Iceland shoots a second polar bear

The poor thing had to swim hundreds of miles to get there. More potential evidence of global warming:

Icelandic police said Wednesday they had shot and killed a polar bear discovered earlier this week on the island, which is hundreds of kilometres (miles) from the threatened species' natural habitat.

"It was shot last night (Tuesday)," a police spokesman in the northern town of Saudarkrokkur told AFP.

Polar bears are rare sightings on Iceland, since they have to swim hundreds of kilometres through icy waters to reach the island from their natural Arctic habitats, but the bear discovered Monday was the second spotted and killed on the island in the past two weeks....

That two polar bears that have made their way to Iceland in recent weeks could lend credence to warnings from experts that climate change is creating a more perilous environment for the majestic Arctic animals.

A warming climate means the ice -- where the bears usually hunt their favourite prey, the seals -- is receding and literally melting under their paws, forcing them to swim ever greater distances.

Environmental and animal conservation groups have long warned the polar bear was in danger, and recent studies indicated melting Arctic sea ice could cut their population by two-thirds over the next 50 years.

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This kid's absurdly good

Especially considering how young he is, 17, and how Richie Cunningham he looks. His music is simply great. Have a listen.

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Crist was against offshore drilling before he was for it

If only the Democrats could be as versatile in their positions as Republicans like Charlie Crist

Gov. Charlie Crist has dropped his long-standing support for the federal government's ban on offshore oil drilling and endorsed Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain's proposal to let states decide....

Last year, Crist had urged federal lawmakers to reject legislation, which they did, that would have allowed drilling as close as 45 miles off Florida's beaches. He also supported the moratorium during his 2006 campaign for governor.

Most Florida politicians have opposed drilling because they fear it would harm beaches vital to the state's tourism economy and interfere with weapons testing and training in and over the Gulf of Mexico by Florida military bases.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Charlie Crist always was kind of cagey about his favored position when it comes to drilling. Read the rest of this post...

McCain connection to Obama smear-monger?

In his post about Larry Sinclair, the now-jailed (again) guy spreading bizarre rumors about Obama, Ben Smith notes the following:

At the Press Club, Avi also ran into Will Bower, a sometimes-Huffington Post blogger who founded “Party Unity, My Ass” – a group for die-hard Clinton supporters that are now backing McCain – and was invited by the McCain campaign last weekend to meet with the presumptive Republican nominee, and called Sinclair's story "worth exploring."

And from Ben's post 4 days ago, we confirm that Will Bower was in fact invited, and did attend, a private meeting with McCain last weekend. Anyone else find it interesting that McCain is wooing a guy who is telling the media that Sinclair's smears are "worth exploring"? I'd love to know what the McCain campaign's involvement is here, whether they talked to Bower about this story, whether Bower told them he was going to the press conference, whether they're now prepared to reject and denounce Bower for trying to push this story? It's just a bit sleazy finding John McCain's name mixed up in all of this. Read the rest of this post...

Wacky Obama accuser arrested

In a post titled, Wacky Obama accuser is wanted by the law, John wrote earlier today about Larry Sinclair who is pushing a bizarro story about Obama. The guy has a very, very shady past. Very shady. Criminally shady.

In fact, the law got Sinclair today according to Dave Weigel:

I attended Larry Sinclair's press conference today and was confused when he concluded by rushing out of the room, taking no more questions. The reason? He was arrested by the D.C. metropolitan police. I called the First District station where he was being held and confirmed that Lawrence Wayne Sinclair was charged as a fugitive from justice based on an outstanding warrant.

Ben Smith has more. Read the rest of this post...

In Maine, Senate race tightens even more. Collins drops under 50%.

John posted updates on a number of Senate races below, but we're giving the Maine race its own post. Tom Allen is closing the gap against Susan Collins. In fact, for the first time, Collins has dropped under 50%. That's a danger zone for incumbents.

We've been watching this one for awhile. Susan Collins is especially despicable. She purports to be a moderate in Maine while doing the dirty work for George Bush in the Senate. Back her 2002 Senate race, Susan couldn't attach herself any closer to George Bush. She can't run from him this time. Collins is getting caught up in the anti-GOP wave. Here's an analysis I wrote about this race in March of 2007:

Maine is a blue state. Tom has represented the first Congressional District, which includes Greater Portland, since 1996. Approximately 72% of the media market in Maine comes out of the Portland-Auburn stations, which comprise the southern part of the state. A good chunk of voters in the Second District, including the very blue city of Waterville (hometown of the venerated George J. Mitchell) was in Tom's District until the last re-districting (in 2002). In the 2006 election, Tom got 60% of the vote without running one t.v. ad – meanwhile, the Democratic Governor was re-elected with only 38% of the vote in a four-way race. Collins best election was in 2002 -- the best GOP year ever, and she got just 58%. A lot has changed since 2002, but not Susan's loyalty to Bush and the GOP. She voted for the war and she can't escape that.

I just got off the phone with Tom Allen. He's feeling very upbeat especially about the very sophisticated field operation underway in Maine -- probably the best the state has ever seen. And, keep in mind, this gap has closed without Tom running any t.v. ads. Tom also wanted me to thank everyone for the support he's received from so many of AMERICAblog's readers. Our ActBlue page has already exceeded $10,000. This is real money for a campaign in Maine. Every dollar really helps. So give -- or give again. And, don't forget, McCain's biggest cheerleader, Joe Lieberman, is supporting Collins. It was just a year ago, June 20, 2007, when Lieberman hosted a fundraiser for her.

And, finally, here are those latest poll numbers that show Collins is in trouble:

Senator Susan Collins’ lead in her bid for reelection in Maine continues to fade, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey.

Two months ago Collins led her Democratic challenger Tom Allen by 16 percentage points, but that spread fell to 10 points in May. Now her lead is down to seven points, 49% to 42%, dropping her below 50% for the first time and putting her among the Republican senators at risk this November. Incumbents who poll less than 50% are generally viewed as potentially vulnerable.

Collins’ favorability rating has fallen as well for the third month in a row, but she is still is viewed favorably by a substantial majority of Maine voters (65%), down from 70% last month. By a nearly identical number, the incumbent’s unfavorables have risen from 29% in May to 33% now.

By contrast, Allen, who has served in the House since 1997, is viewed favorably by 56% of voters and unfavorably by 37%, virtually identical to his ratings in May.

The trend is looking very good for Tom Allen. He is going to win this race. Help make that happen. Read the rest of this post...

Updates on various Senate campaigns

OR: Gordon Smith apologizes for his comments on polygamy and gay marriage. He's still a pig. He's in favor of adding gay-bashing language to the United States Constitution. You don't come back from betrayal like that. Ever.

NH: Want proof Sununu is nothing more than a puppet for the Bush administration? Blue Hampshire has the goods

MN: Franken is going on the offense on Iraq

NC: Obama spells trouble for Liddy Dole (subscription required)

NE: While George Bush is haunting Mike Johanns

MS: Bush is going to be in Mississippi raising money for Roger Wicker on July 1

NJ: For Republicans, New Jersey is such a tease

TX: Big John just gets funnier and funnier Read the rest of this post...

Wonder how the religious right feels about John McCain's nude shower scene on SNL

First off, yeah it's him (circa 2002). Secondly, the religious right has freaked out over implied nudity before in TV commercials and on TV shows. How do they feel about McCain playing a creepy guy who's stalking his nude and very wet wife in a shower, and then broadcasting it nationwide? Hard to imagine Ronald Reagan playing a nude scene. Not very presidential. Read the rest of this post...

FOX's Brit Hume gets story wrong about Obama

Now there's a headline you don't read every day. Oh, I'm sorry, yes you do, because FOX is always getting their facts wrong. This time, FOX "quoted" Obama's brother as supposedly saying (he didn't) that Obama is a Muslim (he isn't). Yeah, the thing is, Obama's brother never said any such thing, as the audio of the actual interview shows. But hey, never put it beyond FOX News to get a story wrong in the interests of furthering the Republican party's far right agenda. Read the rest of this post...

McCain: Giuliani, my top national security surrogate, has no national security experience

Of course, in a year when the faltering economy is the voters' #1 issue McCain has no understanding of the economy either, so together they'll make a great team. Actually, this is quite serious. John McCain has picked Rudy Giuliani to be his top national security surrogate, his top guy going after Obama on national security, when John McCain himself said that Rudy Giuliani has no national security experience at all. Then why pick him? Two possible reasons:

1. McCain can no longer remember what he said more than two minutes ago.

2. McCain is playing politics and picking "experts" who he doesn't even think are real experts, but if they'll bash Obama, then McCain is fine with their lack of expertise in the very areas they're talking about.

TPM Election Central quotes McCain on Giuliani:

"I think the nation respects the mayor's leadership after 9/11, and I do, too, and I think he displayed leadership at a time that Americans needed some steady hand, and I think that his conduct was very laudatory following 9/11," Mr. McCain said, when asked why so many voters identify Mr. Giuliani with the issue of terrorism.

But he went on to say: "I don't think it translates, necessarily, into foreign policy or national security expertise. I know of nothing in his background that indicates that he has any experience in it, with him or Romney."

Read the rest of this post...

Wash Post catches McCain campaign lying about 9/11

Haven't we had enough lies from our leaders about the war on terror? Apparently, the McCain campaign doesn't think so. They lit into Obama yesterday, trying to portray him as bad on terror, but the thing is, they did it by lying. And the Washington Post caught them. Here is what Team McCain claimed:

Tuesday, the McCain team drew a direct line between the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying that submitting the bombers to the criminal justice system was, in the words of former Navy secretary and 9/11 Commission member John Lehman, "a material cause" of the 2001 attacks. Lehman participated in the McCain conference call.

Lehman said grand jury evidence in the 1993 bombing was "put under seal" and not made available to the CIA, thus denying the agency timely access to information that "would have enabled many of the dots to be connected well before 9/11 and . . . give a good chance to have prevented" the later attack. In particular, he cited information concerning a connection between Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged ringleader of the 2001 attacks who is imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, and the bombing.

And here's what really happened:

But both the report of the 9/11 Commission, which investigated intelligence failures leading to the 2001 strikes, and the prosecutor of the 1993 case disagreed with Lehman's version of history. The commission's final report, which Lehman endorsed as a member of the panel, gives no indication that any failure to share information on the bombing with the intelligence community had "significance for the story of 9/11."

Instead, the report cites political and intelligence failures to understand the scope of the terrorist threat after the 1993 attack, as well as a failure to fully analyze the implications of the available information. It also blames the FBI and the CIA for failing to effectively communicate with each other, problems that were later addressed in the USA Patriot Act and the reorganization of the intelligence community.

Grand jury secrecy "could have operated in these cases as a barrier to information flowing from law enforcement to intelligence," former U.S. attorney Mary Jo White, who successfully prosecuted six major terrorism cases including the 1993 bombing, said Tuesday. But, she added, "as a matter of fact it did not."

White and several people involved in the 9/11 Commission disputed Lehman's assertion that "the CIA was not allowed to see that evidence." Lehman also described then-CIA Director George J. Tenet as "flabbergasted at what he found in that material" once it was made available to him. But Tenet made no such claim in his 2007 book.

Far from being unknown to the intelligence community, Mohammed was indicted in January 1996 in connection with a plot to blow up transpacific airliners. The congressional joint inquiry on the Sept. 11 plot strongly suggested that the intelligence community was well aware of Mohammed's terrorist activities, but that agencies were unduly focused on apprehending him in the airline case rather than on other plots still in the planning stages.

So now we need to hear from the McCain campaign as to why they just lied to the American people about September 11 and the war on terror. Haven't we had enough lies from Republican presidents? Read the rest of this post...

Not so funny anymore

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Wacky Obama accuser is wanted by the law

There's a rather odd (to say the least) guy who's been claiming for months that he has dirt on Barack Obama. The thing is, the guy's credibility is, well, shall we say "spotty." Ben Smith at the Politico reports that the guy has a 27-year criminal record. And he's apparently wanted by the state of Colorado. Above you can find his "WANTED" notice from the Pueblo County, Colorado Web site. It's ironic that the cops are asking anyone with information about this guy to contact them, because you can find him today at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. (Ben Smith did in fact contact the Sheriff, who says they can't extradite the guy, but that he will be arrested if he steps foot in Colorado. The Sheriff did, however, contact the FBI about the guy.)

Here's a sample of what Ben reports:

He was first arrested on a larceny charge in 1981 in Denver, according to his Colorado arrest record, as filed in federal court. In 1985, he was convicted of theft and of forging a check in Florida, and sentenced to a year in jail, according to Florida records filed in federal court.

After the Florida episode, according to the records, he returned to Colorado, where he faced check fraud and credit card charges in 1986. Then, in 1987, he was convicted in Colorado on more serious forgery charges, and sentenced to 16 years in jail.

In prison, according to state records filed in federal court, Sinclair was disciplined 97 times for infractions including assault, threats, drug possession, intimidation, and verbal abuse, most recently in 1996.

Oh, and the guy took a polygraph - reportedly, it didn't go so well:

This February, the website Whitehouse.com reportedly offered Sinclair $100,000 if he could pass a polygraph test verifying his claims. He took them up on it, and the site said in a press release that the polygraph organizers said his results "indicated deception." Sinclair then suggested the polygraph's sponsors had been bribed to skew the
results against him.

Yes, the august National Press Club is hosting a known criminal (his own lawyer admits to Politico that his criminal record "is what it is," and that "he's not denying it") in order to help him defame a presidential candidate with sleazy unsubstantiated rumors. The Press Club claims they don't "censor" anyone. Maybe we should schedule our own panel at the Press Club, and hire some hookers and strippers to do a, uh, live presentation, and test the Press Club's no-censorship rules.

Oh yeah, speaking of censorship. The guy himself is claiming that he won't let any reporters in to the press conference, unless he and his agents approve of those reporters in advance. For example, no "bloggers" will be allowed. Apparently, some censorship is permitted after all at the Press Club, Read the rest of this post...

ABC's buddy, the cult-run Washington Times, calls AIDS "the gift of the gays"

Nice. And as I wrote the other day, ABC is actually giving the cult-run Washington Times credibility by now doing joint investigations with the Moonie tabloid. (Apparently, the National Enquirer wasn't available.) Gee, so can we look forward to ABC doing an investigation of AIDS as "the gift of the gays"? Terribly sleazy of ABC to lie down with these dogs. Read the rest of this post...

Will airline luggage policies cause even more problems?

I think this opinion piece is onto something. It's time the airline industry ditched its consultants and executive management teams and started thinking about customers again. Read the rest of this post...

Trump on CNBC: Big Oil "ripping off this country"

Obviously he's a Marxist.

Speaking on CNBC this morning, the real estate magnate said taking punitive measures against companies reaping big profits in a capitalist society is against his nature, but the energy situation is unique.

"I consider myself to be a great capitalist, but I think the oil companies have been ripping off this country and the world for a long time," Trump said. "I can see doing something against the oil companies. They're making numbers--nobody's ever seen numbers like this. They and OPEC and lots of people together are having a lot of fun."

Read the rest of this post...

Republicans block unemployment benefits

If only the unemployed were millionaire and billionaire Wall Street gamblers. Then they would see billions handed over without even a debate. Read the rest of this post...

Goldman: US banks will need another $65 billion

Wow, that's a pretty shocking figure and as the article mentions, raising capital is getting harder by the day. I'll be Phil Gramm's phone is ringing off the hook these days, though perhaps he only works for posh Swiss banks when he's not co-chair of the McCain campaign.

U.S. banks may need to raise $65 billion of additional capital to cope with mounting losses from a global credit crisis that will not peak until 2009, Goldman Sachs analysts said on Tuesday.

The new capital would be on top of $120 billion already raised by the industry, analysts led by Richard Ramsden said.

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Republican economics strike again

For all of the Republican talk about how bad Jimmy Carter was, it will be interesting to see how they spin more bad numbers that haven't been seen since Carter was in office. At least Carter tried to make positive changes on US energy policy, though the GOP spent the next few decades ripping it all apart, bringing us back to where we started. Can we all see that the Republican policies have failed or do they need to be repeated?

The Labor Department said producer prices over the last 12 months were up 7.2 percent in May, the eighth consecutive month prices rose more than 6 percent on a yearly basis.

The last time PPI produced this many straight months of above 6 percent year-over-year readings was the period between 1977 and 1982, a Labor Department official said.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Joe is back this afternoon, so this will be my last good morning you'll hear from me until I hit another time zone more amenable to East Coast mornings. So, one of our readers emailed me and noted that it's all and well and good for Bush to attend Tim Russert's wake, but has he ever bothered to attend the wake or funeral of a US soldier who died in Iraq? In happier news, Donna Edwards wins her special election in Maryland and will be a member of Congress as soon as she gets sworn in, I believe. You guys helped her campaign a lot. So hip hip hurray :-) Read the rest of this post...

McSame fear and smear

Different year, same fear. Despite his best effort, McCain can't separate himself from the Bush team and how cold he? They remain joined at the hip.

A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain's aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism.

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. "This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse."

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Would Bush & McCain have some faith in American know-how?

The solutions to the US energy problems are not sitting offshore but don't tell that to the Republicans. Maybe they have little faith in American engineering and entrepreneurs but that's nothing new. Whether the US drills offshore or we help promote new energies, it will take time to get started so why ruin our environment when we can tap into our own home grown talent? Besides addressing the energy issue it also helps develop jobs and leadership in a fast growing industry. Bush and McCain have so little faith in the American spirit and tell people that drilling is the only solution. By focusing exclusively on drilling, the Bush/McCain team is telling the world that America is too stupid to build a better solution.

Why so little faith in America? Read the rest of this post...

Honda rolling out hydrogen cars

It may not be the answer to climate change though we're also not likely to find one single solution overnight. Supporters tout the water vapor emissions while others claim it's no better than the new (cleaner) diesel cars that are sold in Europe. Opponents argue that producing hydrogen extracted from fossil fuels (as Bush wants) causes pollution and hydrogen leaked in to the environment can cause other problems.

The four-seater, called FCX Clarity, runs on hydrogen and electricity, emitting only water vapour.

Honda claims the vehicle offers three times better fuel efficiency than a traditional, gasoline-powered car.

Honda plans to produce 200 of the cars, which are initially only available to lease, over the next three years.

Read the rest of this post...

CNBC: Housing collapse the fault of African-Americans, Latinos and minorities

Larry Kudlow and his Mini-Me (Jerry Bower) on CNBC have blamed just about everyone for the housing crisis/credit crunch except for the people who were responsible for creating the failed plan, Wall Street. Minorities are always a fine target for right wingers who can't accept responsibility and now that Obama is the Democratic candidate, there is more race-baiting than usual from this group. Clearly there's a gap in reality with this group who simply can't admit that despite their education and cushy positions, they helped create one of the greatest losses ever on Wall Street including the first ever financial losses for Wall Street houses that remained profitable through the Great Depression.

However much they try to push this problem away, it just keeps coming back to them. Even now, it's not the minorities that are walking away with $61 million when things go belly up as they did with Bear Stearns. Do slightly veiled racist arguments like this really deserve to be promoted by CNBC? Read the rest of this post...