Democracy For the Heart of America

President Bush goes to Economic Club of New York to reassure country about the economy. Stock market plunges almost 200 points. Better he should stick to tap dancing. Richard Valeriani http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-valeriani/

The Chinese military is shooting Tibetan demonstrators "like dogs," a Tibetan exile group said Monday, firing "indiscriminately" intro groups of people protesting Chinese rule.

The accusation was leveled by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a group run by exiled Tibetans in Dharamsala, India, home to the Dalai Lama. Exile groups in India receive some of the few reports from inside Tibet and have provided some of the only reporting from there since last Monday, when the most significant Tibetan protests in 20 years began.

Ah, where to begin?

"To me, one of the great problems we have in Washington, before we can solve the real problems, is partisanship," Lieberman told a group of reporters and editors at The Advocate's Stamford office Friday afternoon.

The country cannot begin to address problems such as failing public schools, health care problems and global warming until there's a dialogue between players in both parties, he said.

"He actually, in my opinion, will bring about more change than the Democratic candidates because he's a boat-rocker . . . a problem-solver," Lieberman said of McCain. "He's really a reformer."

Or, we could get the hell out of Iraq and suddenly be able to afford to fix things like failing public schools, health care problems, and global warming. Here's a clue: that ain't going to happen as long as you keep bleating about "partisanship" instead of representing the electorate you hoodwinked into sending your sorry ass back to DC in 2006.

Fine company Joe is keeping. He's following crazy-assed Zell Miller's path to the Republican National Convention this summer. And we all know how relevant Zell Miller is these days. Good luck with that one, Joe.

US Vice-President Dick Cheney declared the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavour" during a visit to Baghdad, on the same day a woman suicide bomber killed 40 people.

"If you look back on those five years it has been a difficult, challenging but nonetheless successful endeavour ... and it has been well worth the effort," Mr Cheney, an architect of the invasion, said after meeting Iraqi leaders.

Over the past sixty days our reporting on the Democratic primary has angered some of our readers and donors. Some have chosen to withdraw their donations from TO based on perceived insults to their preferred candidate. First, please don't do that. We're trying our best, and we're calling it as we see it. Both candidates can't win, there has to be a loser. If you are able to jump in with a donation here that would be great. Just hit the link below. Thanks to all that support TO.

The Associated Press reports: "Pope Benedict XVI issued one of his strongest appeals for peace in Iraq on Sunday, days after the body of the kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop was found near the northern city of Mosul."

Rue89's Pascal Riche reports that France's Socialists - after scoring a significant win in the second round of France's municipal elections - still badly need to get their act together, while Sylvain Besson argues for Le Temps that both of France's major parties will be profoundly changed by the results of these elections.

James Vicini of Reuters writes: "The Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide a potentially important voting rights case and whether crime lab reports can be used as trial evidence without the testimony of analysts who prepared them."

"Should telecommunication companies receive retroactive immunity for their role in helping the government eavesdrop on American phone calls and emails? As Congress and President Bush duel over the answer to that question, NOW on PBS interviews a whistleblower with exclusive insight into the role played by one of those companies."

BBC News reports: "The rate at which some of the world's glaciers are melting has more than doubled, data from the United Nations Environment Programme has shown."

Felicity Barringer of The New York Times says, "The chinook salmon that swim upstream to spawn in the fall, the most robust run in the Sacramento River, have disappeared. The almost complete collapse of the richest and most dependable source of chinook salmon south of Alaska left gloomy fisheries experts struggling for reliable explanations - and coming up dry."

In The New York Times, Ian Bowles writes: "Later this year, Massachusetts and other Northeastern states will hold the nation's first auction of greenhouse gas emissions permits. Congress should take note: this market-based, technology-neutral auction is a model for how to encourage power generators to limit their emissions."

Nichola Groom of Reuters reports: "It's not often you hear executives from the biggest US industries and a Republican governor clamoring for stronger regulations on climate change. But that's exactly what they want."

The Washington Post's Frank Ahrens writes: "Chrysler, which is restructuring a troubled business under private ownership, told its workers in an e-mail yesterday that almost all of the company will shut down for two weeks in July to save money."

Karl Ritter of The Independent UK reports: "Selling sex is not illegal in Sweden, but buying it is - a radical approach to prostitution that faced ridicule when it was introduced nine years ago."

According to Gardiner Harris in The New York Times, "After a contaminated medicine from China was linked to as many as 17 deaths in the United States, members of Congress clamored for changes while regulators defended their actions."

BBC News reports, "Security forces in the Tibetan city of Lhasa are rounding up dissidents, exiled Tibetans say, as a deadline approaches for protesters to surrender."

E. Scott Reckard, reporting for The Los Angeles Times, writes: "Freelance financial watchdogs who examined the paperwork on subprime home loans being sold to Wall Street had an inside view of the boom in easy-money lending this decade. The reviewers say they raised plenty of red flags about flaws so serious that mortgages should have been rejected outright - such as borrowers' incomes that seemed inflated or documents that looked fake - but the problems were glossed over, ignored or stricken from reports."

Zulfiqar Ali and Laura King, reporting for The Los Angeles Times, write: "A missile strike Sunday destroyed the compound of a suspected militant leader in Pakistan's tribal belt, killing at least 18 people, officials and local residents said. The Pakistani military disavowed responsibility for the strike in the South Waziristan tribal region, raising the possibility that it was carried out by US forces."

Scott Helman, reporting for The Boston Globe, writes: "For a party that loves to hate the Clintons, Republican voters have cast an awful lot of ballots lately for Senator Hillary Clinton: About 100,000 GOP loyalists voted for her in Ohio, 119,000 in Texas, and about 38,000 in Mississippi, exit polls show. A sudden change of heart? Hardly."