President Bush's $163 billion Iraq war funding request collapsed in the House May 15. Republicans expected to provide the winning margin instead sat out the vote in protest of Democratic efforts to add money for the unemployed and an expansion of education benefits for soldiers. In the 149-141 tally, 132 Republicans abstained. (AP, May 16) Also included in the measure was $500 million as part of a multi-year commitment to Mexico, including about $204 million for the purchase of transport helicopters and surveillance aircraft. An additional $50 million was requested for Central American governments. In a burst of phone calls, Secretary Condoleezza Rice called about a half-dozen lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol the week before the vote to advocate the Mexican measure, and Bush spoke for it at a meeting with Republicans at the White House. (Politico, May 8)

Barack Obama just can't win with some people. Either he's too Muslim, or not Muslim enough. In a bizarre op-ed in the New York Times May 12, "President Apostate," Edward Luttwak warns :

As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is "irtidad" or "ridda," usually translated from the Arabic as "apostasy," but with connotations of rebellion and treason...

In a piece ominously entitled "The Oil Nonbubble," Paul Krugman in the New York Times May 12 astutely calls out both right-wing optimism that the "oil bubble" would burst—and right-wing scapegoating now that it hasn't:

"The Oil Bubble: Set to Burst?" That was the headline of an October 2004 article in National Review, which argued that oil prices, then $50 a barrel, would soon collapse.

Get this. The Senate fails to pass the new FAA reauthorization bill—because of "non-aviation provisions" that would have doubled the tax on oil spills, using the revenues to replenish the strapped Highway Trust Fund! And this is deemed so un-newsworthy (even with the headlines full of the Clinton-McCain gas tax holiday hoopla) that the only media outlets that even make passing note of it are aviation trade journals like Helicopter Association International (May 2). Now, surely this tax must be onerous, a true burden on the oil industry, right? Well, a Petroleum Marketers Association of America report of March 24, 2006 (when the tax was re-instated after a ten-year lapse) informs us that the current tax is...five cents per gallon (as opposed to 18.4 cents per gallon that consumers pay Uncle Sam at the pump). And with a significant reduction for "petroleum products" and "alternative fuels" such as ethanol and bio-diesel. Additionally, the oil companies are allowed to "pass on" the tax to consumers at the pump.

Never mind the silly Canadian angle. The really sinister thing here is the embryonic hybridization of man and machine—a phenomenon we have already predicted. From the Canadian Press, May 5:

Canadian military looking for Iron Man-type suits for overburdened soldiers
OTTAWA — Iron Man Canuck may be appearing soon at a theatre near you. The Defence Department posted a contract tender Monday asking companies for proposals for high-tech body suits that could help Canadian soldiers carry bigger loads into battle.

Contrary to widespread media reports, BBC says May 9 that the man detained in Mosul is not in fact Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. An earlier statement from the Iraqi defense ministry said that al-Masri had been captured. But an US military spokeswoman, Peggy Kageleiry, said confusion had arisen because a man with a similar name had been detained.

At an emergency food-security summit held May 7 in Managua, 14 Latin American and Caribbean nations convened under the umbrella of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega called the food crisis an "epic problem" caused by the "tyranny of global capitalism." At the conclusion of the summit, all but two participating nations signed a joint resolution that incorporated specific language supporting ALBA. Costa Rica and El Salvador abstained from signing. (CSM, May 8)

Colombia's military committed "crimes against humanity" when it shot three people in the back and killed a man with a blow to the head during the March 1 raid on a guerilla camp in Ecuador, Quito's Interior Minister Fernando Bustamante told the Gamavision TV news program. The forensic evidence showing that the three were shot in the back is "undeniable," he said.