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President Obama told CNN yesterday that the United States is “absolutely not” giving Israel a green light to attack Iran. “We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East,” said Obama, referring to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Shortly after being sworn-in yesterday, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) announced that the first bill he would sign onto as a co-sponsor would be the Employee Free Choice Act. “I just became a cosponsor of my first bill in the Senate, the Employee Free Choice Act,” Franken said last night.

The House Judiciary Committee deposed former Bush adviser Karl Rove yesterday, as part of the long-running U.S. attorney scandal probe. According to Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), Rove’s deposition “began at 10 a.m. and ended around 6:30 p.m, with several breaks,” although he refused to comment on what Rove said.

A new GAO report has found that “many states are using the federal [stimulus] funds for short-term projects and to fill budget gaps rather than spending on long-term improvements.” The report also says “many states aren’t meeting some goals and requirements of the economic recovery program” such as “using education funds to prevent layoffs rather than fund innovative new programs.” 

In an interview with Esquire, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush criticizes Obama as a “collectivist.” He dismissed Obama’s health care reforms as useless. “We’re like gerbils running in place,” he said. As for Obama’s popularity, Bush said, “who cares?”

A bipartisan task force, co-chaired by Jeb Bush and former Clinton chief-of-staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty, “will recommend today that the United States overhaul its immigration system in response to national security concerns, saying that the country should end strict quotas on work-based immigrant visas.” The panel also recommended a “commission to establish future legal immigration levels.”

Some of the unemployed in states that rejected stimulus funding for unemployment insurance are receiving letters declaring them “ineligible for benefits” because their state governments refused to modify rules governing who could receive unemployment insurance. The states, including Mississippi and Alabama, refused despite the fact that the federal government would have fully-funded the expansion for several years.

Yesterday, the National Rifle Association announced that it “would actively oppose Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation if she is hostile to senators who press her about gun rights.”

Afghan defense officials have said that “Taliban fighters and their commanders have escaped the Marines’ big offensive in Afghanistan’s Helmand province and moved into areas to the west and north, prompting fears that the U.S. effort has just moved the Taliban problem elsewhere.” 

And finally: Energetic organizers have gathered in Washington, DC for the New Organizing Institute’s annual BootCamp, where they learn “about campaigning, new media, online organizing, technology.” These young progressives have broken into groups to build mock campaigns around superheros running for DC mayor: Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, The Atom, The Green Lantern, Batwoman, Superman, Cyborg, and Batgirl. Check out the campaigns here, and be sure to vote for your favorite candidate on Friday.

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