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Washington Post
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Jul 16, 08 12:17 AM CDT
(Newser) -
In a break with long-standing policy, a top US envoy will join European Union talks with Iran concerning its nuclear program, reports the Washington Post. Undersecretary of State William Burns will join the EU's foreign policy chief and Iran's nuclear negotiator in Geneva this weekend. Burns will hold out the possibility of direct talks with the US if Iran ceases enriching uranium.
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CNN
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Jul 15, 08 5:56 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Congress today overrode President Bush's veto of legislation on Medicare, ensuring that payments to doctors won't be cut by nearly 11%, CNN reports. The House voted 383-41, and the Senate followed 70-26 to override the president for only the fourth time during his presidency. Bush says the legislation doesn't address the program's fundamental problems, but lawmakers feared doctors would stop providing services if their payments were cut.
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Boston Globe
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Jul 14, 08 4:10 PM CDT
(Newser) -
In all six elections since 1928 in which one party had 8 consecutive years in the White House, the incumbent party lost popular vote ground; in four, Americans voted for change. That's bad news for John McCain, Robert David Sullivan writes in the Boston Globe , because George Bush only won 50.7% of the national popular vote in 2004.
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Los Angeles Times
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Jul 14, 08 11:26 AM CDT
(Newser) -
John McCain has opened a political can of worms by embracing the polarizing issue of privatizing social security, the Los Angeles Times reports. McCain says making young workers pay into a plan unlikely to benefit them is a "disgrace." Counters a rep for one group planning to fight the GOP candidate: "This could well be McCain's Achilles' heel with … the baby boomer generation."
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Associated Press
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Jul 14, 08 10:24 AM CDT
(Newser) -
President Bush is about to lift the ban on offshore drilling that's stood since his father was in office, White House press secretary Dana Perino announced today. The move will be meaningless unless Congress follows suit, the AP reports. Two bans on the practice are in place: an executive order signed by Bush 41 and a law enacted by Congress.
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New York Times
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Jul 14, 08 7:42 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Calling Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's demand for a timetable for US withdrawal an "enormous opportunity," Barack Obama lays out his plan for ending the war in Iraq in a New York Times op-ed piece. The presumptive Democratic nominee reiterates his support for a careful withdrawal over 16 months, leaving behind a "residual force" which would perform limited missions. "The good news is that Iraq’s leaders want to take responsibility for their country by negotiating a timetable for the removal of American troops," he writes.
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New York Times
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Jul 13, 08 7:29 AM CDT
(Newser) -
US officials in Washington and Baghdad may pull as many as three brigades from Iraq by the time George Bush leaves office, the New York Times reports. The move, driven in part by a need to bolster the American presence in Afghanistan, could remove far more troops than seemed likely just months ago, and would mark a major shift in policy from the past few years.
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Times (UK)
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Jul 12, 08 7:52 PM CDT
(Newser) -
An undercover probe has confirmed rumors that donors to President Bush's $200 million library are gaining access to his inner circle, the London Times reports. Bush lobbyist Stephen Payne offered an undercover reporter face-to-face meetings with Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, among others, for payments of $600,000 to $750,000. “Cheney’s possible, definitely the national security adviser" Stephen Hadley, Payne said.
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Washington Post
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Jul 12, 08 5:22 PM CDT
(Newser) -
North Korean disarmament talks took another halting step today, as the nation agreed in principle to a deal for invasive nuclear inspections, the Washington Post reports. Pyongyang has promised to finish dismantling its Yongbyon reactor by October, and will let inspectors verify that it's down. But negotiators in the six-nation deal failed to hammer out specifics, which means the process may outlive the Bush administration.
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Associated Press
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Jul 12, 08 6:47 AM CDT
(AP) -
Tony Snow, a conservative writer and commentator who cheerfully sparred with reporters in the White House briefing room during a year and a half stint as President Bush's press secretary, has died of colon cancer, Fox News reported today. Snow was 53 years old. Snow, who served as the first host of the television news program "Fox News Sunday," would later say that in the Bush administration he was enjoying "the most exciting, intellectually aerobic job I'm ever going to have."
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Associated Press
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Jul 11, 08 8:35 PM CDT
(Newser) -
By a huge margin, the Senate today passed a $300 billion bill to help homeowners avoid foreclosure—but the White House vows to veto it unless the House makes changes, the AP reports. The bill will let struggling homeowners reinsure at cheaper rates backed by the government, but President President Bush says that nearly $4 billion in the bill, slated to fix up foreclosed homes, benefits lenders, not owners.
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Wall Street Journal
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Jul 11, 08 2:39 PM CDT
(Newser) -
GOP national-security stalwart and longtime McCain friend Chuck Hagel will join Barack Obama on his upcoming trip to Iraq, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The retiring Nebraskan senator has been a vocal critic of the war and the Bush administration. Despite his Republican credentials, he has been floated as a potential Cabinet member and as a long-shot VP choice for Obama.
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Washington Post
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Jul 11, 08 2:24 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Regulation of greenhouse gas emissions will have to wait until President Bush is out of office, the EPA announced today. Instead, the agency will say it needs months of further public comment to make any decision. The statement is the end result of a protracted White House effort to tone down the agency’s findings, the Washington Post reports.
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Financial Times (UK)
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Jul 11, 08 7:39 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Barack Obama's trip to Europe this month might not do much for his electoral chances at home. But the Old World doesn't care, writes Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens; when the candidate arrives he "can expect to be greeted as a messiah." Europeans have been starstruck by Obama, and they seem to think that this November's election is little more than a formality.
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Washington Post
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Jul 11, 08 6:27 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Karl Rove ignored a subpoena ordering him to appear before a House committee probing alleged abuses of power in the Justice Department yesterday—and the committee didn't let that get in their way. Lawmakers printed a name card for Rove, pointed a mike at an empty chair, fetched a cool glass of water for the absent Bush strategist, and disparaged his absence freely, reports Dana Millbank in the Washington Post.
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Associated Press
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Jul 11, 08 4:13 AM CDT