Barack Obama has chosen Joe Biden as his running mate. It’s an interesting choice, given that Obama is running a change campaign and Biden has been a Washington fixture for decades. Also because the two ran against each other in the primary, during which Biden famously had to apologize for unfortunate comments about his rival. The Obama campaign is likely to exploit Biden’s experience, particularly in the ...

(IPS) | If John McCain is elected the next U.S. president, wounded veterans could be in for a world of hurt. On the campaign trail, the Republican's presumptive nominee has talked of a new mission for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and argued that veterans with non-combat medical problems should be given vouchers to receive care at private, for-profit hospitals -- in other words, an end to the kind ...

By George Monbiot | If you want a glimpse of how the movement against climate change could crumble faster than a summer snowflake, read Ewa Jasiewicz’s article, published yesterday on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site(1). It is a fine example of the identity politics that plagued direct action movements during the 1990s, and from which the new generation of activists has so far been mercifully free. Ewa rightly celebrates the leaderless, ...

By ERIC LICHTBLAU | A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday. The plan, which could be made public next month, ...

By Stephen C. Rose | Today the Internet is rife with speculation about whether John McCain heard the questions Rick Warren asked Barack Obama. McCain seems to have done predictably well answering the questions, whether he knew them or not. In fact anyone would think the man had a permanent pass. All he does is say how imperfect he is, engage in a Chaplinsque facial self-denigration, and all is ...

(IPS) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation Monday brings to an end an extraordinarily close relationship between Musharraf and the George W. Bush administration, in which Musharraf was lavished with political and economic benefits from the United States despite policies that were in sharp conflict with U.S. security interests. It is well known that Bush repeatedly praised Musharraf as the most loyal ally of the United States against terrorism, even ...

By Erika Niedowski | WASHINGTON // Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, effectively bade farewell yesterday to a critical ally in the US war on terrorism, Pervez Musharraf, and pledged US support to the new government in Pakistan and to bolstering the country’s democratic reforms. Ms Rice called Mr Musharraf, who resigned rather than fight impeachment proceedings even though he denied the charges against him, “one of the world’s ...

ISLAMABAD (IPS) | Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigned from office on Monday ending weeks of speculation over whether he would quit or face impeachment on charges of illegally seizing power by a parliament elected in February and dominated by political parties opposed to him. Musharraf, who grabbed power in a bloodless military coup in October 1999, was compelled to resign after the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of assassinated former prime ...

By Matthew Rothschild | I don’t know why a pastor was allowed to hold the first forum with the Presidential candidates—in a church, no less—but there was a revealing exchange between Rick Warren and John McCain Saturday night. Warren said, “Everybody talks about, you know, taxing the rich, but not the poor, the middle class. At what point, give me a number, give me a specific number. Where do you ...

TomDispatch | To the problem of an overstretched, over-toured military, there is but one answer in Washington. Both presidential candidates (along with just about every other politician in our nation's capital) are on record wanting to significantly expand the Army and the Marines. In part two of his series at TomDispatch, adapted from his remarkable new book, The Limits of Power, The End of ...

iol | British intelligence organisation MI5 and the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are the masters of South Africa's elite crime fighting unit, the Scorpions, a public hearing into their dissolution heard in Durban on Tuesday. Sam Kikine, the head of the International Traditional and Medicine Research Council, accused these two organisations of controlling the Scorpions. "Why have the Scorpions not investigated [chemical warfare expert] Wouter Basson and the CIA ...

By Naomi Spencer | With an eye to the approaching elections, the Bush administration has drafted proposed changes to the enforcement of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that would take effect within 30 days and would not require the approval of Congress. Once enacted, the new rules would essentially cut out the role of government scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service in reviewing ...

US program has spent $2.8 billion using 'money as a weapon' in Iraq AP  A U.S. Army program in which soldiers pay cash to Iraqis to help with expenses, large and small, has spent $2.8 billion in five years, The Washington Post reported Monday. The Post reviewed records of the Commander's Emergency Response Program, which was intended for short-term humanitarian relief and reconstruction. The field manual laying out the guidelines for the ...

Press TV | US military planes have been making secretive landings in Kenya in what is feared to be an effort to move terror suspects. The night landings by US military planes at Nairobi's Wilson Airport, carrying Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives, have raised suspicion among both local security agents and aviation authorities. The planes belonging to the Prescott Support Group, which has been accused in ...