NYTimes.com

The White House predicted on Monday that the Bush administration would bequeath a record deficit of $482 billion to the next president — a sobering turnabout in the nation’s fiscal condition from 2001 when President Bush took office and inherited three consecutive years of budget surpluses.

By most accounts, the worst seems yet to come. The deficit announced by Jim Nussle, the White House budget director, does not reflect the full cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the potential $50 billion cost of another economic stimulus package or the prospect of steeper losses in tax revenue or further declines in the housing market.

(emphasis mine)

NYTimes.com

Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke the law by using politics to guide their hiring decisions for a wide range of important department positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility and independence, an internal report concluded Monday.

AWEARNESS

Here’s a plea, not just to the McCain campaign, but to people everywhere who attempt smearing someone’s reputation with false allegations: If you’re going to do it, don’t make claims that can be refuted with two minutes and a decent search engine. That’s just stupid.

I couldn’t agree more!

Los Angeles Times

Cable talking heads accuse broadcast networks of liberal bias — but a think tank finds that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Barack Obama than on John McCain in recent weeks.

TPM Election Central

Here it is: We’ve created a comprehensive time-line of John McCain’s statements on Iraq, from the inception of the conflict to the present.

Our time-line casts some doubt on a key McCain campaign claim: That he’s been a broad critic of Bush’s war policies for many years now.

It also finds multiple inconsistencies in his public statements on the war.