Think Progress

Under the Radar

INTELLIGENCE -- BIPARTISAN MEMBERS OF SENATE INTEL COMMITTEE CALL FOR DECLASSIFICATION OF NIE: Yesterday, Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, called for the declassification of the recently-disclosed National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which concluded "the Iraq war has fueled the growth of Islamic extremism and terror groups." Declassification is not without precedent. In July 2004, the CIA declassified portions of the October 2002 NIE that laid out the case for Iraq's purported weapons of destruction program. In a letter addressed to the Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, Rockefeller asked for declassification -- "to the fullest extent possible" -- of the key judgments of the April 2006 NIE. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, seconded the call. “I think the administration should declassify this document so the American people can see the material for themselves and come to their own conclusions,” he said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board offers the same advice: "So here's our suggestion for President Bush: Declassify the entire NIE." The report's conclusions, the consensus findings of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, reach the same judgment made by terrorism experts across the political spectrum, according to a Center for American Progress/Foreign Policy Magazine survey. Asked whether the Iraq war was having a negative impact on national security, 87 percent of the experts agreed.

HEALTH CARE--CITIZEN'S WORKING GROUP CALLS FOR UNIVERSAL COVERAGE: A report released by the Citizens Healthcare Working Group on Monday finds "overwhelming support for a [health care] plan that covers all Americans." The report is based on a series of 84 meetings, organized in conjunction with community organizations across the country, where the committee heard from over 6,500 people. The committee also received 14,000 responses to an Internet poll solicited for the study. Citing spiraling costs, decreasing efficiency, and rising numbers of uninsured, the Working Group asserts that "Americans should have a health care system in which everyone participates, regardless of their financial resources or health status, with...access to appropriate high-quality care without endangering individual or family financial security." The group demands this policy be "established immediately and implemented by 2012." The group also calls for financial protection against high health care costs, fostering of integrated community health care networks, and a "non-partisan public/private group, staffed by experts, to define America's core benefits and services and update them on an ongoing basis." The Working Group was established as a part of the 2003 Prescription Drug Bill. Its membership includes Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and 14 other representatives from consumer and disabilities groups, business leaders, organized labor, and health care providers.

MEDIA -- PROGRESSIVE RADIO HOSTS MORE ACCEPTING OF DISSENTING VIEWS THAN CONSERVATIVE HOSTS: Research 2000 recently conducted a survey testing whether progressive or conservative talk radio shows are more open to callers with dissenting points of view. The organization made 15 calls (with a point of view that was not compatible with the host) to six radio shows -- three progressive (Stephanie Miller, Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz) and three conservative (Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh). The survey found that all the progressive hosts were more willing to take calls from dissenters than were the conservative hosts. Progressive host Ed Schultz was the most accessible to dissenting callers. His screeners asked callers for their names and location only. Following Schultz, in order of accessibility, were Rhodes, Miller, Ingraham, Limbaugh, and Hannity. Not a single caller with a dissenting point of view was allowed on the air by Hannity. Eleven of the 15 were told by Hannity's screeners "either 'I will pass it on' or 'call our liberal hotline' and then disconnected." Only two dissenters managed to get on Limbaugh's show, but only after going through three screeners. Ingraham, Miller, and Rhodes showed "no significant differences" in getting on the air, but the wait time for Ingraham's show was the longest of the three -- 40 minutes to one hour and 15 minutes. t bill passed in the Congress of the United States, I hope you know that."

Think Fast

“In a new sign of mounting strain from the war in Iraq,” the Pentagon said that 3,800 U.S. soldiers will be staying in Iraq about six weeks beyond their one-year combat tours. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew to the tiny nation of Montenegro “with hopes of tapping a new source of troops for Iraq and Afghanistan.”

6: The United States’ position on the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings, a fall from first last year. “The U.S. lost its position as the world’s most competitive economy to Switzerland as budget and trade deficits prompted a slide.”

The Earth’s temperature “has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals,” the National Academy of Sciences reported. “This evidence implies that we are getting close to dangerous levels of human-made pollution,” NASA’s James Hansen said.

“Americans clearly want a system that guarantees health care for everyone,” concludes a new report by the Citizens Health Care Working Group. The group was created by Congress and is composed of 15 members, including Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

At yesterday’s Democratic Policy Committee hearing on Iraq planning, retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, the former commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, said the administration’s “plan allowed the insurgency to take root and metastasize to where it is today.” He and retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton declared that Rumsfeld must go. “He knows everything, except ‘how to win,’” Batiste said. Click here to see highlights of the hearing.

Larry J. Sabato, “one of Virginia’s most-quoted political science professors and a classmate of Allen’s in the early 1970s,” yesterday confirmed that he heard Allen use a racial slur to refer to blacks, a charge the senator has denied.

The African Union will add 4,000 troops to its mission in Darfur, bringing the number of police and soldiers to 11,000. Sudan has refused to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force into the region. Approximately 200,000 people have died since violence flared in 2003.

Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressed optimism yesterday that negotiations would resolve the dangerous impasse over his country’s nuclear program. “We do believe that the issue is once again on track now based on negotiations. All the parties should help and support.”

And finally: No rock, paper, scissors? A coin flip decided the primary race for Alaska House of Representatives yesterday. Deadlocked in a 767-767 tie, incumbent Rep. Carl Moses and challenger Bryce Edgmon watched nervously as a “gold-and-silver commemorative coin spun through the air” and “landed on a sea otter pelt - tails up - giving” Edgmon the spot on the ballot.