Blue Radar

As we post each morning, here are the political buzz stories headlining the newspapers and blogs before you head to work today:

• ENVIRONMENT A number of scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency believe they have been put under political pressure by the Republican Party.  "The Union of Concerned Scientists said more than half of the nearly1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailedquestionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of politicalinterference in their work," as headlined on Raw Story last night.
• FOREIGN POLICY According to Reuters, "Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told Turkey that Israel waswilling to give back Syria's Golan Heights in return for peace with theArab state, a Syrian cabinet minister said on Wednesday."
• IRAQ General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, has been promoted to head US Central Command in the Middle East.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL 25% of the vote in Indiana will come out of just two counties, Marion County and Lake County.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL According to political insider Charlie Cook, if Clinton loses both Indiana and North Carolina then her major donors will stop giving.  "This political purgatory will continue if she manages to win Indianabut loses North Carolina—hard to drop out but harder to see winning thenomination," Crook wrote in his latest column. "If she loses in both states, then her campaign’s donors andcreditors, as well as superdelegates and party leaders, are likely tointervene."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL When asked by Time whether he wants the Democratic presidential primary election to drag on as long as possible, McCain took the independent route and refused to comment.  "There are arguments on both sides about whether this is good for mycampaign or bad for my campaign," McCain continued. "I have no positionon it."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Hillary Clinton's campaign is reporting a surge in donations over the last 24 hours.  Between Tuesday win and 6 PM ET last night, she raised $8.3 million.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL North Carolina Democrats (Survey USA): Obama - 50%, Clinton - 41%.

More posts today.

Comments

[RJ]

Todd, in the first comment on the environment, you state;
"A number of scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency believe they have been put under political pressure by the Republican Party."
Yet the article you link to never mentions the Republican Party. Instead it mentions EPA senior managers and people from the White House Office of Management and Budget.
So, we may understand that the people doing the coercing are Republicans, but that does not mean the Republican Party is doing this.