Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh said that the only reason Gen. Colin Powell endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was because they’re both African-American. “Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race. OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed.” On his show today, Limbaugh went a step further and shouted his accusation against Powell:
Let me say it louder, and let me say it even more plainly. IT WAS TOTALLY ABOUT RACE! The Powell nomination — or endorsement — totally about race.
On Saturday, the New York Times published an investigative piece on Cindy McCain that delved into, among other things, her past addiction to painkillers. Responding with outrage, the McCain campaign called the article “gutter journalism at its worst” and released a pre-publication letter from McCain lawyer John Dowd that invoked Sen. Barack Obama’s youthful drug use:
It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama. You have not tried to find Barack Obama’s drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, Dreams of My Father. Nor have you interviewed his poor relatives in Kenya and determined why Barack Obama has not rescued them. Thus, there is a terrific lack of balance here.
In an interview with Fox News today, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani continued the assault on the Times, claiming that the paper has had unbalanced coverage of the two candidates and that “there shouldn’t be two different rules for Republicans and Democrats.” Giuliani, unprompted, also brought up Obama’s past drug use:
GIULIANI: You can’t even — you can’t even raise these issues. And, you know, God forbid somebody would do some reporting on Barack Obama’s use of drugs. I guess that was the point that Mrs. McCain’s lawyer made.
After raising the issue of drugs, however, Giuliani then claimed, “I don’t think the Time[s] should” report on Obama’s drug use. Watch it:
Giuliani accused the Times of “not reading their own newspaper” when they claim to have balanced coverage. But God forbid that Giuliani actually read the Times, considering that the paper has already investigated Obama’s past drug use. In February 2008, the paper published an article that relied on “three dozen interviews” and found that to his friends and associates, Obama “did not appear to be grappling with any drug problems and seemed to dabble only with marijuana.”
Over the weekend, police and state investigators arrested the “owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year…on suspicion of voter registration fraud.” Voters charge that Mark Jacoby duped them into joining the California Republican Party by making them believe they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molestors. Watch MSNBC’s report:
TPMmuckraker’s Zachary Roth notes, “Ironic that, for all the GOP-generated sturm und drang over ACORN in the last few weeks, it looks like it’s in fact a Republican firm against whom there’s actual evidence of systemic fraud.”
Cuba may have just hit the oil jackpot, with a revised estimate of its reserves doubling. That means the small island nation has about as much oil as the United States. American conservatives may soon have to choose between their love of oil and the half-century-old embargo that would keep Cuba’s petroleum away. How do you say “drill, baby, drill” en Español?
The Guardian:
Friends and foes have called Cuba many things - a progressive beacon, a quixotic underdog, an oppressive tyranny - but no one has called it lucky, until now .
Mother nature, it emerged this week, appears to have blessed the island with enough oil reserves to vault it into the ranks of energy powers. The government announced there may be more than 20bn barrels of recoverable oil in offshore fields in Cuba’s share of the Gulf of Mexico, more than twice the previous estimate.
If confirmed, it puts Cuba’s reserves on par with those of the US and into the world’s top 20. Drilling is expected to start next year by Cuba’s state oil company Cubapetroleo, or Cupet.
Kabul, Afghanistan - In a musty room near the edge of town, a group of bearded
men sit on the floor and heatedly discuss strategy. The men are in the planning
stages of an event that they hope will impact Afghan politics - a peace
jirga, or assembly, that will agitate for the end of the war between the Taliban
and Afghan government by asking the two sides to come to a settlement.
