The US Occupation of Iraq is Causing More US Deaths in Afghanistan – The nation’s top military officer said yesterday that more U.S. troops are needed in Afghanistan to tamp down an increasingly violent insurgency, but that the Pentagon does not have sufficient forces to send because they are committed to the war in Iraq. Violence in Afghanistan has increased markedly over recent weeks, with June the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the war began in 2001.
Fox News Lies About Barack Obama’s Voting Record – Last September, Barack Obama voted to condemn the “Betray Us” attack on General David Petraeus, but over the past few days, FOX News hosts have repeatedly made the exact opposite claim. At the link [above], FOX’s lies are exposed and the record is set straight with video from the Senate floor.
Monica Crowley Plagiarizes Then Stonewalls About It – A few weeks ago, 23/6 made a parody of the “You Can’t Have Alex” MoveOn.org ad. They called it “John McCain, Meet William.” On Saturday, June 21, on The Monica Crowley Show on radio, she began tearing apart the MoveOn ad and she played the 23/6 parody ad as she went to commercial, without crediting 23/6. When Monica came back from commercial, she played the parody again but this time she claimed she created it. “We put together a little spoof there of that MoveOn.org where the woman holds up her baby…” Then she tried to cover-up that she did it by not answering e-mail about it and hiding her podcast of that broadcast.
Crowley also stole material for her book about how wonderful Richard Nixon was. And then she stonewalled about that too.
State Department Ignored Policy for Bush’s Buddy – Bush administration officials knew that a Texas oil company with close ties to President Bush was planning to sign an oil deal with the regional Kurdistan government that ran counter to American policy and undercut Iraq’s central government, a Congressional committee has concluded. United States policy is to warn companies that they incur risks in signing contracts until Iraq passes an oil law and to strengthen Iraq’s central government. The Kurdistan deal, by ceding responsibility for writing contracts directly to a regional government, infuriated Iraqi officials. But State Department officials did nothing to discourage the deal and in some cases appeared to welcome it, the documents show.
The company, Hunt Oil of Dallas, signed the deal with Kurdistan’s semiautonomous government last September. Its chief executive, Ray L. Hunt, a close political ally of President Bush, briefed an advisory board to Mr. Bush on his contacts with Kurdish officials before the deal was signed. Hunt is also a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
Top Communications Aide for Bush-Cheney Now Heading McCain’s Campaign – Steve Schmidt is taking over the day-to-day operation of John McCain’s campaign, according to multiple campaign sources. McCain sources say Schmidt, who ran Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reelection campaign and was a top communications aide in Bush-Cheney ‘04, will coordinate the campaign’s daily pro-McCain and anti-Obama message but also will have an increased role in shaping most every facet of the organization including scheduling, policy, coalitions and surrogates.
U.S. In Last Place on G-8 Climate Scorecard – The U.S. has done the least among the world’s eight largest economies to address global warming, a study released Thursday found. The G-8 Climate Scorecards 2008, released Thursday ahead of next week’s gathering of the Group of Eight on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, also found that none of the eight countries are making improvements large enough to prevent temperature increases that scientists think would cause catastrophic climate changes.
Regards,
Jim
Andy Hailey