The Daily Background

“If the President continues to stubbornly ignore the realities in Iraq, we intend to force our colleagues in the Senate and the House to take vote after vote after vote after vote after vote after vote after vote, until we finally overcome his veto, or he understands that he has to change course!”

That was Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, speaking at the National Conference of Black Mayors Saturday in an appearance the media seems to have ignored.

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Polls have shown that most Americans (including most soldiers) don’t have a problem with the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy which prevents gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. So where do the 2008 presidential candidates stand on the controversial policy? Some answers might surprise you. The Daily Background has compiled an exhaustive chart of their various positions on the issue.

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CNN announced that it plans to release all debate footage it broadcasts in their upcoming presidential debates under a Creative Commons type license Saturday.

“Due to the historical nature of presidential debates and the significance of these forums to the American public,” CNN said in a statement, “CNN debate coverage will be made available without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate.”

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In an unexpected twist to the ballooning Washington brothel scandal involving alleged “DC Madam” Jeane Palfrey, one of her admitted clients is threatening to turn the tables on her.

Palfrey’s original plan to try and escape the prostitution-related racketeering charges federal prosecutors have brought against her alleged Washington based brothel “Pamela Martin and Associates” was to call clients in hopes of having them testify that they had never paid for sex in order to avoid embarrassment. But now one prominent former client, whom Palfrey named in court documents last month, is signaling he would testify against her if brought into court.

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The House passed anti-hate crime legislation today, which would extend existing hate crime statutes to include people who commit crimes which are committed against the GLBT community.

The vote of 237 to 180 was a victory to activists, who had been pushing for just such an expansion since the death of Matthew Shepard. Shepard was savagely beaten to death in 1998 because he was gay. His assailants were never charged with hate crimes because of the lack of such statutes in federal or local Wyoming law.

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The big news about this year’s issue of TIME 100 wasn’t about who was on the list, but rather about who wasn’t.

TIME Magazine has failed to include the sitting president of the United States in its annual list of the 100 most influential people worldwide. Who made the list instead of Bush? Read on for names and a list to TIME’s full list.

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Is it possible that the Democrats’ Iraq withdrawal bill has actually gained popularity in the House of Representatives– since the President vetoed it? On April 25th, the House of Representatives approved the same Iraq funding bill that President Bush vetoed Tuesday. The vote, which took place on a Wednesday night mostly along partisan lines, broke down 218 to 208 in favor of withdrawing all US combat troops from Iraq by April 1st, 2008. The numbers are slightly different now.

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President Bush cast his second veto in more than six years of office Tuesday evening, killing a bill that would have required withdrawal of all US combat troops from Iraq by April 1st, 2008. The legislation, passed by both the House and the Senate in recent weeks, would have required redeployment to begin in October 2007, and last until April, when all soldiers would have to be withdrawn.

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Two Democrats were released from the hospital today, after injuries earlier this year and in 2006.

Governor Jon Corzine was released from a New Jersey hospital after a car crash left him critically injured on April 12th, while in South Dakota, Senator Tim Johnson was released from a hospital after his December 13th brain hemorrhage.

Despite their release, both will recover further with their families at home, and questions remain about when either of them will return to work.

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Congressman John Murtha, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said today on CBS’ Face The Nation that he has heard rumors from military sources that the Pentagon is planning to extend the tours of duty for US soldiers in Iraq to 18 months– well beyond the current maximum tour length of 12 months.

Murtha, normally a conservative Democrat, is a former Marine and widely considered the member of Congress with the closest connections to the military.

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Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” host Howard Kurtz asked guests Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post and Karen Timulty of TIME Magazine about John McCain’s much-talked-about appearance on The Daily Show last week. At one point, Kurtz noted that Stewart seemed to be more of a journalist than some journalists, at one point noting that “most candidates on news shows don’t get challenged like that.”

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Randal L. Tobias, Deputy Secretary of State, resigned today after it was discovered that he had been a frequent customer of a notorious DC prostitution service, Pamela Martin and Associates, which the Department of Justice has brought to court. The owner of the service says she will call Tobias and other famous clients as witnesses in her trial in order to prove that she only engaged in legal activity.

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Many people forget the attitude that American military commanders had towards civilian life during the Vietnam war. It’s especially instructional to remember and examine the attitudes that those who were in charge of the Vietnam war had towards civilian life, especially in the context of the current war in Iraq.
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With the Senate’s vote Thursday and the House’s vote on Wednesday, Congress is headed on a collision course with the White House that is almost certain to result in a veto of Iraq withdrawal legislation that calls for all combat troops to be withdrawn by April 1st, 2008.

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Two separate House committees today made moves to compel testimony from key figures in seperate scandals today. The House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform subpoenaed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a very rare move, while the House Judiciary Committee authorized a grant of immunity to a key ex-Gonzales aide who may prove to be the link between the White House and the US Attorney Scandal.

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