STATE OF THE UNION ?

Lest see...how does one prepare for a State Of The Union speech? I would imagine that you (as I) would examine the happenings in the world today and determine if you feel that things are generally headed in a positive direction in your life and in the world. Lets do so...

International:

Al-Qaida group claims copter shoot down

An al-Qaida-linked coalition of Iraqi Sunni insurgents claimed Monday that its fighters shot down an American military helicopter in a crash that killed 12 U.S. soldiers. The U.S. military has said the cause of the crash has not been determined.

The insurgent coalition, the Islamic State in Iraq, posted the claim on an Islamic Web site, saying that "the lions of Iraq's Islamic state managed to down a Black Hawk on Saturday, which was followed by a clash with the Crusaders, and that led to the destruction of two Humvees and the annihilation of those inside, thanks be to God." More details here

Axis Of Evil -Revisited

Five years after President Bush named Iran as part of the "axis of evil," the administration's rhetoric is again heating up. Bush's address to the nation earlier this month included "some of his sharpest words of warning to Iran." He accused the Iranian government of "providing material support for attacks on American troops" and vowed to "seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies." "I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region," Bush said. "Odds are," reports the Wall Street Journal, Bush will use his State of the Union speech "to prompt the Congress -- and the country -- to start thinking beyond Iraq to what he clearly sees as the next big problem. And that lies next door in Iran." Congress is pushing back hard. "I'd like to be clear," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said last week. "The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking congressional authorization." Senate Intelligence Committee chair John Rockefeller (D-WV) called the administration's combative rhetoric "bizarre" and said he was "concerned that it's Iraq again."

In Video, Al Qaeda No. 2 Al-Zawahiri Taunts President Bush's New Iraq Plan

Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, taunted President Bush in a new video that surfaced Monday on the Web, ridiculing his new Iraq policy and daring the U.S. to "send the entire American Army" to Iraq.

“Why send 20,000 only, why not send 50 or 100 thousand?" al-Zawahiri asks in a video intercepted by SITE Institute. "Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies?” Get more info at FOX

National:

Bush Poll Ratings Before Speech Fall to Nixon's Level

President George W. Bush's approval ratings are now the lowest for any president the day before a State of the Union speech since Richard Nixon in 1974, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president while 33 percent approve. The rating matches Bush's career low in a May 2006 poll. Read more here

CNN Attempts to Debunk Obama ‘Madrassa’ Smear
Last week, Fox News and other Rupert Murdoch outlets amplified a right-wing report alleging that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) attended an Islamic “madrassa” school as a 6-year-old child. One Fox News caller questioned whether Obama’s schooling means that “maybe he doesn’t consider terrorists the enemy.” Fox anchor Brian Kilmeade responded, “Well, we’ll see about that.”

Commenting on this report today, Wolf Blitzer said that CNN had done “what any serious news organization is supposed to do in this kind of a situation”: actually investigate and learn the facts. CNN’s Senior International Correspondent John Vause filed a report from Indonesia. Watch it

McCain Blasts Cheney Over Iraq Failures, Continues To Distance Himself From Escalation Plan

The new Capitol Hill newspaper, The Politico, launches tomorrow. In its lead story — an exclusive interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — the senator lashes out against Vice President Dick Cheney.

Republican opposition to Iraq plan grows

Sen. John Warner of Virginia, former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined Susan Collins of Maine and Norm Coleman of Minnesota in producing legislation expressing disagreement with Bush's plan. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., joined them.

"I personally, speaking for myself, have great concern about the American G.I. being thrust into that situation, the origins of which sometimes go back over a thousand years," Warner said.

From The Right:

Dinesh D'Souza: What they know that isn't so "As I debate the topics covered in my new book The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11 I find myself arguing with a whole bunch of people on the left who "know" things that aren't true."

From The Left:

Paul Krugman: Gold-Plated Indifference "Going without health insurance isn't like deciding to rent an apartment instead of buying a house. It's a terrifying experience, which most people endure only if they have no alternative. The uninsured don't need an 'incentive' to buy insurance; they need something that makes getting insurance possible."

In Other News...

"President Bush's record of getting his State of the Union proposals enacted, after successes in his early years in office, has dropped off substantially." Of the 12 initiatives that he proposed or called on Congress to pass in 2006, the White House can claim complete success on just three.

Seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong said he's concerned that President Bush has proposed cutting funding to the National Cancer Institute for the second year in a row. "The people who want to be president in 2008 should talk about something that kills 600,000 Americans a year," he said.

Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who have strongly backed sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, indicated they may not support a promotion for Gen. George Casey, the current military commander there,

because of past U.S. mistakes.

In an interview with the USA Today, Bush said he "can't guarantee that all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by the end of his presidency because 'we don't set timetables.'"

"

Stretched thin from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has sharply reduced its role in the war on drugs, leaving significant gaps in the nation's narcotics interdiction efforts."

The Taliban plans to open its own schools in areas of southern Afghanistan under its control, following "a violent campaign by the fundamentalist Islamic group against state schools in the five years since its ouster by U.S.-led forces." Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan's education minister, said the Taliban's announcement "

is like putting salt into the wound."

Quote Of The Day:

"George W. Bush here. I tell you, I'm between I-raq and a hard place."

Rich Little previews a "joke" he hopefully will not tell at the White House Correspondents Association dinner

(Sources: AP, Whitehouse website, NYT, WSJ, SFChronicle, CarpetBaggarReport, WashingtonTimes, USAToday, Bloomberg, CenterForAmericanProgress, TownHall, FOXNews, LATimes, SITEInstitute, DrudgeReport, WashingtonPost/ ABCNews, ThinkProgress, ThePolitico)