November 23, 2005
Military events reveal Bush's weak status
But the president's strong preference for military events is really a sign of weakness, not strength. It indicates an administration that is steadily sinking among the public at large and is desperate enough to grab onto uniformed personnel to stay afloat.

November 22, 2005
Limbaugh, Carlson falsely claimed Marine referenced by Rep. Schmidt is serving in Iraq
CARLSON LIE: But the point is she got that, she was quoting an active-duty Marine currently serving in Iraq, whose opinion ought to have some weight, by the criteria you just laid out, that we ought to pay respect to our men in uniform. And that's what this Marine said. So how can you say it's over-the-top and wrong?

November 22, 2005
Limbaugh: Murtha "just the useful idiot of the moment"
Limbaugh added that people "portray [Murtha] as a former hawk," and asked: "What kind of serious hawk calls for withdrawals like this?" Limbaugh then added: "I don't think he ever has been a hawk ... in his career ... as a congressman."

November 23, 2005
Rep. Jean Schmidt Weathers Backlash
Noting that criticism has poured in via phone calls, e-mails and TV reports, she said in her statement: "I am quite willing to suffer those attacks if in the end that policy I so strongly oppose is exposed as unsound. First and foremost, I support the troops. They dodge bullets and bombs while I duck only hateful words."

November 22, 2005
Vatican Discriminates Against Gay Priests
The Vatican has often visited the issue of homosexuality, reflecting an unbending theological opposition but also an acknowledgment that discrimination based on sexual preference is not justified.

November 22, 2005
Fox News Won't Show Ad Opposing Alito
WASHINGTON - Fox News is refusing to air an ad critical of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, citing its lawyers' contention that the spot is factually incorrect. A spokesman for the groups sponsoring the ad said the network's decision reflects the political right's effort to shield President Bush's choice for the high court.

November 28, 2005 issue Six Part Series
Where Was the Media Between Invasion and Murtha?
"I don't think the networks have been able to create a narrative or mythology for the war," said Ron Simon, the television curator for the Museum of Television and Radio. "For a narrative, you have to have an answer to Norman Mailer's famous question, "Why are we here?' Two years later, they're still struggling to ask that question." In 2003, after the invasion, media companies were warned not to feed the American news consumer too much material on the downside of war. The media-consulting firm Frank Magid Associates advised broadcast outlets that its survey results suggested that viewers had very little appetite for stories about casualties, prisoners of war and anti-war protests.

November 23, 2005
Obama Calls on Bush To Admit Iraq Errors
CHICAGO, Nov. 22 -- Sen. Barack Obama said President Bush should admit mistakes in waging the Iraq war and reduce the number of troops stationed there in the next year. But the Illinois Democrat, a longtime opponent of the war, said U.S. forces remain "part of a solution" in the bitterly divided country and should not be withdrawn immediately.

November 22, 2005
Hannity again falsely claimed that Reagan's tax cuts "doubled revenue"
According to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), when adjusted for inflation to constant fiscal year 2000 dollars, receipts (revenues) grew only from $1.077 trillion to $1.236 trillion during Reagan's term in office. Even in unadjusted (current) dollars, Hannity's claim that revenues "doubled" during the Reagan administration is false: From 1981 to 1988, revenues in current dollars increased from $599.3 billion to $909.3 billion.

November 22, 2005
Fox, NY Post Falsely Claimed the House Voted on Murtha's Resolution
On November 21, Fox News host John Gibson falsely claimed that the House of Representatives voted down a measure offered by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) calling for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq; the New York Post made the same claim in a November 22 editorial. In fact, the House voted on a counter-resolution sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) in response to Murtha's that bore little resemblance to the original.

November 22, 2005
Iraqi leaders call on U.S. to set withdrawal schedule
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Reaching out to the Sunni Arab community, Iraqi leaders called for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and said Iraq's opposition had a "legitimate right" of resistance.

November 22, 2005
Colonel Denies Disparaging Murtha
WASHINGTON - Three days after Rep. Jean Schmidt was booed off the House floor for saying that "cowards cut and run, Marines never do," the Ohioan she quoted disputed the comments. Danny Bubp, a freshman state representative who is a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, told The Enquirer that he never mentioned Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., by name when talking with Schmidt, and he would never call a fellow Marine a coward.

November 22, 2005
6,644 still unaccounted for after Katrina
PHOENIX, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Twelve weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, 6,644 people remain unaccounted for, USA Today reported Tuesday.

November 21, 2005
Former Delay Aide Pleads Guilty, Pays $19 Million Restitution
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 - Michael Scanlon, former aide to a powerful congressman and onetime partner of a wealthy lobbyist, pleaded guilty today to a federal conspiracy charge as part of a deal in which he agreed to cooperate with an investigation into possible wrongdoing by some lawmakers.

November 21, 2005
Bush Trust in Cheney, Rove Tested as Public Confidence Declines
There is far less analysis than during the presidencies of Gerald Ford, Nixon or Bush's father, says Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism chief. The inner tribe comes to the conclusion of where they want to go, and then the staff work that is done is justifying it."

November 20, 2005
John Murtha: Staying is not the answer
Aside from the fact that the original plan to win the peace was flawed, two-and-a-half years later the indices that would determine the ultimate success of a stable Iraq have not improved. Electricity and oil production are below pre-war levels, unemployment remains at 60% and insurgent incidents have increased from 150 to more than 700 per week. Average monthly death rates of U.S. servicemembers have grown since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal from one per day to almost four. Despite the addition of more troops, more equipment and more money, Iraq and the region have become less stable over time. Global terrorism has risen.

November 17, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Meet John Rendon, Bush's general in the propaganda war
Finally, in early 2004, more than two years after he made the dramatic allegations to Miller and Moran about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, al-Haideri was taken back to Iraq by the CIA's Iraq Survey Group. On a wide-ranging trip through Baghdad and other key locations, al-Haideri was given the opportunity to point out exactly where Saddam's stockpiles were hidden, confirming the charges that had helped to start a war. In the end, he could not identify a single site where illegal weapons were buried.

November 21, 2005
Why Iraq war support fell so fast
John Mueller, an expert on war and public opinion at Ohio State University, links today's lower tolerance of casualties to a weaker public commitment to the cause than was felt during the two previous, cold war-era conflicts. The discounting of the main justifications for the Iraq war - alleged weapons of mass destruction and support for international terrorism - has left many Americans skeptical of the entire enterprise.

November 22, 2005
Best Political Commentary of the Year
How the Bush administration got spooked
Whatever the overlapping motivations, at the heart of this policy lay an urge to unleash a constitutionally unfettered "war president" on the world. (Torture was a crucial issue in all of this largely because, once established as an essential tool of the "war on terror", it would be proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bush's presidency had been freed of all restraints.)

November 20, 2005
Powell aide: Torture 'guidance' from VP
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the "philosophical guidance" and "flexibility" that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities. Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities.

November 20, 2005
GOP Malaise Due to Iraq Unease
In a rare across-the-world exchange of invective, the White House traded daily barbs with its Democratic critics. They accused Bush of manipulating prewar intelligence and deceiving the nation in starting a war he is unable to end. Bush and his aides said Democrats were irresponsible and hypocritical, particularly those who voted in 2002 to authorize the war and now oppose it.

November 17, 2005
Murtha's remarks, resolution
Whereas, according to recent polls, over 80 percent of the Iraqi people want U.S. forces out of Iraq; Whereas, polls also indicate that 45 percent of the Iraqi people feel that the attacks on U.S. forces are justified; Whereas, due to the foregoing, Congress finds it evident that continuing U.S. military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the people of Iraq, or the Persian Gulf Region, which were cited in Public Law 107-243 as justification for undertaking such action;

November 19, 2005
Jewish Leader Blasts 'Religious Right'
HOUSTON - The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them "zealots" who claim a "monopoly on God" while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler's.

November 20, 2005
Jewish group votes to oppose Alito
HOUSTON -- The largest branch of North American Judaism voted on Sunday to oppose Samuel Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court -- saying Alito would "shift the ideological balance of the Supreme Court on matters of core concern to the reform movement" on abortion rights, women's rights, civil rights and the scope of federal power.

November 21, 2005
The truth about God in public schools
Still angry that the courts won't allow school officials to promote religion with prayers over the intercom or by posting the Ten Commandments on classroom walls, the Restorers downplay or ignore all of the ways in which religion is alive and well in schools.

November 20, 2005
Bob Graham: What I Knew Before the Invasion
I was stunned when Tenet said that no NIE had been requested by the White House and none had been prepared. Invoking our rarely used senatorial authority, I directed the completion of an NIE.

Most of the alleged intelligence came from Iraqi exiles or third countries, all of which had an interest in the United States' removing Hussein, by force if necessary.

November 18, 2005
Vital Military Jobs Go Unfilled
The report, completed by the Government Accountability Office, shows that the Army, National Guard and Marines signed up as few as a third of the Special Forces soldiers, intelligence specialists and translators that they had aimed for over the last year.

November 20, 2005
Assessment of White House arguments uncovers flaws
Cheney's remarks and the president's unequivocal endorsement of them Thursday were the latest in the Bush administration's new campaign to challenge critics of how it sold the war: accusing them of twisting the historical record about how and why the war was launched. Yet in accusing Iraq war critics of "rewriting history," Bush, Cheney and other senior administration officials are tinkering with the truth themselves.

November 20, 2005
Corruption Inquiry Threatens to Ensnare Lawmakers
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 - The Justice Department has signaled for the first time in recent weeks that prominent members of Congress could be swept up in the corruption investigation of Jack Abramoff, the former Republican superlobbyist who diverted some of his tens of millions of dollars in fees to provide lavish travel, meals and campaign contributions to the lawmakers whose help he needed most.

November 20, 2005 13 Part Series
An Impeachable Offense
How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball
BERLIN — The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the war in Iraq.

November 20, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
"National security letters" demonstrate hypocrisy in the Bush administration
Without even knowing, virtually any American could have their phones tapped into at any time, their e-mail account traced, their house searched, as well as their financial information disseminated to various agencies across the U.S..

November 20, 2005
Security adviser named as source in CIA scandal
THE mysterious source who gave America's foremost journalist, Bob Woodward, a tip-off about the CIA agent at the centre of one of Washington's biggest political storms was Stephen Hadley, the White House national security adviser, according to lawyers close to the investigation.

November 16, 2005
White House Transcripts Altered
To which Scott McClellan replied, "That's accurate." But when the transcript showed up on www.whitehouse.gov, curiously enough, it had McClellan responding by saying "I don't think that's accurate."

November 16, 2005
GOP budget aids the rich, ups deficit
The federal government will borrow $4 million in the time it takes you to read this column. Congress and the president have proposed a 2006 budget that will mean borrowing $1.4 billion a day.

November 19, 2005
Lawmakers to get $3,100 pay raise
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican-controlled Congress helped itself to a $3,100 pay raise yesterday, then postponed work on bills to curb spending on social programs and cut taxes in favor of a two-week vacation.

November 19, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
CIA Torture Described
According to CIA sources, Ibn al Shaykh al Libbi, after two weeks of enhanced interrogation, made statements that were designed to tell the interrogators what they wanted to hear. Sources say Al Libbi had been subjected to each of the progressively harsher techniques in turn and finally broke after being water boarded and then left to stand naked in his cold cell overnight where he was doused with cold water at regular intervals.

November 7, 2005 issue
Flying Blind
Fitzgerald will inevitably have to shine a light on the machinery that sold the Iraq war and that sought to discredit critics of it, particularly Joseph Wilson. And that, in turn, could lead to Cheney and to the Cheney-run effort to make Iraq the central battleground in the war on terror. As if that weren't dramatic enough, the Libby trial—if there is one—will feature an unprecedented, high-stakes credibility contest between a top government official and the reporters he spoke to: Tim Russert of NBC, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matt Cooper of Time magazine. Another likely witness: Cheney himself.

November 19, 2005
The war at home
By the end of the week, the debate seemed to pit the chickens against the chicken hawks.

November 18, 2005
Feith Investigated by Pentagon - Manipulating Intelligence
One of the questions to be probed by the Pentagon inspector general, Levin said, is whether Feith, in his position as under secretary of defense for policy, "provided a separate channel of intelligence, unbeknownst to the CIA, to the White House — which he did."

November 17, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Former CIA director accuses Cheney of overseeing torture
LONDON (AFP) - Admiral Stansfield Turner, a former CIA director, accused US Vice President Dick Cheney of overseeing policies of torturing terrorist suspects and damaging the nation's reputation, in a television interview

November 19, 2005
Uproar in House as Parties Clash on Iraq Pullout
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 - Republicans and Democrats shouted, howled and slung insults on the House floor on Friday as a debate over whether to withdraw American troops from Iraq descended into a fury over President Bush's handling of the war and a leading Democrat's call to bring the troops home.

November 15, 2005
Amnesty demands EU investigate allegations of US detention camps
Referring to reports of camps in Poland, Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary-general, said: 'We should not be sitting here trying to speculate whether it is Poland and whether the Polish government will do something about it. 'I think the European Union should investigate it.'

November 18, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
UN Commission on Human Rights Condemns US
LONDON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The United States government was roundly condemned by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Friday for refusing to allow it full access to its detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "The writ of international human rights does not stop at the gates of Guantanamo Bay," said the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health, Paul Hunt, announcing a full investigation into the human rights of detainees at the Cuban camp.

November 18, 2005
Fitzgerald sees new grand jury proceedings
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a sign he may seek new or revised charges in the CIA leak case, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said on Friday his investigation would be going back before a grand jury.

November 17, 2005
Hawkish Democrat Calls for Iraq Pullout
"It's time to bring them home," said Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Korean War and Vietnam combat veteran, choking back tears during remarks to reporters. "Our military has accomplished its mission and done its duty."

November 17, 2005
Nearly three dozen lawmakers acccept bribes from Abramoff
Many lawmakers, including leaders in both parties, intervened with letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton within days of receiving money from tribes represented by Abramoff or using the lobbyist's restaurant for fundraising, an Associated Press review of campaign reports, IRS records and congressional correspondence found.

November 17, 2005
Woodward Saga Inspired Very Negative Reader Response
NEW YORK Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell has received hundreds of calls and e-mails from readers since yesterday's revelations about Bob Woodward's involvement in the Valerie Plame case, and none of them are positive.

November 18, 2005
Moderate Republicans Seize Control of House
Those changes pared back the measure's savings by more than $4 billion, and moderate Republicans say they expect the final version will be cut back further in negotiations with the Senate.

November 17, 2005
15 Questions for Bob Woodward
1. If you didn't tell your editor, Len Downie, about the CIA leak because you were so afraid of being subpoenaed, why did you supposedly tell Walter Pincus? Did you trust Pincus but not Downie?

Oct/Nov
Journalism Takes Another Hit - The Woodward Saga
Woodward has been criticized over the years for withholding juicy tidbits from the Post for use in his books. It makes you wonder where his loyalty lies. And by keeping silent about the Plame leakage, he casts himself as an independent operative accountable to no one.

November 17, 2005
GOP: Grand Old Spenders
George F. Will - Conservatives have won seven of 10 presidential elections, yet government waxes, with per-household federal spending more than $22,000 per year, the highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II. Federal spending

November 17, 2005
Clinton: War Was A Big Mistake
WASHINGTON - Angered at being used as a scapegoat by the White House, ex-President Bill Clinton fired back yesterday, saying the Iraq war was "a big mistake."

November 15, 2005
The Ginsburg Fallacy
Far from being a crazed radical, Ginsburg had staked out a centrist role on a closely divided appeals court. Don't take it from me -- take it from Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). In his autobiography, the Utah Republican describes how he suggested Ginsburg -- along with Clinton's second pick, Stephen G. Breyer -- to the president. "From my perspective, they were far better than the other likely candidates from a liberal Democratic administration," Hatch writes.

November 16, 2005
Pincus: Woodward 'Asked Me to Keep Him Out' of Plame Reporting
"He asked me to keep him out of the reporting and I agreed to do that," Pincus said today. His comments followed a Post story today about Woodward's testimony on Monday before special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in which Woodward reportedly disclosed that a senior White House official told him about Plame's identity as a CIA operative a month before her identity was disclosed publicly.

November 16, 2005
Woodward Apologizes to Post for Withholding Knowledge of Plame
Bob Woodward apologized today to The Washington Post's executive editor for failing to tell him for more than two years that a senior Bush administration official had told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame, even as an investigation of those leaks mushroomed into a national scandal.

November 16, 2005
Woodward's Statement
On Monday, November 14, I testified under oath in a sworn deposition to Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for more than two hours about small portions of interviews I conducted with three current or former Bush administration officials that relate to the investigation of the public disclosure of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.

November 16, 2005
Woodward Was Told of Plame More Than Two Years Ago
Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed.

November 16, 2005 Five Part Series
Rumsfeld PreWar Memo
In that account, Rumsfeld portrayed the memo as a warning blast, an attempt to do "everything humanly possible to prepare" Bush for the awful responsibility that had settled onto his presidential shoulders -- and his shoulders alone. For there comes a point when even the secretary of defense must realize that "it's not your decision or even your recommendation," Rumsfeld reflected with Woodward. By which he meant the Iraq war wasn't Don Rumsfeld's decision or recommendation.

November 16, 2005
Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force
A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.

November 16, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Pentagon Used White Phosphorous in Iraq
WASHINGTON -- Pentagon officials say white phosphorous was used as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November, but deny an Italian television news report that it was used against civilians.

November 16, 2005
Republican Defends Criticisms of Iraq Policy
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) strongly criticized yesterday the White House's new line of attack against critics of its Iraq policy, saying that "the Bush administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them."

November 15, 2005
'I treated people who had their skin melted'
As an unembedded journalist, I spent hours talking to residents forced out of the city. A doctor from Fallujah working in Saqlawiyah, on the outskirts of Fallujah, described treating victims during the siege "who had their skin melted".

November 15, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Some Apparently Tortured Detainees Found
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's prime minister said Tuesday that 173 Iraqi detainees — malnourished and showing signs of torture — were found at an Interior Ministry basement lockup seized by U.S. forces in Baghdad. The discovery appeared to validate Sunni complaints of abuse by the Shiite-controlled ministry.

November 15, 2005
Fred Barnes Lied: Bush Not Vindicated On False Aluminum Tubes Claim
On the November 12 edition of Fox News' The Beltway Boys, Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes suggested that the Bush administration's claim that aluminum tubes sought by Saddam Hussein were evidence of an emerging Iraqi nuclear program has been vindicated, citing French tests that purportedly determined the tubes "couldn't have been used for anything else but producing nuclear weapons." In fact, this claim has been refuted . . .

November 16, 2005
Poll: American attitudes on Iraq similar to Vietnam era
"This war is probably a really big deal historically in terms of America's perspective on the world," says John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University. "What you're going to get after this is 'We don't want to do that again — No more Iraqs' just as after Vietnam the syndrome was 'No more Vietnams.' "

November 14, 2005
Alito plays down 1985 anti-abortion document
"He's obviously an intelligent and informed nominee, but the real criteria that all of us look for is whether the nominee is going to have a core commitment to the constitutional values and the rights and liberties and interest of the American people," Kennedy said.

November 15, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
GAO Report: FDA yielded to political pressure, not science
WASHINGTON — Federal drug regulators compromised their usual science-based decision-making process when they ruled in 2004 against letting the "morning-after" birth control pill be sold without a prescription, congressional investigators said Monday.

November 15, 2005
Government Whistleblowers Rise Up: Turn the Spigot and Let the Memos Flow
William Jackson Jr.: "So I call upon patriotic government employees to think first of your country and how to pressure the Bush Administration to withdraw from the quagmire of Iraq. "Whistleblow" for the greater national interest."

November 15, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Report Says Ex-Chief of Public TV Violated Federal Law
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 - Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting concluded today that its former chairman repeatedly broke federal law and its own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias.

November 15, 2005
NBC's Today portrayed Republicans as authors of Democratic plan for Iraq withdrawal
A November 15 report on NBC's Today presented as a Republican initiative a plan first proposed by Senate Democrats that would require regular reporting by the Bush administration to Congress on progress in withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. The Republican amendment is in most respects the same as the Democrats' amendment, except that the Republicans dropped a requirement for a timetable for withdrawal.

November 15, 2005
PBS ex-chief motivated by politics
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting appeared to have been motivated by politics in recruiting a new board president, the corporation's inspectors reported on Tuesday.

November 15, 2005
Senate Urges Bush to Report Progress on Ending War
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Senate today called on President George W. Bush to explain his strategy for ending the war in Iraq and report every three months on progress until all U.S. troops stationed there are redeployed.

November 15, 2005
Media, White House push falsehoods on prewar Iraq intel
By conflating the two questions in news reports, the media have advanced the Bush administration's line that several government inquiries have already cleared the administration of both pressuring intelligence agencies and manipulating intelligence. In fact, Media Matters for America has debunked each of these claims, documenting that: 1) The White House had access to intelligence that was unavailable to Congress and began making claims about the Iraqi threat months before Congress received any substantial intelligence analysis; and, 2)... no government entity has thus far investigated and reported on whether Bush administration officials manipulated that intelligence once they received it

November 13, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
US tortured Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Republican Senator Kit Bond, a member of the Senate Intelligence  Committee, told Newsweek magazine that "enhanced interrogation techniques" had worked with at least one captured high-level Al-Qaeda operative, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, to thwart an unspecified plot.

November 14, 2005
Bush Rewrites History To Criticize His Antiwar Critics
Actually, Congress did not approve Bush's decision to remove Saddam. In October 2002, the House and Senate approved a resolution that gave Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq if he deemed that appropriate.

November 13, 2005
John Edwards: "I Was Wrong"
"It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake -- the men and women of our armed forces and their families -- have performed heroically and paid a dear price."

November 14, 2005
British Man Cured From HIV
Cool News: Andrew Stimpson, 25, tested negative for HIV 14 months after a confirmed positive test. If true, his would be the first documented case of a person purging the virus from the body.

November 13, 2005
Biden: Bush 'tricked' Americans into going to war
"The bar has been raised very, very high because of the incompetence of this administration, and it seems very difficult to figure how could we possibly salvage our national interest and bring our troops home at the same time," he said. "If we don't hold him to that [developing and sharing a plan for Iraq], it means in fact that there is no way out because there is no plan."

November 12, 2005
Newsweek Poll: Bush at 36%
The president can take some solace in the fact that 42 percent of Americans believe he is honest and ethical. Only 29 percent believe that Vice President Dick Cheney is.

November 14, 2005
Alito rejected abortion as a right
Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" in a 1985 document obtained by The Washington Times.

November 11, 2005
Pentagon Calling up Sick Reservists
Consequently, the GAO found that the Pentagon couldn't confirm to the Secretary of Defense or Congress that reserve forces are medically and physically fit when they are called to active duty.

November 14, 2005
Forrester Blames Bush for Loss in NJ
The race for New Jersey governor between the multimillionaires was supposed to be a tight one, or so the final polls said before Tuesday's election. But Douglas R. Forrester, a Republican, lost by a wide margin to Senator Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, and the chief reason, Mr. Forrester now says, is President Bush's unpopularity.

November 2005
The Polls: Bush Approval Trend
Graph 2001-2005: Poll trends from NBC/WSJ, Harris, Washington Post/ABC, CNN/Today/Gallup, AP/Ipsos

November 12, 2005
Veterans Denied Health Care
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration is shortchanging U.S. military veterans in health care, providing insufficient psychological support and other aid to troops returning from Iraq, a former head of U.S. Central Command said.

November 14, 2005
Can the C.I.A. legally kill a prisoner?
The Associated Press quoted an expert who described the position in which Jamadi died as a form of torture known as "Palestinian hanging," in which a prisoner whose hands are secured behind his back is suspended by his arms.

November 11, 2005
Fox and AP repeated misleading Bush rhetoric on Iraq intelligence manipulation
Neither the AP nor Hemmer noted that the Senate Intelligence Committee has yet to report on its investigation into the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence and, therefore, has not addressed the Democrats' allegations.

2005 - 2006
Which State Is Smartest?
Prior Years' Rankings (#1 Ranking is "Smartest"). Because the factors used to determine the Smartest State Award have changed through the years, caution is advised when comparing annual rankings

November 14, 2005
Post 9/11 Intelligence Leak Ends for GOP Sen. Shelby
WASHINGTON - The Senate Ethics Committee has ended its intelligence leak investigation of Sen. Richard Shelby (news, bio, voting record), who was under suspicion of giving the news media classified messages from the eve of the Sept. 11 attacks.

November 13, 2005
Did Bush Mislead Us Into War?
Lie: Bush relied on the collective judgment of the intelligence community when he determined that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, national security adviser Stephen Hadley said.

Lie: Bush said Democrats in Congress had the same intelligence about Iraq, and he argued that many now claiming that the information had been manipulated had supported going to war. The president also accused his critics of making false charges and playing politics with the war.

November 5, 2005
NBC WSJ Poll
25d How personally responsible, if at all, do you think is for what has happened in this CIA Leak--very responsible, somewhat responsible, not too responsible, or not responsible at all? **

           Very Somewhat Not Too Not at All   Not Sure
Bush        22     32       18       22           6
Cheney      32     37       11       13           7

November 12, 2005
Democrats Provided Edge on Detainee Vote
Four of the five Democrats who supported the provision to strip detainees at Guantánamo of the legal tool the Supreme Court gave them to appeal their incarcerations said on Friday that they drew the line at allowing the prisoners unfettered access to United States courts to challenge the underlying rationale for their detention. The Senate approved the measure, an amendment to a military budget bill, 49 to 42.

November 10, 2005
Liberal Wins Southern Red State
ROBERT NOVAK: For a liberal Virginian to win a Southern red state signaled that cherished Republican majorities in both House and Senate, plus all the perquisites they entail, could be lost in 2006. Eyeing the Democratic landslide in suburban northern Virginia just over the Potomac from Washington that gave Lt. Gov. Kaine the governorship, Republicans in Congress envision their own doom.

November 11, 2005
Senate to vote on habeas corpus a second time
WASHINGTON - For almost eight centuries the "great writ" of habeas corpus has been a bedrock principle of English and American law, from the Magna Carta to today's jails and courts. It's the means for a prisoner to contest his imprisonment before a judge.

That's one reason legal experts were stunned when the Senate, after an hour of debate, voted Thursday to overturn the Supreme Court's extension of habeas corpus protection to 500-plus detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

November 9, 2005
Bush, GOP mired in political quicksand
The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, released Wednesday night, finds that all five of Bush's job approval ratings — on overall job performance, the economy, foreign policy, terrorism and Iraq — are at all-time lows in the survey. In addition, the CIA leak scandal seems to be taking a toll on the administration, with nearly 80 percent believing the indictment of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter' Libby, is a serious matter, and with Bush experiencing a 17-point drop since January in those who see him as honest and straightforward.

November 9, 2005
Democrats scrutinize Alito in Vanguard case
When Alito became a federal appeals court judge in 1990, he promised to recuse himself from cases involving Vanguard mutual funds, because he had personal investments through the company. Yet he participated in a case decided in 2002 involving Vanguard.

November 11, 2005
Clinton Recaps 8 Years in About an Hour
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y., Nov. 10 - Bill Clinton took an early stab yesterday at inscribing his place in the history books, opening a three-day conference about his presidency with a heartfelt speech recounting the highs and lows - mostly the highs - of his eight years in office.

November 11, 2005
Clinton calls impeachment egregious abuse
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Former president Bill Clinton called Congress' impeachment of him an "egregious" abuse of the Constitution and challenged those who say history will judge him poorly because of his White House tryst with Monica Lewinsky.

November 11, 2005
Wash. Times reporter Joseph Curl's pattern of misinformation
Media Matters for America examined four appearances by Curl on Fox News Live since October 13; in at least three of them, Curl offered or confirmed false or misleading statements regarding the Plame case or its participants. This year, Curl has appeared often on Fox News Live to discuss topics that relate to his coverage of the White House, such as the Supreme Court nomination of John G. Roberts Jr. In addition, as Media Matters and others have documented, Curl previously provided misleading accounts in his news reporting for the Times.

November 11, 2005
Washington Times Spins Washington Post/ABC News poll
However, the single piece of data Lambro cited stands against a preponderance of data in the poll indicating that Americans feel more in touch with Democrats, place more trust in Democrats than Republicans to handle most issues facing the country, and would like to see Democrats assume control of Congress in 2006.

November 10, 2005
Frist concerned more about leaks than secret prisons
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he is more concerned about the leak of information regarding secret CIA detention centers than activity in the prisons themselves.

November 11, 2005
Alito denies conflicts of interest
"I have been committed to carrying out my duties ... in accordance with both the letter and spirit of all applicable rules of ethics and canons of conduct. . ." Democrats had noted that as a member of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Alito ruled on two cases involving a pair of firms that helped manage his investments -- despite a 1990 promise not to do so.

November 11, 2005
House Budget Measure Is Pulled
House Republican leaders were forced to abruptly pull their $54 billion budget-cutting bill off the House floor yesterday, amid growing dissension in Republican ranks over spending priorities, taxes, oil exploration and the reach of government.

November 11, 2005
Republican Edge on Key Issues Is Slipping
Amid their failure Tuesday to take back governor's seats in either Virginia or New Jersey, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll shows that Republicans have lost the upper hand on a series of issues they've counted on to preserve their congressional majorities in 2006. Among other findings, the poll indicates that voters no longer prefer Republicans to Democrats on handling taxes, cutting government spending, dealing with immigration and directing foreign policy.

November 11, 2005
Republicans' Disarray Yields Budget Setbacks
Late Wednesday, Republicans had hoped to buy peace by removing a plan to open up portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration. But as swing members were brought in to talk with Speaker Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.), the House remained in recess for most of yesterday.

November 10, 2005
FOX Poll: 36% Approve of Bush
Today, 36 percent of Americans approve and 53 percent disapprove of the job Bush is doing as president. For comparison, two weeks ago 41 percent said they approved and 51 percent disapproved, and at the beginning of his second term 50 percent approved and 40 percent disapproved (January 25-26)

November 10, 2005
FOX News Poll: 77% Believe In Global Warming
The new national poll finds that 77 percent of Americans believe global warming is happening and, of those, more than twice as many think it is caused by human behavior (46 percent) than by normal climate patterns (17 percent). About a third says it is a combination of both (30 percent).

November 10, 2005
The GOP Bungled Prison Leak
"I had the impression that the letter had not been signed," Lott said, recalling the scene outside the Senate Republican luncheon Tuesday, when reporters asked Republican senators about the news developments.

November 10, 2005
Robertson warns Pennsylvania voters of God's wrath
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck.

November 10, 2005
House to Probe CIA Prisons Leak
WASHINGTON - The House Intelligence Committee will look into a possible leak of classified information about secret CIA prisons but will not reopen its 2003 inquiry into prewar intelligence on Iraq.

November 11, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Senate Bars Detainees From Filing Lawsuits
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to bar foreign terror suspects at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from filing lawsuits in American courts to challenge their detentions, despite a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted such access.

November 11, 2005
AP Poll: 57% Say Bush is Not Honest
Almost six in 10 — 57 percent — said they do not think the Bush administration has high ethical standards and the same portion says President Bush is not honest, an AP-Ipsos poll found. J

November 10, 2005
Right Wing Takes over Knight Ridder
The investment firm had asked the board to solicit competitive offers for the company and then let shareholders decide whether the subsequent bids reflected the fair value of the company's assets. Harris Associates L.P., Knight Ridder's third-largest shareholder, called for a sale of the company two days later.

November 10, 2005
U.S. Trade Deficit Soars to Record Levels in September
The U.S. trade deficit ballooned to record high levels in September after exports — notably of aircraft — fell and imports surged, the Commerce Department reported today.

November 8, 2005
WaPo Cover Up GOP Ties to Prison Scandal Leak?
[Commentary: the Post has this two page story on the prison leak scandal but fails to inform their readers that Sen. Lott says it probably came from the GOP (and Cheney).]

November 8, 2005
Lott Suggests Prison Leak Came from GOP
Another Republican, Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, said it may have been Republican senators who leaked the information to the Post. Lott told reporters that the existence of the secret prison system was discussed last week during the Republican policy luncheon, held on Capitol Hill the day before the Post story appeared.

"Information that was said in there, given out in there, did get into the newspaper," Lott said.

November 8, 2005
Pew Poll: Bush 36% Approval
Bush's current 36% job approval rating is the lowest of his presidency, down from 40% in late October and 50% at the start of the year. This decline reflects a souring of opinion among independents ­ just 29% approve of the president's job performance today, compared with 47% at the start of the year. Democratic evaluations have been both stable and overwhelmingly negative over the course of the year.

November 8, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
IRS Going After All Saints Episcopal Church Because it's Anti War
The IRS threat to revoke the tax-exempt status of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena because of an antiwar sermon there during the 2004 presidential election is part of a larger, controversial federal investigation of political activity at churches and nonprofit groups.

November 8, 2005
US forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault on city of Fallujah
On 10 November last year, the Islam Online website wrote: "US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988."

November 7, 2005
A history of the Iraq war, told entirely in lies
It was absolutely clear that the number-one threat facing America was from Saddam Hussein. We know that Iraq and Al Qaeda had high-level contacts that went back a decade. We learned that Iraq had trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and deadly gases.

November 7, 2005
Limbaugh: 9th Circuit is NOT "the most reversed court...in the country"
During the 2003-2004 term, the Supreme Court reversed 76 percent of the cases that it chose to hear from appeals of 9th Circuit decisions, compared to a 77-percent average reversal rate for all circuit courts nationally. During the 2002-2003 term, the court's reversal rate was 75 percent, compared to a 73-percent average reversal rate nationally; and during the 2001-2002 term, the 9th Circuit's 76-percent reversal rate was roughly the same as the national average of 75 percent.

November 7, 2005
NY Times, Roberts, Conservatives lie about intelligence report
In recent days, conservative pundits have repeated the false claim -- now advanced by Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) -- that government investigations have already cleared the Bush administration of "manipulat[ing]" intelligence in 2002 and 2003 as it made the case for the war in Iraq.

November 4, 2005
House Democrats Question Rove's Security Clearance
Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Four senior House Democrats sent a letter to the White House to ask if presidential aide Karl Rove is still eligible for a security clearance.

November 8, 2005
Rule out torture and secret prisons
The administration's political dilemma is that most Americans detest the thought of physical torture being administered in their name to even the most fearsome of suspected terrorists, though the issue of what legal rights are owing to captives does not arouse the same concern.

November 7, 2005
It Depends On What Your Definition of 'Torture' Is...
As a matter of policy, the United States Armed Forces shall continue to treat detainees humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva.

. . . the directive doesn't mention the CIA at all. That's because Dick Cheney wants the CIA to be allowed to torture detainees -- all detainees.

November 7, 2005
Bush Declares: 'We Do Not Torture'
PANAMA CITY, Panama - President Bush on Monday defended U.S. interrogation practices and called the treatment of terrorism suspects lawful. "We do not torture," Bush declared in response to reports of secret CIA prisons overseas.

Bush supported an effort spearheaded by Vice President Dick Cheney to block or modify a proposed Senate-passed ban on torture.

November 7, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Cheney Fights for Torture
Just last week, Cheney showed up at a Republican senatorial luncheon to lobby lawmakers for a CIA exemption to an amendment by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would ban torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners. The exemption would cover the CIA's covert "black sites" in several Eastern European democracies and other countries where key al Qaeda captives are being kept.

October 3, 2005
RNC Chairman Lied about Democrats/Miers Nomination
Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman sent out a mass "Dear Republican" email urging support for Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, saying: "Before Ms. Miers was even announced many Democrat groups said they would oppose her." Some groups said they might oppose Bush's next nominee, and we have little doubt that some will. But the RNC couldn't come up with a single group that had said they would oppose Miers.

November 7, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Experts: U.S. is spending its way to financial ruin
The real problem is that the government's unfunded liabilities — items that include everything from public debt to promised Medicare and Social Security benefits — are growing at staggering rates.