The Daily Background

The Middle East
The Israeli military continued to violate international law, killing 68 civilians yesterday, reports The New York Times, making day eight the bloodiest day yet in the ongoing violence. The Israeli military announced it has dropped “23 tons of explosives” in the past day in an effort to kill Hezbollah leadership, which the militant group says was entirely unsuccessful.

Hezbollah sent rockets into Nazareth, killing two children– both Israeli citizens who were Arabs.

Secretary of State Rice Condoleezza Rice may or may not actually make the diplomatic trip to the region that has been talked about for days, instead she may stop over there for a few hours and then leave for Asia.

According to a new CNN poll, despite a majority of Americans feeling sympathetic towards Israel, a large majority of Americans do not want America to send in troops to support Israel, but a plurality said it would be okay for American ground troops to be sent into the area to serve as peacekeepers.

Israeli troops are entering Lebanon. More info on this as it becomes available. Lebanon, meanwhile, wants compensation from Israel for the damages suffered during the violent offensive.

For other recent developments, check out my special middle east only briefing yesterday.

Stem Cells
President Bush cast the first veto of his Presidential career yesterday to stop scientists from developing life-saving medicine for millions of Americans because he opposed a bill (which had both strong bipartisan support in the Senate, as well as overwhelming public support) on personal “moral” (read: poorly thought out political) grounds.

The House of Representatives was unable to over-ride the veto, which required a 2-3rds majority.

Yesterday, I liveblogged the veto announcement, and also wrote about the importance of stem cell research. Later today I’ll be posting a video of Michael J. Fox’s plea on Good Morning America yesterday not to veto the stem cell bill. Fox, a well known actor (see Wikipedia entry), has an advanced case of Parkinson’s disease, and had a very difficult time controlling his body throughout the interview but was able to make some important points. Also check out some commentary from a doctor about science vs the President’s archaic attitude.

Bits and Pieces
Another ‘dangerous terror cell’ has been ‘busted‘ in the United States. This one consists of… two people… in Georgia… Who didn’t have any explosives or weapons… Or even a plan…

A multi-year, multi-million dollar investigation if the Chicago Police Department has revealed that more than 70 black men were abused and tortured in the 1970s through the 1980s while in police custody. Although there is evidence that policemen used their “fists, feet or telephone books” to beat the men, as well as shock them with electricity and suffocate them with plastic typewriter covers, prosecutors say they cannot indict anyone because the statute of limitations has passed and the crimes are too old to be brought to court.

A corn-ethanol-powered… Hummer?! That’s got to be the most ironic thing I’ve seen all day.

Conservative Christian icon Ralph Reed conceeded defeat yesterday in the recent Georgia Lt Governor race, tainted largely by his close and extremely unsavory connections with convicted felon lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Reed took millions of dollars from Abramoff’s Indian casino clients to get Christians angry at competing casinos to try and shut them down.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be donating 287 billion dollars to facilitate international development of an AIDS vaccine. The money will be given away over a period of five years.

And finally…
Those boneheads over at the Department of Homeland Security spent sixty-eight-thousand-five-hundred dollars of our tax money on what?

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog