Per a New York Times article: “As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct. . . . The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch.”
Seven years after Islamic terrorists flew planes into the twin towers and the Pentagon, killing thousands of Americans, al-Qaida reportedly is regrouping in the lawless border region of Afghanistan and planning new attacks, and the resurgent Taliban once again controls most of the countryside, our editorial today noted. It’s time to rethink this country’s anti-terror strategy. President Bush announced this week that, because of the success of the military surge and decreasing violence in Iraq, he will bring home about 8,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by February — about 5 percent of U.S. troop strength there — and redeploy about 4,500 combat troops to Afghanistan. If anything, the troop shift is not soon enough or large enough. That’s because the real central front in the war on terror is in Afghanistan and Pakistan, not Iraq. For too long, U.S. forces have been bogged down and stretched thin in Iraq, which has proved to be a distraction from the task of hunting down and capturing or killing Osama bin Laden and dismantling the terror network that actually attacked us on Sept. 11.
Once upon a time, John McCain pledged to run an honorable, respectful campaign. This week he launched a new attack ad (no link will be provided) that accuses Barack Obama of wanting to teach kindergartners about sex before they learn to read.
The Illinois bill in question was about “age-appropriate” K-12 sex education that warned kids about inappropriate touching and sex predators.
A McClatchy newspaper fact-check of the McCain ad calls it “out of bounds” and “deliberately misleading.”
Time columnist Joe Klein calls it “one of the sleaziest ads I’ve ever seen in presidential politics.”
Meanwhile, McCain and Sarah Palin continue to claim that Palin said “thanks but no thanks” to the “Bridge to Nowhere,” even after that claim has been thoroughly debunked in the media as a falsehood.
McCain is clearly ready to say anything to win.
Sounds like self-described “dissident feminist” Camille Paglia, who supports Barack Obama and called for an Obama-Sebelius ticket, has had quite enough of the liberal assault on GOP running mate Sarah Palin: “A feminism that cannot admire the bravura under high pressure of the first woman governor of a frontier state isn’t worth a warm bucket of spit,” Paglia writes in Salon. She sees Palin as an “optimistic pragmatist like Ronald Reagan,” and says, “I don’t see her arrival as portending the end of civil liberties or life as we know it.”
Boeing and Wichita caught a major break Wednesday when the Pentagon pushed back the rebidding on the $35 billion air-refueling tanker contract to the next presidential administration. Given the mishandled initial contract with European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co./Northrop Grumman and the controversy over the skewed specifications for the rebidding, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, the current Pentagon “can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment.” But what comes after this cooling-off period for rival bidders Boeing and EADS/Northrop Grumman? A clean and impartial rebidding overseen by President John McCain, who has employed Airbus lobbyists and seemingly taken EADS’ side in the past? How much longer can the current fleet of tankers be expected to fly safely? Kansas’ congressional delegation must remain dogged on this issue, to ensure that the next bidding process is not only fair but final.
Per a New York Times article: “As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct. . . . The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch.”
