Next up for federal de-listing: bald eagle

The madness continues.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to drop the U.S. national bird from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in June.

Environmentalists and scientists widely support the move because of the species' success since a 1972 ban on the pesticide DDT and since it was protected by the Endangered Species Act in 1978.

Still, many eagle experts are worried, warning that the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the law that will protect bald eagles after delisting, does not adequately shield the nesting trees and feeding perches eagles depend on.

Who exactly are the "environmentalists and scientists" who are supporting this because Reuters somehow forgot to mention them by name? Read More......

No frontrunner for the Democratic nomination

So says Hotline:

There is no Democratic front-runner. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards all have a plausible claim on the nomination.

The usual metrics are all jumbled. Clinton leads the money race, leads in New Hampshire, and tops the national polls. Obama leads in South Carolina, in media love, and in enthusiasm. Edwards has the tightest message, the best organization in Iowa, and the lead in Iowa.

Seems like an accurate assessment. This is going to be a long year. Read More......

Open Thread

Need to catch up. The latest? Read More......

Defense Dept ordered a contractor to hire Wolfowitz's girlfriend

That's your tax dollars at work. Helping get senior Bush officials laid. Oh, and she was hired to work on Iraq reconstruction. Nice. And you wonder why things are such a mess in Iraq. They spent our money on their lovers. Read More......

As predicted, the NRA has a President where they've worked out of his office

Back in 2000, the NRA's Vice President, Kayne Robinson (who was also the Chair of Iowa's Republican Party), boldly asserted that if George Bush won, the group be working out of his office. Yesterday, in response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech, one of Dana Perino's first statements was, as usual, a hat tip to the Bush base:

As far as policy, the President believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed. And certainly bringing a gun into a school dormitory and shooting -- I don't want to say numbers because I know that they're still trying to figure out many people were wounded and possibly killed, but obviously that would be against the law and something that someone should be held accountable for.

Not sure who exactly will be punished in this case, besides the families of the dead -- and the entire VA Tech campus, but, hey, that's the talking point and they're sticking to it.

The relationship of which Robinson boasted in February of 2000 has lasted for the seven years of Bush's presidency. The words have rung true:
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American Family Association caught lying, again

Now, this perhaps isn't surprising for an organization that promotes a known hate group on its own Web site (and even though we've reported this repeatedly over the past year and a half, the hate group remains on the AFA Web site). But still, call me naive, but being a Christian myself I always find it hard to believe that other people who claim to be Christians AND who claim to run Christian organizations would be such outright liars. Alas, here we go again.

This time, the AFA is accusing the Democratic Party of something it didn't even do. What, pray tell? Why of dissing Easter, of course. You see, the AFA claims - and outright lies - that the Democrats issued an Easter proclamation that didn't mention that Easter is a Christian holiday. In fact, the word "Christians" is right in the DNC release. But look at what the AFA says in an email alert just broadcasted to their members:

[T]he Democratic Party has taken Christ and the Resurrection out of Easter.... The DNC treated Easter as if was not unique to the Christian faith, and made it into a nondescript, universal, nonexclusive religious celebration celebrated by every religion in the world.

Now I'll quote in full what the DNC wrote, it's quite lovely in fact:

“Easter Sunday is a joyful celebration. The holiday represents peace, redemption and renewal, a theme which brings hope to people of all faiths. During this time Christians are called to remember who they are as people of faith, and that even the greatest of evils will not have the last word. It is also a time to reflect upon and be in solidarity with those who are persecuted and suffering among us. We should also use this time to honor those who continue to make incredible sacrifices for us, including our brave men and women in the armed forces serving overseas during this holiday. I would like to wish all those celebrating around the world this Sunday, a joyous Easter.”

See, quite a lovely proclamation. And it clearly mentions Christians, by name, so how and why does the AFA claim that the Democrats have suddenly made Easter a non-Christian holiday? Read what the AFA wrote, "The DNC treated Easter as if was not unique to the Christian faith." That is an outright lie.

But again, the American Family Association is an organization that promotes the bigotry of a known hate group, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.

And, considering the recent charges of anti-Catholic bigotry leveled against the American Family Association by one of their former top lawyers, maybe the AFA shouldn't be casting the first stone. And I quote their former lawyer:

I remember during a weekly mandatory devotional at AFA, one top AFA executive made the statement that Catholics were not Christians (being a Catholic? this was news to me).

In fact, I spoke with the lawyer and he told me that the top AFA executive said that there were no Christians in Spain, everyone is Catholic.

Now who's the bigot? Read More......

Q1 2007 foreclosures double compared to Q1 2006

A bit of common sense oversight by the Republican congress would have gone a long way in preventing the ugliness that is in motion but the GOP preferred to side with Big Finance and look the other way.

Owners of 168,829 homes in the first three months of 2007 got notices that lenders had filed for foreclosure due to failure to pay loans or liens, Foreclosures.com said yesterday.

That compares with 83,154 homes in the same period of 2006, the Sacramento, Calif.-based research firm said.

Read More......

Anti-gay conservative Christians to protest at VA Tech funerals

It's perhaps no surprise that their hate knows no bounds. No surprise that the gay-hating religious right finds kinship with the kind of hatred (and insanity) that took the lives of 33 innocents at Virginia Tech. Hate is universal, and to the religious right, it's next to godliness. More from Andy Towle. Read More......

Election 2008 tidbits

Obama is ticked at Hillary. But Ivan Boesky isn't. Read More......

Al Qaeda says Bush has turned Iraq into a "university of terror"

So, not only has Bush lost the war in Iraq, but as a result he's trained an entirely new generation of Al Qaeda terrorists to be even more deadly and more experienced. Oh yeah, and the American taxpayer footed the bill for this little university. Isn't that nice. More from Reuters. Read More......

Bush is heading to VA Tech today

Via AP, Bush is on his way to VA Tech today:

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush will attend Tuesday's convocation at Virginia Tech to remember those affected by the deadliest campus violence ever in this country.

This is a horrible national tragedy. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux told us that "it's really part of the President's job to really try to bring the country together. That is what the President is going to be trying to doing this afternoon." That's going to be tough considering Bush has spent the last six years driving us apart.

Just wondering when was the last time Bush appeared at a memorial service for dead U.S. soldiers. He's avoided those events for the past four years. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning. Read More......

The battle over "war on terror"

The Bush team loves to use the phrase, but then again, how often are they actually correct? Axis of Evil? Meanwhile, Blair has not been as enthusiastic about the phrase but he is still reluctant to cast it aside, perhaps out of fear of raising any discussion related to his own failures in the disastrous campaigns.

Mr Benn risked a diplomatic rift by lecturing the White House about the need to develop a more intelligent response to the challenges posed by terrorism. He said relying entirely on "hard power" - military force or economic measures - would not work. What was needed, he said, was "soft power" - listening and finding common ground on values and ideas. Mr Benn said: "In the UK, we do not use the phrase 'war on terror' because we can't win by military means alone and because this isn't us against one organised enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objectives. It is the vast majority of the people in the world ... against a small number of loose, shifting and disparate groups who have relatively little in common apart from their identification with others who share their distorted view of the world. By letting them feel part of something bigger, we give them strength." He said later: "Words do count and that is why, since this is not something we can overcome by military means alone, we need to find other ways of describing what the challenge is."

Read More......

FDA unsure how to address food monitoring problems GOP created

It's painfully difficult to monitor food safety, including the quality of food coming from around the world, when an organization has been shredded. How many times are we going to watch this scene play out, where the GOP complains about a federal organization, slashes its budget and then sits back and says "see, it's not working" which then leads to talk of privatizing. The FDA under this administration only cares about the flow of business, never once giving a damn on the consequences of introducing dangerous food.

The FDA and the USDA have adopted a "risk-based" inspection philosophy, focusing on specific foods, sources or producers that they believe represent the largest potential risk to the public's health.

"The public at large is not at any increased risk," said Craig Henry, senior vice president and chief operating officer for scientific and regulatory affairs of the Grocery Manufacturers-Food Products Association, an industry group.

Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, countered that "risk-based" is just shorthand for "reduced resources."

"Whenever they say 'risk-based approach,' it often means they don't have enough staff to actually do the job. They're doing triage. They're trying to hit what's most important to inspect but they're missing a lot," DeWaal said.

Groups lobbying to increase the FDA's budget say its spending on food safety has languished, despite the agency's outsized role in ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply.

With this level of lax oversight, how does a consumer - and everyone has to eat in order to survive - make proper decisions? If this administration cares so much about life, they should start doing something about it and offer serious food safety. Read More......