Blue's News

This will probably be a somewhat regular feature here at TBV. This might be daily or several times a week; I'll play it by ear. It'll be frequent because these are definitely interesting times we're living in. Maybe one of the other Voices will give this a shot from time to time. The idea for this and future "Blue's News" posts will be to take a gander around the news media and pick out just a few of the recent news stories that have caught my attention and quote a paragraph or two. Hopefully, you'll find them interesting enough to click on and read the entire story. Maybe one of the other Voices here will pick up one of these balls and run with it. We'll see.

I'm going to try to keep these stories pretty current, but I'll take them as I run across them. Like this first one. It's a week old, but pretty interesting...

The Hill: "K Street grumbles about an entitlement culture"

No, no, no. This is not what your thinking...

An alleged sense of entitlement among some lawmakers and aides is raising hackles on K Street.

Speaking to The Hill on condition of anonymity, more than a dozen lobbyists said there are some on Capitol Hill who actively solicit lunches, drinks and other favors from K Street and seem to regard it as their personal expense account.

"The arrogance that brought Republicans into power is arrogance that will take them out of power, and that's what you see more of on the Hill," said a former GOP aide-turned-corporate lobbyist.

This would almost be comical if it weren't such a sad commentary on the whole political scene. It reminds me of Lord Acton's quote about absolute power corrupting absolutely. I'm sure this is not just a Republican issue, but a sleazy politician issue. Of course, it's all quid pro quo. Those lobbyists aren't just giving it away...

Washington Post: "CAFTA in Peril on Capital Hill"

With the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in serious trouble, a prominent business leader recently laid it on the line: Business groups are prepared to cut off campaign contributions to House members who oppose the pact.

"If you [lawmakers] are going to vote against it, it's going to cost you," Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, warned recently during a meeting on Capitol Hill of leaders of a 500-plus business-trade association coalition with more than 500 members.

President Bush has declared ratification of CAFTA his top trade priority of the year. The pact would create a NAFTA-like free-trade zone between the United States and five Central American countries plus the Caribbean's Dominican Republic.

But both sides agree that without a major push from the White House and the GOP leadership, CAFTA is likely to become the first major trade deal to be defeated in more than 40 years and a major embarrassment for the administration.

And, of course, there's always the war...

The Star-Ledger: "Military Brass Doubt Fighting Will Cure Iraq"

BAGHDAD -- A growing number of senior American military officers in Iraq have concluded that there is no long-term military solution to an insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and taken a heavy toll on U.S. troops during the past two years.

Instead, officers say, the only way to end the guerrilla war is through Iraqi politics -- an arena that so far has been crippled by divisions between Shi'a Muslims, whose coalition dominated the January elections, and Sunni Muslims, who are a minority in Iraq but form the base of support for the insurgency.

"I think the more accurate way to approach this right now is to concede that ... this insurgency is not going to be settled, the terrorists and the terrorism in Iraq is not going to be settled, through military options or military operations," Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said last week, in a comment that echoes what other senior officers say. "It's going to be settled in the political process."

Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, expressed similar sentiments, calling the military's efforts "the Pillsbury Doughboy idea" -- pressing the insurgency in one area only causes it to rise elsewhere.

"The Pillsbury Doughboy idea" -- now that's a new one to me. But, oooh, I hope Generals Alston and Casey didn't catch yesterday's NY Times. Things are not coming up roses over there...

NY Times: "Sunni-Shiite Quarrel Edges Closer to Political Stalemate"

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 12 - Iraq moved further toward a political stalemate on Sunday, after Shiite political leaders agreed on what they said was a compromise to include Sunni Arabs in the writing of a constitution. Sunni representatives rejected the offer.

In an attempt to defuse a political confrontation with this country's embittered Sunni Arabs, the Shiite-led constitutional committee of the Iraqi Parliament met for several hours on Sunday and decided to give Sunni Arabs 15 seats with full membership on the 55-member committee and 10 adviser positions. The Sunnis have insisted on at least 25 seats.

Sunni Arabs, about a fifth of Iraq's population, are thinly represented in Parliament because many refused to vote in national elections in January. American officials have been pressing Shiite and Kurdish leaders to give Sunni Arabs a greater role in politics.

"I think they will accept because we are offering everything for them," said Bahaa al-Aaraji, a Shiite political leader who is a senior member of the committee.

But two Sunni political leaders interviewed by telephone shortly after the decision said bluntly that it would be rejected by the majority of Sunni Arabs, whose fringes, which include former Baath Party members and militant Islamists, drive the radical insurgency here.

"Arab Sunnis will not accept this number," said Mejbel al-Sheik Isa, a member of the National Dialogue Council, a Sunni group that has urged political involvement. "Advisers? It's not our mission. When we say participation, we mean real participation."

"If we will not participate in the constitution," he said, "that means an increase of violence in Iraq."

One more story and I'll wrap this entry up...We've all heard the stories about how recruiting for the armed forces is down, but this is a new twist...

Boston Globe: "Fewer Applying to US Military Academies"

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The Long Gray Line of cadets still drills on the impeccably groomed parade field as it has throughout the 203-year history of the US Military Academy. Reminders of the calling and challenge of military service are everywhere, from the statues of Generals Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower to the meticulously maintained monuments to West Point's war dead.

But across the nation this year, the number of high school seniors hearing the call to service is down; applications to join the Long Gray Line dropped 9 percent. And that was the least-discouraging news for the nation's top three service academies, where room, board, and tuition for four years of a sterling education are free.

Applications for the US Naval Academy plummeted 20 percent, and the number for the US Air Force Academy fell 23 percent, military officials said.

Colonel Michael L. Jones, the West Point admissions director, speculated that the decline is linked to hazy memories among today's high school students about the galvanizing events of Sept. 11, 2001, and not to a fear of dangerous duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. But with recruitment down significantly for the regular Army and National Guard, some observers suggest that a drop-off in interest in the service academies is related to the hardships of the war on terror.

''All together, these factors amount to a kind of referendum on one aspect of George Bush's policy, and that's the Iraq war," said Michael T. Corgan, a Boston University professor of international relations who graduated from and taught at the US Naval Academy and served in the Vietnam War.

''Parents, in particular, are simply not encouraging their children to go into the military because, for many, this means an immediate posting to Iraq or at least to forces in that region," Corgan said.

It was actually kind of hard to limit this to just five stories, but that's really enough for an entry like this. Well okay, I will mention one more just in passing.

USA Today: "Senate Apologizes for Not Enacting Anti-Lynching Law." No reparations, no affirmative action proposals, just a simple apology for only enacting three out of 200 anti-lynching laws introduced in Congress during the first half of the 20th century. John Aravosis at AMERICAblog speculates on why over a dozen senators wouldn't sign off on this and why they did a late-night voice vote to pass the bill. Was it to provide some political cover for the folks down home? Facing South has more on the story.

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