From Washington Post
By Charles Babington and Jim VandeHai

After months of struggling to forge a unified stance on the Iraq war, top congressional Democrats joined voices yesterday to call on President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops by the end of the year and to “transition to a more limited mission” in the war-torn nation.

With the midterm elections three months away, and Democrats seeing public discontent over Iraq as their best chance for retaking the House or Senate, a dozen key lawmakers told Bush in a letter: “In the interests of American national security, our troops and our taxpayers, the open-ended commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot and should not be sustained. . . . We need to take a new direction.”

From United

From Yahoo News
By Nedra Pickler

President Bush acknowledged growing international pressure for an immediate Middle East cease-fire Monday but dismissed any idea of simply “stopping for the sake of stopping” without a plan for lasting peace.

Bush said the United States was working with allies for a United Nations Security Council resolution to get a “sustainable cease-fire, a cease-fire which will last” — but not necessarily anything immediate.

The U.S. also is seeking the authorization of an international force to help secure Lebanon. Bush told television interviewers that U.S. troops probably would not be deployed on the ground as a part of it, but might help with logistics or command.

Read More UN

From LA Times
By Laura King and Rone Tempest

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared Monday that Israel had no intention of ending its battle against Hezbollah any time soon, despite a lull in fighting that allowed some humanitarian supplies to reach civilians in war-battered Lebanon.

Israeli officials described a 48-hour hiatus in major airstrikes as a “humanitarian gesture,” rather than any prelude to a cease-fire, which U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s had asserted could be reached this week.

Under intense U.S. pressure, Israel agreed late Sunday to halt temporarily its air war in order to allow civilians to reach safety and humanitarian supplies to move freely.

On Monday, airstrikes diminished considerably. Israel, which had been flying scores of bombing sorties daily, launched four air attacks and fired artillery barrages at border towns, in support of ground operations. Hezbollah, which fired more than 150 rockets at Israel on Sunday, had sent none across the border by nightfall. Hezbollah claimed it hit an Israeli warship offshore, but the Israeli military denied the report.

Read More Lull

From NY Times
By Stephanie Sauls

The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it was moving toward endorsing sale of the morning-after pill without a prescription for women 18 and older, signaling what may be the end of one of the most stubborn health policy debates of the Bush administration.

The agency’s acting commissioner, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, asked the drug’s manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals, for a meeting to complete plans that would allow the over-the-counter sale of the emergency contraceptive, called Plan B. In a statement, the F.D.A. said it hoped the process can be wrapped up in a matter of weeks.

While the agency’s letter to Barr was not a final approval, both the F.D.A. and the company expressed optimism about the drug’s future.

Read More Plan B

From Haaretz Israel
By Schmuel Rosner

So, Mel Gibson is anti-Semitic. As if we didn’t know by now. There are lots of them around the world, saying despicable things about Jews – some of them when sober, some only under the influence of a drink or a drug. And Gibson is just another one of these idiots who happens to make movies (Don’t know what this blog is about? Read here)

2. And you know what? I don’t even feel the need to say these are bad movies. Some very bad people – anti-Semites to the core – wrote excellent books, painted marvelously, played great music.

3. I read a lot about him in the past 24 hours. Probably too much. But it’s not really him which bothers me. I’m more concerned by the incident at the Seattle Jewish Community Center the other day and was wondering about the connection between the two. I’m troubled by the thought that the Lebanon war and the renewed tension in the Middle East is really what ignited Gibson?s misbehavior, and by the possibility that his tirade marks the beginning of a new wave of ugly anti-Jewish eruptions. For that reason, and not because of Gibson, the guard at my JCC – who sees me every morning and recognize me – apologized today and asked that I will present my membership card.

Read More Worried

From BBC News

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has undergone surgery and temporarily handed power to his brother Raul.

A statement written by the president and read on TV by his secretary said Mr Castro had suffered internal bleeding.

It said this had been caused by stress following a trip to Argentina and last week’s ceremonies marking the anniversary of Cuba’s revolution.

Mr Castro, 79, has been in power since 1959. Raul Castro, the defence minister, is his designated successor.

The BBC’s Stephen Gibb in Havana says the fact that the Cuban leader did not appear in person to issue his statement has added to speculation about the gravity of his condition.

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From sjlendman.blogspot
By Stephen Lendman

Two nations stand out above all others as notorious serial abusers of UN resolutions – the US and Israel. Over the last half century, the US has used its Security Council veto many dozens of times to prevent any resolutions from passing condemning Israel for its abusive or hostile actions or that were inimical to Israeli interests. It’s also voted against dozens of others overwhelmingly supported by the rest of the world in the UN General Assembly. By its actions and with 6% of the world’s population, the US has thus arrogantly ignored the will of nearly all the other 94% to support its client state even when Israel had committed war crimes or crimes against humanity the rest of the world demanded it be held to account for. In the words of one UK observer using a baseball analogy: “Only the USA could have a World Series and not invite the rest of the world.”

The Israeli record on UN resolutions over that same period is far worse. With full US support for its actions, it’s flagrantly and with little or no pretense routinely ignored over five dozen UN Resolutions condemning or censuring it for its actions against the Palestinians or other Arab people, deploring it for committing them, or demanding, calling on or urging the Jewish state to end them. Israel never did or intends to up to the present, including the mass slaughter and destruction it’s now inflicting on the people of Lebanon and the Palestinians in their Territories that Israel illegally occupies and attacks whenever it wishes. It does so with impunity using any contrived pretext it can get away with to deny the Palestinians any chance ever for a viable sovereign independent state and to avoid a political solution with them it won’t ever tolerate. Read the rest of this entry »

From The Huffington Post
By David Sirota

I’ve documented repeatedly how New York Times columnist Tom Friedman parrots the propaganda of Big Money, using his column to legitimize some of the worst, most working-class-persecuting policies this country has seen in the last century – all while bragging on television that he doesn’t even bother read the details of the policies he advocates for.

I have always believed Friedman’s perspective comes from the bubble he lives in – that is, I have always believed he feels totally at ease shilling for Big Money and attacking workers because from the comfortable confines of the Washington suburbs he lives in and the elite cocktail parties he attends, what Friedman says seems mainstream to him. But I never had any idea how dead on I was about the specific circumstances of Friedman’s bubble – and how it potentially explains a lot more than I ever thought.

As the July edition of the Washingtonian Magazine notes, Friedman lives in “a palatial 11,400-square-foot house, now valued at $9.3 million, on a 7½-acre parcel just blocks from I-495 and Bethesda Country Club.” He “married into one of the 100 richest families in the country” – the Bucksbaums, whose real-estate Empire is valued at $2.7 billion.

Let’s be clear – I’m a capitalist, so I have no problem with people doing well or living well, even Tom Friedman. That said, this does potentially explain an ENORMOUS amount about Friedman’s perspective.

Read more Bubble

From Common Dreams
By Barbara Hensley

It will not be Al-Qaida, the immigrants, or the bird flu that will destroy us. It will be negligence and the lack of participation by our government, and our communities. Do not look for help from your city, or your state, or your national government in times of crisis. You are on your own.

We have been told time and time again that we are to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Well that is fine for those with discretionary spending. Those with money have no fear of taking care of their daily needs and that of their households. No problem! Money to spare.

What is terrorism? Well yes, it is bombs falling on innocent people tens of thousands of miles away. What about a little closer to home? Is terrorism having your water shut off, no food in the house, no roof over your head, the fear of losing your healthcare when you are laid off? What does your community have to do with this?

When humankind first emerged from the wilderness, they found that banding together raised the levels of survival. Why are we unable or unwilling to do that in our communities? I am not talking about those intrusive “missionaries” that come to your front door. I am talking about really helping others without strings attached or having to pass a “means” test, or having someone trying to save your soul. A means test is a way of proving to the benefactor that you are “worthy” of their benevolence. Is not the instinct to stay alive enough?

Read more Crisis

From The Slate
By Jason Furman

In Washington, as in fairy tales, be careful what you wish for. In a February speech, Vice President Cheney said, “It’s time to re-examine our assumptions and to consider using more dynamic analysis to measure the true impact of tax cuts on the American economy.” Calling for “dynamic analysis” or “dynamic scoring” can be supply-side code language for the view that tax cuts pay for much or all of themselves through stronger economic growth. Cheney proposed creating a new unit within Treasury to conduct this dynamic analysis and confidently predicted that it would find that tax cuts increase government revenues.

Six months later, Treasury’s first dynamic analysis of the president’s policies is out. It belies the claim that the Bush proposal to make his tax cuts permanent will either pay for itself or galvanize the economy.

There has long been a conflict between responsible conservative economists who make carefully hedged claims about the relatively modest economic effects of tax cuts and Laffer curve lovers, who think that tax cuts always spur enormous gains. And lately, emboldened by the large jump in tax revenues in 2005 and 2006 (and conveniently overlooking the nearly unprecedented three consecutive years of declining tax revenues that preceded it), Laffer disciples have widened their separation from mainstream economists into a chasm.

Read more Tax Cuts