by Frank James

President Bush was heckled today by anti-war and civil-liberties protestors at an Independence Day naturalization ceremony he attended at Thomas Jefferson's old slave-plantation home, Monticello.

As the president started his speech protesters, at least one of whom appeared to be from the group Code Pink, started shouting "war criminal" and "fascism" at the president.

Bush, who doesn't even generally like to be interrupted by cell phone ring tones while he's talking, appeared to take the interruption in stride.

In fact, he adeptly played off the protestors to make a point about American democracy.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, and happy Fourth of July. (Applause.) I am thrilled to be here at Monticello. I've never been here before. (Audience disturbance.)

To my fellow citizens to be, we believe in free speech in the United States of America. (Applause.)

That Bush had never been to Monticello before was perhaps the biggest news of the event. Monticello is right up there with George Washington's Mount Vernon in terms of places that are must-sees on the list of presidential sites. For a man who has a helicopter at his disposal, it seems he would have made what's around a 100 mile trip as the crow flies a lot sooner than the last few months of his second term.

Of course, a president doesn't really plan his itinerary; the staff does. In any event, we're glad he got to Monticello and we hope he took the tour. Jefferson was quite the innovator. For instance, he designed a dumbwaiter that brought wine up from his basement wine cellar into the dining room and placed a bed where a wall separating two rooms, his study and bedroom, would normally be, allowing him to roll out of bed to either area, depending on what he wanted to do.

You can view the entire speech or read the transcript.

(Photo by Adrian Bradshaw / EPA)

by Frank James and David Nitkin

In the time-honored Washington tradition of waiting until the last minute before a weekend or holiday to drop controversial news, the White House waited until the eve of the Independence Day holiday to announce that President Bush will attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

Here's the press release where they buried the lead, not mentioning until the last sentence that the president will be in Beijing for the pageant-filled start of the games. (Though, true to form, White House announcements of impending trips typically spell them out in chronological order.)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

In South Korea, President Bush and President Lee will discuss regional and global security issues as well as their commitment to getting their respective legislatures to ratify the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement, which will bring important benefits to workers, farmers, ranchers, and entrepreneurs in both the United States and Korea. The President will then travel to Thailand to celebrate 175 years of the U.S.-Thailand relationship and to discuss issues bilateral and regional issues with Prime Minister Samak. In China, the President looks forward to seeing President Hu and other senior Chinese leaders for discussions on a wide range of issues including the way ahead on North Korean denuclearization. The President and Mrs. Bush will attend the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games on August 8.

by Katie Fretland

The United States is urging the U.N. Security Council to consider sanctions that would freeze the financial assets of Zimbabwe's president who won a disputed election marked by political violence.

Robert Mugabe won last week's widely-condemned election for his sixth term as president. Foreign observers reported that the few voters who cast ballots voted out of fear, amid violence in which opposition supporters were killed.

According to the text of a draft resolution, Washington proposes to also freeze the assets of 11 Mugabe officials and ban them from traveling outside the country, The Associated Press reports. The United States is also pushing for Mugabe to negotiate with the opposition party to form a unity government.

Earlier this week in Cairo, Mugabe rejected the idea to share power with the opposition, the Los Angeles Times reports. Mugabe spokesman George Charamba told reporters that the West "can go hang a thousand times. They have no basis, they have no claim on Zimbabwe politics at all."

The election was a final blow to hopes of democracy and diplomats predict the fleeing of up to a million refugees, the Chicago Tribune reports.

"On the death list are some who won't get that chance," correspondent Paul Salopek writes.

"Zimbabwe's shelves are bare. With inflation now orbiting almost meaninglessly at over 2 million percent, the country has become a surreal land of 16-billion-Zimbabwe-dollar chicken legs. Whole chickens aren't available. And Mugabe exhausted his meager treasury by handing out a last few mini-buses and farming tools to sway his cowed and slat-ribbed electorate."

by David Nitkin

President Bush said today he wants to continue toward a diplomatic resolution to Iran's nuclear ambitions, and would not directly address reports that Israel plans a military strike to destroy Iranian uranium enrichment capabilities before the end of the year.

"I have made it very clear to all parties that the first option ought to be to solve this problem diplomatically," Bush said. "And the best way to solve it diplomatically is for the United States to work with other nations to send a focused message. And that is that, You will be isolated and you will have economic hardship if you continue trying to enrich."

Bush addressed his goals for an upcoming trip to Japan for a G8 summit during a statement in the Rose Garden, and took five questions from reporters at the conclusion of his prepared remarks. Two of the questions concerned Israel's intentions in Iran, a topic of escalating debate. But the president did not specifically mention the prospect of Israeli military attacks in his responses.

Bush said he supported a proposal from Russian leader Vladimir Putin to provide enriched uranium for an Iranian civilian nuclear power program and collect the spent fuel, "thereby negating the need for the Iranian regime to enrich at all."

Questions about Israeli intentions in Iran have swelled since last month, when more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s flew more than 900 miles over the Mediterranean in an exercise that included refueling tankers and helicopters that could rescue downed pilots, the New York Times reported. The distance covered during the exercise showed that Israel jets could reach Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.

by Mark Silva

President Bush, campaigning for the White House in 2000, pledged to "rally the armies of compassion,'' enlisting faith-based organizations in government-backed aid for the needy.

And during his tenure, the federal government has pumped more than $2 billion a year into the budgets of charities associated with houses of worship, aid which the White House maintains has helped to alleviate homelessness and bring other relief on the street.

There have always been people willing to help others, the president said in his weekly radio address today, but "because many of them worked with small charities, they were overlooked by Washington as potential partners in service. And because many of them belonged to faith-based organizations, they were often barred from receiving support from the federal government.

"So I set about to change this with a new approach called "compassionate conservatism.,''' said the president. "This approach was compassionate, because it was rooted in a timeless truth: that we ought to love our neighbors as we'd like to be loved ourselves. And this approach was conservative, because it recognized the limits of government: that bureaucracies can put money in people's hands, but they cannot put hope in people's hearts.''

See what else Bush had to say about this today, here:

by Jim Tankersley

An old friend made a surprise appearance at President Bush's speech to a conference of faith-based groups this afternoon. Perhaps you remember him. He goes by "compassionate conservatism."

The phrase was a staple of the then-Texas governor's winning presidential campaign in 2000 before terrorism, war and a slumping American economy pushed it aside. Bush dusted it off today before an adoring crowd that celebrated his two-term effort to open the gates of government funding to religious groups working to combat homelessness, AIDS and other societal ailments.

In the process, he fondly recalled the early days of that first White House run, which, he noted, "seems like a long time ago."

"You've helped revolutionize the way government addresses the greatest challenges facing our society," Bush told the crowd. "I truly believe the Faith-Based Initiative is one of the most important initiatives of this administration."

The speech had a late-term, legacy-boosting feel to it, touting success in several areas - all of them stemming from the general concept that "faith" goes a lot farther than "bureaucracy." Here's an excerpt from the official White House transcript:

By Mark Silva

In a year of many lasts, President Bush attended his last National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast as president today.

Bush, received with a warm and standing ovation, was credited for delivering the biggest federal budget for bilingual education ever and praised for promoting "comprehensive immigration reform," which he campaigned on but failed to win.

"Next year," the president said of his wife and his Texas ranch, "in Crawford, Laura and I are going to have a different kind of prayer breakfast.

"I'll be cooking the eggs, and she'll be praying I don't burn them."

by Bay Fang

Although President Bush announced this morning that he would lift key sanctions against the North Korean regime and remove it from the US terrorism blacklist, the State Department and administration officials followed up by emphasizing that other sanctions against the regime once dubbed part of the "axis of evil" remained in place.

For one, bans remain against missile equipment, possible dual-use technology, and the assets of any designated proliferators. Any assets that were previously frozen under the Trading with the Enemy Act remain frozen. Furthermore, sanctions put in place due to the regime's "gross violations" of human rights continue to prohibit any development or security assistance to Pyongyang.

While traveling in Japan for the G-8 meeting of foreign ministers, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the North Koreans to do more on resolving the issue of abductions of Japanese civilians "We're continuing to expect the North Koreans to take this issue seriously because it is a major issue for Japan and it's a major issue for the United States," Rice said.

In his remarks this morning, Bush expressed skepticism about the regime, which the Bush administration has accused of lying about its nuclear capabilities before.

"We will trust you only to the extent you fulfill your promises," Bush said in the Rose Garden. "I'm pleased with the progress. I'm under no illusions. This is the first step. This isn't the end of the process. It is the beginning of the process."

Next up in the process is a largely symbolic, made-for-TV destruction of a 65-foot-tall cooling tower, which is currently attached to its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon - which, under the terms of the agreement, has already been largely disabled.

Rice told reporters traveling with her in Japan that she thought the declaration was verifiable. "We believe we have ... the means by which to verify the completeness and accuracy of this document," she said.

President Bush and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shake hands during a meeting June 25, 2008 in the Oval Office. (Photo credit MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

By David Nitkin

President Bush will travel to Asia after Independence Day for the annual G8 meeting, the latest part of a hectic travel schedule that has shuttled him across the globe during his last months in office.

Is he getting jet-lagged? Nah. Bush inisists he is feeling "good," he said today, answering a question intended for his guest in the Oval Office, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

The meeting was a late addition to the president's weekly schedule, having been announced yesterday. Talabani is in the United States for what published reports say is a three-week visit for medical treatment on his weight and/or his knee. (Reports give conflicting accounts.)

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has confirmed that Talabani received treatment there, according to the Associated Press, but did not disclose the condition. Talabani, 73, has a history of health issues: he collapsed last year and was treated at the Mayo Clinic.

According to the Independent newspaper in London, Talabani's office released a quote from a recent news conference referencing the president's health.

"I don't have any health problems except my obesity and I will treat it, God willing," the Independent quoted Talabani as saying. "I will go to the USA and stay nearly three weeks to lose weight and have some rest and relaxation ... away from meetings and work."

But a little more than a week after arriving in the U.S., Talabani was in Washington for a meeting with Bush. Bush called Talabani a "friend" who has been "on the front lines" of creating a free Iraq. Talabani went further, calling Bush a "great friend."

A group of reporters and photographers was allowed to enter the Oval Office, as is customary, for pictures and to hear a statement. At the end, one reporter ventured a question: "How is your health, Mr. President? How are you feeling?"

President Talabani looked blankly. An answer instead came from President Bush. "Good, thanks," Bush said.

by Mark Silva

Now the gloves come off in the gas war.

As Americans prepare to tank up for the Fourth of July holiday, President Bush says motorists are paying "the price at the pump'' for Democratic obstruction.

That means Democratic opposition to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Bush has long proposed, and drilling off-shore on regions of the Outer Continental Shelf which have been off-limits since 1981 for environental concerns.

Bush this week made a Rose Garden pitch for off-shore drilling, acknowledging that in the short run it won't alleviate pressure on gas prices -- the Energy Department says production probably couldn't begin there until 2017. And he made the pitch in his weekly radio address today, accusing Democrats of balking at drilling that could eventuallly make the United States less dependent on foreign oil and give motorists a break.

"The fundamental problem behind high gas prices is that the supply of oil has not kept up with the rising demand across the world,'' Bush says today. "One obvious solution is for America to increase our domestic oil production.

"Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal. Now Americans are paying the price at the pump for this obstruction.'

"If congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action,'' said the president, repeating a line he delivered in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, "they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act.''

by Mark Silva and updated with clarifications at 2 p.m.

President Bush is bound for Florida today to do what he does best: Raise money.

For someone in need.

He will be raising it this afternoon for two of the three South Florida Cuban-American congressmen who face serious challenges from Democratic rivals this fall. At least one of them, the incumbent whose rival was never indicted, faces a serious contest. (Although, in Florida, the indicted should never be counted out of political contests.)

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart is the junior member of a Cuban-American trio in Congress from Miami. The former chairman of the state Senate Appropriations Committee was first elected to Congress in 2002. His older brother, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, also a former state legislator, first went to Congress in 1992.

Bush will attend a fundraiser for the brothers Diaz-Balart today. Mario, the younger, faces a tough Democratic rival. Lincoln, the elder, faces a once-indicted mayor.

It turns out, however, that neither Diaz-Balart brother would be able to attend the fundraiser in their honor in Naples today, because both were stuck in Washington with floor votes - including passage of the president's terrorist surveillance program.

And Mario Diaz-Balart told The Swamp that both brothers are bullish about November: "I think both Lincoln and I are going to have a banner year.''

These have been exceptionally safe seats ever since Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, another Republican Cuban-American and the first Hispanic woman to win a seat in the state Legislature, claimed the vacated congressional seat of the late, legendary Rep. Claude Pepper of Miami in 1989.

But this year, Joe Garcia, a Democratic Cuban-American, former executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami -- the organization of the late power-broker in the Miami Cuban exile community, Jorge Mas Canosa -- and former member of the state commission that regulates utilities in Florida, is taking on Mario Diaz-Balart. (Garcia's campaign video is featured above.)

Garcia, who also has been involved in national politics with the New Democrat Network and Sen. John Kerry's campaign, represents a younger generation of Democrats in a community that has long been known for its Republican solidarity.

The fundraiser will not be held in Miami, but rather in Naples.

The 25th Congressional District which Mario Diaz-Balart represents is a marvel of modern-day Gerrymandering, created by a GOP-run Legislature with map-drawing skills which ensured that Florida's congressional delegation would become overwhelmingly Republican. The district covers much of the southern tip of the state - alligators mainly -- and reaches from Miami on the Atlantic Coast to Naples on the Gulf Coast.

And Naples is where the money is.

Andrew Zajac

With the primaries out of the way, the political theater gets a bit more pointed.

Americans United for Change, the liberal Democratic-oriented advocacy group, this morning announced a bus tour to spotlight the perceived policy failings of the Bush Administration.

Can a PR campaign framing John McCain's candidacy as a third Bush term be far behind?

Here's a copy of the AUC release:
Spread the Word...You Are Invited....
To the Bush Legacy Bus Kickoff and Cook Out

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 @ 11:30 A.M.
At the AFLCIO in Washington, DC
815 16th Street, NW
(within sight of the White House!!)

Join us for Free Food and Drinks (courtesy of the AFLCIO) and The Unveiling of the Bush Legacy Bus - A Museum on Wheels Dedicated to Chronicling the Disastrous Legacy of President Bush and the Conservative Policies he and His Allies Have Pursued. The cookout will begin at 11:30 A.M. - a short speaking program will commence at 12:30 P.M.

Please Join us for this Important Event and Spread the Word. Progressives CANNOT Allow The History of The Bush Presidency and the Consequences of Conservative Ideology to be Defined by Others. If we are to Achieve the Progressive Future and Solutions to the Nation's Intractable Problems That we All Crave - We have to Define Bush-Conservative Ideology for What it is: A Disaster. Hope to See You on Tuesday.
------------------
Hardcore AUC fans and/bus construction junkies can click here for a slide show of the aforementioned legacy bus.

by Frank James

Buildings and debris are seen floating in the Cedar River against a railroad bridge Saturday, June 14, 2008, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

FEMA recently sent out a press release with statistics on what it has delivered to the flood stricken areas of the Midwest -- 12.8 million sandbags, 3,222,000 liters of water, 213,120 meals ready-to-eat (MRE's) and so on.

But not on the list was trash receptacles, though the list does include 30 trucks for debris removal.

Now, anyone who has ever dealt with a flood of any size knows trash receptacles are crucial for disposing of ruined items. Cedar Rapids, Iowa Mayor Kay Halloran figured she could get FEMA to give her some large bins to corral the growing piles of debris in her waterlogged city. How hard could that be?

Well, she told the Des Moines Register, FEMA told her no. So when President Bush arrives in her city today, in addition to the federal disaster money she'll be asking for, she'll have a simple request for Bush, the most powerful man in the world: Can you get us some some garbage cans?

According to the DMR article:

"Halloran planned to ask Bush directly about a request she made to FEMA for 800 large, portable trash bins, which she said was denied. "We think we ought to have them, so I'm going to ask him," she said.

Bret Voorhees, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Homeland Security, said that officials had not seen Halloran's request and that FEMA, not city officials, is responsible for coordinating debris removal."

This could be a real test of a lame-duck president's remaining power. Can he cut through the bureaucracy of his own administration and get the poor mayor her garbage bins?

While FEMA isn't supposed to worry about presidential politics Bush, on the other hand, certainly would like to have as his legacy another Republican in the White House. And Iowa is viewed as an important swing state this year. Enough said.

by Mark Silva

Just a few months ago, President George W. Bush said he "hadn't heard" that gas might reach $4 per gallon.

But now that the $4-and-climbing price of summer gas has become a flash point for deep public anxiety in a presidential election year, the departing Republican president wants everyone to hear what his party hopes to do about it. That includes offshore oil drilling, an approach long off-limits for fear of environmental disasters and alienating a huge bloc of voters.

The pinch of rising gas prices is such a politically powerful symbol of an economy on the wrong track that the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has shifted course to embrace offshore drilling, long politically taboo in coastal states.

Even in environmentally minded Florida, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, a McCain ally, is willing to "take a look" at drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as an answer to America's energy woes.

Yet critics say the drilling that Bush and McCain propose offers only long-term prospects for new oil, and no immediate relief from record gas prices.

Democrats contend that relying on new domestic drilling only stands to worsen the American "addiction to oil," which Bush himself warned of in his State of the Union address in 2006. And Democrats say it is Bush who stands in the way of their initiatives, such as a "windfall oil profits" tax that he vows to veto.

Still, the president is accusing the Democrats of simply not getting it.

"If congressional leaders leave for the 4th of July recess without taking action," Bush said Wednesday in a Rose Garden appearance, "they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act. And Americans will rightly ask ... how high gas prices have to rise before the Democratic-controlled Congress will do something about it."

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat, warned of the threat that oil spills could pose to a coastal economy's housing, beaches and fisheries. He accused the president of "selling a quick fix that doesn't exist. This policy will not lower the price of gasoline."

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune, and some additional commentary on the pressure that the price of gas is placing on politics in this presidential election year, here in the Swamp:

Flood waters cover part of the small town of Oakville, Iowa, on Tuesday, June 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

by Frank James

FEMA wants to assure Americans, especially those in the flood-ravaged parts of the Midwest, that it's on the case, attending to the needs of those affected by what's being called the worst natural disaster to hit the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina.

To that end, FEMA put out a press release with what the agency, and its sister federal departments, are doing to respond to the crisis.

Among the highlights:

Joint Federal Activities: FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the U.S. General Services Administration and the Defense Logistics Agency have worked together to provide

Here's the rest of FEMA's press release

by Mark Silva

In "Countdown to Crawford,'' a nice blog that the Los Angeles Times is running about the winding down of the Bush ad