Compiled by Mary Grace Lucas
CNN Washington Bureau
CNN: ‘Two oil men' to blame for high gas prices, Pelosi says
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday blamed the "two oil men in the White House," President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and their Republican allies in Congress for gas prices exceeding $4 a gallon.
International Herald Tribune: Cast of 300 advises Obama on foreign policy
Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions, accompanied by suggested answers, that the candidate is likely to be asked about international relations during the day.
AP: McCain says he's glad Obama going to Iraq, sort of
John McCain's presidential campaign had a hard time Thursday with Barack Obama's upcoming overseas trip. The Democratic presidential candidate will visit the Middle East and Europe, with announced stops in Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England. The Illinois senator also has pledged to visit Iraq and Afghanistan this summer, but aides haven't said whether the war zones will be part of that trip. McCain's spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, said early Thursday that the trip "is about politics. It's a way for Obama to try and compete on foreign policy."
AP: Obama's summer travel partly courtesy of taxpayers
Burnishing his foreign policy credentials, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is traveling this summer to Iraq and Afghanistan — and the taxpayers will be footing the bill. His Republican opponent, John McCain, visited Iraq in March, also during the campaign year, and taxpayers financed that trip as well.
WSJ: Congress Relaxes New Rules On Lobbyist Disclosures
Congress has relaxed rules that would have required public disclosure of contributions and parties paid for by lobbyists, narrowing the scope of new ethics rules intended to draw back the veil on Washington's influence game.
Kansas City Star: The Buzz: McCain’s foreign policy adviser on the record
“I think the American people have had enough of inflexibility and stubbornness in national security policy,” said John McCain’s foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann.
San Francisco Chronicle: Dems solicit ideas for their party platform
The Democratic National Committee is asking America to weigh in on its party platform, and this week kicks off more than 1,300 meetings to hear from voters across the country on the big question: What should Democrats stand for – and against?
Rocky Mountain News: Protest groups have big plans for DNC
Dozens of protest groups are planning a full schedule of classes, concerts, marches and other actions during the Democratic National Convention, hoping to capture the world's attention and recruit a new crop of activists. They are both energized and organized, and most insist they are not looking for trouble.
WSJ: Troubles May Diminish Fannie And Freddie's Lobbying Clout
The financial troubles of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could diminish their legendary influence on Washington decision making as lawmakers prepare to put a tighter leash on the two mortgage giants.
WSJ: In Online Politicking, Republicans Play Catch-Up
Even as 2,000 or so liberal bloggers swarm the downtown convention center here for their third annual gathering, a far smaller group of conservatives will be holed up a few miles away, seeking ways to equal the score. From online fund raising to attracting Facebook friends, Republican candidates are having a dismal year compared with their Democratic rivals.
Time: Obama Faces His Overseas Audition
Even though the details remain sketchy, it's clear that Barack Obama's upcoming trip to the Middle East and Europe is an audition on the world stage. But the most important critics will not be the foreign leaders who will be sizing him up as a potential member of their ranks or the cheering throngs that are likely to greet him at every stop.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Michelle Obama gives Gregoire a boost
A ready-to-be wowed crowd gathered Thursday at the WaMu Theater to hear Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, bring his message of change and a list of the work to be done during a fundraiser for Gov. Chris Gregoire.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Meet the real White House hopefuls: Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain
You probably heard about Cindy McCain's addiction to painkillers and Michelle Obama's remarks that she has never been proud of her country. And by now you probably received the e-mail about the "white-hating" paper Michelle wrote in college and the one about Cindy stealing John McCain away from his first wife and raising his illegitimate black child. But what you might not have heard is the truth.
USA Today: McCain to focus on domestic issues in swing state sweep
As Barack Obama travels abroad, John McCain will visit battleground states. The presumed Republican presidential nominee is lining up trips next week to Colorado, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania to emphasize jobs, energy and health care while Obama is in the Middle East and Europe.
WSJ: Public Debt Limit Enters Housing Debate
House Democrats negotiating a rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said they wouldn't exempt the proposal from the annual debt limit, a move designed to quell lawmakers' concerns that the Treasury's financial aid could be unlimited.
New York Sun: Tax Rates For New Yorkers Would Top 50% Under Obama
New York tax filers reporting more than $375,000 a year in earned income may end up paying nearly 60% of their wages in taxes to the government under a Barack Obama presidency, economists who have analyzed his plan said.
Boston Herald: In recession, lottery players dream big
Despite sky-high gas prices and a tanking economy, Bay State residents shelled out a record $4.7 billion on the Lottery last year as dreams of instant cash offered “a little bit of hope on cardboard.”
NY Times: Anti-Energy Speculation Bill Stirs Fear
Financial industry executives are mustering on Capitol Hill to head off a Congressional effort to rewrite the rules for the nation’s energy markets, saying it could unsettle already nervous markets and push more energy trading abroad, beyond the reach of domestic regulators. The primary focus of Wall Street’s concern is a bill entitled the Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008, introduced on Tuesday by a group of Democratic senators led by Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader.
NY Times: House Republicans Block Democratic Effort on Oil Leases, Calling the Bill a Sham
House Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic effort to pressure energy companies into drilling for oil on lands they already leased from the federal government, calling the legislation a sham.
WSJ Op-Ed: Mitch McConnell: Democrats Should Let Us Drill
Now that an executive branch ban on offshore oil exploration has been lifted, the time has come for Democrats in Washington to lift their own ban on increased domestic supply. Americans are demanding that Congress do something about record-high gas prices.
NY Times: Talks Signal Mideast Shift
After years of escalating tensions and bloodshed, the talk in the Middle East is suddenly about talking. The shift is still relatively subtle, but hints of a new approach in the waning months of the Bush administration are fueling hopes of at least short-term stability for the first time since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
CNN: Ashcroft defends waterboarding before House panel
The controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding has served a "valuable" purpose and does not constitute torture, former Attorney General John Ashcroft told a House committee Thursday.
CNN: Judge refuses to delay detainee trial
A federal judge refused Thursday to delay the approaching military commission trial of a Yemeni man who served as Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard and driver. Salim Hamdan will stand trial Monday at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled at a hearing in Washington.
WSJ: In Afghanistan, Getting to Know The Neighbors Is Half the Battle
After 15 months in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Chris Kolenda figures he knows hundreds of village elders and leaders. He knows their names, their faces, their tribes, subtribes and clans. In many cases, he knows who stole whose water, who killed whose father, and who hates whom.
Baltimore Sun: Hopeful note sounded for NAACP chief
NAACP delegates left the 99th annual convention here yesterday hopeful that its young president-elect can successfully bring the nation's oldest civil rights organization into a new century.
NY Times: Paterson, at N.A.A.C.P., Warns of Racism’s Power
David A. Paterson, in his first major speech to a national audience since becoming governor of New York, said on Thursday that even as black Americans rejoice about the possibility that Senator Barack Obama could become president, they cannot lose sight of the serious social and economic ills that plague their community and should remain mindful of the racism that still exists.
Washington Times: Bush honors 'cherished friend' Snow
Tony Snow's death was "hard to make sense of," President Bush told more than a thousand mourners at his former press secretary's funeral Thursday, calling him a "cherished friend" who was a man of "uncommon decency and compassion."
AP: Bush surveys record-breaking Calif. wildfires
President Bush offered federal help and encouragement Thursday to some of the 25,000 firefighters working under a blazing sun to contain wildfires that make up the single largest fire event ever recorded in California.
CNN: Organization says U.S. should take refugees
Palestinian refugees along the Iraq-Syria border are so desperate they may accept a U.N. offer to go to Sudan, a country widely condemned for atrocities and genocide in its Darfur region.
AP: Pentagon documents sought in Pat Tillman probe
A House committee chairman asked the Pentagon on Thursday to declassify some documents about the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, saying the public and Tillman's family should get to see them. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, made the request in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Washington Post Foreign Service: Lower-Caste Politician A Lofty Symbol in India
On a muggy monsoon-drenched afternoon, Shakuntala, a rail-thin girl with bloodshot eyes, cooled her father's visitors with a bamboo fan, trying to ward off the heat and the flies while they feasted on lentils, stewed chicken and hot bread. Like many women in this village of Dalits — the lowest caste in India's social pecking order — Shakuntala, 16, lives a meager existence.
LA Times: EPA finds global warming a health threat
Climate change will pose "substantial" health threats including heat waves, hurricanes and pathogens in coming decades, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday."It is very likely" that more people will die during extremely hot periods in future years, with the elderly, the poor and those in inner cities at the highest risk, an EPA report found.
USA Today: Obama shifts stance on environmental issues
In May 1998, at the urging of the state's coal industry, the Illinois Legislature passed a bill condemning the Kyoto global warming treaty and forbidding state efforts to regulate greenhouse gases. Barack Obama voted "aye."
CNN: Pope decries damage to environment
Pope Benedict XVI, making the first major appearance Wednesday on his tour of Australia, told a crowd of thousands that “insatiable consumption” is threatening the world’s environment. The pope was speaking to an estimated crowd of 150,000 people from 70 countries at World Youth Day, an event that’s been dubbed “the Catholic Woodstock.”
San Francisco Chronicle: George W. Bush Sewage Plant plan is on ballot
San Francisco voters will be asked to decide whether to name a city sewage plant in honor of President Bush, after a satiric measure qualified for the November ballot Thursday.
LA Times: Meet the new Susan Lucci: Will Emmy's biggest loser Bill Maher ever win?
Bill Maher is already Emmy's biggest loser with 19 nominations and zero wins (Susan Lucci won with nomination No. 19). Today he got a chance to add to that losing record with two more producing nods for "Real Time With Bill Maher" (making its fourth bid for outstanding variety, music or comedy series ) and "Bill Maher: The Decider" (up for outstanding variety, music or comedy special).
