Documenting the failures of the Bush administration http://www.thousandreasons.org/ Copyright 2003-2007 OTR http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44041 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44041 Fri, 09 May 2008 17:18:47 -0400 Source: US News & World Report This is a sad and dangerous time for Hillary Clinton. Her presidential campaign is in more trouble than ever following her big loss last week to Democratic rival Barack Obama in the North Carolina primary, 56 to 42 percent, and her unimpressive 51 to 49 percent win in Indiana, a state seemingly made to order for her. Clinton pledged to fight on—in the West Virginia primary this week and the handful of remaining contests for the Democratic nomination. But she is losing ground to Obama in the all-important delegate race, she is far behind in the number of contests won and in the popular vote, her campaign is in serious debt, and her cause seems increasingly hopel... US News & World Report Kenneth T. Walsh http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44040 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44040 Fri, 09 May 2008 17:17:45 -0400 Source: Huffington Post John McCain on Friday defended his charge that the terrorist organization Hamas is rooting for Barack Obama to win the presidency -- and said voters were welcome to discuss whether his age should be a factor in the fall campaign.... Huffington Post Peter Hamby http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44037 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44037 Fri, 09 May 2008 16:16:25 -0400 Source: Salon The Pentagon has posted to its website the roughly 8,000 pages and audio tapes it was forced to provide to the New York Times regarding its "military analyst" program. Anyone who reads through them, as I've now done, can only be left with one conclusion (other than being extremely impressed with David Barstow's work in putting together this story): if this wasn't an example of an illegal, systematic "domestic propaganda campaign" by the Pentagon, then nothing is.... Salon Glenn Greenwald http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44039 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44039 Fri, 09 May 2008 16:15:31 -0400 Source: USA Today WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama all but erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among national convention superdelegates on Friday and won fresh labor backing as elements of the Democratic Party began coalescing around the Illinois senator for the fall campaign.... USA Today http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44038 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44038 Fri, 09 May 2008 16:14:43 -0400 Source: USA Today BAGHDAD (AP) — Shiite militants launched rockets toward the fortified Green Zone on Friday, taking advantage of a sandstorm that gave cover from attacks by U.S. aircraft. Some rockets fell short, including one that damaged the British Broadcasting Corp. bureau.... USA Today http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44036 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44036 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:51:55 -0400 Source: Asia Times Nineteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall effectively eliminated the Soviet Union as the world's other superpower. Yes, the USSR as a political entity stumbled on for another two years, but it was clearly an ex-superpower from the moment it lost control over its satellites in Eastern Europe. Less than a month ago, the United States similarly lost its claim to superpower status when a barrel of crude oil roared past US$110 on the international market, gasoline prices crossed the $3.50 threshold at American pumps, and diesel fuel topped $4. ... Asia Times Michael T Klare http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44035 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44035 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:48:56 -0400 Source: Salon May 9, 2008 | Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi, an Iraqi vegetable farmer, walked down to the ramshackle pump house along the banks of the Euphrates. Each day at midmorning, he would start the seven-horsepower pump to water his crops. Khudair passed through the tall grass and palm trees of his farm in Jurf as Sakhr, a predominantly Sunni area 30 miles south of Baghdad dominated by sprawling patches of farmland, irrigation canals and regular eruptions of lethal violence. Daytime temperatures had lately been over 115 degrees, and it was already sweltering as he crossed the 500 meters for the last time. As Khudair approached the pump house on May 11, 2007, he stumbled upon a team o... Salon Mark Benjamin and Christopher Weaver http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44034 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44034 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:47:29 -0400 Source: Salon May 9, 2008 | As long as Hillary Clinton is willing to spend the money and energy needed to continue her campaign, she certainly can ignore the pundits who insist that the Democratic nominating contest is over. What she should not ignore, however, is the damage that her increasingly reckless behavior is inflicting on her reputation and that of her husband -- especially when she starts to sound like a reincarnation of the late George Wallace.... Salon Joe Conason http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44033 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44033 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:46:17 -0400 Source: Salon May 9, 2008 | BAGHDAD, Iraq -- May 7: Guns at the ready (well, mostly, anyway), soldiers of the Iraqi army Muthana Brigade knocked on the door of a two-story house. "Iraqi army!" they shouted, in Arabic. A few moments later, a woman in a full-length dress and a tan scarf on her head opened the door, and the soldiers, on a routine patrol of the southwestern Baghdad neighborhood of Saidiyah, poured in and began searching the house.... Salon Anna Badkhen http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44032 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44032 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:43:08 -0400 Source: Truthdig Looks like Sen. John McCain is being endorsed by more than one controversial preacher—the apparent “must-have” of leading presidential hopefuls this election cycle. Meet the Rev. Rod Parsley, whose support McCain sought and won, according to Brave New Films and Mother Jones, which have launched a collaborative effort to expose Parsley’s alarming beliefs about Islam and America’s role on the world stage.... Truthdig http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44031 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44031 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:41:58 -0400 Source: Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON -- The number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army involuntarily under the military's controversial "stop-loss" program has risen sharply since the Pentagon extended combat tours last year, officials said Thursday.... Los Angeles Times Julian E. Barnes http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44030 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44030 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:41:05 -0400 Source: Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - He backs an unpopular war in Iraq, represents an unpopular political party and is endorsed by an unpopular president in the midst of an economic downturn. As if that's not enough, Republican John McCain could be heavily outspent by his Democratic rival in the U.S. election in November to succeed President George W. Bush.... Reuters Andy Sullivan http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44029 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44029 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:39:56 -0400 Source: New York Times San Francisco NOTABLE in the Indiana and North Carolina primary results and in many recent polls are signs of a change in the gender weather: white men are warming to Hillary Clinton — at least enough to vote for her. It’s no small shift. These men have historically been her fiercest antagonists. Their conversion may point less to a new kind of male voter than to a new kind of female vote-getter.... New York Times SUSAN FALUDI http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44028 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44028 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:28:37 -0400 Source: New York Times There is a lot of talk that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now fated to lose the Democratic nomination and should pull out of the race. We believe it is her right to stay in the fight and challenge Senator Barack Obama as long as she has the desire and the means to do so. That is the essence of the democratic process. But we believe just as strongly that Mrs. Clinton will be making a terrible mistake — for herself, her party and for the nation — if she continues to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing racial undertones. We believe it would also be a terrible mistake if she launches a fight over the disqualified delegations from Florida a... New York Times EDITORIAL http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44027 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44027 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:27:35 -0400 Source: Informed Comment AFP reports, "25 killed as Rockets Shatter Basra Calm." Shiite guerrillas fired a barrage of rockets at the British base out at the airport in Basra, killing two civilians. There was retaliatory fighting in Basra that left more dead.... Informed Comment Juan Cole http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44026 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44026 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:26:58 -0400 Source: Washington Post From the beginning, Hillary Clinton has campaigned as if the Democratic nomination were hers by divine right. That's why she is falling short -- and that's why she should be persuaded to quit now, rather than later, before her majestic sense of entitlement splits the party along racial lines.... Washington Post Eugene Robinson http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44025 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44025 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:22:50 -0400 Source: Washington Post It was already shaping up to be a difficult year for congressional Republicans. Now, on the cusp of Mother's Day, comes this: A majority of the House GOP has voted against motherhood.... Washington Post Dana Milbank http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44024 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44024 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:21:10 -0400 Source: Washington Post Sen. Barack Obama began taking the first steps to unify the fractured Democratic Party for a general-election battle against Sen. John McCain, even as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton continued to insist that she has the backing of a broader coalition that could carry the party to victory in November.... Washington Post Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon Jr. http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44023 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44023 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:20:30 -0400 Source: Washington Post PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.... Washington Post Matthew Mosk http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44022 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44022 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:19:13 -0400 Source: Washington Post Barack Obama's victory in the North Carolina primary was actually the second important election result for his campaign this month. The first, which has not received enough notice, was the triumph of Louisiana Democrat Don Cazayoux in the race for an open U.S. House seat despite an aggressive Republican campaign to link the moderate Cajun to Obama, liberalism and high taxes.... Washington Post E. J. Dionne Jr. http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44021 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44021 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:18:11 -0400 Source: Washington Post The House yesterday approved an ambitious plan to rescue hundreds of thousands of homeowners at risk of foreclosure by helping them trade exotic loans with rapidly rising monthly payments for more affordable mortgages backed by the federal government.... Washington Post Lori Montgomery http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44020 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44020 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:17:31 -0400 Source: Washington Post House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday postponed consideration of a bill that would continue funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a bloc of conservative Democrats balked at the high cost of including several of Pelosi's favored domestic spending programs.... Washington Post Paul Kane http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44019 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44019 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:16:36 -0400 Source: Huffington Post Despite the endless pontificating on TV, in the end it didn't come down to sideshow jive like the Reverend Wright Imbroglio or the Great Sniper Fire Lie. It didn't come down to micro-demographics, or gas prices, or the war in Iraq. Incredibly enough, it didn't even come down to the issues of race and gender. No -- in the end, I believe, it all came down to a hard-to-pinpoint, never discussed, but desperately important matter: the personal authenticity of two human beings.... Huffington Post JOHN ESKOW http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44018 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44018 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:15:50 -0400 Source: New York Times For months, the White House and Senate Republicans have been content to let a political impasse over vacancies at the Federal Election Commission persist, sidelining the regulatory agency in the throes of a heated presidential campaign. But on Tuesday, President Bush suddenly announced three new nominees to the commission.... New York Times MICHAEL LUO http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44017 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44017 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:14:20 -0400 Source: New York Times The phrase “generation gap” came into vogue in the 1960s as a way of describing the wide gulf in values, beliefs and lifestyles that emerged between baby boomers and their parents and grandparents. Indeed, this difference between younger and older people played out sometimes turbulently in the ’60s in virtually all aspects of life, including the ballot box. Unlike in previous elections, from 1968 to 1980 young voters gave much stronger support to Democratic presidential candidates than did their elders.... New York Times ANDREW KOHUT http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44016 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44016 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:13:37 -0400 Source: New York Times BAGHDAD — The last words of a suicide bomber in Mosul were a rallying cry for Muslims to join the fight against Americans. His taking-off point was his experience at the military prison at Guant?mo Bay, Cuba.... New York Times ALISSA J. RUBIN http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44015 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44015 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:05:02 -0400 Source: CBS News The CIA must let a judge view a 2002 memo purportedly including waterboarding among interrogation methods to be used on prisoners in U.S. custody so he can decide whether it should be made public, the judge ruled Thursday. ... CBS News http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44014 http://www.thousandreasons.org/titles.php#44014 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:04:14 -0400 Source: New York Times WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama began trying to rally the Democratic Party around him on Thursday and struck a tougher tone against Senator John McCain, saying Mr. McCain was “losing his bearings” in his pursuit of the White House.... New York Times CARL HULSE and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN