxon Valdez $2.5 bln oil spill ruling overturned
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned on Wednesday the $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp was to have paid for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.

Gitmo Detainee’s Lawyer ‘Not Allowed To Tell Him’ He’s No Longer An ‘Enemy Combatant’ (Think Progress)
Nearly two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that detainees held at Guantánamo Bay have the right to habeas corpus and can thus challenge their detention in civilian courts, a U.S. Court of Appeals dealt another blow to the Bush administration’s detention policy. The appeals court ruled that the Pentagon improperly designated Huzaifa Parhat, an ethnic Uighur Chinese national, an “enemy combatant” after being swept up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan in 2001 and then sent to Guantánamo Bay, where he has been held since. Despite the ruling, Parhat has yet to see any of its benefits. In fact, he doesn’t even know about it. Parhat’s lawyer told CBC radio’s As It Happens … that Parhat is currently being held in solitary confinement and “has no idea” the appeals court ruled in his favor because, he added, “I’m not allowed to tell him”:

Supreme Court slashes punitive award in Exxon Valdez oil spill
WASHINGTON — In a victory for corporations seeking to limit big-dollar lawsuits, the Supreme Court on Wednesday cut the $2.5 billion in punitive damages awarded in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Police halt ‘brothel-on-wheels’
An alleged mobile brothel in the US state of Florida has taken its last ride following a police sting. Undercover detectives in Miami Beach allegedly paid a $40 entry fee to board the vehicle and found women offering sex acts and lap dances for money.