AP Via Yahoo: (h/t Firedoglake)

Iraq won the Asian for the first time Sunday, a beacon of hope for a nation divided by war.

Iraq's 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia on a 71st-minute header by captain Younis Mahmoud was an inspirational triumph for a team whose players straddle bitter and violent ethnic divides. After the game, Mahmoud called for the United States to withdraw its troops from his nation.

"I want America to go out," he said. "Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn't invade Iraq and, hopefully, it will be over soon."

Mahmoud also said he will not return to Iraq to celebrate.

"I don't want the Iraqi people to be angry with me," he said. "If I go back with the team, anybody could kill me or try to hurt me." Read more...

As expected, this part of the story isn't getting much coverage from the media. For the Iraqi citizens who were lucky enough to have electricity to watch or listen to the game, these men are national heroes. Is there any doubt Mahmoud speaks for the majority of Iraqis? Shall we take bets on how long it will take for the right to attack this man?

UPDATE: (Nicole) Our friend Scarce sent us this video, with two very different versions of the Iraqi celebration; the first from CNN, the second from Reuters.

Download | play Download | play

Hillbilly Report:

Canvassed Senator Mitch McConnell's neighborhood to distribute yard signs and contact supporters to End the War.

UPDATED (with above video):

If you hadn't heard, we had an incredible event yesterday in front of Senator McConnell's house! The Capitol Police greeted us as we arrived to canvass his neighborhood with yard signs cluing us in that he was at home. As the afternoon wore on, the Capitol Police approached us again and implied that the senator wouldn't leave until we left so we stayed until 11pm, and then brought out candles to keep up the spirited vigil.

You can go to IraqSummer for more information on keeping the heat on these congresspeople to get our troops out of Iraq. DitchMitch is also looking for your help in making sure Mitch McConnell does not get re-elected next year.

In his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Bush implored Congress to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA):

One of the most important ways we can gather that information is by monitoring terrorist communications. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- also known as FISA -- provides a critical legal foundation that allows our intelligence community to collect this information while protecting the civil liberties of Americans. But this important law was written in 1978, and it addressed the technologies of that era. This law is badly out of date -- and Congress must act to modernize it.

Today we face sophisticated terrorists who use disposable cell phones and the Internet to communicate with each other, recruit operatives, and plan attacks on our country. Technologies like these were not available when FISA was passed nearly 30 years ago, and FISA has not kept up with new technological developments. As a result, our Nation is hampered in its ability to gain the vital intelligence we need to keep the American people safe.

I know you’ll be shocked to hear it, but your President is intentionally misleading you.

Continue reading »

Conservative heads continue to explode over the rescheduled GOP CNN/YouTube debate. One conservative's predictable solution to managing the direct participation of American voters? Let right-wing bloggers choose the questions.

Meanwhile, the 2008 GOP presidential field offers Americans a unified theory of Islamic terrorism which dangerously conflates all enemies, real or imagined. Of course, Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee et al are merely plagiarizing from the master.

In Iraq, Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki is at loggerheads with General Petraeus for arming Sunni militants backed by Saudi Arabia, now the proposed recipient of a massive new U.S. arms package. And that was just Sunday.

Back in DC, data mining may be at the center of Alberto Gonzales' latest prevarications over illegal NSA domestic surveillance. While the National Review debates itself over his controlling legal authority, Fox News can't find any takers to defend Gonzo.

An evangelical civil war has broken out over creating a Palestinian state and fast-tracking the End of Days. And while Joe Lieberman compares Pastor John Hagee to Moses, Robert Novak dreams of an afterlife without bloggers.

And as a shaky Wall Street seeks to rebound from last week's disaster, Brad Delong and Mark Thoma offer David Brooks an economics lesson.

Guest blogging the Round Up this week is Jon Perr from Perrspectives. Send your links, recommendations, comments and angst to mbr AT perrspectives DOT com.

Bob Geiger:

Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) last week issued subpoenas to George W. Bush's brain, Karl Rove, and White House Deputy Political Affairs Director J. Scott Jennings and the two are due to testify on Thursday. What are the chances that the slippery Rove will actually show -- slim or none?

Also important in Judiciary this week -- given the GOP's penchant for stealing elections and the fact that we have some fairly important ones coming up -- will be hearings on S. 453, the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007.[..]

The legislation is authored by Barack Obama (D-IL) and -- surprise, surprise -- not one Republican is among the many cosponsors.

And given that the role of the Justice Department has morphed into it representing the White House and not the American people, the committee will also look at S. 1845, by Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), which will "provide for limitations in certain communications between the Department of Justice and the White House Office relating to civil and criminal investigations." Read on...

Via SF Gate:

State-sanctioned teams of computer hackers were able to break through the security of virtually every model of California's voting machines and change results or take control of some of the systems' electronic functions, according to a University of California study released Friday. The researchers "were able to bypass physical and software security in every machine they tested,'' said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who authorized the "top to bottom review" of every voting system certified by the state.

Neither Bowen nor the investigators were willing to say exactly how vulnerable California elections are to computer hackers, especially because the team of computer experts from the UC system had top-of-the-line security information plus more time and better access to the voting machines than would-be vote thieves likely would have.

Bowen said in a telephone news conference Friday that the report is only one piece of information she will use to decide which voting systems are secure enough to use in next February's presidential primary election.

If she is going to decertify any of the machines, she must do it by Friday, six months before the Feb. 5 vote. Read more...

You can contact California Secretary of State, Debra Bowen here and let her know what you think of electronic voting machines.

The WaPo’s Christopher Lee noted recently, “If anything looked like a sure thing in the new Congress, it was that lawmakers would renew, and probably expand, the popular, decade-old State Children’s Health Insurance Program before it expires this year.” It’s a no-brainer, right? Who’s going to balk at an established, successful program that offers health insurance for kids?

As it turns out, the president is.  Is it because he doesn’t think the program works? No, the administration acknowledges that S-CHIP works well. Is it because it’s fiscally irresponsible? No, it’s fairly inexpensive. Bush’s opposition is entirely, by his own admission, ideological. The program offends his philosophy of government.

Today, Paul Krugman takes him to task.

It’s not because [Bush] thinks the plans wouldn’t work. It’s because he’s afraid that they would. That is, he fears that voters, having seen how the government can help children, would ask why it can’t do the same for adults. [...]

There are arguments you can make against programs, like Social Security, that provide a safety net for adults. I can respect those arguments, even though I disagree. But denying basic health care to children whose parents lack the means to pay for it, simply because you’re afraid that success in insuring children might put big government in a good light, is just morally wrong.

So much for compassionate conservatism.

Why do they hate us?

(Guest Blogged by Howie Klein)

Ever been out to Simi Valley? Until yesterday I never had. All I knew about it was that members of the LAPD like raising their families out there, Ronald Reagan's library is there, Charles Manson's Spahn ranch is out there, and the Rodney King "trial" took place there. But Adam, the drummer in Building A Better Spaceship called me and told me the band was doing a gig at some park out there and I should come. So I drove down the Ronald Reagan Freeway into an entirely different world-- lots of people with guns and cowboy drag-- and saw the band play. They were great; even the cowboys liked them. (And why not? They're from Texas originally.) Here's one of their oldies, Hermosa Pier from their debut eponymous album

(see more signs like this at FreewayBlogger)

Via The Downers Grove Sun:

A Downers Grove man believes he is being prosecuted for his political views - and an area attorney has taken his case pro bono.

Jeff Zurawski, 39, of Downers Grove and Sarah M. Hartfield, 45, of Naperville were initially charged with disorderly conduct for displaying a banner that read "Impeach Bush and Cheney - LIARS" on May 6 on the Great Western Trail above Interstate 355.

But more charges were brought against the two war protesters last week in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton: reckless conduct and unauthorized display of a sign in viewing of a highway, both misdemeanors.

The new charges each carry a penalty of up to one year imprisonment, while the original charge was up to a three-month sentence in the county jail.

"This is political prosecution," said environmental rights attorney Shawn Collins, who has taken on Zurawski and Hartfield's case pro bono. Read more...

The ACLU has more on the White House's ongoing efforts to silence dissent.