Tuesday, April 24, 2007

From Rove investigation to opt out of voting....

From American Progress:

Think Fast

An "obscure federal investigative unit known as the Office of Special Counsel" is launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operation that "for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove." The administration-led inquiry will be a unified investigation covering many facets of Rove's operations. "We will take the evidence where it leads us," said Scott J. Bloch, a Bush appointee who heads the Office of Special Counsel. "We will not leave any stone unturned."

U.S. Central Command has retired the phrase "the long war" to describe the struggle against global extremists, after cultural advisers became concerned that the concept "alienated Middle East audiences by suggesting that the United States would keep a large number of forces in the region indefinitely."

"World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz met yesterday with senior managers to promise unspecified changes in his leadership and to appeal for their help." "He is not going to resign," his lawyer said. "His mood is just fine. ... He feels people are trying to interfere with his job to get at world poverty."

Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) "will soon introduce a bill to legalize same-sex marriage -- what he calls 'a simple moral imperative,'" becoming "the first governor in the nation to introduce a gay marriage bill."

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will conduct a hearing today into misleading information from the battlefield. The hearing will focus on the death of Army Ranger Specialist Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan and the capture and rescue of Army Private Jessica Lynch in Iraq, and question why inaccurate accounts of these two incidents were disseminated.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Rep. David Hobson (R-OH), who recently went on a congressional trip to Syria, confirmed that he never received any of the attacks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) did. He noted that "none of his Republican colleagues broached the subject." "Nobody ever called me to say, 'Why are you going to Syria with those people?'"

"Despite President Bush's vow that all Americans would have access to high-speed Internet service by 2007," a new study suggests the United States is continuing to fall behind other developed countries in broadband subscriptions."

"The map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland by the melting of Greenland's enormous ice sheet, a development that is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming."

And finally: Voters in Florida may now be going to the polls...to not vote. State Sen. Mike Bennett (R) has introduced a bill to "require ballots to have the additional option of 'I choose not to vote.'" Bennett notes that some races are so nasty that voters don't want to choose any candidate, and his bill would "enable uninformed or disgusted voters to opt out."

Wrap...

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