Is Obama Right?

Is Barack Obama right to say that he would have voted no to begin the war in Iraq four years ago? Is Senator Obama right to make that assumption or say that when he wasn't an elected Senator at the time and is it right for him to criticize those who were in the Senate in that time that voted for it? Well for me I want to say that Senator Obama is right to say that the war in Iraq is wrong now. However four years ago, I wasn't sold on the war in Iraq because it wasn't a clear cut evidence that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction regardless of the pictures that the Bush administration had.

Therefore I would say that politically it would have been wrong for anyone to vote no on the war in Iraq. That's why I say that politics need to be aside in some matters and that is something that I feel is missing in America. When John Edwards said that Senators Clinton and Obama should have told the American public how they were going to vote and why they are going to vote the way they voted, I believe he was right. I believe that more politicians need to speak up and tell the American people how they are going to vote and why they are voting the way they are going to vote. So Senator Obama who says he has always been against the war in Iraq is unfair when he wasn't a Senator at the time when the vote to begin the war in Iraq was casted. Therefore Senator Obama needs to now stand up and tell the American people how he is going to vote on certain things and he needs to do it before he casts his vote on the Senate floor on hot issues such as the war in Iraq.

So Senator Obama is not right to say that he would have voted no on the war in Iraq from the get go because he has not shown me nothing outside of usual politics when it comes to his votes in the Senate. If you look Senator Obama's record on bills regarding the war in Iraq, you will find that this is perhaps the first time he voted no fund the troops and that was because of political reasons in my mind. Therefore Senator Obama please don't say one thing and not show through with it.

U.S. Democrats argue over Iraq strategy in debate

The Democratic presidential front-runners came under attack from a rival on Sunday for showing insufficient leadership on ending the war in Iraq in a debate in which the main target was President George W. Bush.

The two-hour exchange in the election proving ground of New Hampshire came 17 months before the November 2008 presidential election and featured squabbling and sharp attacks on Bush's war policy, but not much agreement on the best way to get the United States out of Iraq.
"This is George Bush's war," said New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as she sought to blunt the attack from former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards that her vote late last month against funding for the Iraq war was done in a quiet way.

Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, accused Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the two candidates who hold a solid lead over him in opinion polls, of lacking leadership on extricating U.S. troops from Iraq.

He based his attack on Democrats' failure to set a timetable for a troop pullout with the funding vote.

There is a difference "between leadership and legislating," Edwards said at the debate at St. Anselm College.

"Senator Clinton and Senator Obama did not say anything about how they were going to vote until they appeared on the floor of the Senate and voted. They were among the last people to vote," he said.

"They cast the right vote, and I applaud them for that. But the importance of this is, they're asking to be president of the United States," he added.

Clinton and Obama quickly defended themselves.

"It is not easy to vote for cutting off funding, because the fact is there are troops on the ground," Obama said, noting that he had opposed the war from the outset.

"So you're about four and a half years late on leadership on this issue," Obama responded to Edwards.

A longshot candidate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, was the only candidate who voted for the funding. He defended his vote as essential to protecting U.S. troops in combat.

Both Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, two even longer shot candidates, joined Edwards in criticizing the front-runners for not doing enough to stop the war.....

Hurricanes are more powerful than words

Katrina blew open US minds on climate change and Bush can no longer ignore it

It is 10 years since Tony Blair's first G8 summit. He flew to Denver on Concorde for a meeting chaired by Bill Clinton at which the United States paid lip service to climate change by showing a few hybrid cars.

In the intervening decade, Concorde has been retired, Clinton has been pensioned off but climate change has become a far more salient political issue. It will dominate this week's meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany.

And quite rightly too. The scientific evidence is now pretty much unchallenged. The world is warming up rapidly and time is running short to do anything about it. As far as the future of the planet is concerned, this is a more serious issue than the nuclear arms race, but if you want to view things in Cold War terms it is the equivalent of the Cuban missile crisis.

Just as in those dark days of October 1962, the mood is grim and pessimistic. The feeling is that armageddon is just around the corner, with George Bush as the Nikita Khrushchev of our era, pushing the world to the brink in pursuit of naked national self-interest. Bush, according to this reading, has well and truly shafted Blair, who was hoping to use the summit to go out on a high. After the loyal support Blair gave over Iraq, Bush now plans to rain on the prime minister's last parade. So much for the special relationship.

Well, that's certainly one way of looking at things, and it fits with the view that Bush is a brainless jerk whose only aim this week is to take a wrecking ball to the multilateral system. If that is the case, if the Americans really want to kill off at birth an attempt to piece together a new international agreement on climate change, then the future really is bleak. Why? Because the US accounts for about one quarter of global emissions. Unless the world's biggest economy is engaged on this issue there is not the remotest possibility that the leading developing nations, India and China, will give as much priority to combating climate change as they do to expanding their economies to reduce poverty.....

Health Care: Time for Universal Coverage?

Sen. Barack Obama became the latest presidential candidate to call for universal health coverage this past week.

It's been 13 years since First Lady Hillary Clinton's effort at creating universal health care helped cause Democrats to lose control of Congress. Nevertheless, Democratic presidential hopefuls are once again embracing the proposition, following the lead of some Republican governors.

Earlier this year, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a plan to cover all of the state's uninsured and Massachusetts next month implements the nation's first comprehensive coverage plan, requiring residents to buy health insurance or face tax penalties. That plan was signed into law by then-Gov. Mitt Romney, now a Republican candidate for president.

Here's a closer look at the issue:

Edwards Criticizes Obama, Clinton for Not Explaining War Vote

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama showed no leadership when they didn't explain in advance their vote last month against an Iraq war funding measure.

``There is a difference between leadership and legislating,'' said Edwards, 53, in Manchester, New Hampshire during the second debate among the eight Democratic presidential candidates. ``All of us have a responsibility to lead on these issues.''

Edwards said he agreed with his opponents for voting against the money for U.S. forces because he opposes the war.

Obama, 45, an Illinois lawmaker, and front-runner Clinton, 59, a New York senator, had supported war funding measures in previous years, reversing course during a May 24 vote. While Clinton said she opposed the funding because of what she called President George W. Bush's failed war policy, Obama criticized Edwards for authorizing the war in 2002 when he was a North Carolina senator.

``You were about four-and-a-half years late on leadership on this issue,'' Obama said. At the time of the 2002 vote Obama was an Illinois state senator and opposed the war.

New Hampshire is scheduled to hold the first presidential primary in the nation next January. Nationwide, Clinton is favored by 42 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey, which was conducted May 29 through June 1, showed Obama had 27 percent support while Edwards was third with 11 percent.

The other candidates -- Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, 63, Delaware Senator Joseph Biden, 64, Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich, 60, former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, 77 -- tried to distinguish themselves and emerge from their single- digit support in polls.

Gravel said Democratic senators, including some of those in the debate, had voted for the war. ``Sure, it's George Bush's war. But it's the Democrats' war also.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington at jbliss@bloomberg.net or Catherine Dodge in Washington at cdodge1@bloomberg.net ;

Democrats Clash on War on Terror, Iraq

Democratic presidential candidates clashed on Sunday on Iraq and over the security of the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, trailing both New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in national polls, criticized their cautious approach in forcing President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq.

While some members of Congress spoke out "loudly and clearly" last month against legislation to pay for the war through September but without a withdrawal timetable, "others did not," Edwards said.

"Others were quiet. They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote. But there is a difference between leadership and legislating," Edwards said.

Both Clinton and Obama voted against the bill - which passed - but without making a strong case against the legislation.

"I think it's obvious who I'm talking about," Edwards said.

Clinton disagreed with Edwards, both in his comments on her role on Iraq and in his characterization of Bush's global war on terrorism as a "political slogan, a bumper sticker."

As a senator from New York, "I have seen first hand the terrible damage that can be inflicted on our country by a small band of terrorists," Clinton said.

Still, she said, "I believe we are safer than we were."

Obama said that the administration's war in Iraq had detracted from efforts to root out terrorists.

"We live in a more dangerous world partly as a consequence of this president's actions," Obama said.

The candidates sought to highlight their own differences on the war in Iraq.
Obama told Edwards, who voted in October 2002 to authorize the war in Iraq but now says that the vote was a mistake: "John, you're about four and a half years late on leadership on this issue."

Obama was not in the Senate at the time of the vote but had voiced opposition to the war resolution at the time.

Edwards conceded, "He was right, I was wrong" on opposing the war from the beginning. And Edwards sought to highlight his change of heart on his vote with Clinton's continuing refusal to disavow her vote for the war resolution.

Said Clinton: "That was a sincere vote."

She again declined to say her vote was wrong.

Edwards chastised Clinton and Obama for waiting till the last possible moment to cast their vote against a bill paying for the troops because it lacked a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces.

Both Edwards and Clinton agreed that they voted for the war resolution in 2002 without reading an intelligence report on Iraq that was available to them. Both said they sought other information and believed they were thoroughly briefed.....

Overall Score Card of the New Hampshire Democratic Debate

Biden C
Clinton A-
Dobb C+
Edwards B+
Gravel C-
Kucinich C
Obama B
Richardson B-

2nd Half of the New Hampshire Democratic Debate

As candidates took questions from the public audience, it was a great to watch them answer various questions from veterans affairs, education, and the military draft. However many of the candidates seemed to do better in this format than in the first half of the debate. Therefore I have to say candidates like Dobbs and Gravel did much better than previously while the rest of the field seemed tackle the issues very well as each have many similarities. Clinton seemed to try to unite the Democratic candidates by saying that their are similarities among each candidate and Edwards says yes their are similarities but their are distinct differences that need to be pointed out and seen. Therefore it is up to each of us to understand the importance that while the candidates answers seem similar, one has to distinguish what are the distinct differences that separate the Democratic field.

So while most might say Edwards was aggressive, some might say he was forthright and that is what the American people need more. America needs to be told the truth and given the right responses no matter what. However are the 2nd half grades of the debate:

Biden C
Clinton B+
Dodd C+
Edwards B
Gravel A
Kucinich C
Obama B
Richardson B

Fred Thompson sure acting like a candidate

The former senator speaks at a Richmond fundraiser and Republicans get to see what all the buzz is about.

Fred Thompson walked from table to table at the Republican fundraising gala here Saturday night, patiently posing for photos and signing autographs.

One woman shook his hand and simply said, "We love you."

The former senator and star of TV's "Law & Order" has created a political buzz with his potential presidential bid. And while he didn't officially announce his intentions during a 35-minute speech to the Republican faithful, he certainly sounded like a candidate.

"It's like the American people are waiting for us," he said, "waiting for us to remember why we're doing what we're doing, what the ideas were that inspired us."

He called for a new coalition of voters. He said the public is looking for new leaders.

"We have always provided those leaders," he said. "I think America is calling for us to provide them again. My friends, we must answer that call."

It earned him a rousing ovation from the crowd, some of whom wore stickers that read "The Hunt for Fred November," a reference to his role in the military thriller, "The Hunt for Red October."

Even before his speech - which was part policy, part personal history - Republicans said Thompson had piqued their interest.

"The thing about Thompson is, he has that presence," said Robert Huotari of Jetersville. "He can turn a phrase, give a look. He's got the body language."

Huotari said he is not overly enthusiastic about the current crop of Republican candidates, especially in terms of their style.....

Fred Thompson Edging Toward 2008 Bid

Fred Thompson says the country faces different challenges now than it did when he spurned overtures to run for president in 2000, leading him to consider a return to politics.

"I think that everybody was kind of sitting back, taking it easy and thinking that, you know, peace and prosperity were going to kind of last forever. I think we know better than that now," the former Tennessee senator told The Associated Press.

We live in a more dangerous (time of) things that threaten our very existence, things that threaten our peace, things that threaten our economic stability."

In an interview Saturday night before speaking to the Virginia GOP, Thompson would not talk in detail about why he believes he might make a good president or what his priorities would be. "I'd do lots of things," he said, declining to elaborate.

During his 1994-2002 Senate tenure, he was considered a reliably conservative vote. But he had few significant legislative achievements and established a reputation as a less-than-hard worker.

"That's one rap that you can cure," Thompson said.

When pressed, he struggled to name his greatest accomplishment in the Senate. He said he managed the homeland security bill in the full Senate and added: "There were a lot of things. ... It doesn't always have to do with putting your name on a piece of legislation. There was an awful lot of bad legislation that I helped to stop for one thing."

But, he said with a smile, "We'll have a chance to get into all that when I start telling everybody what a wonderful person I am. But we're not quite at that stage."

At least not yet.

After flirting with a candidacy for months, the former senator and actor known to millions as the tough prosecutor on NBC's "Law & Order" took the first formal step toward the race for the GOP nomination Friday in establishing a preliminary campaign committee.

Thompson, however, said he still was not ready to commit to a 2008 campaign.

"We've not made a final decision on it. But obviously we're thinking pretty seriously about it," he said. "Everybody who has an opportunity to make even a small difference in the course of the direction of the country has got to look at that very seriously."....

Bush push on immigration tests GOP base

President Bush's advocacy of an overhaul of immigration law and his attacks on critics of the plan are provoking a backlash from conservatives who form the bulwark of his remaining support.

The reaction by some of Bush's most stalwart congressional and grass-roots backers at times has exceeded anything seen previously between Bush and his supporters. They now view him as pursuing amnesty for foreign lawbreakers when he should be focusing on border security.

Postings on conservative Web sites have gone so far as to call for impeachment, and usually friendly radio hosts, commentators and congressional allies are warning that Bush stands to lose supporters at a time when he needs all the backing he can get on other vital matters.

"I think President Bush hurts himself every time he says it is not amnesty," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., referring to the bill's legalization process for immigrants. "We are not all that stupid."

Last week, in discussing Bush's recent comments accusing conservative critics of the immigration legislation of fear-mongering, Rush Limbaugh told listeners: "I just wish he hadn't done it, because he's not going to lose me on Iraq, and he's not going to lose me on national security. But he might lose some of you."

Such sentiments have reverberated through talk radio, publications such as National Review, and Fox News. They also have appeared on Web sites, including RedState.com and FreeRepublic.com, where postings reflect a feeling that Bush is smiting his coalition and working in league with the likes of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a co-author of the legislation.

The tensions, which have rippled through the Republican presidential field, are intensifying as the Senate prepares to begin debate on the bill this week. Opponents are seeking significant changes — or defeat of the legislation — and raising the specter of a filibuster.

In interviews last week, White House officials expressed frustration at what they described as ill-informed criticism that the bill provided amnesty when it in fact traded legal status for fines and fees — more than $6,000 for green-card holders. They also noted that a New York Times/CBS News poll showed 66 percent of Republicans supported its legalization provisions.

Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, said Friday he was confident that the White House would win over critics as it explained details of the bill and efforts to enforce existing border-control laws.

Rove said he did not think the party anger would affect support for the Iraq war and other national-security issues. "People are able to say, 'I don't need to agree with anyone 100 percent of the time to be with them on the most important issue facing America,' " he said....

Edwards jabs front-runners on Iraq

Democratic presidential hopefuls traded barbs over the war in Iraq Sunday night in New Hampshire, with former Sen. John Edwards blasting two leading rivals over their handling of a recent war spending bill.

Clinton said she rejected Edwards' notion that the war on terror is just a "bumper sticker slogan."

"I have seen firsthand the terrible damage that can be inflicted on our country by a small band of terrorists who are intent upon foisting their way of life and using suicide bombers and suicidal people to carry out their agenda, and I believe we are safer than we were," Clinton said at the start of Sunday night's Democratic presidential debates in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Former Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, said his opponents "have been quiet" on calling for a plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

"They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote -- but there is a difference between leadership and legislators," Edwards said.

Edwards voted for the October 2002 resolution that authorized the invasion of Iraq, but now calls that vote a mistake.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Edwards to name names, to which Edwards responded: "Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama did not say anything about how they were going to vote until they appeared on the floor of the Senate and voted."

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, shot back, "The fact is that I opposed this war from the start."
"So you're about 4 1/2 years late on leadership on this issue. And, you know, I think it's important not to play politics on something that is as critical and as difficult as this." Obama added, "It is not easy to vote for cutting off funding, because the fact is, there are troops on the ground."

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, called his recent vote against the Iraq funding supplemental bill "the right thing to do." Dodd said that the United States should try to bring the Iraq war "to a close" and that the country should "pursue and push this issue of having a date certain tied to funding." He also stated that it was time to "move beyond this."

Sunday's debate marks the second time the Democratic contenders have appeared together on stage, but the first time they have appeared in New Hampshire. (Read the CNN Political Ticker for up-to-the-minute reports from New Hampshire)

Clinton, Edwards and Obama are considered the front-runners in Sunday's debate.
Former Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Alaska; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Delaware; and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, round out the field at the debate.

The 10 Republican presidential hopefuls will face off on the same stage at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday.
The debates are taking place on the campus of St. Anselm College and are sponsored by CNN, WMUR and the New Hampshire Union Leader.

CNN's Blitzer is moderating the debates and WMUR's Scott Spradling and the Union Leader's Tom Fahey are posing questions to the candidates. WMUR's Jennifer Vaughn is moderating questions from the audience.....

1st Half of the New Hampshire Democratic Debate

After one half of the Democratic Debate in New Hampshire, it seems as if that John Edwards is some what on the move in terms of calling out Obama and Clinton on several stances of there's. However neither candidate has really made any blunders but each have made good responses to each question as CNN's Wolf Blitzer makes sure they answer the question because you know how candidates can get when they responding to questions. Politicians are known for just rambling and never really answer a question. However that is not the case tonight. Each question is being answered straight up. So as the debate wages on, one has to watch to see which candidate will make a blunder or will show more charisma than what has been displayed so far.

I like all the Democratic candidates, however as it sits right now Edwards, Obama, Clinton and Richardson are the best choices for this nation on the Democratic side. While the candidates answered questions ranging from Iraq, health care, gas prices, immigration and gay marriages, they all made valid points but John Edwards made some great points in regards to how other Senators were last to vote on the Iraq funding bill because of political reasons. Now I will say that troops need funding and there should be no politics involved in that. However President Bush doesn't need to get his way on everything so that's why more Senators and Congressman need to demand more if the Bush administration when it comes to funding in Iraq. So while the debate wages on, watch how the candidates respond to questions from the audience.

Watch to see if the Democratic candidates stay united and friendly or will either candidate try to go for blood. If you are looking for a score card in tonight's debate so far than I have to grade each candidate after one half as follows:

Biden C
Clinton B-
Dobb C-
Edwards B
Gravel D
Kucinich D+
Obama C+
Richardson C+

Russia may redeploy missiles in Europe, Putin warns

Russian President Vladimir Putin has again blasted a planned US missile shield in Europe and warned that Moscow could redeploy missiles aimed at targets on the continent.

'If the US nuclear potential extends across the European territory, we will have to get new targets in Europe,' Putin said in an interview to newspapers from the Group of Eight most industrialised nations.

The interview was due to be published on Monday but the embargo was partially broken by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine. Putin and his peers are meeting for a three-day G8 summit which begins in Germany on Wednesday.

'It will then be up to our military experts to identify which targets will be aimed by ballistic missiles and which ones will be aimed by cruise missiles,' he said.

'We want to re-balance the defence instruments with more efficient offensive equipment but we know that this could lead to a renewed arms race for which we are, however, not responsible.'
Tensions over the plan have helped send relations between the two states to what many analysts call a post-Cold War low just before Putin and US President George W. Bush meet at the Group of Eight summit.

Russia sees the US plan to deploy missile defence hardware in Poland and the Czech Republic, as a threat and dismisses as feeble Washington's insistence that it is aimed at pre-empting possible attacks from the Middle East, especially Iran.

'We cannot allow ourselves not to be worried,' Putin said.

'The missile shield is part of a nuclear system which protects American territory and for the first time in history, elements of this system have been transferred to Europe,' the Russian leader said.

'We are told that this defence system serves against Iranian missiles but no Iranian missile has such a capability. It therefore becomes evident that this concerns us, the Russians.'

Feds on Trail of 4th Alleged N.Y. Plotter

Authorities Hope To Capture Him This Weekend

Authorities continue to search for a man they consider the fourth suspect in a terror plot to blow up a jet fuel line at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

But they may be close to finding the wanted man, Abdel Nur, said Mark Mershon, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York field office, in an interview with ABC News' "Good Morning America Weekend Edition."

"I believe Nur is still in Trinidad," Mershon said. "I hope we have an arrest this weekend."
Of the three other men charged, two remain custody in Trinidad.

Another man, Russell Defreitas, was arraigned in Brooklyn, N.Y., Saturday. He is a U.S. citizen, a native of Guyana and a former cargo worker at the airport.

Officials said Defreitas was secretly taped by the FBI saying, "To hit John F. Kennedy, wow ... If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice."

John Miller, the FBI's assistant director of public affairs, told ABC News' "This Week" it did not appear the plotters had a direct connection to al Qaeda.

"I think al Qaeda is operating on a split plane," he said, explaining that it continues to put out propaganda to incite others, while still planning its next big attack....

Feds on Trail of 4th Alleged N.Y. Plotter

Authorities Hope To Capture Him This Weekend



Authorities continue to search for a man they consider the fourth suspect in a terror plot to blow up a jet fuel line at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.



But they may be close to finding the wanted man, Abdel Nur, said Mark Mershon, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York field office, in an interview with ABC News' "Good Morning America Weekend Edition."


"I believe Nur is still in Trinidad," Mershon said. "I hope we have an arrest this weekend."
Of the three other men charged, two remain custody in Trinidad.


Another man, Russell Defreitas, was arraigned in Brooklyn, N.Y., Saturday. He is a U.S. citizen, a native of Guyana and a former cargo worker at the airport.


Officials said Defreitas was secretly taped by the FBI saying, "To hit John F. Kennedy, wow ... If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice."


John Miller, the FBI's assistant director of public affairs, told ABC News' "This Week" it did not appear the plotters had a direct connection to al Qaeda.


"I think al Qaeda is operating on a split plane," he said, explaining that it continues to put out propaganda to incite others, while still planning its next big attack....

Romney plays off Thompson talk at GOP dinner

Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney used comic timing, steady criticism of Democrats and broad Republican themes to ingratiate himself with a crowd of Tennessee party fundraisers Saturday night.

The former Massachusetts Governor won points with the 800-person crowd, heavy with Fred Thompson supporters, by making light of a situation that could have been uncomfortable. Tennessee Republicans have been buzzing for days with the comments Thompson made last week that he plans to run for president.

“I know there’s been some speculation among Republicans about a certain former senator from Tennessee getting into the presidential race,” Romney said during the state Republican party’s annual Statemen’s Dinner fundraiser at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center.

“Everyone is waiting and wondering, all the hype is building,” he said. “I feel great comfort in the fact that no one in this room, not a single person, will be voting for Al Gore.”

The crowd burst into laughter.

Romney went on to talk about the importance of electing a Republican, touching on themes of security, immigration, family and health care.

“I was impressed,” said Jerry Kemp, a Republican from Brentwood, who attended the $280-a-plate fundraiser.

“I thought he kind of lightened the situation. I liked what he talked about.”

Republican Thompson says U.S. battling "evil"

Republican Fred Thompson, making his first appearance since his late entry into the 2008 White House race, criticized the immigration pact in Congress on Saturday and said the United States was battling threats from "forces of evil."

In a speech at a Virginia state party dinner, the conservative former Tennessee senator and Hollywood actor made only passing reference to his presidential ambitions but took a jab at Democrats while praising limited government and lower taxes.

"There are all kinds of threats out there in America," Thompson said, citing a disrupted plot at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York as the latest example. He said the United States must send a message to its allies about the dangers of terrorism.

"This is a battle between the forces of civilization and the forces of evil and we've got to choose sides," Thompson said.

Thompson took the first formal step toward running on Friday with the formation in Tennessee of a committee that will allow him to hire staff and raise money for a presidential campaign.
His late candidacy, fueled in part by conservative dissatisfaction with the 10 official Republican candidates, has stirred heavy interest among curious activists and could fill a void for conservatives.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has led the field for months ahead of Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. But many conservatives are dissatisfied with all three top contenders and Thompson already runs third in many national polls, ahead of Romney.

Thompson has broad name recognition from years as a Hollywood actor in movies like "The Hunt for Red October" and his just-concluded role of a district attorney on NBC's "Law and Order."

He won a standing ovation from the dinner crowd of more than 450 in Richmond with a call for stronger borders and an attack on the immigration compromise pending in Congress, and backed by President George W. Bush, that would give 12 million illegal immigrants a shot at citizenship.....

Candidates Compete at Iowa Dinner

Democratic presidential hopefuls warmed up for Sunday's big debate by trying to impress about 1,000 activists at the Iowa Democratic Party's Hall of Fame dinner on Saturday.

The lineup included New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.

The evening's speeches touched mainly on the war in Iraq, health care and renewable energy, with plenty of barbs aimed at the Bush administration.

"It is time for the president of the United States to ask the American people to be patriotic about something other than war," Edwards said, adding that America has "so much work to do" to re-establish itself as a moral leader in the world. He challenged Congress to force the president to end the war in Iraq.

"If we want to make America what it is capable of being, it's going to require all of us," he said.
Dodd's said the Bush administration has been allowed to "squander our image in the world" and ignore the wishes of the American people.

"They want this war in Iraq to be stopped. They don't want to give this president a blank check any longer," Dodd said.....

Bush's push on immigration tests Republican base

President George W. Bush's advocacy of an immigration overhaul and his attacks on critics of the plan are provoking an unusually intense backlash from conservatives who form the bulwark of his remaining support, splintering his base and laying bare divisions within a party whose unity has been the envy of Democrats.

It has pitted some of Bush's most stalwart congressional and grass-roots backers against him, inciting a vitriol that has at times exceeded anything seen yet between Bush and his supporters, who have generally stood with him through the toughest patches of his presidency. Those supporters now view him as pursuing amnesty for foreign law breakers when he should be focusing on border security.

Postings on conservative Web sites this week have gone so far as to call for Bush's impeachment, and usually friendly radio hosts, commentators and congressional allies are warning that he stands to lose supporters — a potentially damaging development, they say, when he needs all the backing he can get on other vital matters like the war in Iraq.

"I think President Bush hurts himself every time he says it is not amnesty," said Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, referring to the bill's legalization process for immigrants. "We are not all that stupid."

This week, after Bush's suggestion that those opposing the congressional plan "don't want to do what's right for America" inflamed conservative passions, Rush Limbaugh told listeners, "I just wish he hadn't done it because he's not going to lose me on Iraq, and he's not going to lose me on national security." He added, "But he might lose some of you.".....

Blame coal: Texas leads carbon emissions

America may spew more greenhouse gases than any other country, but some states are astonishingly more prolific polluters than others — and it's not always the ones you might expect.

The Associated Press analyzed state-by-state emissions of carbon dioxide from 2003, the latest U.S. Energy Department numbers available. The review shows startling differences in states' contribution to climate change.

The biggest reason? The burning of high-carbon coal to produce cheap electricity.
_Wyoming's coal-fired power plants produce more carbon dioxide in just eight hours than the power generators of more populous Vermont do in a year.

_Texas, the leader in emitting this greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next two biggest producers combined, California and Pennsylvania, which together have twice Texas' population.
_In sparsely populated Alaska, the carbon dioxide produced per person by all the flying and driving is six times the per capita amount generated by travelers in New York state.

"There's no question that some states have made choices to be greener than others," said former top Energy Department official Joseph Romm, author of the new book "Hell and High Water" and executive director of a nonprofit energy conservation group.

The disparity in carbon dioxide emissions is one of the reasons there is no strong national effort to reduce global warming gases, some experts say. National emissions dipped ever so slightly last year, but that was mostly because of mild weather, according to the Energy Department.
"Some states are benefiting from both cheap electricity while polluting the planet and make all the rest of us suffer the consequences of global warming," said Frank O'Donnell, director of the Washington environmental group Clean Air Watch. "I don't think that's fair at all."

He noted that the states putting out the most carbon dioxide are doing the least to control it, except for California.

Several federal and state officials say it's unfair and nonsensical to examine individual states' contribution to what is a global problem.

"If the atmosphere could talk it wouldn't say, 'Kudos to California, not so good to Wyoming'," said assistant energy secretary Alexander "Andy" Karsner. "It would say, 'Stop sending me emissions.'"

Some coal-burning states note that they are providing electricity to customers beyond their borders, including Californians. Wyoming is the largest exporter of energy to other states, Gov. Dave Freudenthal told The Associated Press.

He said two-thirds of the state's carbon footprint "is a consequence of energy that is developed to feed the rest of the national economy. That doesn't mean that somehow then it's good carbon, I'm just saying that's why those numbers come out the way are," Freudenthal said.

And the massive carbon dioxide-spewing and power-gobbling refineries of Texas and Louisiana fuel an oil-hungry nation, whose residents whine when gasoline prices rise.
However, some of the disparities are stunning.

On a per-person basis, Wyoming spews more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country: 276,000 pounds of it per capita a year, thanks to burning coal, which provides nearly all of the state's electrical power.

Yet, just next door to the west, Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person, less than 23,000 pounds a year. Idaho forbids coal power plants. It relies mostly on non-polluting hydroelectric power from its rivers.

Texas, where coal barely edges out cleaner natural gas as the top power source, belches almost 1 1/2 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide yearly. That's more than every nation in the world except six: the United States, China, Russia, Japan, India and Germany.

Of course, Texas is a very populous state. North Dakota isn't, but its power plants crank out 68 percent more carbon dioxide than New Jersey, which has 13 times North Dakota's residents.
And while Californians have cut their per-person carbon dioxide emissions by 11 percent from 1990 to 2003, Nebraskans have increased their per capita emissions by 16 percent over the same time frame.

Officials in Wyoming, North Dakota and Alaska say numbers in their states are skewed because of their small populations. But Vermont, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia are similar in size and have one-12th the per-capita emissions of Wyoming.
A lot of it comes down to King Coal.

Burning coal accounts for half of America's electricity. And coal produces more carbon dioxide than any other commonly used U.S. fuel source. The states that rely the most on coal — Wyoming, North Dakota, West Virginia, Indiana — generally produce the most carbon dioxide pollution per person, but also have the cheapest electric rates.

States that shun coal — Vermont, Idaho, California, Rhode Island — and turn to nuclear, hydroelectric and natural gas, produce the least carbon dioxide but often at higher costs for consumers.....

A Detour to Iowa Showcases ’08 Democratic Candidates

On the eve of a presidential debate in New Hampshire, five Democratic candidates made a quick detour to Iowa on Saturday evening to appeal to nearly 1,000 party activists, seeking to distinguish themselves to the voters who will open the 2008 nominating fight.



At the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame dinner, a parade of presidential hopefuls assailed President Bush’s conduct of the Iraq war. Yet as the evening wore on, two candidates, John Edwards and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, also suggested that their Democratic rivals in Congress have not done enough to end the war.


“Now is not the time for careful, it is not the time for cautious, it is not the time for political calculation,” said Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator. “It is the time for strength, it is the time for backbone, it is the time for courage, it is the time for bold, visionary leadership. And the place that begins is on the war in Iraq.”


Mr. Richardson said Congress should move to de-authorize the Iraq war before adjourning for its summer break. The Democratic-sponsored “amendments and bills that cut funding and set timetables are not working.”


“There is no validity to this war,” Mr. Richardson said, “especially at a time when the American people are saying no.”


The dinner was intended to be the first opportunity for Iowa Democratic activists to see the party’s candidates in the same room. But those plans were foiled when Senator Barack Obama of Illinois declined to change a West Coast fund-raising schedule to attend the dinner.


Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, sought to take advantage of her rival’s absence. She took a seat at a table in the middle of the convention center ballroom, dining with party activists after mingling throughout the room....

A Detour to Iowa Showcases ’08 Democratic Candidates

On the eve of a presidential debate in New Hampshire, five Democratic candidates made a quick detour to Iowa on Saturday evening to appeal to nearly 1,000 party activists, seeking to distinguish themselves to the voters who will open the 2008 nominating fight.

At the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame dinner, a parade of presidential hopefuls assailed President Bush’s conduct of the Iraq war. Yet as the evening wore on, two candidates, John Edwards and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, also suggested that their Democratic rivals in Congress have not done enough to end the war.

“Now is not the time for careful, it is not the time for cautious, it is not the time for political calculation,” said Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator. “It is the time for strength, it is the time for backbone, it is the time for courage, it is the time for bold, visionary leadership. And the place that begins is on the war in Iraq.”

Mr. Richardson said Congress should move to de-authorize the Iraq war before adjourning for its summer break. The Democratic-sponsored “amendments and bills that cut funding and set timetables are not working.”

“There is no validity to this war,” Mr. Richardson said, “especially at a time when the American people are saying no.”

The dinner was intended to be the first opportunity for Iowa Democratic activists to see the party’s candidates in the same room. But those plans were foiled when Senator Barack Obama of Illinois declined to change a West Coast fund-raising schedule to attend the dinner.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, sought to take advantage of her rival’s absence. She took a seat at a table in the middle of the convention center ballroom, dining with party activists after mingling throughout the room....

Underdogs hope to use New Hampshire to break through

Every presidential candidate sees New Hampshire as a critical state, but for Democratic candidates looking a breakthrough, the Granite State is the political land of hope and possibility.

"New Hampshire voters are open, they're keeping their power dry," New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson told reporters in Concord, New Hampshire, Saturday morning. "They take their first-in-the-nation seriously and they want to see every candidate up front."

The chance to shake one more set of New Hampshire hands and make one more first impression pushed several presidential candidates to spend the first half of Saturday in Concord at the state's Democratic Party convention before flying out to Iowa for an evening political dinner.

"New Hampshire of course gives us an opportunity -- not only for those of us who may not be as well known or as well heeled to be heard -- but, more importantly in many ways, this state and Iowa and other small states insist on certain answers, insist on clarity and boldness in responding to the issues of our day," Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, another Democratic presidential aspirant, told the roughly 800 assembled delegates and guests. (Watch how candidates hope to use the debates to shake up the race )

Dodd and Richardson were joined at the state convention by Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel.

Missing from Saturday's convention were the "rock stars" of the Democratic field -- Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards all sent surrogates in their place.

"We shouldn't just elect rock stars" said Richardson promising a "grassroots upset" that he will pull off through aggressive retail politics. "I go person-to-person, I don't go to gyms with thousands of people. I go straight to the voters in their homes and that's how I'm going to win in Iowa and New Hampshire."

Candidates like Richardson, who held a 30-person Manchester house party and walked the downtown streets here Saturday afternoon, are banking that they can win over Granite State voters one by one.

Unlike Obama and Clinton who draw crowds in the hundreds and sometimes thousands, Richardson and the other candidates in the field can still walk into a diner and have lunch, take questions and press the flesh. But even that isn't done as much as it used to be.

"We're still trying to get used to the new politics in New Hampshire and by that I mean that retail politicking, as it used to be known, has to be done differently," said Kevin Landrigan of the Nashua Telegraph. "With the crush of media and certainly the early attention of the primaries ... it's hard to have the quaint very small intimate gatherings."....

'End the war,' Democrats urge at state convention

Calls to end the Iraqi War and address global warming resonated loudest yesterday with delegates and guests at the state Democratic Party's 2007 Midterm Convention.

Each of the five Democratic presidential candidates appearing before the convention -- U.S. senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, former Sen. Mike Gravel, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- called for bringing American troops home from Iraq, some as early as the end of this year. Assembled at the Rundlett Middle School, they blasted President Bush and his administration for misleading the country and losing the world's support, and called for diplomacy to end the Iraqi conflict.

"My fellow Democrats, this war must end. This war must end," implored Biden.

"Instead of talking about a surge in military power, how about a surge in diplomacy?" asked Dodd.

Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador, said he would end the Iraq War his first day in office.
"How do we do that? With diplomacy," he said.

Touting his plan to end the war, Biden, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "There is a way to end this war so my son doesn't have to go and so my grandson will not have to go back 15 years from now."

Biden also touted his presidential candidacy, saying the American people are looking for someone who will re-assert the country's greatness.

Gravel said the quickest way to end the war is to make it illegal. "Make the continuation of the war a felony, and if you disobey, you go to jail for five years," he said.

The only candidate to speak negatively of his fellow Democrats, Gravel criticized those senators seeking the party's nomination who voted to authorize the war, saying they are not qualified to be President.

Kucinich, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2004 with a platform based on a plan to bring the troops home, said yesterday, "Peace is inevitable if we have a President who is willing."...

U.S. JFK Airport Bomb Plot Would Have Caused `Unthinkable' Ruin

A foiled plot to bomb fuel tanks and a pipeline at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport would have wrought ``unthinkable'' destruction, a Justice Department official said.
Four men, including a retired cargo employee and a former member of the parliament of Guyana, were charged with conspiring to attack the airport with explosives. Three of them were arrested and one was being sought.

``The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable,'' Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said yesterday.

The plot was hatched in January 2006 in New York and involved Muslim extremists from Guyana and Trinidad, officials said. It was broken up while still in the planning stages with the aid of an informant, said Mark Mershon, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York office.

``This was a determined group,'' Mershon said at a press conference. ``They consistently worked to refine their plot. The bottom line is we believe this threat has been fully contained.''
Russell Defreitas, a 63-year-old former Evergreen Airlines cargo worker, was arrested on June 1 in Brooklyn, said New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Defreitas is a U.S. citizen and native of Guyana, a former British colony in South America.

Defreitas, who was alleged to have used his knowledge of the airport to describe its security measures, was arraigned before a Federal magistrate and ordered held until a bail hearing on June 6, said his attorney, Andrew Carter Jr. The lawyer declined further comment.

Held in Trinidad
Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament and Kareem Ibrahim, a man from Trinidad, are being held in Trinidad and will be arraigned there tomorrow, said Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Greg Andres.

U.S. law enforcement officials didn't release the ages of Kadir and Ibrahim or say if they had been assigned lawyers for their court appearance. Abdul Nur, a citizen of Guyana, is at large in Trinidad or Guyana, authorities said.

``The discovery and dissolution of this chilling plot is further evidence that New York remains a target of terrorist interests,'' Governor Eliot Spitzer said in a statement.

The plot was foiled with the aid of an informant, who met Defreitas in a Queens shopping center in July 2006, according to a federal criminal complaint. The two men later traveled to Guyana and Trinidad.....

Thompson talk threatens to overshadow Romney at GOP dinner

He’s a presidential contender and the main attraction at tomorrow night’s annual fundraiser for Tennessee’s Republican Party. He’s raised more money in the state than any other Republican hopeful. Some of the state’s most influential Republicans signed on early to help get him elected.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet … former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney?

Like everything in Republican presidential politics in Tennessee, Fred Thompson’s three-month flirtation with a White House bid will have an impact on Saturday night’s annual Statesman’s Dinner fundraiser.

The lawyer-actor-politician from Lawrenceburg won’t even be at the event — he’ll be at a state Republican event in Virginia. But buzz from his statement last week that he’s planning a run is almost certain to overshadow Romney as keynote speaker for the Nashville event.

Clearly, it sets up an awkward political moment.

“I think people will give (Romney) good Southern hospitality and a good Southern welcome,” said former U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary, who has thrown his support behind Thompson. “I think he'll be well-received. Fred Thompson will be the 10,000-pound guerilla in the room."

Romney was invited months ago to speak at the event at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Resort’s Delta Ballroom. More than 800 people are expected to attend.

Romney’s spokesman on Friday said Thompson is a good man who Romney respects, and the presence of more ideas and energy in the race will strengthen whoever becomes the party’s nominee next year....

Gates Urges More Pressure Now on Iran

Stronger penalties are needed against Iran "not next year or the year after, but right now" because of the uncertainty over how soon Tehran may acquire a nuclear weapon, President Bush's defense secretary said Saturday.

Pentagon chief Robert Gates did not rule out military action to stop Iran's program, though he said it was an unattractive option.

"Probably everybody in this room wants there to be a diplomatic solution to this problem," he told an international audience of military officers, government officials and private security experts.

Asked about U.S. intelligence estimates of Iran's progress toward getting nuclear arms, Gates said, "Having to take care of this problem militarily is in no one's interest."

Yet uncertainty about Tehran's nuclear work, he said, "does put a premium on unanimity in the international community _ especially in the U.N. Security Council _ in terms of ratcheting up the pressure on the Iranians, not next year or the year after but right now."

The council has ordered two rounds of penalties over Iran's nuclear program.

On Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. was not preparing for war against Iran. But Vice President Dick Cheney last month stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf and warned Tehran that Washington would prevent the Islamic republic from dominating the Middle East....

2008: Eyes on Early States and the South

With a pair of debates Sunday (Democrats) and Tuesday (Republicans) putting the focus on New Hampshire, many in the Democratic field are swinging from that critical early primary state where there’s an event this morning, to Iowa tonight for the state party’s annual Hall of Fame Dinner.

Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, will be the most high-profile candidate not in Iowa tonight, citing scheduling conflicts with fundraisers in Washington state and northern California. The Des Moines Register dissects some opinions on his absence.

Spotlights and shadows will also be on display in other parts of the country tonight. While former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson lends his star power to the Virginia Republicans’ annual fundraiser in Richmond, one of the top contenders already in the race for the G.O.P. nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is the featured guest on Mr. Thompson’s home turf before Tennessee Republicans. You can bet there’ll be some shifting of the minds there tonight, given that some Romney-bound Tennesseans have already switched to become Thompson supporters. The Tennessean looks at the Thompson shadow.

With the Democrats gearing up for their first debate in more than a month, during which the Iraq war spending bill, immigration, health care proposals and a spate of issues have followed them on the campaign trails, the Republicans aren’t about to let them have all the limelight Sunday night. The Republican National Committee is broadcasting a radio ad in New Hampshire against Democrats who voted against the bill (Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Chris Dodd are the candidates who opposed it).

But you may not have to turn on the radio during the debate for that alternate view. Senator Joe Biden, Democrat of Delaware, has been critical of his fellow senators in defending his decision to vote for the troop funding bill.

And while President Bush’s Iraq war strategy also dogs G.O.P. candidates — especially Senator John McCain, and with Congress removing a timetable for withdrawal of troops in the latest bill signed by Mr. Bush, some states are taking the issue up by themselves. The Times’s Jennifer Steinhauer reports on legislation making its way to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk that would put the issue on the primary ballot in California.

Among those hot topics for debate among candidates in both parties will be health care coverage. The Wall Street Journal takes another look at why this may be an opportune time to take on the idea of universal health care. And it tees up the status of immigration legislation for the Senate’s return next week. (You can bet that Senators McCain and Mr. Romney will be batting that proposal around at the G.O.P. debate.)

Presumably, the candidates have found time to prep for this debate during all their air travel this past week, studying the best way to offer concise answers on many of these stickier issues. Jackie Calmes contends, that the forums do offer more than a sound byte on say, hair cuts. That there is substance amid the quick retort. Let’s hope, then, that Gov. Bill Richardson studies up, in an effort to shed all the negative reviews from his appearance last Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

Debuting this weekend is ramped up Web coverage of Senator Dodd’s campaign — at chrisdodd.com. The campaign even promises a real-time clock to monitor how many minutes each of the candidates is given during the debate Sunday. (It’s two hours long, by the way, from 7 to 9 p.m. and broadcast live on CNN.)

Thompson says he'll rely on instincts

Internet-heavy drive will avoid excess caution

Fred Thompson has been coy with audiences as he flirts with a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

In an interview with USA Today, however, the former Tennessee senator makes clear that he plans to run and describes how he aims to do it. He plans to use blogs, video posts and other Internet innovations to reach voters repelled by politics-as-usual.

"I can't remember exactly the point that I said, 'I'm going to do this,' " Thompson said, his 6-foot, 6-inch frame sprawled across a hotel couch. "But when I did, the thing that occurred to me: 'I'm going to tell people that I am thinking about it and see what kind of reaction I get to it.' "

His late start carries some problems but also "certain advantages," he said. "Nobody has maxed out to me" in contributions, he noted, and using the Internet already "has allowed me to be in the hunt, so to speak, without spending a dime."

Without formally joining the race — he's preparing to do that as early as the first week of July — Thompson already places third and better among Republican candidates in some national polls.
Dissatisfaction among one-third of Republicans with the 2008 field has opened the door for the candidate whose folksy tone, actor's ease with an audience and conservative credentials drew comparisons to Ronald Reagan at the sold-out Connecticut GOP dinner that Thompson addressed last week.

Thompson, who left a five-season stint on NBC's Law & Order, says his model will be the untraditional campaign he ran for the Senate in 1994.

Then, after a lackluster start, Thompson swapped his suit for a plaid shirt and began driving a red pickup across the state in a bid to fill the final two years of Al Gore's term. Despite his background as a Washington lawyer and lobbyist, he derided Congress as larded with legislators who had lost touch with their constituents and principles.

He swamped his Democratic opponent by 21 percentage points in a year Republicans capitalized on antipathy to President Clinton to win control of the House and Senate.

"I feel some of the same feelings that I felt in the latter part of that '94 campaign about what is going on in the country today ... only greater," said Thompson, citing cynicism toward the Republican president and the Democrat-controlled Congress. "You can't drive the truck all the way across the country, but since '94 other opportunities have opened up in terms of ways to communicate."

A candidate could use the Internet "to cut through the clutter and go right to the people." And the truck, now parked at his mother's home in Franklin, Tenn.? "You might drive it a few places."......

Thompson Hunts for a Red November

Former Senator, Actor Looks to Woo Conservative Base, Harming McCain's, Romney's Bids

As he prepares to join the hunt for a red November, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson is walking into the line of fire.

Without raising a single campaign dollar or giving a single stump speech, Thompson threatens to knock one or more of the 2008 candidates out of the top tier -- and his 6-foot 6-inch frame will crowd out long-shot candidates who hope to emerge as the choice of social conservatives.

"I can't remember exactly the point I said, 'I'm going to do this,"' Thompson said of his planned presidential run in Thursday's edition of USA Today.

"But when I did, the thing that occurred to me: 'I'm going to tell people that I am thinking about it and see what kind of reaction I get to it."'......

Thompson Candidacy Could Shake Up US Presidential Race

Former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson's expected entry into the 2008 presidential campaign is likely to shake up the battle for the Republican Party nomination. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.

Thompson is forming what his aides call a testing the waters committee that will sound out potential campaign donors about a Thompson bid for the White House.

Thompson served as a U.S. senator from Tennessee during the 1990s and first came to public attention as a Republican lawyer on the Senate Watergate committee during the presidency of Richard Nixon in the mid-1970s.

But perhaps Thompson's biggest political asset is that he is well known as an actor in movies and on the popular long-running television series Law and Order.

Thompson supports President Bush on Iraq and favors a strong approach on national security and on curbing illegal immigration.

He recently spoke to a Republican group in California.

"We live in a world where 40 countries have fissile material sufficient to make a nuclear weapon and the bad guys are trying their best to get their hands on it," he said. "And we live in a country with porous borders and porous ports. It does not take a genius to put all that together and see the problem that we have got in this country."

Thompson is running third or fourth among Republican contenders in most public opinion polls, a reasonably strong position given that he is not yet an official candidate.....

Run also a race for campaign funds

Fred Thompson's nascent presidential campaign already has the backing of Tennessee Republicans who have long track records collecting money for White House contenders.

The former senator, however, will have to move quickly to expand his support to catch up to his leading GOP rivals, in a race where several candidates are expected to raise as much as $100 million before the 2008 primaries.

On Tuesday, Thompson made an appeal to 100 supporters, asking them to each raise $46,000.
"Fred Thompson is a seasoned politician with a strong network of friends and supporters," said Lewis Eisenberg, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman. Given the shortened primary season, however, "time is running out," he said.

For his presidential race, Thompson can draw on his years as a lawyer and lobbyist. Lawyers and law firm employees were the biggest contributors to Thompson's two Senate campaigns and to his political action committee, giving more than $570,000 since 1993, according to campaign-finance data tallied by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Trial lawyers have proved a rich vein of political donations for Democratic contenders, but Thompson's past opposition to some federal efforts to limit lawsuits also makes him appealing to this group, said Linda Lipsen, senior vice president of public affairs at the American Association for Justice, which represents trial lawyers. In 2002, for instance, Thompson voted against limiting medical malpractice lawsuits.

Thompson's acting roles — including as the fictional District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's Law & Order— also give him access to another source of campaign money: Hollywood.

People in the television, movie and music business have contributed more than $160,000 to Thompson, the center's data show. These donors include actor and writer Ben Stein, who gave $1,000 to Thompson in 1998. Stein did not return telephone messages.....

Thompson wants to be 2008's outsider

Politician-turned-actor Fred Thompson has been coy with audiences as he flirts with a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

In an interview with USA TODAY, however, the former Tennessee senator not only makes it clear that he plans to run, he describes how he aims to do it. He's planning a campaign that will use blogs, video posts and other Internet innovations to reach voters repelled by politics-as-usual in both parties.

"I can't remember exactly the point that I said, 'I'm going to do this,' " Thompson says, his 6-foot, 6-inch frame sprawled comfortably across a couch in a hotel suite. "But when I did, the thing that occurred to me: 'I'm going to tell people that I am thinking about it and see what kind of reaction I get to it.' "

His late start carries some problems but also "certain advantages," he says. "Nobody has maxed out to me" in contributions, he notes, and using the Internet already "has allowed me to be in the hunt, so to speak, without spending a dime."

Thompson could reshape a GOP contest in which each of the three leaders has significant vulnerabilities and none of the seven second-tier contenders has broken through. Without formally joining the race — he's preparing to do that as early as the first week of July — Thompson already is placing third and better among Republican candidates in some national polls.

Dissatisfaction among one-third of Republicans with the 2008 field has opened the door for the candidate, whose folksy tone, actor's ease before an audience and conservative credentials drew comparisons to Ronald Reagan at the annual Connecticut GOP dinner here. Thompson addressed the dinner last week to a sold-out audience.

"People listen to him and see someone who's very comfortable with who he is and confident about what he believes in," state Republican chairman Chris Healy says. "That's a skill that, obviously, Ronald Reagan took to great heights."

Thompson, who has left a five-season stint playing Manhattan District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's Law & Order, says his model will be the untraditional campaign he ran in his first political bid for the Senate in 1994.

After a lackluster start, Thompson swapped his tailored suit for a plaid shirt and jeans and began driving a red Chevy pickup across the state in a bid to fill the final two years of Al Gore's term. Despite his background as a Washington lawyer and lobbyist, Thompson derided Congress as larded with legislators who had lost touch with their constituents and, in some cases, their principles.

He came from behind to swamp his Democratic opponent by 21 percentage points in a year Republicans capitalized on anti-pathy toward President Clinton to win control of the House and Senate.

"I feel some of the same feelings that I felt in the latter part of that '94 campaign about what is going on in the country today … only greater," says Thompson, citing public cynicism toward the Republican president and the new Democrat-controlled Congress. "You can't drive the truck all the way across the country, but since '94 other opportunities have opened up in terms of ways to communicate."

A candidate could use the Internet "to cut through the clutter and go right to the people," he says.

And the red pickup, now parked and rusting outside his mother's home in Franklin, Tenn.? "You might drive it a few places," he allows....

Mitt welcomes Thompson bid for presidency from GOP side

As actor and former GOP Sen. Fred Thompson signals he may launch a presidential run this summer, Mitt Romney said Wednesday he’d welcome Thompson into the race.
Thompson served two terms in the Senate but is best known as the district attorney on NBC’s drama “Law & Order.”

“I’m probably not a good political pundit to know what is going to happen precisely,” Romney said during the taping of an Iowa Public Television show. “I think he’ll make the race more interesting. He’s got good ideas, and after all, he does put bad people in jail every week on ‘Law and Order.’ ”

Romney has tried to position himself as the most conservative Republican candidate. Asked if Thompson’s entry into the race would hurt his plan, Romney said, “I think everybody in the Republican field is conservative.”

Earlier in the day, Romney repeated his call to add more troops, saying the Iraq war had left the nation’s military seriously stressed.

The former governor of Massachusetts said he supported President Bush’s decision to intervene in Iraq, despite missteps.

“I think we’ve made a number of mistakes,” said Romney. “We were underprepared for what developed. I don’t think we had anywhere near enough troops.”

Rice, Putin Trade Cold War Words

Rhetoric Includes 'Zero-Sum,' 'Arms Race'

Russia and the United States sparred yet again Thursday, continuing a war of words that has raised tensions across the Atlantic.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, accepting an award for her contributions to German unification more than a decade and a half ago, accused Russia of being stuck in the Cold War era. "We want a 21st-century partnership with Russia, but at times, Russia seems to think and act in the zero-sum terms of another era," Rice said in a speech in Potsdam.

Rice also knocked the decline of civil society in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. "Democratic institutions and an open society are not a source of weakness," Rice said. "Nor is freedom of speech and freedom of the press just a nuisance."

Putin, who is to meet with President Bush at Kennebunkport, Maine, in July, accused the United States of "imperialism" during a news conference in Moscow. "It wasn't us who initiated a new round of arms race," Putin said, referring to U.S. plans to install a missile defense shield in Europe and Russia's missile tests Tuesday in apparent response.

Rice, in her speech, asserted: "We find Russia's recent missile diplomacy difficult to understand, and we regret Russia's reluctance to accept the partnership in missile defense that we have offered."

"There is no need to fear Russia's actions; they are not aggressive," Putin said. "They are a mere response to harsh and groundless unilateral actions by our partners and are aimed at maintaining the balance of forces in the world."

The disputes between Russia and the United States have colored other diplomatic efforts, such as concerns over Iran's nuclear program and the future of Kosovo.

Rice, who spent most of the day in Vienna, said Thursday that the United States would not alter its demand that Iran suspend uranium enrichment before she would join talks on its nuclear program. Her statement came exactly a year after she first made the offer in a dramatic gambit to halt Tehran's push to obtain nuclear expertise....

McCain makes fundraising stop in Mississippi

Presidential hopeful John McCain said Thursday during a fundraising stop in Mississippi that Fred Thompson would make a viable Republican candidate, but he didn't express concern that his former Senate colleague would siphon off votes in the GOP primary.

Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee and "Law & Order" actor, seems poised to announce a run in 2008, and would join a field of Republican candidates led by McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Thompson supported McCain in his failed 2000 bid for the Republican nomination and the two worked together on key issues in the Senate.

"We're old friends," McCain said. "I'm sure Fred will add a lot to the campaign."

The comments came in a brief meeting with reporters and a handful of spectators at the Jackson airport, before McCain left for three private fundraising events. Mississippi is a conservative state and its electoral votes have gone to Republicans in every presidential election since 1980.

McCain also touched on immigration and the war in Iraq, saying supporters of President Bush's recent surge of troops in Baghdad knew the effort would amount to more casualties. But he said it was a vital part of a new plan for victory in the war-torn country.

At least 122 members of the military have died in Iraq in May, making it one of the deadliest months for American forces since the conflict began. McCain attributed a spike in casualties, in part, to coalition forces patrolling areas the military had not entered before.

"Those of us who supported this new strategy - as I do - predicted more casualties. It's a long, hard and tough process," McCain said. "I'm not saying it's safe (in Iraq); it's safer. And I'm saying, 'If we leave, it will follow us home.'"...

New Hampshire Senate Rejects Bill on Mandatory Seat Belting

New Hampshire will remain the only state without a law requiring adults to wear seat belts after the State Senate on Thursday rejected a bill mandating their use.

The Senate voted 8 to 16 against the measure, which would have allowed the authorities to stop a driver solely for not wearing a seat belt.

But the Senate, which Democrats control 14 to 10, did pass an amendment to another safety bill that sets up a commission to encourage seat belt use and study accident statistics.

Bills mandating seat belt use have long failed in New Hampshire, where many feel that buckling up is a personal choice, not an act that should be subject to government mandate.

“The citizens of New Hampshire don’t like to be told by anyone else what to do,” said Senator Robert E. Clegg Jr., a Hudson Republican who voted against the legislation. “It preserves New Hampshire’s way of not succumbing to the bribes of the federal government and New Hampshire’s belief that every adult can make his or her own choices in life.”

The state would have received $3.7 million in federal money for enacting the legislation.

Senator Joseph A. Foster, a Nashua Democrat who voted against the legislation, said he hoped the commission helped increase seat belt use....

U.S. Data Show Rapid Minority Growth in School Rolls

Driven mainly by an extraordinary influx of Hispanics, the nation’s population of minority students has surged to 42 percent of public school enrollment, up from 22 percent three decades ago, according to an annual report issued yesterday by the government.

The report, a statistical survey of the nation’s educational system, portrays sweeping ethnic shifts that have transformed the schools. The changes, with important implications for educators and policy makers, have been most striking in the West, where, the survey says, Hispanic, black and Asian students together have outnumbered whites since 2003. But all regions have seen growth in minority student enrollment, particularly by Hispanics, who accounted for one of five public school students in 2005, the last year for which data were available.

“The rapid increase in the Hispanic population in America’s schools is quite striking,” said Mark S. Schneider, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, the data-gathering arm of the Department of Education.

The Congressionally mandated report, “The Condition of Education,” draws on data collected from state education agencies, schools and colleges by Mr. Schneider’s agency and the Census Bureau. Those data suggest significant challenges ahead for American education, partly because of the persistent math and reading test-score gaps that separate white students from blacks and Hispanics.

According to the survey, those gaps have remained largely unchanged since the early 1990s except in math at the fourth-grade level, where the black-white gap has narrowed somewhat. On average, the study shows, Hispanics score slightly better than blacks, but well below whites, in reading and math in both fourth and eighth grades. (In an interview, Mr. Schneider noted that the results of a national history test that were released in May did show a narrowing of the achievement gap in that subject.)

The most pronounced development in school demographics has been in Hispanic growth. Hispanic students accounted for just 6 percent of public school enrollment in 1972, but by 2005 their numbers had grown to 20 percent, the survey found. During the same period, white enrollment declined to 58 percent of school population, from 78 percent. African-American enrollment changed little: blacks were 14.8 percent of all students in 1972 and 15.6 percent in 2005....

Agent at Border, Aware, Let In Man With TB

The man with a dangerous form of tuberculosis who flew to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon was identified yesterday as a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer. Department of Homeland Security officials said he re-entered the country from Canada when a customs agent let him pass despite knowing that the man was being sought by health authorities.

Congressional investigators, who will be holding hearings on the way the case of the man, Andrew Speaker, has been handled, say that the border agent at the Plattsburgh, N.Y., border crossing with Canada decided that Mr. Speaker did not look sick and so let him go.

Russ Knocke, press secretary for the Homeland Security Department, would not confirm the agent’s rationale for releasing the man, saying only that the case was under investigation by its internal affairs and inspector general’s offices.

And in yet another twist to a story that seems to grow murkier with each new revelation, Mr. Speaker’s father-in-law, Robert C. Cooksey, is a tuberculosis researcher who has worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Cooksey said he “was not involved in any decisions my son-in-law made regarding his travel.” He also said that he was often tested for tuberculosis and had never been found to be infected.

The centers said that the strain of tuberculosis that Mr. Speaker has does not match any of the strains in its laboratories. And Dr. Cooksey said, “My son-in-law’s TB did not originate from myself or the C.D.C.’s labs, which operate under the highest levels of biosecurity.”

The form of tuberculosis Mr. Speaker has is extremely resistant to standard antibiotics.

Although health officials said there was a low risk of Mr. Speaker’s transmitting tuberculosis to his fellow passengers, the case raised troubling new questions about the nation’s ability to defend its borders against the entry of dangerous infectious diseases and about the C.D.C.’s ability to handle such threats, despite extensive training exercises. Mr. Speaker’s odyssey has also set off an international hunt for his fellow passengers.

Mr. Speaker came back into the United States at Plattsburgh, N.Y., at 6:18 p.m. on May 24 in a car he had rented at Pierre Trudeau International Airport in Montreal after flying there from Prague on Czech Air....

One Place Where Obama Goes Elbow to Elbow

Last Christmas, Senator Barack Obama flew to Hawaii to contemplate a presidential bid in the peace of his childhood home. But there, on a humid playground near Waikiki Beach, he found himself being roughed up by some of his best friends. It was the third and final game of the group’s annual three-on-three basketball showdown, and with the score nearly tied, things were getting dirty.

“Every time he tried to score, I fouled him,” Martin Nesbitt recalled. “I grabbed him, I’d hit his arm, I’d hold him.” Michael Ramos, another participant, explained, “No blood, no foul.”
Mr. Obama, like everyone else on the court, was laughing. And with a head fake, a bit of contact and a jumper that seemed out of his range, Mr. Obama sank the shot that won the game.

From John F. Kennedy’s sailing to Bill Clinton’s golf mulligans to John Kerry’s windsurfing, sports has been used, correctly or incorrectly, as a personality decoder for presidents and presidential aspirants. So, armchair psychologists and fans of athletic metaphors, take note: Barack Obama is a wily player of pickup basketball, the version of the game with unspoken rules, no referee and lots of elbows. He has been playing since adolescence, on cracked-asphalt playgrounds and at exclusive health clubs, developing a quick offensive style, a left-handed jump shot and relationships that have extended into the political arena.

If one were somehow to play a highlight reel of Mr. Obama’s on-court exploits, it would start in Hawaii, with a pudgy junior high school student in short shorts and high socks who had a Julius Erving poster plastered on his bedroom wall.

It might include the time he and several Harvard Law School classmates played inmates at a Massachusetts prison; the students were terrified to win or lose, because the convicts lining the court had bet on both outcomes. (“I got two packs on you!” they called out.)

Cut to the future Mrs. Obama asking her brother to take her new boyfriend out on the court, to make sure he was not the type to hog the ball or call constant fouls. The reel might then show Mr. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, playing with former NBA stars in a tournament fund-raiser for his Senate campaign, and at the family gatherings that always seem to end with everyone out by the hoop next to the garage.

Basketball has little to do with Mr. Obama’s presidential bid — in fact, he has trouble finding time to shoot baskets anymore — but until recently, it was one of the few constants in his life.
At first, it was a tutorial in race, a way for a kid with a white mother, a Kenyan father and a peripatetic childhood to establish the African-American identity that he longed for. In “Dreams From My Father,” Mr. Obama described basketball as a comfort to a boy whose father was mostly absent, and who was one of only a few black youths at his school. “At least on the basketball court I could find a community of sorts,” he wrote.....

Accolades, Some Tearful, for a Preacher in His Twilight Years

For a man who has welcomed crowds his whole life, the evangelist Billy Graham appeared humbled and a bit embarrassed to be before this one Thursday in a parking lot near the Charlotte airport.

Hundreds of friends, family members, ministers and politicians had gathered to dedicate a library celebrating the ministry of Mr. Graham, whose vast popularity lent him the title “America’s pastor.”

Standing on a platform before the Billy Graham Library, former President George Bush delivered the keynote address, his voice cracking into a sob as he said Mr. Graham was “the man, the preacher, the humble farmer’s son who changed the world.” Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton also spoke of how Mr. Graham had transformed their lives.

Infirm and rarely appearing in public now, Mr. Graham approached the dais using a walker and noted the sense of completion and twilight that marked the speeches before his.

“I feel like I’ve been attending my own funeral, listening to all these speeches,” he said to the crowd’s nervous laughter. “I’ve been here at the library once, and my one comment when I toured it was that it is too much Billy Graham. My whole life has been to please the Lord and honor Jesus, not to see me and think of me.”

Initiated by the Rev. Franklin Graham, Mr. Graham’s older son, and board members of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the library is to serve as a tribute to the 60 years of Mr. Graham’s ministry around the world.

The $27 million, 40,000-square-foot library is to open on Tuesday. It holds childhood photos of Mr. Graham; his college yearbook, in which he said he wanted to be an evangelist; the tiny engagement ring he gave his wife, Ruth; and footage of his rousing sermons over the decades, from Los Angeles to Moscow, in which he urged people to open their hearts to Christ....

Law and Order star running for president

Hollywood actor Fred Thompson, known for his commanding roles, plans to run for US president in 2008, joining a crowded field of Republican candidates.

"I can't remember exactly the point I said, 'I'm going to do this'," Thompson said of his planned presidential run in yesterday's edition of USA Today.

"But when I did, the thing that occurred to me: 'I'm going to tell people that I am thinking about it and see what kind of reaction I get to it'."

Thompson, a 64-year-old social conservative, currently appears on US screens as a prosecutor on TV crime series Law & Order.

The actor already has some White House experience-he played President Ulysses S. Grant in the made-for-TV movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, released last month.
That wasn't his first brush with the presidency - in 1993 he played White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent in action movie In the Line of Fire.

While outside the White House, Thompson has made a mark in other authoritarian roles. Perhaps his highest profile movie was 1990's Cold War thriller The Hunt for Red October, in which he played Rear Admiral Joshua Painter.

In 1994 the New York Times said of him: "The glowering, hulking Mr Thompson has played a White House chief of staff, a director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a highly placed F.B.I. agent, a rear admiral, even a senator. When Hollywood directors need someone who can personify governmental power, they often turn to him."

Thompson said he was planning a campaign that will use blogs, video posts and other Internet innovations to reach voters turned off by "politics-as-usual" in both parties, USA Today said.
On Wednesday, a long-time friend and political adviser said Thompson had tentatively decided to run for president and had quit his role on Law & Order.

"His mind is made up to run if interest continues to be as intense as it is," said Tom Ingram....