Barack Obama On Fox News Sunday: Watch Video
The Huffington Post | April 27, 2008 Fox News Sunday waited (by their own count) 772 days to interview Sen. Barack Obama -- and surprised no one by spending almost the entire first segment on questions about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, flag pins, and 60s-era Bill Ayers.

After learning that more than 17 veterans per month commit suicide while under the care of the Veterans Affairs Department, senators accused VA of withholding information about suicide rates and demanded the removal of its mental health chief.

“The culture of the VA has to change,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., after a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday.

To restore credibility, she said VA must take responsibility and dismiss Dr. Ira Katz, deputy chief patient care services officer for mental health.

“He clearly knew information and was holding it from us here in Congress,” Murray said.

Deputy VA Secretary Gordon Mansfield said he shared Murray’s concerns, but stopped short of taking responsibility for them.

“I apologize for the implications here,” he said, adding that he does not believe VA is engaged in a concerted campaign to withhold information.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the committee, backed the call for Katz’s resignation.

President Bush as conductor?



Highights from the annual White House Correspondents Dinner,
including Pres. Bush conducting the Marine Corps band.

NYT: McCain got break using wife's jet

Given Senator John McCain ’s signature stance on campaign finance reform, it was not surprising that he backed legislation last year requiring presidential candidates to pay the actual cost of flying on corporate jets. The law, which requires campaigns to pay charter rates when using such jets rather than cheaper first-class fares, was intended to reduce the influence of lobbyists and create a level financial playing field.

But over a seven-month period beginning last summer, Mr. McCain’s cash-short campaign gave itself an advantage by using a corporate jet owned by a company headed by his wife, Cindy McCain , according to public records. For five of those months, the plane was used almost exclusively for campaign-related purposes, those records show.

Mr. McCain’s campaign paid a total of $241,149 for the use of that plane from last August through February, records show. That amount is approximately the cost of chartering a similar jet for a month or two, according to industry estimates.

The senator was able to fly so inexpensively because the law specifically exempts aircraft owned by a candidate or his family or by a privately held company they control. The Federal Election Commission adopted rules in December to close the loophole — rules that would have required substantial payments by candidates using family-owned planes — but the agency soon lost the requisite number of commissioners needed to complete the rule making.>>>>

Ron Paul is down but not out

Politico | April 26 2008

Two candidates not named John McCain got a combined 219,913 votes in the Pennsylvania Republican primary Tuesday, and one of them is still in the race.

Sort of.

“I’m a real candidate, but I try to keep everybody living in the real world,” Ron Paul said in an interview, alluding to the exuberance of his supporters.

Despite posting a video on his website last month conceding that he couldn’t win and indicating that he was winding down his campaign, Paul continues to be a presence in the GOP contest. He aired a radio ad before the Pennsylvania primary, is still traveling the country to appear at campaign events and, as of the end of March, had more than $5 million in the bank.

New York Times | April 26 2008

Retired officers have been used to shape terrorism coverage from inside the TV and radio networks.

The Pentagon announced on Friday that it was suspending its briefings for retired military officers who often appear as military analysts on television and radio programs.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that since 2002 the Pentagon has cultivated several dozen military analysts in a campaign to generate favorable coverage of the administration’s wartime performance. The retired officers have made tens of thousands of appearances for television and radio networks, holding forth on Iraq, Afghanistan, detainee issues and terrorism in general.

Records and interviews show that the Bush administration worked to transform the analysts into an instrument intended to shape coverage from inside the major networks.

VLOGZ.TV | April 24 2008
SAN DIEGO -- Military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide is not giving up on a training facility in San Diego County, according to company officials.

The company is planning to open an indoor facility in Otay Mesa. It would be housed in a 61,600-square-foot building on Siempre Viva Road, just south of Brown Field. The news comes one month after Blackwater abandoned a controversial proposal to build a training center in the far East County.

Blackwater applied for the permit in February, shortly before announcing that it would drop plans to develop an 800-acre ranch near Potrero into a training camp for law enforcement. The city of San Diego approved a permit for the indoor facility on March 19.

THE BLACKWATER FILES:
Report: Blackwater Finds New Home In South BayNBC Sandiego.com, CA
Iraq PM condemns US Blackwater contract extensionReuters

The announcement that General David Petraeus is to take over at US Central
Command

VLOGZ.TV | April 24 2008

Defense Secretary Robert Gates's announcement Wednesday promoting General David Petraeus from his current post running the war in Iraq to head up U.S. Central Command triggered both political and military unease. That response may be inevitable, coming on the downside of an unpopular war and in the waning months of the tenure of the unpopular President who launched it.<What the Petraeus Promotion Means>

• Petraeus Points to War With Iran Yahoo! News
• Top Ten Quotes From Petraeus Hearings Human Events, DC
• Petraeus Leaving Iraq; Odierno to Take Over Washington Post, United States

ABC's Debate Disaster: Remember, you can't be a patriot without a flag pin!
Our friends at MoveOn produced a short YouTube video

Please join us at ABC/Disney's headquarters in Burbank from 4-7 p.m on FRIDAY to protest and pass out flag pins to ABC/Disney employees leaving their Disney corporate office.
"Are you patriotic enough to wear a flag-pin? Remember, you can't be a patriot without a pin!"

MediaMatters reports that on his radio show this morning, Don Imus said that Barack Obama is "almost a bigger pussy than [Hillary Clinton]."

VLOGZ.TV | APRIL 17 2008

Romney gave his Top 10 reasons why he got out of the race at the TV and Radio Correspondents Dinner.
9. I got tired of corkscrew landings under sniper fire.
7. There wasn’t room for two Christian leaders.
6. I was upset that no one had bothered to search my passport files.
5. I needed an excuse to get fat, grow a beard and win the Nobel Prize.
4. I took a bad fall at a campaign rally and broke my hair.
3. I wanted to finally take off that dark suit and tie and kick back in a light-colored suit and tie.
2. Once my wife, Ann, realized I couldn't win, my fundraising dried up.
1. There was a miscalculation in our theory: "As Utah goes, so goes the nation.”

It was met with wild applause, hearty laughter and that rare form of acceptance, a standing O. This is the kind of inside jokes we’re talking about.

McCain Won't Rule Out Pre-Emptive War

AP | April 10 2008

WESTPORT, Conn. (AP) - Republican Sen. John McCain refused Wednesday to rule out a pre-emptive war against another country, although he said one would be very unlikely.

The likely Republican presidential nominee was asked Wednesday at a town-hall style meeting if he would reject "the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war," a reference to Bush's decision to invade Iraq without it having attacked the United States.

"I don't think you could make a blanket statement about pre-emptive war, because obviously, it depends on the threat that the United States of America faces," McCain told his audience at Bridgewater Associates Inc., a global investment firm.

"If someone is about to launch a weapon that would devastate America, or have the capability to do so, obviously, you would have to act immediately in defense of this nation's national security interests."

McCain said he would consult more closely and more carefully "not with every member of Congress, but certainly the leaders of Congress

Director Oliver Stone has set James Cromwell to play George Herbert Walker Bush and Ellen Burstyn to play former first lady Barbara Bush in "W," a drama about the formative years of their son, President George W. Bush.

Josh Brolin is playing the title character, and Elizabeth Banks will play first lady Laura Bush.

Stone will direct from a script by his “Wall Street” co-writer Stanley Weiser. Moritz Borman is producing with Bill Block and Jon Kilik.

Block's QED International is financing the film, which will begin shooting Shreveport, La., at the end of April.

Bush tears up at ceremony 0:47

ABC | April 08, 2008

ABC's Jennifer Duck reports: Clearly choked up, and at times wiping away his own tears, President Bush awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously at the White House Tueday to Navy SEAL Petty Officer Michael Monsoor, who was killed in Iraq in September of 2006 when he fell on a grenade to save comrades during fighting in Ramadi.

Monsoor was the fourth service member to receive the nation's highest award for valor in the 6 1/2 years of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Bush awarded the medal in the White House's East Room Tuesday to Monsoor's parents.