Obama Evening News & Roundup -- Perfect Storm Edition

A perfect storm is brewing over the Bush administration, with more revelations coming out every day. And there are more and more revelations coming out against John McCain as well. MoveOn reveals the top ten things that you should know about John McCain, yet you don't:

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1

1. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2

1. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3

1. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4

1. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5

1. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6

1. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7

1. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8

1. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9

1. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10

The army is getting increasingly concerned about the rising stress of return tours to Iraq:

Army leaders are expressing increased alarm about the mental health of soldiers who would be sent back to the front again and again under plans that call for troop numbers to be sustained at high levels in Iraq for this year and beyond.

Among combat troops sent to Iraq for the third or fourth time, more than one in four show signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress, according to an official Army survey of soldiers’ mental health.

The stress of long and multiple deployments to Iraq is just one of the concerns being voiced by senior military officers in Washington as Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior Iraq commander, prepares to tell Congress this week that he is not ready to endorse any drawdowns beyond those already scheduled through July.

President Bush has signaled that he will endorse General Petraeus’s recommendation, a decision that will leave close to 140,000 American troops in Iraq at least through the summer. But in a meeting with Mr. Bush late last month in advance of General Petraeus’s testimony, the Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed deep concern about stress on the force, senior Defense Department and military officials said.

Among the 513,000 active-duty soldiers who have served in Iraq since the invasion of 2003, more than 197,000 have deployed more than once, and more than 53,000 have deployed three or more times, according to a separate set of statistics provided this week by Army personnel officers. The percentage of troops sent back to Iraq for repeat deployments would have to increase in the months ahead.

The Army study of mental health showed that 27 percent of noncommissioned officers — a critically important group — on their third or fourth tour exhibited symptoms commonly referred to as post-traumatic stress disorders. That figure is far higher than the roughly 12 percent who exhibit those symptoms after one tour and the 18.5 percent who develop the disorders after a second deployment, according to the study, which was conducted by the Army surgeon general’s Mental Health Advisory Team.

At this rate, John McCain would be unable to sustain our involvement in Iraq without severe repercussions for our readiness elsewhere. It is highly ironic that it was George Bush himself who complained that there were many units that would report, "Not ready for duty, sir!" if they were called on to fight for us in the 2000 election. And yet, Bush has damaged our military readiness more than any other President in US history.

What Barack Obama understands is that we cannot just enter any war; not only that, we must equip our troops with the best resources possible in the event that they are needed somewhere in the future. In other words, we should only go into a conflict when it is an extreme last resort, and with our troops as ready as possible to fight for their country.

Glenn Greenwald on the Bush administration's spin on pre-9/11 intelligence:

The pre-9/11 failures, as the Joint Inquiry itself concluded, were failures resulting from how the NSA used its legal authorities, not from insufficient legal authorities or excessive legal restraints. Even if this were the call that Mukasey was describing -- and that is very dubious -- none of that has anything to do with FISA. Such an incident would not even have justified loosening the pre-9/11 safeguards, let alone -- after seven years of endless erosion of such safeguards -- justify any further erosion now.

This morning I interviewed Kate Martin, the director of the Center for National Security Studies and one of the nation's foremost surveillance experts. She pointed out that even prior to 9/11, the NSA commonly intercepted international communications into the U.S. and -- in numerous, broadly defined circumstances -- was authorized to disseminate what they learned to the FBI and other domestic agencies. If they failed to intercept calls involving Al Qaeda and/or failed to disseminate information to the FBI about looming terrorist attacks, it wasn't because FISA or any other laws prohibited them from doing so.

In other words, Mukasey's crocodile tears mean nothing. This is just one more instance of the Bush administration scaremongering in an effort to assume broad unconstitutional powers and create their police state. John McCain would be more of the same. On the other hand, Barack Obama would restore the rule of law by respecting the Constitution. It is important to realize that Bill Clinton caught the terrorists responsible for the Oklahoma City and first World Trade Center bombings without the need for the Patriot Act or the illegal wiretap. On the other hand, the Bush administration has not caught one terrorist that would not have been caught without the current expanded powers.

Obama picks up a new superdelegate from Missouri:

The Missouri Democratic Party State Committee today selected Attorney General Jay Nixon and State Auditor Susan Montee as the party’s two additional unpledged delegates, commonly called superdelegates, to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The selection of Nixon and Montee means that all three of Missouri’s statewide Democratic elected officials will be superdelegates at the convention, which will be held in Denver on August 25-28. Secretary of State Robin Carnahan was already a superdelegate due to her leadership position with the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State.

Auditor Montee has endorsed Barack Obama in the Democratic Presidential Primary, while Attorney General Nixon has not endorsed a candidate for President.

Nixon and Montee will join Missouri’s 14 other superdelegates and 72 pledged delegates to round out the Missouri Democratic Party’s 88-person delegation to Denver.

Superdelegates are not pledged to a particular Presidential candidate and thus can vote for whomever they choose at the convention while pledged delegates are pledged to a particular candidate based on their performance in Missouri’s Feb. 5 Presidential Primary. Senators Obama and Clinton each received 36 pledged delegates based on their performance on Super Tuesday in Missouri.

Canvassing for Obama in Levittown, PA:

Levittown is whiter, older and less educated than the rest of the nation — and Pennsylvania is made up of many Levittowns. The Democratic governor, Ed Rendell, said in February that some in his state were "probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," a remark that many would accept as self-evident but that nonetheless earned him sharp criticism.

And on matters of race Levittown has a particularly shameful history. It was billed as "the most perfectly planned community in America," and part of the plan was for it to be whites-only: 5,500 acres, stretching across three Pennsylvania townships and one borough, closed off to blacks. The first development of mass-produced homes by Levitt & Sons, Levittown, N.Y., on Long Island, which dates from 1947, had the same exclusionary policies.

There were a few small black neighborhoods on the fringes of town, non-Levitt-built houses, and their children attended our schools, but not comfortably. Periodically, brawls broke out between white and black students, and I spent parts of my high-school years with police and police dogs stationed in our corridors to keep the races apart. The word "nigger" rolled off the tongues of many of my classmates, and sometimes I would object, which had no effect other than to give me an adolescent’s fleeting sense of superiority.

And Portland:

# An elderly Republican woman who said she really likes Obama and plans to vote for him in November (but was not willing to switch registrations to vote in the Dem primary). # A household of 6 adult relatives all of whom strongly support Obama, led by the 80-year-old mother who "keeps up on everything and just loves him." # A middle-aged woman who was on the fence but clearly strongly identified with Hillary on a personal level--this woman had been a pioneering female member of trades union back in the 70s and felt very strongly Hillary wasn't being given a fair shake. # A Republican man who voiced concerns about the Rev. Wright thing, so we talked about that. Then he proceeded to ask me to find Christ, which was not a conversation I wanted to have. I moved on from that one as politely as I could. # Several Independents who did not realize they needed to register as Democrats to participate in the primary. I did get one voter reg form filled out and turned in, and left a couple others with folks who were not ready to take the leap.

I was very glad to finish up about 4:00 as it was raining harder and my paperwork was getting pretty damp. This was a nice chance to reconnect with neighbors and, perhaps, change a few minds.  I'm sorry I don't have any photos from my soggy adventure. I just wanted to share a "boots on the ground" story from the beautiful Pacific NW.  Yes we can!

Howard Zinn on the American Empire:

With an occupying army waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with military bases and corporate bullying in every part of the world, there is hardly a question any more of the existence of an American Empire. Indeed, the once fervent denials have turned into a boastful, unashamed embrace of the idea.

However, the very idea that the United States was an empire did not occur to me until after I finished my work as a bombardier with the Eighth Air Force in the Second World War, and came home. Even as I began to have second thoughts about the purity of the "Good War," even after being horrified by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even after rethinking my own bombing of towns in Europe, I still did not put all that together in the context of an American "Empire."

I was conscious, like everyone, of the British Empire and the other imperial powers of Europe, but the United States was not seen in the same way. When, after the war, I went to college under the G.I. Bill of Rights and took courses in U.S. history, I usually found a chapter in the history texts called "The Age of Imperialism." It invariably referred to the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the conquest of the Philippines that followed. It seemed that American imperialism lasted only a relatively few years. There was no overarching view of U.S. expansion that might lead to the idea of a more far-ranging empire -- or period of "imperialism."

I recall the classroom map (labeled "Western Expansion") which presented the march across the continent as a natural, almost biological phenomenon. That huge acquisition of land called "The Louisiana Purchase" hinted at nothing but vacant land acquired. There was no sense that this territory had been occupied by hundreds of Indian tribes which would have to be annihilated or forced from their homes -- what we now call "ethnic cleansing" -- so that whites could settle the land, and later railroads could crisscross it, presaging "civilization" and its brutal discontents.

Neither the discussions of "Jacksonian democracy" in history courses, nor the popular book by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The Age of Jackson, told me about the "Trail of Tears," the deadly forced march of "the five civilized tribes" westward from Georgia and Alabama across the Mississippi, leaving 4,000 dead in their wake. No treatment of the Civil War mentioned the Sand Creek massacre of hundreds of Indian villagers in Colorado just as "emancipation" was proclaimed for black people by Lincoln's administration.

We have a fundamental choice here -- we can continue on the path to empire and ruin, or we can create a sustainable future that will allow this country to last for many years to come. The Roman Empire fell because their model was unsustainable -- they derived their wealth from conquering other nations. But when they reached their limits -- the desert to the south; the ocean, the Picts, and Irish to the west; the Germanic tribes to the north, and the Persians to the east, no new wealth came in, meaning that there was no way for the Romans to go but down. There was a breakdown of national unity as Rome began to fight against Rome. Civil wars, intrigues, coups, regime changes, lawlessness, and people fighting for their own advancement rather than acting for the good of the empire meant that they were rotten to the core.

Even in the Augustan times, there was an acute sense of loss among Roman thinkers as there was a longing for the institutions and virtues of the old Republic. The main question for us is, are we going to take that path towards empire and destruction? Or will we come to our senses and preserve the Constitution? A vote for John McCain is a vote for empire and ruin; a vote for Barack Obama is a vote for sustainability and prosperity.

Representative Tammy Baldwin's gay partner not allowed on Pentagon flight until Pelosi intervention:

Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., was allowed to bring her partner, Lauren Azar, on a military flight after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., intervened on her behalf, the Politico reported April 1. Baldwin is the only woman who is openly gay in Congress.

House guidelines permit members of Congress to take spouses on military flights when there is room or when necessary for protocol, but the Defense Department officials balked and did not consider Azar a spouse. Pelosi pressured Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who then granted special permission to Azar to join Baldwin on a fact-finding trip to Europe during the Easter recess. Five other members of Congress went on the trip.

"It's a matter of fairness that spouses should be allowed to go, and she is Ms. Baldwin's spouse," Pelosi spokesperson Brendan Daly told the Washington Post.

The Gates-Pelosi intervention renewed a debate on the definition of "spouse" and on the Pentagon's protocols on same-sex marriage. The Defense Department still prohibits openly gay individuals from serving in the military and generally follows a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Late last month, Baldwin sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice requesting basic protections for lesbian and gay employees in the State Department, including equal travel rights for domestic partners accompanying service officers to postings overseas.

As our next president, Barack Obama would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act as well as repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell as well as create civil unions which would be the equivalent of marriage. There is no more place in this country for legalized discrimination for two people who love each other and want to live with each other.

Obama draws 10,000+ in Missoula, Montana:

"It is good to be in Missoula," he said. "You guys have a nice deal around here. This is some pretty country out here. This is some pretty country. I think I need to learn fly-fishing - get some waders, go out there, clear my head. We may have to come back to Missoula, there’s no doubt about it."

jimstaro honors those who fell in March in this diary.

The McCain Doctrine has created huge setbacks for women in Iraq.

The insurgents have been driven out of her southwest Baghdad neighborhood, but the 30-year-old shop assistant is still frightened. A year ago Al Qaeda in Iraq ruled the streets outside her home, and Mahdi Army militia units kept the area under relentless attack. Now the Iraqis who helped get rid of the killers are the ones who scare her. The Americans imposed order a few months ago by recruiting and paying local men to turn in the names of suspected jihadists. Similar armed groups have popped up all around the city. Each has its own bizarre rules; some threaten to kill women who don't wear veils in public. The shop assistant is in mourning for her brother, who was killed last May, but she's asking for trouble if she wears black more than three days running. According to the new enforcers in her neighborhood, anyone who dresses in mourning is committing blasphemy by questioning the will of God.

In the past year, militias like this one have transformed the war in Iraq. Americans call them Concerned Local Citizens (CLCs), or Sons of Iraq; Iraqis know them as Sahwa—Awakening—after the tribal council in Anbar province that launched a Sunni revolt against the tyranny of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The militias' vital role (and the uncomfortable fact that many members used to be insurgents themselves) will be a big part of the debate this week, as American lawmakers hear testimony on the war's progress from U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus and the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker. What's less likely to be discussed—and yet just as important in the long run—is the impact that tribal groups like the CLCs are having on Iraq's social fabric, and in particular on its women.

America's efforts to disengage from Iraq have led to some messy compromises. After years of trying without success to wrest Sunni areas from Qaeda control, U.S. ground commanders appear to have done it at last—but only by granting sweeping powers to sheiks and local leaders who can keep the peace. Now Iraq's Sunni areas have been chopped into fragments, each one run by a different tribal ruler with different views on law and society. In some parts of Baghdad the situation changes visibly from block to block. No one can say how many of these leaders abuse their powers, or if their little sectors can ever be put back under the purview of a centrally controlled government. "We are becoming like Afghanistan was in the '80s," says Zainab Salbi, the Iraq-born founder and CEO of the activist group Women for Women International.

Employees at the corrupt VA ran up over $2.6 billion worth of credit card charges.

But there are multiple charges that have caught the eye of government investigators.

At least 13 purchases totaling $8,471 were charged at Sharper Image, a specialty store featuring high-tech electronics and gizmos such as robotic barking dogs. In addition, 19 charges worth $1,999.56 were made at Franklin Covey, which sells leather totes and planners geared toward corporate executives.

Government reports in 2004 said these two companies, by virtue of the types of products they market, would "more likely be selling unauthorized or personal use items" to federal employees.

Many of the 14,000 VA employees with credit cards, who work at headquarters in Washington and at medical centers around the nation, also spent tens of thousands of dollars at Wyndham hotels in places such as San Diego, Orlando, Fla., and on the riverfront in Little Rock, Ark. One-time charges ranged up to $8,000.

On at least six occasions, employees based at VA headquarters made credit card charges at Las Vegas casino hotels totaling $26,198.

So, this partly explains why there is such a big backlog over at the VA -- unscrupulous employees running up charges for personal expenses rather than serving our nation's veterans. And it is all part of the Reaganite ideology -- if government is such a problem, then why should I waste my time processing claims when I would be part of the problem? It's one thing for Ronald Reagan to say that government is part of the problem. But it is quite another for that ideology to become part of the very government apparatus that people like Reagan so decry.

For Barack Obama, change starts from the bottom up, and an Obama administration would change the culture of such organizations as the VA. The bottom-up approach that he champions means that people will have a stake in something that is larger than themselves and act accordingly.

Obama is doing a last-minute push for voter registrations in Indiana:

All weekend long, we're pushing hard to register as many new supporters as possible before Monday's voter registration deadline in Indiana. Today is our last, best chance to bring more voices, and more voters, into the political process in the Hoosier state.

Across the country, supporters are helping out right now by calling people in Indiana to encourage them to register to vote. Yesterday Indiana Deputy Field Director explained how your calls are an essential part of our on the ground efforts, and how they've inspired our staff to work even harder and push even further.

Obama sits down for an interview with the Great Falls (MT) Tribune:

On the environment:

My top priority is number one, excellence and a commitment to science — something we haven't had.

When you've got a president who thinks global warming is a hoax, that sends a signal that you are appointing political cronies instead of people who understand the science behind it.

So I want excellence, I want integrity. I don't want to just bring people in from industries who are industry lobbyists who are now going to regulate those same industries. And I don't want people cashing out of my administration and going to work for industries that they used to regulate. I want them to be committed, and have shown a commitment to public service.

And the third thing is independence. I want people who are willing to stand up not just to industry, but also to me, and say if I'm wrong on something, I want them to let me know. That's a top priority of mine.

This, incidentally, is why Obama is not afraid to embrace such people as Samatha Power and Jeremiah Wright. He will not agree with everything that is said, yet he will always value their opinions.

On Native American affairs:

You know, I haven't looked at the lawsuit carefully. It's something that I want to find out more about.

But the basic principle is that we have to have somebody not just in the Bureau (of Indian Affairs), but somebody in the White House, who has my ear, directly, to communicate the needs of native populations, and a commitment for me to meet, at least once a year, with tribal leaders and hear directly about their concerns. That, I think, is what's needed right now.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has become sort of a backwater. It doesn't have a lot of clout in the administration. I want to put it front and center, along with other agencies, because on every indicator, Native Americans are having a much tougher time than the population at large.

On the Obama Fellowship:

Basically what we've done is we've been attracting so much volunteer talent, so many young people who have gotten involved in the campaign, that we wanted to give a handful of them an opportunity to have some more intensive training. So we've asked them to apply for fellowships. I think they're called Obama Fellows. They will get intensive training, and they will be put on staff and will have an experience, starting in June.

Q:The nomination may not be decided by then, are you sure you're going to be ready to set those grassroots volunteers loose in June?

A:We're still going to be interested in training. Even if I'm not the nominee, I'm still going to be somebody who cares very deeply about the Democratic Party winning in November, and still will hopefully have a little bit of influence on the process.

This is important because he will be able to influence the process well after this nomination is said and done. What he plans to do is build on the work of Howard Dean and create an infrastructure within the Democratic Party that will last for a long time to come.

Bonddad explains why the Bush Boom was a complete bust. Even in 2004, we knew this because the number of jobs that were being created were anemic for what was supposedly a "recovery." A McCain administration would be more of the same -- more outsourcing, no new jobs being created, and increased wealth inequality.

On the ground in York, PA:

Thirty-four people of varied ages and diverse backgrounds came together yesterday to sweep a neighborhood in York, Pennsylvania. What these people shared in common was an understanding of Senator Obama's vision for a new kind of politics. What they shared was a sense of empowerment to take personal responsibility, not just to help Senator Obama win the Pennsylvania Primary, but to be a part of the real sweeping positive change that they absolutely believe an Obama Presidency will mean for our country.

[Our volunteering] is spurred onward primarily by people's realization of Barack Obama's message that "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

Armed with work gloves, trash bags, brooms, shovels and rakes, all donated by Penn Waste and York More Beautiful, the York City group convened at a Hess Station at the busy corner of College Avenue and Queen Street. Dividing into three teams, which respectively headed east, south and west into residential neighborhoods, the workers filled as many as ten large trash bags on some blocks. Several of the younger kids waved Obama rally signs, eliciting honks and cheers from passing cars. Neighbors emerged from their homes, appearing inquisitive and grateful. Some folks stopped to chat, to discuss the issues on their minds with this upcoming election. Information was disseminated and many new volunteers were directed to the Obama York Headquarters.

Most importantly, real connections were made within this diverse group of volunteers and within this community. When it came time to close the event just about everyone, though tired and hungry, lingered on that corner with a sense of camaraderie, connection, accomplishment, and real hope for the future of our country.

Homeowners are destroying homes that are about to be foreclosed on:

AS IF collapsing prices were not enough, American mortgage firms now have to cope with home rage. Borrowers vent their fury on the system that is repossessing their properties by smashing holes in walls and tipping paint over living-room carpets. Something similar is going on in the house finance built. Faith in open markets has been poisoned by a crisis that has spread from one asset to the next. First there was disbelief and denial. Then fear. Now comes anger.

For three decades, public policy has been dominated by the power of markets—flexible and resilient, harnessing self-interest for the public good, and better than any planner-in-chief. Nowhere are markets deeper and more liquid than in modern finance. But finance has stumbled and there are growing calls from all sides for bold re-regulation.

New rules became inevitable the moment the Federal Reserve rescued Bear Stearns and pledged to lend to other Wall Street banks. If taxpayers are required to bail out investment banks, the governments need to impose tighter limits on the risks those banks can take. This week Hank Paulson, America's treasury secretary, unveiled a longer-term plan to deal with this and other weaknesses in America's regulatory system (see article); and next week the G7 finance ministers will meet in Washington, DC, where they will discuss a report on the crisis by the Financial Stability Forum.

Even The Economist admits that reregulation of the mortgage industry is inevitable. That is why Obama would be a superior candidate to handle this crisis, because he believes in the power of government to change lives and provide a social safety net. John McCain, on the other hand, would continue the same failed policies that led to this crisis in the first place.

John McCain tries to put lipstick on a pig in Iraq:

Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, fended off fresh criticism for his support for a lengthy American presence in Iraq, even though Republicans argued that Democrats were distorting his position. He also acknowledged that the recent Iraqi government operation in southern Iraq caught him off-guard.

"Look, I didn’t particularly like the outcome of this thing, but I am convinced that we now have a government that is governing with some effect and a military that is functioning very effectively," Mr. McCain said of the Iraqi operation. He spoke in a taped Fox News interview that was broadcast Sunday.

While Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, recently completed a weeklong national tour meant to draw attention to his military and national security background, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York remain locked in battle for the Democratic Party nomination. Concerned that this seeming stalemate could hurt the party’s prospects, Howard Dean, the Democratic national chairman, called Sunday for so-called superdelegates to disclose their preferences soon.

If they were functioning very effectively, then why are we still there? This is just another examples of John McCain's heads I win, tails you lose rhetoric -- if Iraq's government is stable, then there is no reason for us to leave. But if there is chaos, that means that we can't leave because that would only mean that the terrorists were winning.

More evidence that morale in Iraq is plummeting:

They served in the same battalion in Iraq at the same time. Kayla Williams spoke with Alyssa Peterson about the young woman's troubles a week before she died--and afterward, attended her memorial service. Williams even has her own Iraq interrogation horror story to tell. So what, in Williams's view, caused Alyssa Peterson to put a bullet in her head in September 2003 after just a few weeks in Iraq? And why were the press and the public not told about it?

The death of Alyssa Peterson, which I chronicled here last month (and others have done before), is unspeakably sad, and what was fully in her mind will never be known, especially since her parents apparently knew little about her death until years after it happened.  The press, which has rarely challenged the official version of Iraq fatalities, has not probed the incident, to this day (although it is featured in two chapters in my new book on Iraq and the media).  But this tragedy also begs the question: Which interrogation techniques drew her ire?

And were they of such a nature that this might explain why this young woman of Mormon faith and, reportedly, good nature would suddenly turn a gun on herself?

Our troops themselves want to get out of Iraq, the more this war drags on.

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds drew 13,500 for a voter registration concert at Indiana University.

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds are playing a voter registration concert toda