The Daily Background

I hope everyone’s weekend is going well. Here’s today’s Daily Brief.

Domestic Politics
Minimum wage increase– The LA Times is pretty sure that the House bill forced by Republicans that couples a minimum wage increase with an Estate Tax reduction (a terrible combo) will “almost certainly” die in the Senate. 75% of Republicans support a minimum wage increase, as do 84% of independents and 94% of Democrats. These days it’s hard to think of any “controversial” issue upon which Americans agree upon so closely.

Misc Midterm stuff– The Washington Post says that a very important pre-Iraq-war intel report probably won’t be released until after the midterm elections: coincidence?

Liberman vs Lamont– In a major move, the NYT endorses Lamont over Lieberman in an editorial today. Although I don’t agree with every point that’s made, it makes for a great read. NYT is also running an article about little Joey Lieberman’s political troubles. You know, in case you’ve been under a rock for the last few months. Associated Press has an article out about the “political abyss” that Lieberman has run into.

The Middle East
UPDATE HERE…
Lebanon– Secretary Rice is supposedly “encouraged” by Hezbollah’s openness to a ceasefire (a ceasefire which the White House does not endorse). The Israeli military however will not agree to a humanitarian ceasefire urgently requested by the United Nations.

Israel– The Israeli military is pulling out of what is being called termed a “key Lebanese border town.” This would seem to be consistent with earlier scattered reports that fighting was going to be scaled down (despite consistently harsh rhetoric from Israeli Prime Minister Olmert).

Illegal military actions directed against civilians continue to occur on a daily basis on both sides of the conflict. Most recently, the Israeli military bombed several houses and killed 20 civilians. Hezbollah most recently launched 90 rockets into Israel on Friday, killing nobody but are threatening to launch more.

Iraq–According to the New York Times, a federal audit has found that the State Department has been systematically, intentionally deceiving and outright lying to Congress and the American public about the costs of the Iraq war. The article cites one example where they claimed the cost of building a particular hospital was going to cost 50 million dollars, while they knew very well that it was actually estimated to be nearly twice that. In another example, the Times cites a power plant which Congress was led to believe would cost 6 million dollars, but in fact ended up having an added 27.6 million dollar “overhead cost.”

According to a new poll analysis conducted by Gallup, American public opinion towards the war in Iraq is “eerily” similar to opinion towards Vietnam in at a comparable period of time (1970). On a related note, another poll conducted for NYT/CBS has found that “no military conflict in modern times has divided Americans on partisan lines more than the war in Iraq, scholars and pollsters say — not even Vietnam.”

Bits and Pieces
Long hot summer: 60+ percent of America is suffering a drought right now.

The United Nations Human Rights Comm. has made a statement about the denial of a U.S. Representative who is allowed to vote for the people of the District of Columbia. Stephen Colbert recently interviewed the District’s elected representative, who is not allowed to cast votes, in his “Better Know A District” series. Extremely funny segment, check out the YouTube video.

Yesterday I wrote and posted a video about the myth (promoted by Fox News and Bill O’Reilly) that the ACLU is liberal (it has no political ideology). Carpetbagger follows up on the situation.

And finally…
AK-47s in every closet… I’m sure the NRA would approve.

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