CRAIG HOLMAN Holman is government ethics lobbyist for Public Citizen, which has launched a web page WhiteHouseForSale.org that keeps track of money to candidates. He said today: “Even after John McCain ushered in the landmark McCain-Feingold law banning soft money, and Barack Obama brought us the sweeping lobbying and ethics reform law restricting influence-peddling by…

AP is reporting: “Privately held consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton … plans to sell a majority stake in its U.S. government business to private equity firm Carlyle Group for $2.54 billion, and spin off its commercial business into a separate company.” TIM SHORROCK Available for a limited number of interviews, Shorrock is author of the…

CLIFF SCHECTER Schecter is the author of the new book The Real McCain. He said today: “Lobbyist Tom Loeffler’s exit from the McCain campaign is only the tip of the iceberg in a candidacy swimming with conflicts of interest. McCain has now asked all of his staffers to fill out a form listing any conflicts.…

NIR ROSEN Currently in Beirut, Rosen is a fellow at New York University’s Center on Law and Security. He witnessed much of the recent fighting in Lebanon and can assess the role of the army and various groups in Lebanon. He said today: “A big part of what is driving events is the creation of…

JACQUES LESLIE Leslie’s latest book, Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment, won the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award and was named one of the top science books of the year by Discover magazine. He said today: “Reports indicate that there are 391 small dams in the vicinity of the…

Boots-on-the-ground veterans are testifying before Congress on Thursday about the effects of the Iraq occupation. This testimony, presented by veterans who have witnessed firsthand the devastation of Iraq and its people, comes on the same day that Congress is expected to debate a bill extending funding for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan through 2009.…

The House of Representatives is expected to have a full chamber debate on the war supplemental bill on Thursday. THEODORE LOWI Lowi is professor of American Institutions at Cornell University and author of several books including The End of Liberalism. He said today: “Supplementals are supposed to be for real emergencies — like Katrina. The…

AP is reporting: “President Bush on Wednesday opened a celebratory visit to Israel … ‘We consider the Holy Land a very special place, and we consider the Israeli people our close friends,’ Bush said. … The Palestinians are marking the 60th anniversary of the ‘nakba,’ or catastrophe…” ALICE ROTHCHILD Currently in Washington, D.C., Rothchild is…

The lead story in today’s New York Times reports: “The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote. “The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter…

The first Mother’s Day proclamation, an impassioned plea for peace, was written by Julia Ward Howe in 1870. MEDEA BENJAMIN BAN ADIL SARHAN Benjamin is a founder of the women’s peace group CodePink and is just back from Jordan and Syria, where she met with many Iraqi refugees and grassroots organizations working with them. A…