Morning News Roundup

First off, sorry for the lack of updates over the weekend and yesterday; the weekend is just me being lazy, yesterday is a case of the horrible weather in DC (essentially a monsoon) messing with my life. For 12 hours I was essentially a "displaced person" - thankfully FEMA didn't have to get involved. On to the news...

• Hillary Clinton has hired liberal blogger Peter Daou (of the Daou report for Salon readers) to her '06 Senatorial Committee...meanwhile, Mark Warner has signed MyDD blogger Jerome Armstrong to his PAC. So we have two aspiring Presidential candidates (and two counted among the front-runners) signing up what have become the footsoldiers of the modern leftist movement. Yet no similar action has been taken by Republican candidates among rightwing bloggers, presumably because the conservative blogosphere (besides the lack of rabies) is far less interested in trying to shape politics but rather just exists to provide some sort of rational commentary on it. Why this difference?
• In World Cup news, the two nations to advance from the US's group, Italy and Ghana, have had varying kinds of luck. Italy drew Australia in the first round, and thanks to a screwy ref (doesn't that sound familiar?), Italy advanced. Ghana's taking on Brazil this afternoon and barring some sort of miracle (one with cataclysmic effects in Brazil) will go down in flames.
• The Administration went on the warpath at the highest levels against NYT/LaT's revelations about the SWIFT anti-terror program, a program that tracked the worldwide transfer of funds by terrorists. Bush took the Times to task yesterday during a Q&A, but his is a stance that isn't reflected elsewhere, most noticeably at Justice. Whatever the cause, the Times stories are a violation of national security through the leaking of classified material, and the leakers (as well as the editors who chose to publish) should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. So all I can say is DOJ, grow a pair.
• Senate's expected to vote on the flag-burning amendment today, a vote that is expected to come very close to passing, but will probably be 1-2 votes short; Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (KY) has announced that he'll vote against the amendment on 1st Amendment grounds. A new CNN poll shows 56% of respondents support such a ban, with 40% opposed. And out on the Left Coast, an LA Times editorial argues that such an amendment would make us less free. Show me an American who wants to burn his country's flag and I'll show you an individual who is likely committed to undercutting our freedom in so many other ways. They're right to point out that we don't have a flag-burning epidemic, but the flag is an American symbol which borders on the sacred, the banner under which countless American servicemen and women have shed their blood and given the last full measure for their country; it is in short an emotional and evocative issue which goes beyond mere politics and in many of us addresses something deeper. It's bad politics in much of America to vote against such an amendment, but whether or not it is the right thing to do, I'm not sure.
• The search for a 19 year-old abducted Israeli soldier continues in Gaza, with the Israeli government threatening a major offensive unless Hamas releases the soldier. Such an offensive would be completely justified, and should be a major media blow to Hamas, though I suspect NYT et al will turn it around and criticize Israel for it.
• Only in Texas...a new SurveyUSA poll shows Rick Perry with 35% of the votes, while Kinky Friedman (I), Bell (D), and Strayhorn (I) are all within three points of eachother. I don't expect anyone but Perry to win this one, but these numbers reflect the unique nature of Texas politics.