White House

President Bush arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel this morning for a two-day visit marking Israel's 60th anniversary as a nation. The president was welcomed at the airport by Israeli president Shimon Peres. While in the Middle East, the president will meet with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to continue his push for a comprehensive peace agreement before he leaves office. He will also meet with Arab allies n Saudi Arabia, and make a stop at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt for talks with Egypt's, Jordan's, Lebanon's, and Afghanistan's leaders.

The president began his visit with high praise for Israel and the close friendship the two countries have always shared.

"We consider the Holy Land a very special place, and we consider the Israeli people our close friends

Our two nations both faced great challenges when they were founded. And our two nations have both relied on the same principles to help us succeed. We built strong democracies to protect the freedoms given to us by an almighty God. [...] and we built an enduring alliance to confront terrorists and tyrants."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert returned the compliments, saying, "America has been there at each and every important crossroad in the life of our young country and stood by us in times of hope and moments of crisis."

The White House issued a statement late today saying that President Bush has decided to veto the 2008 Farm Bill if it makes it to his desk in its current form and recommended that Congress pass a one-year extension of current farm policy to bridge the gap until the next Congress and Administration can consider another bill. Almost at the same, the White House said that the president would withdraw his threat to veto an bill containing a provision that would stop the government from filling the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a bid to increase oil supply on the world market and lower prices. Mr. Bush had earlier said that the provision would have no impact on gas prices.

On the Farm Bill, the president said that he was "deeply disappointed" in the compromise legislation reached by the House and Senate. He cited high food prices and increasing farming incomes as his reasons for rejecting the package of incentives and subsidies for the nation's family and commercial farmers.

Today's farm economy is very strong and that is something to celebrate. It is also an appropriate time to better target subsidies and put forth real reform. Farm income is expected to exceed the 10-year average by fifty percent this year, yet Congress' bill asks American taxpayers to subsidize the incomes of married farmers who earn $1.5 million per year. I believe doing so at a time of record farm income is irresponsible and jeopardizes America's support for necessary farm programs.

But any farm bill is popular legislation in Congress, more so in an election year, and the president's veto would seem to be an exercise in futility. Congress will almost certainly vote to override the president quickly.

With oil at a mind-blowing $120 a barrel, the Senate overwhelming approved a measure 97-1, that would stop the shipment of oil to the government's emergency reserve. President Bush opposes letting the reserve, which is 97% full, drop below full capacity.

Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said, "We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it. When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood." Dorgan acknowledged that this is not the solution to the problem of high gas prices.

The only opposition came from Republican Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado. A House vote on the issue should come later today.

On a lovely spring Saturday in Texas, just as the sun set, Jenna Bush had her wedding at her father's prop "ranch" in Crawford. And for that special moment -- or at least a day later, when the White House released some nice pictures from the exclusive event -- America was one nation again.

Since the divisive election of 2000 that led to the heartbreaking recount in Florida, there have been Two Americas, and the angry middle-class and working-class people of this large nation have been unable to agree on anything for any reason.

But our horrible, maddening first eight years of this awful century were all forgotten for a brief, beautiful moment over the weekend, when George W. Bush Junior's daughter was married to this one guy, Henry Hager.

In a pristine escape from the political circus of Washington, the Bush family celebrated the wedding of daughter Jenna this past Sunday. Nuptials were exchanged (of course) at the President's ranch in Texas. The private event was demurely elegant and classically charming - as revealed through a handful of photos released by the family.

The bride was beautiful.

P.S. When asked if he'd been up late partying, the president merely winked and went on his way.

President Bush and Senate Democrats may have reached a deal in a long-running battle over the Federal Election Commission. The commission has been unable to function since October of 2006 because of controversies surrounding Bush nominee Hans von Spakovsky. Senate Democrats don't like von Spakovsky's views and have blocked him from consideration by the full Senate. The FEC has six commissioners, three Republicans and three Democrats, and needs at least four to function. Only two of the commission's seats have been filled as a result of the stalemate. Now, as part of a package meant to break the impasse, the president has nominated three new candidates for the commission.

Likely Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama placed a hold on von Spakovsky's nomination, triggering a series of Republican Senators to place holds on Democratic nominees in protest. Obama's hold, placed together with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), was made in reaction to certain controversial decisions that von Spakovsky, a lawyer in the Justice Department's Voting Rights section, had made. Von Spakovsky is seen by Senate Democrats as a champion of policies, such as a Georgia voter identification law and a Texas redistricting plan, that would disenfranchise black and Latino voters respectively. Both the Georgia law and the Texas redistricting were eventually upheld by the Federal courts. A similar Indiana law requiring photo identification for voters was recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Those rulings make the Democrats' position on von Spakovsky less tenable, and the White House is refusing to withdraw his name as part of the package announced Tuesday.

Not too long ago, Political Machine had a Hollywood moment, featuring an early preview of Oliver Stone's 'W' script and an analysis on why the director is rushing to get the film done before the November vote.

At the time, details about the film were scant. We knew Josh Brolin would be playing the President, Elizabeth Banks would be playing the First Lady and that Ellen Burstyn would be taking on the Barbara Bush role, but little else.

Now, thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we have a few more details on the movie, which is still in the pre-production stage (location scouting, casting, procuring Fiji water). However, among the many interesting things we've learned, we now know that Stone has had a hard time getting big-time actors to sign-on to play the Bush Administration's heavy hitters (Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld).

''You'd be amazed how many male stars of a certain age in Hollywood are Republicans,'' says Bill Block, CEO of QED, one of the producers for 'W'. ''I'm not going to name names, but a lot of them just didn't want to have anything to do with it.''

So, how did Oliver Stone convince rising star Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) to take on such a controversial role? He appealed to the actor's intelligence, naturally. ''When Oliver approached me about George Bush my initial reaction was 'Why would I want to do that?' But Oliver pointed out certain simi¬larities I had with the character. We both have well-known fathers. We both grew up in the country. We both have strong mothers.''

If that wasn't bad enough, Brolin is driving his wife "crazy" trying to imitate Dubya's Texas/Connecticut drawl. ''I'm talking to myself all day long,'' Brolin says.

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released its 2008 Annual Report, which lists "countries of particular concern" (or, put plainly, countries which stomp all over religious liberties).

The offending countries on the list include: Burma (Myanmar), Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Countries on the Commission's 2008 Watch List include: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria. The hotly-debated decision on whether to include Iraq has been postponed pending a commission visit later this month.

Unlike the senseless and offensive UN Human Rights Action List (an anti-Semitic, radical-Islamic embarrassment to the world community), USCIRF's report examines true atrocities occurring in the modern world. The Commission honestly observes, as was recently exposed in the Burma massacres, that "the U.S. government navigates a world threatened by religion-based extremism and religion-imbued conflict." Religious liberty is foremost a personal human right - yet its security is also necessary to the security of the global community.

And no, I'm not talking about the ongoing soap opera called "Hillary v. Barack." I'm talking about the credit crunch.

Voters in both Indiana and North Carolina last night said the economy was their top concern in deciding who to vote for in the Democratic primary; 67 percent in Indiana and 60 percent in North Carolina. So perhaps they will breathe a sigh of relief to know that the worst of the credit crisis, at least, may be over. There are also signs today that inflation pressures may be easing, and the value of the dollar is also up a bit against other major global currencies.

(However, we still have those pesky dark spots, like The National Association of Realtors today saying pending sales of existing homes fell in March by 1 percent, disappointing the market., and oil prices rising above $122 a barrel, among other concerns.)

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said financial markets are emerging from the credit crisis. "There's no doubt that things feel better today, by a lot, than they did in March," Paulson said, although he was careful to predict that there would be further "bumps along the road," and that it will take "some months longer" for the market problems to disappear completely.

President Bush again pledged today to veto legislation scheduled for debate in the House today that would see the government buy up $15 billion of abandoned homes and help an estimated 500,000 homeowners facing foreclosure. The bill is expected to receive significant Republican support, but the White House argues the Democrats' plan would open taxpayers to too much risk.

The Pentagon has announced that 3,500 troops from the Army's Third Infantry Division, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team will be coming home from Iraq to Fort Benning, Georgia in the coming weeks. The third brigade is made up mostly of veterans with two or three tours in Iraq and was deployed to Baghdad province. It was responsible for stopping the shipment of bomb making materials into the capital. The public affairs office at Camp Victory in Baghdad said that the unit captured over 600 militants, confiscated multiple weapons caches, and was responsible for a dramatic decrease in violence in its area.

The third brigade was deployed last year as part of the Bush Administration's troop surge, which has been largely successful at reducing the level of violence in Iraq. That success has permitted the Pentagon to begin withdrawing forces down to a level of about 140,000 by July. At that point, U.S. Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus has ordered the withdrawals to pause for a 45-day period of assessment. The continuing removal of troops, despite a recent upticks in Baghdad, demonstrates that the U.S. is becoming increasingly comfortable with the ability Iraqi Army and Police units to quell violence and hold security gains achieved by the surge.