AM Feed – August 2: Top General Says Two-Thirds of National Guard Not Combat Ready
Hot Topics
- At a time when violence is flaring up in the Middle East and progress in Iraq is going much slower than the Bush administration predicted, the nation’s top National Guard general revealed that over two-thirds of the Army National Guard’s units are not ready for combat. The reason? Equipment shortages that could cost $21 billion to overcome. “I am further behind or in an even more dire situation than the active Army, but we both have the same symptoms; I just have a higher fever,” said Lt. Gen. Steven Blum. [link]
- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-TN) tenure has been marked by personal scandal and a number of legislative failures – and now Frist is adopting the controversial approach to raising the minimum wage put forward by the House of Representatives. The House tied a minimum wage hike – the first in almost a decade – to a package of estate tax breaks for multimillionaires (a common theme lately). Now Frist has scheduled a vote on this package for Friday. [link]
- The Bush administration has been forced to go back to the drawing board on the issue of military tribunals after a recent Supreme Court decision ruled the program to be illegal. Now it looks like the Bush team has responded by drafting a proposal that would actually expand the reach of the military courts, denying more defendants the rights usually granted by civilian and normal military justice systems. Already the proposal has led to criticisms for its lack of protections for defendants. “We know you’re guilty. We can’t tell you why, but there’s a guy, we can’t tell you who, who told us something. We can’t tell you what, but you’re guilty,” was how John Hutson, the Navy’s top uniformed lawyer from 1997-2000, summarized the thinking. [link]
Morning Snark
- Here’s a conundrum: What would the Bush administration do if a military detainee was accused of leaking sensitive information for political gain? How many rights would he be afforded then?
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