Current Political Events

Hot Political Topics Draw Readers -
Web news reader pros are searchers, tag users and scanners. Their style is "These things, please: just the facts, topic headed, current, concise and interesting." My posts for the last few weeks have had widely varied numbers of readers, from a number of different countries around the world.
The most popular topics for readers included, "What is Wrong with the Iraq War?", "Fiercely Peaceful" and one on ethics. From this I can only conclude that we are a bunch of righteous (in the best sense of the word) readers who are mad at our current president(OCP). It is very heartening to know this about the blogosphere.
The Senator Kerry entry was sadly the most uninteresting to others, and obviously to the nation. He needs to give up on 2008. I think some of us are mad at him for leaving us with (OCP).
Areas of biggest interest today are these:

• Iraq Civil War - The low level of approval for OCP is primarily because of the Iraq war, now descending into a civil conflict from which we must disengage. And this accounts for the flurry of words yesterday about Pentagon plans for a nuclear strike on Iran. That makes us just as jittery as heck! Deadlock prevails in the formation of a new government. To quote the BBC News,

  Tuesday, 11 April 2006 - Iraqi Shias close meeting on PM
  
  Talks have been deadlocked over Mr Jaafari's nomination. An official from Iraq's main Shia political bloc says Tuesday's meeting to try to break the deadlock over forming a new government is over. Leaders of the United Iraqi Alliance say they will meet again on Wednesday. The official said they were looking "at all options" and discussing a range of positions in the new government.
  Sunni, Kurdish and secular parties have said they will not be partners in a unity government headed by the current Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
  . . . . But there is no word on whether the current prime minister, Ibrahim
  Jaafari, himself has indicated whether he would be prepared to step down as the candidate to head the new government. . . The issue is impeding the creation of an Iraqi government. On Monday, Sunni Arab and Kurdish groups re-affirmed their opposition to Mr Jaafari remaining in his post. They have argued that Mr Jaafari is not a sufficiently neutral or non-sectarian figure to lead what is expected to be a government of national unity.

• Immigration Reform - Thousands are peacefully demonstrating and marching in cities all across the nation. May 1 is planned to be a day of economic awakening about the contributions of Hispanic immigrants. The harsh proposed reform bill coming out of the U.S. House has engendered huge public interest. Outside of the swing towards political conservatism, it is the first truly grass roots movement in decades. To quote Yahoo!News & Reuters,

  WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands of people rallied in U.S. cities from Boston to Phoenix on Monday, waving American flags and banging drums to demand dignity and rights for millions of illegal immigrants. The national day of protest, the biggest in a wave of rallies that some have compared to the 1960s civil rights movement, was provoked by legislation that would turn millions of illegal immigrants into felons and fence off sections of the U.S. border with
  Mexico.

• Election Year Politics, Ethics & the Media - This article is on the media. To quote ThinkProgress (their links),

  White House Uses Washington Post Editorial To Defend Bush Leak -
  This weekend, the Washington Post wrote an editorial defending President Bush’s smearing of Joseph Wilson. The Post editors mangled the facts and failed to note — as their political writers did — that Bush deceptively leaked intelligence information despite knowing it had been disproved months before. (Read a thorough debunking of the editorial).

• Bush Administration Bungling - An Ask.com search for the phrase turned up over 35,000 hits. Writers cite foreign policy, fighting terrorism, handling Hurricane Katrina, out of control federal spending, staff scandals, etc. Mere quotes from OCP might give you some clues. Read Slate Magazine's "The Complete Bushisms," by Jacob Weisberg,

  "I strongly believe what we're doing is the right thing. If I didn't believe it—I'm going to repeat what I said before—I'd pull the troops out, nor if I believed we could win, I would pull the troops out."—Charlotte, N.C., April 6, 2006

Congressional Action and Inaction - Congress has left Washington for a couple of weeks on Spring Break, just like the kids. Since the first of the year, lack of unity among Republicans and Democratic party firmness has made the legislative process less than the usual Republican smooth sailing. The House failed to get a budget bill passed and the Senate left with an impasse over immigration reform. To quote from CNN,

Lawmakers traded blame Sunday over the impasse that left immigration legislation stalled last week in the Senate, expressing hope that the push for
an election-year overhaul was not dead.
"I hope it's savable," said Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. "I hope politics doesn't get in the way."
Sen. Arlen Specter, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
said he is "optimistic," but quickly added "I'm always optimistic."
"There's a real risk of significant political fallout here," he told "Fox News
Sunday."

News happens so fast our heads spin. The blogosphere helps all of us keep up. It is synergistic. I read and I write in cycles. Writing helps me make sense of it all. My hope is to be helpful to you, also, in keeping sane in an insane world.
Tags: current events U.S. politics Bush administration commentary blogging
My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about an untold story.