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A new NEWSWEEK Poll shows that he has a substantial double-digit lead, 51 percent to 36 percent, over McCain among registered voters nationwide.Read the rest of this post...
In the previous NEWSWEEK Poll, completed in late May when Clinton was still fighting him hard for the Democratic nomination, Obama managed no better than a 46 percent tie with McCain....
The latest numbers on voter dissatisfaction suggest that Obama may enjoy more than one bounce. The new poll finds that only 14 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the direction of the country. That matches the previous low point on this measure recorded in June 1992, when a brief recession contributed to Bill Clinton's victory over Bush's father, incumbent George H.W. Bush. Overall, voters see Obama as the preferred agent of "change" by a margin of 51 percent to 27 percent. Younger voters, in particular, are more likely to see Obama that way: those 18 to 39 favor the Illinois senator by 66 percent to 27 percent. The two candidates are statistically tied among older voters.
Obama's current lead also reflects the large party-identification advantage the Democrats now enjoy—55 percent of all voters call themselves Democrats or say they lean toward the party while just 36 percent call themselves Republicans or lean that way.
Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.Read the rest of this post...
Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.
The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations.
In a cross-border political attack, John McCain said Friday that Barack Obama's opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement is "nothing more than retreating behind protectionist walls."McCain then went to a fundraiser for his campaign hosted by the American ambassador to Canada, which appears to be a violation of federal law:
The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting added that if he wins the White House, "have no doubt that America will honor its international commitments - and we will expect the same of others."
McCain did not mention Obama by name as he spoke before the Economic Club of Canada, a business organization whose membership cheered his remarks....
...In an unmistakable reference to Obama, he added, "Demanding unilateral changes and threatening to abrogate an agreement that has increased trade and prosperity is nothing more than retreating behind protectionist walls."
A Canadian newspaper reported Thursday that Friday's scheduled $100-a-plate luncheon speech by Sen. John McCain in Ottowa was organized in part by U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, a former South Carolina lawmaker whom President Bush appointed in 2005.McCain is probably thinking: What the Hell? I've already broken the campaign finance law by illegally attempting to remove myself from the campaign finance system, after financially benefiting from it, which is punishable by five years in jail. Hell, why not violate the Hatch Act, too? All my pals in the traditional media will let me off the hook. They don't want me to get mad and kick them off my bus.
Democrats pointed out the article late Thursday night, and alleged that Wilkins's actions could be construed as a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits many kinds of political activities by government employees.
The article in the Edmonton Sun, and an earlier one in the Globe and Mail, says that Wilkins contacted Thomas d'Aquino, the president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, to help set up what they described as a fundraiser before McCain's visit. McCain is scheduled to give a speech at the the Chateau Laurier Hotel and to meet with several Canadian officials.
According to the Sun: "Wilkins had been contacted by the McCain campaign about a Canadian visit, and the ambassador wanted to know if some of d'Aquino's group of corporate chief executives might be interested in meeting the Republican presidential candidate. Almost instantly, d'Aquino jumped at the opportunity."
The Hatch Act circumscribes political activity for government employees. According to the American Foreign Service Association Web site, the State Department's ethics office prohibits fundraising activities for its presidential appointees.
Former presidential spokesman Scott McClellan on Friday said President Bush has lost the public's trust by failing to open up about his administration's mistakes and backtracking on a promise to tell all about the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.Read the rest of this post...
"This White House promised or assured the American people that at some point when this was behind us they would talk publicly about it. And they have refused to," McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee. "And that's why I think more than any other reason we are here today and the suspicion still remains."
The former White House press secretary suggested that Bush could do much to redeem his credibility on the Plame matter and his reasons for going to war in Iraq if he would embrace "openness and candor and then constantly strive to build trust across the aisle."
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McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee that he doesn't know if a crime was committed and does not believe that Bush knew about or directed the leak. When asked about Cheney, he replied: "I do not know. There's a lot of suspicion there."
Nothing in America had earned the adult John McCain's love in the 31 years before he was shot down? Nothing? Not winning the Second World War? Not our regular and orderly transitions of power based on the rule of law? Not freeing millions of Jews from the Nazi's? Not the fact that we feed and defend the world? Not that we lead in science and technology research? Not even when McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy? Not even McCain's grandfather and father who were admirals in the United States Navy taught him to love America? Nothing?Read the rest of this post...
Not even the fact that McCain was able to use his fathers position as an Admiral in the Navy to guarantee he became a naval aviator even though he had graduated 4th from the bottom at the USNA?
Not the fact that we saved the entire world from the Japanese Empire had made John McCain at the age of 31 love his country in his entire adult life?
How sad. I certainly don't want this self-serving blind pessimist as commander in chief of the USA.
"I didn't really love America until I was deprived of her company."Then there's McCain in 1999:
"It wasn't until I was deprived of her company that I fell in love with America."McCain was 31 years old when he was captured. 31. Far into adulthood. So McCain was fighting for our country, a country he didn't love. And we're supposed to respect the military service of a man who didn't love his country. Then why was he fighting?
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama canceled a scheduled visit to eastern Iowa last week at the request of state officials.Of course, Bush and McCain are still dealing with the ramifications of their Katrina photo-op. This photo was taken on Monday, August 29, 2005 while New Orleans was being destroyed:
"As a courtesy - and as we did for Senator Obama - we privately made an effort to make sure that Senator McCain knew that state and local resources were still being deployed to support the flood fight and that now may not be the best time for a campaign trip," Dillon said in a statement.
Dillon's comments came as President Bush toured the state, and hundreds of law enforcement officers were diverted from flood recovery to provide security for him.
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“I’m fearful of these markets,” one wrote.Read the rest of this post...
The other said later, “Believe it or not — I’ve been able to convince people to add more money.” He concluded that “I think we should close the funds now.”
But three days later, the pair, Ralph R. Cioffi and Matthew M. Tannin, presented an upbeat picture to worried investors without disclosing that the two funds were plummeting in value and that Mr. Cioffi had already pulled some assets from one of them.
A little more than a month later, the funds, filled with some of the most explosive and high-risk securities available, imploded, evaporating $1.6 billion of investor assets and setting off a financial chain reaction that has rattled global markets, caused more than $350 billion in write-downs, cost a number of executives their jobs and culminated in the demise of Bear Stearns itself.
The 68 million acres of leased but inactive federal land have the potential to produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. This would nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural gas production by 75 percent. It would also cut U.S. oil imports by more than one-third, reducing America's dependency on foreign oil.Read the rest of this post...
The Rahall bill would force oil and gas companies to either produce or give up federal onshore and offshore leases they are stockpiling by barring the companies from obtaining any more leases unless they can demonstrate that they are producing oil and gas, or are diligently developing the leases they already hold, during the initial term of the leases.
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