Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Obama Campaign Communications Director Robert Gibbs Promote the Presidential Hopeful's Stance on Earmarks

The Obama Campaign today hosted a conference call to discuss the presidential hopeful’s position on earmarks featuring Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Obama campaign Communications Director Robert Gibbs.

Gibbs emphasized the fact that Senator Obama is “a leader in ethics reform.” He referred to Obama’s “Google for Government” plan, used to allow citizens to use the internet to clearly see where government money is spent.

Senator McCaskill endorsed Gibbs’ comments, backing Obama’s stance on earmarks and his condemning of wasteful government spending.

Today at the Talk Radio News Service

This morning at the Talk Radio News Service, our Legal Affairs Correspondent, Jay Tamboli, will be covering a Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Our Washington Bureau will be covering:

A Senate Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee hearing on the current readiness of the Armed Forces in review of the Defense Authorization Request for FY2009 and the Future Years Defense Program.

A House Appropriations Committee Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on "Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Is the Agency on the Right Track?," where FEMA Administrator David Paulison will testify.

This afternoon, the Washington Bureau will be covering:

A House Armed Services Committee Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee hearing on the FY2009 National Defense Authorization Budget request

Rice burns over heat of charred resolution

By Ellen Ratner
Here's a modern proverb about an ancient land: After one week in Israel/Palestine, you're qualified to write a book; spend a month, and you can write an article; spend a year, and you can write nothing. This reveals two things: Those who talk the most often know least, and those who talk least know the most. An oversimplification? Not really in a land where even the drinking water is an argument. Everything there is a major negotiation from control of Jerusalem, water rights, West Bank settlements, refugee's "right of return" (including not just Palestinians but almost a million Jews thrown out of Arab countries after the 1948 war), the Golan Heights etc. I could go on, but the arguments are almost biblical, and so is the exegesis.



Like I said, the longer you spend the less you know for certain. It's no stick drawing. Last week the Bush administration convened the one-day Annapolis Peace Conference, and 44 countries attended. Everybody knew nothing could really be decided, but in a region where even a decision to think about deciding something is a big deal, hopes were high. Could the United States reignite the once-hot negotiating flame between Israel and the Palestinians? The Bush administration took seven years to even light the match. And even now, speculation is high that Bush wasn't about to repeat Clinton's error and stake the whole last year of his presidential legacy on a peace process between reluctant peacemakers.

And what happened? What the Israelis love to quote about Palestinians – that they "never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity" – now applies to the Bush administration itself. Seven years have come and gone with nary a peacemaking peep out of the Bushies till now. No shuttle diplomacy, no photo ops, no high-profile White House visits, and all the other stuff that the big, tough neo-cons dismiss as so much tinsel. And guess what? No peace either. White House concern for the peace process has been as dry as the desert.

Not just dry but vacant. It turns out that the U.S. wasn't going to exercise genuine leadership. Rather, the plan was to turn the whole thing over to the dreaded United Nations for their approval. Why not stick them with it? So Secretary Rice directed U.N. Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad to involve the United Nations Security Council in a resolution this week only to withdraw it after Israel objected. The exact circumstances of how this happened remain unclear, but it seems that it went something like this: The State Department circulated a resolution for the United Nations Security Council that had the support of the Arab nations. It was to support the Annapolis Peace Process. All was going well until Israel objected, and the resolution was withdrawn. It seems as if Secretary Rice got the resolution approved but forgot somehow to get Israel involved in the OK. They didn't even know the resolution's contents. Result? Duh! The resolution gets withdrawn, and the United States looks like amateur hour in terms of diplomacy.

The watch stopped before Condi-Bush could get their 15 minutes on the Mideast show. And as Napoleon once said, "Success has many fathers, but defeat is an orphan." So when time came to acknowledge the mistake, did anyone hear about it at a White House press conference? No. It was announced by a U.N. deputy ambassador at the U.N. Bush's hands-off approach turns out to be hands in his pockets. Few direct negotiations with the president or Secretary Rice. It's all be fobbed-off to a "special envoy." Alfred E. Newman has the translation: "What, me worry?"

Unfortunately, the region had a seven-year itch, scratched, and now, the patient is almost dead. Everything changed. Iran's ambitions have scared the Sunni part of the region so that even Saudi Arabia went to Annapolis. The bad news is the Israeli and Palestinian leaders doing the negotiating are a Semitic version of Punch and Judy. Prime Minister Olmert faces strong opposition from the right on West Bank negotiations; his approval is in the single digits; he's almost as popular with Israelis as former Secretary of State James Baker.

President Abbas is almost a man without a country, or at least one-half a country. He doesn't control Gaza, and his hold on the West Bank may be tenuous. While Abbas and Olmert have a good personal relationship, it as if is like two old guys on the verge of retirement talking about golf. What's less funny is if they can't get the support of their respective populace, it is all fairly meaningless.

Step back, and spend the equivalent of seven years in the region (just as the U.S. has not). Annapolis is too little, too late. The United States insisted on Palestinian democracy (elections) and wound up with Hamas. And what Hamas couldn't get that the ballot box, they have managed to shoot into. Now these thugs, not at Annapolis, might as well have been – the 800-pound elephant in the room. Hamas, of course, will not negotiate with the Israel. It is like our policy in Pakistan where we support elections and whine about the results.

As the U.S. is discovering, even when it doesn't botch Diplomacy 101, too little too late is not just a description of a failed love affair – in this case, it has helped set the scene for what may loom as a gigantic war: At the worst some believe that a nuclear-armed Iran backing Hamas against a nuclear-armed Israel fighting for its existence. Bush's seven-year vacation was about six years and 11 months too long. Some peace; some process, huh?

It's the economy, stupid

By Ellen Ratner
In three short months, the country will be graced (cursed?) with a Republican and a Democratic candidate for president. Sure the race will still technically be in primary season, but hey, there haven't been any surprises at conventions since . . . who can remember? But if you want official, by September '08 you'll have official.



In the meantime, not one presidential wannabe from either party has said word one about the real issue that is likely to obsess voters one, two and possibly three years hence. And barring (heaven forbid) another 9/11, that issue is not Osama, the global war on terror or the Iraq war.
And what's the real issue? Well, to quote from my favorite temporarily retired politician, "It's the economy, stupid."

While the candidates are boasting who will withdraw from Iraq faster, provide health insurance for more people, or keep more foreigners from crossing our borders and driving our streets, the economy is tanking and big time. This last week was like a shot in the arm – of cyanide. General Motors took a $39 billion write-down this quarter, it's largest in history. Sure, it was a one-time charge, but GM still lost $1.6 billion for the quarter. Citicorp, Merrill Lynch and now Wachovia bank have been gasping for air because of write-downs on subprime mortgage losses. (Didn't it ever occur to anyone not to invest in something that had "subprime" in its name?) And the average Jack and Jill, who really vote, have watched as their mutual funds and 401ks melt down. Once again, as with the crash of 2000, it looks like retirement is not just around the corner – or the corner is farther away than their financial GPS indicated.

Meanwhile, America's plans to bring stability to the Middle East have instead resulted in awarding the Gulf plutocrats and Iranian mullahs oil, the price of which has zoomed to $100 a barrel. And Bush hasn't even invaded the place yet.
What you've got here is the perfect storm gathering for a recession. Gas goes to $4 and $5 per gallon. Everything that uses energy to heat, run or manufacture also inflates in price. Meanwhile, the stuff that Jack and Jill used to borrow against – their home and their stocks – in order to pay for his and her Harley Davidsons, the vacations or much-needed health care is all going to decline in value. But while the house is not worth what it was, and the stocks have shrunk, the mortgage payments are still due, and the margin debt with the broker has still got to be serviced.

So figure it out – consumer spending, the one thing that has kept the Chamber of Commerce smiling for the last decade, is about to go the way 8-track videocassette.
This doesn't require any Wall Street wizardry – just about every recession since World War II has been preceded by a decline in the housing market. And for those of you who are sadly trying to sell your homes presently, you know this isn't a decline – it's the Little Big Horn for sellers.
The dollar is trading so low that the Canadian dollar is now worth about the same. Most baby boomers can't even remember the last time that was true. Of course, Wall Street is paying attention as it does with any issue that affects their year-end bonuses.

The people who aren't paying much attention are the presidential candidates. This should be a time that they shout the gas price situation from the roof tops, have photo ops beside abandoned and foreclosed homes and visit factories which have to help their workforce find ways to get to work because of high gas prices. Instead, it has been so quiet that you can hear a pin drop. So what we get from the candidates is what we're going to forget about during the next year – whether we need to make the Middle East safe for the League of Women Voters, whether John Edwards can convince the public that his 38,000 square-foot house is really good for the poor or whether Rudy can shout "kill the Arabs" so loud that his right constituency will forget that he's mainstream on every other issue.

Barring another 9/11, this election's real issue will be the economy. And whoever can make their case for an economic recovery will win the White House. Then-candidate Bill Clinton won the election with "it's the economy, stupid," and if a recession begins during 2008, Hillary Clinton will be in a good place to do the same. With budget surpluses during the Clinton administration, Americans remember good economic times. They disliked "Slick Willy" but they liked the extra change in their pockets.

Republicans have pushed tax reductions, and that made some inroads, but it won't be enough this time. The election is going to go to the candidate who can address middle class jobs, checkbooks and energy bills. So far, nobody's doing it. But they will be, and soon. Personally, I can't wait.
This is the normal stuff of normal American elections, and I'd like to feel normal again. The war, abortion, immigration, gun control and the rest are important for voters – but those and $2 won't even buy you a cup of coffee.

Kurdish Social Services

By Jack Rice
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