Warning that the new Justice Dept. probe into past CIA activities will "create an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy," seven men who've run the intelligence agency under presidents of both parties over the past 35 years called today for President Obama to abort the investigation.

The Democrat has said he wants to look to the future. But he's not stopped his attorney general, Eric Holder, from proceeding with the announcement last month that he would appoint a special investigator to examine nearly 10 cases of possible interrogation abuse by intelligence employees or contractors operating under guidelines approved by the previous Republican administration of George W. Bush.

Those cases have already been rejected for prosecution by federal authorities.

The former intelligence chiefs wrote: "If criminal investigations closed by career prosecutors during one administration can so easily be reopened at the direction of political appointees in the next, declinations of prosecution will be rendered meaningless."

The seven former directors are John Deutch, Porter Goss, Michael Hayden, James Schlesinger, George Tenet, William Webster and James Woolsey.

They expressed fears that fears of such future probes by an administration of a different party would compromise not only the aggressive interrogation necessary to combat terrorism but the cooperation of foreign governments.

A spokesman for the current CIA chief Leon Panetta said he was focused on today and tomorrow, not the past.

A spokesman for Holder indicated no change in plans and said the Democrat appointee of Obama's was confident the investigations would not affect current employees' work.

The White House had no immediate comment.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Well, now we know the Obama administration knows its healthcare reform program is in deep trouble:

It's bringing in the Big Gun.

According to the Washington Post this afternoon, Joe Biden, who's mainly been focused on swearing folks in and successfully getting the economy back on one foot, will wade into the healthcare debate next week.

He will give his "first major health policy address," speaking to the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners on Tuesday.

Chances are pretty good Biden will support Obama's plans. Having been in the Senate since long after the Capitol dome was completed, Biden will probably also spend telephone time working his ex-colleagues, who have their own safe healthcare plan, to vote in favor of changing the healthcare landscape for everybody else.

And then Biden, who turns 67 in November, has decided to enter the Leisure World retirement community Wednesday in Silver Spring, Md.

Not for the talent nights, but to explain to resident seniors the effects on Medicare of the proposed healthcare reforms. He'll be accompanied there by Kathleen Sebelius, who's 61 and still manages to be secretary of Health and Human Services.

Because the administration's top priority is domestic healthcare reforms, Biden was recently dispatched to Iraq to talk a lot with leaders there and pretty much wrap up the war. When asked during his travels for comment on Obama's comment that Kanye West was a "jackass," Biden had no comment.

Which saved a lot of trouble.

Because it's so hard to keep up with him, we've fallen a little behind in keeping Ticket readers up to speed on the Veepster's daily schedule.

Here's Monday's, for example:

Monday, September 14, 2009

The Vice President will be in Washington, DC. There are no public events scheduled.

And here's the vice president's schedule for today, Saturday and Sunday:

Friday, September 18 – Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Vice President returned to Wilmington, DE earlier this morning. He will remain in Delaware through the weekend. No public events are scheduled.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Getty Images

Transcript of remarks by President Obama on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, as provided by the White House

As members of the Jewish faith here in America and around the world gather to celebrate the High Holidays, I want to extend my warmest wishes for this New Year. L’Shanah Tovah Tikatevu – may you have a good year, and may you be inscribed for blessing in the Book of Life.

Rosh Hashanah marks the start of a new year – a time of humble prayer, joyful celebration, and hope for a new beginning. Ten days later, Yom Kippur stands as a day of reflection and repentance. And this sacred time provides not just an opportunity for individual renewal and reconciliation, but for families, communities and even nations to heal old divisions, seek new understandings, and come together to build a better world for our children and grandchildren.

At the dawn of this New Year, let us rededicate ourselves to that work. Let us reject the impulse to harden ourselves to others’ suffering, and instead make a habit of empathy – of recognizing ourselves in each other and extending our compassion to those in need.

Let us resist prejudice, intolerance, and indifference in whatever forms they may take – let us stand up strongly to the scourge of anti-Semitism, which is still prevalent in far too many corners of our world.

Let us work to extend the rights and freedoms so many of us enjoy to all the world’s citizens – to speak and worship freely; to live free from violence and oppression; to make of our lives what we will.

And let us work to achieve lasting peace and security for the state of Israel, so that the Jewish state is fully accepted by its neighbors, and its children can live their dreams free from fear. That is why my Administration is actively pursuing the lasting peace that has eluded Israel and its Arab neighbors for so long.

Throughout history, the Jewish people have been, in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, "a light unto the nations." Through an abiding commitment to faith, family, and justice, Jews have overcome extraordinary adversity, holding fast to the hope of a better tomorrow.

In this season of renewal, we celebrate that spirit; we honor a great and ancient faith; and we rededicate ourselves to the work of repairing this world.

Michelle and I wish all who celebrate Rosh Hashanah a healthy, peaceful and sweet New Year.

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OK, President Obama, now you've done it.

Posing with a lightsaber yesterday is the most significant and perhaps unintentional swing toward the nerd demographic since becoming an early adopter of Twitter during the presidential campaign.

Obama may have intended to rally for the 2016 Olympics in Chicago, but the immediate effect is an army of open-arm sci-fi fans.

One popular blogger on all things nerd culture wrote that the photo op boosts the president's "geek cred."

If there's one thing tech geeks love more than "Star Wars," it's using computer editing software to manipulate things.

Once those ships collide, game over.

We've stumbled on so many good remixes that we had to compile them into a list.

Obama's real lightsaber - One remixer cranked up the image's special effects.

What not to do while the president is taking an awesome pic - This one was discovered by a Digg user. Click on the first photo and note the guy in the background, over Obama's left shoulder, who's doing some "digging" of his own.

Obama Wars - In this image, the president looks more mystified by his toy than by the masked warrior and robed fighters surrounding him.

Obama vs. Darth Vader - We'll take one of those presidential action figures. Does it have kung-fu grip?

He's got competition - And no Secret Service in sight. (But then that's why they call them secret.) Looks like he's on his own. At least he's got the Jedi stance down.

Epic Obama lightsaber battle - Believe it or not, the nerd faction was hip to Obama even before he was president. This fan-made video hit the Web last year during his campaign.

Imma let you finish, but Beyonce had the best lightsaber battle of all time - What meme is complete without referencing Kanye West's rude interruption of Taylor Swift's award acceptance speech?

And here's a real fun one here where you can add Kanye to any web page you like.

Speaking of which, have you seen the remix of Rep. Joe Wilson's interruption of Obama's congressional address?

Check this out:

Now that Obama is a Jedi, maybe he'll settle disputes with beer summits at the local cantina. We hear the music is good on Tatooine.

If you've spotted a good remix, describe it and give us a link in the Comments below. If we get enough, we'll collect them in another item in under two parseps.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo: Associated Press

In recent days both Democrat Vice President Joe Biden and the other fellow have begun to make the argument in public that from the point of view of the secure White House, they can somehow see the current dumpster economy smelling better, light at the end of the tunnel, the dawn of a new economic era just over the horizon.

This is based largely on scattered economic stats indicating that things are not so much really getting better; they're just not getting bad as much as before. Back in those awful winter days when new blood and Aretha Franklin's hat arrived with such promise and the new team inherited a terrible situation from you-know-who and his evil partner, you-know-him.

Also Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, who also still has a fulltime job and newly-renewed contract, sees the recession as virtually over.

(UPDATE: Friday, 1 p.m. Newly-released figures indicate California's August unemployment rate jumped to 12.2%, the highest in modern record-keeping.)

But a new poll indicates it's gonna take a whole lot more than repeated rhetoric to....

You have to hand it to the White House press corps. It knows how to stay on topic. As seen during a White House briefing this week, the reporters repeatedly asked about President Carter’s remark that racism is driving some opposition to President Obama.

The excerpts below make for intriguing reading, as White House spokesman Robert Gibbs discussed Carter, public perception, race relations in general and the arrest this summer of a black Harvard professor by a white police officer.

The Wednesday press briefing began with several questions about healthcare and foreign affairs. Then came the first question on Carter, combined with a query about the activist group ACORN. The unedited excerpts were taken from a transcript prepared by the White House:

Q: Okay. And I just wanted to get the White House reaction to a couple items in the news. One is former President Jimmy Carter saying that he believes an overwhelming majority of the intensely demonstrated animosity towards the President is because he’s black and those voters can’t accept the fact that a black man is President. And also an organization the President a long time ago did file that motor voter law for, ACORN --

GIBBS: A larger group of legal entities --

Q: Along with them, ACORN, a group the President has had some ties with over the years. The Census Bureau eliminated their relationship with that group for the 2010 census and the Senate overwhelmingly voted to cut off housing funding. And I was just wondering the White House reaction to either of those.

GIBBS: Well, let’s take a look at what former President Carter said. The answer that I’m going to give is the same answer that I gave on Sunday, when I was asked this question. The President does not believe that that criticism comes based on the color of his skin. We understand that people have disagreements with...

Not the best timing, but President Obama announced today a major change in U.S. missile defense policies, abandoning the planned land-based missile bases in Eastern Europe that Russian leaders had so strongly objected to in meetings with the freshman president.

The new plan, which is said to rely on more mobile sea-based missiles, was headlined by the White House as "Strengthening Missile Defense in Europe." The president said the new plan was more comprehensive and cost-effective. He promised to pursue "strong diplomacy" to protect America (see video below). And he said he based it on intelligence reports, presumably from different sources than ones that were wrong about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs.

While it makes the Russians happy (Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called it "responsible") and might conceivably entice them to pressure Iran on its nuke development, some analysts fear the step will be seen as a sign of weakness against resurgent Russian regional power. And they wonder how the backdown will be seen in Ukraine and Georgia, which are under the Russian eye but not under NATO protection.

It's also disappointing to the leadership of Poland and the Czech Republic, who had thrown in their lot with the American missile defense plan announced by President George W. Bush and supported last September by presidential candidate Obama.

Both Poland and the Czech Republic are now NATO members, and both have supported the U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.

Alas, the Obama administration chose Sept. 17 to make the missile announcement involving Poland and the Czech Republic. That's the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland in World War II. No hard feelings, fellows.

Here's the complete, unedited White House announcement transcript and news video below.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Remarks by President Obama on Missile Defense Policy in Europe

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning. As Commander-in-Chief, I'm committed to doing everything in my power to advance our national security.  And that includes strengthening our defenses against any and all threats to our people, our troops, and our friends and allies around the world.

One of those threats is the danger posed by ballistic missiles. As I said during....

As he weighs the next step in the war in Afghanistan, President Obama today bestowed the nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, to a Massachusetts man who gave his life trying to save a fellow soldier.

“What can we do to be worthy of such sacrifice,” Obama said of Army Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti of Raynham, Mass. Attending the ceremony in the East Room of the White House were Monti’s parents, Janet and Paul.

Monti, of the 71st Calvary Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division, had been leading a patrol when confronted by Taliban fighters. Monti called for backup.

One member of the patrol, Pvt. Brian Bradbury, was shot during the encounter. Monti twice broke cover and ran into the open under intense enemy fire to retrieve Bradbury. Monti “did something no amount of training can instill,” Obama said. He quoted Monti as saying, “He is my soldier, I am going to get him.”

On Monti’s third rescue effort, he was killed by a grenade and died in the field. Bradbury later died during the evacuation by helicopter.

Obama’s first Medal of Honor comes as the administration ponders the next step in the almost eight-year-long Afghanistan war. The president is weighing whether to add U.S. troops beyond the approximately  100,000 U.S. and NATO troops already committed to help the Afghanistan army fight a resurgent Taliban.

An honor roll of those who have received the Medal of Honor is maintained by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

To read a transcript of the medal ceremony, click through to the next page. The president reads a detailed and often gripping narrative of Monti's efforts to save his comrade.

– Michael Muskal

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Top photo: Janet and Paul Monti with President Obama at the White House. Credit: Getty Images. Bottom photo: Jared Monti in 2006. Credit: Associated Press.

With two wars already underway, it was unlikely today that U.S. President Obama was going to announce any military action against Canada. The two countries haven't fought since the Civil War when the British allowed Confederate guerrilla raids into New England.

And sure enough the 44th president didn't.

Instead, the U.S. chief executive granted Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper a coveted media availability in the Oval Office, a privilege not granted to someone as lowly as Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown not so long ago.

They talked like neighbors (or neighbours). And for good reason. Although Harper is conservative (by Canadian standards), the two nations maintain by far the largest bilateral economic relationship in the world. You don't hear much talk about building a wall along the U.S.-Canadian border, at least on the U.S. side.

And Canada has been a staunch military ally since 9/11, with its troops actually fighting in Afghanistan, as opposed to maintaining bases like some NATO allies. In fact, on a per capita basis Canada has suffered more casualties there than U.S. troops.

While Canada's domestically controversial combat commitment there will wind down in the next two years, Obama is pondering another U.S. troop surge that polls warn could create some real trouble for him back home.

The U.S. is by far Canada's largest customer and Canada is by far the Americans' largest supplier of energy. You won't be surprised they had an "excellent conversation" about the "extraordinary friendship and bond" of the two peoples. Obama said they even talked about climate change, or global warming, which could eventually keep millions of Canadians from migrating to Florida and Arizona with the birds every winter.

Speaking in French because that's not his native tongue but he wants to get on the TV news back in Quebec, Harper reciprocated the bonhomie, said an economic recovery has begun, though still pretty fragile, praised the president's speech to Wall Street (its Canadian equivalent in Toronto is called Bay Street) and vowed to continue addressing the ever-present series of trade "irritants" that crop up between the two former British colonies.

Here's what they both told the media, as provided by la Maison Blanche.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Transcript of joint media event with President Obama and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Hello, everybody.  Prime Minister Harper and I have just had an excellent conversation, reiterating the extraordinary friendship and bond between the American and the Canadian people.  We discussed both our bilateral relationship on issues of energy, our borders, issues of trade, and how we can continue to strengthen the already excellent relations that we have.

We also have discussed a range of international issues. Obviously we've been partnering with Canada on improving the global economy.  We both agree that although we are not out of....

You probably haven't even bought your 2009 Thanksgiving turkey yet.

But the time is almost here to select the 2016 Olympics site -- hot, stuffy Madrid; distant, hard-to-spell Rio de Janeiro; crowded Tokyo with earthquakes; or the beautiful, windy city on gorgeous Lake Michigan named Chicago.

You'll never guess which city President Obama favors for the games of the last summer of his second term, if he wins it.

Obama said he's too busy selling healthcare reform right now. So for the Oct. 2 vote in Copenhagen, Obama is sending his wife, Michelle, to help Mayor Richard M. Daley lobby for the Illinois city with the Indian name for a smelly wild onion.

The first couple held a promotional event on the White House South Lawn today where the president defended the residence against no one in particular (see photo above).

"Americans, like Chicagoans -- we don't like to make small plans," Obama said. "We want to dream big and reach high. We hope deeply. We want these Games. And if you choose Chicago, I promise you this: Chicago will make America proud, and America will make the world proud."

-- Andrew Malcolm 

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Photo: Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune

Let the Republican-on-Republican carnage begin.

In recent weeks, Nevada’s embattled GOP -- plagued with an indicted lieutenant governor, a philandering senator and a governor who has been the grand marshal in the party’s parade of scandals -- returned to fighting form.

Only, its candidates are sparring with each other.

Brian Sandoval announced his candidacy for governor Tuesday to the Reno Gazette-Journal, an hour after his resignation from the federal bench took effect.

He is so beloved by the GOP that everyone wants to take credit for luring him into the race -- even besieged Sen. John Ensign (who said he did nothing “legally wrong” by having an extramarital affair with a campaign aide, and then his wealthy parents paid the mistress's family $96,000).

Of course, Sandoval said Ensign didn’t recruit him, though the men spoke twice about the gubernatorial campaign, the Reno paper reported.

It was actually two top Republican operatives, Pete Ernaut and Greg Ferraro, who first approached Sandoval, underscoring the perceived political radioactivity of Gov. Jim Gibbons (who’s enmeshed in a bitter divorce with his wife, Dawn, who has accused him of at least two extramarital affairs).

Still, if Sandoval survives the primary, he’s a heavy favorite against the likely Democratic nominee, Rory Reid.

On the 2010 senatorial side, a number of polls – including a Rasmussen survey released this week -- have shown Rory’s dad, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, losing to wax figures at Madame Tussauds.

But national Republicans have thus far avoided declaring a favorite in the GOP primary, though Danny Tarkanian -- son of basketball coach Jerry -- made the Washington rounds this week.

"Republicans have a primary that'll be decided next June," Harry Reid told CQ Politics. "At last count, there are 10 Republicans involved in that primary.

"I think the people of Nevada know me very well," the senator declared after the polls were out. "They know what I've done over the years, and we'll deal with the Republicans when that's necessary. Right now, that's not necessary."

In other GOP news, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki (who's slated to go on trial next month on charges that he misappropriated state funds) still plans to to run for reelection in 2010.

Other than that, things are pretty quiet in Nevada GOP politics.

-- Ashley Powers

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Photo: Associated Press (Brian Sandoval)

(UPDATE: 4:48 p.m. California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined a growing chorus of officials today and called on the state's attorney general to launch an investigation into ACORN due to the latest charges of illegal activity by the group, this time in San Bernardino, Calif.

His letter:

Over the past few days, I have seen a series of news stories regarding the ACORN organization that have concerned me greatly. As you may be aware, the most recent report has come out of San Bernardino. 

Given this, I believe it is appropriate that your office launch a full investigation into ACORN’s activities in California. My administration stands ready to assist in any way necessary.

No immediate response from the office of Jerry Brown, a Democrat who used to be governor and would like to return to that office in next year's elections.)

When Barack Obama entered the White House with the idea of moving politics from the nonfunctional, confrontational style that marks Washington to a different, bipartisan approach, he didn’t count on a resurgent conservative movement. After a summer of attacking Obama’s healthcare plans and forcing Obama appointee Van Jones to quit his post as an advisor on green jobs over crude remarks and 9/11 conspiracy beliefs, conservatives, their media allies and a vibrant community of bloggers have turned their attention to ACORN.

The Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now is a national group that....