Bush ‘a total failure,’ Pelosi says  —  (CNN) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called President Bush “a total failure” on Thursday, among the California Democrat's harshest assessments to date of the president.  —  “God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States — a total failure …

Hearing-Gate Exposed!  McCain Has Worse Afghanistan Hearing Record Than Obama  —  ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports from Capitol Hill: The McCain campaign criticism of Sen. Barack Obama's hearing record on Capitol Hill led us to put the shoe on the other foot.

Gore Calls for Carbon-Free Electric Power  —  WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power …

Ashcroft defends waterboarding  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — The controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding has served a “valuable” purpose and does not constitute torture, former Attorney General John Ashcroft told a House committee Thursday.  —  Testifying on the Bush administration's …

Myth of Consensus Explodes: APS Opens Global Warming Debate  —  “Considerable presence” of skeptics  —  The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming.

A Cast of 300 Advises Obama on Foreign Policy  —  WASHINGTON — Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions …

President Bush Attends Funeral Service for Tony Snow  —  Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception  —  Washington, D.C.  —  THE PRESIDENT: Archbishop Wuerl, Father O'Connell, Mr. Vice President, members of the Cabinet and my administration, members of Congress …

McCain gets Social Security but criticizes system  —  KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Although Republican presidential candidate John McCain has called Social Security “a disgrace,” he still cashes his own retirement check every month.  —  “I'm receiving the benefits, the system is broken and …

Sen Larry Craig: Don't let foreigners “jerk us around by the gas nozzle”  —  Presented without comment.  —  Download |  Play Download |  Play (h/t Bill W)

The Glamour Magazine Interview  —  Ipse dixit:  —  “It's infuriating, but it's not surprising, because let's face it: What happened was that the conservative press—Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk—went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way …

Election 2008: North Carolina Presidential Election  —  North Carolina: McCain Still Struggling in Historically Red State  —  The race is still close between John McCain and Barack Obama in the traditionally red state of North Carolina.  The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds McCain ahead 45% …

No smoking hot spot  —  I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office.  I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia's compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.

Maybe McCain should have ‘adopted’ a consistent position  —  Over the weekend, John McCain told the New York Times that he opposes gay adoption, even if the alternative is leaving a child in an orphanage.  A few days later, McCain's campaign reversed course and said the senator …

“I've never seen a comic book with the phrase ‘anal sodomy’ in it before.”  —  Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Commissioner Brent Rinehart is facing a tough reelection campaign.  He's been accused of abusing his office for personal gain, and will go on trial in the fall on felony campaign finance charges.

Running for Office: It's Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner  —  My name is Sean Tevis [photo].  I'm an Information Architect in Kansas running for State Representative.  I've decided to “retire” my current State Representative.  I'm going to win.

Terrorism Funds May Let Brass Fly in Style  —  The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on “comfort capsules” to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved …