McCain asks NC GOP not to run ad
AP - 15 minutes agoINEZ, Ky. - Republican John McCain asked the North Carolina GOP not to run a television ad that brings up the controversial former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
INEZ, Ky. - Republican John McCain asked the North Carolina GOP not to run a television ad that brings up the controversial former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
"Updates and Guilty Pleasures"
POSTED BY MEGHAN
ON 04.13.08 9:05 PM
While the girls and I enjoy some time off, here's a quick update on the next couple of weeks. We're in the process of readying a Blogette store with some requested items and are taking advantage of our break from the trail to update our website and server. We've received a fantastic invitation from People Magazine to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner hosted by Craig Ferguson in Washington, D.C. on April 26th and look forward to blogging about this fun black-tie event. Until then, I'll be at home indulging in a few of my favorite guilty pleasures including, sleeping in my own bed; hanging out with Bridget; watching "The Three Stooges" (an obsession of mine since childhood); eating fish tacos; drinking strawberry margaritas; playing "Rock and Roll Jeopardy"; and taking in beautiful Arizona sunsets.
P.S. I have also found a new guilty pleasure in MTV's "Rock The Cradle", reality show featuring kids of famous rock stars in a singing competition. I'm rooting for Jesse Snider (son of the great Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider). Everyone should check it out!
BAGHDAD — A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias.
The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing.
Capt. Logan Veath, a company commander in the 25th Infantry Division, pleaded with the Iraqi major who was leading his troops away from the Sadr City fight, urging him to return to the front.
“If you turn around and go back up the street those soldiers will follow you,” Captain Veath said. “If you tuck tail and cowardly run away they will follow up that way, too.”
Captain Veath’s pleas failed, and senior American and Iraqi commanders mounted an urgent effort to regain the lost ground. An elite Iraqi unit was rushed in and with the support of the Americans began to fight its way north.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. general commanding the Iraq war called Tuesday for an open-ended suspension of U.S. troop withdrawals this summer, asserting that an overly rapid withdrawal would jeopardize recent security gains.
US soldiers killed in Green Zone | |
Three US service personnel have been killed and 31 wounded by rocket attacks on the Green Zone and a base elsewhere in Baghdad, the US military has said. The rocket attack at 1530 (1230 GMT) on the Green Zone, which houses government offices and foreign embassies, killed two personnel and wounded at least 17. A separate attack at the same time on a forward operating base in the Rustamiya district killed one and injured 14. The attacks came after fighting between US and Iraqi forces and a Shia militia. Twenty-two people were killed and more than 50 others injured in the clashes in the capital's eastern district of Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army. The militia's leader, radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, has called for a mass demonstration in three days' time against the US military presence. |
BAGHDAD — More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen either refused to fight or simply abandoned their posts during the inconclusive assault against Shiite militias in Basra last week, a senior Iraqi government official said Thursday. Iraqi military officials said the group included dozens of officers, including at least two senior field commanders in the battle.
The desertions in the heat of a major battle cast fresh doubt on the effectiveness of the American-trained Iraqi security forces. The White House has conditioned further withdrawals of American troops on the readiness of the Iraqi military and police.
The crisis created by the desertions and other problems with the Basra operation was serious enough that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki hastily began funneling some 10,000 recruits from local Shiite tribes into his armed forces. That move has already generated anger among Sunni tribesmen whom Mr. Maliki has been much less eager to recruit despite their cooperation with the government in its fight against Sunni insurgents and criminal gangs.
The median income for a household in the city was $25,085, and the median income for a family was $31,062. Males had a median income of $29,404 versus $19,702 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,255. About 24.6% of families and 28.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 40.8% of those under age 18 and 22.0% of those age 65 or over.
Elizabeth Holmes reports on the presidential race.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/04/02/mccain-and-the-model/?mod=WSJBlog
So many stories, so little time.
Sen. John McCain spoke Wednesday morning at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the third day of his weeklong tour. True to form, Washington Wire is here to provide inquiring minds with a juicy tale that didn’t make the day’s speech.
McCain’s time at the Naval Academy provide an overwhelming patch from which to pick. He refused to accept the brutal hazing of his first year quietly and had a reputation for being sloppy and rowdy throughout his tenure.
But the best story by far begins in the summer of 1957, when McCain sailed to Rio de Janeiro aboard a destroyer. In his 1999 memoir, “Faith of My Fathers,” McCain wrote about “excessive drinking, nightclubbing and little or no sleep” and said, “My imagination could not have embellished the good time we made of our nine days in port.”
Exhausted from his full-throttle social life, McCain nonetheless rallied to attend one last party. On that fateful night, he met a Brazilian model. (Alas, her name is withheld in several retellings.) A few days after the pair met, McCain had to set sail again—but the moment he returned home, he repacked his bag and jumped aboard a military plane back to Rio. They kept up a furious correspondence through the fall.
While McCain’s recounting of their whirlwind courtship is entertaining (“I kissed her to a chorus of rowdy cheers from my shipmates,” he writes) a far more salacious version appears in Robert Timberg’s “John McCain: An American Odyssey.”
During Christmas leave, Timberg writes, McCain traveled back to Brazil for a four-day visit. However, the pair was always accompanied by the wealthy model’s aunt or servant—until the last night of his visit.
McCain went to the model’s house for dinner but found the door unlocked. He let himself in and heard a voice call from the bedroom, “I’ll be right out.” When the model appeared, “she was not, McCain would later say, dressed for dinner,” Timberg wrote.
After that night, he never saw her again. Upon graduating from the Naval Academy, however, he received a short telegram from the model that read, “I’ll always love you.”
In an interview with CNN earlier today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that he has long understood the influence of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr:
I said he was still major player and his influence is going to have to be reduced and gradually eliminated.
But in a report on The Situation Room today, the network noted that just two weeks ago McCain — trying to paint a rosy picture of Iraq — described Sadr very differently while speaking to CNN’s John King in Baghdad:
His [Sadr’s] influence has been on the wane for a long time.
By Randy Fabi
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Fighting between security forces and Shi'ite militiamen last month has driven civilian deaths in Iraq to their highest level in more than six months, government figures showed on Tuesday.
Britain responded to renewed violence in the southern city of Basra by delaying plans to bring home 1,500 of its 4,000 troops in Iraq.
A total of 923 civilians were killed in March, up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007, according to data compiled by Iraq's interior, defense and health ministries and obtained by Reuters.
The figures are a blow to the Iraqi government and the United States, which have pointed to reduced overall levels of violence in recent months as evidence that a major security offensive has made significant progress.