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Democrats hit GOP on support for Medicare cuts By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS – 12 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, accused Republicans of putting seniors and military families at risk by siding with President Bush against a measure to prevent Medicare cuts. Durbin, D-Ill., used a Saturday national radio address to call on Republicans to back the bill to stave off a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. It passed the House overwhelmingly last week in defiance of Bush's threat to veto it, but it fell just one vote short of the 60 it needed to advance in the Senate, with most Republicans voting "no." "It's time for the Republican senators who are filibustering this measure to put our seniors and our military families ahead of private insurance companies and let the Senate pass this bill as soon as possible," Durbin said. Bush and Senate Republicans don't like the bill because it includes offsetting cuts to insurance companies that use Medicare money to offer private health care coverage to about 20 percent of seniors.

Sen. Barack Obama promised senior citizens Friday that as president, he would protect Social Security benefits and provide universal health care. To extend the life of Social Security, Obama proposed applying a payroll tax to annual incomes above $250,000, affecting the wealthiest 3 percent of Americans. The Democrat also proposed eliminating income tax for any retiree making less than $50,000. "Secure retirement is no longer a guarantee for the middle class,'' Obama said during a visit to Oakleaf Village retirement center with his wife, Michelle. "It's harder to save and harder to retire."

Remember swiftboating? Gotten one of those Obama is a Muslim email? Well, Obama's not going to go the route of John Kerry. He is out to uncover the truth. http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

Speaking on a cloudy day at Falcon Stadium, the president compared the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to America's earlier conflicts, particularly World War II.

SAN JOSE—Senator John McCain rejected the endorsement on Thursday of the evangelical leader, the Rev. John C. Hagee, three stormy months after it was first announced as part of an effort to shore up Mr. McCain’s standing among Christian conservatives. The Rev. John C. Hagee (Photo: Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times) The rejection of Mr. Hagee’s endorsement occurred after another controversial sermon from the televangelist and pastor of Cornerstone, a mega-church in San Antonio, surfaced in which he argued that biblical verses made clear that Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust was part of God’s plan to chase the Jews from Europe and drive them to Palestine.

This leaves Mrs. Clinton with 264 superdelegates and Mr. Obama with 268, according to The Times’s count. Mr. Obama first surpassed Mrs. Clinton in superdelegate support, according to most tallies, on Friday. Update 7:30 p.m. Mr. Obama’s campaign just announced yet another superdelegate backing his bid: Representative Harry Mitchell of Arizona.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the Democratic Party’s 2000 vice presidential nominee, is leaving open the possibility of giving a keynote address on behalf of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) at the Republican National Convention in September. Republicans cl...

A female suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers in the holy city of Karbala on Monday, an official and a witness said, killing at least 43 people and leaving pools of blood on the street leading to one of Iraq's most revered mosques. The blast was the deadliest in a series of attacks that left at least 72 Iraqis dead, including six youths killed when mortar rounds slammed into a soccer field in eastern Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers also were killed Monday in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, bringing the American death toll closer to 4,000 as the U.S.-led war enters its sixth year. At least 3,990 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The violence marred overlapping trips by Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain to Baghdad. Their visits were aimed at touting recent security gains and stressing Washington's long-term commitment to fighting insurgents in Iraq.

Democrat Barack Obama expanded his fragile lead in delegates over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday, picking up at least seven delegates as Iowa activists took the next step in picking delegates to the national convention. Half the 14 delegates allocated to John Edwards on the basis of caucus night projections switched Saturday and Obama got most, if not all, of them.

In an extraordinary day in his more than yearlong quest for the presidency, Sen. Barack Obama on Friday sought to put behind him two raging controversies jeopardizing his bid: his relationships with his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and with his friend and political patron, Tony Rezko. Obama held two extensive, separate sessions with journalists from the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. An unassuming Obama entered a 10th-floor Sun-Times conference room for a conversation Friday, not as the hotshot at a rally. It was his moment — his time, as he himself might say — to try to bring this to an end. “I think it’s really important to make sure that you guys feel like you’ve got it all,” Obama said.

John McCain is refusing to renounce the endorsement of a prominent Texas televangelist who Democrats say peddles anti-Catholic and other intolerant speech. Instead, the Republican presidential candidate issued a statement Friday afternoon saying he had unspecified disagreements with the San Antonio megachurch leader, John Hagee. Hagee endorsed him at a news conference Wednesday in San Antonio.

The Senate today added payments for seniors and disabled veterans to an economic stimulus package approved by the House that would send checks to most American families, then overwhelmingly approved the $151 billion shot in the arm to the U.S. economy, 81-16. The House is scheduled to give final approval to the legislation tonight and send the plan to President Bush for his signature, ensuring that checks will begin reaching families by mid-May.

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

(PRODUCT) RED is a loose consortium of highly desirable consumer items, with some proceeds going to the fight against AIDS in Africa. How desirable? Well, in addition to the aforementioned iPods and RAZR, there's also an (AMERICAN EXPRESS) RED card, (GAP) RED T-Shirt, and a (CONVERSE) RED sneaker.

Diets high in protein may be the best way to keep hunger in check, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a study that offers insight into how diets work. They found that protein does the best job at keeping a hunger hormone in check, while carbohydra...

The high-definition digital video recorder (DVR) has become an essential ingredient of today's home-entertainment setup, enjoying an important place alongside the mighty HDTV, which is, of course, the centerpiece. And no other manufacturer's HD DVRs have set the benchmark quite as high as those from Dish Network. The company's latest model, the ViP722, is pretty much the same as the versatile, cutting-edge ViP622 except for a new look and increased storage. All the features of its predecessor are here, including the ability to record simultaneously from two televisions, as well as receive or record MPEG-4 satellite broadcasts. Basically, it's even more of an already good thing....

DailyTech brought you steady coverage over the past week concerning the latest news in the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray wars. Unless you've been living under a rock, you by now already know that Warner Bros. made the decision to back Blu-ray exclusively. The move by Warner Bros. was followed by similar actions from New Line Home Entertainment and HBO Home Video. Recent stories have even suggested that Paramount is also tossing around the idea of supporting the Blu-ray disc standard. Toshiba apparently doesn't want to go down without a fight and is instead slashing the prices on its HD DVD players. Toshiba's second generation HD-A2 players previously dipped down to the sub-$100 mark during November -- but that was during the traditional holiday buying season and not truly indicative of regular retail pricing. Now, Toshiba's third generation 1080i-capable HD-A3 is selling for a mere $139.98 on Amazon.com. The 1080p-capable HD-A30 is not much more expensive at $179.98. For the price of an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on, consumers can now purchase a fully-fledged set top box with 1080p support. Amazon isn't the only retailer with the discounted pricing, however. Tiger Direct is selling the HD-A3 for $129.99 and the HD-A30 for $179.99. There are also reports that Sam’s Club and Costco are selling the HD-A3 for as little as $128.