The Blue State

Landslide election in Australia -- Howard ousted

Not only did Prime Minister John Howard's party lose the election last night, and not only will there be a new Australian chief executive, but Howard may even lose his seat in parliament:

Mr Howard, who had been bidding for a fifth term inoffice, conceded the national election and accepted it was "verylikely" he would also be defeated in his Bennelong constituency.

If unseated, the 68-year-old would be only the second prime minister in Australia's history to suffer such a fate.

If you recall, Howard was the one who said earlier this year that a victory for Barack Obama and the Democrats in 2008 would be a victory for al Qaeda:

"If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only forObama, but also for the Democrats," Howard said, speaking on "Sunday,"a TV show on Australia's Nine Network.

Hopefully this marks the beginning of the end of right-wing ethnic fear-mongering in Australia.  They still have a long way to go though.

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:

• FOREIGN POLICY Paris prosecutors have thrown out a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld, which originally alleged that he engaged in human rights violations.
• CIVIL LIBERTIES The US government is now allowing the Feds to track Americans by their cell phones.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Rudolph Giuliani says he voted for McGovern in 1972, even though he preferred Nixon.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL According to the Huffington Post, Michael Bloomberg might be considering a 3rd party run for president: "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been receiving foreign policybriefing sessions on a wide variety of topics, providing the strongestindication yet that he is considering a run for the White House, theHuffington Post has learned."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Fred Thompson is taking on Rudolph Giuliani on the issue of guns.  "He relates everything to New York City. Well, New York City is notemblematic of the rest of the country, I don’t think. I think thesentiments of those people in the rest of the country are in support ofthe Second Amendment — which is where I’ve always been and I don’tthink he’s ever been," Mr. Thompson said.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL The RNC is slamming Barack Obama for criticizing the amount of money the US is spending on the space program.  "It is ironic that Barack Obama's plan to help our children reach forthe stars is financed in part by slashing a program that helps us learnabout those very same stars," an RNC spokesperson said.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL On the campaign trail, Mike Huckabee says he wants to penalize those who break immigration laws, but not penalize children.  Huckabee rhetorically asked, "If a child is gasping for air, asthmatic, and he's on the hospitalsteps, what do the other candidates suggest we do, let him sit thereand gasp until he doesn't have any air left and he dies? If a childcomes to our school -- and our law, by the way, in most of our states,mine certainly says you've got to educate a child if he's of child age-- what do you, break your own law and say, `No, you can't come in theschoolhouse door'? No, you don't do that."

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 to the commentbox.

Blue Nightowl Clips

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

1. Karl Rove hearts Chris Shays.
2. Oil, politics and bribes.
3. Ron Paul talks to Neil Cavuto.
4. Jim Gilmore announces candidacy for the US Senate.  He will be running against Democrat Mark Warner.  (The day after Thanksgiving is pretty much the worst time to announce your candidacy -- from a PR perspective.)

More clips tomorrow.  The Blue Radar, with all of the Saturday morning political headlines, will be posted at 4 AM ET.

Australia Likely To Vote Out 'Bush Clone', Howard

On Saturday, Australians will decide whether to allow Prime Minister John Howard to continue as the country's political leader. Howard survived a 2004 election despite his unwavering support for George Bush's war in Iraq.

Recent polling has shown that challenger Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party is holding a steady lead over Mr. Howard despite a strong economy in Australia.  Howard, sometimes referred to as a Bush Clone is struggling thanks to his closed minded policy on Iraq, his advanced age (68) and because of Australian desire for a fresh blood - Howard has ruled since 1996.

Mr. Rudd has promised the following if elected:

• remove all troops from Iraq
• sign the Kyoto Treaty
• strengthen relations with China

The latest poll showed Howard trailing 52-48 percent.

Why '08 will determine fate of the Supreme Court

This is a great article that pretty much illustrates what would happen if we don't get a Democrat in the White House this next time around:

Justice John Paul Stevens, 87, last week became the second-oldestjustice in the Supreme Court's history. Only Justice Oliver WendellHolmes, who retired at 90 in 1932, served to an older age.

Although Stevens has given no hint of retiring and shows no sign ofslowing down -- in the courtroom, he looks and sounds much as he did 20years ago -- the question of his tenure looms over the court and the2008 presidential campaign.

Full Story

This is the only rationale keeping me from refusing to vote for Hillary Clinton if she becomes the nominee.  If she were president and Justice Stevens retires, she would nominate a progressive candidate for the court.

 

Pentagon under-reports brain injuries

The number of troops that sustained brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan is 20,000 more than what the Pentagon claims:

At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were notclassified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have beenfound with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veteransrecords compiled by USA TODAY.

The data, provided by the Army, Navy andDepartment of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as manytroops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by thePentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in thePentagon's official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.

Very sad that is takes a newspaper to audit the federal government for this information to come out.

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:

• CONGRESS Even the Democratic proposal on Iraq would still leave more than 10,000 soldiers in the war zone.
• IMMIGRATION Authorities are backlogged with an unexpected rise in VISA applications.  "In July and August alone, the federal Citizenship and ImmigrationServices agency received 2.5 million applications, including petitionsfor naturalization as well as for the entire range of immigrant visas," writes the New York Times this morning.
• IRAQ Many foreign fighters in Iraq come from countries that are considered US allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Libya.
• HISTORY Thanksgiving Day 2007 marked the 44th anniversary of the John F Kennedy assassination.
• FOREIGN POLICY On Hardball this week, former Bush UN Ambassador John Bolton claimed that he is no neoconservative.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL In an op-ed in the Des Moines Register, Chris Dodd outlined his broad theme of restoring US credibility in the world, as well as restoring the US Constitution by respecting the true separation of powers.  "Restoring our security and standing in the world also means restoringour adherence to the rule of law - so in my first hour I will restoreour Constitution," Dodd wrote.  "The Constitution doesn't belong to one politicalparty or candidate - it belongs to the American people."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Chris Dodd and his wife spent Thanksgiving serving food at a homeless shelter in Des Moines, IA.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL According to an AP poll, voters that are either happy or unhappy about the 2008 election are both more likely to vote Democrat.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Hillary Clinton says she will not take part in a CBS debate next month in Los Angeles if the CBS workers go on strike.  (A perfect excuse not to participate, since the only place she can go in the polls is down.  She is cautious.  Do we need a cautious candidate in the general election?)

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 to the commentbox.

Blue Nightowl Clips

Here we go with tonight's look at the top political clips making their rounds on the blogs tonight:

1. Speeding driver tasered for refusing to sign ticket.
2. TESTIFY!  The year that was for Bush officials who testified to Congress.
3. Be thankful you aren't a Chinese factory worker.
4. Romney compares push polling to 9/11 conspiracy theories.

More clips tomorrow.

Romney and Obama go at it

On the campaign trail before Thanksgiving, Mitt Romney credited Bush for his handling of the Iraq war, and contrasted the President's policy with that of Barack Obama:

"It's fortunate we did not have Barack Obama as president," he told astanding-room-only crowd of 200 at a coffee house here. "If he had beenpresident, he'd have just pulled our troops out, and al-Qaeda wouldhave been a safe haven in Iraq."

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietorsaid: "If Barack Obama were president, we never would have gone intoIraq in the first place. We would've gone after Osama bin Laden,finished the job in Afghanistan, and made America a lot safer than itis even after seven years of a divisive, failed foreign policy thatMitt Romney apparently wants to continue."

If Republicans are going to latch onto the Bush policy, they can all but kiss the White House goodbye in 2008.

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:

• CONGRESS a group of Senators are staying in DC over Thanksgiving to block Bush's recess appointments.
• EXECUTIVE President Bush has nominated Douglas  Shulman to become the commissioner of of the IRS.
• SOCIAL The cost of birth control on college campuses is on the increase.  “The potential is that women will stop taking it, and whether or notyou can pay for it, that doesn’t mean that you’ll stop having sex,”said Katie Ryan, a senior at the University of North Dakota in GrandForks
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL National Democrats (Zogby): Clinton - 38%, Obama - 27%, Edwards - 13%.  That is a 10-point drop from October for Hillary.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL The New Hampshire presidential primary has been set for Tuesday, January 8th, five days after the Iowa Caucus.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Iowa Republicans (ABC): Romney - 28%, Huckabee - 24%, Thompson - 15%, Giuliani - 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 to the commentbox.