Being Wrong

John McCain doesn't like to be proven wrong on the economy, even if his statments are documented.

Sorry John, but more than half the people polled said their families were financially worse off than they were a year ago. The USA Today/Gallup poll finds that “Americans are more downbeat about their personal financial situations now than they’ve been in decades.”

And how can you claim that you have a history of fighting to reform government and the way business is done in Washington when you've got all these lobbyist problems and these other unsavory issues within your own campaign?

NASA's own agency watchdog reports that -- hey, guess what? -- political appointees in the NASA press office were downplaying scientific conclusions about global warming by withholding certain press releases and limiting reporters' access to top scientists who might veer off message.

Utah Crandall Canyon mine owner, Robert E. Murray, in spite of all his bellowing and blustering that an earthquate caused the mine collapse, has been proven wrong:

Almost a year later, the scientific side of the argument is buoyed by new calculations from the University of Utah Seismograph Stations. Here’s a statement from Walter Arabasz, director of the stations, which is remarkable for its certainty:

As seismologists, we’re as certain as we can be that the seismic event registered as a magnitude-3.9 shock was due to the collapse of the mine and not a naturally occurring earthquake.
. . . . .

While officials had no way of knowing it at the time, the moment came “essentially instantaneously” at Crandall Canyon, the Utah Seismograph Stations said in Monday’s news release. Within this finding was some comfort for those who worried that the trapped miners had suffered for hours or days before dying.

“The collapse probably happened within just a few seconds and was not a long, drawn-out affair,” Jim Pechmann, another researcher, said. “There would have been no time for anybody to get out of the way. It would have happened too fast for that.”

John Albaugh pled guilty: the former aide to Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) has pled guilty to a conspiracy to defraud the House as part of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Albaugh, 41, is the latest in a string of more than a dozen former government officials and lobbyists to plead guilty in the scandal involving members of Congress, their aides and Bush administration officials. He faces 18 to 24 months in prison, but that sentence could be reduced based on his continued cooperation with the government because of the investigation.

. . . . .

Albaugh was in a position to help while Istook served as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, treasury and independent agencies.

Lobbyist C is not identified by name, but details in the documents make clear that it is Kevin Ring, a one-time aide to Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., who later went to work for Abramoff.

Messages were left seeking comment at Albaugh's office Friday. There was no immediate response from Ring's attorney.

Ring and Doolittle both are under investigation in the Abramoff probe. Doolittle is retiring from Congress at the end of this year, partly because of the investigation.

John Doolittle isn't going to run:

Republican incumbent Rep. John T. Doolittle has decided not to run again in California's 4th Congressional District, which stretches from the Sacramento suburbs to the Oregon border, because of a long-running FBI investigation into his ties with disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.