An Interior Department auditor said he was told not to audit Shell Oil's increase in "oil transportation" costs from $.75 to $3.00 per barrel, even though it greatly raised U.S. payments to the oil company. "Laws and regulations were not applied," said Bob Maxwell, whose job was eliminated shortly after he began pressing the issue.
Salon has obtained video suggesting that friendly fire from an American tank killed two U.S. soldiers in Ramadi, Iraq, in late 2006, and that the Army ignored the video and other persuasive data in order to rule that the deaths were due to enemy action. "A tank shot us," one soldier told Salon. "That is what happened."
The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public. Read More
Canadian voters gave Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives a tighter hold on minority government as the country braces for a looming economic downturn.
John McCain's brother sent an e-mail to campaign and Republican officials late Monday blasting the campaign's strategy. "Let John McCain be John McCain," wrote Joe McCain. "Make ads that show John not as crank and curmudgeon but as a great leader for his time."
Third-party presidential candidates Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and Chuck Baldwin will debate Sunday night at Columbia University in New York. Bob Barr declined to attend because of a "scheduling conflict." The event will air live on C-Span and ThirdPartyTicket.Com. Read More
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is entering the third and final presidential debate Wednesday with a 14-point lead over Republican rival John McCain nationally, a new CBS News/New York Times poll shows.
Nervous negotiators have begun examining alternative agreements that would allow U.S. troops to stay in Iraq beyond the Dec. 31 deadline. Lacking an agreement, "American forces will lose their legal cover on Dec. 31," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said this weekend.
David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney of New Mexico, said that he was pressured by Republicans to prosecute voter fraud cases, even after he said that no evidence of fraud could be found, as a means to suppress turnout. "There appears to be a growing body of evidence that suggests that there's voter suppression going on throughout the country," Iglesias said.
"I was astonished to hear him say that he was surprised that I didn't have the guts" to bring up William Ayers, John McCain said in a radio interview. "I think he is probably ensured that it will come up this time."
The talking baby doll Loving Baby Cuddle and Coo, manufactured by Fisher Price, is being pulled from some store shelves after claims that the doll says "Islam is the light" and "Satan is king."
Shelley Powers: The current Republican hand waving is now focused on ACORN, the organization's perennial punching bag whenever a state or national election could be close. ACORN is an organization focused on getting people to vote, ensuring that people equal access to housing and education, supportive of unions, and decent working conditions. Really, how awful—what do these people think this country is?
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Fierce wildfires threatened Southern California for a third day after leaving two people dead and heralding the start of the most intense period of the fire season here.
In a Scholastic poll of a quarter of a million students who are too young to vote, Barack Obama sailed to victory with 57 percent of the vote while John McCain received 39 percent. Students have picked the winning candidate in all but two elections since 1940.
Washington Times: Barack Obama says he will give 95 percent of all American workers a tax cut but does not mention that his plan would send checks to tens of millions of tax filers who pay no personal income taxes -- payments that critics say look "suspiciously like welfare".
