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Hillary Clinton: Response To North Korea Sinking South Korean Ship ‘Cannot Be Business As Usual’
Speaking in Tokyo, Japan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that “the evidence is overwhelming and condemning” that North Korea sunk the South Korean warship, the Cheonan. “We cannot allow this attack on South Korea to go unanswered by the international community,” said Clinton. “This will not be and cannot be business as usual. There must be an international, not just a regional, but an international response.”

Obama’s Day Ahead
President Obama and Vice President Biden will receive the presidential daily briefing at 9:30 a.m. ET, and Obama will met at 10 a.m. ET with senior advisers. Obama will deliver remarks at 10:45 a.m. ET, and sign a Presidential Memorandum outlining the next steps in his vision for cleaner, more efficient vehicles. Obama and Biden will have lunch at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Biden’s Day Ahead
Vice President Biden will attend President Obama’s daily briefing at 9:30 a.m. ET. He will meet at 10:30 a.m. ET with representatives from the National Association of Police Organizations. Biden will have lunch with Obama at 12:30 p.m. ET. Biden will meet at 1 p.m. ET with foreign policy experts on Iraq. Biden will meet at 3 p.m. ET with Ismail Omar Guelleh, the president of Djibouti. In the evening, Biden will attend the Marine Corps Evening Parade, at the Marine Barracks in Washington, DC.

Pentagon Won’t Say Sinking Of South Korean Ship Was Act Of War
Meanwhile, U.S. officials are also refusing to call the sinking of the Cheonan an act of war or state-sponsored terror by North Korea. “There’s no interest in seeing the Korean peninsula explode,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told reporters: “The key thing to remember here is that this was an attack on a South Korean ship, and the South Koreans need to be in the lead in terms of proposing ways forward.”

Gates Says Veto Defense Spending Bill If Unwanted Projects Remain
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is urging President Obama to veto the defense authorization bill if Congress does not remove unwanted spending. “The detailed conditions they [Congress] have imposed on the overall JSF [Joint Strike Fighter] program would make it essentially un-executable and impose unacceptable schedule and budget costs,” Gates said Thursday at a Pentagon briefing. “As I have stated repeatedly, should the Congress insist on adding funding for a costly and unnecessary JSF extra engine or direct changes that seriously disrupt the JSF program, or impose additional C-17 aircraft, I will strongly recommend that the president veto such legislation,”

Anti-D.C. Candidates Still Want K Street Cash
CQ reports that anti-Washington candidates are not turning down K Street money, using as an example Pennsylvania Senate nominees Joe Sestak (D) and Pat Toomey (R): “Both ran as anti-establishment candidates to secure their primary victories May 18 to face off in what is expected to be a tight race to replace longtime Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.). But just because they are swearing their allegiance as outsiders doesn’t mean either is shunning the Beltway completely, especially when it comes to fundraising.”

‘Disappointed’ AMA Reluctantly Accepts Pelosi’s Medicare Fix
Roll Call reports that the American Medical Association is grudgingly accepting a plan by Congressional Democrats to temporarily roll back a scheduled cut in Medicare payments, declaring that they are “deeply disappointed” that it is not a permanent fix. “Lawmakers must realize that the underlying policy problem will return larger than ever in 2014,” said AMA President J. James Rohack, in a statement. “The pending Medicare proposal treats the symptoms — it’s not a cure for the disease.”

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