2.11.07 Blue Radar

Every morning I quickly acknowledge some of the miscellaneous politicalstories thatmight not be worthy of their own posts, yet sill are important. Hopefully you stop by this site each day to read the Blue Radar, asopposed to searching the internet for thirty minutes to find some ofthese stories.  This is as close as you get to an insider's view ofpolitics:

• Conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard says that Al-Qaeda wants Barack Obama to win the presidency in 2008: "I think that will just encourage those who want to completelydestabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for theterrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory."  (Pressure should be put on President Bush to publicly condemn those comments.)
• An American civilian was killed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq last week, confirmed by the military yesterday.  The civilian worked for KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton.  The name of the dead truck driver has not yet been released.
• Tonight, Barack Obama will appear on 60 Minutes.  Check your local listings.
• A few weeks ago I was quite skeptical about the Obama Campaign's internet strategy.  Following this report by Newsweek's Howard Fineman, I take it back!  The campaign is now a hit among young voters: "More interesting, and perhaps important, has been the Obama traffic onFacebook. The campaign’s communications chief, Robert Gibbs, told methat the leading group on that site now has an astonishing 250,000members. The second-largest has more than 50,000. Those people need tobe converted into real-world activists."
• Frank Rich of the New York Times hit the nail on the head regarding why Barack Obama might be bored in the Senate.  "If time in the U.S. Senate is what counts for presidential seasoning,maybe his two years' worth is already too much.  Betterhe get out now, before there's another embarrassing nonvote on anonbinding measure about what will soon be a four-year-old war."  Over the last decade, the Senate has been a body that has lazily stood by and acted as a rubber stamp to the President.  The current non-binding Iraq resolution is an example.
• This excerpt of the Democratic Weekly Radio Address, given by Senator John Kerry (D-MA), illustrates how the Administration has poorly equipped our soldiers that are fighting and dying for the failed policy in Iraq: "Men like Brian Freeman, an energetic and promising31-year old Army captain who told me that his men struggled to carryout a mission they never trained for and weren’t equipped to fight.This West Point graduate, who died in combat shortly after we met, wasthe kind of leader who was born to lead men in battle. Freeman, likemany soldiers in Iraq, was conflicted – torn between his desire toserve and succeed and to achieve victory but frustrated with the lackof clarity in their mission."
• During Obama's announcement, Fox's Neil Cavuto spent his Saturday show trashing the Illinois Senator about his tough stance on Walmart.
  
• 800,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges in 2005 alone.
• Rumors are flying that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) might sue the Associated Press for the untrue story about his Nevada land deal.
  

If this is not new news to you, let me know. And most importantly, feel free to add any new stories in the commentbox.

Comments

[George]

Although I'm glad to hear that Obama is outdrawing Hillary, I'd be interested to know the populations of Springfield, IL vs the NH town that Hillary was in. Is it 30:1 maybe?

[Administrator: Todd]

I looked it up, and the populations of the two towns were not really comparable. So what I did was I deleted that bullet point from the Radar. I got that particular information from the "Caucus Blog" at the New York Times. It should never have been put on either of our sites.

[The Mexican]

Here's two links to two movies everyone that comes to this blog should watch, if they haven't yet:

Robert Greenwald's Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6621486727392146155&q=Iraq for Sale

Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing's Jesus Camp
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8877708936425212842&q=Jesus Camp movie duration:long

[George]

I'll 2nd Iraq For Sale. Didn't you just love that priceless Bush moment when he was asked what the rules are for private security groups in Iraq?

This war has been outsourced to private corporations. After all Bush has done, perhaps this is the most disturbing thing. But then again, that was Cheney's plan from day 1. I'm pretty certain of that.

[Administrator: Todd]

People need to think carefully about what conservatives really mean when they say they want to trim government. What they really mean is outsourcing government work to groups that are not bound by U.S. law -- such as contractors.

[The Mexican]

George, there is no doubt in my mind that he himself has no clue how to combat the fight on terrorism. The best he can do is let the conservative "think-tanks" fear-monger to him (as is recorded with the passage of time after one of their statements is debunked by critical and credible sources such as pentagon reports, congressional diplomacy, military intelligence, etc.), and him continuing to epouse their messages as his own--whether it's giving a misleading prediction; waxing a truism with false premises; being invalid and unsound in his deductive arguments, or introducing weak and non-cogent inductive arguments (with fallacies on all sides); etc.

Admin Todd, I agree. I had firm adoration for some traditional conservative notions that Jefferson left us with in his writings about minor foreign involvement, small gov't (to avoid oligarchy and monarchy), separation of church and state, etc.

[Administrator: Todd]

The Mexican, you hit it on the head. Despite the Patriot Act and the mis-use of power, this is actually a VERY weak President. He knows little about public policy, and he let's himself be over-run by the conservative idealist intellectuals in his Administration.

If anything, in the first 6 months following 9/11, his speech-writers played a more influential role in the Administration's foreign policy than Bush did. (i.e. "axis of evil.")

[Marshal Will Kane]

800,000 ARRESTED ON MARIJUANA CHARGES. YOU FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THE 2 LEADING STATES FOR ARRESTS WERE CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK. THIS EXPLAINS MANY THINGS!