Obama battles McCain on issue of "Moral Amnesia"

Run time: 03:41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-6yf2iVaWo   Posted on YouTube: July 11, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: July 26, 2008 By DU Member: Soul Creature Media Views on DU: 3786

 
This video “Moral Amnesia” unveils the corruption of our current administration and follows the current presidential race. Clever lyrics and shocking video footage of Bush giving the finger, to catch a predator, Paris Hilton, and September 11th makes this video an experience you won’t forget.

A big new discovery of mine is Kyle Lardner, whose CD Sail Among the Stars sounds phenomenal! It is piano pop mixed with folk and some power pop. On "Moral Amnesia," I read she mentions Al Gore in a positive way and expresses concerns about the Iraq War. She's quite pretty, too, though at 21, she is only beginning.

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- A 56-year-old Milwaukee man is accused of shooting his lawn mower because it wouldn't start.

Keith Walendowski told police he felt he had a right to shoot his mower.

Keith Walendowski has been charged with felony possession of a short-barreled shotgun or rifle and misdemeanor disorderly conduct while armed.

Is this what the constitution gives us the right to own guns for?

“America must commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and other clean sources within 10 years.”

Major cities in India have been put on high alert after 29 people were killed Saturday in 17 near simultaneous blasts in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, police and government officials say. Several media outlets and the country's Intelligence Bureau had received an e-mail purportedly from the militant group Indian Mujahedeen warning of a possible attack. CNN's Bharati Naik and S. Gopal contributed to this report.

(CNN) -- Fueled by dry timber that hasn't burned in a century, a wildfire in central California grew to more than 16,000 acres and is threatening more than 2,000 homes near Yosemite National Park, a fire official said Sunday.


The fire blazed in areas that haven't burned in 100 years near Yosemite National Park on Saturday.

"This thing is burning in every different direction," said Daniel Berlant of the California Department for Forestry and Fire Prevention. "That's what made it so difficult for us to really get our ... containment lines around it."

Some 200 of the homes in Mariposa County on the outskirts of Yosemite park are "immediately threatened," and under mandatory evacuation orders, he said. Other residents are just being warned that they may have to leave "at a moment's notice" because of the approaching blaze.

"These are very scattered rural areas, but we do have about 2,000 homes that are in the path of the fire so that does have us concerned," Berlant said. "We're working very closely with the local sheriff's department there to help get residents out of the area."

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- A shotgun-wielding man opened fire at a Unitarian church during a children's play Sunday morning, killing two adults and wounding seven others before being overpowered by congregants, officials said.


Jim Adkisson, 58, was charged with first-degree murder after Sunday's shooting at the Knoxville church.

1 of 3 One of the victims, Linda Kraeger, 61, died at a hospital several hours after the shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Knoxville municipal spokesman Randall Kenner said.

Also killed was Greg McKendry, a 60-year-old usher and board member at the church, police said earlier in the day.

A suspect, Jim Adkisson, 58, of Powell, Tennessee, was charged with one count of first-degree murder, Kenner said Sunday evening.

Adkisson is not believed to have been a member of the Knoxville church, and investigators have not determined a motive for the shooting, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen told reporters.

" is one thing we're obviously aggressively pursuing," Owen said.

Five others were hospitalized in either critical or serious condition, police said. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video, accounts

Two other people hurt in the attack were treated and released, Owen said.

Church member Barbara Kemper told The Associated Press that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us."


Owen told reporters he couldn't comment on whether McKendry confronted the gunman, but he said McKendry apparently "was the first person encountered" in the sanctuary.

Members of the church said a man entered the building at about 10:15 a.m. and began shooting during a children's production of the musical "Annie." About 200 people in the church were watching the production, which was being put on by 25 children, the AP reported.

No child was shot, and a few church members subdued the man and held him until officers arrived, police said. Church members said one of the tacklers was John Bohstedt, a man who had a part in the musical, the AP reported.

"This was a day the church was looking forward to for a long time, and it turned into a nightmare," Bohstedt told Knoxville television station WBIR.

Ken Kitts said he arrived late and saw a couple and a child running out of the church at "super-fast speed."

"Then everybody else started pouring out of the church, lots of them in costume from this show they were putting on," he said.

Inside, he said, was a scene of "absolute chaos," including wounded people and the gunman, who was pinned to the floor by church members.

"He was face-down in middle of a bunch of shotgun shells rolling around on the floor," Kitts said.

Owen said investigators are looking into whether Adkisson has a criminal history. Bail was set at $1 million late Sunday.

"We don't know this particular individual. We may never know why," said Steve Drevik, a church member who arrived after the shooting. "All of this will come out in the next couple of days."

Rick Lambert, the FBI agent in charge of the bureau's Knoxville office, said federal agents are assisting Knoxville police with witness interviews and could help analyze evidence from the crime scene. He said the bureau is examining whether the attack was a hate crime.

"Anytime there is a shooting in a church, there is the possibility it could be a hate crime," he said.

The church, on its Web site, describes itself as a community that has worked for social change -- including desegregation, women's rights and gay rights -- since the 1950s.

Police said people were recording videos of the children's performance when the shooting happened, and investigators were reviewing the videos. Information on what, if anything, the videos show of the shooting wasn't immediately available.

The church's minister, Chris Buice, said he was on vacation when the shooting happened but rushed back when he heard what occurred. Sunday afternoon -- after McKendry's death but before Kraeger's -- he spoke briefly to reporters.

"Please pray for this congregation, because we are grieving the loss of a wonderful man," Buice said as he choked back tears.

Sunday's attack was the fourth time in 15 months that an American church became a scene of a fatal shooting.

In December 2007, a 24-year-old former missionary candidate killed two people at a suburban Denver, Colorado, missionary training center and two more at a Colorado Springs megachurch the following day. The gunman, Matthew Murray, killed himself after being shot by a security guard.


The previous August, police said, 52-year-old Eiken Saimon shot and killed three people and wounded five others at a Congregational church in Neosho, Missouri. The attack left three people dead and five wounded.

And that May, in Moscow, Idaho, 36-year-old Jason Hamilton fatally shot a police officer and a sexton at First Presbyterian Church, then killed himself before police stormed the building. Hamilton's wife was found shot to death in the bedroom of their Moscow home after the church shootings.

(CNN) -- The campaigns for John McCain and Barack Obama on Monday shrugged off any suggestion that the two candidates are coming together on Iraq.


John McCain's campaign says they are not backing Barack Obama's timetable for withdrawal.

1 of 2 "The difference between the two candidates going into November is that Barack Obama wants a rigid timeline for withdrawal," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said on CNN's "American Morning."

"John McCain wants to start reducing our troops, keeping the gains in security that we've earned in Iraq, but by doing so, avoiding a third war.

"Bringing them home with victory is the important contrast between the two candidates," Bounds said.

Over the weekend, both campaigns accused the other candidate of shifting his Iraq policy to be more in line with their own.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, McCain said the proposed 16-month timetable for withdrawing troops was "a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground."

That comment sparked suggestions that McCain was embracing Obama's timeline, but McCain insisted that was not what he meant.

"Look, I have always said -- and I said then -- it's the conditions on the ground," he said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Over the weekend, McCain's campaign put out a statement implying that Obama was aligning his Iraq policy with McCain's.

"Today Barack Obama finally abandoned his dangerous insistence on an unconditional withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by making clear that for the foreseeable future, troop levels in Iraq will be 'entirely conditions based.' We welcome this latest shift in Senator Obama's position, but it is obvious that it was only a lack of experience and judgment that kept him from arriving at this position sooner," the campaign said.

Those comments stemmed from an interview published this weekend in Newsweek in which Obama was asked about what sort of residual forces he would keep in Iraq, now that he has talked with diplomatic and military leaders there.

"I do think that's entirely conditions-based. It's hard to anticipate where we may be six months from now, or a year from now, or a year and a half from now," he said.

Obama's campaign said Monday the Illinois senator was "absolutely not" shifting his Iraq policy.

"What's he talked about is removing our troops as carefully as we were careless getting in -- in a 16-month timetable," said Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director.

"He's always talked about keeping a residual force either in Iraq or in the region to deal with counterterrorism. And that's the type of force that it's unclear what type of size you would have for that, because you'd have to see what the conditions were at that point," Gibbs said on "American Morning."

McCain's campaign also has launched an aggressive television ad that charges Obama does not have the troops' best interests in mind. Watch more on the new ad »

In the ad, Obama is chided for making "time to go to the gym" instead of visiting with wounded troops in Landstuhl as he had planned to do while in Germany.

"Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras. John McCain is always there for our troops," the announcer says.

Obama's campaign said they canceled the visit because the Pentagon expressed concerns that it would be viewed as a campaign trip.

"The last thing wanted was to have injured soldiers get pulled into the back-and-forth of a political campaign. That's why we imagine Senator McCain would be surprised that his campaign released this wildly inappropriate accusation that politicizes the issue," the campaign said in a statement.

The Obama camp also pointed out that the video of Obama in the ad shows him playing basketball during his visit with soldiers in Kuwait last week.


Meanwhile, both candidates start the week turning their attention away from foreign affairs. Obama is focusing on the economy and meeting in Washington with a group of economic experts, including former Fed Chair Paul Volcker, Warren Buffet and Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt.

McCain is in California on Monday for a series of fundraisers in Bakersfield and San Francisco. His campaign is holding a conference call with its economic advisers.

Four female suicide bombers and a gunman killed at least 70 people and wounded almost 300 others during a string of attacks in central Baghdad and Kirkuk on Monday, officials said. It was the second day attackers have targeted Shiite pilgrims taking part in an annual march to one of the Shiites' holiest shrines.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House on Monday predicted a record deficit of $490 billion for the 2009 budget year, a senior government official told CNN.


The White House blames a faltering economy and the stimulus package for the increased budget deficit.

The deficit would amount to roughly 3.5 percent of the nation's $14 trillion economy.

The official pointed to a faltering economy and the bipartisan $170 billion stimulus package that passed earlier this year for the record deficit.

The fiscal year begins October 1, 2008.

The federal deficit is the difference between what the government spends and what it takes in from taxes and other revenue sources. The government must borrow money to make up the difference.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a lack of authorization to speak publicly ahead of an official briefing later Monday by Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the stimulus package was necessary, even if it increased the deficit.

"We do think the plan was the right one, and it will have an effect," Perino said. "And the best way to help reduce the deficit is to make sure you are keeping a lock on spending, but also that you can also try to help to build the economy. So we hope this will help us pull out of the economic downturn over the next few months because of the stimulus package.


"I remember that back when we were discussing the stimulus package, both parties recognized that the deficit would increase, and that would be the price that we pay in order to help improve the economy," she said.

President Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion when he took office in 2001 but has since posted a budget deficit every year.

The Bush administration has spent heavily on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and faces a large budget shortfall in tax revenue because of Bush's tax cuts and a souring economy.

A Democratic point man on the budget, Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, blasted the administration for its "reckless fiscal policies," blaming the president's tax cuts for driving the government into deficit and saying Bush "will be remembered as the most fiscally irresponsible president in our nation's history."

Conrad, who chairs the Senate's budget committee, accused the president of "squandering" the deficit he inherited from President Bill Clinton and said the increased debt the government has taken on to cover the deficit has undermined the value of the dollar and hurt the overall economy.

"If they gave out Olympic medals for fiscal irresponsibility, President Bush would take the gold, silver and bronze," Conrad said. "With his eight years in office, he will have had the five highest deficits ever recorded. And the highest of those deficits is now projected to come in 2009, as he leaves office."

But the senior administration official says the budgetary problems stem from what is believed to be inadequate defense, intelligence and homeland security resources that were handed down from Clinton.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in March projected the deficit for the 2008 fiscal year, which ends September 30, would be $357 billion. It predicted the 2009 deficit to be $342 billion, if the president's proposals were adopted.

Both assumptions, however, were made before the economic stimulus package was passed by Congress and signed by the president this spring. The CBO said it would release revised deficit estimates in September.

"The White House blames a faltering economy and the stimulus package for the increased budget deficit."

How about we blame an stupid war and an even stupider leadership????????! Yegadssss! The nerve of these freakin' humanoids!

It is not good that we are fighting a war with a very basic people and using so much money to blow up their mud and brick homes. The money we are using is loaned to us from China who has large cities and a population that dwarfs the United States. We never hear about Muslims attacking China, Japan, Russia, or other industrialized states. Besides Europe our father countries who also get attacked but also have a long line of imperialism and war in their past.

and have been protesting this 'war' since before it started. My point was that this pResident and his crew have destroyed our economy with their stupidity. Everytime there's a republican in the WH, we tank.

So what do you think we should do? It doesn't have to be a two party system. How can the we help be the solution?

Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer miles in May compared with a year earlier, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Many commuters are flocking to trains, buses and bikes, or telecommuting from home. Database administrator Eric Creese said high gas prices inspired him to "get back" into biking, CNNMoney reports.

(CNN) -- Five members of a polygamous sect who were indicted alongside leader Warren Jeffs last week turned themselves in Monday to face sexual assault charges, Texas authorities said.


From top left, clockwise: Allan Keate, Raymond Jessop, Michael Emack and Merrill Jessop were all indicted.

1 of 2 Four of Jeffs' followers were charged with one count of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 17, and each faces five to 99 years in prison, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said.

One of those four also faces a bigamy charge.

A fifth follower is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse, he said.

Bail for the defendants facing felony charges -- Raymond Merrill Jessop, 36, Allan Eugene Keate, 56, Michael George Emack, 57, and Merrill Leroy Jessop, 33 -- was set at $100,000 each. Lloyd Hammon Barlow, 38, charged with the misdemeanor failure to report child abuse, faces a sentence of up to six months in prison and a fine of $2,000 per count.

A Texas grand jury indicted Jeffs last week on sexual assault charges, Abbott said.

Jeffs was charged Tuesday with sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony. A conviction on the charge could mean a maximum penalty of five to 99 years or life in prison and a fine of $10,000, said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the attorney general.

Jeffs, 52, is the leader and "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which broke from mainstream Mormonism in the 1890s over the practice of polygamy.


The FLDS openly practices polygamy at its Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, Texas, and in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona state line: Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.

Jeffs is accused in the indictment of assaulting a child "younger than 17 years of age and not legally married to the defendant" in January 2005.

The alleged victim, whose name is redacted on the document, "was a person who the defendant was prohibited from marrying or purporting to marry or with whom the defendant was prohibited from living under the appearance of being married" under Texas law.

Calls to Jeffs' attorney Michael Piccarreta and FLDS spokesman Rod Parker were not immediately returned Monday.

As part of the case, Texas authorities took DNA samples from Jeffs in May, saying at the time they were investigating allegations he "spiritually" married four girls ranging in age from 12 to 15.

A search warrant seeking the samples said marital records -- also known as bishop's records -- from the YFZ Ranch showed that Jeffs married a 14-year-old girl in January 2004 in Utah. The records showed that Jeffs "married" three other underage brides -- two 12-year-olds and a 14-year-old -- at the ranch, the search warrant said.

One of the 12-year-olds, believed to have married Jeffs in July 2006, was sexually assaulted by him later that day, the documents said.

The warrant made reference to pictures of Jeffs with his alleged underage brides. In one photograph, the warrant states, he is kissing one of the 12-year-olds. In another, he is with a 15-year-old wife at the birth of their child in October 2004.

The DNA samples, authorities said, would be used to determine whether Jeffs was the father of children born to the underage mothers.


Critics of the FLDS say it forces girls as young as 13 to marry older men. FLDS members maintain that no sexual abuse of children takes place.

In April, the YFZ Ranch was thrust into the spotlight after a raid in which child welfare workers seized more than 400 children. After a court battle, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the children returned, saying the state had no right to remove them and that there was no evidence to show the children faced imminent danger of abuse on the ranch.

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Deaths from medication mistakes at home, such as actor Heath Ledger's accidental overdose, rose dramatically during the past two decades, an analysis of U.S. death certificates finds.


Prescription drug abuse plays a role in the rise in fatalities, but it's unclear how much, researchers said.

The authors blame soaring home use of prescription painkillers and other potent drugs, which 25 years ago were given mainly inside hospitals.

"The amount of medical supervision is going down and the amount of responsibility put on the patient's shoulders is going up," said lead author David P. Phillips of the University of California, San Diego.

The findings, based on nearly 50 million U.S. death certificates, are published in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine. Of those, more than 224,000 involved fatal medication errors, including overdoses and mixing prescription drugs with alcohol or street drugs.

Deaths from medication mistakes at home increased from 1,132 deaths in 1983 to 12,426 in 2004. Adjusted for population growth, that amounts to an increase of more than 700 percent during that time.

In contrast, there was only a 5 percent increase in fatal medication errors away from home, including hospitals, and not involving alcohol or street drugs.

Abuse of prescription drugs plays a role, but it's unclear how much. Valid prescriptions taken in error, especially narcotics such as methadone and oxycodone, account for a growing number of deaths, said experts who reviewed the study.


The increases coincided with changing attitudes about painkillers among doctors who now regard pain management as a key to healing. Multiple prescription drugs taken at once -- like the sleeping pills, painkillers and anxiety drugs that killed "Dark Knight" star Ledger -- also play a part, experts said.

"When we see overdoses, we're seeing many more mixed drug overdoses," said Dr. Jeffrey Jentzen, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners and director of autopsies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Jentzen said autopsies are much more likely to include toxicology tests today than 25 years ago, which would contribute to finding more fatal medication errors as cause of death.

But Phillips said there were no significant increases in other poisonings, such as suicidal overdoses or homicides, so more testing doesn't explain the huge increase. The analysis excluded suicides, homicides and deaths related to side effects.

The increase was steepest in death rates from mixing medicine with alcohol or street drugs at home; that death rate climbed from 0.04 per 100,000 people in 1983 to 1.29 per 100,000 people in 2004.

Many patients ignore the risk of mixing alcohol with prescriptions, said Cynthia Kuhn of Duke University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.

"They think, 'Oh, one drink won't hurt.' Then they have three or four," Kuhn said.

The increase in deaths was highest among baby boomers, people in their 40s and 50s.

"We're sort of drug happy," said boomer Dr. J. Lyle Bootman, the University of Arizona's pharmacy dean, who was not involved in the research. "We have this general attitude that drugs can fix everything."

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People share prescriptions at an alarming rate, Bootman said. One recent study found 23 percent of people say they have loaned their prescription medicine to someone else and 27 percent say they have borrowed someone else's prescription drugs.

Kenneth Kolosh, a statistics expert at the National Safety Council, praised the study but said improved attention to coding location on death certificates may account, in part, for the huge increases the researchers found.

Phillips countered that home deaths from any cause increased relatively little during the time period, so better coding doesn't explain the change.

Michael R. Cohen, president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, said more states should require pharmacists to teach patients about dangerous drugs and insurers should pay pharmacists to do so.

By Benjamin Schwarz


President Clinton's actions toward the conflict in Kosovo are directed by a guiding principle of his foreign policy: that America must "give back to a contentious world some of the lessons we learned during our own democratic voyage." Indeed, exporting "democratic values," specifically tolerance and pluralism that have come to be regarded as central to the American creed, has emerged as a foreign policy imperative embraced by both Democrats and Republicans. Statesmen and foreign policy mandarins tout these "democratic values" and America's supposed heritage of harmonious diversity and civic comity as the solution to the world's civil wars - the Kosovos, the Albanias, the Bosnias and the Chechnyas - that have proliferated in the post-Cold War world.


U.S. policymakers smugly urge (and then, paradoxically, try to force) these fragmented societies to play nice: to elevate compromise and tolerance above ethnic, nationalist or religious domination as their organizing principles, just as we do in multiethnic, multicultural, multifaith America. But these bromides are rooted in an idealized view of America's development, not the historical reality.


Before Americans cast stones at aggrandizing Serbians, they should realize that the United States was built through conquest and force, not by conciliation and compromise. The founders described the United States not as a country but as an empire. For reasons of national security, economic development and racial chauvinism, they embarked on a course of imperial expansion. This meant taking land that belonged to others, subjecting foreign peoples to American rule and crushing separatist movements.


The process began with genocidal wars against American Indians, a 300-year conflict that impels today's historians to characterize American expansion on the continent as "invasion" rather than "settlement." These wars, one of the longest series of ethnic conflicts in modern history, were resolved not by power-sharing or the other "reasonable" solutions today's foreign policy experts recommend, but by obliteration. As one congressman asked with resignation in 1830, describing the United States' destruction of Native Americans as the price of its development, "What is history but the obituary of nations?" Also crucial to America's development was the Mexican War, in which a democratic United States swallowed two-fifths of the republic of Mexico, that is California and Texas and all the territory in between. (Who said that republics were less likely to engage in wars of expansion than kingdoms? WFI Editor)


In decrying the merciless use of force in Kosovo, Americans seem not to realize that their own Civil War was hardly different. The United States nearly destroyed itself in the central episode of its nation-building - a brutal and irreconcilable nationalist-separatist conflict in which one vision of America crushed another. Although the Constitution (of 1787), like many of the means lauded by foreign policy analysts today to forestall civil conflict, attempted to equalize sectional differences by guaranteeing the South a disproportionate voice in national politics, this could not work in the long run for the United States. The arrangement foundered as the North's power and ambitions grew, and the South refused to become subordinate to or dependent on an opposing, and increasingly threatening, ideology and political economy.


In the end the North's vision - of a powerful centralized state, a so-called "Yankee Leviathan," deemed necessary for capitalist development - emerged as the nation's. This vision, despite a persistent mythology promulgated by the victors, was triumphant not because it was intellectually or morally superior; it prevailed, as the United States prevailed over Mexico 20 years earlier, through superior force.


The U.S. foreign policy community self-righteously proclaims that America should pressure and tutor societies plagued by ethnic, nationalist and separatist wars to adopt "reasonable" solutions to these conflicts. But the history we brandish as a light to nations is largely a sanctimonious tissue of myth and self-infatuation. Taken without illusion, our national experience gives us no right to preach, but it should prepare us to understand the brutal realities of nation-building, at home and abroad.


SOURCE: Excerpted from the 30 March, 1999, issue of the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition, COMMENTARY section, from an article entitled, "We Forget Our Own Cruel Past," by Benjamin Schwarz, a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and the former executive director of World Policy Journal.


(WFI EDITOR: After the Cold War and the collapse of America's primary opponent, the Pentagon came up with a new basis for justifying maintaining the defense establishment at Cold War levels: America must be prepared to fight two separate wars on two fronts at the same time. Never mind that this strategy has proven fatal to regimes right down through the centuries, such as when Great Britain had to fight a multi-front war during the American Revolution, against America, France and Spain. Or when Napoleon tried to fight Russia and Britain.


What is not so readily apparent today is that America is fighting a low-intensity war in Iraq, even as it begins fighting the crumbling Yugoslavia. The problem with all of these conflicts is that American strategists have no real strategy. The Gulf War ended without a clear victory, and today we have to wage a continuous war against Iraq as a result. The same is happening in Yugoslavia. There is no clear-cut objective. This is the problem with government by opinion poll, and committees of "experts." The president needed a foreign adventure to show that he could still lead, and what better than to invoke morality against a monster like Milosevic. The only problem is that innocent people in Serbia will die. The former Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, Panic, stated that Milosevic was at an all time low in popular support, and needed a foreign attack to bolster his flagging nationalist movement. Ironically, Clinton, who also needed a foreign opportunity to revive his "legacy," was able to oblige him, dropping bombs in the name of morality. If Yugoslavia had been a constitutional monarchy, Milosevic would have been removed before the bombs dropped. Now we all have to live with the mistakes of these republics, as they commit atrocities to rally masses behind them.)

New York money woes to bring spending cuts

NEW YORK (AP) -- The economic downturn and slumping real estate market have left the city facing a $2.3 billion budget shortfall in the next fiscal year and even larger deficits in subsequent years, the mayor warned.


New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city will cut spending by 5.6 percent.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city would prepare for the gloomy forecast by cutting spending 5.6 percent and delaying some capital outlays.

"In the months ahead, we'll have to keep a close eye on the economic indicators and take whatever steps are necessary to keep our budget for fiscal year 2009 in balance and keep our city moving forward," he said Monday, presenting the city's financial plan to the state Financial Control Board.

The bad news was to continue Tuesday when Gov. David Paterson prepared to discuss the state's financial straits.

As for the city, Bloomberg said that even if he rescinds the 7 percent property tax cut that was approved a year ago, the city faces budget shortfalls of $5.2 billion in fiscal year 2011 and $5.1 billion in fiscal year 2012.

"Every economic indicator says that we have a problem and that we should act in advance of the problem," he said.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in his own report released Monday that Wall Street, which drives the city's economy, lost a record $11.7 billion in 2007 and another $22.4 billion in the first quarter of 2008.


He said the city expects Wall Street to cut 25,000 jobs from its recent peak of 188,000 jobs in September 2007, a 13.4 percent decline.

DiNapoli projected city budget gaps of $4 billion in fiscal year 2010 and $7.4 billion in each of the succeeding years. Board members pointed to retiree health benefits as a ballooning expense for the city.

DiNapoli commended Bloomberg for his "conservative approach" to the city's four-year financial plan. "I'm confident the mayor and the City Council understand the need for prudent fiscal practices," DiNapoli said.

Board member Jeffrey Halis, president of Tyndall Management, projected health coverage for retired city workers to reach more than $85 billion by fiscal year 2012.

"We urge the city to develop a strategic plan to deal with this growing problem," he said.

A magnitude-5.8 earthquake has struck just east of Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake's epicenter was about 2 miles southwest of Chino Hills and about 5 miles southeast of Diamond Bar, the USGS said. The center was about 7.6 miles (12 km) deep. A 5.8 magnitude quake is considered by the USGS to be "moderate," which can cause slight damage to buildings and other structures.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was indicted Tuesday on charges that he lied about receiving gifts worth more than $250,000 from an Alaska-based energy company on whose behalf he intervened in Washington.


Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury.

1 of 2 The indictment, returned Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Washington, says the veteran lawmaker "schemed to conceal" the fact that Veco paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work on his home.

The indictment follows a wide-ranging investigation into ties between the company and lawmakers in Alaska.

The indictment does not accuse Stevens of accepting bribes, Matt Friedrich, the acting assistant attorney general, emphasized in a news conference announcing the charges.

"Bribery is not charged in this case," he said, adding that such a charge "requires proof of a specific quid pro quo. This indictment does not allege that."

But it does accuse Stevens and his staff of receiving requests from Veco for help in Washington and acting on some of them.

In the 28-page indictment, Stevens was charged with seven counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.

Stevens has not yet commented on the indictment.


The indictment says the home improvements provided by Veco and its chief executive officer, Bill Allen, a "personal friend of Stevens," included a new first floor, a new garage, a new first- and second-story wraparound deck, new plumbing and new wiring.

Allen gave Stevens a new 1999 Land Rover worth $44,000 in exchange for $5,000 and Stevens' 1964 Ford Mustang, which was worth less than $20,000 at the time, the indictment charged.

In exchange, Stevens "could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of Veco," one of the state's largest employers, the indictment charges.

Allen pleaded guilty in May 2007, paying out more than $400,000 "in corrupt payments" to Alaska officials, the Department of Justice said in announcing the Stevens indictment.

Allen is cooperating with the Department of Justice as part of his plea agreement, Friedrich said. Veco was acquired by another company, CH2M Hill, in September 2007.

The indictment does not restrict Stevens' ability to vote in the Senate, speak on the Senate floor or participate in committee work.

Reacting to the indictment, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said it was up to Senate Republicans to decide if any punishment was warranted.

"I, of course, have served with Sen. Stevens my entire congressional career," Reid said. "It's a sad day for him, us. But I believe in the American system of justice that he is presumed innocent.

"As far as what's going to happen in the Republican caucus, that's up to them. ... How they handle Stevens is certainly up to them. It is not our responsibility. I'll cooperate in any way that I can."

Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican, recalled that he and Stevens were veterans of World War II and that "he was a hero and a fighter, and he's been a fighter for this country since then -- a fighter for his state ever since and a strong leader in the Senate.

"So all I can say is I hope this can turn out fairly consistent with the law and good decision," Warner said.

Another Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said, "I have known Ted Stevens for 28 years, and I have always found him to be impeccably honest.

"I don't know there is anything -- any stronger comment that can be made, and that is my comment," he said.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat who is one of Stevens' closest friends in the Senate, said he thinks Stevens is innocent of the charges against him.

"I won't say I'm surprised," Inouye said of the indictments. "He's been under questioning for some time." He said he hadn't spoken to Stevens since news of the indictments broke.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate ethics subcommittee, said she would release a statement later Tuesday.

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents searched Stevens' Alaska home in July 2007 in connection with the investigation, which has snared two oil company executives and a state lobbyist, among others.

At the time, he urged constituents "not to form conclusions based upon incomplete and sometimes incorrect reports in the media."

The 84-year-old senator is a former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and is renowned for his prowess in steering federal funds to his vast, sparsely populated state.

Stevens is the oldest Republican senator and second in age only to Sen. Robert Byrd, the 90-year-old Democrat from West Virginia.

He has represented Alaska in Washington since 1968 and is up for re-election in November. He is the longest-serving Republican senator in history.

(CNN) — The nation's largest labor conglomerate says it's set to launch a major effort Tuesday to dispel ongoing rumors surrounding Barack Obama that continue to percolate more than 18 months after the Illinois senator launched his White House bid.

The organization is set to send out mailers to more than 600,000 union homes in crucial battleground states — including Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — that directly address the false rumors that he is not a Christian, refuses to wear a flag pin on his lapel, and was not sworn into the Senate on the Bible.

It also beats back claims the Democratic presidential candidate was not born in America and refuses to put his hand on his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. (view the mailer )

A majority of AFL-CIO's membership is considered part of the working-class demographic — the key voting bloc that overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton in the prolonged Democratic primary race and is likely to play a key role in the battleground states this November.
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The AFL-CIO is also sending out a second mailer that features testimonials for union workers in support of Obama's policies on job creation, health care reform, and worker's rights. (View the second mailer )

"The mailers are the leading edge of a massive campaign in August to clearly define Sen. Obama among millions of union voters and to contrast the policies and plans of Sen. Obama with those of Sen. McCain," AFL-CIO spokesman Steve Smith said.

That massive campaign will include a large-scale mobilization effort in 24 states, targeting 13 million union voters. The organization will also deliver more than 1 million fliers touting Obama's record at work sites across the country in August.

(CNN) -- A North Carolina man has been charged with murdering a pregnant Fort Bragg soldier, police said Tuesday.


Spc. Megan Lynn Touma, 23, was found dead in a hotel near her Army base.

Fayetteville detectives arrested Edgar Patino, a fellow soldier, at his home in Hope Mills, North Carolina, about 15 miles south of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

He is accused of killing Spc. Megan Lynn Touma, 23, found dead on June 21 in a hotel near Fort Bragg.

She was seven-months pregnant at the time of her death, authorities said.

Touma, a five-year veteran of the Army, had served with the U.S. Army Dental Activity Clinic in Bamberg, Germany, and in Fort Drum, New York, before her stint at Fort Bragg.

Two of Touma's friends told CNN that Touma and Patino had been stationed together in Germany and dated in the past.

Touma's friends said Patino proposed to her in Germany before Touma learned, on her return to North Carolina, that Patino was still married.


The two friends, female soldiers who said they were stationed with Touma in Germany, asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Touma is is the second female soldier from Fort Bragg to die under suspicious circumstances since June.

Army 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc was killed in early July. Her Fayetteville, North Carolina, apartment was torched July 10 and her charred body was found nearby a few days later.

Her husband, Marine Cpl. John Wimunc was charged with arson and first degree murder in connection with the death. Another Marine, Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden, was charged with arson and felony accessory after the fact to first-degree murder

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Army sergeant complained about faulty wiring in Iraq months before another soldier was fatally electrocuted in a shower in the same quarters, according to documents released Wednesday by a congressional committee.


Ryan Maseth, a 24-year-old Green Beret, died in his shower January 2.

1 of 2 Sgt. Justin Hummer filled out a work order in July 2007 that warned, "Pipes have voltage, get shocked in the shower."

Hummer told investigators from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that at least once, he had to use a wooden stick to turn off the shower "because the electrical current was so strong."

Army records show that electricians from contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root found "several safety issues concerning the improper grounding of electrical devices" in February 2007.

In January 2008, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth was electrocuted in a shower in the same quarters where Hummer lived the previous summer. A follow-up investigation "found nearly all of the same problems and deficiencies that had been reported one year previously," a committee report states.

Maseth and Hummer had been based at a Saddam Hussein-era palace complex near the Baghdad airport. Hummer's concerns were not shared with the Defense Department's inspector-general's office.

That office concluded that there was "no credible evidence" that KBR and the Pentagon agency that oversees defense contractors were aware of electrical problems at the facility, committee Chairman Henry Waxman said during a Wednesday hearing.

But the Pentagon's inspector-general, Gordon Heddell, said that his investigators "have absolved no one" and that he was not aware of the work orders Hummer filed.


"They're certainly very dramatic, and they certainly are documents that we will have to spend a lot of time looking at," he said.

Waxman, D-California, has led a House investigation into a series of electrical accidents in Iraq that he said may have been responsible for the deaths of 19 U.S. troops and contractors. But in the first appearance by a KBR executive before the panel, the company's Baghdad engineering and construction manager blamed the Army for the deaths.

"The reality is that KBR's actions were not the cause of any of these terrible accidents," Tom Bruni said.

KBR is a former subsidiary of the oilfield-services giant Halliburton, once led by Vice President Dick Cheney, and it holds the largest U.S. service contract in Iraq.

Bruni's argument drew sharp questions from Rep. Tom Davis, the committee's ranking Republican, who pressed him on who was responsible for the deaths.

"I think that the Army has some responsibility in this," Bruni said.

"Well, if they have some, who would have the rest?" the Virginia representative asked. "Just conceivably, who else could have it, if the Army just has some responsibility? Would KBR have some then?"

"The responsibility lies with the Army," Bruni replied.

He said the Army never authorized the electrical repairs identified in early 2007 or in a follow-up report that November. But Waxman said the Army had been warning of electrical hazards in Iraq since 2004, including one fatality similar to Maseth's.

A report that year warned U.S. commanders that contractors must properly ground electrical systems. "But despite these warnings, few actions were taken by Pentagon leadership or KBR officials," Waxman said.

Jeffrey Parsons, executive director of the Army Contracting Command, said the service does not have the expertise to adequately oversee contractors' electrical work.

The service is working with the Corps of Engineers "to obtain this expertise," Parsons said.

Maseth's parents have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in a Pennsylvania court against KBR.

Despite the attention focused on the issue by Waxman's committee, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, said that poor wiring remains "a genuine danger to our men and women serving in Iraq."

"My office has heard from several active-duty soldiers a report that as recently as three weeks ago, soldiers in Iraq continued to receive electrical shocks on a regular basis as they carry out their daily activities, including taking showers," Casey told the committee.

World's largest publicly traded oil firm makes $1,485.55 a second in the quarter, but misses forecasts.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: July 31, 2008: 11:07 AM EDT


Soaring oil prices once again help the world's largest publicly traded oil company post record profits.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter.

That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second.

That barely beat the previous corporate record of $11.66 billion, also set by Exxon in the fourth quarter of 2007.

But Exxon (XOM, Fortune 500) profit fell short of Wall Street estimates.

Analysts predicted the company, the world's largest publicly traded oil firm, would make $12.1 billion in profit on $144.4 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

Exxon shares fell about 2% in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Excluding money set aside for a recent damage award related to the Valdez tanker spill back in 1989, Exxon made $11.97 billion in the quarter.

Pricey oil cuts both ways
Exxon was both helped and hurt by high oil prices.

As an oil producer, the company makes a lot of money when crude prices rise. Exxon made $10 billion from selling oil in the latest quarter, up nearly 70%.

But as a refiner, it must also buy crude oil to turn into gasoline. Exxon actually buys more crude than it sells.

Profits from its refining business totaled $1.6 billion in the quarter, less than half of what they were last year.

"Record crude oil and natural gas realizations were partly offset by lower refining and chemical margins, lower production volumes and higher operating costs," Exxon said in a statement.

While oil prices in the quarter were nearly twice as high as the same time last year, gasoline prices only rose about 30%.

That's one reason why the stock of major oil companies - such as Exxon, Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) and BP (BP) - that both produce and refine crude has been relatively flat over the last year, despite the runup in oil prices.

Meanwhile, shares of companies that mostly produce oil, like Anadarko and Apache, have soared in the last year, while shares in refiners like Valero and Sunoco have tumbled.

Where the money goes
Exxon spent $7 billion in the second quarter finding and producing more new oil, up 38% from last year. Still, oil and natural gas production from the company fell 8%. Even excluding special events such as a labor strike in Nigeria and seizure of fields in Venezuela, production slipped 3%.

The company returned $10.1 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks, 12% more than last year.

On an earnings-per-share basis, Exxon made $2.22. That was still lower than analysts had expected, but 24% higher than last year, a gain Exxon attributed to its aggressive stock buyback plan.

The big international oil companies have been criticized for plowing much of their profits back into stock buybacks and other programs to benefit shareholders, as opposed to exploring for more oil which could bring down the price of crude for everyone.

"While oil companies are earning record profits and gas prices are soaring, the largest oil companies have invested more resources in stock buybacks than U.S. production," said Congressional Democrats in a press release shortly after Exxon announced its earnings.

Other critics charge the oil companies with deliberately restricting production in an attempt to keep prices high.

The industry says it's investing as much as it can in finding new oil, but is having a hard time given the shortage of workers and equipment in the sector.

Recent efforts by countries such as Russia, Venezuela and Kazakhstan to gain greater control of their own domestic oil resources have also hampered the ability of international oil companies to increase production.

In addition to making hefty profits, Exxon also had a hefty tax bill. Worldwide, the company paid $10.5 billion in income taxes in the second quarter, $9.5 billion in sales taxes, and over $12 billion in what it called "other taxes."

Political backlash
With Americans paying nearly $4 a gallon for gas, oil company earnings have been political fodder of late.

Congressional Democrats said they are having a conference later in the day to call for an end to tax breaks for big oil firms.

Several bills have been introduced in Congress to enact a "windfall" profits tax on these earnings, or at the very least eliminate manufacturing tax exemption oil companies now enjoy. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama wants to tax oil companies at a special rate every time crude goes over $80 a barrel.

Most plans would either use this newfound tax money to fund investments in renewable energy, or give it to low income Americans struggling with high energy prices.

But so far those efforts have been blocked - mainly by Republicans - who say raising taxes on oil companies will only discourage investments in finding new oil and raise the price of crude.

(CNN) -- An evangelical preacher killed his wife several years ago and stuffed her body in a freezer after she caught him abusing their daughter, according to police and court documents.


Anthony Hopkins appeared in court Thursday to face murder, rape and incest charges.

1 of 3 Anthony Hopkins, 37, was arrested Monday night at the Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Jackson, Alabama, just after he had delivered a sermon to a congregation that included his seven other children, officials said.

He faces charges including murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and incest.

Hopkins was denied bail Thursday when he appeared before Mobile County District Judge George Hardesty. The case is set for arraignment next week, Hardesty's clerk said.

The case began Monday, when the daughter, now 19, went to the Mobile Police Department's Child Advocacy Center and reported that she had been sexually abused by Hopkins since she was 11 years old, according to an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant of the preacher's home in Mobile.

The affidavit related the daughter's story as follows:

Her mother, Arletha Hopkins, 36, caught her father abusing her in a bathroom in November 2004. Afterward, her parents argued, and her mother locked her father out of the house. The father came to the daughter's window and asked her to let him in, and she did so.

The next morning, her father asked her to help him hide her mother's body in the freezer in the laundry room of the home.

The girl said she moved out of the home about two weeks ago and was living with a neighbor. She told police that her mother's body was still in the freezer.

When authorities went to the home, no one was there, as Hopkins and the other children were at the church. A body was found in the freezer, the affidavit says.

Although police think the body is that of Arletha Hopkins, an identification is not expected until early next week, Mobile Police spokesman Officer Eric Gallichant said Thursday. Watch Nancy Grace's report »

Mobile Police Chief Phillip Garrett had said that an identification and autopsy results would take a few days: "obviously, the body was in a freezer."

He said he was not sure of the body's condition or whether it was intact, as upon seeing the body, authorities immediately sealed the chest-type freezer. The body had been covered in the unit, he said, and the entire appliance was taken to the state Department of Forensic Science.

At the Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ, Hopkins was preaching at a revival, pastor Beverly Jackson told CNN affiliate WKRG. His message, she said, was about forgiveness and not passing judgment -- and at one point, he turned to his seven children and asked them to forgive him his past, present and future.

Police allowed Hopkins to finish his sermon before arresting him, Jackson said. She said she asked police why they were arresting him and was told, "he murdered his wife."

She said Hopkins had told her his wife died four years ago while giving birth to their youngest son.

Attempts to reach Jackson on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Authorities moved quickly on the daughter's accusations to make sure the children still in the household were OK, Garrett said. They were placed in the custody of child welfare authorities. The next-oldest child is a 17-year-old female, he said.

All eight were the children of Arletha Hopkins, and Anthony Hopkins fathered six of them, he said.

An investigation has not found any record of Arletha Hopkins' existence since 2004, according to the affidavit. Asked how long police think the body had been in the freezer, Garrett said, "I'm thinking that she's probably been there for a number of years."

He said Anthony Hopkins did not have a regular church but apparently preached in various areas around the South.

"Part of the mystery here is that, apparently, none of these children were in school" but were being home-schooled, Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson said. "Home schooling, under this situation, removes almost any chances of us catching up with these kinds of things until there is a catastrophe."

Pastor Jerry Porter said he used to preach with Hopkins at his church, the Williams Street Holiness Church, and knew the family.

Arletha Hopkins "was very quiet," he told Mobile television station and CNN affiliate WPMI. "She was kind of secluded. She'd talk, but not much."

Anthony Hopkins, he said, made statements that led him to believe all was not well at home. "He always used to tell me ... 'You're blessed in the fact that you have a wife that supports you and what you're trying to do for God,' " Porter said.

He said Arletha Hopkins disappeared shortly after the couple's youngest child was born. As rumors swirled, Porter said, he confronted Hopkins and asked whether his wife was dead. Hopkins "wouldn't give me an answer," he said.

After that, Porter said, he banned him from the church but remained on good terms with him.

He said he visited the family a few years ago, and their home was clean and well-kept.

"It was the ideal family. I mean, the children were so respectful, just so easygoing," Porter said. "Didn't seem to be no stress at all. Never got that impression, never."


The children, he said, "loved their dad. They were very close to him."

Of Hopkins' preaching ability, Porter said, "he was a bulls-eye prophet. If he told you something, you could pretty much bank on it."

Employers trim payrolls for seventh straight month in July, as jobless rate rises to 5.7%, a full percentage point higher than year ago.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Employers cut jobs in July for the seventh straight month, while the unemployment rate hit a four-year high, according to a government report released Friday.

The Labor Department reported a net loss of 51,000 jobs in the month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had been forecasting a loss of 75,000 jobs in the latest report.

The latest report brought job losses this year to 463,000. The June job loss number was revised to 51,000.

The unemployment rate rose to 5.7% from a 5.5% reading in June. It was the worst reading since March 2004, and slightly worse than economists' forecast of a 5.6% rate.

The rate has now jumped a full percentage point from a year ago.

But the 5.7% unemployment rate tells only part of the problem facing job seekers. It doesn't include those who have become discouraged from looking for work, or those who have accepted part-time jobs when they want to be working full time.

Counting the unemployed or underemployed, the rate rises to 10.3%, the first time that measure has hit double figures since November 2003.

Those who are out of work are also taking longer to find new jobs. There are now 1.7 million people out of work for six months or more, which is up 6% from a month early and is 28% above year-ago levels. Nearly one in five people counted as unemployed have now been out of work for six months or more.

"It is becoming increasingly hard for Americans to find work in this economy," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. "As the construction, manufacturing, and now retail sectors are reeling from job losses, too many workers are being forced to reduce their hours and take part-time jobs just to make ends meet."

Tig Gilliam, chief executive of Adecco Group North America, a unit of the world's largest employment firm, said there's few signs of a turnaround in the labor market on the horizon.

"I think we're going to see more of the same for at least another quarter, and it could be the rest of the year," he said.

The job losses also show spreading weakness in the labor market.

Construction lost 22,000 jobs as housing continued to suffer, while manufacturing employment plunged 35,000 jobs, as automakers cut production in the face of weak sales.

But the job losses were spread far beyond the battered construction and auto industries. Retailers cut 17,000 jobs, while business and professional services lost 24,000 positions.

Problems in housing and credit markets continued to hit the job base as commercial banks, Wall Street firms and real estate firms cut more than 4,000 between them.

But there were a number of service sector employers outside of finance and real estate that saw problems as well. Publishing lost 3,400 jobs, due to continued problems at newspapers and magazine. Airlines also cut 900 jobs.

Even with gains in health care and a narrow increase in leisure and hospitality employers, service sector companies cut a total of 30,000 jobs. And the service sector is the broad area of the economy that provides more than 80% of the non-government jobs.

Government employers added 25,000 jobs to mitigate the losses in the private sector. But Gilliam said that's not necessarily a positive for the economy.

"It's good to have the government adding jobs in the short term, but that's not an long-term solution either," he said.

In another sign of weakness, the average hourly work week fell 0.1 hour to 33.6 hours. The average hourly wage edged up 6 cents to $18.06, bringing salaries up 3.4% over the year-ago levels. That's well below the 5% rise in overall prices paid by consumers over the 12 months ending in June, meaning that paychecks are not keeping up with costs.

Both presidential candidates cited the weak jobs report as an argument for their economic proposals.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called for another economic stimulus package, on top of the one passed earlier this year that sent $600 checks to single taxpayers and $1,200 to married taxpayers in order to help support spending.

Obama called for $1,000 "energy rebates" that would go out this fall, as well as a $50 billion in public works projects and help to state governments. He criticized his the proposal of his opponent, John McCain, to eliminate the gasoline tax.

"If we want to create jobs, we should do more to make work pay for ordinary Americans, not boost the profits of oil companies," he said. "It's time to restore fairness and balance to our economy and we can start by passing the emergency economic plan that I'm proposing today."

McCain issued a statement saying a jobs plan must help small businesses.

"Unlike Senator Obama, I do not believe that raising taxes is the answer to our economic problems," he said. "There is no surer way to force jobs overseas than to raise taxes on businesses. The American people cannot afford economic policies that will take us backward."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Water with trace amounts of radioactivity may have leaked for months from a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine as it traveled around the Pacific to ports in Guam, Japan and Hawaii, Navy officials told CNN on Friday.


The USS Houston arrives in Pearl Harbor for routine maintenance, during which the leak was found.

The leak was found on the USS Houston, a Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine, after it went to Hawaii for routine maintenance last month, Navy officials said.

Navy officials said the amount of radiation leaked into the water was virtually undetectable. But the Navy alerted the Japanese government because the submarine had been docked in Japan.

The problem was discovered last month when a build-up of leaking water popped a covered valve and poured onto a sailor's leg while the submarine was in dry dock.

An investigation found a valve was slowly dripping water from the sub's nuclear power plant. The water had not been in direct contact with the nuclear reactor, Navy officials said.

Officials with knowledge of the incident could not quantify the amount of radiation leaked but insisted it was "negligible" and an "extremely low level." The total amount leaked while the sub was in port in Guam, Japan and Hawaii was less than a half of a microcurie (0.0000005 curies), or less than what is found in a 50-pound bag of lawn and garden fertilizer, the officials said.

The sailor who was doused, a Houston crew member, tested negative for radiation from the water, according to Navy officials.

Since March, the Houston had crisscrossed the western Pacific, spending a week in Japan and several weeks in both Guam and Hawaii, Navy officials said. See a timeline of the sub's movements »

The Navy on Friday notified the Japanese government of the leak, the officials said, and told them it was possible the ship had been leaking while in port in Sasebo, Japan, in March.

While Japan has agreed to allow U.S. nuclear-powered ships in Japanese ports, the decision was a not popular in Japan.

The Houston incident comes at a time when the Navy is trying to smooth over a problem with a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

The USS George Washington was due to replace the aging, conventionally powered USS Kitty Hawk this summer as the United States' sole carrier based in Japan.

While en route to Japan this May, a massive fire broke out on the George Washington, causing $70 million in damage. The fire was blamed on crew members smoking near improperly stored flammable materials.

There was no damage or threat to the nuclear reactor, but the ship was diverted to San Diego, California, for repairs. It now is expected to arrive in Japan at the end of September.


The Navy this week fired the captain and his deputy, saying an investigation into the fire led to a lack of confidence in the leadership of both men.

Just two weeks ago, thousands of Japanese protested the pending arrival of the George Washington.

(CNN) -- A man accused of kidnapping his daughter was taken into custody by the FBI on Saturday, and his daughter is with authorities, an FBI agent said.


Police in Boston, Massachusetts, say accused kidnapper Clark Rockefeller had several aliases.

An anonymous tip led authorities to an apartment in Baltimore, Maryland, where Clark Rockefeller was staying with his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh Storrow Boss, said Edward Davis, the Boston, Massachusetts, police commissioner.

The apartment, in Baltimore's Mount Vernon section, was near a marina where Rockefeller's 26-foot catamaran was docked, Davis said.

Investigators tricked Rockefeller into leaving his apartment by calling him to tell him that his boat was taking on water. As soon as he left the building, FBI agents arrested him and found Reigh in the apartment, Davis said at a news conference in Boston. Watch Davis describe the arrest »

Reigh "appears to be unharmed" and was "excited" to see the law enforcement officials, Davis said. Her mother, Sandra Boss, is en route to Baltimore to pick her up.

Rockefeller, 48, allegedly abducted the girl during a supervised visit last Sunday.

A social worker overseeing the visit told police that Rockefeller was carrying his blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter as they walked down a street in Boston, Massachusetts, when a black SUV pulled up next to them.

Rockefeller jumped into the vehicle, and it sped away with the girl inside, too, said the social worker, who was dragged a short distance as he tried to hold on to the SUV. He was treated for minor injuries.

Rockefeller faces charges of felony custodial kidnapping, assault and battery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Authorities said they would seek to extradite him to Boston this week.

Since the girl's disappearance, authorities had tried to track Rockefeller's movements. At first, they believed he was heading to a yacht or other boat on Long Island, New York, based on information from a woman described as a "personal relation" of Rockefeller's.

Boston police also acknowledged a reported sighting of the two in the Caribbean.

The girl's mother released a YouTube video earlier this week in which she pleaded with her ex-husband to return their daughter.

The couple divorced in 2007. Boss lives in London, England, where she is a partner with McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting company, the Times of London reported.

The paper reported that Boss was granted custody of her daughter and that supervision of Rockefeller's visits had been made mandatory because she was concerned Rockefeller would try to run away with the child.

Sunday was apparently Rockefeller's first supervised visit with his daughter.


Boston police said Rockefeller may not even be the suspect's real name. He has been known to use the aliases J.P. Clark Rockefeller, James Frederick, Clark Mill Rockefeller and Michael Brown, police said.

The London newspaper reported that Rockefeller told Boss he was a member of the wealthy Rockefeller oil family, descended from industrialist John D. Rockefeller and his only brother, William, who co-founded the dynasty. But the Rockefeller family issued a statement Tuesday denying any connection.

by Mark Medley
By now, you're certainly have had nightmares about the Montauk Monster story that Gawker broke on Tuesday. Is it a turtle missing its shell? A dog thrown in the ocean by its evil owner? A nutria? A viral marketing campaign for Cloverfield 2? Someone call a cryptozoologist, on the double.


This isn't the first monster to grip our collective consciousness -- there's Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Chupacabra -- but these are certainly not the only famous cryptids.

• Jersey Devil -- Ever wondered where the NHL's New Jersey Devils get their name from? This creature reportedly has a long, slender neck, hooves, and wings, with its height ranging from three to seven feet. Back in the 19th century the devil was blamed for the killing of livestock. More recently, the creature popped up in an episode of The X-Files.


• Jackalope -- Part rabbit, part antelope, all trouble. It lost all its mystique when it was repeatedly featured on the very unfunny America's Funniest People -- and named Jack Ching Bada-Bing -- in the early 1990s. Thanks Dave Coulier.


• The Mothman -- A large, moth-like creature that was spotted in West Virginia in the late 1960s. Richard Gere can't be wrong.

• Goatman -- A half man-half goat creature first spotted in Maryland in the late 1950s. Since then, there have been sightings as far south as Florida and as far north as Ontario.

• Dropa -- A race of mini-aliens said to be discovered in China in 1938.

• Mokèlé-mbèmbé -- The African equivalent to the Loch Ness Monster. A dinosaur the size of a small elephant, there have been several expeditions -- right up until this year -- to try and locate it.


• The Beast of Bray Road -- The first sightings of this werewolf-like creature were in Wisconsin in the 1980s. After a spate of sightings, one local reporter wrote a book about the beast.

CNN) -- Barack Obama on Monday called for tapping into strategic oil reserves as part of his plan to provide relief from high gas prices.


Barack Obama says he has a plan to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil.

Obama has previously said he was opposed to using the strategic reserves.

Speaking before a crowd in Lansing, Michigan, the senator from Illinois said the country's "addiction to oil ... is one of the most dangerous and urgent threats this nation has ever faced."

Obama unveiled his energy plan, which includes a windfall profits tax on big oil corporations that would be used to provide a $1,000 rebate to people struggling with high energy costs.

"You won't hear me say this too often, but I couldn't agree more with the explanation that Sen. McCain offered a few weeks ago. He said, 'Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long term about the future of the country,' " Obama said.

"What Sen. McCain neglected to mention was that during those 30 years, he was in Washington for 26 of them. And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," Obama said.

The Democratic presidential candidate said he wants to eliminate the need for oil from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 years.

"To do this, we will invest $150 billion over the next decade ... and leverage billions more in private capital to build a new energy economy that harnesses American energy and creates 5 million new American jobs," he said.

Obama outlined three steps he'd take to meet that goal:


Build fuel-efficient cars and have one million 150 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on the roads within six years


Require that 10 percent of the country's energy come from renewable sources by the end of his first term


Call on businesses, government and the American people to meet the goal of reducing the demand for electricity 15 percent by the end of the next decade.

"So there is a real choice in this election -- a choice about what kind of future we want for this country and this planet," Obama said.

Obama reiterated his charge that McCain has ties to big oil -- saying "he raised more than $1 million from big oil just last month."

The Obama campaign made that accusation in a television ad released Monday.

The ad says that "after one president in the pocket of big oil, we can't afford another."

McCain surrogate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney blasted the ad as being "dishonest."

"That's really sad," he said on CNN's "American Morning." "I didn't know that Obama had stooped to dishonesty." Watch Romney call Obama 'dishonest' »

Romney said it was dishonest because corporations cannot give contributions to candidates and because employees of oil companies have also donated to Obama.

The Washington Post reported that McCain received $1.1 million from oil and gas industry executives and employees in June -- three-quarters of which came after he called for lifting the ban on offshore drilling on June 16.

Obama's ad sources the Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics, which showed that Obama has received about $345,000 from the oil and gas industry this year.

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign made fun of Obama's energy proposal Monday by distributing tire pressure gauges to McCain's traveling press corps.

The gag was meant to mock Obama's remark last week that "making sure your tires are properly inflated" could help conserve gasoline.

Before departing for Pennsylvania, Mark Salter, a top McCain adviser, told the press on board McCain's plane that campaign staffers had brought along copies of Obama's energy plan for reporters to study on the flight.

After takeoff, Salter re-emerged with his punch line, passing out the pressure gauges reading "Obama's energy plan" to the journalists on the flight.

The Republican National Committee said McCain supporters in Michigan were planning to distribute the same gauges at Obama's energy speech in Lansing today.

The campaign also blasted Obama for his apparent shift on strategic oil reserves.

Obama last month said he did not think the country should use the strategic oil reserves "at this point."

"I have said and, in fact, supported a congressional resolution that said we should suspend putting more oil into the strategic oil reserve, but the strategic oil reserve I think has to be reserved for a genuine emergency," he said on July 7.

McCain's campaign said that Obama's stance was strictly political, not sound policy.

"Tapping the strategic oil reserve is not a substitute for a real plan to increase supply through additional drilling and nuclear power. The strategic oil reserve exists for America's national security strategy -- not Barack Obama's election strategy," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

"The last release of oil from the strategic reserve came in response to Hurricane Katrina, but the only crisis that has developed since Barack Obama last rejected this idea 28 days ago is a slide in his poll numbers."

In a conference call before Obama's speech, his campaign said Obama looked at the issue and "he recognizes that Americans are suffering."

"This is one occasion where we need to look at this strategically and he made the decision that we need to tap the strategic petroleum reserves," Obama's energy policy director, Heather Zichal, said in a conference call with reporters Monday.


Obama's address in Lansing comes as he kicks of "Energy Week" -- with stops planned in Ohio and Indiana where gas prices and rising heat bills will be on the agenda. Watch more on Obama's new energy plan »

McCain is expected to spend Monday focusing on small business while in Pennsylvania. He'll turn his attention to energy at an event in Michigan this week. On Tuesday, he'll visit the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant outside Detroit for an event promoting his call for an increase in similar plants.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iraq is raking in more money from oil exports than it is spending, amassing a projected four-year budget surplus of up to $80 billion, U.S. auditors reported Tuesday.


Oil accounted for 94 percent of the Iraq's revenue from 2005 to 2007, a U.S. report says.

1 of 2 Leading members of Congress, noting that Washington is paying for reconstruction in Iraq, expressed outrage at the assessment. One called the findings "inexcusable."

"We should not be paying for Iraqi projects while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank, including outrageous profits from $4-a-gallon gas prices in the U.S.," said Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We should require that U.S. taxpayers be reimbursed for the cost of large projects."

Baghdad had a $29 billion budget surplus between 2005 to 2007. With the price of crude roughly doubling in the past year, Iraq's surplus for 2008 is expected to run between $38 billion and $50 billion, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The United States has put about $48 billion toward reconstruction since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, auditors reported. About $23 billion of that was spent on the oil and electricity industries, water systems and security.

Iraq spent $3.9 billion on those sectors from 2005 through April 2008, according to the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress. The ongoing fighting there, a shortage of trained staff and weak controls have made it difficult for the Iraqi government to spend its surplus on needed projects, the agency's report concluded.

Levin, a Michigan Democrat, has been an outspoken critic of the slow progress of reconstruction and an advocate of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. His criticism Tuesday was echoed by Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican who is the former chairman and now a leading member of Levin's committee.

Report: U.S. 'wasted' $560 million on Iraq repairs
"Despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue in the past five years, U.S. taxpayer money has been the overwhelming source of Iraq reconstruction funds," Warner said in a joint statement with Levin. "It is time for the sovereign government of Iraq, using its revenues, expenditures and surpluses, to fully assume the responsibility to provide essential services and improve the quality of life for the Iraqi people."

In its written response to the audit report, the Treasury Department said U.S. officials are working with Iraqis to address the issue, "and we believe progress is being made."

"The report shows Iraq's budget surplus is likely to grow significantly over the course of 2008, but it is equally important to realize that spending in Iraq is also increasing," Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Andy Baukol wrote to the GAO.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government submitted a $22 billion supplemental budget to the Iraqi parliament in July, including $8 billion in proposed capital expenditures, Baukol wrote.

The issue raised the hackles of several members of Congress earlier this year -- particularly because Bush administration officials said on the eve of the war that Iraqi oil money would pay for reconstruction.

In 2003, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told the House Appropriations Committee: "We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.''

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said Tuesday's report "is going to make a lot of American families very angry."

"The record gas prices they are paying have turned into an economic windfall for Iraq, but the Iraqi government isn't spending the money on rebuilding," said Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Levin spokeswoman Tara Andringa said the senator hopes to tighten rules governing U.S. expenditures on Iraqi reconstruction efforts in the next Pentagon authorization bill.

The Iraqi surplus has piled up even though the country's oil production has only recently matched prewar levels, according to the Brookings Institution's latest Iraq Index.

The country spent about 80 percent of its $29 billion operating budget in 2007, including public services and salaries, but only 28 percent of its $12 billion investment budget, the GAO found.

The export of crude oil accounted for 94 percent of Iraq's revenues from 2005 to 2007, the GAO reported.

TAMPA, Florida (AP) -- A convicted sex offender on trial in the slaying of a Tampa-area teen three years ago confessed to the killing in a jailhouse conversation with his mother, prosecutors said during opening arguments Wednesday.


David Lee Onstott, 40, is on trial in the 2005 slaying of Florida teen Sarah Lunde.

Prosecutors said jurors will get to hear the taped conversation in which David Lee Onstott whispers "I killed her" to his mother. Onstott, 40, is charged with attempted sexual battery and first-degree murder in the 2005 death of Sarah Lunde, 13.

Onstott's attorney said the tape is nearly inaudible, and he disputes that his client made the statement.

Prosecutor Sean Keefe said Onstott came to the house looking for Sarah's mother, whom he had dated. She wasn't there, and he ended up strangling the teen, the prosecutor said. Her body, weighted down with concrete, was found a week later in an abandoned fish pond near her home in Ruskin, south of Tampa.

With no physical or forensic evidence linking Onstott to the teen's slaying, prosecutors are left with his statements and other circumstantial evidence. One piece of evidence -- a beer bottle that prosecutors said links Onstott to the killing -- has never been found.

Keefe said that once Onstott was in custody, he made statements to various people admitting his guilt. Onstott's attorney is expected to attack those statements as vague and unreliable.

Onstott's attorney John Skye also told the jury that there were inconsistencies in statements from Sarah's brother, Andrew, and a friend who last saw Sarah alive when they left the house early on a Sunday morning to pick up food.

"The evidence is going to show that she left when her brother didn't come back with food ... and that somebody did commit homicide on her, and it had nothing to do with David Onstott," Skye said.

Maybe more significant is what the jury won't hear.

A taped confession Onstott gave to investigators was thrown out by a judge last year because he wasn't given proper access to an attorney.

Prosecutors backed off seeking the death penalty for Onstott after the judge threw out his taped confession. If he's convicted of first-degree murder, he would be sentenced to life in prison.

He was convicted of sexual battery in 1995, but that won't be revealed to the jury during the trial, which is expected to continue into next week.

Sarah's disappearance and the discovery of her body on April 16, 2005, attracted the attention of the nation, coming on the heels of the high-profile rape and slaying of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford by convicted sex offender John Couey in Homosassa, Florida, north of Tampa.

Run time: 03:41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-6yf2iVaWo   Posted on YouTube: July 11, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: August 14, 2008 By DU Member: DU GrovelBot Views on DU: 3786

 
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CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has agreed to put former rival Sen. Hillary Clinton's name in nomination at the Democratic National Convention this month.


Former rivals Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have called for unity at the Democratic convention.

The move is seen as a bid to heal the wounds of the bitter primary season.

Obama's campaign encouraged Clinton to put her name in roll call "as a show of unity and in recognition of the historic race she ran and the fact that she was the first woman to compete in all of our nation's primary contests," according to a statement from the Clinton and Obama press offices.

"They are both committed to winning back the White House and to ensuring that the voices of all 35 million people who participated in this historic primary election are respected and heard in Denver," the statement said. Watch why Clinton will get a vote at DNC »

Both sides came to the mutual decision that the move was the best path, a Democratic source with knowledge of the discussions said.

Clinton suspended her presidential campaign June 7 after a protracted primary battle with Obama. She urged the 18 million people who voted for her to get behind Obama, but not all of her backers have followed suit.

A Democratic Party operative familiar with convention plans said the move would bring "peace in the kingdom."

The source added the Obama campaign "always knew it would probably have to happen." "They have known since the day she dropped out that she wanted this 'for history,' " the operative said.

Clinton would not be the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for president at a major party convention. U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was placed in nomination at the 1964 Republican convention, and U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York was placed in nomination at the 1972 Democratic convention.

The senator from New York is scheduled to speak at the convention on the second night -- August 26. It's also the 88th anniversary of the day women were granted the right to vote.

Former Virginia Gov. and Senate candidate Mark Warner is delivering the keynote that night, and former President Clinton is set to speak the following night.

Both of the candidates have called for party unity, but Clinton also has made it clear that she wants the voices of her supporters heard.

Many die-hard Clinton fans have been hoping that her name would appear on the ballot.

At a gathering last month in California, Clinton suggested that doing so could provide a "catharsis" for her supporters.

"I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected," Clinton said.

Clinton said she wanted her supporters to leave the convention feeling their voices were heard and satisfied with Obama as the nominee.

"I mean everybody comes, and they want to yell and scream and have their opportunity, and I think that's all to the good, because then, you know, everybody can go, 'OK, great. Now let's go out and win.' "

The former first lady immediately shot down the notion that she might try to upstage Obama.

"Since the delegate count is so close ... what if you are called up for nomination and what if you do win by a narrow margin?" a questioner asked her at the event.

"That is not going to happen, not going to happen. Look, what we want to have happen is for Sen. Obama to be nominated by a unified convention of Democrats," she said.

"The best way I think -- and I could be wrong -- but the best way I think to do that is to have a strategy so that my delegates feel like they've had a role and that their legitimacy has been validated and that kind of ... you know, there is a catharsis," she said.

Because Clinton suspended her campaign instead of dropping out, she held on to the pledged delegates she earned in the primaries and caucuses. The superdelegates -- a group of party officials and leaders -- can endorse any candidate at any time.

Since announcing the suspension of her campaign, Clinton has gone to great lengths to promote party unity. She and Obama even made a joint appearance in Unity, New Hampshire, where both candidates received the same amount of votes in that state's primary in January.

The Democratic National Committee has detailed rules on placing a candidate's name in nomination. In short:


A candidate must give written consent.


He or she must have a petition with signatures of delegates representing at least 300 delegate votes.


No more than 50 votes on the petition may come from any one state/delegation (that means at least six states/delegations are required on the petition).



The names of the people giving the nomination speech and the seconding nomination speech also must be provided.


A total of 20 minutes is provided per candidate for the "presentation of his or her name" and for nominating and seconding speeches.

TYLER, Texas (AP) -- A Texas jury has found a man guilty of grooming children as young as 5 to perform sex shows at a swingers club.


Patrick Kelly, aka "Booger Red," sits in court as his trial begins in the Mineola Sex Club case.

1 of 3 Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly was convicted of engaging in organized criminal activity Thursday after jurors deliberated about two hours. He faces a possible life sentence. That was the sentence two others linked to the club received this year.

Prosecutors alleged that Kelly was a member of the so-called Mineola Swinger's Club, though the 41-year-old testified that he is innocent.

Kelly was accused of helping start a "kindergarten" where the children learned to have sex with each other and dance provocatively. From there, the children graduated to the sex club, which was a rented-out former day care and hospital in the tiny railroad town of Mineola.

To help the children perform, prosecutors say, the adults gave them Vicodin-like drugs passed off as "silly pills."

Mineola is about 85 miles east of Dallas.

Prosecutors told jurors that Kelly took part in "pure evil" by helping to run the swinger parties.

An 11-year-old girl testified about taking pills and playing "doctor" with her younger brother at the club, where prosecutors say the siblings performed for paying audiences.

"They were forced to do indescribable acts," Smith County prosecutor Joe Murphy said. "These acts were their life."

Kelly's defense team postponed its opening statements Tuesday, when the trial began after several delays. Molestation charges filed in June against a foster parent given custody of the victims stalled the trial for more than a month and began an almost constant filing of court motions.

During a sometimes anguishing four-hour cross-examination of the 11-year-old girl, defense attorneys asked about the pills she took and where she got them.

"Do you remember what they tasted like?" asked Tina Brumbelow, one of Kelly's attorneys.

"Old fish," the girl replied.

The girl, who wore a black bow in her hair and said she now likes watching television shows like "Hannah Montana," also led jurors through a sketch of the club she had drawn for investigators. In one box, in a child's scribbled handwriting, "SEX ROOM" was written.

John Cantrell, who was given custody of the girl and her siblings, is charged in California with sexually assaulting two of his foster children in 1990. Anthony Finkas, his attorney, has said Cantrell is innocent.

Margie Cantrell, John's wife, first told authorities in 2005 about what the children revealed to her about having been forced into sex inside the windowless rooms of the former day care.

Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Mayo were sentenced to life in prison after jurors deliberated less than five minutes in both trials. Four other defendants in the case are awaiting trial.

Today was a warm refreshing day and the sunset ended the night with a spectacular flair that only mother nature can publish.

Sundays are a good day to sit back and relax. Take time to enjoy the joys you have in life so that you feel better during the work week.

VOTE!

Obama or McCain?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks were poised for a rebound after a record selloff that followed Congressional rejection of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout package.

Stock futures pointed to gains early Tuesday, after a record 777-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average Monday that marked the worst percentage drop for stocks since the 1987 crash. Futures are an indication of how the markets are expected to open, based on the difference between current and future levels.

That sharp slide continued in Asian markets Tuesday, although most of the indexes closed off their low of the day. Still Japan's Nikkei lost 483 points, or 4%, while Australia's markets fell 4.3% and Taiwan's stocks retreated 3.6%.

But Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed narrowly higher. And Europe's major indexes were mixed in early trading, with Germany's Dax lower while London's FTSE and the Paris CAC both narrowly higher.

However, numerous market analysts agreed the gains in the market Tuesday were likely to be more modest than suggested by the early reading on the U.S. futures.

"What we're seeing here today is a little bit of bargain hunting or short covering, at least for the moment," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners. "But this is a very tough situation. Major declines like yesterday generally don't end up reversing the next day."

Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co., said that there is growing hope among traders that enough House members will reconsider their vote to pass it later this week, and that early gains Tuesday are likely a reaction to the perception that the market overreacted to Monday's vote..

"We were taking the rescue plan for granted, and when it didn't pass, there had to be a reaction," said Hogan.

But he said that even if the bill does pass later this week, there's enough bad news still out there to keep downward pressure on stocks. For example, economists are forecasting that the Labor Department will report a loss of 105,000 jobs in September in its monthly reading this Friday, which would be the biggest job drop in more than five years.

"The market is going to be under pressure when we start to focus on fundamentals and fundamentals aren't going to look good for a while," said Hogan. "The market was down 200 points Monday morning even with the assumption of the passage of the bailout."

Congressional leaders are talking about trying to bring the legislation back, although Thursday now appears to be the earliest date for a new vote. David Kelly, chief market strategist at JPMorgan Funds, said that even if leadership announces a new deal, it's unlikely to prompt much of a rally.

"It'll be very hard for traders to put their firm's money at risk based on their perception of body language of leadership, given they hadn't properly counted the votes last time around," said Kelly.

He said there's enough risk of more bad news, such as another distressed bank sale or bank failure, that could spook markets ahead of the vote.

"It's a very, very dangerous market to try to catch a bottom in," said Kelly.

And even if the stock markets are starting to show improvement, credit markets do not appear to be ready to improve any time soon, said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia.

He pointed out that Libor, the rate at which banks lend to each other, climbed once again Tuesday morning to 4.05% up from 3.88% Monday. That's a key measure of banks willingness to lend.

"Credit is still just incredibly tight," said Silvia.

The credit crisis that prompted the bailout proposal, and attempts to revive the plan, are likely to be the focus of attention for investors once again Tuesday.

President Bush is set to address the nation at 8:45 a.m. ET. The administration was stung when two-thirds of Republicans in the House voted against the bailout package Monday, sending it down to defeat despite the support of 60% of the Democrats who control the chamber.

Battered banks. Even if the broader U.S. markets show some improvement Tuesday, bank stocks could be under the greatest pressure again the day after the KBW Bank Index (BKX) fell 21%.

While Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) saw shares rebounded 2.2% in heavy Frankfurt trading after losing 12% in U.S. trading Monday, most other major U.S. banks were lower in early overseas trading, with JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) off 5.3%, Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) down 8.1% and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) off 3.4%.

The Wall Street Journal reported that one battered regional bank, Sovereign Bancorp (SOV, Fortune 500), plans to name Paul Perrault as its new chief executive as early as Tuesday. Perrault had been CEO of Chittenden Corp., a New England regional bank that was acquired last year, the paper reports.

Other markets. U.S. Treasurys were slightly lower in early trading, taking the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.67% from 3.6%, after a flight to safety sent the yield plunging Monday.

Oil prices also rose, reversing the sharp selloff Monday on fears of an economic slowdown, while the dollar was slightly higher against the euro and the yen.

The next presidential debate will be held at Hofstra University in Hempstead NY. The world media will then be able to judge the ability of the candidates to remember their scripts.

From CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand


McCain predicted a win at Wednesday’s debate.
(CNN) — John McCain predicted Sunday he would beat Barack Obama at the final presidential debate this week.

"After I whip his you-know-what in this debate, we're going to be going out 24/7," the Republican nominee told volunteers at his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, sparking laughter and applause from the group. McCain immediately added: "I want to emphasize again, I respect Senator Obama. We will conduct a respectful race, and we will make sure that everybody else does, too."

Outside the doors of his campaign offices, McCain is fighting to hold on to the traditionally-red state. McCain talked Sunday about the tough fight for Virginia, where Obama currently leads by four points, 49 to 45, in the state's most recent CNN poll of polls. He also pointed to battlegrounds states like Ohio — which Sarah Palin visited Sunday — and Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

"And I'm telling you, we're coming on and we're going to work 24/7 for the next — who's counting — 22 days," he said.

McCain acknowledged the dip in his poll numbers since the financial crisis began, but said overall trends were in his favor. "…I'd like to give you a little straight talk, we're a couple points down, ok,
nationally, but we're right in this game," he said. "The economy has hurt us a little bit in the last week or two, but in the last few days we've seen it come back up because they want experience, and they want knowledge and they want vision. And we'll give that to America, and I know that we're going to win this race."

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Monday detailed what his campaign called a four-part "economic rescue plan" for the middle class.


Sen. Barack Obama unveiled his rescue plan for the middle class.

1 of 2 "I'm proposing a number of steps that we should take immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families and communities, and help struggling homeowners," Obama said at a campaign event in Toledo, Ohio. "It's a plan that begins with one word that's on everyone's mind, and it's easy to spell: J-O-B-S."

Obama's plan comes as aides to Sen. John McCain said their candidate would likely wait to lay out any further plans until the Treasury issues a report or recommendations on what to do with the bailout.

McCain has already unveiled a plan to buy $300 billion in troubled mortgages and renegotiate the terms directly with homeowners. On Friday, he endorsed the idea of suspending the current requirement that seniors start drawing down their IRAs and 401(k)s once they reach age 70½.

Obama on Monday proposed a temporary tax credit for firms that create new jobs in the United States over the next two years, and penalty-free withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k)s in 2008 and 2009.

The Democratic candidate called for new legislation that would give families the option of withdrawing as much as 15 percent of their retirement savings --- up to a maximum of $10,000 --- without facing a tax penalty this year or next. He also called for a temporary lifting of taxes on unemployment insurance benefits.

The Illinois senator also proposed a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for homeowners acting in good faith, and a new effort to address the growing credit crisis at the state and local level.


Under the Obama plan, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury would provide much the same kind of backing to state and municipal governments as the recent federal bailout did to the commercial credit market.

"We can't wait to help workers and families and communities who are struggling right now -- who don't know if their job or their retirement will be there tomorrow; who don't know if next week's paycheck will cover this month's bills," Obama said. "We need to pass an economic rescue plan for the middle-class ... and we need to do it right now."

The McCain campaign said Obama's economic rescue plan was a political move that would not provide solutions.

"It is clear that the economy is hurting, that Americans need across-the-board tax relief, and yet Barack Obama has proven unwilling to break with the left-wing of his party and stand up for the American taxpayer," spokesman Tucker Bounds said. Fact check: Obama's tax plan and small businesses

"Interestingly, Barack Obama called a moratorium on foreclosures, which is a policy he had previously labeled 'disastrous' when it was proposed by a political opponent. Proving yet again that Barack Obama's positions on the issues are tied to elections, not solutions for the American people," he said.

During the primaries, Obama criticized Sen. Hillary Clinton's plan, which, unlike his, included a freeze on interest rates.

Earlier Monday, McCain delivered a speech that a senior aide predicted would "begin a turnaround for the campaign."

On the new tone, the aide said the campaign decided to go "back to basics" with McCain on what he can offer.

McCain told voters Monday that they should elect him because "what America needs in this hour is a fighter."

"I will fight to take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last. I'm not afraid of the fight, I'm ready for it," McCain said at a rally in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Watch what's going on in battleground Virginia »

"Let me give you the state of the race today and some straight talk. We have 22 days to go. We're 6 points down. The national media has written us off," McCain said to a sea of boos.

CNN's most recent poll of polls shows Obama leading McCain by 8 percentage points, 50 to 42 percent.

"Sen. Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq. ... But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we've got them just where we want them," he said.

Obama's campaign dismissed the Arizona senator's remarks as a "political speech about where he is in the polls." Watch where the election stands »

"Less than 12 hours after his campaign announced that Sen. McCain would finally have some new ideas on the economy, he decided that it was more important to give a new political speech about where he is in the polls," said Obama-Biden communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

McCain advisers downplayed weekend reports that the Arizona senator would be unveiling several economic proposals over the final three weeks of the campaign, saying it was likely he would lay out one or two new ideas, but not the swarm that had been rumored.


They also downplayed a Sunday suggestion by McCain surrogate Lindsey Graham that a new economic plan rollout might focus on plans to cut taxes on capital gains and dividends, saying that the South Carolina senator had good ideas but that they had not yet been approved by the campaign.

CNN's national poll of polls consists of six surveys: ABC/Washington Post (October 8-11), Fox News/Opinion Dynamics (October 8-9), Newsweek (October 8-9), Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby (October 10-12), Gallup (October 10-12) and Diageo/Hotline (October 10-12). It does not have a sampling error.