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Insider Report: FBI Agent Backs Ann Coulter; Imus' Job; Hillary's Sharpton Special From NewsMax's Most Informed Sources
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Key Bush Supporters Defecting to Obama Disillusioned supporters of President Bush are defecting from the Republican ranks and turning to Democrat Barack Obama as the best 2008 presidential candidate for uniting a divided nation. One of those Obama admirers is Tom Bernstein, who attended Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him. In 2004 he donated the maximum $2,000 to Bush's re-election campaign and gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee, reports Sarah Baxter, a Washington correspondent for the Times of London. This year he is supporting Obama, and has said he admires the Democrat's call for action on Darfur.
Story Continues Below
Another Obama fan is Matthew Dowd, Bush's chief campaign strategist in 2004, who last month declared that he was disappointed with the president's leadership. Dowd hasn't yet endorsed a candidate, but he said the only one he likes is Obama. Robert Kagan, a leading neoconservative, is an informal policy adviser to Republican candidate John McCain. But in a recent article in the Washington Post, Kagan wrote glowingly of a speech by Obama at a Chicago gathering, saying it was "pure John Kennedy." In that speech, Obama called for an increase in defense spending and talked about building democracies and the right to take unilateral action to protect American interests if necessary, Baxter reported. Financiers have also been "oiling Obama's campaign," Baxter wrote, noting: "John Canning, a ‘Bush pioneer' and investment banker who pledged to raise $100,000 for the president in 2004, has given up on the Republicans. ‘I know lots of my friends in this business are disenchanted and are definitely looking for something different,' he said." Democrat Hillary Clinton has been attracting some support from Republican defectors, too. John Mack, who helped raise $200,000 for Bush's re-election, has said he was "impressed" by Clinton's expertise.
According to figures cited by Baxter, Obama and Clinton have received more than $750,000 in individual donations from former Bush donors. Editor's Note:
2. WSJ: Brazil's Drug Patent Theft Threatens Markets Brazil's recent decision to seize the patent for Merck's HIV/AIDS drug efavirenz poses a severe threat to the pharmaceuticals industry — and ultimately, the world at large, the Wall Street Journal warns. In April, Thailand forced Abbott to slash prices for its HIV/AIDS drug by threatening to seize the patent and manufacture the medication domestically. Brazil went a step further, brushing aside Merck's offer to lower prices by 30 percent and seizing the patent outright, a move the Journal calls "a slap in the face of the World Trade Organization." Brazil's generic drug industry could benefit greatly by manufacturing efavirenz without paying patent royalties and selling it to a large domestic market. "This is a dangerous game," the Journal's editorial cautions. "Pharmaceutical companies can't afford to develop new drugs if they can't charge market prices for their existing products." That could stifle investment in research and development, especially on diseases that affect the poor in developing countries, the Journal notes, adding: "Without vigorous resistance at the [upcoming] WHO meeting in Geneva, more countries could soon follow the Thai and Brazilian examples. "That would be bad for intellectual property rights worldwide, and it would be a disaster for the world's poor." Editor's Note:
3. FBI Agent Sticks Up for Ann Coulter Conservative pundit Ann Coulter has been cleared of charges that she falsified her voter registration and voted illegally — thanks to the intervention of an FBI agent. Coulter had been embroiled in controversy after she registered using an address that wasn't hers and allegedly cast her ballot in the wrong precinct in Palm Beach, Fla., in February 2006. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO) launched an investigation, and the local press routinely reported on the case. Coulter's attorney said she might have used the wrong address when registering to protect herself from a stalker.
Enter Supervisory Special Agent Jim Fitzgerald of the FBI Academy's Behavioral Analysis Unit, a serial-killer specialist who worked on the Unabomber case. He spoke with a PBSO detective and confirmed that he had been "working a stalking incident" involving Coulter, Palm Beach Post columnist Jose Lambiet reported. The PBSO closed the investigation on April 12. Editor's Note:
4. Report: Sharpton Backs Hillary, Not Obama Does Al Sharpton have an agreement with the Clintons to help them handle their Barack Obama problem? That's the question posed by Geoffrey Gray in New York magazine. The answer: Obama's campaign thinks so. "It's no state secret that he's with Hillary, and that's fine," a source close to Obama sniffed. Gray cites a Sharpton source who says Bill and Hillary have turned on a "full-court press" to win over the black activist, including "personal touches" — Bill called Sharpton to offer condolences after James Brown died, while Obama only wrote a note. Sharpton has denied he's backing anyone yet, and listed both Hillary and Obama, plus John Edwards and Bill Richardson, as speakers at his National Action Network Convention in April. Editor's Note:
5. Changes on Neptune Link Sun and Global Warming Skeptics of manmade global warming have found further support in research linking solar output with the planet Neptune's brightness and temperatures on Earth. The findings appeared in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters. The authors of the article, H.B. Hammel and G.W. Lockwood from the Space Science Institute in Colorado and the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, note that measurements of visible light from Neptune have been taken at the Observatory since 1950. Those measurements indicate that Neptune has been getting brighter since around 1980. And infrared measurements of the planet since 1980 show that Neptune has been warming steadily as well. The researchers plotted on a graph the changes in visible light from Neptune over the past half-century, changes in temperatures on Earth during that period, and changes in total solar irradiance. The results: The correlation between solar irradiance and Neptune's brightness was nearly perfect; so was the correlation between changes on Earth and solar output, according to a report on the research appearing on World Climate Report, a climate change blog. "When the sun is more energetic and putting out more energy, the Earth tends to warm up, and when the sun cools down, so does the Earth," World Climate Report notes. "The Hammel and Lockwood article reveals that the same is true out at Neptune — when the sun's energy increases, Neptune seems to warm up and get brighter . . . "How is it possible that the Earth's temperature is so highly correlated with brightness variations from Neptune? The news from Neptune comes to us just weeks after an article was published showing that Mars has warmed recently as well.
"If nothing else, we have certainly learned recently that planets undergo changes in their mean temperature, and while we can easily blame human activity here on the Earth, blaming humans for the recent warming on Mars and Neptune would be an astronomical stretch, to say the least." Editor's Note:
6. Bush Tunes Out Republican Debate When 10 GOP presidential hopefuls took part in the televised May 3 debate, there was at least one staunch Republican who did not tune in — President George Bush.
A White House spokesman said Bush declined to watch the debate between the Republican candidates who are vying to succeed him, Agence France Presse reported. He is not alone with his less than enthusiastic interest in the race. A recent report by the Pew Research Center disclosed: "With nearly nine months to go before the first presidential primary, many voters are showing early signs of campaign fatigue." According to Pew, 52 percent of U.S. voters say the campaign is "dull," and almost two-thirds believe the early-starting campaign is "too long." Editor's Note:
7. David Gregory in Line for Imus' Job NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory could be the leading candidate to replace Don Imus on radio and TV. This week Gregory will be the first potential replacement to be simulcast on CBS radio and MSNBC, and network executives were impressed with his earlier trial on MSNBC in April, reports Ben Widdicombe of the New York Daily News, who noted: "Some are wondering whether his solid White House style will be a fitting replacement for Imus' freewheeling ways."
Jim Roberts of The National Ledger had this take: "David Gregory has long been accused by Republicans of being a left-wing hatchet man disguised as a reporter. Add to that, Gregory certainly does appear to love the limelight as his questions at presidential news conferences . . . turn into long-winded filibusters . . . That would make him a really good radio talk-show host to replace ousted shock-jock Don Imus." Editor's Note:
8. We Heard . . . THAT "impatient" New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is eyeing a run for governor in 2010. Eliot Spitzer, who was elected governor in 2006, was formerly the state's attorney general, and he now holds the office once filled by Cuomo's father, Mario. Observers in the state believed Andrew Cuomo would wait until Spitzer had completed two four-year terms before seeking the governor's mansion. But a Cuomo fundraiser has been telling donors that he may be running sooner than they think, an inside source told the New York Sun. Cuomo, 49, is an "impatient person," the source said. "While he's enjoying being attorney general, he would rather be governor." According to a Quinnipiac University poll, Cuomo is now the most popular politician in New York's state government, surpassing Spitzer – thanks in large part to Cuomo's headline-making investigation of the student loan industry. THAT Al Gore is ready to jump into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination if Hillary Clinton's ratings continue to fall. Hillary enjoyed nearly 60 percent positive ratings in January, but they have now dropped to the 40s. If they reach the low 30s, Gore will join the campaign, say political insiders in California. CBS News in the state capital, Sacramento, reported: "The former vice president is well positioned to run. He's fixed up his image as a statesman, and wouldn't have any trouble raising money. And he has no love for the Clintons." Editor's Notes:
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