I have a few more things than usual to get done today. But before I close up shop on this site until midnight eastern, last Friday I was watching C-Span, and there was a forum about the future of conservatism. I remember hoping that someone would post a video on Youtube about it.
Well it turns out that we're in luck. Conservative commentator Laura Ingraham was discussing how Jim Webb scares the crap out of every Republican strategist, mainly because he might be the Democrats' best answer when it comes to reaching out to new voters. Watch this:
I usually don't give plugs like this. But considering that this ad could be shown during the Superbowl in front of millions of viewers, it is well worth it. VoteVets.org, a political action committee, is trying to air a 30-second television spot during the Superbowl that challenges Congress to stop Bush's escalation in Iraq.
You can watch the video below:
Obviously there is something behind my shameless little plug. The group has to raise about $90,000 more in funds to get this on television. So, if you possibly could, please give $15, $10 or even $5 to this group in order to help get this ad on television.
A released by the Government Accountability Office shows that a government contractor wasted millions in Iraq. Army investigators have opened up as many as 50 criminal probes that involve criminal abuse from battlefield contractors. NBC's Today Show ran a story on it this morning:
This is just one of many instances in which the government had hired contractors that wasted U.S. taxpayer money. Back in May of last year, revealed that billions had been wasted. And that followed another report from January of 2005, where nearly $9 billion for some reason in Iraq.
In the latest , most Americans think the President's actions in Iraq are influenced by his personal beliefs, not by policy realities:
Do you think President Bush's decisions about policy in Iraq and other major areas are influenced more by the facts or more by his personal beliefs, regardless of the facts?
Facts - 22% Personal Beliefs - 67% Unsure - 11%
Remember, this was not a typical "do you support the President or not" kind of poll. It has to do with how Americans think our President makes decisions.
What it comes down to is idealism vs realism. An is guided by mental considerations, not by what is physically practical. In other words -- this war, this idea about democracy in the Middle East -- might not be practical. But at least it's all in his head.
When tensions with an adversary mount while cabinet officials disagree about how to go forward, it is easier for the more hawkish members of the cabinet to ultimately get their way. Why? Four words: the rules of engagement.
The movie chronicled the feud that took place within the Kennedy Administration during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The president, his attorney general brother, the secretary of defense, the UN ambassador and a few advisers to the president were among the administration officials that favored a naval blockade of Cuba. The more hawkish cabinet members, on the other hand, wanted to provoke a wider war with the Soviets, for whatever reason, and were determined to make that happen by forcing the President Kennedy to carry out the rules of engagement on their grounds.
To make a long summary short, yes, the commander-in-chief does manage war policy -- but only to a certain point. If soldiers get shot at and killed, the situation becomes harder for each side to control. At that point, both sides find themselves more path-dependent on a war footing, and the war-mongering elements of each cabinet have a greater influence over policy.
With this Iran situation, a few things are unique. First off, there might not be a disagreement among Bush's cabinet about attacking Iran. For all we know, maybe it is Bush's goal to start a war. Secondly, five U.S. soldiers were recently killed in Iraq by insurgents that by Iranians. Third, Bush has never engaged in any diplomacy with Iran at all. Conclusion: unless the President or Congress dispatch an emergency envoy to the region, tensions with Iran could boil over to a point where neither Bush nor Ahmadinejad can out-flank Cheney's office and the Iranian Mullahs, both of which seem to want war.
The international body, without diplomacy, is an anarchic system. Dialogue between countries reduces the chance that governments misinterpret the actions of one another. Most wars are intentional. But some wars are unintended, and occur because one side incorrectly reads the other, and then after the shooting begins it is too late.
Hopefully it is not too late to avert war with Iran.
The Republicans have successfully a bill that would have implemented the first minimum wage increase in . Now the Democrats have a response of their own. Until the minimum wage bill is passed, Pelosi's House Democrats will block a cost-of-living (pay) increase for lawmakers. :
Lawmakers' pay will be frozen at $165,200 for this year in the dispute..
The Republicans are crying foul -- claiming that if Democrats allowed an that cuts taxes for businesses, then they would let the minimum wage bill slide on through.
But Democrats say CEO pay has gone up in the last decade while bottom salaries have stayed put, even without factoring in inflation. Minimum wage should be dealt with first.
We will have to watch how this plays out. It is likely, according to some , that the Senate will pass a version of the minimum wage bill with tax cuts for businesses. However, that is different than the House version. So the House will have to decide whether to consider the Senate's bill, or ask the Senate to try one more time to pass their version that does not include tax cuts for businesses.
In related news, the CEO of Costco has to the long list of CEO's that want Congress to raise the minimum wage. They favor the proposal because raising wages for the lowest-paid workers usually reduces employee turnover.
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 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 , "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 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 : "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 , "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 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 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 , "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 is wearing during a Bill Clinton book signing is worth 1,000 words. I wonder how Clinton responded?
The 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, . And most importantly, feel free to add any new stories in the commentbo
We're smack-dab in the middle of the week. Here are the political clips for Wednesday, January 31, 2007:
1) Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on terrorism. Last night, Olbermann confronted Bush's four claims during the State of the Union about foiled terrorist plots. It isn't surprising that none of those claims turned out to be true.
2) Imus takes on O'Reilly. For every copy of O'Reilly's book that gets sold, O'Reilly will send a copy to soldiers in Iraq.
3) Iran "may" be behind ambush of U.S. troops in Iraq. If Cheney could use this as an excuse to attack Iran, you bet he would. I will be investigating the legitimacy of this report in the coming days.
4) Russ Feingold interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. They covered the issue of Iraq war funding.
5) Cafferty comments on the Republican rebel Chuck Hagel.
6) Cafferty on Blackwater private military contractors.
Democrats have been waiting patiently ever since July for Intelligence Czar -- who will soon be reassigned to the State Department -- to release the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. During his testimony on Tuesday, he that he would unveil it on Monday, February 5th:
Well, I anticipate questions on Iraq – Senator, I prepared a few remarks here that I think are responsive to that, because Iexpect that we'll be transmitting the national intelligence estimate toCongress the first thing next week, by Monday at the latest.And of course I want the national intelligence estimate to speak foritself, but what I would like to say is that my belief that success inIraq remains possible is based on my experience in dealing with Iraq asUS ambassador to the UN and ambassador to Iraq and as director ofnational intelligence.
The last National Intelligence Estimate, which made headlines in September of 2006, revealed that the war in Iraq actually helped worldwide terrorism:
An opening section of the report, "Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement," cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology.
The report "says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse," said one American intelligence official.
National Intelligence Estimates, the most far reaching intelligence documents, are never completely declassified. It is likely that the Administration will only choose to declassify sections that somewhat mirror the Administration's foreign policy ideology.
In a speech today on the Senate floor, Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) unveiled the . The resolution would place a cap on the number of troops that Bush could send, and begin the redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq starting at the end of May, which would be completed by March 31, 2008. Watch the speech below:
explains that this redeployment proposal would be dependent on whether the Iraqis could step up to the plate and assume control of their own security:
If the Iraqis meet the benchmarks set by the BushAdministration, the redeployment could be temporarily suspended,although it seems that if the Iraqis make enough progress to meet thebenchmarks, that would make an even stronger argument for continuingthe redeployment, not suspending it.
In a nutshell, if passed, the resolution would change our open-ended policy in Iraq by letting the Iraqis know that if they don't step up, we will tell our soldiers to step out of the way.
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