1/31/07: Blue Radar

Every morning I bring you some of the misellaneous political stories thatmight not be worthy of their own posts, but nonetheless are important:

• President Bush wants $100 billion in war funds for Iraq.  But this morning the USA Today reports that Democrats want to "redirect money from Iraq to military readiness at home and say Iraq,Afghanistan and other NATO countries must carry more of the financialburden."  Maybe so that no soldier goes on the battlefield with only two weeks worth of training.
• Mo Elleithee has been hired to become a senior spokeswoman for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign.  According to the Chicago Tribune, "Elleithee has helped Democrats explore, and win, somefertile new political ground in Virginia – where he served ascommunications director for Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine’s campaign in 2005,and served as press secretary for former Gov. Mark Warner’s campaign in2001."
• In John McCain's memo to potential top donors, he invokes Bush-like scare tactics in order to get cash: "We live in a dangerous world and in the years ahead our nation willneed strong and decisive leadership to set it on the right course."
• Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) yesterday on President Bush's war powers: "I would suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the sole decider."
• The FBI is conducting a brand new method of wiretapping.  According to CNET, "Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agentsconducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities ofthousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, accordingto current and former officials. That database can subsequently bequeried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords."
• The Pentagon has halted the sale of spare parts for F-14 war planes, amid escalated tensions with Iran.  Part of the reason is because Iran flies F-14 Tomcats.
• A group of Republican supporters are backing the creation of a new reality-based television show that would reach Middle East viewers.  It would portray America in a positive manner.  According to Raw Story, "'On the Road in America' features young, attractive Arabs travellingacross the United States 'on a mission to educate themselves and thepeople they encounter along the way,' writes Jacques Steinberg for the Times."
• Scientists in France are warning that bananas may go extinct in 10 years.  According to the UK newspaper The Guardian, "Two fungal diseases, Panama disease and black Sigatoka, are cutting aswath through banana plantations, just as blight once devastated potatocrops. But unlike the potato, and other crops where disease-resistantstrains can be bred by conventional means, making a fungus-free varietyof the banana is extraordinarily difficult."
• The shirt this young woman is wearing during a Bill Clinton book signing is worth 1,000 words.  I wonder how Clinton responded?
• The Wall Street Journal explains how GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney got away with side-stepping campaign finance rules: "Because he doesn’t hold federal office, Romney became subject to thefederal rules only after he set up a presidential exploratory committeeearlier this month. Until then, his team took advantage of alittle-noticed gap between federal and state law. While most stateslimit political donations, about a dozen don’t. Romney’s political teamset up fund-raising committees in three of those: Michigan, Iowa andAlabama. During that time, his political action committees raised $7million."

The whole point of having this type of entry each morning is to post some stories that youmight not be able to learn about on other sites without spending half an hour scouring the internet.  If this is all oldstuff to you, let me know. And most importantly, feel free to add any new stories in the commentbo