The Blue State

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:

• POLL: According to Fox News, Bush's approval rating is at 34%.
• IRAQ Here is exclusive photos of the Blackwater incident in Iraq, as released by ABC News.
• FOREIGN POLICY The US is giving North Korea $25 million in fuel aid, part of a compromise to get Kim Jong IL to dismantle his nuclear reactors.
• JUDICIARY In his new memoir, Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas attacks Democratic Senators that challenged his nomination.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL The third quarter of 2008 has ended.  CNN reports that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have raised in the neighborhood of $20 million.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Hillary Clinton unveiled a proposal called baby bonds.  If she is president, each child will receive $5000 in government bonds, which will grow over time, that will be used after high school for college tuition or to make a down-payment on their first home.  "Every child born in the United States today owes $27,000 on the national debt , why not let them come get $5,000 to grow until their 18?" Clinton asked rhetorically.  The plan will cost roughly $20 billion -- less than the cost of the Iraq war over a two-month period.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL In an interview with Bloomberg television on Friday night, Bill Clinton questioned whether Barack Obama has the experience to be president.  "I was, in terms of experience, was closer to Senator Obama, I suppose, in 1988 when I came within a day of announcing,” the former president said.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL In an interview with Beliefnet.com, John McCain said the US Constitution clearly established America as a Christian nation.  "I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation," the Arizona Senator said.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL At the MTV-Myspace presidential forum, John Edwards reached out to inner cities and warned that the answer in solving crime isn't to spend more money on prisons.  “We cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating --pretty soon we're not going to have a young African-American male population in America," Edwards said.  "They're all going to be in prison or dead.  One of the two."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Newt Gingrich says that if his supporters raise $30 million he will get into the presidential race.

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.

Blue Nightowl Clips

As we post at midnight eastern each night, here are some of the political clips making their rounds on the blogs at this hour:

1. White House disagrees with Rush Limbaugh calling anti-war soldier a phony.
2. Ted Kennedy urges passage of children's health care bill.
3. Bush's change of view on global warming.
4. Killing of Japanese journalist in Burma caught on video.

More clips on Saturday night.  The Blue Radar, with all of the Saturday morning headlines, will be posted a few hours at 4:05 AM ET.

Durbin vows to completely change food safety standards

Well it's about time.  You can't buy your child anything from Fisher Price without worrying whether it contains harmful amounts of led.  Less than two months before the holiday shopping season begins, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) says the Democratic majority will soon write legislation that completely overhauls food safety laws in this country.

Part of the problem is that the job of overseeing food safety is split up between 12 departments.  Like what many wanted to do with FEMA following hurricane Katrina, Durbin wants to have one agency whose top priority it is to oversee food safety:

Responsibility for inspecting and keeping track of foodimports is currently split between the Food and Drug Administration , the Agriculture Department, and otherauthorities.

The FDA oversees about 80 percent of food imports, but asmall inspection team gets its hands on just a small fractionof that.

Durbin is also proposing a fee on all imported food, whichwould fund stepped-up inspection, and a single food safetyagency, but neither idea has received much traction so far. Itis unclear whether a radical step like sunsetting existingagencies would be more successful.

The Congress will attach a provision to a farm bill that phases out the existing laws on food safety.  New rules will then be made.

Payroll tax is regressive

There has been some confusion about this on blogs, television shows and in emails that at least three people sent me following the New Hampshire Democratic debate on Wednesday. 

What is the payroll tax, otherwise known as the Social Security tax?

Everyone pays 6.2% tax on all income up to $97,000.  In other words, someone making $50,000 in a year would watch 6.2% of it go to taxes.  Someone making $70,000 would also watch 6.2% go to taxes.  However, someone making above the $97,000 threshold would only pay a 6.2% tax on their income up to $97,000 -- the rest of the money would not be subject to the tax.

This means everyone making less than $97,000 per year would see a higher percentage of their salary disappear in taxes than those making above that mark.  Therefore, by definition, the tax is regressive.

Blackwater involved in 56 major shooting incidents

There are more contractors in Iraq than US soldiers -- 180,000 contractors to be exact.  Blackwater, a company that is part of a scandal involving the shooting deaths of innocent civilians, has a long history of close encounters:

The State Department said Thursday that Blackwater USA  security personnel had been involved in 56 shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq  so far this year. It was the first time the Bush administration had made such data public.

This comes amid a report from the Brookings Institution that faults US contractors for a number of setbacks in Iraq:

The United States' use of mercenary contractors like Blackwater in Iraqhas led to unnecessary violence against civilians, inflamed Iraqisentiment towards the United States and jeopardized military strategiesto defeat the insurgency...

These contractors cost between two and ten times as much as US soldiers and do not follow the same rules of warfare -- yet are doing so much damage to our military's reputation.

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.

Blue Nightowl Clips

Here are some of the political clips making their rounds on the blogs tonight:

1. Member of Jena 6 released from jail.
2. Cavuto lies about why there is a spike in oil prices.
3. Rick vs Bill O.

The Blue Radar will be posted at 4:05 AM, just several hours from now.

No wonder Boehner wanted people from the NRCC fired

Just a few days after House Republican Leader John Boehner finally ended his demand to have a few people over at the National Republican Congressional Committee fired, the numbers are now public.

So how bad are the fundraising number?  Well, the NRCC is almost broke:

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) reported $1.6million in cash on hand and $4 million in debts as of Aug. 31. Thegroup helps bankroll House campaigns for GOP candidates.

Its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,reported $22.1 million, more than 10 times its Republican counterpart. 

"If there's no money in the bank, it's going to be hard to takeseats away from the Democrats," said Massie Ritsch of the Center forResponsive Politics, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign finance watchdoggroup.

At the end of the second quarter, six of the eight Democratic presidential candidates had more cash on hand than the entire NRCC does right now.

(Video) Bill Clinton points out hypocrisy of Petraeus ad frenzy

This video is getting posted all over the place, and I want to make sure all of you have a chance to watch it.  In an interview this week with Anderson Cooper, former President Clinton went on a full-blown offensive, setting an example for progressives by standing up to the GOP's latest diversionary tactic.  The GOP gets slammed on this one!

CLINTON: [I] think that there was somethingcompletely disingenuous about the feigned outrage of the Republicansand the White House and in the Congress about this. This was classicbait-and-switch.

COOPER: Focus on that as opposed to focusing on what's really happening?

CLINTON: Yeah, that's right. I don't have to deal with Iraq. I don'thave to tell anybody what I'm gonna do. Everything we do in Iraq isobviously right, because they said this about Petraeus. As if it wasthe only issue in the wide world. Come on, all the Republicans that areupset about Petraeus? This is one newspaper ad. These are the peoplethat ran a television ad in Georgia with Max Cleland, who lost half hisbody in Vietnam, in the same ad with Osama bin Laden and SaddamHussein. That's what the Republicans did. And the person that rode tothe Senate on that ad was there, voting to condemn the Democrats overthe Petraeus ad. I mean, these are the people that funded the SwiftBoat Veterans for Truth. And the president appointed one of theprincipal funders of the Swift Boat ads to be an ambassador, butthey're really upset about Petraeus. But it was OK to question JohnKerry's patriotism on blatantly dishonest claims, by people who didn'tknow what they were talking about. So it was just bait-and-switch. Itwas just, 'Oh, thank goodness. I can take this little word here, andignore what we've done in Iraq, and what we're gonna do, and theoutrageous way we gained political power by smearing John Kerry.'

Bill Clinton is better than any Democrat at 'rallying the forces', so to speak.  He did it last year during the Chris Wallace interview, and now he is encouraging progressives to hit back against the Republican attack machine.

The GOP as a whole has taken absolutely zero responsibility for this man-made catastrophe in Iraq.  All they can possibly do between now and the end of time is to find a way to blame Democrats for losing the war.  They are literally that desperate.  Their ability to raise money has faded away.  They are losing younger voters in droves.  There is no other way out other than to dodge their own responsibility of enabling this war and blaming someone else.

MoveOn.org is not losing this war -- George W. Bush and the Republican Party are.

Gates: 35000 soldiers to remain in Iraq long-term

Under the cover of the New Hampshire Democratic debate, Defense Secretary Robert Gates addressed a Senate panel.  When pressed, he admitted that the Administration is seeking to establish a long-term presence in Iraq.  It will consist of 5 brigades -- at least 3500 soldiers per brigade -- conducting combat operations.

But according to the New York Times, twice as many soldiers will have to back up those five brigades, bringing the grand total of troops needed to around 35,000:

A combat brigade has 3,500 to 4,500 soldiers, leaving a minimum of17,500 combat troops in Iraq under the plan Mr. Gates described. Thetotal American force required would probably end up being at leasttwice that, because of the need for support troops and other relatedpersonnel.

In related news, Gates and Bush are asking Congress for another $192 billion to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  That is an increase of $42 billion from last year.