The Daily Background

How’s everybody’s Saturday going so far? A few items that I wanted to start off with today, but a few items beforehand. Firstly, I’m considering a major site redesign. I have some free time these days (my college’s winter break is very generous), and the red in the current design is kind of getting to me. I dunno, we’ll see, but I’m pondering changing things around a lot. Maybe I’ll have a little more on this in a few days or something. Secondly, John Edwards (the only person I ever talk about these days, apparently) has YouTube account.

He has some videographers following him around and uploading these fun little “webisodes” every now and then. Sort of a behind-the-scenes type thing and there’s some great candid footage of the former Senator from North Carolina being, well, himself. Anyways, they’re obviously meant to sell Edwards to the web-savy YouTube audience (they’re also cross-posted to his website), and they’re doing a great job. You can check out Edwards YouTube account here.

According to a new poll conducted by the independent news service The Military Times (which runs thet Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Corps Times and Air Force Times), a majority of American soldiers serving abroad agree with the generals. That is to say, they don’t want a troop surge either. Only 38% of service members are supportive of increasing the number of combat troops in Iraq. The Army Times also notes in their writeup of the annual poll:

Just as telling, in this year’s poll only 41 percent of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place, down from 65 percent in 2003. That closely reflects the beliefs of the general population today — 45 percent agreed in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll.

The Army Times also quotes a military expert as saying he was not surprised at the poll’s results: “They’re seeing more casualties and fatalities and less progress.”

Another notable item. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews (hardly what anyone would call a ‘liberal’ mind you), in response to Republican strategist Karen Hanretty on his show the other night:

MATTHEWS: I don’t think it’s left-right anymore, I think when you hear people like President Ford, as you pointed “chime in posthumously” and people like Bill Buckley; William F Buckley, traditional conservatives, support this war.

HANRETTY: Chris, I fully agree that Republicans are starting…[gets cut off]

MATTHEWS: This is a neoconservative war. Karen! This is a neoconservative war, fought by strange ideologues, with their own strange objectives. [Hanretty has her mouth open and is quite obviously gaping at this point] This is not a party, a Republican Party that would have supported this war traditionally Ronald Reagan would not have taken us over there, Gerry Ford would not have taken us over there, I don’t know which Republican President would have led us into the desert [Matthews is now slightly flush and obviously upset] put the American Army stuck in Iraq- only one President did that, with the help of Dick Cheney and the neocons. [cut to commercial break]

Hahahaha, you get ‘em, Chris. I love it when conservative moderates like Matthews hop into the fray bashing these idiot Republican strategists who do nothing but drink the kool aid that Karl Rove and the White House dish up for them. You can see the full video of the exchange here (Quicktime or Windows Media choice).

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog