Opening the Day: Clinton Hits Obama on Gas Tax in Indiana

by Matt Stoller [courtesy of Open Left - Front Page]

And Clinton continues her move strongly to the right, but other stuff is happening today.

• The Wall Street Journal uncovered that Countrywide was essentially a massive fraudulent scheme.  People need to go to jail for this.

  Countrywide Financial Corp. reported an $893 million loss for the first quarter, amid mounting evidence of serious problems with its underwriting of many home loans.

  A federal probe of Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, is turning up evidence that sales executives at the company deliberately overlooked inflated income figures for many borrowers, people with knowledge of the investigation say.

  Some of the problems are surfacing in a mortgage program called "Fast and Easy," in which borrowers were asked to provide little or no documentation of their finances, according to these people and to former Countrywide employees.

• DeSmogBlog found out climate denier Heartland Institute were lying about the 500 scientists that dispute global warming.

• Responsible Plan candidate Don Wiviott launches his second ad on Iraq:

• McCain attacks Jim Webb's staff over the new GI bill.

  "There are fundamental differences," McCain told Politico. "He creates a new bureaucracy and new rules. His bill offers the same benefits whether you stay three years or longer. We want to have a sliding scale to increase retention. I haven't been in Washington, but my staff there said that his has not been eager to negotiate."

  "He's so full of it," Webb said in response. "I have personally talked to John three times. I made a personal call to [McCain aide] Mark Salter months ago asking that they look at this."

• More wrangling over a gas tax holiday

• Clinton is going after Obama on the gas tax in Indiana.  The suspension of the gas tax would cost 300,000 jobs.

What are you reading?