Call now before rooms are all booked

Five star hotel planned for Baghdad. Pack the flak jackets and burkinis, it's sure to be great. Read the rest of this post...

Phil Gramm, not so gone after all

After top McCain adviser Phil Gramm called Americans "whiners" for being under the mistaken assumption that we're in a recession, another top McCain surrogate said tonight that in fact Phil Gramm is coming back - he seemed to suggest that Gramm will continue to advise McCain during the campaign, and he'll get an appointment in a McCain administration. So the McCain campaign lied when they said Phil Gramm was out. Here's a rush transcript of Kudlow and Company tonight:

KUDLOW: "Steve Forbes, we just have a little bit of time. A lot of conservatives are very dispirited that Phil Gramm has left the McCain campaign, Steve. Has he in fact left? I know he has resigned. Will Senator McCain, who has yet to speak about this, do you think senator McCain will ask him to come back?"

FORBES: "Oh, I think in terms of advice Phil Gramm will be critical, which is good because on things like trade he is absolutely right. I think John McCain has a long friendship with Phil Gramm, so this was something, Phil Gramm said something that you're not supposed to say these days, and he paid a price for it, but in terms of the relationship, I think it's as strong as ever, and in the McCain administration, I think phil Gramm's advice will be taken to heart."

[BERNSTEIN (INTERRUPTING): "Larry, i think the Obama campaign might miss Phil Gramm too."]

KUDLOW: "Why won't Senator McCain say what you just said publicly? In other words, McCain could say I don't want your resignation, you misspoke, let's leave it be. We're a large tent, big family. We need you on this campaign. Steve. Do you think McCain will come out and say that?"

FORBES: "I think he will say good things about Phil Gramm and Phil Gramm paid the price for it. Gramm's been in presidential politics, as I have, and when these things happen, somebody walks the plank, but I think in terms of relationship and the philosophy, that's not going to change."

(CNBC Kudlow and Company, 7/21/08)

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CQ: New McCain ad about oil prices lies about Obama

Gee, not very straight talking. Also kind of nasty for someone who's always bristling at how mean the Democrats are to him. What will Mrs. Greenspan say? More from Congressional Quarterly's fact checker:

What the ad pins on Obama — and others who are "saying no to (new offshore) drilling in America" — are the price increases the country is currently enduring. That saddles the Illinois senator with a lot more influence than he has had. If one were to line up all the leaders in Washington who share some responsibility for the offshore drilling moratorium — the first President Bush, the Republican leadership of Congress, the Democratic leadership of Congress, the Florida delegation — there would be quite a few people ahead of Obama. We find McCain's claim to be False.

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AP cites Rush Limbaugh as expert on "fairness"

It's simply bizarre. AP did a story today saying that the press is biased in favor of Obama. AP's sources? Rush Limbaugh, and a study showing that Obama recently got more coverage - not more positive coverage, just more coverage - than McCain. Yeah, and? I'm sure when the media was debating whether Obama loved the American flag or whether his priest passed the all-important George Stephanopoulos patriotism test, Obama was mentioned a LOT more than Hillary or McCain. And this is an indication that the media is too nice to him? Who in the media fawns over Obama as much as Mrs. Greenspan and her sidekick Bob Schieffer coo over McCain? The corporate media love McCain. As David Broder wrote, it doesn't really matter what inanity McCain utters, the media knows John McCain's soul and they deem it good. So spare us the "it's unfair" whine. If the media wants to talk about unfair coverage, let's talk about the sycophantic coverage of Republicans from September 12, 2001 onwards. Read the rest of this post...

McCain's secret map of the Middle East

Courtesy of Matt Yglesias.

Brilliant.

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British bank fails to raise capital after credit crisis losses

Almost every bank and mortgage related company in the US and Europe is trying to round up new money so it's no surprise that Britain's HBOS failed in its attempt to raise billions to replenish its coffers. Objectively, who would want to throw these gamblers any more cash considering how poorly they've managed money in recent years? As the credit crisis continue in the US, we will be seeing more cautious investing in this dodgy business. To give them anything will only encourage more of the same risky behavior, including bonuses for selling more trash. This industry still thinks that its 2004 or 2005 when money was no object.

An attempt by British bank HBOS to raise 5.0 billion euros from shareholders to bolster finances hit by the credit crisis flopped on Monday, and underwriting banks were set to pick up the tab.

The country's biggest mortgage lender, seeking to boost its capital after heavy credit squeeze writedowns, said investors had agreed to buy just 8.29 percent of its 4.0-billion-pound or 7.9-billion-dollar rights issue.

A bank spokesman blamed the poor take-up on a "fierce financial storm" that has battered the financial sector amid fallout from the collapsed US subprime housing market and the related credit crunch.

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How John McCain made Barack Obama's day

From the New Republic:

[T]he McCain campaign has only itself to blame. The problem with making an incredibly superficial critique of an opponent is that it can be rebutted incredibly superficially. The Democrats fell into this trap into the 1990s when, rather than critique Republicans on policy grounds, they denounced them as racist meanies. Then, as my colleague Jon Chait has written, Bush came along and surrounded himself with cute black and Hispanic kids. This didn't affect his policies one lick, but it did defuse the Democratic charges.

The McCain campaign made a similar mistake by equating Obama's foreign travel with his fitness to be president. As with the Democrats and Bush, they may have a case to make on the underlying merits. But, if things go according to plan for Obama this week, they will only have helped ensure it won't be heard.

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Chairman of Joint Chiefs sticks nose in US elections, again

I'm getting a bit tired of watching active-duty Republican military leaders, this time Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, trying to sway US elections. While that's standard practice in banana republics, in America the military doesn't try to influence domestic elections. It's creepy. And it's unprofessional. But that seems to be what the top military commander at the Pentagon did yesterday in publicly criticizing Barack Obama's plan for Iraq - he called it "dangerous." Let's look at the multiple reasons this is in appropriate:

1. As already stated, in America the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff isn't supposed to use his military power to throw US elections to either party. It's creepy and goes against the entire notion of a civilian military command.

2. Even the appearance of a US military leader trying to influence our elections is completely inappropriate. Having the chairman go on TV and criticize a presidential candidate's Iraq policy is, per se, an appearance of impropriety. The chairman should have no public opinion whatsoever on the Democratic or the Republican candidate's plans for Iraq.

3. What does Chairman Mullen plan to do if Barack Obama becomes president in six months and the troops have to implement Obama's withdrawal strategy after Mullen has publicly called it "dangerous"? There is the very real possibility that when that day comes Mullen will have helped to demoralize our troops in their future mission. It's completely irresponsible. Read the rest of this post...

Iraq wants a timetable for withdrawal. John McCain doesn't -- and says that's not what the Iraqis want.

The Iraqi government reconfirmed that they want a timetable for U.S. withdrawal:

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh made the statement following Obama's meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has faced pressure in recent days to clarify published comments that he supported Obama's plan to withdraw U.S. combat forces within 16 months if he become the U.S. president.

Dabbagh did not provide a specific timetable for a U.S. pullout, but declared that they were working "on a real timetable which Iraqis set," and the 2010 deadline was "an Iraqi vision."

"We can't give any schedules or dates, but the Iraqi government sees the suitable date for withdrawal of the U.S. forces is by the end of 2010," Dabbagh told reporters.

John McCain thinks otherwise -- and intimates he knows what the Iraqis really want:



Hat tip, Jed for the video. Read the rest of this post...

E. coli conservatism and America's safety problems

Surprise, surprise. The radical right cuts safety budgets to the bone and Americans get sick. Letting such bad ideas become law was bad enough but allowing it to continue is even worse. For the ten millionth time, business self-regulation does not work. Americans are still expecting to receive a certain level of consumer protections but the Republicans gutted the system long ago, which is why we continue to have so many health problems:

Historian Rick Perlstein, author of "Nixonland," calls it "E. coli conservatism" -- government shrinks and shrinks until people get sick.

"Government is not the solution to our problem," President Reagan famously declared in his inaugural address in 1981. "Government is the problem."

Many conservatives have gone far beyond that. Their traditional embrace of small government has been replaced with outright disdain for it. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, doesn't just want to shrink government. To use his words, he wants government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Once in power, E. coli conservatives shrink government by hamstringing it. They weaken rules that protect people, slash the budgets of consumer agencies and appoint industry friends to oversight commissions. The result: Some government regulatory agencies that we trust to protect us have shrunk to insignificance or serve private industry rather than consumers.

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Iraqi government spokesman reiterates support for Obama withdrawal plan

Oops. Considering that yesterday Al-Maliki was trying to back off after obviously being pressured by Bush (as Joe noted earlier this morning, Maliki was clear when he said he wanted us out per Obama's timetable - even more from ThinkProgress). Well, now the Iraqi government spokesman did it again

Iraq's government spokesman is hopeful that U.S. combat forces could be out of the country by 2010.

Ali al-Dabbagh made the comments following a meeting in Baghdad on Monday between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, who arrived in Iraq earlier in the day.

The timeframe is similar to Obama's proposal to pull back combat troops within 16 months. The Iraqi government has been trying to clarify its position on a possible troop withdrawal since al-Maliki was quoted in a German magazine last week saying he supported Obama's timetable.

The Iraqi government later said the prime minister's remarks were misinterpreted.

Barack Obama, out by 2010. John McCain, stay for 100 years. Any questions? Read the rest of this post...

McCain worried about the "situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border" (Note to McCain: Iraq doesn't border Pakistan)

Yep, John McCain, whose campaign is based on his long-time foreign policy experience, told ABC that's he very worried about the Iraq/Pakistan border. But, there isn't one. Iran, a somewhat important nation in the scheme of things in the Middle East, is in between:

And it was McCain who owns the first big gaffe of the trip -- appearing to confuse Iraq and Afghanistan.

Asked by ABC’s Diane Sawyer Monday morning whether the "the situation in Afghanistan in precarious and urgent," McCain responded: "I think it’s serious. . . . It's a serious situation, but there's a lot of things we need to do. We have a lot of work to do and I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," said McCain, R-Ariz., said on "Good Morning America."

Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do.

Pretty basic stuff. Pretty big mistake for John McCain.

If McCain knew how to use the internet, he could do "a google" and find National Geographic
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Obama in Basra, Baghdad. Tape of interview confirms Al-Maliki's support for Obama's plans.

The Democratic nominee is in Iraq today:

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived in Iraq Monday morning on a fact-finding mission to discuss U.S.-Iraq strategy and American troop levels, issues that have become a cornerstone of debate in the presidential campaign

This trip plays out against the backdrop of the Iraqi prime minister's recent support for Obama's Iraq plans. The Bush administration has worked tirelessly to debunk that idea, but the New York Times listened to the tape -- and confirms what Der Spiegel wrote. Al-Maliki did voice strong support for Obama's timetable:

In Iraq, controversy continued to reverberate between the United States and Iraqi governments over a weekend news report that Mr. Maliki had expressed support for Mr. Obama’s proposal to withdraw American combat troops within 16 months of January. The reported comments came after Mr. Bush agreed on Friday to a “general time horizon” for pulling out troops from Iraq without a specific timeline.

Diplomats from the United States Embassy in Baghdad spoke to Mr. Maliki’s advisers on Saturday, said an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss what he called diplomatic communications. After that, the government’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, issued a statement casting doubt on the magazine’s rendering of the interview.

The statement, which was distributed to media organizations by the American military early on Sunday, said Mr. Maliki’s words had been “misunderstood and mistranslated,” but it failed to cite specifics.

“Unfortunately, Der Spiegel was not accurate,” Mr. Dabbagh said Sunday by telephone. “I have the recording of the voice of Mr. Maliki. We even listened to the translation.”

But the interpreter for the interview works for Mr. Maliki’s office, not the magazine. And in an audio recording of Mr. Maliki’s interview that Der Spiegel provided to The New York Times, Mr. Maliki seemed to state a clear affinity for Mr. Obama’s position, bringing it up on his own in an answer to a general question on troop presence.

The following is a direct translation from the Arabic of Mr. Maliki’s comments by The Times: “Obama’s remarks that — if he takes office — in 16 months he would withdraw the forces, we think that this period could increase or decrease a little, but that it could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq.”

He continued: “Who wants to exit in a quicker way has a better assessment of the situation in Iraq.”

The Bush team spends an enormous amount of time and energy playing political games over Iraq. That's been true since the 2002 political campaign centered on the build up to the Iraq war. This episode shows it is still happening. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Back in D.C. where we're under Code Orange because of the heat and unhealthy air.

Just saw John McCain being interviewed on the TODAY Show. He told us that he does know about the economy -- boasting of his tenure as Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. In fact, McCain chaired that committee from 1997- 2001, then 2003- 2005. One area of the committee's jurisdiction is "Science, engineering, and technology research and development and policy." So, McCain was in charge of the committee with jurisdiction over technology issues -- during a period of some amazing technological advances -- but he doesn't know how to get online. That's classic.

Okay, thread the news.... Read the rest of this post...

Global food crisis worse for women and poor in Africa

As the crisis continues, we will no doubt find more sad stories such as this. For most of us living in wealthy countries we can't even imagine going without a meal or two each day, but for millions, this is an every day reality. Hats off again to the EU for sending leftover EU farm subsidy money to Africa to help the continent lift itself up.

In poor West African nations such as Burkina Faso, mealtime conspires against women. They grow the food, fetch the water, shop at the market and cook the meals. But when it comes time to eat, men and children eat first, and women eat last and least.

Soaring prices for food and fuel have pushed more than 130 million poor people across vast swaths of Africa, Asia and Latin America deeper into poverty in the past year, according to the U.N. World Food Program. But while millions of men and children are also hungrier, women are the hungriest and skinniest. Aid workers call malnutrition among women one of the most notable hidden consequences of the food crisis.

"It's a cultural thing," said Hervé Kone, director of a group that promotes development, social justice and human rights in Burkina Faso. "When the kids are hungry, they go to their mother, not their father. And when there is less food, women are the first to eat less."

A recent study by the aid group Catholic Relief Services found that many people in Burkina Faso are now spending 75 percent or more of their income on food, leaving little for other basic needs.

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