A big battle is brewing over the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Chinese Muslim inmates held there.

The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would decide whether federal judges have the power to order the release of the ethnic Uighur prisoners into the United States.

The White House and Congress argue the inmates have never been admitted into the United States under U.S. immigration laws, and judges should not be making those sorts of decisions.

To underscore the point, the U.S. Congress Tuesday approved a spending bill that includes a measure effectively prohibiting Guantanamo prisoners from being released into the United States. The measure would admit them only to face trial.

President Barack Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo by Jan. 22, 2010, but meeting that goal has become increasingly difficult.

Few countries are willing to accept any of the approximately 220 inmates, and the United States continues to debate what to do with them.

The 13 Uighurs — a Turkic Muslim ethnic group from Xinjiang in western China — have been cleared of being suspected terrorists by U.S. authorities.

Many of them had traveled to Afghanistan for weapons training in order to fight the Chinese government before Sept. 11, 2001, and fled to Pakistan after the outbreak of hostilities.

They were captured and handed over to U.S. custody and have been held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly eight years.

Five of the original group of 22 Uighurs were transferred to Albania two years ago. Four more were sent to Bermuda in June.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan told the Supreme Court in a letter Sept. 23 that the south Pacific island of Palau had agreed to accept 12 of the remaining 13 Uighurs.

But only six of the 12 have agreed to resettle there.

Meanwhile, pressure is increasing on the White House to close Guantanamo.

Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman from Maine, announced the launch Tuesday of the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo.

He was joined by retired Lieutenant General Robert Gard and retired Brigadier General John Johns.

Attacks on closing the prison are “pure politics at its worst,” Andrews said.

The campaign unveiled a new advertisement to air on cable television and the Internet.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Deborah Gembara (View inside common area of medium security prison at Guantanamo; guard tower at Camp X-Ray detention facility)

PHOENIX  - U.S. lawmakers have yet to back a plan to try and stem the global financial crisis. But the vigorous round of finger-pointing over who is to blame for it continued on the campaign trail on Tuesday as John McCain’s camp singled out Democratic rival Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton in a new ad.

The 60-second spot argued that, while the veteran Arizona senator sought to rein in excesses by troubled mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - which were rescued by the government earlier this month – Obama, an Illinois senator, did nothing.

“John McCain fought to rein in Fannie and Freddie,” a voiceover says. It then quotes The Washington Post saying McCain “pushed for stronger regulation … while Mr. Obama was notably silent.”

“But Democrats blocked the reforms. Loans soared. Then, the bubble burst. And taxpayers are on the hook for billions.”

The salvo laying blame and charging inaction over the crisis comes a day after the U.S. House of Representatives voted down a bailout plan backed by President George W. Bush that sought to buy up $700 billion in troubled bank assets.

The surprise 228-205 House defeat sent markets tumbling around the world and unleashed a sharp blame game in Washington.

House Republicans, a majority of whom voted against the bill, blamed the failure on a “partisan” speech given before the vote by House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, in which she chided Republicans for what she said was their “budgetary recklessness” and an “anything goes mentality” that led to the crisis.

The ad aired by the McCain camp also seeks to heap blame for the financial debacle on former President Clinton.

“Bill Clinton knows who is responsible,” the voiceover intoned, before cutting to a clip of the former president saying: “I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

It concluded: ‘You’re right, Mr. President. It didn’t have to happen.”

(Photo credit: REUTERS/Jim Bourg, Sept 26, 2008, USA)

“The Daily Show” has this welcome sign for Republican convention-goers in St. Paul, as posted on flickr:

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama touts hard work and “heartland values” in his first TV ad of the general election, which will air in several Republican-leaning states.

“America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life’s been blessed by both,” the Democratic says in this one-minute spot, which emphasizes his humble roots.

Like Republican rival John McCain ’s first national ad, it’s a soft-focus introduction for voters who may not be familiar with his background.

It will air in 18 states, including many that haven’t voted Republican in recent presidential elections — Alaska, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota and Virginia.

WASHINGTON — Republican candidate John McCain touts his independence from President George W. Bush and his plan to fight global warming in a new TV ad.

Two liberal groups, meanwhile, are slamming McCain’s support for the Iraq war in an ad of their own.

McCain’s ad, highlighting an issue important to many independent voters, will run on local TV in 11 battleground states, as well as national cable channels like Fox News and CNN. An aide said the ad buy would be “substantial,” but declined to provide a figure.

“John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming,” the ad’s narrator says.

It’s the second national TV ad for McCain.

Some of those same viewers might see this ad by MoveOn.org and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. An actress portraying a mother holds up her child and asks McCain: “When you said you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can’t have him.”

The two groups say they plan to spend $540,000 to air the ad in three battleground states — Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — and nationally on cable.

What about Obama? His campaign isn’t buying any national TV ads yet, though they were sitting on a much larger pile of cash at the end of April ($47 million vs. McCain’s $22 million, according to the latest FEC filings).

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama’s almost insurmountable lead in the race for the Democratic party presidential nomination is mainly the result of a two-week period in February when he outspent rival Hillary Clinton 3-to-1 on advertising while winning nine straight state races, according to a new analysis released Monday.

Obama beat Clinton in states ranging from Maryland to Nebraska to Hawaii between Feb. 6 and Feb. 19, winning 281 delegates to 163 for Clinton for a net gain of 118, said the study by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project.
 
Democratic candidates need the votes of 2,118 delegates to the party’s convention in August to seize the nomination. Obama currently leads Clinton in the race for elected delegates 1,729 to 1,625, a margin of 104, according to a count by MSNBC. When the votes of party leaders and others who have declared their support are factored in, Obama’s lead grows to 2,076 to 1,918, MSNBC says.

The advertising advantage alone does not explain Obama’s February winning streak, but it was likely a factor. The study found that in the nine states he won during that two-week period, Obama was on the air first and had the paid media airwaves to himself for a significant part of the time. During a nine-day advertising battle in Nebraska, for example, Obama was alone on the air for six days unchallenged by Clinton.

“Unbalanced flows of paid information in a generally positive free media environment have the greatest potential to move numbers and influence races,” said Ken Goldstein, a professor who directs the advertising project. “This was the environment between Feb. 5 and Feb. 19 and that is what won Barack Obama the Democratic nomination.”
 
The study found candidates for the U.S. presidency have spent nearly $200 million on advertising so far during the 2008 election campaign, with Obama leading the pack at nearly $75 million.
 
Obama has spent nearly $30 million more than Clinton, who has paid $46 million, and almost $20 million more than all the Republicans combined, the study found.
 
The Illinois senator has spent nearly seven times as much on advertising as the Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has paid $11 million.
 
Obama and Clinton spent about the same amount on advertising through the Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5, when nearly half the country voted for presidential nominees.
 
But Obama outspent Clinton on advertising 3-to-1 over the following two weeks — Feb. 6 to Feb. 19 — and has outspent her 2-to-1 since that time, the study said.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Top: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama campaigns in Detroit Monday); Bottom: Reuters/Rick Wilking (Clinton campaigns in South Dakota Monday)