U.S. environment scientists report political meddling

The Republican war on science continues. More from Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 900 scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency have experienced political interference in their work in the last five years, the Union of Concerned Scientists reported on Wednesday.

..."Our investigation found an agency in crisis," said Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency. "Distorting science to accommodate a narrow political agenda threatens our environment, our health and our democracy itself."

..."OMB and the White House have, in some cases, compromised the integrity of EPA rules and policies; their influence, largely hidden from the public and driven by industry lobbying, has decreased the stringency of proposed regulations for nonscientific, political reasons," one scientist wrote in response to the investigation.

McCain has no effective plan to turn economy around

Howard Dean delivered this week's Democratic radio address:

WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain doesn't have an effective plan to turn around the faltering U.S. economy, Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said Saturday.

"As I listened to Senator John McCain's remarks about the economy this week, I heard more of the same Republican policies that George Bush has brought us for the last eight years," Dean said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.

Among those policies, Dean said, are "privatizing Social Security, denying our children health care, adding $8 trillion in new deficits, no plan to turn our economy around or help people keep their homes."

Click here to listen to the entire radio address.

McCain's economic plan a sham

John McCain is once again demonstrating that he doesn't understand basic economics:

April 18 (Bloomberg) -- John McCain's plan to cut taxes and balance the budget wins praise from fellow Republicans. Economists and nonpartisan analysts say his numbers don't add up.

...Ultimately, said Stan Collender, a former analyst for the House and Senate budget committees, it would take substantial cuts to Medicare and Social Security to balance the budget with the tax cuts McCain is proposing.

Even then, "there's no way McCain could balance it by the time he leaves, unless he doesn't leave for 25 years," Collender said.

Republicans, strong on national security?

It's unbelievable that, almost seven years after 9/11, this is where Bush has taken us:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — More than six years after the September 11 attacks, the United States still does not have a coherent plan to destroy a key staging area for terrorist attacks into the country, according to an independent government watchdog.

There is "no comprehensive plan" to destroy the terrorist threat and close down the safe haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), said the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The vast, impoverished, mountainous and unpoliced FATA belt shares a border with Afghanistan and is regarded by Washington as a key sanctuary for top terrorists who masterminded the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.

No excuse for ’boy’ reference

Today's Lexington Herald-Leader hits the nail on the head concerning Geoff Davis:

U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis has apologized to Sen. Barack Obama for calling him boy during an appearance before 400 Northern Kentucky Republicans on Saturday night.

Obama, as the whole world knows, is the first African-American with a serious chance of being elected U.S. president. And boy, as everyone also knows, is a racially charged put-down used by generations of whites to demean and humiliate black men.

...Speakers to a friendly, enthusiastic audience often reveal more than they wish, as Obama discovered when he candidly shared with a group of supporters his thoughts on why some working-class voters might feel bitter about their situation. Obama is having to explain himself.

What Davis, a West Point graduate and precise speaker, said is harder to explain or defend. It's also an embarrassment to his party and his state.

This week’s Democratic radio address

Kentucky's own John Yarmuth gave this week's Democratic radio address. The Associated Press is running an article about it. Here's an excerpt:

WASHINGTON — The growing cost to the United States of fighting the war in Iraq "is not only linked to our economic skid, but is a leading cause of it," a Democratic congressman said today.

Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky linked the costly, unpopular war with the growing economic troubles — some say recession — in this country.

Yarmuth said in the Democrats' weekly radio address that the testimony this week of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker about the Iraq war served as reminder of the billions of dollars being poured into Iraq as the U.S. economy struggles.

You can listen to the entire radio address by clicking here.

'Fair and Balanced' Fox News

John Oliver of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart takes on "fair and balanced" Fox News in this segment. Check it out!

Part 1


Part 2

McCain vs McCain: Part 2

You may recall last month's McCain vs. McCain debate. I'm pleased to present the next installment of this series, which addresses economic issues:

Sen. Biden: Troop Buildup Is Failure

The Associated Press is running this article about this week's Democratic radio address:

Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said [last year's troop buildup in Iraq] didn't succeed because U.S. troops remain committed there in large numbers and political reconciliation has not been achieved.

"The purpose of the surge was to bring violence in Iraq down so that its leaders could come together politically," said Biden, D-Del., in this week's Democratic radio address. "Violence has come down, but the Iraqis have not come together."

He later added, "There is little evidence the Iraqis will settle their differences peacefully any time soon."

You can listen to the entire address by clicking here.

Editorial Roundup

Today's newspapers address Kentucky's budget. The consensus is that the legislature irresponsibly failed to obtain new revenue sources.

From the Enquirer:

The budget conferees did the best they could to keep cuts to a minimum. But it's not clear that they've managed to find viable new sources of revenue, at least anything that amounts to more than a one-time fix. Astoundingly, they did not include an increase in the state's cigarette tax, even though a 25-cent-per-pack hike passed by the House would have brought in about $100 million a year.

...Meanwhile, Beshear's casino initiative isn't in the cards for this year and maybe longer, and no other revenue boost appears to be on the horizon, unless the economy revs up and Kentucky's growth rate increases. This budget may pass, but the long-term answers for Kentucky clearly are not in place.

From the Courier-Journal:

Lawmakers and Gov. Steve Beshear had the opportunity to produce a responsible budget. It was their choice to settle for what has emerged. In an election year, the great majority of legislators were not interested in finding new revenue with which to move our state forward, despite the fact that Kentucky lags behind in so many ways.

The Republican Senate especially merits blame for blocking a modest cigarette tax increase. Even the wimpy 25-cent proposal the House passed would have added more than $100 million a year to the state's coffers -- enough to make a difference in a lot of lives.

From the Herald-Leader:

The budget that emerged from a closed conference committee early Tuesday morning does nothing to move Kentucky forward, as Education Commissioner John Draud observed.

The state will lose ground -- all because the Senate refused to increase one of the nation's lowest taxes on cigarettes when smoking costs Kentucky $4 billion a year in health care and lost productivity.

Olbermann: McCain wrong on Maliki-Sadr-ceasefire

Keith Olbermann points out how weak McCain is on his signature issue: