Blue Radar

As I post each morning, here are some of the political stories thatmight not be worthy of their own posts, but are nonetheless newsworthy:

• POLL ARG: Bush approval at 34%.  60% disapprove.
• SCANDAL A Minnesota prosecutor says Larry Craig fully understood his guilty plea when he made it.  "The real basis for the defendant's motion -- displeasure with theoutcome -- is not an appropriate basis for relief sought," wrote Renz,who noted that he spoke with Craig three times over a six-week periodbefore the plea. "The court should also deny the defendant's motion asuntimely because it was sought only as a political reaction."
• CRIME Federal agents arrested 124 people in a nationwide crackdown on home-based steroid labs.
• POLITICAL STUDIES Only 5.5% of US voters overseas decided to vote during the 2006 midterm elections.
• CONGRESS By an 81-12 margin, the Senate approved a bill that authorized $23 billion in water projects, including money to repair the infrastructure in New Orleans.  (It took a Democratic Congress to finally get this money appropriated more than two years after the disaster occurred.)
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL The International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers have endorsed Hillary Clinton.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Former Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Gordon Fischer has endorsed Barack Obama, calling him a "change agent."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL John Edwards, a former trial lawyer, pledges that as president he would work to limit frivolous lawsuits.  "I think that the bulk of the problem is created when cases are filedin the legal system that should never be filed, and the results areyears of litigation and costs that are incurred by the health careprovider that should not have been incurred," Edwards said. "A lot ofthat responsibility goes to the lawyers."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Even after a very rough summer, John McCain still thinks he can win Iowa.  “We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’re doing it. I went to the IowaState Fair and met the 1,203 pound pig named Big Red and had a porkchop on a stick and a deep fried Twinkie. I’m doing all the rightthings. I’m having fun.”  (I hope you're enjoying it, John.)
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe sent out a memo that explains how polls in Iowa are misleading because they under-represent young voters.  Plouffe: "In more than one survey, Barack's support among Iowa young votersexceeded the support of all the other candidates combined. First, young votersare dramatically less likely to have caucused or voted regularly in primariesin the past, so pollsters heavily under-represent them. Second, young votersare more mobile and are much less likely to be at home in the early evening andthus less likely to be interviewed in any survey. Third, young voters are muchless likely to have a landline phone and much more likely to rely exclusivelyupon cell phones, which are automatically excluded from phone surveys."

If we left something out, it's because we either wrote about ityesterday or are scheduled to do so in an individual post later today. Otherwise, feel free to add any stories in the commentbox.

Comments

[granny]

I was interested in the information Obama's campaign manager put out about the way the polls are conducted. I haven't thought about it much, because I tend to give polls very light attention; but the fact that it's all done landline caught my attention. For me,that fact gives the whole poll thing a lot less credence than even I had been giving them. This isn't a scientific reaction, but I'm skeptical about who answers evening land lines, with caller ID, and discusses their true political ideas.Certainly Plouffe is right, that eliminates most of the younger voters I would think. It also includes non-voters, who want to express an opinion but won't actually go vote; voters who want to throw the count off ... and I know from experience that those people are out there; and voters who "want to set the record straight" about how things are, or "ought" to be - and experience there tells me that they are more inclined to be conservative. So, I'm just thinking...

Somebody who loves all those numbers and statistics is saving the old polls, I hope, and after it's all over, it would be interesting to see a chart, or analysis of how the polls reflected the actuality.

[granny]

This comment is on the outcry and commotion around the advent of Iran's Mahmoud Amadinejad and his appearance at Columbia University.

Having supported Columbia for inviting Amdinejad speak, I feel it's appropriate to follow the story where it goes.

Where Columbia went, with the public statement made as an "introduction", by Columbia's president Paul Bollinger, went a far cry off the pathway of reasoned debate, open minded discussion, and in fact the stated purpose of understanding the world we live in. I was sorry to see it.

Certainly the man's world views and policies are known to be contrary to and incompatible with ours. Few can have been under any illusion about him. So to invite him to express his opinions, and then treat him publicly in an insulting, uncivilized, and punitive way, strikes me as major bullying.

Bullying has become a national sport, a way of "dealing" with controversy and disagreement, a power weapon of destruction and distraction.

Bullying always has been that. That's the point: to intimidate and humiliate others into doing your bidding, or at least retreating from their own positions. But to have it become "the way we do things" ... that is leading in a dangerous direction. I'm sorry to see Bollinger join that crowd, and give that "smear" to the University.

Certainly appropriate recognition of Iran's historical record, and Amdinejad's policies and actions could have been made without resorting to that kind of deceitful and dishonorable behavior. Unexpected from Bollinger, I must say. And a sad commentary.
(I expect, quite frankly, that he was "bullied" into doing it)

Wrapping that kind of bullying in the trappings of civility and intellect, the pretense of honoring freedom of exchange - of ideas, and learning, - that dishonors us.

It is a tactic that does not build a nation of consensus, of strength or dignity, or courage. It builds an environment of fear and capitulation - and ultimately a society "controlled" by authority : a dictatorship.

It is a fair association here, to remark that one of the familiar marks of that kind of "leadership" emerging, is the use of military "representatives", to bolster the illusion of right and might for the political leader. We saw an example of precisely that with the uproar over "disrespect" for General Paetraeus.

We are "used" to seeing bullying behavior now, from our highest offices and their officials. It is creating a complacency we should be wary of. It is not the signnature of a "free" nation.

(Thank you, Jon Host of Columbia University for the material that aided these thoughts)