Think Progress

A new report issued recently by the Center for American Progress warned that, “as borrowing in the mortgage market slows, credit card borrowing is accelerating — a dangerous trend because borrowers still face weak income growth. That means the credit card market could eventually run into the same problems that now afflict the sub-prime mortgage market. ” Tonight, NBC News reported that credit card debt is nearing a record $1 trillion. The piece noted there is a “credit card binge across the nation as people use their plastic to stay financially afloat.” Watch it:

URL: Think Progress

Think Progress

Tim Goeglein, special assistant to President Bush, resigned this evening after being caught — and then admitting to — plagiarizing articles that he wrote for a local paper. After blogger Nancy Nall revealed that Goeglein had plagiarized a recent Fort Wayne News-Sentinel column, an investigation by the paper found 20 of his 38 columns had parts that were copied. Goeglein had worked for Bush since 2001 as a liaison to social and religious conservatives and is a familiar figure to many evangelical Christian leaders.

URL: Think Progress

Think Progress

Today, Attorney General Michael Mukasey “rejected referring the House’s contempt citations against two of President Bush’s top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey says they committed no crime.” Mukasey claimed that White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers “were right” to ignore Congress’s subpoenas in the U.S. attorney scandal.

UPDATE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) outlines the next steps:

Anticipating this response from the Administration, the House has already provided authority for the Judiciary Committee to file a civil enforcement action in federal district court and the House shall do so promptly.

URL: Think Progress

Think Progress

Congress recently passed the Intelligence Authorization Act, which contained a provision creating a single interrogation standard for the U.S. government that bans the use of waterboarding. CQ reports that President Bush will veto the bill next week:

“The president’s expected to veto it next week,” said Emily Lawrimore, a spokeswoman for the White House. “We received it today.”

Although the exact date for the veto is unclear, the president likely will not act until after Tuesday’s primaries, since numerous lawmakers will not be on Capitol Hill then.

The Gavel has House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) statement urging Bush to sign the legislation.

URL: Think Progress

Media Matters for America

In his report on "who" Sen. Barack Obama "really is" during the February 28 edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, CBS correspondent Dean Reynolds left out information undermining or rebutting several of the assertions he made regarding Obama's denouncement of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Obama's church, and Obama's patriotism.

From Reynolds' report:

REYNOLDS: Because he is so new to the national scene, questions persist about Barack Obama's identity, who he really is. Questions his political opponents will be only too happy to answer this fall.

[begin video clip]

OBAMA: Thank you!

REYNOLDS: No flag pin on his lapel? No hand on his heart that one time? Opponents call it unpatriotic. Is he a Muslim? The whispering persists, no matter how often Obama debunks it.

OBAMA: I've been going to the same church for 20 years, praising Jesus.

REYNOLDS: That church is the Trinity United Church of Christ. Self-described as unashamedly black with an emphasis on African culture, the church has been targeted by critics who call it separatist, racist, and anti-Israel.

OBAMA: I consistently have not only befriended the Jewish community, not only have I been strong on Israel, but ...   more »

Media Matters for America

On the February 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage repeatedly referred to Sen. Barack Obama as "Barack Hussein Obama" and asked, "[W]hy are there no queries being provoked by Saddam Hussein -- I mean, Barack Hussein Obama?" Savage noted a February 28 New York Times article on the constitutional question of whether Sen. John McCain's Panama Canal Zone birth made him ineligible to become president. He then stated: "But why are there no queries being provoked about Saddam Hussein -- I mean, Barack Hussein Obama? If, after all, the arch-enemy of Iraq, his name was Saddam Hussein, isn't it logical that us stupid Americans would like to know why the man who would be president has a name that's similar to our -- to our enemy in Iraq, Hussein?" Savage continued: "I mean, let's turn it around. We just killed Adolf Hitler, and now a man is running for president, and his name happens to be, let us say, Harry Hitler Jones. Say, wow, wait a minute, why would his name be Harry Hitler Jones? How dare you raise the question of his middle name being Hitler!" Additionally, speaking with a caller, ...   more »