links for 2009-04-07

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced a major reshaping of the Pentagon budget on Monday, with deep cuts in many traditional weapons systems but new billions of dollars for others, along with more troops and new technology to fight the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Turkish security services have arrested a man of Syrian descent who was planning to assassinate US President Barack Obama during his current trip to Turkey, the Saudi daily Al Watan reported Monday.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., told a Monday meeting of the Little Rock Political Animals Club that she will oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.

"While I may not have been clear about my position in the past, I am stating today that I cannot support Employee Free Choice Act in its current form and I can’t support efforts to bring it to Senate consideration in its current form," Lincoln said in a statement late Monday afternoon.

"I will consider alternatives that have the support of both business and labor but my pledge today is to focus my full attention on the priorities I have mentioned that affect every working family in Arkansas."

Taking aim at the way news is spread across the Internet, The Associated Press said on Monday that it will demand that Web sites obtain permission to use the work of The A.P. or its member newspapers, and share revenue with the news organizations, and that it will take legal action those that do not.

Associated Press executives said the policy was aimed at major search engines like Google, Yahoo and their competitors, and also at news aggregators like the Huffington Post, as well as companies that sell packaged news services. They said they do not want to stop the appearance of articles around the Web, but to exercise some control over it and to profit from it. The A.P. also said it is developing a system to track news articles online and determine whether they were used legally.

Auditors say the state Medicaid program may have overpaid $2.9 million for services like teeth cleaning for toothless patients.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says auditors found the state health department's Medicaid claims processing system lacks necessary controls.

Auditors identified almost 22,000 questionable services for about 6,500 patients with dentures during the 5-year period ending June 30, 2008. That included almost 1,500 dentists who billed Medicaid $863,000 for cleanings, fillings, extractions and X-rays for about 5,000 patients with full dentures.

Alaska’s Republican governor, Sarah Palin, has retained DC Democratic power player Robert Barnett to sell her presumed memoir of the 2008 campaign. The expected seven-figure book advance will make it easier for Palin to pay for travel to the “lower 48” for political events and then a presidential run.

The book could put Palin into a 2012 race with President Obama, who used the same lawyer and the same strategy—a big advance and a book—in part to back his early campaign efforts.

During the 2008 Democratic campaign, Barnett represented Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John Edwards, and 2012 could turn into another Barnett-vs.-Barnett race.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is proposing deep cuts to some big weapons programs such as the F-22 fighter jet as the Pentagon takes a hard look at how it spends money.

Gates announced a broad range of cuts Monday to weapons spending, saying he plans to cut programs ranging from a new helicopter for the president to ending production of the $140 billion F-22 fighter jet. The Army's modernization program would be scaled back, while a new satellite system and a search-and-rescue helicopter would be cut.

The folks at Daily Kos asked Research 2000 to take a look at Senator John Thune's reelection numbers.

The good news for Thune is he has the highest "very favorable" rating among the figures polled (Thune, former Sen. Tom Daschle, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, and President Obama) and his overall rating is 57 percent favorable, 32 percent unfavorable.

Matched up against Daschle, Thune leads, 53-40. Matched up against Herseth Sandlin, he leads 51-39.

Though the leaders of the Iowa state Legislature are all for same-sex marriage, it's very unpopular in the Hawkeye state, where gay and lesbian couples will be included in civil marriage starting at the end of this month.

Data drawn from a survey last October (.pdf) show that more than 62 percent of Iowans oppose same-sex marriage, and fewer than 30 percent support it, though about half of those opposed would support civil unions.

The court ruled that civil unions weren't an acceptable alternative.

The survey found that a slightly larger number than support marriage — 35 percent — would favor accepting the decision, which leaves a whole lot of room for a push for an amendment to roll it back, though that would likely hinge on GOP success at using the issue in legislative elections.

Let’s face it – Twitter is amazing. But with all its greatness, it’s never been an easy task to find others on the service. Below are the 6 coolest, best places to find new tweeters.

But as the North Korea episode shows, not everyone is so reasonable. To the men of Pyongyang, Obama is just another imperialistic swine. In fact, if they're dialecticians worth their salt, then they surely think of Obama as all the more dangerous than Bush for the precise reason that he gives imperialism a friendlier face. North Korea, like any state, has national interests, carved out by decades of history (fear of unification) or centuries (fear of China). The fact that it's a genocidal and secretive police state only exacerbates matters. The bottom line is, the North Koreans are going to do what they think they need to do. Having obviously never read their Carlyle, they couldn't care less who the American president is.

Barack Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president, declared Monday the United States "is not at war with Islam" and called for a greater partnership with the Islamic world.

Addressing the Turkish parliament, Obama called the country an important U.S. ally in many areas, including the fight against terrorism. He devoted much of his speech to urging a greater bond between Americans and Muslims, portraying terrorist groups such as al Qaida as extremists who did not represent the vast majority of Muslims.

"Let me say this as clearly as I can," Obama said. "The United States is not at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject."

Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyia, two of the biggest Arabic satellite channels, carried Obama's speech live.

A documentary on Russian state television has accused the U.S. of using an air base in Kyrgyzstan to spy on Russia and China — an allegation a spokesman for the base flatly denied on Monday.

The film, aired Sunday on the Rossiya TV channel, showed a building it said was used for electronic surveillance and identified a woman it said worked in the U.S. Embassy as a CIA agent.

Moscow has long been suspicious of the American presence in what it views as its traditional sphere of influence, and there are even some indications it may have pushed to have the Central Asian base closed.

Iran criticized on Monday U.S. President Barack Obama for saying Tehran posed a threat with its nuclear program and urged Washington and other countries possessing atom weapons to dismantle their arsenals.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi made the comments a day after Obama, who is seeking to engage Iran diplomatically in a sharp policy shift from George W. Bush's approach, set out his vision for ridding the world of such arms.