Bloomberg.com reports: “President George W. Bush sent Congress a $3.1 trillion federal budget that trims Medicare and health care programs, boosts military spending and projects the deficit this year and next will hit near-record levels. … Pentagon spending would rise 7.5 percent to $515 billion, the 11th consecutive year of increases. Programs in the departments…

JEFF CHESTER Chester is the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy and author of the recently released book Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy. He said today: “Today’s proposed acquisition by Microsoft of Yahoo!, if consummated, will create a powerful interactive Internet duopoly in online media. Google and Microsoft will…

“We bombed them for days in 1998 because Saddam Hussein threw out inspectors.” — Hillary Clinton, Jan. 31, 2008 http://www.juancole.com/2008/02/iraq-in-democratic-debate.html NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, is the author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He said today: “If facts matter, then it…

Auto Spectator reports on an “extensive partnership between the Bridgestone Firestone brand and the NFL,” which includes “title sponsorship of the Super Bowl XLII and XLIII ‘Bridgestone Super Bowl Halftime Show’.” The following analysts are available for interviews: DAVE ZIRIN Sportswriter Zirin’s latest book is Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of…

The Boston Globe reports today: “President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill. Bush made the assertion in a signing statement that he issued…

JEFFREY WINTERS Available for a limited number of interviews, Winters is author of Power in Motion: Capital Mobility and the Indonesian State. The AP reports that “critics say Suharto squandered Indonesia’s vast natural resources of oil, timber and gold, siphoning the nation’s wealth to benefit his cronies and family like a mafia don. Jeffrey Winters,…

AVIS JONES-DeWEEVER Director of the Research, Public Policy, and Information Center for African American Women, Jones-DeWeever said today: “The recently announced House stimulus package can be summed up in one phrase, ‘too little, too late.’ History tells us that effective stimulus plans have three qualities: they’re quick, they’re temporary, and they’re targeted to the people…

The Center for Public Integrity has released a report titled “Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War.” JOHN R. MACARTHUR In October 2002, MacArthur wrote the article “Sounds Fishy, Mr. President: To Drum Up Rage Against Iraq, Bush Senior and Junior Have Been Known to Tell Tall Tales” and in January of 2003 he appeared…

YONATAN SHAPIRA BASSAM ARAMIN ELIK ELHANAN Currently in Washington, D.C., Shapira was a captain in the Israeli Air Force as a Black Hawk pilot. In 2003 he wrote a noted “Pilot’s Letter” refusing to serve in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Aramin is a former Fatah fighter who served seven years in jail from the age…

ROBERT POLLIN Author of the books Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity and The Macroeconomics of Saving, Finance, and Investment, Pollin said today: “U.S. and global financial markets are mired in a severe crisis due to the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble and the subprime mortgage market. A…