Karen Hughes, the president's pick to be the face of America in the Arab world after 9/11, will be back home in Texas by year's end. Today's announcement that she is stepping down hasn't inspired very much fanfare, leading us to suspect only a dim awareness in Washington that Hughes was still on the job.
Hughes, of course, is among a cadre of longtime advisers and confidantes that President Bush brought to Washington after they helped him win the 2000 election. After a brief stint as White House counselor at the start of his presidency, Hughes was lured back in March 2005 to be the new undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. Despite the job description's global scope, there was little question Hughes' main task would be damage control in the Middle East.
It was a puzzling though largely uncontroversial nomination. Hughes spoke not a lick of Arabic and had no background in Middle Eastern affairs, a handicap that became painfully obvious in her first public tour of the region. Hughes appeared to be caught flat-footed by the customs and beliefs of the people she was meeting with at practically every stop. Slate's Fred Kaplan implored her in a headline, "Stay Home!"
President Bush has nominated Ed Schafer, former governor of North Dakota, to replace Mike Johanns as agriculture secretary. Johanns exited the post last month to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Chuck Hagel in Nebraska next year.
If confirmed, Schafer will be tasked with helping to hammer out the details of a new farm bill. The conservative Republican has been working in the private sector since declining to run for a third term as governor in 2000.
AP and Reuters have more on the nomination, and the Bismarck Tribune reports on the reaction in Schafer's home state.
Spanish Court Convicts 21 & Acquits 7 In Madrid Bombing Case
The outcome of the trial of 28 defendants accused of being involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, the worst terrorist attack by Islamic radicals in Europe's history, offered a mixed bag of convictions, sentences and acquittals that left prosecutors and victims with less than they had hoped for.
Three of the eight primary suspects in the case received the highest conviction of mass murder. While Emilio Suarez Trashorras, Jamal Zougam and Othman el-Gnaoui were each sentenced to 40,000 years in prison, the maximum time they can serve under Spanish law is just 40 years.
Eighteen other suspects, including four of the main defendants, were convicted of lesser charges, such as belonging to a terrorist organization (the bombings were attributed to al-Qaida) or arms trafficking, and were served with shorter sentences of three to 18 years in prison.
None of the defendants, who were mostly young Muslim men of Moroccan and Spanish descent, were found guilty of plotting the attacks, which killed 191 people and injured about 1,800 in March 2004. All of them maintained their innocence and claimed no connection to al-Qaida throughout the investigation and trial.
It was ugly, all right. And we're not just talking about the city.
The Democratic presidential candidates chasing Hillary Rodham Clintonsought last night [video] to portray the front-runner as George W. Bush with a better health plan. Did they succeed? And does it matter?
We ask the second question because of how close we are to the primaries and because of how gaping the Big Mo gap's become. Clinton tops second-place Barack Obama by 14 percent and 28 percent per Zogby and CBS News, respectively. Though everyone on stage at Drexel University might come to regret it later in the general election, last night seemed as good a time as any to air out the family business.
By that we mean the internal conversation Democrats have been engaged in practically since Clinton announced she was running for the Senate, a move widely viewed as a springboard to this moment. To the amazement of quite a few old political hands, the former first lady has managed to overcome many of her negatives. In the latest survey, CBS respondents gave her the highest favorability rating among the candidates.
So last night, as expected, Clinton was attacked more pointedly and with more aggression than we've seen in this field. Did anyone manage to land a punch? Yep. Is Clinton down for the count? Nope. Are we going to ride the "Rocky" metaphors for the duration of this post? You bet.
Takeaways from the Dilly in Philly after the jump.
Aid Workers Charged In Alleged Rescue Attempt In Chad
Associates of the French charity Zoe's Ark who tried to fly more than 100 African children out of Chad last week are facing charges of kidnapping and child trafficking, sparking international conflict over the case and concerns about the future of humanitarian efforts in the region.
Nine French citizens and six Spanish nationals have been accused of abduction and fraud, and some of them face up to 20 years of hard labor in a Chadian prison, according to Chad's interior minister.
U.N. officials claim many of the children were actually from Chad, not refugees from Darfur, and there is no clear evidence they are actually orphans. Zoe's Ark counters that tribal leaders told them the children were from Darfur and that the children were to be placed in the French foster care system, which would qualify the airlift as a medical rescue operation rather than an adoption effort.
The French government is backing up the U.N. "According to initial information... there seem to be many Chadian children and even many who are not orphans," a government spokeswoman told reporters yesterday.
Earlybird Roundup: Madrid Bombing Verdicts, Army Contract
Terrorism. A Spanish court delivered verdicts today in the trial of suspects involved in the March 2004 Madrid train bombings. Three of the eight primary defendants were found guilty of mass murder charges.
Washington. The Bush administration is planning to get more confrontational with the Democratic-controlled Congress, enacting new administrative orders and ramping up rhetoric.
Iraq. Members of parliament are set to pass a bill removing immunity protection from private security contactors operating in the country.
Military. The Army improperly awarded a massive $150B contract and should review its decision, according to recommendations in a new GAO report.
World. A bomb exploded on a bus in Russia today, killing eight people and wounding more than 50, and officials have begun a terrorism investigation.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
The Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution for a convicted murderer in Mississippi last night, the third execution by lethal injection the justices blocked since they agreed to consider the constitutionality of such punishments. SCOTUSblog reports that the stay was issued about 15 minutes before Earl Wesley Berry, who kidnapped and murdered Mary Bounds in 1987, was scheduled to die.
The high court is reviewing Berry's petition to the appeal on the basis of the argument that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. If the petition is denied, the execution will go on as planned, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports. But if the justices agree to take it up, the stay will remain in place until a final ruling is made.
The New York Times this morning calls the stay "a nearly indisputable indication that a majority intends to block all executions until the court decides a lethal injection case from Kentucky next spring." Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito were the two dissenters, and none of the justices gave reasons for their decisions.
Yo, Hillary! Field Hopes For Front-Runner KO Tonight
Seven of the Democratic presidential contenders descend tonight on America's least-attractive metropolis for what promises to be the ugliest debate of the season.
Both Barack Obama and John Edwards are scrambling to slam the brakes on Hillary Rodham Clinton's runaway lead. With the Iowa caucuses about two months away, double-digit spreads are forcing the rest of the pack to be more forceful and, dare we say, meaner than they've been so far.
The M-word might be unfair, but it's inevitable because of Clinton's gender. Everyone wants to avoid a Rick Lazio moment, in which they attempt to treat her as they would a male candidate and end up coming off as ungentlemanly.
On the other hand, Clinton isn't just any woman. She's in the lead because she's been exuding forcefulness and strength throughout her campaign -- a breakdown in most polls shows she scores highest on national security issues, not personality. It also doesn't hurt that a large swath of the Democratic left is waving the white flag as they signal their support for the former first lady. So Obama, Edwards and the rest -- Christopher Dodd, Joseph Biden, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich -- will take time to remind primary voters of Clinton's many apparent weaknesses.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is in hot water again on Capitol Hill following the latest round of product recalls, this time focused on toys and accessories associated with Halloween.
The agency recently recalled what Agence France-Presse described as "a record number of products for lead violations, including buckets to collect 'treats' and costume teeth for children for the fun festival."
The recalls coincided with a scathing report [PDF] from liberal advocacy group Campaign For America's Future that calls for a drastic overhaul of the systems used to vet products imported from China, the origin of most of the contaminated items that have been recalled in recent months.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, today called for CPSC Chairwoman Nancy Nord's resignation, citing her failure to offer a "plan that would adequately equip the CPSC to do its job" in the wake of multiple product safety scares.
Immunity Deal For Blackwater Guards Hampers FBI's Efforts
UPDATED.
In an apparent deal that could impede the government's ability to prosecute Blackwater guards suspected of being involved in a shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead last month, AP reports that State Department investigators granted immunity to employees of the private security contractor in exchange for statements they made regarding the case.
"As a result, it will likely be months before the United States can -- if ever -- bring criminal charges in the case that has infuriated the Iraqi government," AP wrote when it broke the story yesterday.
But CNN is reporting today that, according to two anonymous State Department officials, State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security did not offer "blanket immunity" to the guards that would prohibit the FBI from pressing criminal charges. "We want to see anyone who violated laws or broke rules held accountable," said one official, who claimed to lack authorization to speak on the matter. "Nothing that was done prevents anyone from being prosecuted if they broke the law."
But according to ABC News, the exact language of the "use immunity" agreement included at the beginning of each guard's sworn statement is as follows:
I understand this statement is being given in furtherance of an official administrative inquiry.... I further understand that neither my statements nor any information or evidence gained by reason of my statements can be used against me in a criminal proceeding, except that if I knowingly and willfully provide false statements or information, I may be criminally prosecuted for that action under 18 United States Code, Section 1001.
President Bush credited his nominee for secretary of veterans affairs, Lt. Gen. James Peake, with "changing the way we deliver medical care to our troops."
"He understands the view from both sides of the hospital bed," Bush said as he introduced Peake from the White House this afternoon. Peake, the retired former Army Surgeon General and a two-time Purple Heart recipient during the Vietnam War, would be the first physician and soldier to serve in the top VA post.
A thoracic surgeon by training and a veteran of more than four decades, Peake will have to take charge of a department that has been heavily criticized for its administration of veterans care. Peake was the Army's top doctor from 2000 to 2004, and has acknowledged that the armed services were not adequately prepared to care for troops and veterans following the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
The Bush administration's escalating rhetoric on Iran and Tehran's continued defiance on the subject of its nuclear program appear to be having an effect on the American public. A new Zogby poll reveals a slim majority of Americans would now support a military attack on Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, and about the same percentage predicted President Bush will likely order such a strike before his term is up.
See today's Poll Track(subscription) for more on the latest numbers, including which 2008 presidential candidate is seen as strongest on Iran and which one would make the scariest Halloween costume. (Hint: They are one and the same.)
President Bush is seeking to get out ahead of negative headlines this week by accusing the Democratic Congress of holding U.S. troops and poor children "hostage" as part of a "cynical" political strategy.
"They haven't seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax increase into it," Bush said derisively. He called the brief press conference outside the White House following a meeting with the top Republican House leaders: John Boehner, Roy Blunt and Adam Putnam.
The president's press conference ushered in the annual appropriations tug-of-war between the White House and Congress, an autumn rite by no means unique to this administration. Tensions are superheated this year, though, because the bills concern an increasingly unpopular war with the prospect of yet another unpopular war and renewal of health care funding for poor children.
Bush also plans to veto a $23.2 billion water resources bill that he says is excessive. The bill is overwhelmingly popular in both chambers, however, and it is all but guaranteed an override if Bush follows through on his threat by the end of this week.
Earlybird Roundup: Intel Spending, Consumer Safety, Karbala Transfer
Administration. The director of national intelligence will disclose spending figures for 2007 surveillance programs today, which are expected to cost nearly $50 billion.
Congress.Nancy Nord, the acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, asked legislators not to pass proposed legislation intended to strengthen the powers of her own agency.
Iraq. Twenty decapitated bodies were found near Baquba yesterday, marring the transfer of power from coalition forces to Iraqis in Karbala -- the eighth province out of 18 to be turned over.
Turkey. Turkish troops took another step toward major action against Kurdish militant groups in northern Iraq, attacking rebels by air and staging military parades in major cities.
Nation. Firefighters are hurrying to put out the remaining wildfires in Southern California while cool air hangs over the region and before the Santa Ana winds return later in the week.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint near Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's army home in Rawalpindi today. At least seven people were killed near the army headquarters, but Musharraf was in his office a mile away at the time of the attack and was not injured.
Another high-ranking Pakistani official, joint chiefs of staff chairman Gen. Tariq Majid, also has a residence near the blast, but he is newly appointed to the post and had not yet moved in.
The city police chief said three passersby and three policemen were among the seven people killed. Eleven were injured. Rawalpindi has been the site of two other deadly suicide bombings -- part of a spate of attacks in Pakistan blamed on radical Islamic militants -- in the last two months.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel were to meet today with a group of Republicans to discuss the possibility for compromise on a children's health care bill. House Republicans said it appears unlikely the bill's sponsors will be able to amend the measure enough to change the minds of at least a dozen GOP members needed to override a presidential veto.
"The Democratic leadership appears wedded to a significant expansion of government-run health care," said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. "It doesn't appear that they're interested in a positive solution."
Further tinkering on the proposal to add $35 billion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program could be done during the Senate debate this week. Price was one of 36 House Republicans who sent a letter on Friday to Hoyer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that said the version passed last week "does not reflect the spirit of bipartisan negotiations and instead disrupts a process that had the potential to create a good, bipartisan bill."
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., will not seek re-election regardless of what happens in his long-shot presidential campaign, he told the Rocky Mountain News Sunday. "It's the fact that I really believe I have done all I can do in the House, especially about the issue (immigration) about which I care greatly," Tancredo told the paper.
His decision creates a vacancy in the solidly conservative and Republican 6th District, which includes suburban areas south and southeast of Denver. While Tancredo's presidential campaign remains just a blip on the political radar, he has suggested he might challenge Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar in 2010, largely over his signature issue of immigration.
Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Michael McNulty of New York is expected to confirm today that he, too, will not seek re-election. With the Tancredo and McNulty announcements, 17 House members have announced they will not be back in the next Congress, with 11 retirements and six members running for other offices.
- CongressDaily
Photo courtesy of Flickr user VictoryNH: Protect Our Primary
The eight major Republican presidential candidates have signed on to the CNN/YouTube debate on Nov. 28. We're not going to use the F-word, but this news apparently means Mitt Romney has changed his mind about participating in the forum.
In July, Romney sniffed that "the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman." Both he and Rudy Giuliani pooh-poohed the debate, originally scheduled for Sept. 17, to the consternation of Republican primary voters and, well, us.
Darfur Peace Talks Postponed Amid Boycott By Key Rebel Groups
Boycotting rebel groups have stalled Darfur peace talks that began this weekend in Libya, forcing mediators to recast the meeting as a "consultation" among cooperating groups in preparation for the real negotiations, which have been postponed for a later date that has yet to be determined.
According to the London Guardian, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi noted at the beginning of the talks on Saturday that two key rebel leaders, Abdul Wahid al-Nur of the Sudan Liberation Army and Khalil Ibrahim of the Justice and Equality Movement, were not in attendance. "These are major movements," he said, "and without them we cannot achieve peace."
Denying that the peace process had been "interrupted," envoys from the United Nations and African Union, which are spearheading the efforts, announced that some mediators would remain in Libya for the next few weeks, while others would travel to Sudan to try and bring more rebel leaders on board.
Sent from a soldier with the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, which is in Kuwait awaiting its third deployment to Iraq since 2003.
"I live in Clarksville, third largest city in Tennessee behind Nashville and Memphis.* It has a military base (Ft. Campbell) and a large college (APSU). The population of Clarksville is appx. 150,000. Clarksville has 2 Starbucks.
I am now deployed for OIF [Operation Iraqi Freedom] and in Camp Buehring Kuwait. Buehring is a training post in the middle of a desert. It is where units spend about two weeks waiting to go into Iraq. Average population appx. 5,000 Soldiers, sometimes less. Camp Buehring has two Starbucks."
Washington.President Bush and other opponents of Congress' proposed expansion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program said they would support a middle-of-the-road option to pass the legislation.
Iraq I. Gunmen abducted 10 Sunni and Shiite sheiks after they met with government officials to discuss fighting al-Qaida.
Iraq II. A suicide bomber killed nearly 30 people when the attacker rode a bicycle into a crowd of recruits and officers at an Iraqi police station near Baquba today.
Iran.Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was no clear evidence Iran had an active nuclear weapons program despite increasing rhetoric coming from the United States.
Nation. The Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies to win the World Series last night.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced today that he will undergo surgery sometime in the next few months for a cancerous tumor in his prostate. During a surprise news conference, Olmert told reporters that the tumor was "microscopic" and he would not need radiation or chemotherapy to treat it, emphasizing that it would not affect his work and he would not step down from his position.
He also reminded the public that he was under no obligation to disclose private health matters, but he felt Israelis "had a right to know." Olmert took over as prime minister in January 2006, after his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, suffered a debilitating stroke.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, a Kuwaiti newspaper quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as saying that Olmert's government is holding talks with Hamas, and the faction should "pluck up the courage and admit it." The Israeli government also tightened restrictions on the fuel supply flowing into the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip this weekend in response to recent rocket attacks.
On the same day that Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition leader met with an official from the ruling military junta, the government released at least 70 prisoners arrested during the recent wave of demonstrations.
The prisoners were held at Insein Prison in Rangoon, and hundreds more are said to still be detained there. U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari told reporters that the meeting between the Myanmar official and Aung San Suu Kyi, herself under house arrest for nearly 20 years, was a first step in the diplomatic process that "should lead to the early resumption of dialogue that will lead to very concrete and tangible results."
Bush To Congress: I'm Not Mad, I'm Just Disappointed
President Bush, back in Washington today after a trip to Southern California to survey the devastation caused by raging wildfires there, delivered a harsh rebuke to congressional Democrats in a televised address from the Roosevelt Room.
Bush said that upon returning to the White House, he "was disappointed by what Congress had been doing -- and even more disappointed by what they had not been doing." He accused lawmakers of "wasting time" by voting yesterday on a slightly revised version of a bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program instead of working to pass already delayed appropriation bills, approve supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and confirm the nomination of Michael Mukasey to be attorney general.
Bush said that he had appointed members of his administration to negotiate with Congress on a compromise SCHIP bill, but instead "the House once again passed a bill that they knew would not become law," indicating that he would veto the legislation for a second time if it arrives on his desk. Yesterday's House vote failed to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to override a veto.
AP and The Hill have more analysis of Bush's remarks, and the Washington Post has responses from Democratic leaders.
Washington, D.C., is a city known more for its buttoned-up, wonky ways than its quirks and superstitions. But make no mistake, the nation's capital is one weird place, and in the spirit of Halloween, we present a few recent examples of the paranormal that hit a little too close to home.
Much of the publicity surrounding Jenna Bush's recent sit-down with Texas Monthly magazine focused on her serious professional pursuits and candid musings on her father's presidency. But she also confessed to interviewer Skip Hollandsworth that she thinks the White House's "kids' bedroom" is "filled with millions of ghosts."
I get scared there sometimes. I’m not kidding. I have heard ghosts, I really have -- ghosts singing opera. One night, opera noises came out of my fireplace. When I told my sister, she didn’t believe me, but the next week we were up late in that bedroom and we heard 1950’s piano music. People will think I’m crazy for saying that.
Crazy? Maybe. But then again, Jenna's not alone. One-third of Americans recently confessed to AP-Ipsos pollsters [PDF] that they, too, believe in ghosts. That's about the same percentage of Americans who approve of the job [PDF] her father is doing in office.
The Family Research Council's Washington Briefing last weekend only reinforced the impression that religious conservatives are in for a frustrating election cycle. As the GOP front-runners continue to beat each other up over who wants abortion outlawed the most, and a new FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll [PDF] indicates the eventual nominee might have to clam up on the issue when he enters the general.
The survey of 900 registered voters indicates a majority of Americans believe women should be given the option of terminating pregnancy in nearly all cases. Seventy-three percent said abortion should remain legal for those whose lives were endangered by their pregnancy; 70 percent said victims of rape or incest should also have access to the procedure. The majority thins for the greyer areas of the mother's mental health and if the fetus has a fatal birth defect. Fewer than 40 percent said an unwanted pregnancy justified abortion.
It's not as though abortion won't be a campaign issue next year; with two probable vacancies on the Supreme Court looming for the next president, it undoubtedly will. The Democratic Party has learned to ditch the talking points of pro-choice activists and moderate its language on abortion. So, in a departure from previous cycles, the ground conditions and these numbers indicate the abortion issue works more favorably for the Democratic candidate in '08.
Iraqi & Turkish Officials Continue Diplomatic Talks On PKK Crisis
Diplomatic efforts to mend a rift between the governments of Iraq and Turkey over how to deal with Kurdish rebels near the countries' border continued today amid airstrikes by Turkish forces on rebel positions in northern Iraq.
U.S. and Iraqi officials are hoping that the talks will help stave off a major Turkish incursion into Iraq to fight the Kurdistan Workers Party, a rebel separatist group that Turkey claims has been using northern Iraq as a safe haven from which to launch attacks. The Turkish parliament has already voted to approve such an incursion, and the government has assembled about 100,000 troops at the border already.
Today in Ankara, Iraqi diplomatic and defense officials met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and Interior Minister Besir Atalay; U.S. officials were also present. Turkey has been pressuring Iraq and the United States to step up their efforts against the PKK. U.S. officials, meanwhile, have been pushing for a diplomatic solution rather than a Turkish invasion, which they fear could further hinder the already formidable task of stabilizing war-torn Iraq.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows that, behind Iraq, health care is the second most important issue Americans want the 2008 presidential candidates to address. In many cases, particularly on the Democratic side, the candidates have heeded that call, putting forth detailed plans aimed at reforming the current system and avoiding the pitfalls of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton's notoriously failed effort in the '90s.
In this week's National Journal, health care reporter Marilyn Werber Serafini gathered a team of 10 experts to assess the health plans of the major presidential contenders, giving careful consideration to their potential impacts on consumers, employers, the uninsured, the economy and quality of care.
Meanwhile, the Kaiser poll shows that the Democratic front-runner in the race, Hillary Clinton, leads the field on this issue despite her previous failure. Today's Poll Track(subscription) has analysis of those numbers and other recent surveys on the '08 race.
The U.S. Navy is revamping its global posture for the first time in a quarter of a century through new collaboration with the Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
Calling the maritime services "a unifying force and a willing partner for global prosperity and peace," the Navy unveiled its new strategy last week at the International Seapower Symposium in Rhode Island. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead (who formally replaced now-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen less than a month ago) said earlier this month, "We must be prepared for many future paths, many dangers and many potential threats. And that requires, above all, a long-term perspective and a long-term commitment to building a Navy capable of meeting 21st-century challenges."
The U.S. maritime focus will continue to be on support operations for the other armed forces and combat readiness, but the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard will also look past the current conflicts in the Middle East to the waters around China, Africa and South America. Humanitarian missions and sea commerce will also be of primary importance for the maritime services.
Congress. A House vote on the controversial bill addressing the Armenian genocide in Turkey has been postponed indefinitely because of faltering support.
Iraq. The U.S. pushed for stronger action from Iraq against Kurdish PKK rebels in the northern part of the country, as Turkey's prime minister warned that U.S. objections wouldn't stop his military from crossing into Iraq.
Pakistan. More than 20 people were killed when a bomb struck an army convoy in the northwestern part of the country.
Nation.Religious groups are shouldering much of the rebuilding effort in New Orleans.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
Yesterday's setback for former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who was convicted on fraud and corruption charges, has his lawyers scrambling for their last shot to keep Ryan out of jail: the Supreme Court.
A federal appellate court denied Ryan's attorneys' request to appeal, in which they claimed he deserved another trial because of extensive problems with the jury. Taking the case to the Supreme Court, they said, is an attempt to keep the 73-year-old Republican free on bail.
One expert told the Los Angeles Times, however, that the justices are unlikely to hear the case.
"The justices like cases that present general issues of law, and this one really doesn't," said Albert Alschuler, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law. "It's a political-hot-potato case."
Ryan was convicted last year of accepting huge bribes and manipulating contracts to steer money toward his friends and associates while serving as Illinois' secretary of state and governor in the early '90s. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, and he has four days after the appeals court issues its final order to start serving his term.
The Senate passed legislation by unanimous consent late yesterday to extend the federal Internet tax moratorium by seven years. Extended twice since its adoption in 1998, the moratorium prevents states and localities from imposing taxes on Internet service.
The chamber had been scheduled to vote today on a cloture motion on an amendment by Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., to make the moratorium permanent. Sununu had offered that proposal to Amtrak reauthorization legislation currently on the floor.
Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., an opponent of a permanent ban, had filed a second-degree amendment to grant a four-year extension. The House last week passed a four-year extension. During floor debate yesterday, Carper went further and endorsed a six-year continuation. "I'd be happy to talk about alternatives," Sununu said during a colloquy with Carper, presaging the eventual compromise.
After day-long deliberations interrupted only by numerous procedural motions, House Republicans were forced to vote on a slightly different incarnation of a children's health insurance bill that's already been vetoed once and is destined for a veto again.
The bill passed 265-142, short of the two-thirds majority required to withstand President Bush's promised rejection. Republicans were incensed at being dragged to a vote on a bill they first laid eyes on yesterday. Several members took to the floor to rail against the Democrat leadership for being insensitive to the needs of their colleagues who had flown back to California because of the devastating wildfires there.
After failing to reach a two-thirds override a week ago, Democrats inserted provisions on eligibility caps and illegal immigrants to make the legislation more palatable to the minority. But the leadership would not budge on the $35 million price tag or a cigarette tax increase -- both nonstarters for the White House and most Republican members.
Wildfires Roundup: Arson Suspected; Bush Tours Devastation
The fires that have ravaged a large swath of the Golden State since Sunday showed signs of letting up today, as the Santa Ana winds that had so fiercely fanned the flames for days began to subside, giving firefighters the chance to gain some control. Here's a snapshot of the latest news from Southern California:
Bodies found. The death toll from the fires appears to have risen to three, as the San Diego Sheriff's Department announced the discovery of two charred bodies inside a home in the community of Poway, which was hit by the biggest fire in the region this week.
Arson suspected. The major fires are still being attributed to a deadly combination of drought conditions and those Santa Ana winds, but at least two people have been arrested in Southern California this week for allegedly setting smaller fires contributing to the destruction. Federal and local officials are remaining vigilant to prevent further "copycat fires and looting," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition leader, met for more than an hour today with a government official in the first sign that the military junta that has ruled the country since 1962 might be loosening its grip on power.
The latest protests in Myanmar and the ensuing military crackdown have caused outrage worldwide and have prompted foreign governments to consider punitive actions. President Bushannounced last week that the U.S. would impose tougher economic conditions on the country if its leaders did not stop the brutal repression of its citizens; he expressed hope that other nations would take similar steps. However, China, Russia and India have refused to implement such sanctions, and their opposition to retaliatory measures has prevented the United Nations from taking more than symbolic action.
U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari traveled to the country in early October to pressure government leaders to broker peace with Suu Kyi. In response, the Myanmar government appointed a "minister for relations," who is in charge of managing Suu Kyi's interaction with the government and the U.N. Aung Kyi, a retired major general with a reputation of being more open and available than many of Myanmar's other officials, held the talks with Suu Kyi today.
The Bush administration rolled out a new round of sanctions targeting Iran's military today, including designating the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and the Quds force -- a branch of the Revolutionary Guard in charge of foreign operations -- a supporter of terrorism.
The unilateral sanctions are the toughest on Iran since university students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and sparked the Iranian hostage crisis 20 years ago. The current round of sanctions is unprecedented, the Washington Post, reports, because its adoption "marks the first time that the United States has tried to isolate or punish another country's military."
At the White House news conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this morning, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also announced moves against three Iranian banks, designating them as terror financiers.
With Republicans crying foul, House leaders scheduled a vote this morning on a children's health bill that makes minor changes to the one vetoed by President Bush earlier this month.
"The bill addresses all of the concerns of our colleagues," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"Basically, the changes in the bill meet the objections of the administration as nearly as it can be done. And I will observe the spurious, fraudulent, false, dishonest, deceitful objections that the administration has sent up," said Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell. "They know better."
The bill addresses Republican concerns that the bill to add $35 billion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program would cover adults and families who earn up to $83,000 annually, as well as illegal immigrants. It would strengthen the original bill's eligibility cap at 300 percent of poverty, phase childless adults off the program within one year instead of two, and clarify language stating that illegal immigrants will not be eligible.
Earlybird Roundup: Bush Tours Wildfire Areas; NATO Leaders Discuss Afghanistan
California fires.President Bush will tour Southern California today to view the devastation caused by recent wildfires, which have begun to come under control as the Santa Ana winds subside.
Congress. The Senate rejected a bipartisan bill to offering a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants who meet certain educational or military service requirements.
Iraq. Turkish President Abdullah Gulissued a fresh warning to Kurdish rebels today as Turkish forces claimed to have repelled an attack near the Iraqi border.
World. NATO officials are meeting in London this week, with the fate of their mission in Afghanistan topping the agenda.
Economy. Reporting 11.5-percent growth in the third quarter, China is on track to surpass Germany as the third-largest economy in the world.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
Well, bad for the Republican presidential front-runners, anyway.
The New Yorker's James Surowiecki writes a damning indictment of supply-side economics theory in this week's issue. "The supply-side argument that, in the United States, tax-rate cuts pay for themselves -- that, after cutting taxes, the government actually ends up with more revenue -- has little or no support within the mainstream economic profession, and no hard empirical data to back it up," he contends.
President Bush, of course, is the supply-sider in chief. Bush has been able to point to the growth of the economy during his term, and the post-9/11 rebound in particular, as proof that his controversial tax cuts are sound -- ignoring the "simple fact," as Surowiecki puts it, that "the American economy grows over time."
Richard Griffin, the State Department official in charge of diplomatic security, announced his resignation today.
According to an internal e-mail read to AP, Griffin gave no reason for his departure upon making the announcement at a weekly staff meeting.
A review panel created after the Sept. 16 shooting of several unarmed Iraqi civilians by Blackwater USA security guards concluded that there was insufficient oversight of private contractors by State Department security personnel. Griffin, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, effectively employs the private guards hired to protect U.S. diplomatic employees in Iraq.
Following the shootings, which prompted the Iraqi government to order Blackwater employees out of the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered new operating guidelines for contractors. Yesterday, the State Department announced that future incidents involving contractors could be referred to the Justice Department, and that the ground rules for security guards would be brought closer in line to those of the U.S. military, according to Jane's Defence Weekly.
Earlier this month, Rice ordered all Blackwater convoys to be outfitted with cameras and accompanied by a State Department security official.
A significant writedown and a bracingly grim housing forecast has driven the Dow down more than 150 points, slightly up from this morning's nosedive of 200.
AP: "Merrill said it wrote down $7.9 billion in fixed-income instruments called collateralized debt obligations and from defaulting subprime mortgages -- more than the $5 billion writedown the investment bank estimated earlier this month. The result was a net loss for the quarter of $2.3 billion." Merrill Lynch & Co. is the nation's largest investment firm, and its worse-than-expected third-quarter losses bode ill for the rest of the sector as it grapples with an apparently worsening housing implosion.
Lending arms are clamming up to stanch the bleeding of the subprime lending crisis, effectively putting the brakes on the housing market. MarketWatch reports that "sales of existing homes and condos fell 8% in September to the lowest level in at least eight years as inventories of single-family rose to a 20-year high." In other words, there is quite a bit more property out there than there are buyers. Those who are managing to sell are doing so at reduced prices.
While there is some concern that home sales are being "artificially depressed" -- as one analyst put it -- by panic at the credit crunch, the one-two punch of investor losses and credit cutoff for many Americans means a longer-term negative trend.
U.S. and Iraqi officials are working quickly to appease an angry Turkish government after tensions on its southern border boiled over this week. Efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting, however, are further complicated by reports that Kurdish separatists have captured eight Turkish soldiers and that Tehran is leveraging resentment toward Washington and Baghdad to its advantage.
Photos of the alleged captives have been published by several news outlets. The Turkish government has not confirmed the claims by a group of Kurdish fighters that the soldiers, missing since an ambush on Sunday, were captured. Turkey authorized a cross-border incursion earlier this week against militants with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who have been launching discrete attacks on Turkey for years. Forty-two Turkish civilians and soldiers have been killed by PKK fighters this month alone, Bloomberg News reports.
Turkey has been warning its allies in the U.S. and Iraq that if they did not clamp down on the PKK's attacks, the Turkish military would be sent to do the job. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have sought to persuade Ankara to approach the problem diplomatically, but in Turkey's view neither ally has acted forcefully enough. In August, the Pentagon admitted that American weapons issued to Iraqis had been used by PKK rebels in cross-border attacks against Turks.
House Dems Tweaking Immigration, Income Eligibility On New SCHIP Bill
House Democrats are crafting a children's health care bill that would tighten language on immigration, deny states the opportunity to cover children above 300 percent of poverty and move childless adults out of the program within one year, lawmakers and aides said.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program bill is expected to be on the floor tomorrow, but Democratic leadership aides stressed that the vote timing is not definite. Moderate Republicans who asked for the changes to woo more GOP members are asking for more time to allow them to review the bill. President Bush vetoed the bill on Oct. 3.
Earlybird Roundup: Bush Warns Cuba; Senate Eyes DREAM Act
Nation. The evacuation from the California wildfires has turned into the largest in the state's history, but forecasters said winds might die down later this afternoon.
Administration.President Bush will give a stern speech today warning Cuba against Raul Castro succeeding his brother Fidel without democratic reform.
Congress. The Senate will vote today on the DREAM Act, legislation that would give children of illegal immigrants a greater chance at getting legal status.
World. Turkey shelled suspected Kurdish rebels across the border in northern Iraq today, despite continuing diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict.
Iraq. U.S. casualties in Iraq declined for the second month in a row.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen is getting an earful from soldiers who are stressed by the 15/12 deployment schedule for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
"That year we're back, it's just not good enough," an Army captain told Mullen during a stop on a two-day tour of bases.
Army Times reports that the press withheld the soldiers' names so that they could speak freely in the Q&A session at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. The resounding message was that the military has to restore the 1:3 or 1:4 deployment schedule to give soldiers sufficient time to train and be with their families.
Southern California is still waiting for the worst to be over as firefighters battle roaring blazes across seven counties and about 350,000 households have been relocated out of harm's way. Two people have been killed in the wildfires, and 18 firefighters have been injured, several by severe burns.
"We have had an unfortunate situation where three things have come together: very dry areas, very hot weather and then a lot of wind. And so this makes the perfect storm for fire," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a noon (local time) press conference.
A quarter of California's coastline is on fire, the area burned roughly larger than New York City, according to AP. More than 1,300 structures have burned, across Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. President Bushdeclared a state of emergency in those areas today, thus clearing the path for federal assistance.
Chertoff Waives Environmental Rules To Construct Border Fence
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday waived environmental laws and circumvented a federal judge's recent ruling to allow the construction of part of a security fence through a federally protected national conservation site on the Arizona-Mexico border.
Amid continued protests from Russia, President Bush today affirmed his support for a U.S. missile defense shield in Eastern Europe to protect American interests and allies from potential strikes from Iran, even as Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested the U.S. might delay activating the shield.
"The need for missile defense in Europe is real and I believe it's urgent. Iran is pursuing the technology that could be used to produce nuclear weapons, and ballistic missiles of increasing range that could deliver them," Bush told students at the National Defense University in Washington. "Today, we have no way to defend Europe against the emerging Iranian threat, so we must deploy a missile defense system there that can."
Today's speech was the latest example of the increasingly forceful rhetoric from the Bush administration about the need for allies to stand with the United States against Iran and its nuclear program.
We're just getting around to this now, but others have made the case already. Ignore those Romney press releases: Mike Huckabee trounced the Republican field at the Values Voters Summit last weekend.
Huckabee came out with 51.3 percent of on-site straw poll voters, followed by Mitt Romney at 10.4 percent and everyone else in the single digits. Romney's camp declared him the big winner based on online voting by Family Research Council members in a poll that's been open since August. Even there, he and Huckabee came out virtually dead even, 27.6 percent to 27.2 percent.
Only FRC members were permitted to vote, and an FRC spokesman said that duplicate votes in the online and on-site polling were eliminated. According to The Caucus, a minimum donation of $1 is required for FRC membership.
Long story short, it's clear by those numbers that the guy with almost no money, organization or national name recognition was the real winner.
"If the Christian majority actually got behind Huckabee, and if they used all the organization that Christians already have, he could do really well," complained Daniel Briggs, a volunteer with Americans United for Life.*
That's a question we've been asking all cycle: Why isn't the evangelical right amassing its forces behind Huckabee, the religious conservative's religious conservative?
Americans are growing increasingly wary of the nation's economic situation as they head into the crucial holiday spending season, according to a new poll from American Research Group. And in an address to a conference on U.S.-China relations this morning, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsonhinted at one possible explanation for the recent jitters: the series of recalls over the past several months of Chinese-made products sold in the U.S.
"Recent and repeated reports of tainted food and product imports are causing fear and uncertainty in American consumers and harming the 'Made in China' brand here in the United States," Paulson said, calling on officials from both countries to step up product safety assurances rather than resort to "protectionism or retaliation," some of which has already occurred.
In a new CBS News/New York Times poll, a plurality of Americans agreed with Paulson that protectionism was the wrong approach. That poll also suggests that consumers aren't necessarily shying away from Chinese products just yet. But another recent survey conducted by Reuters/Zogby hints that Americans are not eager to spend their holiday shopping dollars on potentially harmful Chinese-made toys. That's bad news for U.S. retailers, because roughly 80 percent of the toys they sell are imported from China.
See today's Poll Track(subscription) for more numbers on the economy and Chinese-made products.
Reports: State Dept. Lax In Monitoring Security Contractors
The increased scrutiny on security contractors in Iraq in the wake of last month's shooting involving Blackwater USA is shifting focus to the State Department, with two new reports offering fresh criticism of the agency's oversight of the private firms that help protect its personnel in war zones.
The New York Times reports this morning that an internal State Department evaluation "assails the department for poor coordination, communication, oversight and accountability involving armed security companies like Blackwater USA." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered the internal review of security practices following the Blackwater shooting, but the probe did not deal directly with that incident.
Earlybird Roundup: California Fires, Turkish Diplomacy
Nation. More than half a million people have been evacuated from the San Diego area as wildfires continue to burn throughout California.
Iraq. The U.S. is urging Turkey to continue with diplomatic efforts and not invade northern Iraq, but the Bush administration is also considering airstrikes against the Kurdish rebel group involved in the dispute.
Washington.The Hillreports that former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton is calling on House GOP lawmakers "to oppose the Bush administration's recent agreement with North Korea to end its nuclear programs."
Iran. New Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili traveled to Rome for talks with EU countries; before the meeting, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country would not suspend uranium enrichment.
Afghanistan. Eleven members of a family were killed by a NATO airstrike near Kabul yesterday, according to local officials.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
Disagreements over jury verdicts resulted in a Dallas judge handing a mistrial to five defendants connected to a Muslim charity. High-ranking officials in The Holy Land Foundation -- once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. and a frequent target of FBI surveillance -- were accused of aiding terrorists and acting as an arm of Hamas.
The jury initially returned yesterday with a mix of not-guilty and deadlocked verdicts on the more than 200 combined charges ranging from tax fraud to providing material support for terrorism. But during routine polling of the jurors to determine that their votes were final, two female jurors spoke up and said their votes were not accurately reflected.
In a new audio recording purportedly made by Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind called on warring Islamic factions to look past their differences.
"Some of you have been lax in one duty, which is to unite your ranks," bin Laden says, in a tape broadcast by Al Jazeera. "Beware of division... The Muslim world is waiting for you to gather under one banner."
The recording, titled "A Message To The People Of Iraq," seems directed at Sunni and Shiite extremists. The U.S. maintains a heavy presence in Iraq four years after the fall of Baghdad largely because of ethnosectarian violence between the groups. Al-Qaida in Iraq, a particularly violent Sunni Muslim group, has so alienated many Iraqi Sunnis that they have joined forces with U.S. fighters in the Anbar province. More recently, Iraqi Shiites have begun distancing themselves from Shiite militias, led by the Mahdi Army.
London's Wembley Arena has played host to many high-profile concerts, including this summer's tribute to Princess Diana. But on Sunday, Wembley was the scene of a different kind of concert, one many are calling the first of its kind.
Ten thousand Muslims gathered at the arena for what is being dubbed Muslim Live 8, a concert to raise money for and awareness of the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The sold-out crowd heard music from Outlandish, an MTV award-winning hip-hop band, and Muslim-American country singer, Kareem Salama. But Sami Yusuf, labeled by Time as "Islam's biggest rock star," drew the most fervent cheers from fans.
Less than a week after the deadly terrorist attack on the day of her homecoming, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto continues to insist her country is on the edge of democracy. But has her return destabilized the region even further?
In an interview that aired on the "Today Show" this morning, Bhutto told Ann Curry that she knew people would be put at risk by her choice to return to Pakistan. When pressed as to why she chose to arrive in an open-air motorcade rather than by helicopter, which could have prevented the deaths of 139 people, Bhutto said she found the question "uncomfortable." She finally responded that if she had taken a helicopter, it "means that terrorists can dictate the agenda. It means that terrorists, by threatening violence, can take over nations and destroy the quality of life of their people."
Seeking to head off a fight that hasn't yet begun, President Bush warned Democratic lawmakers not to resist new emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as he tacked on $46 billion to the $150.5 billion the White House had already requested for the new fiscal year.
Recalling recent reports on progress in Iraq, Bush said that the extra funding was "crucial to maintaining this policy of success." General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker appeared on Capitol Hill in September to tell lawmakers that the "surge" strategy was making headway in Iraq, and that as a result troops could be safely drawn down back to pre-surge levels.
Navy SEAL Gets First Medal Of Honor For Afghan Combat
This afternoon, President Bush will award the first Medal of Honor for combat in Afghanistan to the family of Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL who was mortally wounded while making a radio distress call to save other members of his team who were trapped by enemy fire.
The fierce gun battle occurred on June 28, 2005, "the darkest day in the history of the Navy SEALs," according to Navy Times reporter Philip Creed, who notes that 11 special operators were killed in the Afghan mountains on that single day. Murphy and three other team members, on the hunt for terrorists, were spotted by locals, who apparently tipped off the Taliban. The fierce firefight that ensued forced the outnumbered SEALs to take shelter amid the mountain rocks, but Murphy, who was already wounded, left his position of cover to radio for help, exposing himself to enemy fire and thereby sacrificing his life to save his fellow soldiers.
Two other SEALs in Murphy's team, Matthew Axelson and Danny Dietz, were also killed and subsequently honored with Navy Crosses for aiding in the escape of the fourth member of their team -- Hospital Corpsman Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor of the two-hour battle.
Murphy is the first Navy SEAL to earn the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War, AP reports. He was 29 years old and engaged to be married when he died. The New York Times and Newsday have profiles of Murphy, a native of Long Island.
New quarterly earnings reports show that GM remains the world's No. 1 automaker, following a scare earlier this year when Japanese automaker Toyota briefly overtook the American stalwart in sales.
According to its third-quarter filings, Toyota sold 2.34 million vehicles, slightly fewer than the 2.38 million units moved by GM in the same period. GM also beat out its Japanese rival in sales for the year by about 10,000 vehicles.
GM has reason to celebrate after a bruising year that included a strike by the United Auto Workers, but long-term concerns remain. As the American market as a whole grapples with rising manufacturing and labor costs, analysts believe that Japanese automakers will eventually overtake GM if conditions in the U.S. don't improve.
In what could be a tipping point in the conflict between Turkey's government and Kurds in northern Iraq, Kurdish forces ambushed a Turkish convoy on Sunday just three miles from the border. Twelve Turkish soldiers were killed and eight more are still missing.
Turkish forces responded by shelling an area near Kurdish towns and destroying a bridge, and AP reports that dozens of military vehicles were headed toward the border to join the tens of thousands of troops already gathered there. The Turkish government believes thousands of PKK rebels are also massed at the border.
But today, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said his government would try to seek a political solution to the conflict before an invasion. Tension has been mounting for months, and last week, Turkey's parliament authorized incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan to hunt down rebels in the area.
"We will continue these diplomatic efforts with all good intentions to solve this problem caused by a terrorist organization," Babacan told reporters. "But in the end, if we do not reach any results, there are other means we might have to use."
Administration. Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday that Iran would not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Military. Two female U.S. sailors were killed in a shooting incident early this morning at a naval base in Bahrain.
Iraq. U.S. forces killed more than a dozen during a weekend raid on Sadr City targeting a militia leader.
Campaigns. Republican Bobby Jindal won Louisiana's gubernatorial race Saturday, avoiding a runoff race and promising to lead a more bipartisan state government.
Dry weather and hurricane-strength Santa Ana winds sent wildfires racing through much of southern California this weekend. Malibu, San Diego and areas around Los Angeles are all threatened by the fires that picked up early yesterday morning and spread quickly. More than 10,000 homes in the path of the blaze have been evacuated; one person has been killed and several others, including some firefighters, have been injured.
Firefighters say the blaze is zero percent contained, and Los Angeles County Fire Chief Michael Freemansaid in a briefing yesterday that the Malibu fire wouldn't be under control until at least tomorrow or Wednesday. Officials speculated that downed power lines may have started that fire.
The fires are fueled by dry brush resulting from a record drought this year -- the same drought that prompted the governor of Georgia to declare a state of emergency Saturday and ask President Bush for immediate federal assistance. Drought conditions are afflicting a swath of Southern states from Alabama to North Carolina.
The Los Angeles Times has continuing updates from reporters on the scene of the fires, and the San Diego Union-Tribune has breaking news on road closures and other details.
Even in the grimmest of times there's plenty to laugh about in Washington, and a number of lawmakers proved that the case this week at the Funniest Celebrity in Washington contest.
Politicians and the reporters who cover them get to be funny on purpose for one night a year with proceeds going to a worthy cause. This year's beneficiaries were VH1's Save The Music Foundation and the Institute of Musical Traditions, and contestants included The Nation's David Corn, the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, sister of 2006 champion Rep. Linda Sanchez.
Wednesday night's winner was Joseph Randazzo of The Onion. No fair, we say, because -- hello -- The Onion. (Also, he lives in New York!) We prefer to think of the first runner-up as the rightful champion: the senior senator from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter.
Sorry, ladies: Studly U.S. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is single no more.
The Washington Post's Reliable Source column broke the news yesterday, along with plenty of hearts. Fitzgerald, 46, will be tying the knot with 34-year-old Jennifer Letzkus, a former investment banker turned Head Start teacher and marathon runner.
Fitzgerald is the straight-shooting, tough-talking attorney who was appointed the special prosecutor in the investigation into the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity. The affair was the first major scandal to truly threaten President Bush and his administration, raising the hopes of many a partisan. The media churned out glowing profile after glowing profile of The Man Who Would Take On Karl Rove, climaxing in 2005 when People magazine declared him one of its Sexiest Men Alive.
Culturalcriticsblame the proliferation of sadistic and gruesome imagery on television and in movies on Americans' psychic discomfort with their role as players in the war on terror. The phenomenon has even birthed a new category of mainstream entertainment: torture porn.
Audiences mostly comprising males in the 18-to-34 demographic are eagerly forking over $10 a pop to view the fantastical and revolting "Saw" and "Hostel" franchises. More discomfiting are the realistic depictions of torture lately seen in the film "Syriana" and on the show "24." A Foreign Affairs magazine survey (subscription) released in April found a 54-percent majority of Americans were OK with the use of torture on terrorism suspects "sometimes." Jack Bauer doesn't electrocute or nearly drown every hog-tied potential terrorist that comes his way, but when he does, the writers of the show are sympathetic to it. Bauer doesn't "always" torture, he "sometimes" tortures, and the end result is he saves the world. The "24" audience, including a former Democratic president, is apparently OK with that.
Americans may think they know what the legal definition of torture is from these images, but they probably have no idea. As we've learned in recent weeks, the business of defining torture is a difficult one, whether for national security reasons or failure of imagination. Certainly, the Bush administration is in no hurry to turn the issue into a national debate. That's problematic for this country, and not for the reasons you might think.
President Bush said the U.S. government would take tougher measures on Myanmar in order to pressure its leaders to abandon a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy activists.
"The Burmese authorities claim they desire reconciliation. Well, they need to match those words with actions," Bush said in a White House press conference.
Among the new measures is a tightening of export control regulations on the southeast Asian country. Myanmar is a significant timber exporter and does a healthy energy trade in the region.
Bush called on Myanmar's military dictatorship to permit officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross access to political prisoners. He also demanded that the regime release all political prisoners "immediately."
"We will consider additional measures if the Burmese government does not end the brutal repression of the people," Bush added. "Business as usual is unacceptable."
General Chairman Mel Martinez formally resigned from his top post at the Republican National Committee today, citing progress on the goals he set out to achieve when he first assumed the leadership role in the beginning of this year.
"It was my goal as General Chairman to lead the Party as it established the structure and raised the resources necessary to support our Presidential candidate and ensure Republican victories next November. I believe we have accomplished those goals," the Florida senator said in a statement. "That's why it is the appropriate time for me to step down as General Chairman and continue to focus my energy on serving my constituents in Florida."
The GOP senator took over for former General Chairman Ken Mehlman when he completed his two-year term in January. Martinez opted to remain in the Senate and serve his constituents in Florida while also acting as the public face of the Republican Party, along with Chairman Mike Duncan, at a time when cohesive leadership was sorely needed. Mehlman's exit came soon after the GOP's drubbing in November's midterm elections sent the party into a tailspin, but President Bush's decision to nominate Martinez did little to placate the party's restless base.
With concern growing among evangelical Christians that the GOP front-runners in the presidential race are out of touch with their values, political observers will be watching this weekend's Values Voters Summit to see if religious leaders coalesce around a candidate or continue their threats to support a third-party alternative. Meanwhile, a new CBS News poll confirms that many white evangelical Republicans are unhappy with the current slate of choices, but social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage may not be their top priorities.
See today's Poll Track(subscription) for analysis of the latest numbers on the GOP race and white evangelical voters. And check back Monday for The Gate's coverage of the Values Voters Summit, which kicked off in Washington today with appearances by several of the top Republican candidates.
Al-Qaida, Pakistani Government Fingered For Karachi Bombing
The death toll in last night's bombing in Pakistan has hit 139 and, with more than 500 wounded, is expected to climb. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the assumed target of the attack, was riding in a convoy through throngs of supporters upon her return after eight years of self-imposed exile.
Government officials immediately pointed to al-Qaida, saying the attack bore all the hallmarks of a particular pro-Taliban warlord who operates on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Baitullah Mehsud, authorities said, threatened suicide attacks against Bhutto last month. (Mehsud said today he was not involved in the attacks.)
Fighting Islamic terrorism has been a focus for Bhutto, and she frequently offered it as part of the justification for joining forces with General Pervez Musharraf, the sitting president of Pakistan, to create a stronger secular government.
But Bhutto's husband is placing blame on a different target. Fasi Zaka, a Pakistani columnist, told NPR this morning that Bhutto's husband and her party, the PPP, believe the Pakistani government itself "masterminded" the blast.
Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she'll soon send President Bush a new SCHIP expansion bill similar to the one that failed to override his veto yesterday.
Administration. During his second day of testimony before the Senate, attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey refused to rule out the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique.
Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday said that private security contractors are at odds with the U.S. mission in Iraq.
Middle East. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice finished up her tour to drum up support for a new round of Israeli-Palestinian talks without setting a specific timeline of goals.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
Benazir Bhutto escaped an apparent terrorist attack in Karachi, marring what was to have been the former prime minister's triumphant return to Pakistan and to power. Officials later revised an already grim death toll to 126, with 240 wounded in the two explosions near her convoy.
Television footage showed vehicles on fire and bodies on the ground. Officials said Bhutto had been escorted to safety.
Bhutto had been living in exile since 1999 on what she contends are trumped-up corruption charges. She remains the leader of Pakistan's largest political party, and was greeted with wild enthusiasm from tens of thousands of supporters upon her return today.
SCHIP: Democrats Lose The Battle, Stand To Win The War
UPDATED.
The House Democratic leadership failed to wrangle the 12 to 15 additional votes it needed to push an expansion of a health care program for poor children past a presidential veto.
Lawmakers voted to override President Bush's veto 265 to 159, just under the two-thirds majority required. Squabbling over the bill, popular in spirit but contentious in practice, culminated in lawmakers using and attacking real live children volunteered by their parents as props in the debate.
Today's vote was originally scheduled for around noon, but had to be delayed because of still more ugliness. During floor debate preceding the vote, California Democrat Pete Stark accused Republican fiscal conservatives of "telling lies" about the breadth of the expansion. He continued: "You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."
The National Republican Congressional Committee fired off video of Stark's remarks so fast that it misidentified the loose-cannon lawmaker as a fellow Republican. Protesting GOP lawmakers called for a reprimand vote on the remarks, which failed.
The Republican field has suffered another casualty, as Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback is expected to end his nine-month bid for the presidency after failing to register in fundraising and polls.
Although he had previously said he would drop out of the race if he finished worse than fourth in the Iowa caucuses this January, the final blow to his struggling campaign appears to have come much earlier. According to finance reports his campaign submitted this week, Brownback raised only $817,286 in the third quarter and $3.5 million since he announced.
SCHIP. The House is not expected to garner enough votes to override President Bush's veto(subscription) of the bill expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program today.
Iraq. The Turkish parliament voted to allow military raids on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, but officials said an incursion was not imminent.
Nation. Tens of thousands of occupied FEMA trailers have not been tested for dangerous levels of formaldehyde three months after the agency promised to conduct a health study.
Pakistan. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhuttoarrived in Pakistan amid crowds of supporters after eight years in exile.
Congress. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is expected to announce today that he'll resign from Congress later this year, a move that would set up a special election to replace him.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
While the Senate Judiciary Committee wasgrillingPresident Bush's nominee for attorney general yesterday about some of the most controversial counterterrorism policies supported by his predecessor, leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were working with members of the Bush administration to find common ground on one of those policies: the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program.
Senators reportedly reached a deal with the administration yesterday that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies who cooperate with the NSA's efforts under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Bush, who in a press conference yesterday urged Congress to expedite the renewal of the surveillance law temporarily approved in August, had made the lack of protections for telecoms a deal-breaker. Earlier this week the White House issued a veto threat if Congress failed to make that concession.
But while there was progress on the Senate side of negotiations yesterday, the House was thrown into tumult when its version of the bill [PDF] was brought to the floor of that chamber. After initially reporting that Democrats were optimistic about their chances of passing the bill without the concessions Bush had asked for, CongressDaily(subscription) reports this morning that "Republicans made a last-minute procedural move that appeared to split Democrats," forcing the Democratic leadership to pull the bill from the floor.
Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, predicted earlier in the day that Congress would eventually yield to the president and grant immunity for telecom companies. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer made a similar prediction last week.
End note. Thanks to the schedule provided by the Judiciary Committee, we were under the impression that the witness round was today. It is tomorrow, and about that we have no complaints.
Patrick Leahy didn't yell at anyone today. That hasn't happened in a long time. He expressed hope this morning and in closing that Mukasey's confirmation will signal the beginning of a healing process at DOJ. The Democrats on this panel have been accused of partisan bloodlust in this saga, but you have to believe Leahy wants this chapter closed. It's been an exhausting nine months for the committee, and the tug of war with the White House is far from over. A new attorney general that has the confidence of Congress means one fewer battlefront.
C-SPAN3 is replaying the hearing throughout the day; watch it here.
"I think if identification is made available and... every step is taken that allows everyone who is allowed to vote to" have access to the polls, "it seems to me that the comparison to the poll tax would be over the top," Mukasey responds.
But is it right when the "energy committed to weeding out the few" outweighs that used to ensure greater numbers to the polls, Cardin asks, conjuring Democrats' impression of the Republican Justice Department. "That shouldn't be what the Justice Department is doing, I hope you agree with that."
"I certainly do," Mukasey responds.
By the way, whatever party was responsible for the deceptive fliers and phone calls that threatened Cardin's Senate bid last year: Mukasey considers the tactics "flat-out fraud and pernicious fraud."
The country's first baby boomer -- 61-year-old Kathleen Casey-Kirschling -- applied for Social Security benefits earlier this week, setting off what's been dubbed a "silver tsunami" of retirement-benefit recipients.
Now, just a few short days after Casey-Kirschling's much-hyped application (she filed online, folks!), administrators have announced that Social Security benefits will experience their smallest annual increase in four years in 2008. Starting in January, benefits will rise 2.3 percent for the nearly 50 million people who collect them, sending "the typical retired worker's benefit check" from "$1,055 per month to $1,079," AP reports.
The government based the cost-of-living increase on consumer inflation numbers, which were also released Wednesday. MarketWatch has details.
Step aside, Unity08. There's a new bipartisan presidential ticket in town, and it's a lot truthier than yours.
That's right: Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's flag-loving talk-show host, threw his hat into the already crowded presidential ring last night with much fanfare and patriotic pomp during "The Colbert Report."
Vowing to "sprint to the finish" during his remaining 15 months in office, President Bush went before the White House press corps this morning armed with a laundry list of complaints about Congress' performance on domestic matters. Reporters, on the other hand, came armed with a flood of questions focused mainly on the president's own foreign policy agenda.
"There's little time left in the year," Bush warned in his opening statement. "And Congress has little to show for all the time that has gone by." He listed eight areas where Congress has either failed to act or compromise with the White House: health care, intelligence, the budget, education, housing, trade, veterans care and the judiciary.
Specifically, Bush urged the Democratic leadership to compromise with the White House on two contentious bills -- the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program and the authorization of a controversial wiretapping program. The former has already earned a presidential veto, and the White House issued a fresh veto threat for the latter yesterday.
12:20. Recess. So far, no big surprises, but plenty to reassure those who anguish over DOJ's loss of credibility under Gonzales. We'll resume with testimony from the witness panel -- fomer AG Dick Thornburgh among them -- later this afternoon in a new post.
12:11. "More recently, a statute called the USA Patriot Act has become the focus of a good deal of hysteria, some of it reflexive, much of it recreational," Mukasey wrote in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal in 2004.
Russ Feingold somewhat ridiculously asks if Mukasey believes that all critics of the Patriot Act engage in "recreational hysteria." He doesn't, of course, and acknowledges parts of it can be improved. Like most non-partisans on the act, Mukasey sees good and bad there. The point of the op-ed is best summarized in the second half of its title: "Before attacking the Patriot Act, try reading it."
12:02. "I'm going to assure you there isn't going to be any stonewalling," Mukasey says when Charles Grassley asks about the load of documents and testimony his panel has been denied by the administration. "I'm certainly going to review the clearance process simply to make sure that it is a clearance process and not just a black hole."
Administration. The White House yesterday threatened to veto legislation on the controversial wiretapping program up for a vote in the House today.
Congress. Members of the House are beginning to back off from a nonbinding resolution referring to the mass killings of Armenians nearly a century ago as genocide.
Iraq. U.S. troops will begin withdrawing from Diyala province in December.
Mideast. Egypt gave limited support to the peace talks Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is promoting in the region.
Media. Idaho Sen. Larry Craig told NBC's Matt Lauer in an interview aired last night that he didn't know about the reputation of a Minneapolis airport restroom where he allegedly solicited gay sex.
Campaigns. Democrat Niki Tsongas won a special election to take over the seat formerly held by her late husband in Massachusetts' 5th District.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
If Americans won't listen, maybe Scandinavians will. Al Gore said in an interview with Norwegian TV network NRK that he isn't running for president and his Nobel Prize win hasn't changed his plans.
Days before he was awarded the prize, a group called Draft Gore took out a full-page ad [PDF] in the New York Times again calling for his candidacy, and the organization claims to have 200,000 signatures on its draft petition.
But maybe it's time to start focusing on the question of Gore's endorsement, which he said he'd make before the end of the primary season. Gore's historically rocky relationship with the Clinton family means that his endorsement of the former first lady is by no means a sure thing; he told 02138 magazine in its September/October issue that he doesn't feel an obligation to get behind Clinton. (Full disclosure: 02138 is owned by Atlantic Media, NationalJournal.com's parent company.)
In fact, Gore hasn't met with either Clinton or Bill Richardson, who was Energy Secretary in Bill Clinton's Cabinet. The Washington Postreported over a month ago that he has met with other contenders, though: Barack Obama, John Edwards and Christopher Dodd.
DOD Opposes Afghan Reconstruction Oversight Measure
The Pentagon is urging House-Senate conferees on the FY08 defense authorization bill to drop a provision in the House measure that would create a special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. The office would be modeled largely on the independent investigator examining rebuilding efforts in Iraq, where billions of dollars of contract waste and fraud have been uncovered.
In May, House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., called the proposal one of his bill's most significant provisions, and stressed that the inspector general in Afghanistan would "ensure even greater accountability" of efforts there. But in a package of appeals on the authorization measure sent last week to the House and Senate Armed Services committees, DOD officials said they viewed the appointment of an Afghanistan investigator as a redundant move that would deplete the Pentagon's inspector general, who already is tasked with oversight there, of necessary personnel.
The Senate version of the bill also created the Afghanistan inspector general, but the Pentagon did not address that provision.
The third-quarter money race is coming into focus this week, as yesterday marked the deadline for candidates to file their official fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission. The national front-runners on both sides of the aisle -- Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani -- pulled ahead of their closest rivals in the money race, adding fuel to their growing leads and fresh hurdles for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, who have been stagnating in the polls.
But for at least one candidate, the correspondence between campaign momentum and cash flow isn't quite as clear-cut.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has experienced something of a renaissance on the trail after a dismal second-quarter showing and a major campaign shakeup, is reporting $3.4 million cash on hand, $1.8 million of which is set aside for the general election. Factoring in his $1.7 million in reported debt, Marc Ambinderhelpfully does the math: "That means that McCain's campaign has no cash on hand -- in fact, even with the general election money factored in, it owes about $94,000. It is, in other words, bankrupt."
Once again, the Bush administration is reminded that while it would be preferable to have the world at its back as it attempts to stabilize the Middle East, it simply does not. Iran and Russia have sealed an agreement among the Caspian Sea nations that "under no circumstances will they allow [the use of their] territories by third countries to launch aggression or other military action against any of the member states." Doesn't take a genius to figure out which third country might top that list.
This declaration accomplishes several things, none of which bode well for Washington's push for Iran to come clean on its nuclear program.
The latest retirement rumors swirling around the Senate are again focused on one of that chamber's most high-profile Republican members -- Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
In a recent interview with Texas Monthly Editor Evan Smith, Hutchison admitted that she was seriously considering a run for the Texas governorship in 2010. "I haven't made a commitment in any way because it's just too early -- it's too early to be gearing up," Hutchison said of the gubernatorial rumors. "Would I like to do it? Yes. A lot of things have to happen to make it a reality. You can't plan that far ahead with certainty."
Hutchison did say one thing with certainty: She will not seek re-election to the Senate when her current term is up in 2012, whether she runs for governor or not. "So is it better for Texas for me to leave early and give someone else a chance to start building seniority before the class of 2013? I think it probably is."
When asked if she'd step down in 2009, Hutchison replied, "I think that has to be considered. But there's been no decision." Excerpts of her interview are available on Texas Monthly's blog; the full text is slated to run in the magazine's December issue.
In an effort to stave off a looming incursion of Turkish forces into his country, Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimicrossed the border today to meet with Turkey's prime minister and new president.
Turkey has been threatening to stage assaults on separatists operating in Iraqi Kurdistan. According to the Turkish government, those separatists (called the Kurdistan Workers Party or the PKK, which the EU and the U.S. have classified as a terrorist group) operate in northern Iraq without interference. Iraq had promised to address the group in a late September resolution; Turkey claims nothing has been done and that the PKK is becoming emboldened.
Earlybird Roundup: SCHIP Veto Likely To Stand; Putin To Meet Ahmadinejad
Washington. Over strong objections from the Chinese government, President Bushplans to meet with the Dalai Lama today. He will receive a Congressional Gold Medal tomorrow.
Congress. The House GOP will likely uphold Bush's veto of the SCHIP legislation in a Thursday vote.
Terrorism. Verizon officials told congressional investigators yesterday that the company has turned phone records over to the government hundreds of times since 2005.
Economy. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday that recent rate cuts helped "reduce some of the pressure in financial markets."
World. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran today for a one-day visit, during which he will meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will be delaying his trip to Tehran amid concerns of an assassination plot, a news agency reported hours after Putin insisted he would arrive there tonight as scheduled.
According to AP, Iran's official news agency is reporting that "Putin will arrive in Tehran at the head of a delegation tomorrow morning." Neither government offered a detailed explanation.
Earlier today, Putin defiantly insisted that he would press on with the visit, despite intelligence that suicide bombers were targeting him in Tehran. "Of course I am going to Iran," Putin said after talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany. "If I always listened to all the various threats and the recommendations of the special services I would never leave home."
Russia's Interfax news agency had reported that security sources were picking up intelligence on a potential terrorist plot against Putin during his visit. An Iranian official dismissed the report as "part of a psychological war waged by enemies to disrupt relations between Iran and Russia."
Putin is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a move akin to -- intentionally or not -- poking Washington in the eye.
Last week, Slate's Christopher Beampicked up on the evolution of the Wall Street Journal's stipple portraits of President Bush. Gone is the gleaming confidence of Bush circa April 2006, noted Beam, apparently alarmed by the sad-faced portrait of Bush accompanying a front-page story on the president's trade agenda.
Well, we all know that trade talks are enough to turn any smile upside down. Just three days later, the Journal portrayed Bush mid-statement, his mouth partly open. Was he smiling? Pouting? Maybe something in between.
The progression of Bush from happy to frowny over the past couple of years is pretty undeniable, and it's jarring to see the portraits side-by-side on Slate. Viewing them brought a certain '70s anthem of anguish to mind. Click on the YouTube video of The Who performing "Behind Blue Eyes" and gaze upon Slate's portrait comparison. We defy you not to shed a tear.
Despite his ongoing legal troubles and calls for his resignation by members of his own party, Sen. Larry Craig refuses to go quietly. The Idaho Republican filed a motion with the Minnesota Court of Appeals today asking the judge to overrule a lower court's decision refusing to allow Craig to withdraw his guilty plea stemming from a sex sting operation in a Minneapolis airport bathroom.
"From the outset Senator Craig has maintained that he is innocent of any illegal conduct at the Minneapolis airport. Senator Craig has a right to appeal and we believe that it was a manifest injustice not to allow Senator Craig to withdraw his guilty plea entered in August," said Billy Martin, Craig's high-powered attorney. "Like every other citizen, Senator Craig has the constitutional right to make every effort to clear his name."
Hennepin County Judge Charles Porterruled two weeks ago that Craig "knew what he was saying, reading and signing," when he agreed to plead guilty to those charges in June and therefore should not be able to withdraw the plea now.
The motion does not detail the grounds for Craig's appeal. In an interview with a Boise TV station on Sunday, Craig said, "It is my right to do what I'm doing. I've already provided for Idaho certainty that Idaho needed. I'm not running for re-election. I'm no longer in the way. I am pursuing my constitutional rights." He reiterated that he does not intend to resign his Senate seat and will complete the last year of his current term.
The South takes center stage this week in the ongoing presidential primary calendar wars. South Carolina Democrats are considering requesting an earlier primary date and Florida Democrats, already rebuked by the national party, are crying foul.
The Columbia State first reported earlier this month that S.C. Democrats were considering requesting the earlier date of Jan. 19 to coincide with the state's Republican primaries. But South Carolina Democratic Party Executive Director Joe Werner said in a telephone interview that Jan. 19 is only "one date we're looking at," and that the executive committee will meet Tuesday to decide whether to approach the DNC about a possible move as well as which date to request.
Denying the possible move has anything to do with Florida voting on the same day, Werner said that "it has everything to do with the fact that South Carolina Republicans will be voting on the 19th, and we'll be going 10 days after." Democrats are afraid that a large gap between the two primaries will discourage voters from going to the polls, he added.
A survey of British dental patients has found that some are resorting to pulling out their own teeth as the number of dentists participating in the National Health Service drops, AFP reports.
Nearly half of dentists surveyed said they had stopped treating NHS patients. As a result, nearly 80 percent of Britons on private insurance said they were pushed there because they couldn't find an NHS dentist. Only 15 percent of those privately insured said their choice was based on quality of treatment.
"When you've got a severe toothache, you don't want to wait two or three weeks -- you need treatment straightaway," DIY patient Don Wilson told BBC News.
"It is a very foolish thing to do," scolded Liz Kay, dean of the Peninsula Dental School in Plymouth. BBC News has a report on the "pros and cons" of at-home dentistry.
In a sign that the Bush administration views a two-state Mideast solution as a critical accomplishment before the clock winds down to 2009, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that now was the time for the Palestinians to achieve statehood.
"Frankly, it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," Rice said today during a visit to the West Bank.
Rice appeared to indicate that she had grown weary of the negotiations process, which has been fraught with leadership changes and other stops and starts since President Bush rejuvenated Washington's role there in 2003.
Earlybird Roundup: Rice In Middle East, Hobson To Retire
Iraq. The U.S. military is cautiously reporting that it has nearly crippled al-Qaida in Iraq.
Mideast. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the region this week, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to hammer out the details of a peace summit planned for next month.
Budget.President Bush will blast Congress for falling behind on spending bills while visiting Arkansas today. Meanwhile, Democrats aim to have all appropriations bills to Bush by Nov. 16(subscription).
Congress. Rep. David Hobson on Sunday became the latest high-profile Ohio Republican to announce plans to retire in 2008.
Immigration. Fed up with federal inertia, states are increasingly passing their own immigration reforms, thereby complicating efforts to craft a national solution.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
A group of Muslim spiritual leaders and scholars from countries including Iran and Pakistan are reaching out to their Christian counterparts amid boiling conflicts between those two worlds. In an open letter [PDF] addressed to church leaders including Pope Benedict XVI, the Muslims warn that "the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians."
Muslims and Christians are enjoined to worship but one God and love their neighbors, the letter notes, and a 13-page treatise written by the scholars lists comparable passages of the Q'uran and the Bible. "Love of the [neighbor] is an essential and integral part of faith in God and love of God because in Islam without love of the [neighbor] there is no true faith in God and no righteousness," they write. "Without giving the [neighbor] what we ourselves love, we do no truly love God or the [neighbor]."
The document, released yesterday, already has itsskeptics among those who believe Islam's leaders are unwilling to rid their institution of violent fundamentalists. Yet it is an unprecedented call for reconciliation at a time when the turbulent Middle East is the fulcrum of instability around the globe.
The New York Times and Los Angeles Times both led with the "highly unusual" news this morning that the head of the nation's top spy agency had launched an internal investigation into his own internal investigator.
CIA Inspector General John Helgerson isn't exactly the most popular man at the agency these days. His recent inquiries into the CIA's handling of pre-9/11 intelligence and the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, which have produced some damning results, have ruffled more than a few feathers within the spy community. CIA Director Michael Hayden, in particular, has not tried to hide his frustration with some of Helgerson's work.
According to the New York Times, "the review is particularly focused on complaints that Mr. Helgerson’s office has not acted as a fair and impartial judge of agency operations but instead has begun a crusade against those who have participated in controversial detention programs."
Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize; Wild Speculation Ensues
UPDATED.
As many anticipated, the Norwegian Nobel Committee today awarded its prestigious prize for peace to former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a move that has rekindled speculation that Gore could still jump into the 2008 White House race.
Gore, who has been crusading against climate change ever since he lost the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush, "is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted" to curb global warming, the committee said in bestowing the award on him. Reuters has the full text of the committee's citation.
Gore told reporters this afternoon that he would be donating his half of the $1.5 million prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to spread awareness and spur action on the climate change issue.
Congratulating the IPCC and thanking the Nobel committee for the award, Gore said, "I will be doing everything I can to try to understand how to best use the honor and recognition of this award as a way of speeding up the change in awareness and the change in urgency. It truly is a planetary emergency and we have to respond quickly."
What he didn't say is that he'll be running for president in 2008, but that hasn't stopped his staunch supporters from holding out hope.
Hey Democrats -- Remember When You Liked Hillary Clinton?
Is it 1996 again? Al Gore's going to run in the next presidential election, and Democrats like Hillary Rodham Clinton!
Reality check: Gore is probably not going to enter the 2008 presidential contest, despite what a group of speculationists would have you believe. As for Clinton, she's surged ahead of her rivals in Iowa and New Hampshire, where primary victories would all but clinch the nomination for the former first lady. Her negatives are still high, indicating she's the front-runner because of the perception she's best equipped to beat the eventual Republican nominee.
"It's not as cut-and-dry as, I used to hate her but now I love her," liberal advocate Fred Gooltz told the New York Observer recently. "It's a complicated mix of feelings."
Earlybird Roundup: Missile Defense, CIA Probe, Regula Retirement
World. Tensions are flaring up once again between the U.S. and Russian President Vladimir Putin over a planned U.S. missile defense shield in Europe.
Military. A government report shows that military equipment and technology are being smuggled into nations hostile to U.S. interests.
Iraq. The families of Iraqi victims of a shootout involving Blackwater USA are suing the private security firm in a U.S. district court.
Administration. The CIA has launched an investigation into the conduct of its own watchdog, Inspector General John Helgerson.
Congress. Influential Republican Rep. Ralph Regulaannounced yesterday that he would retire from the House next year, leaving his Ohio seat open in 2008.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
Yesterday, the U.S. Congress angered Turkey. Today, the White House confirmed that President Bush is about to do the same to China.
Press secretary Dana Perino confirmed that the president will meet once again with the Dalai Lama. Bush has met with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader before, much to China's chagrin, but next week will mark the first time the two will appear together publicly.
The Dalai Lama will be a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal. Perino said Bush had already informed Chinese President Hu Jintao that he would be attending the Oct. 17 award ceremony, but Perino confirmed for the first time today that there will also be a one-on-one meeting on Oct. 16.
China has already expressed displeasure with Bush's plan to attend the ceremony. Earlier this week, an official said the Nobel Peace Prize recipient was "a political exile who undertakes secessionist activities abroad."
Reuters and AFP have more on next week's ceremony.
A Turkish court has convicted two journalists for publishing content that mentions the Armenian genocide, following a vote by a U.S. congressional panel officially declaring the Ottoman Empire massacres to be genocide.
Arat Dink and Serkis Seropyan, editors at a Turkish-Armenian weekly, were given one-year suspended sentences under a law that makes it a crime to "insult" Turkish culture. The government of Turkey officially denies that the early 20th-century genocide took place, despite the widespread consensus of historians.
Administration Says Deficit Dropped By $85 Billion In FY07
The Bush administration announced today that the FY07 budget deficit was $163 billion, a decline of $85 billion from last year and the lowest level in five years. At an estimated 1.2 percent of gross domestic product, according to the administration, the deficit is half the 40-year average deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP.
President Bush used the news to call on Congress to exercise fiscal restraint and not raise taxes. "Now the fundamental question is whether the United States Congress will work constructively with the administration to keep taxes low and to keep spending sound," Bush said after meeting with his economic advisers. "I look forward to working with members of both parties to continue keeping our fiscal house in order and to continue to head for a balanced budget."
The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times are reporting that the U.S. Marines Corps is requesting redeployment from Iraq to Afghanistan, where Taliban fighting has increased considerably. The reasons are not officially explicated, but there are a few obvious possibilities.
Now that Anbar province is relatively calm, the Marines sent there to wrest back control from Sunni insurgents seem mostly to be serving in an overwatch and training capacity, a role better suited for the Army. The LAT obtained an e-mail from one officer there, Lt. Col. Beau Higgins, noting the dramatic drop in attacks on U.S. forces. Higgins concluded, "It's critical that we stay here to continue to assist... but our role as fire fighters in the zone moving from hot spot to hot spot has truly gone."
The hallmarks of the USMC are rapid readiness and targeted strikes, not occupation. In 2004, for instance, the Marines were sent to calm the spiraling-out situation in Fallujah. The LAT reports that the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment returned from Anbar on Monday after a seven-month deployment without having lost one of their number; in an earlier deployment, the unit suffered 15 deaths.
The current military mission in Iraq is to replicate the successes of Anbar elsewhere. It's not clear what the mission now is in Afghanistan, mostly because it isn't talked about as much.
Earlybird Roundup: Armenian Genocide, Ohio School Shooting
Congress. The House Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution formally recognizing the Armenian genocide during World War I, drawing protests from Turkey.
SCOTUS. Chief Justice John Roberts extended debate on a complex executive powers case concerning Congress, the judiciary, state governments and the World Court.
Military. The Marine Corps is pushing for a mission shift from Iraq to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Army should be better prepared to fight in "unconventional conflicts."
Mideast. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other U.S. officials are keeping quiet about plans for a Mideast peace conference scheduled for next month.
Nation. A student opened fire at a Cleveland high school yesterday, wounding five before turning the gun on himself.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
Formerly the highest-ranking law enforcement official in the nation, Alberto Gonzales knows the value of a good lawyer, and it appears he's putting that knowledge to use. AP reports that the former attorney general has hired George Terwilliger, a former Justice Department official who now serves as one of Washington's toughest white-collar crime defense attorneys, to represent him in the ongoing investigations into Gonzales' conduct at DOJ.
In an ironic twist, Terwilliger was reportedly on the White House's short list of possible replacements for Gonzales when he exited the department last month.
In an interview with AP, Terwilliger warned that Gonzales' decision to hire him should not be read as an admission of guilt. "Investigations are conducted to find the facts," he said. "And the facts will show that Judge Gonzales acted honorably in all circumstances while holding positions of great responsibility and importance to maintaining the safety of the country."
The Armenian Genocide: When Purity Meets Pragmatism
Let's get this detail out of the way: The United States does not brook genocide. Maybe this country does not always go far enough to stop genocide where it occurs (Rwanda, Sudan), but it has not ignored, let alone denied, the mass extermination of an ethnic group since World War II. What the U.S. always does do in reaction to genocide is condemn the killing wherever it occurs.
So why the opposition to a nonbinding House resolution that compels the U.S. government to formally recognize the 1915-17 mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide -- something George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush did not do as commander in chief?
The answer, of course, is Turkey's resistance to the resolution. Almost anywhere else in the world, official government condemnation of genocide is an easy position for Washington to take. Not so with the Armenian genocide, because Turkey holds many cards, and the U.S. is in no position to strong-arm anyone it might still count as an ally in the war on terror.
Bush To Dems: Don't 'Take Us Backward' With Surveillance Bill
The debate over electronic surveillance in the war on terror is rearing its ugly head again this week, two months after Congress' quick (and temporary) fix before the August recess. That law is set to expire in February, bringing lawmakers and the White House back to the negotiating table to hammer out new guidelines.
Yesterday, the New York Times reported that Democrats were poised to extend the federal government's ability to spy on foreign communications in the service of combating terrorism and would not impose as many restrictions as they hinted at back in August. But as predicted, President Bush and Republican members are still raising objections to some of the oversight proposals Democrats have made.
In a brief appearance on the South Lawn this morning, Bush criticized the Democratic-sponsored bill introduced in the House today, called the RESTORE Act [PDF], saying it would "take us backward.... My administration has serious concerns about some of its provisions," he continued, "and I am hopeful that the deficiencies in the bill can be fixed."
Once again, the United Auto Workers instructed tens of thousands of its members to take to the streets in protest against one of the Big Three U.S. automakers. This time, it was the failed negotiations between union leaders and Chrysler over a new labor agreement that sparked the walkout of some 40,000 workers nationwide.
The Detroit Free Press notes "it’s the second strike against a Detroit automaker in the past two-and-half weeks by the UAW," which picketed General Motors for two days before hammering out a tentative agreement, "and the first strike against Chrysler in recent history." Job security and health care remain the two main sticking points in the ongoing negotiations.
According to the Detroit News, at least four Chrysler plans are excluded from the strike, so not all of the union's 49,000 Chrysler members are picketing today.
This is how low the bar is set for the 2008 Republican front-runners' debate performances: Don't screw up, and make us laugh at least once.
That's according to most of the news coverage, anyway. Of Fred Thompson's long-awaited debut in yesterday's GOP primary debate in Michigan, the general assessment is no, he didn't screw up, and yes, that one thing he said at the end was kind of funny.
"I've enjoyed watching these fellas," the former Tennessee senator said as things were winding down. "I've got to admit, it was getting a little boring without me."
Good line, were it not for the fact that the debate wasn't terribly exciting with him either. He didn't scuffle with any of his eight rivals there, so there were no fireworks. Nor, as Rich Lowryalso observed, were any of the "Law & Order" star's lines very funny. Does it matter? Thompson's catching a lot of flak for a rocky campaign launch -- before CNBC aired the debate, Radar magazine went up with a YouTube-laden "blooper reel" feature -- but his ready-made support in the polls guarantees him top-contender status. That support, remember, was there even before he officially entered the race. Unless he goofs up horribly on the national stage, it isn't going away because of one disappointing debate performance.
Thompson's viability is rooted less in who he is than who he is not. So voters might be better served by also paying attention to how Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney fared, even though this was their umpteenth televised debate.
Yesterday's revelations that the September leak of an intercepted Osama bin Laden video prompted al-Qaida to close a loophole that allowed surveillance on the group have sparked an official inquiry.
A Washington, D.C.-based private firm that monitors al-Qaida communications, SITE Intelligence Group, had secretly gotten a copy of the video and shared it with the White House. Within hours, SITE argues, multiple government agencies had downloaded the video and it was all over the media -- leaked from the government sources.
Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the director of national intelligence, said in a Washington Post article today that officials will look into the leak allegation, but he doesn't think the leak came from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence or the National Counterterrorism Center.
Frances Fragos Townsend, a White House homeland security adviser, emphasized during a news conference yesterday that the video was released to the whole intelligence community, not just the White House, but she didn't deny responsibility for the leak.
Earlybird Roundup: Laura Bush On Myanmar, Security Strategy, Turkish Attacks
Myanmar. First lady Laura Bush took the rare step of penning an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal(subscription) criticizing Myanmar's military junta and asking them to stop the "terror campaigns against their own people."
Administration. The White House yesterday formally updated the nation's homeland security strategy for the first time since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Iraq. The government of Turkey yesterday authorized troops to cross the border and attack Kurdish rebel camps in northern Iraq.
Economy. Talks between Chrysler and the United Auto Workers continued late into the night as negotiators raced to beat an 11 a.m. strike deadline today.
See Earlybird(subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.
The Fort Drum-based 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, is on its way back from Iraq -- but without two soldiers who've been missing for five months.
Spc. Alex Jimenez, 25, and Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, were captured in an insurgent ambush on May 12, south of Baghdad. They have not been seen since then. Americans killed in captivity have been a prime source of propaganda for al-Qaida in Iraq, suggesting there is some chance that Jimenez and Fouty are still alive. In the face of little evidence indicating otherwise, the search for the missing soldiers continues.
"This is still our brigade's No. 1 priority," the brigade's commander, Col. Michael Kershaw, said of the missing soldiers on Friday. In June, the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq claimed in a video that Jimenez and Fouty had been killed in the ambush. The soldiers' military ID cards were shown, but there was otherwise no proof that they were dead or even captured.
CNBC's Republican candidates debate is airing right now. Don't worry, workers of America, it will re-air on MSNBC tonight at 9 p.m. EDT. Tomorrow morning, we'll have a wrap-up with reaction to the candidates' answers on the economy, plus an assessment of the long-awaited debut of Fred Thompson on the stage. You can watch the debate live right here.
One week after losing precious political points for his party by vetoing a bill to expand a popular children's health care program, President Bush stepped into the White House Rose Garden today and pleaded with Congress for a bipartisan solution to another major children's issue: education.
"No Child Left Behind is replacing a culture of low expectations with a commitment to high achievement for all," Bush told reporters as he called on members from both sides of the aisle to renew his landmark 2002 education reform act. Emphasizing the original goal of having "every child reading and doing math at grade level by 2014" -- a benchmark some lawmakers and educators have balked at -- Bush said he was not willing to compromise "on holding schools accountable."
The Supreme Court today refused to take up the case of Khaled el-Masri, a German national who is trying to sue the U.S. government for allegedly kidnapping and torturing him in an Afghanistan prison for months beginning in late 2003. In what the New York Timesdescribes as the "most extensively documented case of the C.I.A.'s controversial practice of 'extraordinary rendition,'" el-Masri claims he was eventually released with no explanation for his detainment, although he suspects it was a case of mistaken identity.
The justices rejected the case without giving a reason, but the move is being interpreted as a de facto agreement with the Bush administration's contention that hearing the case could compromise national security.
Contractors Fight Could Pose True Test Of Iraqi Sovereignty
Iraqi police are reporting that two women have been killed by private security guards for a civilian convoy in central Baghdad. The incident comes two days after the Iraqi government issued a report finding a Sept. 16 attack that killed 17 civilians and wounded 22 others was unprovoked.
Worrisomely for the Bush administration, the Iraqis seem determined to prosecute the Blackwater USA guards involved in that shooting, potentially setting a precedent for all future incidents, including today's.
Some see the undoubtedly aggressive, if not unprecedented, lawsuit [PDF] against the city of Durham, N.C., disgraced former District Attorney Mike Nifong, and other officials as a pointless vendetta. Some might also see the suit as a cynical bid for self-enrichment, or even as a legally far-fetched effort to punish the good citizens of Durham.
They're wrong on all counts, or so it seems to me. After spending the better part of a year working on a book about the Duke case and related matters, I have no doubt that Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann will amply prove the heart of their claims, which are as follows:
The Senate is quiet this week, away on its Columbus Day recess, but the House is about to make a major move on legislation concerning the National Security Agency's spy program. According to the New York Times, House Democrats seem ready to OK the broad eavesdropping powers that they temporarily extended before the summer recess but had previously pledged to curtail.
The revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which will be proposed today, "would maintain for several years the type of broad, blanket authority for N.S.A. eavesdropping that the administration secured in August for six months," the Times reports. "In an acknowledgment of concerns over civil liberties, the bill would require a more active role by the special foreign intelligence court that oversees the interception of foreign-based communications by the security agency."
World. More than 200 people have been killed on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in clashes between the Pakistani government and Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
Iraq.Two bomb attacks likely targeting anti-insurgent Sunni leaders killed more than 20 people in the northern city of Baiji today.
Congress. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has assured private equity firms that a tax hike they'd lobbied against won't go through this year.
The White House today signaled that it will not accede to Congress' demands for transparency on two secret memos on terrorism detainees, insisting it does not engage in torture and that key members had already learned all they needed to know.
"They have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress on the Intelligence Committee. But they are classified for a reason and they are secret," press secretary Dana Perino said during the daily briefing. "One of the reasons they are secret is because they need to be. They need to be cloaked in the classified system so that we can keep that information private so that we're not signaling to our enemies exactly what our techniques are."
Earlier, President Bush gave his first public response to revelations that CIA officers may be using tactics that might qualify as torture in a program secretly endorsed by the Justice Department.
"This government does not torture people. We stick to U.S. law and our international obligations," Bush said in a brief statement to the press this morning.
Following a preliminary report on the Sept. 16 shootings of several Iraqi civilians, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ordered that all Blackwater convoys be outfitted with cameras. In addition, State Department security agents will accompany the convoys.
Rice's order only applies to Blackwater, not to other State contractors in Iraq including Triple Canopy and DynCorp. The FBI and State are both investigating the incident.
Court Ruling Keeps Musharraf's Power Hanging In The Balance
Pakistan's highest court delivered some good news and some bad news to President Pervez Musharraf today: The vote to re-elect him is allowed to take place tomorrow as scheduled. But a winner will not be declared until legal challenges to Musharraf's bid is resolved. Two opponents have charged that Musharraf should not be able to run for the civilian post while retaining his title as head of the army.
The New York Times reports that "both supporters of General Musharraf and opposition politicians claimed victory from the surprise court decision."
Myanmar Unrest Sets Stage For Another U.N. Face-Off
As the U.S. and its allies lay the groundwork for possible U.N. action against the military dictatorship that rules Myanmar, China and Russia are forming an axis of opposition to the endeavor.
China is one of Myanmar's most generous benefactors, and in a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, warned members not to interfere in the junta's crackdown on an army of monks.
"It is quite understandable for the outside world to express concern and expectation regarding the situation on the ground, however, pressure would not serve any purpose or would lead to confrontation or even the loss of dialogue and cooperation between Myanmar and the international community, including the United Nations," said the Chinese ambassador, Wang Guangya. "If the situation in Myanmar takes a worse turn because of external intervention, it would be the people of Myanmar who will bear the brunt."
According to the New York Times, Russia and China are arguing that "the crisis does not constitute the kind of threat to international peace and security that calls for the involvement of the Council."
Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., will announce her candidacy this afternoon for the Senate seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Pete Domenici. One senior Republican aide said Wilson will make her announcement at 4 p.m. MDT in New Mexico.
Earlier today, Democratic Rep. Tom Udall ended speculation about his candidacy by announcing he will seek re-election in the House so he can keep his newly won seat on the Appropriations Committee. "The election to replace Sen. Domenici in 2008 will be a tough one, but I have every reason to believe I could win it," Udall said. But he added that the new post allows him to pursue important legislation, including renewable energy. "I am in the right place to serve New Mexico and the country," he said.
It's been more than a year since Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens astutely observed, "The Internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck. It’s a series of tubes." Mercifully, his colleagues have come a long way in their exploration of the Internets.
Richard Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, recently enlisted the help of two blogs, one liberal and one conservative, to help him write legislation on broadband access. And he's not the only lawmaker to jump into the blogosphere. Republican Jim DeMint credits bloggers with helping conservatives raise the roof on the failed compromise immigration legislation.
K Street is getting in on the act as well -- which raises some pretty interesting questions. National Journal's Bara Vaida explores the Beltway's growing fascination with blogs in this week's cover story, free to non-subscribers for a week.
Karen Hughes, the president's pick to be the face of America in the Arab world after 9/11, will be back home in Texas by year's end. Today's announcement that she is stepping down hasn't inspired very much fanfare, leading us to suspect only a dim awareness in Washington that Hughes was still on the job.
President Bush has nominated Ed Schafer, former governor of North Dakota, to replace Mike Johanns as agriculture secretary. Johanns exited the post last month to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Chuck Hagel in Nebraska next year.
The Democratic presidential candidates chasing Hillary Rodham Clinton 
Terrorism. A Spanish court delivered verdicts today in the trial of suspects involved in the March 2004 
Both Barack Obama and John Edwards are scrambling to slam the brakes on Hillary Rodham Clinton's runaway lead. With the Iowa caucuses about two months away, 
The agency recently recalled what 
In an apparent deal that could impede the government's ability to prosecute Blackwater guards suspected of being involved in a shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead last month, AP reports that State Department investigators granted immunity to employees of the private security contractor in exchange for statements they made regarding the case.
"He understands the view from both sides of the hospital bed," Bush said as he introduced Peake from the White House this afternoon. Peake, the retired former Army Surgeon General and a two-time Purple Heart recipient during the Vietnam War, would be the first physician and soldier to serve in the top VA post.
"They haven't seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax increase into it," Bush said derisively. He called the brief press conference outside the White House following a meeting with the top Republican House leaders: John Boehner, Roy Blunt and Adam Putnam.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., will not seek re-election regardless of what happens in his long-shot presidential campaign, he told the 
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced today that he will undergo surgery sometime in the next few months for a cancerous tumor in his prostate. During a surprise news conference, Olmert 
Bush said that upon returning to the White House, he "was disappointed by what Congress had been doing -- and even more disappointed by what they had not been doing." He accused lawmakers of "wasting time" by voting yesterday on a slightly revised version of a 
A federal appellate court denied Ryan's attorneys' request to appeal, in which they claimed he deserved another trial because of extensive problems with the jury. Taking the case to the Supreme Court, they said, is an attempt to keep the 73-year-old Republican 
The latest protests in Myanmar and the ensuing 
With Republicans crying foul, House leaders scheduled a vote this morning on a children's health bill that makes minor changes to the one 
U.S. and Iraqi officials are working quickly to appease an angry Turkish government after tensions on its southern border boiled over this week. Efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting, however, are further complicated by reports that Kurdish separatists have captured eight Turkish soldiers and that Tehran is leveraging resentment toward Washington and Baghdad to its advantage.
"That year we're back, it's just not good enough," an Army captain told Mullen during a stop on a two-day tour of bases. 
Southern California is still waiting for the worst to be over as firefighters battle roaring blazes across seven counties and about 350,000 households have been relocated out of harm's way. Two people have been killed in the wildfires, and 18 firefighters have been injured, several by severe burns.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday 
Huckabee came out with 51.3 percent of on-site straw poll voters, followed by Mitt Romney at 10.4 percent and everyone else in the single digits. Romney's camp declared him the big winner based on online voting by Family Research Council members in a poll that's been open since August. Even there, he and Huckabee came out virtually dead even, 27.6 percent to 27.2 percent. 
London's Wembley Arena has played host to many high-profile concerts, including this summer's 
Seeking to head off a fight that hasn't yet begun, President Bush warned Democratic lawmakers not to resist new emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as he tacked on $46 billion to the $150.5 billion the White House had already requested for the new fiscal year.
This afternoon, President Bush will award the first Medal of Honor for combat in Afghanistan to the family of Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL who was mortally wounded while making a radio distress call to save other members of his team who were trapped by enemy fire.
New quarterly earnings reports show that GM remains the world's No. 1 automaker, following a scare earlier this year when Japanese automaker Toyota briefly overtook the American stalwart in sales. 
Politicians and the reporters who cover them get to be funny on purpose for one night a year with proceeds going to a worthy cause. This year's beneficiaries were VH1's Save The Music Foundation and the Institute of Musical Traditions, and contestants included The Nation's David Corn, the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, sister of 2006 champion Rep. Linda Sanchez.
Sorry, ladies: Studly U.S. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is single no more.
General Chairman Mel Martinez formally resigned from his top post at the Republican National Committee today, citing progress on the goals he set out to achieve when he first assumed the leadership role in the beginning of this year.
Government officials immediately pointed to al-Qaida, saying the attack bore all the hallmarks of a particular pro-Taliban warlord who operates on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Baitullah Mehsud, authorities said, threatened suicide attacks against Bhutto last month. (Mehsud said today he was 
UPDATED.
Today's vote was originally scheduled for around noon, but had to be delayed because of still more ugliness. During floor debate preceding the vote, California Democrat Pete Stark accused Republican fiscal conservatives of "telling lies" about the breadth of the expansion. He continued: "You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."
The Republican field has suffered another casualty, as Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback is 
Patrick Leahy didn't yell at anyone today. That hasn't happened in a long time. He expressed hope this morning and in closing that Mukasey's confirmation will signal the beginning of a healing process at DOJ. The Democrats on this panel have been accused of partisan bloodlust in this saga, but you have to believe Leahy wants this chapter closed. It's been an exhausting nine months for the committee, and the tug of war with the White House is far from over. A new attorney general that has the confidence of Congress means one fewer battlefront.
Step aside, 
"There's little time left in the year," Bush warned in his opening statement. "And Congress has little to show for all the time that has gone by." He listed eight areas where Congress has either failed to act or compromise with the White House: health care, intelligence, the budget, education, housing, trade, veterans care and the judiciary.
12:20. Recess. So far, no big surprises, but plenty to reassure those who anguish over DOJ's loss of credibility under Gonzales. We'll resume with testimony from the witness panel -- fomer AG Dick Thornburgh among them -- later this afternoon in a new post. 
Days before he was awarded the prize, a group called Draft Gore took out a 
In May, House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., called the proposal one of his bill's most significant provisions, and stressed that the inspector general in Afghanistan would "ensure even greater accountability" of efforts there. But in a package of appeals on the authorization measure sent last week to the House and Senate Armed Services committees, DOD officials said they viewed the appointment of an Afghanistan investigator as a redundant move that would deplete the Pentagon's inspector general, who already is tasked with oversight there, of necessary personnel. 
The third-quarter money race is coming into focus this week, as yesterday marked the deadline for candidates to file their official fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission. The national front-runners on both sides of the aisle -- Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani -- pulled ahead of their closest rivals in the money race, adding fuel to their growing leads and fresh hurdles for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, who have been stagnating in the polls.
Once again, the Bush administration is reminded that while it would be preferable to have the world at its back as it attempts to stabilize the Middle East, it simply does not. Iran and Russia have 
In a recent interview with Texas Monthly Editor Evan Smith, Hutchison admitted that she was seriously considering a run for the Texas governorship in 2010. "I haven't made a commitment in any way because it's just too early -- it's too early to be gearing up," Hutchison said of the gubernatorial rumors. "Would I like to do it? Yes. A lot of things have to happen to make it a reality. You can't plan that far ahead with certainty." 
Russian President Vladimir Putin will be delaying his trip to Tehran amid concerns of an assassination plot, a news agency reported hours after Putin insisted he would arrive there tonight as scheduled.
"From the outset Senator Craig has maintained that he is innocent of any illegal conduct at the Minneapolis airport. Senator Craig has a right to appeal and we believe that it was a manifest injustice not to allow Senator Craig to withdraw his guilty plea entered in August," said Billy Martin, Craig's high-powered attorney. "Like every other citizen, Senator Craig has the constitutional right to make every effort to clear his name."
Nearly half of dentists surveyed said they had stopped treating NHS patients. As a result, nearly 80 percent of Britons on private insurance said they were pushed there because they couldn't find an NHS dentist. Only 15 percent of those privately insured said their choice was based on quality of treatment.
Muslims and Christians are enjoined to worship but one God and love their neighbors, the letter notes, and a 13-page treatise written by the scholars lists comparable passages of the Q'uran and the Bible. "Love of the [neighbor] is an essential and integral part of faith in God and love of God because in Islam without love of the [neighbor] there is no true faith in God and no righteousness," they write. "Without giving the [neighbor] what we ourselves love, we do no truly love God or the [neighbor]."
CIA Inspector General John Helgerson isn't exactly the most popular man at the agency these days. His recent inquiries into the CIA's handling of 
Gore, who has been crusading against climate change ever since he lost the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush, "is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted" to curb global warming, the committee said in bestowing the award on him. Reuters has the full text of the 
Is it 1996 again? Al Gore's going to run in the next presidential election, and Democrats like Hillary Rodham Clinton!
Press secretary Dana Perino confirmed that the president will meet once again with the Dalai Lama. Bush has met with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader 
Now that Anbar province is relatively calm, the Marines sent there to wrest back control from Sunni insurgents seem mostly to be serving in an overwatch and training capacity, a role better suited for the Army. The LAT obtained an e-mail from one officer there, Lt. Col. Beau Higgins, noting the dramatic drop in attacks on U.S. forces. Higgins concluded, "It's critical that we stay here to continue to assist... but our role as fire fighters in the zone moving from hot spot to hot spot has truly gone."
So why the opposition to 
Yesterday, the New York Times reported that Democrats were 
That's according to most of the news coverage, anyway. Of Fred Thompson's long-awaited debut in yesterday's GOP primary debate in Michigan, the general assessment is no, he didn't screw up, and yes, that one thing he said at the end was kind of funny.
Spc. Alex Jimenez, 25, and Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, were captured in an insurgent ambush on May 12, south of Baghdad. They have not been seen since then. Americans killed in captivity have been a prime source of propaganda for al-Qaida in Iraq, suggesting there is some chance that Jimenez and Fouty are still alive. In the face of little evidence indicating otherwise, the search for the missing soldiers continues.
Iraqi police are 
"They have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress on the Intelligence Committee. But they are classified for a reason and they are secret," press secretary Dana Perino said during the daily briefing. "One of the reasons they are secret is because they need to be. They need to be cloaked in the classified system so that we can keep that information private so that we're not signaling to our enemies exactly what our techniques are."
Pakistan's highest court delivered some good news and some bad news to President Pervez Musharraf today: The vote to re-elect him is allowed to take place tomorrow as scheduled. But a winner will not be declared until legal challenges to Musharraf's bid is resolved. Two opponents have charged that Musharraf should not be able to run for the civilian post while retaining his title as head of the army.
China is one of Myanmar's most generous benefactors, and in a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, warned members not to interfere in the junta's crackdown on an army of monks.
Richard Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, recently enlisted the help of two blogs, one liberal and one conservative, to help him write legislation on broadband access. And he's not the only lawmaker to jump into the blogosphere. Republican Jim DeMint credits bloggers with helping conservatives raise the roof on the failed compromise immigration legislation.