Gotta hurt to be a Japanese manufacturer...

New J.D. Powers reliability study for 3-year quality:

(1) Buick (tie)

(2) Lexus (tie)

(3) Cadillac

(4) Mercury

(5) Honda

Ouch for the Toyota, Infinity, Acura, and all German nameplates… Although, apparently Mercedes is no longer dead last. Good to see that brand name improving their quality. It had to suck, though, for cars that expensive to be the absolutely worst quality cars on the road.

Buick, Lexus tie in dependability study
The Detroit News

General Motors Corp.'s Buick nameplate tied Toyota Motor Corp.'s luxury brand Lexus for first place for first place in a widely-watched survey of vehicle reliability released Thursday.

Buick's remarkable showing marks the first time in 12 years that Lexus has shared the top honors in J.D. Power and Associates' Vehicle Dependability Study, J.D. Power said.

Owners of three-year-old Buick and Lexus customers reported 145 problems per 100 vehicles, on average, compared with an industry average of 216.

Rounding out the top five for reliability are Cadillac, Ford Motor Co.'s Mercury brand, and Honda.

"With three non-premium nameplates -- Buick, Honda and Mercury -- ranking within the top five, consumers seeking a vehicle with strong dependability have good choices at various price levels," said Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis at J.D. Power. "Consumers don't necessarily need to pay premium prices to obtain high quality and dependability."

The study's findings underscore a steady improvement in the quality and reliability of cars built by domestic manufacturers.

Many independent surveys show them narrowing, and in some instances, closing the gap with the leading Japanese carmakers.

Obama should be disqualified from the Presidency

It looks like Barack Obama's vociferous support for a possible invasion of Pakistan, an ally of the United States, has given President Musharraf an excuse to roll back democratic reforms in his country. With Pakistan mulling over the possibility of declaring a state of emergency, which would in effect suspend it's parliament and justice system, there is a real danger of a failure to ensure human rights.

I'm generally not one to be overly critical of a politicians lack of experience. Sen. Obama's inability (or refusal) to understand that threatening an ally with unilateral invasion might have these sorts of ramifications, however, is unforgivable.

Pakistan May Declare State of Emergency
ABC News

Legal experts and security officials met with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf Thursday, as the government weighed whether to invoke a state of emergency for what it said were mounting "external and internal" threats, officials said.

Tariq Azim, minister of state for information, said talk from the United States about the possibility of U.S. military action against al-Qaida in Pakistan "has started alarm bells ringing and has upset the Pakistani public." He mentioned Democratic presidential hopeful Barak Obama by name as an example of someone who made such comments, saying his recent remarks were one reason the government was debating a state of emergency.

But it appeared the motivation for an emergency declaration was domestic political woes of Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S. war on terrorism.

His popularity has dwindled and his standing has been badly shaken by a failed bid to oust the country's chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry an independent-minded judge likely to rule on expected legal challenges to Musharraf's bid to seek a new five-year presidential term.

It was not immediately clear how Musharraf might gain politically from a state of emergency, but it would give him sweeping powers, including the ability to restrict people's freedom to move, rally, and engage in political activities.

He would also gain powers to restrict the parliament's right to make laws, and to suspend the courts' ability to hear cases on fundamental rights such as freedom of movement. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has lodged a freedom of movement case with the Supreme Court that could allow him to return from exile to run in parliamentary elections due soon.

"These are only unconfirmed reports although the possibility of imposition of emergency cannot be ruled out and has recently been talked about and discussed, keeping in mind some external and internal threats and the law and order situation," Tariq Azim, minister of state for information, told The Associated Press.

UPDATE: President Musharraf has decided not to suspend democratic institutions, but this does not excuse Sen. Obama's comments, which provided him an excuse to do so.

Musharraf rejects emergency
ABC News

ISLAMABAD (Reugers) - President Pervez Musharraf rejected calls to declare emergency powers and wants Pakistan's elections to go ahead, a spokesman said on Thursday after reports the beleaguered leader would opt for authoritarian rule.

Private television channels and newspapers had reported General Musharraf was poised to take a step that would probably delay elections due by the turn of the year and could result in restrictions on rights of assembly and curbs on the media.

"In the president's view, there is no need at present to impose an emergency," Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said.

"The president was under pressure from different political parties to impose an emergency, but he believes in holding a free and fair election and is not in favor of any step that hinders it," Durrani added, without specifying the parties.

Members of the ruling coalition have the most to lose at the polls, and Musharraf's own popularity has plunged since he tried in vain to oust the country's most senior judge.

Western countries with troops in Afghanistan are sensitive to any instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan, whose help is crucial to fighting the Taliban insurgency and al Qaeda.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday urged Musharraf to hold a free and fair election.

"That's what we've been talking to him about and I'm hopeful they will," Bush told a news conference.

Quote of the Day

"[T]he U.S. has gained nearly 26 million jobs since the [NAFTA] agreement took effect on Jan. 1, 1994."

- Factcheck.org

Quote of the Day

"We have three times the number of cars that we had [before CAFE] and we drive four times the number of miles. So how did that policy work?"

- Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally

Glad Abercrombie fixed the poverty problem

Apparently, Rep. Abercrombie has fixed the poverty problem in this country, because he's turned his attention to a more pressing issue: millions of dollars in renovating the private gym of House members. Apparently it's run down and dilapidated and is an embarrassment next to the brand new gym for House staffers. Here's an idea - let's come down off the ivory tower and use the gym that the staffers use.

Pelosi arm-wrestles over cash for House gym
The Hill.com

After dueling with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) to pass a renewable energy bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) faces a wrestling match with another rogue chairman. And this one can bench-press 265 pounds.

Pelosi is set to square off against Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), the power-lifting chairman of the House gym committee.

Abercrombie is touting his efforts to secure funding in the legislative branch spending bill to begin an estimated $8 million renovation of the House gym. The project is personally important to Abercrombie, who sets a yearly goal to bench-press 200 pounds more than his age, now 69.

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are not eager for a multimillion-dollar renovation of the congressional members-only gym to be one of the first accomplishments of the Democratic majority. They worry that freshman Democrats could be attacked on the campaign trail next year for approving a fancy new gym for themselves after winning office.

Democratic leaders held a special meeting with Abercrombie earlier this year to tell him that now is not the time for a new House gym and also instructed him not to mention the issue to reporters, according to Democratic sources.

But Abercrombie hasn't stopped talking about it. He insists that the gym needs renovating and is pushing for federal money to finance a redesign.

Abercrombie showed last week that he's not afraid to confront his leadership. Angered by a last-minute discovery that leaders would not schedule a floor vote on an Iraq bill he sponsored, Abercrombie introduced a motion to adjourn the House in protest, a rare tactic for a member of the majority to wield against his leaders. Abercrombie was the only Democrat to vote for the motion.

Wonderful national-care system

It's great to see a national-care system like the U.K.'s where there's no free-market alternative to corruption. Bias your way into the right reviewers, and apparently you can have particular procedures banned as not "cost effective" even if, perhaps, they are.

All of this, though, is irrelevant. It's idiotic that anyone in our country is considering moving our healthcare system from what we currently have to a system like the U.K.'s where health care is rationed and if a particular procedure is not "cost effective" then it is banned outright - even if you have the money and desire to have the procedure, even if it will provide you with the best chance at beating an illness or surviving a medical condition. Government run healthcare has all of the same problems as private HMO's - rationed care, reduced selection of doctors, banning of procedures and medicines - and adds two on top: it's more expensive than an HMO and you have no choice but to join.

Clearly we need to do something in the U.S. to insure the 15% of Americans that do not have insurance. What we can't do, however, is jettison the health care of the other 85% to reach that goal.

NICE was 'biased' over heart treatment say doctors
BBC News

The watchdog behind the move to ban a life-saving treatment for heart patients was last night accused of being the equivalent of a "nobbled jury".

A senior MP and doctors attacked the "bias" behind a decision by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to stop using drugcoated stents. Last year, 40,000 patients had stents inserted to prevent arteries narrowing.

Stewart Jackson, a former member of the Commons Health Select Committee, said he felt betrayed by the evidence he had heard. "It's like getting a verdict from a nobbled jury," he added.

Mr Jackson is urging NICE, the health rationing watchdog, to reverse its ruling after learning there were questions over the neutrality of the academics who supplied the data on which it was based.

The Liverpool Reviews and Implementation Group was commissioned to look at the pros and cons of drug-coated stents.

But in 2005 it had already published an article in the British Medical Journal insisting that one particular stent was "not cost effective".

NICE has recommended on cost grounds that only cheaper bare metal stents be used.

Experts claim that could end up costing the NHS millions of pounds because 5,000 patients a year may need repeat surgery to reopen arteries.

Corporate Evil

Yet another MS article talking about a study of how the evil corporations are "brainwashing" your children. Does it surprise anyone that the "study" was derided as unscientific for not using a valid control? Or that the article withholds this fact until the very end of the article?

Most important quote: "The fact is, parents make the decisions for their children..." - McDonald's spokesman Walt Riker.

This is the crux of the issue. Parents are responsible for making decisions for their children. They're responsible for choosing what television programming their children watch, what advertising they are exposed to, and what food the children eat. The "brainwashing" is irrelevant. All that is important here is that parents take responsibility for raising their children.

Are your kids McDonald's brainwashed?
Chicago Sun-Times

Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how marketing can trick the taste buds of young children.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.

"You see a McDonald's label and kids start salivating," said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to kids.

Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids' perception of taste was "physically altered by the branding."

The study involved 63 poor children ages 3 to 5. Robinson believes the results would be similar for children from wealthier families.

Is he serious?

If Kim Jong Il is serious about this meeting, this could potentially be a historic time. A summit is occurring in Pyongyang between Kim Jong Il and Roh Moo-hyun. Although I am generally doubtful that anything Kim Jong Il does will have even the slightest bit of honor, this is coming close on the heels of him keeping his promise to the United Nations to close down his nuclear reactor. Hopefully, this summit will provide a peek behind the curtain and the world will see what's really going on. Is this just politically posturing? I'm sure I'm not the only one who will be watching and hoping that this summit signals a fundamental shift in North Korea's attitude toward the South.

Koreas 'to hold historic summit'
BBC News

North and South Korea are to hold only their second-ever summit, officials have announced.

President Roh Moo-hyun will visit the North Korean capital of Pyongyang for a meeting with the North's leader Kim Jong-il between 28-30 August.

The summit comes seven years after the first one, when Mr Kim met then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

Correspondents say the meeting will be a boost to Mr Roh, who is approaching the end of his presidential term.

Russian Foreign Minister claims moon belongs to the U.S.

The most important part of this article was clearly hidden at the bottom. In reference to Russia planting a flag on the seabed of the arctic, claiming it as part of Russia, the Russian Foreign Minister stated, "Whenever explorers reach some point that no one else has explored, they plant a flag. That's how it was on the moon, by the way." As a result of this statement, we can arrive at one of two conclusions:

1) Russia is not making a claim on the Arctic with this expedition; or
2) Russia is recognizing the United State's right to ownership of the entirety of the moon.

'Arctic has always been Russian,' flag planter says
The Chicago Sun-Times

MOSCOW -- The United States and Canada have scoffed at a Russian submarine expedition that planted a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole. Coming home to a hero's welcome Tuesday, the polar scientist who led the voyage did not mince words.

''I don't give a damn what all these foreign politicians there are saying about this,'' Artur Chilingarov said. ''If someone doesn't like this, let them go down themselves ... and then try to put something there. Russia must win. Russia has what it takes to win. The Arctic has always been Russian.''

Thursday's dive was partly scientific, but it could mark the start of a legal scramble for control of the seabed and its resources.

The United States dismissed the Russian move as legally meaningless whether it planted ''a metal flag, a rubber flag or a bedsheet."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov mentioned a precedent. ''Whenever explorers reach some sort of point that no one else has explored, they plant a flag,'' he said. ''That's how it was on the moon, by the way.''

We need more of this

We are obviously and clearly failing to educate about 30% of all students in the United States. This should be a distinct and profound national shame, as most of the failure occurs within areas which are already impoverished. Changes like year round school should be considered, tried out, and tested to see if they improve performance. I can't wait to see in 5 years or so if this is making a difference for Chicago's new year round program. If it is, we should move this program to other areas. If not, at least we've tried something to improve circumstances for these children.

Year-round school takes off
The Chicago Sun-Times

Brand new second-graders should know how to tell time. But after a long summer break, many are rusty, forcing teachers to go back over the basics -- which is the hour hand? -- instead of diving into second-grade work.

That's not a problem at Alain Locke Charter Academy in East Garfield Park, which resumed class July 16 after a three-week summer break.

"They [still] know everything," said Beth Nelson, a Locke second-grade teacher. She used to spend weeks each fall reviewing. "I find everything I give them, they raise their hands and say, 'I'm done.' "

Locke switched last summer to a year-round calendar -- 10 weeks of school followed by three-week breaks -- and it seems to be paying off. Preliminary state test results are up over last year, including a 10 percentage point gain in reading. Teachers also report more time to plan ahead.

"I actually feel smarter," said 12-year-old Tierra Masupha. "I get a lot more knowledge."

The idea, long pushed by Mayor Daley, is starting to take off.

Syria is still in Lebanon?

A startling report from Opinion Journal last week: apparently, Syria still occupies Lebanese territory despite UN resolutions and Lebanese sentiment. Anyone surprised that the United Nations knows about it and isn't interested in doing anything about it?

Syria Occupies Lebanon. Again.
Opinion Journal

As of this minute, Syria occupies at least 177 square miles of Lebanese soil. That you are now reading about it for the first time is as much a scandal as the occupation itself.

The news comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border just produced by the International Lebanese Committee for U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the U.N. Because of the sensitivity of the subject, the authors have requested anonymity and have circulated the report only among select government officials and journalists. But its findings cannot be ignored.

In meticulous detail--supplemented by photographs, satellite images, archival material and Lebanese military maps predating Syria's 1976 invasion (used as a basis of comparison with Syria's current positions)--the authors describe precisely where and how Lebanon has been infiltrated. In the area of the village of Maarboun, for instance, the authors observed Syrian military checkpoints a mile inside
Lebanon. In the Birak al-Rassass Valley, they photographed Syrian anti-aircraft batteries. On the outskirts of the village of Kossaya they found a heavily fortified camp belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in violation of U.N. resolutions and Lebanese demands.

Huh?

Am I missing something here? Something is really odd about this one...

Geoff Oldfather: English-speaker says landlord's message is clear
TCPalms News

Tom McKenna is a longtime Stuart businessman who speaks only English.

He says that's why he's being kicked out of the storefront on South Dixie Highway where he has run Seacost Water care for seven years.

"I don't know how else to put it," said McKenna, 51.

I'm not sure I do either.

On July 5 — the day after Independence Day — McKenna received a letter from landlord Ivan Munroe telling him to consider another location.

Munroe said in his letter he wants to have "quality tenants serving the Spanish need in the area."

"I guess I don't serve the 'Spanish need,' whatever that means," McKenna said.

McCain and the real cost of pork

Sen. McCain says it like it is. It's amazing that, despite the very clear evidence of the real effect of diverting highway funds towards pet projects, Congress is still lining up at the pork trough.

McCain raps Congress for bridge collapse
Associated Press

ANKENY, Iowa - Republican John McCain said Saturday that Congress could share in the blame for the Minnesota bridge collapse because lawmakers diverted billions of dollars in transportation money from road work to pet projects.

"I think perhaps you can make the argument that part of the responsibility lies with the Congress of the United States," the Arizona senator said.

McCain said Congress spent roughly $20 billion on special-interest projects when it approved a new highway bill, signed into law by President Bush.

"We spent approximately $20 billion of that money on pork barrel, earmark projects," said McCain. "Maybe if we had done it right, maybe some of that money would have gone to inspect those bridges and other bridges around the country. Maybe the 200,000 people who cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending $233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it."

McCain spoke during a town hall-style meeting with activists, saying he was angered not just by Congress wasting money on special projects, but also by it approving reform packages he labeled a sham.

"I'm angry today because we just had a chance to reform this process in Washington and we punted," said McCain. "We pushed off on the American people a joke and a sham in the name of earmark reform."

Quote of the Day

"I mean, in one week he went from saying he's going to sit down, you know, for tea, with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies. I mean, he's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangeglove in one week."

- Mitt Romney, speaking about Barak Obama during the Des Moines debates this past weekend

House "Stolen Vote" Controversy

The House formed a special investigative panel over the weekend to investigate the alleged vote steal by the Democrats of a vote regarding a farm bill in debate.

In case you aren’t aware, there was an incident late Thursday night where a series of mishaps with the voting process in the House led Republicans to charge that the Democrats were finagling the voting process to defeat a measure which would ensure that illegal immigrants do not receive agricultural benefits from the new farm bill they were working on. The counting of the votes seemed to end abruptly with the wrong number of votes counted. The Republicans claim that they won a narrow victory, the final tally seemed to put the Democrats as in the lead on the issue.

Frankly, I agree with Rep. Hoyer, when he says, “I do not believe there was any wrongdoing by any member of the House. I do believe a mistake was made.” I’m pretty much right there with him on this. The whole thing looks like just a mistake, and one which was most likely made by a clerk and not a member of either party. The investigation will come out but I’m sure the Republicans will seize on this as a political opportunity. Considering the Democrats ran on a stance of trying to clear these things up in the last election, it’s not a bad point to nail them on. Better, though, would be talking about Rep. Murtha’s $150 million in pork or Sen. Clinton’s refusal to refuse lobbyist money.

House Forms Special Panel Over Alleged Stolen Vote
Washington Post

The House last night unanimously agreed to create a special select committee, with subpoena powers, to investigate Republican allegations that democratic leaders had stolen a victory from the House GOP on a parliamentary vote late Thursday night.

The move capped a remarkable day that started with Republicans marching out of the House in protest near midnight Thursday, was punctuated by partisan bickering, and ended with Democratic hopes for a final legislative rush fading. Even a temporary blackout of the House chamber's vote tally board led to suspicions and accusations of skullduggery.

While Democratic leaders hoped to leave for their August recess on a wave of legislative successes, the House instead slowed to an acrimonious crawl that threatened to stretch the legislative session into next week.

The agreement to form a special committee was extraordinary. Such powerful investigative committees are usually reserved for issues such as the Watergate scandal and the funneling of profits from Iranian arms sales to the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s.

"I don't know when something like this has happened before," said House deputy historian Fred W. Beuttler. He called the decision "incredible."

Time to shut up

What is this, a race to see who can say the stupidest things? I thought Sen. Obama's public suggestion that the United States unilaterally invade an ally possessing nuclear weapons was dumb. Rep. Tom Tancredo had to go and up the ante, suggesting that we nuke Mecca and Medina. What is going on here? can someone please have some decency and shut up about things they clearly have no understanding about? Even Sen. Clinton - who's supposed to be the experienced one - is talking about the possibility of sending nukes into Pakistan to take out Al Qaeda. So far, it looks like Rep. Tancredo is winning the stupidest comment race, with Sen. Obama just ahead of Sen. Clinton a short way back.

I'm waiting on Sen. Gravel or Rep. Paul to go next. Maybe Tommy Thompson?

U.S. State Department cringes as presidential hopefuls muddy diplomatic waters
PR Inside

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department has a message for White House candidates wanting to expound on sensitive diplomatic issues: Shut up.

Traditionally silent during presidential campaigns filled with divisive foreign policy debates, the department on Friday delivered a rebuke to would-be nominees of both parties whose recent comments have complicated U.S. efforts to overcome deep suspicion about the war on terrorism in the Muslim world.

"Those who wish to hold office can speak for themselves and whoever is elected in 2008 and comes into office in 2009 will then be in a position to talk about what they intend or plan to do," said deputy spokesman Tom Casey, a career foreign service officer.

First it was Barak Obama's talk of dialogue with dictators and invading Pakistan to kill Islamist militants, then it was Hillary Rodham Clinton refusing to rule out the use of nuclear weapons to that end. Now, the Democratic front-runners have been joined by radical Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, who threatened to bomb Muslim holy sites to stop terror attacks.

The State Department had hoped to steer clear of controversy, complaints and public protests sparked by Obama and Clinton, but Tancredo's comments bumped up against the limit of diplomatic patience.

I have to agree with Hillary

More than just saying that I agree that Obama is not ready to be commander-in-chief, I am inclined to agree with Sen. Clinton's stated stances here as she criticizes Sen. Obama. Quite frankly, he's terribly raw when it comes to foreign policy. If he is going to be President some day, he really should get a bit more experience. The same, of course, goes for Sen. Edwards. The problem with Sen. Clinton involves her domestic initiatives and the fact that, while she is saying one thing right now as she's going after Sen. Obama, she would be speaking in a dramatically different manner were her opponent a Republican. The fact that you cannot tell where she stands on topic is really disconcerting to be as a citizen.

Presidential Race Goes Nuclear
ABC News

The leading Democratic candidates for president sparred with each other over the issue of nuclear weapons Thursday and the result was pure heat.

In another broadside indicating the increasingly heated race for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., implied Thursday that comments made by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., were careless and unpresidential.

Sen. Clinton was referring to Obama's statement earlier in the day that he had ruled out using nuclear weapons against al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Clinton also suggested Obama's high-profile speech earlier in the week in which he said would be willing to invade Pakistan to attack high-profile al Qaeda targets, given actionable intelligence, was inappropriate, further evidence that she is painting her challenger as unprepared for the job of commander in chief.

Regarding terrorist targets in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region, Obama told The Associated Press Thursday: "I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance." He then added: "Involving civilians."

Seeming to think twice about his response, Obama then said, "Let me scratch that. There's been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That's not on the table."

Clinton, asked about his remarks Thursday afternoon, took issue with them.

"Presidents should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons," Clinton said. "Presidents since the Cold War have used nuclear deterrence to keep the peace. And I don't believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons."

Quote of the Day

"I did nothing other than go to dinner with a friend who introduced me to this girl. Since it was late, she came to bed with me. How many politicians go to bed with young girls?...So politicians in the UDC do not make love? Of course, I recognize Christian values. But what has that got to do with going with a prostitute? It is a personal matter. This affair has nothing to do with family values. I cannot be branded a bad father and a bad husband simply because after five or six days away from home, an occasion presented itself."

- Cosimo Mele, Minister of the Italian Parliament and a member of the Christian Democrat Union political party

House "killing" CAFE increase is jujitsu

The House removed CAFE increases from the energy bill. While the natural inclination among the auto workers who would be harmed most by the CAFE increase is jubilance, a closer look at the issue would suggest a very strong note of caution. The CAFE increases still remain in the Senate bill and the Democratic leadership which will appoint the conference committee is still very strongly pro-CAFE. Most likely, this is the typical two-faced political jujitsu that Washington is famous for and disgusts Americans so deeply: this gives Democrats like Rep. Dingell who represent districts where auto workers live the opportunity to save face with their constituents while passing the CAFE increases they secretly support. Rep. Dingell won't have to commit to a public spectacle of standing up to the Democratic powers, he gets to claim victory in removing CAFE, and will still get the CAFE increases he's personally committed to seeing.

House puts off tougher fuel rules
The Detroit News

WASHINGTON -- House leaders decided Wednesday to put off a potentially divisive fight over auto fuel-economy rules, leaving until September the debate over how high a hurdle they'll set for the embattled domestic carmakers.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said late Wednesday that the House will not consider competing proposals to change Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards when the House takes up a comprehensive energy bill this week. The House is expected to vote on the package this week.

The decision means the Big 3 automakers have dodged, for now, passage of a tough set of CAFE standards proposed by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., which would have boosted vehicle mileage to 35 miles per gallon by 2019. It has wide support among House Democrats, including Pelosi.

Markey agreed to withdraw his proposal, offered as an amendment to the energy bill, as did Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind., who had offered a weaker set of mileage standards favored by the auto industry.

Despite the reprieve, it is unclear whether Wednesday's decision to delay the debate is good news, in the long run, for the Big 3. It's possible the issue won't be resolved until a House-Senate conference committee meets to iron out differences between the competing versions of the bill. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, who generally favor tougher standards, will appoint members of the conference committee.

True colors about to be shown

Sean Penn recently toured Venezuela's barrios. We're shortly going to see if he has any intellectual integrity at all. If he can see the squalor that Chavez's government has put the poor Venezuelans into without saying something, we'll know he clearly is nothing more than a tool for those who are enemies of our country.

Sean Penn Praised by Venezuela's Chavez
Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Sean Penn for his critical stance against the war in Iraq, saying the two chatted by phone and soon plan to meet in person.

Chavez said Penn traveled to Venezuela this week wanting to learn more about the situation in the country and walked around some of Caracas' poor barrios on his own.

"Welcome to Venezuela, Mr. Penn. What drives him is consciousness, the search for new paths," Chavez said Wednesday in a televised speech. "He's one of the greatest opponents of the Iraq invasion."

Chavez read aloud from a recent open letter by Penn to President Bush in which the actor condemned the Iraq war and called for Bush to be impeached, saying the president along with Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are "villainously and criminally obscene people."

The socialist president, who shares those views, said he and Penn talked by phone—"with my bad English but we understood each other more or less."

That's going to improve our standing

Barack Obama’s presenting a new, apparently tougher, foreign policy plan. So, Sen. Obama would unilaterally pull troops from Iraq – despite the desires of allies in the region, U.N. resolutions supporting the mission, the support of the Iraqi government, and regardless of his acknowledgement that doing so would result in ethnic cleansing and genocide – and would then invade an ally unilaterally without U.N. approval, without any direct threat from them, despite the fact that they have been cooperating closely with the U.S. and have nuclear weapons.

Nice.

Obama to Deliver Bold Speech About War on Terror
ABC News

In a strikingly bold speech about terrorism scheduled for this morning, Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will call not only for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but a redeployment of troops into Afghanistan and even Pakistan — with or without the permission of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

"I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges," Obama will say, according to speech excerpts provided to ABC News by his campaign, "but let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

Obama's mention of an "al Qaeda leadership meeting" refers to a classified military operation planned in early 2005 to kill al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden's top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri in Pakistan's tribal regions. First reported in The New York Times earlier this month, the mission was "aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to intelligence and military officials."

In many ways, the speech is counterintuitive; Obama, one of the more liberal candidates in the race, is proposing a geopolitical posture that is more aggressive than that of President Bush. It comes at a time in Obama's campaign when the freshman senator is drawing more financial support from more voters than any other candidate, though he has yet to vault from his second-place position in the polls. One of the reasons for that is that the Democratic front-runner, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, is seen as more experienced and in some ways stronger, a perspective Obama wishes to change.

The speech, to be delivered at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., seems an attempt by Obama to ramp up his campaign to the next phase, where he hopes to seem not only a youthful idealist, but a president who would pursue a muscular foreign policy and protect the United States from terrorist attack.

Carl Levin says winning the war is not enough to continue it...

In today’s Detroit Free Press, Senator Carl Levin says that winning the war isn’t enough to continue it. Even if the Iraqi government meets all of its benchmarks, even if the surge is working – Senator Levin still wants to pull out. So, let’s see here, Democrats have committed to pulling out of Iraq even if it would mean turning victory into defeat, even if it would mean jeopardizing progress by their democratic government, even if it would result in genocide, even if allies in the region want the U.S. to stay. It just strikes me as incomprehensible – for U.S. interests, for regional interests, for humanitarian principles – for the Democrats to continue along this line of reasoning.

Levin: Progress isn't reason enough to postpone troop withdrawal
Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Carl Levin says even if Iraqi leaders make political progress before a September report is due and violence continues to decline, it wouldn’t be enough to convince him not to push for a withdrawal of American troops.

With Congress ready to take a month off beginning at the end of this week, Levin spoke to reporters about highlights from the first seven months of the year and discussed his belief that a growing number of Republicans are unwilling to blindly support President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy.

The Detroit Democrat, who serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Iraqi leaders may return from their own recess and make enough political progress toward benchmarks to convince Bush to continue a policy that saw him send tens of thousands more troops to Iraq.

“That’s not enough for me,” said Levin, who is expected to renew a push for timetables to begin withdrawing troops when Congress returns to Washington, D.C. in September.

Took long enough

The U.N. has finally approved sending a peacekeeping force to Darfur. Three years ago, Colin Powell was at the U.N. doing everything in his power to try to convince the U.N. to take action. How many people would still be alive if they headed his call at that time instead of waiting three years to act?

It's a good thing that Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton don't run the U.N. or else we'd still be waiting.

UN OKs 26,000 Peacekeepers for Darfur
ABC News

The U.N. Security Council approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur on Tuesday to try to help end four years of fighting that has killed more than 200,000 people in the conflict-wracked Sudanese region.

The force the first joint peacekeeping mission by the African Union and the United Nations will replace the beleaguered 7,000-strong AU force now on the ground in Darfur no later than Dec. 31. The council urged that the AU-U.N. "hybrid" achieve "full operational capability and force strength as soon as possible thereafter."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a "historic and unprecedented operation" that will send "a clear and powerful signal" of help to the people of Darfur.

This explains Robert Byrd...

An odd advice column over at Salon from about a week and a half ago has me thinking. The basic premise of the question is that the individual, having carefully cultivated a "proper, liberal, modern, progressive cover" and is afraid of "blowing it" when people find out he sings racist songs to himself. The songs, apparently, just kind of get stuck in his head and he'd rather they didn't. The advice he's given? Embrace his inner racist, and harness his white guilt to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless.

It's odd, actually, to see. Certainly, there are members of the Liberal Elite who evoke a clear condescension and clear racism in their actions and words but it's strange for someone to just come out and say - if you're a racist, become a Liberal and all will be forgiven.

I've got a stupid racist ditty playing in my head
Salon.com

When I was 12 or so and living in Outer White Generica aka the Tucson suburbs), a friend of mine taught me a racist little ditty...It is now almost 30 years later and that stupid little song has come back with a vengeance. I keep hearing it over and over in my head ("I don' care what de' white mon say..." I'll leave it at that)...

...I've become so paranoid that I'm going to blow my proper, liberal, modern, progressive cover that I'm only making it worse...What if I get caught? Help!

and the response:

Say a man stands behind a counter of steam trays dishing out hot lasagna to folks who have no money and no home and nothing to eat. As he dishes out the food, a little racist ditty from his childhood is running through his head. If we could monitor the music that is playing in his head, would we take that spoon away from him and beat him with it and throw him out of the soup kitchen? Or would we let him ladle out soup to the poor? What does it matter what racist little ditty is playing in your head? What matters is what you do...

...So you've got a stupid song playing in your head. What did you see on your way to work this morning? Did you see any poor people living in the streets? Did you see any people begging for food? Did you see anyone living with open sores because they have no money for medical care? What did you do about that? Did you stop to sing them a song?

...What could it possibly take to care for all these poor people of all races "ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished"? A billion dollars? Ten billion dollars? A hundred billion dollars? What could it take to build a big building in the center of town and give everybody a bed who needs a place to sleep? What could it take to give everybody a good meal who is hungry? Keep it open 24 hours a day. Staff it with ministers, cooks and bouncers. Have drug and alcohol recovery meetings there. Put all the soup kitchens there. Put all the cots there. Put the mayor's office there. Put all the deacons and elders and mullahs and bishops and rabbis there. Put all the columnists and communists and free-marketeers and Christian fundamentalists there. Put everybody there who pretends to give a shit. Put me there. Put us all there. Give us showers and hot soup. Keep us there until we make it work. Do the same thing in every city and town. How hard could that be?..

...Our quivering introspection is a luxury of the very world whose wealth shields us from consequence, whose entertainment keeps us laughing like children, amused and placated while our neighbors starve and sleep on the streets and die of treatable diseases. The personal is personal. Feed somebody...

...It's not you. I'm not blaming you. It's not your fault. None of us can do much on our own. We lack leaders. We lack consensus. Our moral imagination has been hijacked by an entertainment complex far more powerful than any writer or activist. Our publishing industry has been hijacked by soap companies and toy makers. Our churches have become the propaganda wings of political parties. We don't know how to run our own country. We don't know how to get it back. We don't know how to take care of each other.

Why not pretend to do something?

Let me check here – yep, still an 18% poverty rate. Yep, still a social security system which will go bankrupt long before I’m eligible to receive benefits from it. Yep, still 15% of Americans living without health insurance. Yep, still a war going on. Yep, still genocide occurring in Darfur. Yep, still hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cheats every year. Yep, still an educational system which is failing countless children. Yep, still millions of illegal immigrants in the country and thousands more coming in every day. Yep, still problems with energy production and supply. Yep, still millions of Africans with AIDS and hundreds of millions worldwide living in poverty. Yep, Iran is still trying to build nuclear weapons. Yep, Al Qaeda is still trying to kill as many Americans as humanly possible. Congress is doing something to address one or two of these, right?

No, of course not. They want to make another statement vote. This time, trying to impeach Alberto Gonzales for firing U.S. attorneys, which is a power he explicitly has.

Dems Seek Gonzales Impeachment
ABC News

Days before Congress is set to adjourn for its August recess, a group of Democrats on Capitol Hill is seeking an impeachment resolution against embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

On Tuesday, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., sought to introduce the legislation urging the House Judiciary Committee to "investigate fully whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to impeach Alberto R. Gonzales, attorney general of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors."

Six other Democrats joined Inslee, a former prosecutor from Washington State. Reps. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Michael A. Arcuri, D-N.Y., Tom Udall, D-N.M., Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, Ben Chandler, D-Ky., and Dennis Moore, D-Kan., co-sponsored the legislation.

The House and Senate Judiciary Committees have been investigating the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, and the role Gonzales and senior Justice Department officials played in the dismissals.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, denounced the impeachment move, calling it "a misuse of Congressional power for purely political reasons and a waste of the American public's money and time."

"Democrats have ignored this fundamental principle in their own investigation and have chosen instead to engage in a politically motivated campaign to slander the Justice Department and undermine the credibility of federal law enforcement," Smith continued.

The impeachment resolution is viewed by many on Capitol Hill as symbolic and unlikely to get much traction. But it is the latest display of a lack of support for Gonzales, who has faced a series of challenges this year.