Alberto Gonzales, the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general and perhaps one of the most incompetent and corrupt, announced his resignation Monday in a terse statement, ending a wrenching standoff with congressional critics over his honesty and competence at the helm of the Bush Justice Department.

Republicans and Democrats alike had demanded his resignation over the botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firings of U.S. attorneys, among other things, but President Bush had defiantly stood by his Texas friend until accepting his resignation last Friday.

Gonzales, whom Bush once considered for appointment to the Supreme Court, is the fourth top-ranking administration official to leave since November 2006.

Donald H. Rumsfeld, an architect of the Iraq war, resigned as defense secretary one day after the November elections.

Paul Wolfowitz agreed in May to step down as president of the World Bank after an ethics inquiry.

Bush’s top political and policy adviser, Karl Rove, announced earlier this month that he was stepping down.

Reacting to Gonzales’ resignation,Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that the Justice Department had “suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence.”

As attorney general and earlier as White House counsel, Gonzales pushed for expanded presidential powers, including the eavesdropping authority. He drafted controversial rules for military war tribunals and sought to limit the legal rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay - prompting lawsuits by civil libertarians who said the government was violating the Constitution in its pursuit of terrorists.

One matter still under investigation is the 2006 dismissal of several federal prosecutors, who serve at the president’s pleasure. Lawmakers said the action appeared to be politically motivated, and some of the fired U.S. attorneys said they felt pressured to investigate Democrats before elections.

“Better late than never,” said Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, summing up the response of many to the resignation, according to the Associated Press.

US Attorney General Gonzales Resigns

Analysis: The Gonzometer Moves to ‘Gone’

Having written several books that span periods of years, Robert Parry is often surprised how patterns emerge that aren’t apparent in day-to-day news coverage. In Neck Deep, his new book about George W. Bush’s presidency, one of those surprises was how often former Vice President Al Gore turned up making tragically prescient comments.

Gore, whose admirers sometimes call him “the Goracle,” comes across more as a Cassandra, warning the nation of looming disasters and finding himself either ignored or mocked by the dominant politicians and media pundits.

Time and again - from Campaign 2000 to the post-9/11 “war on terror” to the invasion of Iraq to Bush’s expansion of presidential powers - Gore pointed to grave dangers when nearly all other national political leaders and media bigwigs were either running with the herd or keeping silent.

In the daily coverage of those political developments at Consortiumnews.com, stories ran citing Gore’s speeches, but it wasn’t until Parry pulled together the book that Gore’s extraordinary role jumped out at him.

“Though there were a few other political leaders who made prophetic comments, such as Sen. Robert Byrd in his pre-Iraq War speeches on the Senate floor, none was as consistently on target as Al Gore,” he says.

To read the whole story on the new book, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.

One in four American adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year.

Of the 27 percent of people who hadn’t read a single book this year, nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.

Those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than younger people.

The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey, more than all other categories. Popular fiction, histories, biographies and mysteries were all cited by about half, while one in five read romance novels. Every other genre - including politics, poetry and classical literature - were named by fewer than five percent of readers.

More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Industry experts say that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer nonfiction.

Those likeliest to read religious books included older and married women, lower earners, minorities, lesser educated people, Southerners, rural residents, Republicans and conservatives.

Gallup Poll asked in 2005 how many books people had at least started, the typical answer was five. That was down from 10 in 1999.

In 2004, a National Endowment for the Arts report titled “Reading at Risk” found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002, a four percentage point drop in a decade. The study faulted television, movies and the Internet.

Book sales have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way indefinitely. Analysts attribute the listlessness to competition from the Internet and other media, the unsteady economy and a well-established industry with limited opportunities for expansion.

AP: One in Four Read No Books Last Year

AP Ipsos Poll

Conventional wisdom in this country and in the mainstream, corporate news media holds that the American public is fundamentally conservative - hostile to government, in favor of unregulated markets, at peace with inequality, wanting a foreign policy based on the projection of military power and traditional in its social values.

But as a new report demonstrates from the non-profit Media Matters in America, that picture is fundamentally false.

Media perceptions and past Republican electoral successes notwithstanding, Americans are progressive across a wide range of controversial issues, and they’re growing more progressive all the time.

This report gathers together years of public opinion data from unimpeachably nonpartisan sources to show that on issue after issue, the majority of Americans hold progressive positions. And this is true not only of specific policy proposals, but of the fundamental perspectives and approaches that Americans bring to bear on issues.

Nor is the progressive majority merely a product of the current political moment. On a broad array of issues, particularly social issues, American opinion has grown more and more progressive over the past few decades. In contrast, it is difficult to find an issue on which the public has grown steadily more conservative over the last 10, 20, or 30 years.

The Issues

The role of government

Americans support an active government that tackles problems, provides services and aids those in need.

The economy

Americans support increasing the minimum wage and strong unions, and believe the wealthy and corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes.

Social issues

Americans support legal abortion and embryonic stem cell research; opinions on equal rights for women and gay Americans have grown dramatically more progressive in recent years.

Security

Americans support a progressive approach to national security, emphasizing strong alliances and diplomacy over the indiscriminate use of military force. On domestic security issues, progressive approaches to crime and gun control enjoy wide support.

The environment

By enormous margins, Americans favor strong environmental protections, a core progressive belief.

Energy

Americans support energy conservation and the development of alternative fuels.

Health care

Americans clearly favor universal coverage and are more than comfortable with government solutions to the health care problem.

In summary, a look across the scope of American opinion reveals a public that holds progressive positions and supports progressive solutions on economic issues, on social issues, on security issues - indeed, on nearly all the key issues confronting the country. For years, the conventional wisdom has maintained just the opposite, but the facts are impossible to ignore.

Read the full study report here

A draft recovery plan outlining habitat needs and future conservation efforts aimed at preventing the extinction of the Ivory-billed woodpecker was made available for public comment today.

Interested citizens, conservation organizations, state and federal agencies and others will have 60 days to provide comments on the 185-page blueprint put together by one of the most talented recovery teams ever assembled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to a press release.

It is the first recovery plan crafted for this species and comments on the plan will be accepted by the Service until October 22, 2007.

Evidence supporting the Ivory-billed Woodpecker’s rediscovery with the presence of at least one bird in the Bayou de View area of Cache River National Wildlife Refuge was announced in 2004 and 2005. The woodpecker’s rediscovery led to the need to develop a recovery plan, according to the agency.

While the woodpecker’s existence has not been confirmed since, tantalizing evidence continues to be gathered in Arkansas, Florida’s panhandle, South Carolina,and other locations across its historic range.

“The opportunity to recover this icon of the ornithological world cannot and should not be passed over,” said Sam Hamilton, regional director for the Service’s Southeast Region and leader of the recovery team. “Given the evidence pointing to its survival, we believe it would be irresponsible not to act. That’s why we established this recovery team with some of the nation’s best biologists to help us chart a reasonable, well founded path to save this species. It’s the right thing to do.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with its partners to prevent extinction of species like the Ivory-billed woodpecker.

The agency encourages interested citizens, agencies and conservation organizations to participate in the comment period. The diverse team developed a balanced, common sense approach, they say, and “look forward to receiving feedback that makes it even better.”

Since 1967, the Ivory-billed woodpecker has been federally listed as an endangered species. The species appeared to be widely distributed throughout the southeast prior to European settlement. In this country, the bird ranged from the coastal plain of North and South Carolina, Georgia,Florida, large portions of Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, Louisiana, eastern Texas, west Tennessee, and small areas of Illinois, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Missouri.

The range became smaller by the late 1800s and the woodpecker was no longer found in Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois or Kentucky. Ivory-billed numbers continued to decline with the last confirmed sighting in 1944. Until 2004, there had been no confirmed sighting of’an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in more than 60 years.

The woodpecker’s disappearance is closely linked to logging and the disappearance of contiguous forest habitats that once covered much of the southeastern United States. Preventing extinction and ensuring the recovery of imperiled wildlife is a top priority for the Service. Recovery plans describe actions that may be necessary for conservation of the species and establish criteria for reclassification from endangered to threatened status or removal from the list of threatened and endangered species.

For the Ivory-billed woodpecker,the recovery strategy will initially focus on learning more about the species status and ecology, including documenting known locations and characterizing those habitats.

Population goals are not identified though such goals are key to recovery. Current efforts include development of models and additional research that will generate these spatially explicit population goals.

Copies of the draft recovery plan are available by request from the service’s Lafayette Field Office at 646 Cajundome Boulevard, Suite’400, Lafayette, Louisiana, 70506, or by visiting the web at: http://endangered.fws.gov/recovery/index.html#plans.

The draft plan also can be found at www.fws.gov/ivorybill/.

Comments will be accepted by mail or hand-delivery at the above address’or faxed to 337-291-3139. For further information contact Deborah Fuller’at the above address, or by calling 337-291-3100.

Comments also may be provided electronically by using the following email address: ibwplan@fws.gov.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife,’plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. Visit the Service’s Website at http://www.fws.gov.

AP: $27 Million Woodpecker Habitat Plan Unveiled