MSNBC’s David Schuster: “It’s now been 26 days since Rove testified to the grand jury for the 5th time. Defense lawyers say prosecutors remain focused on Rove’s claim of a bad memory regarding a conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper. Rove’s legal team and former prosecutors tracking the investigation expect Patrick Fitzgerald to announce a decision at any time. … The CIA leak grand jury is scheduled to meet again this Wednesday.”

“The U.S. military is already gearing up for this outcome [long-term 'containment' of violence], but not for ‘victory’ any longer. It is consolidating to several ‘superbases‘ in hopes that its continued presence will prevent Iraq from succumbing to full-flown civil war and turning into a failed state.”

President Bush was asked this morning whether he will watch Al Gore’s new movie on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. “Doubt it,” the president answered. He went on to argue that we need to “set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects.”

Two important points need to be made:

1. Bush casts his answer in terms of a debate that exists on whether greenhouse gases are caused by human activity. In fact, as ThinkProgress has repeatedly documented, there is no scientific debate on this issue. Not a single peer-reviewed study conducted between 1993 and 2003 challenged the consensus that the earth’s temperature is rising due to human activity.

2. Bush cannot solve the problem of global warming if he does not understand its root cause. By “setting aside” the issue of why the globe is warming, Bush wants to also sidestep the need for his administration to begin efforts to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, as he once pledged to do.

Sounds like Bush is someone who could really benefit from watching the movie. (It’s playing close to the White House. Here’s a map.)

Full transcript below: Read more

Matt Drudge is looking for any excuse to smear Al Gore and his new movie, An Inconvenient Truth. He’s been running this story, unsourced, all day:

ThinkProgress contacted Gore’s representatives, who unequivocally confirmed that Al Gore and his associates walked from the Majestic Hotel to the screening at Cannes. Further, Paramount has committed to making the entire tour promoting the film carbon neutral.

UPDATE: At 3:38 PM EST on May 22, about an hour after this post, Drudge yanked the smear on Gore from his site. The report that was removed contained no links or attribution to any source.

UPDATE II: Reuters reports that Gore was seen using a car at another time during the Cannes film festival. This story was first linked by Drudge on May 25. It does not substantiate Drudge’s original, May 22, report. In fact, it specifically says Gore and his associates walked to the screening.

UPDATE III: Click HERE for ThinkProgress’ complete coverage of Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth.

“Personal data, including Social Security numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans, was stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee this month after he took the information home without authorization. … The theft of stolen information comes as the department has come under criticism for shoddy accounting practices and for falling short on the needs of veterans.”

UPDATE: The data theft appears to impact all military veterans.

Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) was a regular at Jack Abramoff’s skybox at sporting events and guided his aides and family members to lucrative consulting jobs. But evidently those perks weren’t enough. Since he entered office in 1991, he has tried to boost lawmakers’ compensation and benefits. Doolittle argued members of Congress should have:

– “a corps of staff to assist the members, to perform routine tasks such as rides to airports, pickups, deliveries, etc;”

– “an additional automobile” to use around the nation’s capital; and

– government-funded moving expenses when they relocate to Washington, DC.

Doolittle’s spokesman, Dan Blackenburg, tried to justify the congressman’s efforts:

“He thinks that Members of the House, the staff and all federal employees should have the same benefits that all Americans are insured with,” Blankenburg said, pointing out that federal employees, for example, currently don’t receive a dental or vision benefit.

Doolittle needs to get out of Abramoff’s skybox and talk to some real Americans. 41 percent of the American middle-class didn’t even have basic health insurance for part or all of 2005 and only 29 percent of companies now offer dental and vision benefits. (Statistics on how many Americans have a personal “corps of staff” to “perform routine tasks” were unavailable.)

Doolittle and his spokesman also need to check his federal health insurance program. While most plans don’t offer vision and dental benefits, some do. (New enhanced dental and vision benefits will also be offered to federal employees in the fall.)

The London Times and Raw Story report that a phased withdrawal from Iraq is beginning. “It will be described as a ‘transition’ to Iraqi security forces taking control of the country rather than a withdrawal to avoid it looking as though the allies are being forced out by rising levels of attacks on their forces.”

This morning, Jack Murtha appeared on CBS’ The Early Show to talk about the Iraq war. Murtha offered a sobering assessment:

[T]here’s not only no progress, it’s worse than it was prewar. this thing has been mishandled so badly. The American people needed to hear. we’re spending $450 billion on this war by the end of the year, $9 billion a month, and so we need to change course.

The facts appear to back Murtha up. Here’s a summary of key indicators, drawn from the Brookings Institute’s Iraq Index, using the most recent data available:

Full transcript: Read more

– Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on President Bush