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7 Bombs in India
Agence-France Presse reports on today's bombings in India:
Seven near-simultaneous bomb blasts tore through crowded markets in the Indian tourist city of Jaipur Tuesday, killing at least 80 people and wounding 200 in what police said was a terror attack.
As of now, there has been no claim of responsibility:
Government officials usually blame Islamic militants based in Pakistan for such attacks, which have plagued India in recent years.
Junior home minister Shriprakash Jaiswal told reporters, "The people responsible for these attacks have foreign connections," but he refused to point a finger directly at traditional foe Pakistan.
Danny
Communications Director
Republican Infighting of Biblical Proportions
Bob Novak is a horrible and foul human being, but he consistently gets some of the best Republican gossip around. In his most recent column, he reports on the possibility of some strange plot between Mike Huckabee and Christian conservatives to let Barack Obama win the presidency as punishment from God:
An element of the Christian community is not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regards the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as ''God's candidate'' running for president in 2012. Whether they can be written off as merely a troublesome fringe group depends on Huckabee's course.
...
Nevertheless, reports out of the evangelical community dispute Huckabee's support. One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me Huckabee in personal conversation with him embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals, that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy.
Danny
Communications Director
Diary Series, Part II: Sewage With the Bathwater
Yesterday, in Part 1 of this series, “Who's Supporting the Troops?”, I shared part of my interview with Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier in Iraq who experienced first hand the abuse and neglect of private military contractors. Although many people identified with Rachel's incredible story, Rachel requested we not print her last name or rank for purposes of privacy. Rachel's story began by exposing the egregious pay discrepancies between military and civilian contractors. Her experiences teach us that the very idea of hiring these contractors is at once channeling resources away from the troops and placing profit as a priority over the security of our troops.
This reality would be infuriating enough if there wasn't an additional piece compounding this problem: the contractors are doing a poor, and sometimes downright destructive, job. In the case of KBR's performance in fulfilling their contracted service of providing water to the troops, Rachel had much to share with me:
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Mississippi
Today, voters in Mississippi will elect a new Congressman. Mississippi is having a special election to fill the seat of former Rep. Roger Wicker who was appointed to the Senate to fill the remainder of Trent Lott's term. There is a real shot that Travis Childers, the Democratic candidate, will defeat Republican Greg Davis in this incredibly conservative, red district. The Republicans are pulling out all the stops to hang on.
The Politico takes a look at the effect today's election in Mississippi could have on political strategy going forward:
Hold your breath — and feign a confident smile.
That pretty much sums up the mood among House Republicans as they brace for a potentially devastating special election result in Mississippi on Tuesday. A loss there would cloud any GOP efforts to shape the news this week, including the rollout Wednesday of a family-friendly agenda engineered by Texas Rep. Kay Granger and other women Republicans.
The Democrats might experience their own shortness of breath as they tackle legislation to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the early part of 2009, but their hurdles remain more practical than political — and pale in comparison to the Republicans’, unless their wheels really come off.
Danny
Communications Director
Off on the Wrong Track
The new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that 80% of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction and that both Democratic candidates are preferred over John McCain:
Americans are gloomier about the direction of the country than they have been at any point in 15 years, and Democrats hold their biggest advantage since early 1993 as the party better able to deal with the nation's main problems, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Despite more than eight in 10 now saying the country is headed in the wrong direction, coupled with growing disaffection with the Republican Party, Sen. John McCain, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, remains competitive in a hypothetical general-election matchup with Sen. Barack Obama, the favorite for the Democratic nomination, and he runs almost even with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Danny
Communications Director
Thank Goodness for Barney Frank
I have long been a fan of Rep. Barney Frank. Fiercely progressive, staggeringly intelligent, and incredibly effective. The New York Times has a great profile of Rep. Frank. Check out the whole piece, but here is one of my favorite parts:
When Representative Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, criticized a component of the housing bill that would give money to local governments to buy and repair foreclosed properties, saying it would not protect homeowners from foreclosure, Mr. Frank fired back that preventing foreclosures was the goal of a different bill.
“The notion that this bill doesn’t keep people out of foreclosure is true,” he said. “It doesn’t combat global warming. It doesn’t get troops out of Iraq. It won’t help me lose weight. There are a lot of things this bill won’t do that I very much want to do. None of them are a reason to vote against a bill that doesn’t do what it doesn’t say it’s going to do but does what it does. What it does is go to the aid of cities that have been victimized.”
Danny
Communications Director
John McCain Is Surrounded By Lobbyists
Mr. Straight-Talk sure does have a lot of lobbyists working for his campaign. This is from an email I received earlier today from Progressive Media USA:
JUST LIKE BUSH, MCCAIN IS SURROUNDED BY LOBBYISTS WHO FIGHT AMERICAN INTERESTS, PROTECT CEOS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS.
This weekend, two McCain aides resigned after Newsweek reported that their lobbying firm had represented the repressive Mynamar military regime.
o McCain has at least 114 LOBBYISTS who are advising, working for or raising money for his presidential campaign. McCain has surrounded himself with people who are working for big oil companies, big drug companies and other special interests, instead of working for the American people.
o The two McCain aides who resigned were just two of at least 10 top McCain aides or fundraisers who have lobbied for foreign governments, including at least 6 regimes or rulers with a history of human rights abuses, and at least one rebel leader with a history of human rights abuses.
o Among the leaders represented by McCain's top advisers and fundraisers are Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, Zaire's dictator Mobuto Sese Soko, Nigerian dictator Ibrahim Babangida, and Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi.
Read more at McCainSource.com.
Danny
Communications Director
Freedom Isn't Free...And Neither Are Contractors
(Cross-posted from progressivefuture.org): This is the first installment of a five-part blog series sharing the experiences of Rachel, an Iraq War veteran who was a firsthand witness to many cases of contractor abuse against the troops.
It seems that, each day, I wake up and read a new way in which private contractors are taking advantage of our troops in Iraq. New reports surface that illuminate the greed and corruption of these private companies, hired through multi-billion dollar contracts to support the health and security of American soldiers. These services are too important to be performed without oversight and accountability for the devastating results that occur. From electrocutions due to faulty wiring and the provision of contaminated water, to rape, arbitrary shootings of Iraqi civilians, and tax evasion, the stories pile up with such a magnitude of horror, it is truly conscience-stirring for even the most jaded among us.
And yet, so many of these stories remained buried in the mainstream press. It saddens me that so many of these soldiers have received disgusting and hazardous treatment while defending our country, and are unable to make their voices heard. So when Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier who was stationed at Camp Ramadi, offered to tell me about her experiences with the contractors in Iraq, I wanted to share her testimony with all supporters and members of, Progressive Future, in an exclusive five-part blog series. Each day this week, I will post a new entry sharing another aspect of Rachel's story. I met Rachel in a discussion forum about KBR's provision of contaminated water to the troops, and she was incredibly articulate and forthcoming regarding her experiences in Iraq. One of the first issues into which Rachel shared some revealing insight was the disparities in both employment packages and living conditions between the troops and the private contractors:
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Another Memoir
Ricardo Sanchez, the former commander of coalition forces in Iraq, has written a book and it looks like he has some scores to settle. From the Washington Post:
In an attempt to exculpate himself, Sanchez casts blame widely. He accuses the Bush administration of "gross incompetence and dereliction of duty," not to mention "the cynical use of war for political gains." His fellow generals are blamed for "disastrous decisions," such as not providing "proper training and guidance" to the troops and refusing "to send the help we requested."
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was guilty of "micromanaging his generals," and then, after it was apparent that things had gone wrong, claiming that he "knew nothing" about key decisions. Franks pursued a "strategically flawed" strategy, trying to reduce the number of U.S. troops to 30,000 by the fall of 2003. Bremer was "part of the problem" because he refused Sanchez's advice on a variety of matters, such as the need to accelerate the deployment of Iraqi troops and to scale back de-Baathification.
Danny
Communications Director
More Problems for John McCain
As if John McCain didn't have enough trouble what with two of his aides resigning from his campaign after it was discovered they did lobbying work for the military dictatorship in Myanmar and a new Gallup poll showing that Sen. McCain's support for President Bush is hurting him with voters. Now, he has to contend with former Republican Representative Bob Barr announcing his decision to run for the presidency on the Libertarian ticket. From USA Today:
Former Republican representative Bob Barr has announced that he's running for president as a Libertarian.
His candidacy would be a wild card in the White House race that many believe would hurt Republican Sen. John McCain.
Danny
Communications Director
