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So much for hugging in church. A day after Barack Obama and John McCain exchanged an embrace during a faith forum at a California megachurch, Obama called the U.S. economy a disaster thanks to "John McCain's president, George W. Bush," and chided his Republican rival's campaign team for trying to make him look unpatriotic and weak.

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Forget the war for the White House for a moment. Among young people, Barack Obama appears to be beating John McCain in the battle for "cool." "Obama is a tad cooler than McCain on probably 57 fronts," said Emily Goulding, 25, of Los Angeles. "Obama's better looking than McCain, Obama's more stylish than McCain, Obama's more fit than McCain. He refers to better music than McCain."

As we wait with bated breath for the Associated Press to come down from the mountain with its own rules for "fair use for bloggers," Patrick Nielsen Hayden gives us a sense of what the AP considers fair use (found via Boing Boing). Apparently, for quite some time, the AP has had up a page that lists out prices for quoting AP text. I will quote the list prices, and hope I don't get a DMCA takedown: 5-25 words: $ 12.50 26-50 words: $ 17.50 51-100 words: $ 25.00 101-250 words: $ 50.00 251 words and up: $ 100.00 Oh,...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- This month's trial of former state Sen. John Ford on corruption charges could last up to a month. Ford is accused of taking $800,000 in consultant payments from TennCare contractors to promote those private companies' interests with the state's expanded Medicaid program. Ford was known for his flashy attire when he was a lawmaker. On Monday he was led into court in a dark green jumpsuit with his hands cuffed behind his back. He was convicted earlier this year of taking $55,000 in bribes during the unrelated federal Tennessee Waltz investigation and is serving a 5 1/2...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to please a pro-Israel crowd this week by saying that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel and that the holy city should not be divided. That angered Palestinians, who claim part of the city, and Obama clarified his remarks to say that the fate of Jerusalem should be a matter for negotiation. That angered some Israelis and their U.S. supporters. By week's end no one was happy. WHAT HE SAID: Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton — former first lady, New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate who won 18 million votes — is not your typical mouthpiece. Never has been, never will be. When she formally bows out on Saturday and endorses Barack Obama, she will speak of party unity and do her part for the nominee. But with her own stature and political future to consider — including the possibility of joining him as his running mate — everything Clinton does for Obama going forward is also a shadow campaign for the next phase of her career. "It's...

The AP gives us a story about some so-called “documentary” about what evil befell the poor folks of Crawford, Texas, after Governor George W. Bush bought his ranch property there. I’ll start right out with the key section that pretty much describes what we’re dealing with, a quote by the director of this film. “I wanted to do a film indicting Bush for this political stagecraft, using this town as a prop.” A guy that wanted to exploit the kind folks of Crawford, Texas is being presented as a wonderful fellow by the press? Say it isn’t so! Naturally, the...

Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ran for the presidency with the aura of inevitability, faces the reality of being one of 100. For the first time since she was elected to the Senate in 2000, the former first lady is no longer the candidate with the best shot of capturing the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. That title belongs to someone else. She's still simply the junior senator from New York with no committee chairmanship, the coin of the realm bestowed by seniority. At least for a while. As she walks the familiar marble halls of Congress, from news conferences to committee...

Columbus, Ohio (AP) -- Republican John McCain has been slow to take advantage of his potential head start for the presidency against Democrats, who are better organized and generate more excitement among voters. McCain enters a November-focused campaign with distinct disadvantages, his aides and advisers acknowledge: his party's unpopular incumbent president, his unwavering support for the war in Iraq and the Democrats' unmistakable fundraising potential. Yet the Arizona senator and his party have inched toward blunting the shortcomings instead of racing to erase them. "This has given us time," said Frank Donatelli, vice chairman of the Republican National Committee and...

Two weeks before the final primary in their marathon battle, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were campaigning hard Wednesday. Both were in Florida, but their goals could hardly have been more different - or said more about how each one hopes to bring their historic race to a close. Obama, feeling sure of the Democratic nomination, was trying to stake an early claim to a state that could be crucial in the general election against Republican John McCain. Clinton, insisting she can still be her party's nominee, was making a plea for the state's disputed primary results to be...

SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- Barbara Gonzel has lived in a two-bedroom duplex in northwest Los Angeles for 13 years, protected from the region's soaring housing costs by the city's rent-control ordinance. That could change, and Gonzel could find herself paying hundreds of dollars more in monthly rent, if voters approve one of two property rights initiatives on the June 3 primary election ballot. One of the measures, Proposition 98, is supported by landlords and business owners and contains a provision that would phase out local rent-control ordinances for apartments, duplexes and mobile home parks. It also would eliminate tenant-protection rules that...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman — who quit the Democratic Party 12 years ago to become a Republican — has accused likely Democratic opponent Al Franken of changing positions, demeanor and rhetoric in his attempt to win a Senate seat. Coleman makes the charge in a fundraising e-mail sent out this week with the subject line, "It's Hard to Deny this Kind of Evolution." "After decades of carrying the flag for radical left-wing causes, his extremely liberal viewpoints are couched in softer, more acceptable terms," Coleman writes of the former "Saturday Night Live" star. "And for the most...

Apex, N.C. (AP) -- People who suggest Bill Clinton might be hurting his wife's presidential bid more than helping it haven't spent much time in the small towns where he draws adoring crowds of Democrats who wish he could serve a third term. While the former president has angered some blacks with his comments about race, many voters in North Carolina, Indiana and elsewhere express deep affection for him, the last Democrat to occupy the White House in nearly three decades. They often cite him as the main reason for supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama. Surely in the...

The Supreme Court's refusal to strike down an Indiana law requiring government-issued photo identification at the ballot box could disenfranchise minority and elderly voters at next week's primary and prompt other states to pass similar laws, voting advocates said Monday. The court, in a splintered 6-3 ruling Monday, said Indiana's law, which took effect in 2006 and requires voters to present a state or federal photo ID card at the ballot box, does not violate the First or 14th amendments. The court said the law served as a justifiable protection to the electoral process. "It's especially worrisome that the court...

If the long-running Democratic presidential race were a play, Republicans would be clamoring for even more after the six-week intermission now giving way to the Pennsylvania primary. Little more than a month ago, few voters knew of Barack Obama's controversial pastor or Hillary Rodham Clinton's make-believe story about sniper fire in Bosnia. Obama hadn't ruminated to his own detriment about bitterness in small-town America. And Clinton hadn't felt it necessary to rearrange her staff after her top strategist supported a Colombian free trade pact she opposes. Obama hadn't bowled. Nor the former first lady gamely knocked back a shot of...

Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned. The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved. A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the meetings described them Thursday to the AP to confirm details first reported by ABC News on Wednesday. The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not...

Republican Sen. John McCain has erased Sen. Barack Obama's 10-point advantage in a head-to-head matchup, leaving him essentially tied with both Democratic candidates in an Associated Press-Ipsos national poll released Thursday. The survey showed the extended Democratic primary campaign creating divisions among supporters of Obama and rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and suggests a tight race for the presidency in November no matter which Democrat becomes the nominee. McCain is benefiting from a bounce since he clinched the GOP nomination a month ago. The four-term Arizona senator has moved up in matchups with each of the Democratic candidates, particularly Obama....

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Public approval of President Bush has reached a new low in the Associated Press-Ipsos poll, driven by dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy. A survey released Thursday showed just 28 percent approve of the overall job he is doing. . . .

For all their delight in soaring voter registration and strong poll numbers, some Democrats fear the contest between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton might have a nightmarish end, which could wreck a promising election year. The chief worry is that Clinton may carry her recent winning streak into Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and other states, leaving her with unquestioned momentum but fewer pledged delegates than Obama. Party leaders then would face a wrenching choice: Steer the nomination to a fading Obama, even as signs suggested Clinton could be the stronger candidate in November; or go with the surging...

One in 10 voters believes Barack Obama is Muslim, a mistaken impression that lingers across party lines, a poll showed Wednesday. Fourteen percent of Republicans, 10 percent of Democrats and 8 percent of independents mistakenly think he is Muslim, according to a survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Just over half of each group correctly identified him as Christian, while about a third said they don't know his religion. The false rumor that the Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois senator is Muslim has been fanned on the Internet and conservative talk radio. It has persisted despite the recent controversy...

New Orleans (AP) -- Republican Sen. John McCain, showing a flash of the temper he is known for, repeatedly cut off a reporter Friday when asked whether he had spoken to Democratic Sen. John Kerry about being his vice president in 2004. "Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that, that I had a conversation," McCain told the reporter. "And you know it, too. No. You know it, too. No. You do know. You do know." The reporter, Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times, was following up on a question McCain had answered at a campaign...

(AP) -- For Barack Obama, it is an ember that he has doused time and again, only to see it flicker anew: links to Islam fanned by false rumors, innuendo and association. Obama and his campaign reacted strongly this week when a photo of him in Kenyan tribal garb began spreading on the Internet. And the praise he received Sunday from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan prompted pointed questions — during Tuesday night's presidential debate and also in a private meeting over the weekend with Jewish leaders in Cleveland. During the debate, Obama repeated his denunciation of Farrakhan's views,...

She's still fighting, but it's awfully hard to find encouraging news for Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic homestretch. She's behind in money, delegates and momentum. She's selling experience when everyone seems to want change. And all the cheering for the man who could be the first black president is drowning out any excitement for the first female. Once deemed the nearly inevitable Democratic nominee, Clinton has now lost 10 presidential contests in a row as the battle heads for a March 4 showdown in Texas and Ohio — states she must win. By most measures, the combative New York...

A federal appeals panel sympathetic to the government's detention of illegal immigrants after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks seems ready to exempt former Attorney General John Ashcroft from a lawsuit alleging the detainees were abused. The three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Thursday in a government appeal of a ruling by Judge John Gleeson in Brooklyn that concluded that lawsuits could go forward against Ashcroft and other high-ranking federal officials. Appeals court Judges Dennis Jacobs and Reena Raggi, however, expressed skepticism that Ashcroft was directly involved in conditions at the lockup. The lawsuits are...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has found a lot of ways to explain her string of losses to Sen. Barack Obama. She's going to have to come up with yet another excuse for losing Virginia Tuesday night. Obama prevailed by a 2-to-1 margin in the state based on exit surveys conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks. He was also expected to win primaries in Maryland and the District of Columbia, after sweeping four states plus the Virgin Islands this past weekend. It's been a weekly challenge for Clinton, once the "inevitable" front-runner, to justify...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Senate Republicans blocked a move by Democrats on Wednesday to add more than $40 billion in checks for the elderly, disabled veterans and the unemployed to a bill to stimulate the economy. The 48-41 vote fell just short of the 60 required to break a GOP filibuster and bring the Senate version of the stimulus bill closer to a final vote.

It's a painful irony for Democrats: In the space of a year, the Iraq war that was the source of party's resurgence in Congress became the measure of its impotence. By the end of the 2007, a Congress controlled by Democrats for the first time since 1994 had an approval rating of only 25 percent, down from 40 percent last spring. Then the debate over the war split the party and cast shadows over other issues, spawning a series of legislative failures and losing confrontations with President Bush. What to do about Iraq has turned into a dissing match so...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Even though public opinion is overwhelmingly on their side, Democrats are winding up the year with little accomplished on the military and foreign policy issues that helped propel them to power in the last election. They have been unable to bring troops home from Iraq or force President Bush to accept a nonbinding timetable on the war. Guantanamo Bay prison remains open, despite a Democratic-led effort to close it. And the legal rights of military detainees are the same as the Republicans left them last year — subject to potentially harsh interrogations without access to federal courts...

Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer who had a hand in The Associated Press’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize for photography before being jailed without charges by the United States military, finally had a day in court last week. But his story, which highlights the unprecedented role that Iraqis are playing in news coverage of the war, is really just beginning. snip A spokesman for the military said that Mr. Hussein had been detained as “an imperative security threat” and that he has persistently been “treated fairly, humanely and in accordance with all applicable law.” In a lengthy e-mail message, the spokesman said...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a Nov. 7 story about homeless veterans, The Associated Press, relying on figures from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, gave an incorrect estimate of 495,400 veterans who were homeless at some point during 2006. Lowering its estimate, the alliance now says that 336,627 . . .

Charleston, S.C. (AP) -- Fred Thompson has gotten a lot of mileage out of his movie and TV fame as he runs for the Republican presidential nomination. And on Tuesday, speaking at The Citadel military college, he made sure to mention one of his recent roles: president of the United States, in the movie "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." But that wasn't all good for someone campaigning in the South. "Some people say I've got a little making up to do," he said. "The last role I played when I was in the movies — I played Ulysses S....

New Albany, Ind. (AP) -- President Bush, escalating his budget battle with Congress, on Tuesday vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats. He also signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war budget although the White House complained it contained "some unnecessary spending." The president's action was announced on Air Force One as Bush flew to New Albany, Ind., on the Ohio River across from Louisville, Ky., for a speech criticizing the Democratic-led Congress on its budget priorities. The White House said the $606 billion education and health was loaded with 2,000 earmarks —...

Bush vetoes health and education bill By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago President Bush on Tuesday signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war budget, and vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats. The president's action was announced on Air Force One as Bush flew to Indiana for a speech expected to criticize the Democratic-led Congress on its budget priorities. More than any other spending bill, the $606 billion education and health measure defines the differences between Bush and majority Democrats. The House fell three votes short of winning a veto-proof...

(AP) -- The splintering of prominent Christian conservatives over the Republican presidential contenders reflects a schism — between the dogma of God, guns and gays and the desire to beat Hillary Rodham Clinton. Months of disagreement within this important GOP voting bloc culminated this week in a flurry of endorsements: Televangelist Pat Robertson is backing Rudy Giuliani. Conservative Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas is supporting fellow Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Moral Majority co-founder Paul Weyrich is going for Mitt Romney. All the candidates are flawed in the eyes of the Christian right, which is why some evangelical leaders are...

An increasingly confrontational President Bush on Friday vetoed a bill authorizing hundreds of popular water projects even though lawmakers can count enough votes to override him. Bush brushed aside significant objections from Capitol Hill, even from Republicans, in thwarting legislation that provides money for projects like repairing hurricane damage, restoring wetlands and preventing flooding in communities across the nation. This level of opposition virtually assured that Bush would have a veto overridden for the first time in his presidency. He has used the veto very sparingly for most of the time he has been in office, but has made more...

President Bush's agenda these days is not subtle: Blast Democratic lawmakers for ineptitude. Then find a way to do it again. Even with the factors working against him — record-low approval ratings, fading public attention and dwindling time in office — Bush still talks like a leader whose hand has never been stronger. Backed by a veto power that's hard to override, Bush has taken to blistering Congress in a remarkably relentless fashion. The latest scolding came Thursday. Bush accused Democrats of forgetting the lingering terrorist threat and putting the nation at risk. Then he prodded Congress to give him...

Grand Island, Neb. (AP) -- Thousands of children whose parents are arrested in immigration raids in the U.S. face mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety and depression, according to a new study released Wednesday by the Urban Institute. A child is left without at least one parent for every two adults detained in workplace raids, the study said, and most of those children are citizens or legal immigrants. "Those children were born in America, and we forgot about their rights during the raids, because they were left parentless," said Steve Joel, superintendent of Grand Island Public Schools,...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A plumber and a millionaire squared off in Mississippi over a woman. The woman chose the rich guy. The plumber sued the millionaire and won more than $750,000. Now Jerry Fitch Sr., a businessman from Holly Springs, Miss., wants the Supreme Court to step in and limit what a spurned spouse can collect through a lawsuit that claims "alienation of affection." Fitch said he shouldn't have to pay $112,000 in punitive damages, citing an earlier high court decision overturning state criminal laws against gay sex to bolster his case. He is not contesting the rest of the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Larry who? Now that scandal-tinged Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has reneged on a pledge to resign this fall, his fellow Republican senators act as though they hardly know him. They want voters to forget him, too. But they privately acknowledge that an earlier strategy to drive Craig from office has backfired, sticking them with an open-ended ethics investigation likely to keep the issue before the public for months. Senate Republicans demanded the Ethics Committee inquiry into his sex-sting conviction last summer in hopes of forcing Craig to resign. He essentially called their bluff this month when he...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- President Bush cast a quiet veto Wednesday against a politically attractive expansion of children's health insurance, triggering a struggle with the Democratic-controlled Congress certain to reverberate into the 2008 elections. "Congress will fight hard to override President Bush's heartless veto," vowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Republican leaders expressed confidence they have enough votes to make the veto stick in the House, and not a single senior Democrat disputed them. A two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress is required to override a veto. Bush vetoed the bill in private, absent the television cameras and...

Los Angeles (AP) -- In a year when Republicans are slouching toward a post-Bush era, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has a winning strategy for his party — be like me. California's popular governor is known for his kaleidoscopic political stripes, and that's his point. He said Republicans could face a future of Election Day misery unless the party makes a decisive shift to the political center and claims issues usually associated with the Democratic agenda, like global warming and health-care reform. "We are dying at the box office," the actor-politician told party activists, lamenting a decline in Republican registration...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House. He'd only reached the third sentence of Friday's speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers. Bush quickly corrected himself. "APEC summit," he said forcefully,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Alberto Gonzales was a case study in cronyism, a nice guy and presidential pal who became attorney general on the strength of those two credentials. He was not up to the job. In the end, Gonzales' greatest achievement may be that he produced a rare note of unanimity among Republicans and Democrats in Washington: They agree his tenure was an unmitigated failure. "Reasonable people have been saying since the spring that Gonzales should resign, and four months later everybody says this should have happened a long time ago," said Republican consultant Joe Gaylord. "My guess is the...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Intentionally or not, a new assessment of Iraq's political and military prospects landed just in time to bolster President Bush's case that the United States should maintain its troop buildup in the country and stand by its beleaguered government. The consensus report by U.S. spy agencies contained a veiled warning: Any move to shift U.S. troops out of their role directly combating insurgents could squander the modest security gains secured by the troop surge. "A change of mission ... would place security improvements at risk," the report concluded. That conclusion, coming unanimously from the nation's 16 intelligence...

Los Angeles (AP) -- If Fred Thompson is auditioning for the role of a lifetime, he could hardly be any better prepared. For millions, Thompson is simply Arthur Branch, the gruff, hard-nosed district attorney on NBC's "Law & Order." Many others may recognize him from strong, take-charge movie roles including an admiral in "The Hunt for Red October." As Thompson prepares for a likely run for the presidency — he said Wednesday "it will not be long" until he makes an announcement on the subject — his image has been cultivated as much by Hollywood as by his time as...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Though Congress is on vacation, majority Democrats are keeping alive various fights with the White House with one common thread: Congress' access to administration documents and testimony to which President Bush has claimed executive privilege. Smack in the middle of the August break, the White House faces a new deadline for producing subpoenaed information about the legal justification for the president's secretive eavesdropping program. And aides in both chambers are considering a selection of ways to deal with Bush's refusal to let current and former advisers testify publicly about their roles in the firings of federal prosecutors....

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- To see the type of person who still backs him, President Bush need only look in the mirror. The president fits the composite of today's Bush supporter: a conservative, white, Republican man, an evangelical Christian who goes to church regularly. Hammered by bad news in Iraq, congressional investigations and recent failed domestic initiatives such as immigration reform, Bush's job approval rating has spiraled to record lows for his presidency. Two-thirds of Republicans and about one-third of independents still support him, but virtually no Democrats are left in Bush's camp. Bush says he leads and is not led...

New Orleans (AP) -- For New Orleans residents, the scene was all too familiar: President Bush, touring the site of the collapsed I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, promising to cut red tape and rebuild as quickly as possible. Nearly two years ago, with parts of New Orleans still under water after Hurricane Katrina, Bush made similar declarations in the French Quarter. The president's promise was all Melanie Thompson needed to hear to bring back her family of five and begin work on their flooded home. But today Thompson's family is still living in a cramped trailer and awaiting aid to rebuild....

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) -- A Marine was found guilty Wednesday of conspiracy to murder an Iraqi man, but acquitted of premeditated murder and kidnapping in a bungled attempt to kill a suspected insurgent last year. Cpl. Marshall Magincalda also was found guilty of larceny and housebreaking, and cleared of making a false official statement. He stood rigidly alongside his two attorneys as sighs and gasps filled the packed courtroom. A separate jury continued to deliberate in the case of his squad leader, Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, who faces the same charges. Prosecutors said that during a nighttime patrol...