from United Press International

WASHINGTON — More than half of U.S. respondents to a UPI-Zogby International poll said media have the right to report on secret government programs of questionable legality.

Some commentators took U.S. media outlets to task for unveiling secret U.S. programs. Those programs included secret CIA detentions and renditions and the warrantless surveillance programs.

Media critics said reporting on the programs harmed the government’s anti-terror efforts while supporters said conduct that is likely illegal should be revealed to the public.

Some 53.2 percent of poll participants agree that the media should report on such programs while 35.8 percent said they should not.

There is a large political difference in the data, with 86.9 percent of Democrats saying the programs should be reported on and 70.6 percent of Republicans saying they should not. Some of that bias could be related to the fact that the most recent programs reported on were carried out by a Republican administration.

There is a 1.3-percentage-point margin of error in the data, which collected answers from 5,932 U.S. residents via a Zogby interactive poll April 13-16

The driver of the gasoline tanker truck that overturned and ignited a fire that brought down part of the MacArthur Maze has a substantial criminal record, including a conviction for possession of heroin in 1996 that earned him a 32-month state prison sentence, law enforcement officials said Monday.

But James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, was able to obtain a commercial-trucking driver’s license last June with a special endorsement allowing him to transport hazardous materials. Nothing in state law would have prevented Mosqueda — who had two felony convictions in the 1990s but a clean driving record in recent years — from receiving the license, state Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman Mike Miller said.

Mosqueda also passed a background check, administered by the federal Transportation Security Administration, designed to ensure that those who transport hazardous materials do not pose a threat, Miller said. The crimes of which he had been convicted were not serious or recent enough to disqualify him from driving a truck filled with gasoline, federal officials said.

Mosqueda remains at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, where he is being treated for second-degree burns to his face, neck and hands that he suffered when the truck he was driving crashed and burned early Sunday on the connector between westbound Interstate 80 and southbound Interstate 880 in Oakland. The fire brought down the overhead ramp connecting eastbound Interstate 80 with eastbound Interstate 580.

Family members released a statement saying Mosqueda was in stable condition. “We are grateful that no one else was hurt and thank God that James is on the road to recovery,” the statement said.

Read more at The SF GATE

Some changes made today……..what’s up with that?

HONOLULU (AP) - President George W. Bush has appointed Lt. Gen. Carrol “Howie” Chandler as the new U.S. Air Force commander in the Pacific, the Pentagon announced.

Chandler has been nominated to replace Gen. Paul V. Hester, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a statement Friday. Chandler also has been nominated for his fourth star and promotion to the rank of general.

Chandler would work out of Pacific Air Force headquarters at Hickam Air Force Base on Oahu if the U.S. Senate confirms the appointment. The commander oversees some 55,000 Air Force personnel in Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Japan and South Korea.

The former F-15 and F-16 fighter pilot is currently the deputy chief of staff for Air Force operations in Washington, D.C.

Chandler has lived in Hawaii before, serving at the U.S. Pacific Command and Pacific Air Forces in the 1980s and 1990s.

He also has served as a fighter squadron commander at Kadena Air Force Base in Japan and as a U.S. Air Force adviser to the Royal Saudi Air Force.

More recently, Chandler was the Alaskan Command commander.

Hester said he expected to be relieved sometime in November and retire to Texas.

Continue reading here

Sing like a canary baby……..

Deborah Jeane Palfrey is behind the biggest sex scandal to hit Washington D.C. in years.

Palfrey, now more commonly known as the DC Madame, says she is naming names in order to clear her own. “I do not have sufficient monies to undertake this extraordinarily expensive task on my own,” Palfrey said outside a federal court Monday.

Palfrey says she plans to reach into her little black book and call on prominent clients to testify in her defense. Palfrey says she can’t afford the investigation on her own and is turning over her extensive phone records to the media to help identify clients.

Palfrey also apologized to Randall Tobias, former Deputy Secretary of State, who abruptly resigned on Friday after admitting that he called the service.

“Allow me to say how genuinely sorry I am for Mr. Tobias, his family and friends. I unfortunately know first hand the impact such a revelation can have on ones life.”

65-year-old Tobias, who is married, denied having sex with any of girls working for Palfrey. Tobias says he called the service to have the girls come to his swanky condo in the heart of DC and give him massages.

Read more at Inside Edition

From YahooNews:

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez announced Monday he would formally pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a largely symbolic move because the nation has already paid off its debts to the lending institutions.

“We will no longer have to go to Washington nor to the IMF nor to the World Bank, not to anyone,” said the leftist leader, who has long railed against the Washington-based lending institutions.

Chavez said he wanted to formalize Venezuela’s exit from the two bodies “tonight and ask them to return what they owe us.”

Venezuela recently repaid its debts to the World Bank five years ahead of schedule, saving $8 million. It paid off all its debts to the IMF shortly after Chavez first took office in 1999. The IMF closed its offices in Venezuela late last year.

Chavez made the announcement a day after telling a meeting of allied leaders that Latin America overall would be better off without the U.S.-backed World Bank or IMF. He has often blamed their lending policies for perpetuating poverty.

The leftist president also has repeatedly criticized past Venezuelan governments for signing structural adjustment agreements with the IMF that were blamed for contributing to racing inflation.

Under former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez in 1989, violent protests broke out in Caracas in response to IMF austerity measures that brought a hike in subsidized gasoline prices and public transport fares.

Enraged people took over the streets in violence that killed at least 300 people - and possibly many more. The riots came to be known as the “Caracazo,” and Chavez often refers to it as a rebellion against the status quo.

Oh the poor baby. They’re picking on him. Making stuff up! It’s always someone else’s fault with these guys. I’ve read this so many times with them I don’t know whether to puke or laugh.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz lashed back at critics on Monday who he said were conducting a smear campaign against him and vowed he would not resign.

In a statement to a bank panel looking into whether he broke ethical and other rules in a pay-and-promotion deal he directed for his girlfriend, Wolfowitz said treatment of the issue had become “circus like.”

“The goal of this smear campaign, I believe, is to create a self-fulfilling prophecy that I am an ineffective leader and must step down for that reason alone, even if the ethics charges are unwarranted,” Wolfowitz said.

“And, I will not resign in the face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest,” he said in the statement.

The former deputy U.S. defense secretary, whose legacy as an architect of the Iraq war has dogged his tenure at the bank, did not rule out the possibility he may eventually step down, but made clear he would not be forced.

More at Reuters

The headline reads: Guantanamo Camp’s Chief Gets Promoted. Ahhhhhh I got news for the reporter who wrote that…..it’s not a camp. It’s a prison. Where people are abused. Where people are held for years without being charged. Where human rights are violated. So it figures they promoted the guy running the show.

From the Miami Herald:

The Pentagon is promoting the Navy admiral now running the prison camps at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba.

President Bush has formally nominated Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. to receive a second star, according to a Defense Department statement Friday.

In U.S. Navy terms, that means he goes from being rear admiral — lower half, to rear admiral — upper half, and has two stars.

Harris, who has run the offshore detention center through a turbulent era of suicides and the arrivals of CIA held captive Khalid Sheik Mohammed, is moving to Miami by summer.

He becomes operations chief of the U.S. Southern Command — the Pentagon division responsible for most military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Pentagon has already assigned another one’star admiral to replace Harris. He is Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, who is now deputy director at the Navy’s expeditionary warfare division in Washington.

Buzby has served extensively in the Mediterranean and is a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

These two performances are 34 years apart. Tom’s put on some weight, but the voice is still as strong as ever. This June 7th will be Tom Jones‘ 67th birthday! Enjoy the comparisons! - Jimmy

Ray McGovern on Tucker Carlson.

Comedians, artists and certainly political cartoonists tend to possess an anti-authoritarian, skeptical, irreverent streak. This makes the staunchly conservative cartoonist an especially odd bird.

Which cartoonists dare to criticize their own party? Who seems to literally illustrate GOP talking points? Who are their favorite targets? Who mocks liberals - and who seems to truly hate them? Who’s funny? Who’s independently minded and who’s a hack? Read, and decide, for yourself!

This installment covers two weeks, 4/16/07-4/29/07. The biggest topics were the Virginia Tech shootings and a Supreme Court decision on abortion - but there’s always time for conservative cartoonists to attack prominent Democrats and - Rosie O’Donnell?!?
Read more »

Stephanie Miller is filling the Imus spot Monday - Wednesday. I meant to tune her in today and forgot. Wouldn’t it be great if they replaced Imus with her? I wrote a letter to MSNBC last week supporting her for the slot.

From The Hill

U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) arrested 74 people in wheelchairs on Capitol Hill Monday, charging them with unlawful assembly.

USCP Sergeant Kimberly Schneider confirmed the arrests, adding that they took place on the House side of the Capitol. Schneider added that the arrestees belonged to ADAPT, a group that supports funding for in-home care.

According to an ADAPT organizer, Babs Johnson, the protesters were chanting, “Community Choice Act now.” She said about 120 people were arrested both in and around the Rayburn office building.

The group came to Washington to support S. 799 and H.R. 1621. The bills would “give people a choice of services in their own home rather than a nursing home,” Johnson said.

Last week, ADAPT met with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to discuss disability issues.

The USS Kearsarge, the first to pull into Port Everglades for “Fleet Week.” It’s a helicopter landing and dockage ship that carries about 1,500 Marines.

A US Navy V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft sits on the flight deck of the carrier-like Kearsarge.

Below: The USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98) pulls into Port Everglades as part of Fleet Week.

The USS Ponce (LPD-15) pulls into Port Everglades.

More money More money More money…..

The pay is tempting, but the mission is tough - helping to stop illegal immigrants from crossing a long, rugged and remote border.

But the border in question isn’t between the United States and Mexico or Canada. It’s in Iraq.

At a time when federal officials are stressing the need to beef up U.S. border security, the State Department has hired a firm to recruit veteran law officers who will serve as “mentors” and train Iraqis to guard their borders.

Critics of the plan acknowledge that the goal of hiring 120 officers won’t seriously impair America’s border security. They wonder, however, what it says about the government’s priorities.

“Our Border Patrol agents are going to be saying, ‘Goodbye, Arizona. Goodbye, Texas. Hello, Iraq,’ ” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

DynCorp International launched the effort this month to recruit officers with border security experience. The job begins in May and lasts for one year, a spokesman for the company said.

The compensation includes more than $134,000 in salary, tax-free. There also is a $25,000 bonus for signing up in time for a May 5 training session.

More at the Houston Chronicle

Best wishes for a full recovery to him!
From Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - Sen. Tim Johnson (news, bio, voting record) has returned to his residence outside Washington, more than four months after he suffered a brain hemorrhage, his office said Monday.

“It is wonderful to take this next step with family and friends,” Johnson’s office quoted the South Dakota Democrat as saying. “As I continue with my therapy, I also get more and more work from the office.”

Johnson since February has been receiving treatment at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington. The attending physician at the hospital, Dr. Michael Yochelson, said Johnson continues to show significant progress, with gait training playing a more central role in his rehabilitation.

Also, New Jersey Governor Corzine went home today.