It's Craptastic!

President Bush (news - web sites) suffered minor abrasions after falling off a mountain bike while cycling on his Texas ranch on Saturday, the White House said.

The 57-year-old Republican president had cycled 16 miles of a 17-mile afternoon bike course when he toppled over while riding downhill on what the White House described as soil loosened by recent rainfall.

Bush Addresses Grads Friday, Nation Monday (washingtonpost.com)

As he readies a prime-time speech Monday to try to repair public support for his Iraq policies, President Bush took a philosophical turn Friday, advising college graduates to "choose your friends carefully."

It was a timely message from the commander in chief, whose administration is publicly feuding with a former ally in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, who provided the United States dubious intelligence about weapons of mass destruction. But aides said that was not the president's meaning as he addressed Louisiana State University's Class of 2004.

Bush twins graduate from college, but parents won't see the ceremony

When Jenna Bush graduates from the University of Texas today, her father will miss the pomp and circumstance.

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush have decided to skip their 22-year-old twin daughters' graduations because, aides say, their presence and that of White House security would be disruptive.

In the past 20 months, Harris has become America’s leading critic of electronic voting. Her reporting on the problems with new computer voting machines has been a key component in a national, grassroots movement to safeguard voting. Her astounding discoveries have resulted in important studies by distinguished computer scientists. She has been leaked thousands of pages of internal memos from Diebold Election Systems, one of the country’s leading electronic voting companies. She is frequently cited by newspapers across the country and is a guest on national and local television and radio stations. Thousands of people visit her Web site and participate in its reader forums. Now, Harris claims, the government wants our names, forum messages, and computer addresses.

Following the advice of her lawyer, Harris will not talk publicly about the government’s investigation. Seattle Weekly used postings from Harris’ Web site and interviewed other people involved with the investigation to put together this account.
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Harris sounds the alarm about what the government wants her to turn over. “They want the logs of my Web site with all the forum messages and the IP [Internet protocol] addresses.” IP addresses are unique, numerical pointers to one or more computers on the Internet, making it possible to identify, or narrow the search for, a computer that has visited a given Web site. Writes Harris: “This has nothing to do with a VoteHere ‘hack’ investigation, and I have refused to turn it over.

Democrat John Kerry will meet Wednesday with independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, the longtime consumer advocate who is blamed by many Democrats for Al Gore's loss in the 2000 election.
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Asked in the interview whether he would drop out if he were to conclude that continuing would hurt Kerry and guarantee Bush's re-election, Nader said he would not.

"No. Of course not," he said. "You don't run a presidential campaign nationally and say to your volunteers who have worked their heart out sometime in October, well, sorry."

Chief Justice William Rehnquist took a utility's corporate jet to Ohio on Saturday so he could speak at the dedication of the state's new court building in Columbus.

American Electric Power flew Rehnquist at the request of the Ohio Supreme Court, which plans to pay for the $3,800 flight, said AEP spokesman Pat Hemlepp. The cost is more than three times the most expensive round-trip ticket between Washington and Columbus.
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The propriety of the flight was being questioned by a watchdog group, Ohio Citizen Action, because AEP is being sued by the Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department for allegedly violating the Clear Air Act. The case could reach the Supreme Court.

"Clearly, this is a favor," said Catherine Turcer, a campaign reform activist for Ohio Citizen Action. "All businesses, including AEP, have things they need or want from the courts."
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Justice Antonin Scalia accepted a ride on a government jet from Vice President Dick Cheney in January after he invited Cheney on a duck hunting trip to Louisiana. The trip came only about three weeks after the justices agreed to consider a privacy case involving Cheney's energy task force.