● DALLAS -- Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena. (bd: WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??? Dallas TX is where JFK got shot! You'd think they'd be extra-secure!).
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● (bd: In other news...) Turkey army launches land offensive into Iraq (TURKEY INVADED IRAQ??? WHAT IS GOING ON ???)
● When Change Is Not Enough: Seven Steps to Revolution. Democracy and Elections: If history is any indication, we may already be on the road to violent revolution. Conservatives finally created enough misery to make it possible.
● CBS seeks to quash subpoena for unaired interview of Marine squad leader in Haditha shootings
● Congressional Republicans boycotted a meeting Thursday that was supposed to begin negotiations over how to reconcile differences between the House and Senate version of bills expanding the government's powers to wiretap inside the United States without court orders. Democrats said they were meeting in good faith to work out differences in the new spying authorities and whether to give amnesty to telecoms that helped the Bush Administration spy on Americans and foreigners, using wiretaps inside the United States without court approval.
● BRAD BLOG: We're pleased to offer you another excuse to go out and buy Hustler again this month. You're welcome. The April 2008 issue (on stands only through the beginning of March, or so) features an exposé on criminal voter fraud felon, Ann Coulter, as penned by yours truly.
● Video: RFK Jr. Interviews Election Official/Election Integrity Hero Ion Sancho. Note to Daily Kos Gatekeepers: Ban Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Immediately!!!
● Prodded in part by some of the nation’s biggest banks, the Bush administration and Congress are considering costly new proposals for the government to rescue hundreds of thousands of homeowners whose mortgages are higher than the value of their houses. Not since the Depression has a larger share of Americans owed more on their homes than they are worth. With the collapse of the housing boom, nearly 8.8 million homeowners, or 10.3 percent of the total, are underwater. That is more than double the percentage just a year ago, according to a new estimate of the damage by Moody’s Economy.com.
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● The Anti-Lobbyist, John "Maverick" McCain, Is Being Advised by Lobbyists!!!
(...the "Maverick" is shown on right...)
● McCain Campaign Cites McCain’s Lawyer As An ‘Objective Observer’ To Vouch For McCain!!!
● McCain: ‘I’m The Only Candidate That The Special Interests Don’t Give Money To’ …BUT YET…TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!!!
● McCain Torture Endorsement Lost Amid Media Sex Scandal Frenzy. MediaCulture: The media missed a damning story that has actual implications for American democracy.
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● Texans protest against planned NAFTA superhighway
● The original "you can leave your hat on" story, before I pilfered my own story and applied it to TG!
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● Facing Public Pressure, Bush Administration Will Continue Site Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators. On Feb. 13, ThinkProgress reported that facing a faltering U.S. economy, the Bush administration was attempting to hide economic data by shutting down the award-winning website EconomicIndicators.gov. Yet recently, the Bush administration announced the site would be shut down on March 1 because of “budgetary constraints“
● Hillary Rodham Clinton accused presidential rival Barack Obama of political plagiarism Thursday night, but drew boos from a Democratic debate audience when she ridiculed him as the candidate of ''change you can Xerox.''.
● Federal agents are investigating whether former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott knowingly played a role in an alleged conspiracy in 2006 to influence a Mississippi judge presiding over a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against famed plaintiff attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, according to people familiar with the situation.
● A former Republican campaign worker claims that President Bush's former top political adviser, Karl Rove, asked her to find evidence that the Democratic governor of Alabama at the time was cheating on his wife, according to an upcoming broadcast of ''60 Minutes.''.
● A federal judge on Thursday acquitted a former Republican Party official accused of taking part in a plot to jam state Democratic Party phone lines on Election Day 2002.
● Angry Serbs broke into the U.S. Embassy and set fire to an office Thursday night as rioters rampaged through Belgrade's streets, putting an exclamation point of violence to a day of mass protest against Western support for an independent Kosovo.
● Inspectors Say Meat Safety Is Threatened. Sometimes, government inspectors responsible for examining slaughterhouse cattle for mad cow disease and other ills are so short-staffed that they find themselves peering down from catwalks at hundreds of animals at once, looking for such telltale signs as droopy ears, stumbling gait and facial paralysis.
● Japan's defense minister warned Friday that further sex assaults by U.S. troops in Japan could shake the two countries' alliance, while reports said the Japanese government will install surveillance cameras around U.S. military bases to deter crime.
● An Army officer no longer faces a military trial on charges of lying to investigators about when he last spoke with a soldier found dead after disappearing during a training exercise.
● Scam Bilked Calif. Seniors Out of $190M. William Miller dreamed of traveling to Italy with his wife and fixing up their modest house with the money he saved while working for 36 years for Chevron Corp.
● Ahead of a crucial report on Iran's nuclear activities Friday, Washington has given the U.N. nuclear watchdog more information on what it says were Tehran's attempts to make atomic weapons -- but much of it is of doubtful value, diplomats said.
