Blue Radar

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

• IRAQ A report from the Brookings Institution finds that military contractors in Iraq have "led to unnecessary violence against civilians, inflamed Iraqi sentimenttowards the United States and jeopardized military strategies to defeatthe insurgency," according to ABC News.
• CONGRESS The Senate voted on Thursday to pass a bill that would extend the hate crime provision to include workers that are fired or harassed on the basis of their sexual orientation.  President Bush is vowing to veto the bill.
• CONGRESS Microsoft pleaded with the Senate on Thursday to stop Google from buying the company DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.  Microsoft complains that the deal would hurt competition and put privacy at risk.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Defying pressure from his wife's presidential rivals, Bill Clinton will not reveal the donors to the Clinton Library unless he is required to do so by law.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL GOP candidates Thompson, Giuliani, Romney and McCain skipped a debate at a traditionally black college.  The debate itself was supposed to focus on minority issues.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL More than $265 million in campaign donations during this presidential election cycle are about to be unleashed by campaigns in the form of television, radio and internet ads.  Some candidates have already released these ads.  But the real advertisement season is about to begin in October.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL John Edwards has decided to accept public funds to finance his presidential campaign.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Absolutely terrible news for the John Edwards campaign, which will affect his standing in Iowa.  According to the Des Moines Register, "A total of 107 Iowa homeowners were foreclosed upon by subprimemortgage companies owned by Fortress Investment Group while Democraticpresidential candidate John Edwards  was associated with the equity company."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Iowa Democrats (Strategic Vision): Clinton - 24%, Edwards - 22%, Obama - 21%, Richardson - 13%.

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.