Homeland Security

Vets for Freedom, a veterans group opposing withdrawal from Iraq, will launch a multi-million dollar television ad campaign next week calling attention to security gains achieved by the so-called surge, the group announced today.

The ads will feature Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and are "aimed at informing the American people about the truth regarding progress in Iraq and Afghanistan," the group said today.

The group will unveil its first ad at a press conference Wednesday, where it will also launch a national "Four Months, For Victory" media and grassroots campaign.

Grassroots efforts will be concentrated in 12 states identified as home to key lawmakers: Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Those 12 are also all battleground states in November's presidential election.

Telecommunications companies donated more money, on average, to Democrats who changed their minds last week and supported immunity for those companies' cooperation with administration wiretapping practices, a report by MAPLight.org finds.

Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T donated $8,359 on average, between January 2005 and March 2008, to 94 House Democrats who switched their stances and voted yes last week on the House's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) overhaul bill.The same companies donated $4,987 on average to those who consistently opposed immunity and voted no, the study finds.

The House FISA bill would likely grant telecommunications companies legal immunity for complying with Bush administration wiretapping practices after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Read more...

Americans United for Change has long opposed many of President Bush's policies, but this year it's found a new way to say it--with a 28-ton bus.

The group today launched its Bush Legacy Bus, a rolling museum dedicated to the "worst policy failures" of the Bush administration. The bus will travel the country for the next five months, stopping in 150 cities and bearing a simple message: that Bush's policies have wreaked havoc on America.

The bus features interactive exhibits on the Iraq war, the economy, and healthcare. A screen displays images of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, with captions that criticize the government's response. A chart entitled "not just Bush's war" traces Iraq war support to House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). The floor shows a timeline of events in the Bush presidency. Read more...

A border security and immigration PAC is calling for a nationwide boycott of Absolut Vodka for an ad the Swedish distillers ran in Mexico portraying an "Absolut world" showing Mexico extending across much of the western United States.

The vodka company has pulled the ad, but William Gheen of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), told The Hill "that's not good enough on this one" demanding that the ad agency as well as the executive that approved the ad be fired by Absolut.

ALIPAC and 100 other groups will go ahead with a boycott of the vodka, organizing the boycott through a website the PAC created.

"Absolut vodka is trying to sell liquor to Mexicans that aspire to control the Southwest United States," Gheen said in a statement announcing the move. "Everywhere we look, Global corporations have a hand in this brewing disaster and Absolut just made the list."

The ad has attracted attention from various other border security groups and bloggers. One bloggers on the conservative site RedState wrote, "time to pour the Absolut down the drain. The brand from my beloved Sweden will have to be replaced."

"In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," a spokesman for the company said on its website.

The ad is below.

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) criticized the Bush administration today for lobbying Congress to oppose the so-called "media shield" bill, officially titled the Free Flow of Information Act.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey all sent letters to key senators each sent letters to Senate leaders and key committee chairmen expressing intelligence, security, and law enforcement concerns over the bill. The Justice Dept. also launched a website yesterday dedicated to opposing the bill.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), seeks to "protect the free flow of information to the public" by providing conditions under which the government can compel journalists to release information. The administration says these conditions are too restrictive.

"This is the Administration