The Daily Background

Chart is based on Zogby polling. From the Wall Street Journal’s competitive Senate races interactive featurette.

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On this day one year ago, the Lousianna Superdome was declared a “refuge of last resort” for New Orleans residents, after the storm was upgraded to a Category 5 strenth hurricane, the strongest classificaiton that exists.
Louisanna had not yet been hit, but both local government and White House officials were warned that the New Orleans […]

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This is ridiculous:

A congressman said Sunday he would ask the U.S. administration to freeze the $230 million aid package to Lebanon proposed by President Bush until the Lebanese government takes control of its borders with Syria and prevents arms smuggling to Hezbollah guerrillas.
Rep. Tom Lantos, the top Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, spoke […]

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The latest Zogby poll shows Democrat James Webb one point ahead of Virginia Republican incumbent George ‘welcome to America, macaca’ Allen. This is the first time Webb, a solid Democrat and Vietnam veteran, has outpolled the incumbent Senator who hopes to run for President in 2008.

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A little while ago, I compared Washington state Republican Senate candidate Mike McGavick (who recently admitted he had been a drunk driver in the past), to President Bush (who has done the same).
Apparently I

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Welcome to 2006, Pennsylvania. So glad you could join us.

Candidates for public office in Pennsylvania no longer have to sign a McCarthy-era loyalty oath pledging that they are not “subversive.”
The requirement was unconstitutional, Attorney General Tom Corbett has told election officials.
Short Associated Press article.

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I have no idea what the Cumberland Times-News is (other than that it’s a local newspaper in Maryland and West Virginia– rather than a mainstay of the mythical “liberal media”), but one of their columnists published a great piece today regarding the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war. It’s not very long and I’d encourage you to click […]

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This footage was taken in July at a protest in New York City. The man being interviewed by CNN is the high-profile Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji. A moment later, a photographer reached up in front of me, partially obscuring my view to snap a photograph. I was annoyed at the time, but the next day […]

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Only recently has it been confirmed that Richard Armitage was Robert Novak’s source for Valerie Plame’s identity (thanks to the Associated Press), but a new book is going to reveal that the State Department knew this– and more– for years.
According to an upcoming book Hubris, coauthored by Michael Isikoff of Newsweek Magazine, the State Department […]

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I’ve been reading about this story for a couple of days now. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL, where I spend most of my year; I’m leaving for Chicago in a week) has been conducting what the media is referring to as a “whirlwind tour” of Africa, traveling from country to country.
Obama recently visited Kenya, where his […]

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Somehow I get the feeling editorial cartoonist Tom Toles has seen Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

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The two Fox News journalists who were kidnapped just over 13 days ago were released today after the deadline for releasing all Muslim prisoners in the United States, a demand made by the relatively unknown militant group that kidnapped them, was not met. The Washington Post notes:

At a news conference, Centanni and Wiig said they […]

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Friday I

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The Associated Press reports on Katherine Harris’ remarks on the role of religion and government.

Harris’ campaign released a statement Saturday saying she had been “speaking to a Christian audience, addressing a common misperception that people of faith should not be actively involved in government.”
The comments reflected “her deep grounding in Judeo-Christian values,” the statement said, […]

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Meet Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee’s primary opponent and fellow Republican:

U.S. Senate candidate Stephen Laffey said he regrets that he wrote columns denigrating gays when he was a college student.

Whoopsies. Another one of these hateful Republicans.

“Do I regret some of these things? Sure,” he said. “But at the time, we were just having fun. We […]

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