Volume 5 Issue 2
February 12, 2007
International Incident
The Aussies decide to get involved in the Presidential race, Edwards runs into some Internet trouble, and the Treasury's latest attempt to make you switch to coins
So this weekend Barack Obama declared his candidacy for the Presidency, and it didn't take very long for him to come under attack from the other side. Of course, I don't think anyone expected the attack to really come from the other side...of the world.
That's right, in a TV interview Sunday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard attacked Obama's anti-war stance, and said that the terrorists should be praying for an Obama (and Democratic) victory. Howard has long been a supporter of Bush and the Iraq war, but his latest statements represent the first time a member of the "Coalition of the Willing" has decided to get involved in American domestic politics.
Now, it's one thing to support Bush's Iraq policy, and even the surge publicly, but taking the extra step to do the White House's smear work for them is another matter. Howard, who faces a tight re-election fight later this year, tried to defuse the uproar over his comments by claiming they were in Australia's best interest, and he was "standing up for Australia." But, even members of Howard's own party are now criticizing him, with one backbencher noting it "probably wasn't a good idea."
Obama has reacted well, saying that if Howard feels so strongly, perhaps he should go ahead and dispatch the 20,000 troops needed for the surge. To which Howard responded by saying that Australia had a "very significant" troop commitment for a nation its size. Which got me to thinking I'd check his math...
The United States has about 300 million people, and about 140,000 troops in Iraq. That works out to 0.04% of the population serving in Iraq. Australia on the other hand has 20 million people and about 1,400 troops (and that's a high estimate) in Iraq...which equals 0.007% of the population. So basically...Obama is right.
John Howard is entitled to his opinion, and if he wants to publicly get involved in domestic American politics, there's not much we can do to stop him. But before he goes on just spouting the Bush-fed line on the fiasco in Iraq, he should take steps to actually contribute to the effort.
Oh, and as an interesting side note...later this month Dick Cheney will visit Australia. Guess they'll have a lot to talk about now. Anyway, on to the rest of the insanity...
Grandstanding for the Troops: An excellent must-read from Joe Klein looks at all of those saying that the Congressional resolutions being debated this week would take away support from the troops, including exposing the continued hypocrisy of Joe Lieberman. He also has some interesting reporting I've not seen elsewhere on major problems in the surge plan -
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1587260,00. html
Look Who's Running for President: As if anyone wondered, the Iraq war is emerging as as one of the biggest issues, as well as one of the biggest differences between the two front runners, Obama and Clinton -
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/us/politics/12campaign.htm l
Clinton especially ran into some tough questions in NH this weekend. Roger Simon looks at her refusal to say her vote for the war was a mistake, and how it might effect her campaign -
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2714.html
Look Who's Running for President 2: John Edwards, in trying to embrace the new Internet political culture by hiring two bloggers to help with net outreach. Probably should have read their writings first...though it looks as if Edwards will keep them, albeit with a bit more solid walls between their campaign work and personal postings -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/08/AR2007020802530.html
Many members of the "Christian Left" however, are worried that the incident hurts their attempt to become a serious force in the party -
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2693.html
Look Who's Running for President...on the patch: So, it's a tough decision for a family when a member decides to run for high office, especially President. So what were some of the discussion in the Obama family about? Well, Michelle Obama apparently consented to her husband running on one condition: that he quit smoking. This should be interesting -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/11/AR2007021101336.html
Bad John Edwards Photo of the Day:
You think my health care plan is what?
Man of the Year: The new congressman from Idaho's 1st district is a bit controversial. His extremist views are so out of whack that even members of his own party tried to throw him out a window (literally) back in the Idaho state house. So what do you do with such a person if you are the new GOP delegation in Congress? Elect him President of the GOP Freshman class, of course!
http://www.slate.com/id/2159272
Open Up and Say Ahhh: With the cold weather in DC the last few weeks, water main breaks have begun to happen all over the place, disrupting traffic and causing dangerous conditions. But while this is just a seasonal problem in the Northeast, scientists are increasingly worried that all the stuff we've buried underground may be leading to an increase in dangerous sinkholes -
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/us/08sink.html
Higher Learning: The University of Phoenix has attracted much attention in the last few years for its phenomenal growth and profits. But America's largest for-profit institution of higher education may have hit a limit, as serious new questions about the academic programs it offers may derail it's future. This is an interesting shift from about 5 years ago when Phoenix was hailed as a possible model for the future of higher education -
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/education/11phoenix.html
It's Back! So what if the past 3 versions of the dollar coin have failed? This time the mint thinks they have a way to make it work. Of course, not by getting rid of $1 bills, which cost a huge amount of money each year...that would be to easy. But there is hope that collectors will make this $1 coin a success. Plus we're going to get to see really obscure President's on money...can't beat a William Henry Harrison dollar!
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/brother-would-you-take-a-dollar-coin-please/
