01/20 Morning Report

Though not unexpected, the BAD news of the day is Sir Hillary…uuummm…Her Highness…I mean…Senator Clinton will announce her candidacy for President. While I couldn’t link the article, but I loved the headline on the January 1 issue of Newsweek about Obama and Clinton: “Is America Ready For Either One?”
(…great question…I think the answer is “No”…but have enough others figured that out, yet?…)

In better news, Mexico is extraditing drug smugglers to the US! In another step that seems to lead credence to President Calderon’s claim to crackdown on smugglers and drug lords, 11 suspects were handed over, including one leader of a powerful cartel. This comes after sending several thousand troops into border areas.
(…now if he would just do something about ILLEGAL immigration…)

There was also some good news on the terrorism front. The Phillipino government reported the death of rebel leader Khaddafy Janjalani, head of Abu Sayyaf. Admittedly it is a small group of terrorists. However, it is linked with al-Qaeda and has been responsible for several deaths and kidnappings.

And, the Iraqis may actually reach an agreement on oil revenue control. It actually looks like they might reach a deal for keeping control of it in the central government. I can still see a fight brewing over the distribution of those funds. It will be interesting to see how the various groups reach agreement on that. But, this is an encouraging step for the fledgling government.

On the subject of Iraq, the Pelosi-Bush War is heating up. Of course, it’s mostly just partisan stuff leading up to the State of the Union address. As one commenter on this article put it:

…what is worse, Bush getting us in Iraq or the Democrats pandering for your votes to get us out? They knew going into the election that their is nothing they can do about it except use it as a political football to get their power back.

I thought that was a really accurate statement.
(…the problem is everyone is still jumping on the Democrats bandwagon…)

McCain-Feingold is being revisited by the Supreme Court. Basically, the issue is what constitutes candidate endorsement and what is merely issues based. What the court will do is something of an open issue. The majority opinion when this was last reviewed (2002) was Sandra Day O’Conner. She has been replaced by Samuel Alito.