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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney should publicly explain his shooting of a Texas lawyer in a hunting accident, top congressional Democrats said on Wednesday after a White House meeting that included Cheney. Cheney has been publicly silent since he sprayed Harry Whittington with birdshot during a quail-hunting trip to Texas last Saturday.

Vice President Cheney's slow and unapologetic public response to the accidental shooting of a 78-year-old Texas lawyer is turning the quail-hunting mishap into a political liability for the Bush administration and is prompting senior White House officials to press Cheney to publicly address the issue as early as today, several prominent Republicans said yesterday. The Republicans said Cheney should have immediately disclosed the shooting Saturday night to avoid even the suggestion of a coverup and should have offered a public apology for his role in accidentally shooting Harry Whittington, a GOP lawyer from Austin. Whittington was hospitalized Saturday night in...

That's because Republicans have to open up a new line of attack for a female candidate. "HILLARY CLINTON seems to have a lot of anger. I don't think the American people, if you look historically, elect angry candidates." So said Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee. Of all the insults you can hurl at Hillary Clinton — and I've hurled a few myself — surely the weirdest is that she's "angry." Passionless? Yes. Robotic? Definitely. But angry? I've seen ATM machines angrier than her. Her voice never wavers from a flat, dull monotone. Her gesticulations are limp. And...

by Mark Finkelstein February 12, 2006 The British newspaper calls itself "The Independent," but an article in today's edition indicates it's hardly independent of the kind of environmentalist scare-mongering common in the US press. How's this for an over-the-top headline?: "Starving Polar Bears Shame Bush to Act" The gist is that global warming is causing the Arctic ice cap to melt, which in turn reduces areas in which polar bears can hunt for seals, the staple of their diet. Author Geoffrey Lean [special sympathy for the hungry?] brands Bush's stance on climate change "obdurate," which last I looked means "hardened...

Men have been much more disposed to vex and oppress one another than to cooperate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts."—James Madison, Federalist Papers Can we be honest, FRiends? Hannity has a point; many FReepers do pride themselves on chewing up and spitting out others. We do "eat our own." Couldn't we all profit from applying more often Stephen Covey's aphorism: "first understand,...

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- More troops have died in off-duty motorcycle accidents after they returned from duty in Afghanistan than have been killed fighting there since Sept. 11, 2001, safety records show. Military commanders in North Carolina say the deaths are largely the result of boredom, bonus pay, and adrenalin to burn off after troops return from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 350 troops have died on bikes since the 2001 terrorist attacks. That's compared to 259 killed while serving in Afghanistan. Nearly 1,000 more troops have been injured on bikes. Marine Lance Cpl. Mark Strickland, 24, was one...

God forbid critics of the war on Iraq should compare it with the war in Vietnam. But perhaps it is worth mentioning that the liberation of Iraq is now costing more each month than the preservation of the Republic of South Vietnam did more than 30 years ago. As the admitted direct cost of the war reached $250 billion last week -- and the White House asked for $120 billion more on Thursday -- new analyses estimate that the invasion of Iraq could end up costing $2 trillion before it is over. If you remember, the White House's own economic...

President Bush spent the weekend in the warm winter sunshine at his Texas ranch, where he rode his bike, entertained friends and cleared his head. It had been a long week: the State of the Union address on Tuesday, then trips to pitch his "American competitiveness initiative" in Tennessee, Minnesota, New Mexico and Texas from Wednesday to Friday. Most of what Mr. Bush said was the CliffsNotes version of the State of the Union speech for local television markets. But he also wandered into an aside about why math and science students should not think of themselves as the "nerd...

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says President George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance program appears to be illegal. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Specter called the administration's legal reasoning "strained and unrealistic" and said the program appears to be "in flat violation" of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Hearings into the surveillance program are scheduled to begin Monday on Capitol Hill. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, the former head of the National Security Agency, defended the surveillance on ABC's "This Week" and the Fox News Network, the International Herald Tribune reported. "It's about speed," General...

The Times February 02, 2006 The President is a dolt – so how can America be such a success story? Anatole Kaletsky TWO CEREMONIAL events occurred in Washington on Tuesday evening that shone a spotlight on one of the most important but paradoxical features of a modern democratic society. The more widely reported was President Bush’s State of the Union address, a weak and defensive speech even by his undemanding standards. At the other end of Washington, meanwhile, Alan Greenspan, the retiring chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, was bidding farewell to the institution whose skilful management of US monetary...

I get a disturbing feeling as I read the papers these days. It's like I'm living in a disaster movie, or a horror film, right at the beginning where everything is mostly normal, yet there are these alarming little hints of things to come. Pets are disappearing, UFOs are buzzing around and the scary music is starting — low and quiet. When I read that President George W. Bush is out making speeches defending his warrantless wiretap program and encouraging democratic participation through patriotic silence, a cold wind rustles the leaves in the street and the dog mysteriously stops barking....

Fatah, Israel and Hamas—Bush Doesn’t Have A Clue Sam Hamod, Ph.D. January 27, 2006 President Bush has shown his global ignorance once again. Though an intelligent former president on the ground, Jimmy Carter, said this was a fair election and that aid to Palestine should be continued—GW still doesn’t get it. Hamas’ rise to power is not that of a "terrorist group," but a group that represents the Palestinian people who are sick and tired of the Israel and American continually focusing on the "process talks," but never getting any decisions that fair to Palestinians, and people who are sick...

Diane Rehm vigorously disputed on her radio program on Friday that George Bush had ever volunteered to serve in Viet Nam.Rehm's guest, conservative journalist Fred Barnes, mentioned the familiar assertion that at one point during his Air Guard service, the President did volunteer to go to Viet Nam, an offer that was not accepted.Rehm responded with incredulity saying that she had never heard such a claim. Some of her callers -- typically left wing -- joined in her scornful dismissal of any such notion. The matter was left with the agreement that Barnes would research the matter and call back...

With the 2006 elections ten months away Karl Rove pulled back the curtain on some key GOP campaign themes recently. Hidden amongst the themes of the Democrats' "pre-9/11 worldview" and tax cuts was his statement that Democrat Senators looked "mean spirited and small minded" during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings of Judge Sam Alito. After decades of allowing themselves to be branded the bullies of American politics, might Republicans now have an opportunity to turn the tables on their liberal adversaries, both in the other party and in the media? It seems as though no matter how crazy the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Inspired by a reader who sent a list of once American corporations who's profits are no longer funneled to the hard-working American employee, I investigated the subject. The clip that landed on my desk was from "America is Selling Out," published in The American Conservative, December, 2005. As I digested, emotionally charged from the publication's Web site at www.economyincrisis.org, I agreed with some of the information, discarded the sensational propaganda and extrapolated my take on the issues' raw facts. From what I've experienced and witnessed first-hand, I consider the current state...

by Mark Finkelstein January 14, 2006 - 07:55 You know the Ted, Chuck & Joe Show flopped when even Chris Matthews accuses the Dems of "buffoonery" in the Alito hearings. Yet that is exactly what Matthews did in his appearance on this morning's Today show: "I don't think any points were scored by the Democrats, there was a lot of buffooney by Democratic senators. There was no coherent message, no coherent critique of the guy." For whatever reason, Matthews was on his most 'fair & balanced' behavior. For example, in discussing Pres. Bush's joint appearance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel...

It seems as if it was only this afternoon--because it was only this afternoon--that conservative bloggers were flopping all over each other to express their boredom with the windbag monotony of the Alito hearings, trying to outdo each other with yawns, snores, and zzzzzzzzzz's. Then Mrs. Alito suffered a case of the weepies that was so dramatically well-timed and patently maudlin that I was reminded of the classic stage direction in Private Eye (takes out onion, wipes away tear), and suddenly the proceedings turned into a soap opera with Fox News commentators arriving on cue to deplore the toll taken...

Here's a Reuters headline from New Year's Day: "CIA May Need Decade To Rebuild Clandestine Service." A decade, huh? Circa 2016, you mean? The last time I checked the job-completion estimates was back in spring 2004, when the agency's then-director, George Tenet, told the 9/11 Commission that it would take another half-decade to rebuild the clandestine service. In other words, three years after 9/11, he was saying he needed another five years. As I wrote at the time, "Imagine if, after Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt had turned to Tenet to start up the OSS, the CIA's Second World War predecessor....

Washington -- The plea deal Tuesday by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his agreement to cooperate with prosecutors has top lawmakers fearing they could face charges in an expanding Justice Department investigation into bribery and influence-peddling in Congress. Legal experts predict that Rep. Bob Ney, a Republican from Ohio, could soon be indicted. Lawyers have identified him as "Representative No. 1," who, according to the complaint filed against Abramoff, accepted a golfing trip to Scotland, lavish meals and free tickets to sporting events and concerts in return for pushing legislation and carrying out other official acts that helped Abramoff's clients. Former...

U.S. President George W. Bush "wants Palestinian elections to go forward as scheduled" on Jan. 25, a White House official said yesterday, and that Israel should not bar Palestinians from voting in East Jerusalem. "We believe that people must have access to the ballot," the official said. "Arrangements have been made in the past to ensure that those persons can vote, and we believe some arrangements should be possible at this time." Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other officials have said that the election might be postponed if Israel does not allow East Jerusalemites to participate. On the official...