TERRANCE HEATH The Course From Here It's time to remember why so many of us were so passionate about one candidate or the other: We all want to see this country change course from the disastrous path we've been dragged along for the past 7+ years. We all know that we can't afford even four more years of the same. Not our for country, not for our communities, and not for our families BILL SCHER After the Primaries, A United Progressive America After all the histrionic punditfying throughout the campaign, after all the trivial media distractions over surrogates who blurt on mean things, after all the phony guilt-by-association attacks, the public unity around a progressive vision remains: an economy that works for everyone, health care for all, a clean energy future, affordable education and the end of the Iraq occupation. McCain Critic Fired From FEC ft.com — The Bush administration has sidelined a federal official who raised legal questions about whether John McCain, Republican senator, could raise private funds in his presidential bid. The White House late on Tuesday nominated Donald McGahn, who once served as an attorney for former majority leader Tom DeLay, to replace David Mason, a fellow Republican, as the chairman of the Federal Election Commission. Mr Mason raised hackles in some Republican circles early this year when, he questioned the legality of a McCain campaign decision to withdraw from the public financing system during the Republican primary. 43,000 Unfit for Combat, Deployed usatoday.com — More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show. This reliance on troops found medically "non-deployable" is another sign of stress placed on a military that has sent 1.6 million service members to the war zones, soldier advocacy groups say. FBI Seeks Rice Ethics Probe Records mcclatchydc.com — FBI agents investigating government watchdog Scott Bloch have subpoenaed any records that would reveal whether concerns about the 2004 elections prompted him to clear Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of ethics violations. Bloch found no merit to allegations that Rice, then President Bush's national security adviser, timed some of her trips to boost Bush's 2004 reelection campaign. Subprime Giant Admits "Mistakes" msnbc.msn.com — Steve Bailey, chief executive for loan administration at Countrywide Financial Corp., told a Senate panel that the company's employees have made mistakes "from time to time." But he disputed accusations, made by hundreds of borrowers, that the company has sought to collect inflated fees and other payments by filing inaccurate bankruptcy documents. Paulson Says End Is Near ft.com — According to Hank Paulson, the U.S. Treasury secretary, the credit crisis is entering its later stages, but the process of deleveraging in the financial system still has further to go. Officials Admit Disaster Plan "Deficiencies" washingtonpost.com — Two Bush administration Cabinet members acknowledged gaps in the capability of U.S. hospitals to deal with a mass-casualty terrorist attack or other disaster, but they said a congressional effort to block pending Medicaid cuts will not fix the problem. President Bush has threatened to veto House legislation that would impose a one-year moratorium on changes sought by HHS to Medicaid, the federal insurance program for the poor. State officials said the impact would be devestating to urban public hospitals whose emergency rooms are already strained. Democrats Seek To Tax Big Oil Senate Democrats have called for a temporary windfall profits tax on oil companies and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package. The proposal also would impose federal penalties on energy price gouging and calls for stopping oil deliveries into the government's emergency reserve. Aging Systems Threaten Rivers usatoday.com — America's aging sewer systems continue to dump human waste into rivers and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned agencies responsible for sewage overflows, a new analysis shows. The analysis of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data found that since 2003, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been fined for violations, including spills that make people sick, threaten local drinking water and kill aquatic animals and plants.   JOHN STAUBER Pentagon Releases Propaganda Documents -- Will the Media Pay Attention? prwatch.org — Eight thousand pages of documents related to the Pentagon's illegal propaganda campaign, known as the Pentagon military analyst program, are now online for the world to see. Will the broadcast television news outlets implicated in the program continue their blackout? THE EDITORS Our Lapdog Media thenation.com — What should we do when Big Media fails democracy? First, don't let it get even bigger. ALI ETERAZ Working Class Elitists huffingtonpost.com — Ladies and gentlemen: welcome to an America where not only is being working class a code word for being the lowliest kind of human, but if you resist this smear, then you are an elitist. SAM PROVANCE Abu Ghraib, From One Who Was There consortiumnews.com — Congress should be asking some simple questions. Why are civilian contractors being employed in connection with the interrogation of persons under detention in wartime, a function which previously has been entirely in the hands of the uniformed military? Evasion of military rules and discipline, as well as avoidance of congressional oversight might be at the heart of the answers. CIARA GILMARTIN The "Surge" of Iraqi Prisoners fpif.org — Amid all the talk about the U.S. military "surge" in Iraq, little has been said about the accompanying "surge" of Iraqi prisoners, whose numbers rose to nearly 51,000 at the end of 2007. Four years after the Abu Ghraib scandal, occupation forces are holding far more Iraqis than ever before and thousands more languish in horrendous Iraqi-run prisons. OLIVER WILLIS McCain's Base Problem huffingtonpost.com — John McCain just does not inspire the bedrock Bush constituency. The religious right is not going to move Democratic, but like in 2006 they are probably going to stay home while the Democratic base is poised to make the turnout in 2004 seem like training camp.   ISAIAH J. POOLE Conservatism Collapses in the Emergency Room Sen. John McCain and the Bush administration should be taken to task for failing to address one of the most critical failings of our health care system: our overstressed urban hospitals. RICK PERLSTEIN Crash the Eagle This is stunning: A great American institution of higher learning, Washington University in St. Louis, is giving Phyllis Schlafly an honorary degree. more from our bloggers >> We need to get spending under control and rein in runaway government. We need to stop the earmarks and get rid of pork-barrel spending. Conservatives have no legitimacy when they complain on one hand about pork-barrel spending while squandering money on "bridges to nowhere," on crony corporations like Halliburton and on subsidies for their political contributors. Meanwhile, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates we need to spend $1.6 trillion over the next five years to fix our roads, bridges, water lines and other essential public resources. These are real needs, not "pork." Plus, it's a matter of global competitiveness: Countries like China and India are making massive investments in public transportation, schools and broadband, while too many of our children study in crumbling schools, workers lose productivity on crowded roads, and Internet commerce suffers under some of the slowest and most overpriced broadband connections in the industrialized world. The more-than-$100 billion a year spent on the war in Iraq would go a long way to funding these investments, which would enhance our economic security. more pro vs con >>