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Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan released the following statement on the legislative session ending without the passage of a restrictive proposal requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls:Read the rest of this post...“This proposal not passing is a victory for voter’s rights. This debate has not been about having Missouri voters identify themselves at the polls. In Missouri, we already have common sense identification requirements in place. This debate has been about ensuring fair elections, and elections can not be fair if eligible voters are not allowed to make their voice heard on Election Day.The Missouri Supreme Court stuck down a 2006 Voter Photo ID law in October of that year, citing that it placed too much of a burden on eligible Missourian’s constitutional right to vote.
These past two weeks we heard from Missouri voters across the state that feared they would lose their right to vote because they don’t have a government-issued photo ID or a birth certificate, and I am glad the legislature didn’t put their right to vote at risk. The hard work of citizens and groups around this state who opposed this proposal played a key role in making sure this legislation was not passed.”
"Supply and demand are in balance today," [Saudi oil minister Ali] al-Naimi told a news conference, bristling at criticism from the U.S. Congress. "How much does Saudi Arabia need to do to satisfy people who are questioning our oil practices and policies?"Read the rest of this post...
Early this week, Senate Democrats introduced a resolution to block $1.4 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia unless Riyadh agreed to increase its oil production by 1 million barrels per day.
But in Southern states with large black populations, like Alabama, Mississippi and Virginia, an energized black electorate could create a countervailing force, particularly if conservative white voters choose not to flock to Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, predicts “the largest black turnout in the history of the United States” this fall if Mr. Obama is the nominee.Read the rest of this post...
To hold these states, Republicans may have to work harder than ever. Already, turnout in Democratic primaries this year has substantially exceeded Republican turnout in states like Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Some analysts suggest that North Carolina and Virginia may even be within reach for the Democratic nominee, and they point to the surprising result in a Congressional special election in Mississippi this week as an indicator of things to come.
Lumping McCain together with President Bush, Obama declared: "If they want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that's a debate I'm ready to win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for." He blamed Bush for policies that enhance the strength of terrorist groups such as Hamas and "the fact that al-Qaida's leadership is stronger than ever because we took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan," among other failings.Read the rest of this post...
JOE SUDBAY (Americablog.com): Hi I'm Joe Sudbay from Americablog, based here in DC. And I'm interested in the issue of presidential nominations particularly the FEC and what will happen with that. We saw last week that Bush withdrew David Mason who was quoted in the Washington Post earlier this year, saying that John McCain was basically breaking the law. So what do you foresee in general with presidential nominations going forward this session and particularly with the FEC.Well, Harry Reid won.
REID: I've had private discussions with Bolten, Josh Bolten. I've had many things public in nature, in fact most publicly, we've exchanged a number of letters back and forth. Here's where we are now. We have three Democrats that we are happy to have on the Federal Election Commission. They have three Republicans they're happy to have on the Federal Election Commission. We will not let one of them be approved. His name is Von Splotsky or something like that. So they're going to have to make a decision, they're going to have to replace him or there will be no FEC. And they need it worse than we do.
Jon Soltz, an Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org, added, "This is an issue I take personally. I know of many people who received a diagnosis of 'Adjustment Disorder,' who strongly felt they had PTSD, many of whom confirmed that suspicion with an independent diagnosis. Many veterans believe that the government just doesn't want to pay out the disability that comes along with a PTSD diagnosis, and this revelation will not allay their concerns. It is crucial that we quickly get to the bottom of this, and ensure that misdiagnosing veterans is not part of some cost-cutting policy."The continued mistreatment and exploitation of those who serve is appalling. On the flip side, it's to the great credit of organizations like CREW and VoteVets that they're on top of these issues. Hopefully we'll see some improvement in the next administration, but many people can't wait that long. Corrections are necessary now. Read the rest of this post...
MoveOn's new ad is about one of John McCain's top advisers, who also has advised Ferdinand Marcos, Mbuto in Zaire, and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. Then again, John McCain's filthy rich wife, whose corporate jet McCain flies on for his campaign, had $2m in investments dealing with the nasty folks in the Sudan. Anyone else seeing a pattern? Watch it, it's good.
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"The way we handled you guys was a mistake on our part. What we're hearing is that we truly treated people badly and weren't accessible enough or open enough. We had bad relationships with reporters, and it probably bit us on the ass."Read the rest of this post...
"We ran a press operation that lost all credibility with the press through endless and pointless memos like, 'Where's the Bounce?' and polling memos that cherry-picked only positive polls when we were up and ignored polling when we were down."
"Even among Clinton spokespeople long known for their heavy-handed ways, Phil Singer stood out for his all-too-common and accepted profanity-laced tirades and abusive behavior--both at colleagues and the media, who were all too happy to direct his comeuppance toward Hillary at a time she needed them most."
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.Read the rest of this post...
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
But given his own position on Hamas, McCain is the last politician who should be attacking Obama. Two years ago, just after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, I interviewed McCain for the British network Sky News's "World News Tonight" program. Here is the crucial part of our exchange:So while McCain was cavorting in Davos with all the other elites, he thought it was okay to work with Hamas. But now, McCain is on the attack over a manufactured issue. What a fraud.
I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"
McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."
For some Europeans in Davos, Switzerland, where the interview took place, that's a perfectly reasonable answer. But it is an unusual if not unique response for an American politician from either party. And it is most certainly not how the newly conservative presumptive Republican nominee would reply today.
Given that exchange, the new John McCain might say that Hamas should be rooting for the old John McCain to win the presidential election. The old John McCain, it appears, was ready to do business with a Hamas-led government, while both Clinton and Obama have said that Hamas must change its policies toward Israel and terrorism before it can have diplomatic relations with the United States.
The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan.Read the rest of this post...
The new regulations, which are likely to be finalized this summer, rewrite a provision of the Clean Air Act that applies to "Class 1 areas," federal lands that currently have the highest level of protection under the law. Opponents predict the changes will worsen visibility at many of the nation's most prized tourist destinations, including Virginia's Shenandoah, Colorado's Mesa Verde and North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt national parks.
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