NY Times
For Obama, No Time for Laurels; Now the Hard Part
By PETER BAKER
No president since before Barack Obama was born has ascended to the Oval Office confronted by the accumulation of seismic challenges awaiting him.
NY Times
So Little Time, So Much Damage
Most presidents put on a last-minute policy stamp, but in President George W. Bush’s case it is more like a wrecking ball.
NY Times
Next President Will Face Test on Detainees
By WILLIAM GLABERSON and MARGOT WILLIAMS
Dozens of prisoners being held at Guantánamo Bay are regarded by intelligence agencies as serious risks.
Mother Jones
Fear of a Black President
By James Ridgeway
How a potential Obama presidency has become a rallying cry for white supremacists.
NY TIMES
End of the Road for Ted Stevens
Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska has now been convicted of seven felony counts of violating federal ethics laws. His career and reputation are in tatters. Mr. Stevens still insists he is innocent, and he is imploring Alaskans to re-elect him next week. Voters there should turn him out. If they do not, the Senate must expel him.
AlterNet
How McCain Turned His Back on the Vietnamese Man Who Saved His Life
By Norman Stockwell
Forty-one years after McCain was shot down in Vietnam, the man who saved his life has died in obscurity.
NY Times
A Choice and an Echo
By BOB HERBERT
The heyday of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove is over. Yet Senator John McCain handed the reins of his campaign to Mr. Rove’s worshipful acolytes.
Huffington Post
News Orgs Investigate Possibly Fatal McCain '64 Car Crash
By Sam Stein
For the past two months, a major American magazine and an allied news service have been engaged in a legal battle with the United States Navy over records that they believe show that John McCain once was involved in an automobile accident that injured or, perhaps, killed another individual.
NY Times
U.S. Airstrike Kills 20 People in Pakistan
By ISMAIL KHAN and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
Among those said to be killed were two important local Taliban commanders known for their attacks against American soldiers in Afghanistan.
NY Times
Businesses Wary of Details in Obama Health Plan
By KEVIN SACK
Economists believe large and medium companies might have to contribute as much as 6 percent of their payrolls toward coverage.
NY Times
Scrimping on Medical Care
Evidence of Americans cutting back on medical care in order to pay bills underscores the need to provide affordable health insurance for all.
NY Times
Video: The (Slightly Surprising) Battle for Florida
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
The close race in Florida is a case study of the troubles of the McCain campaign.
Care2
Photos Show Rape of Iraqi Women
By Uhoud Abdulmajeed
Los Angeles, Alta California - May 2, 2004 - (ACN) The release, by CBS News, of the photographs showing the heinous sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi POW's at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison has opened a Pandora's box for the Bush regime. Apparently, the suspended US commander of the prison where the worst abuses took place, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, has refused to take the fall by herself and has implicated the CIA, Military Intelligence and private US government contractors in the torturing of POW's and in the raping of Iraqi women detainees as well.
NY Times
Iran Is Job One
By ROGER COHEN
Iran’s leadership would pay a high price for a handshake with America. As the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution looms, it’s time to rethink U.S. strategy toward Iran.
The Nation
Voter Registration Flashpoints
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
As we head into the final stretch of the election season, alarming reports of dysfunctional voter registration, purges of the rolls, and possible voter suppression are surfacing weekly, if not daily.
Military Times
Petraeus sounds off on Afghanistan
By Sean D. Naylor - Staff writer
General says killing or capturing bin Laden not enough in battle against al-Qaida
NY Times
Taliban Kill Dozens in Bus Ambush, Officials Say
By CARLOTTA GALL and TAIMOOR SHAH
Afghan officials said that as many as 30 people were beheaded in an attack last week in southern Afghanistan.
The Nation
Bachmann's Blues
By Ari Berman
GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann's McCarthyite rant about the need to investigate supposedly 'anti-American' members of Congress may cost her a job.
Mother Jones
Why Powell Endorsed Obama
An Ex-Powell Aide Explains Why the Time Is Right for an Obama
Endorsement
UPDATE: On Sunday, Colin Powell did endorse Barack Obam. Appearing on Meet The Press, he presented an eloquent statement of support in which he hailed Obama's "transformational" role, leadership ability, and intellectual curiosity. Powell emphasized that he believed that John McCain, his longtime friend, could be a good president, but he maintained that the GOP has become too much in hock to its right-wing base and that Sarah Palin was not at all ready to be president.
The Nation
The Conservative Crack-Up (And Crackpots)
By Ari Berman
With their ideas plummeting, conservatives resort to ludicrous conspiracy theories against Barack Obama.
NY Times
Insider’s Projects Drained Missile-Defense Millions
By ERIC LIPTON
Thanks to allies in Congress, a midlevel worker extracted nearly $350 million for items the Pentagon did not want.
Mother Jones
Used Car Dealers Heart McCain
By Stephanie Mencimer
The GOP candidate pushed legislation that would have helped sleazy car sellers defraud consumers.
The Nation
'My Fellow Prisoners'
By Leslie Savan
A Freudian slip on the trail sheds light on how McCain has fallen captive to the GOP ideology and tactics he once disdained.
The Nation
McCain's Tortured Untruths
By Leslie Savan
Lots of folks have noticed John McCain's tendency to flip-flop during the presidential campaign, but over the past week he's sort of burst the sound barrier on self-contradiction, like the verbal Top Gun he is. In fact, he has so loosed the surly bonds of consistency that you've got to start wondering if there's some deeper meaning behind the constant double-talk.
NY
Times
McCain’s
Radical Agenda
By Bob Herbert
Talk about a shock to the system. Has anyone bothered to
notice the radical changes that John McCain and Sarah Palin are planning
for the nation’s health insurance system?
CounterPunch
What the Doctors Saw - McCain’s Women
By Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair -
(PDF) vol. 15, no. 15
McCain’s very violent version of this joke was reported in the Tucson Citizen, on October 27, 1986: “McCain: Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked
on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness
and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to
feebly
ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’”
***
Scandals, scandals, and more scandals ***
