Daily Democratic Wire 6-24-2009

George Wenschhof

Iran election to stand - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said they had no intention of altering the results of the vote. Yesterday, in a nationally televised press conference, President Barack Obama condemned the brutal and unjust actions taken by the Iranian government toward those who were protesting the vote. You can read more here.

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Afghanistan election on the horizon - current Afghan President Hamid Karzai is pretty much considered a U.S. puppet. He has limited travel within the country and when he does, he is heavily guarded by U.S. troops. His challenger to the presidency, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai warns of a rigged election on August 20. Stay tuned. Politico.com has a good read here.

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How weird is this? Republican Governor Governor Mark Sanford sighted - after disappearing last week without even his wife knowing where he was, the Governor was interviewed after arriving in Atlanta. After his staff had indicated he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, a ambitious news reporter had located the state vehicle he had been driving located in the parking lot at Columbia International Airport with a sleeping bag, jogging shoes inside. Upon being met at the Atlanta airport, his initial response was he had been in Buenos Aires, unwinding from a difficult session with the state legislature. There is surely more to come in regard to this story. This man was being considered a strong possibility for President on the Republican ticket in 2012. You can read more here.

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More Nixon Tapes and Documents released - expect more interesting tidbits to be released as the media pours over 154 hours of new tapes and 30,000 new documents released by the Nixon Library. Not exactly what the Republican Party needs at this point after being routed in the recent elections and polls showing less than 23% of Americans are Republicans.

The late Republican President Richard Nixon was impeached over the Watergate scandal and these additional released tapes and documents will be fascinating to read. So far, it is being reported Nixon stating in a conversation he believed the Republican Party should recruit attractive women to run for office - not because he was for women, but because he felt they would be competitive. MSNBC.com has more here.

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Climate Change Bill vote may come Friday - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.) is pushing this forward for a vote and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) indicated he would not be moving it forward without the votes to pass. Not all Democrats are in agreement, but the president gave the bill a boost as he expressed his support yesterday in his press conference. TheHill.com has more here.

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Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke expected to give update on economy today - policy analysts have been in meetings for the past several days discussing possible actions in regard to the economy. Any action decided is expected to be announced at the end of the day. Time.com has more here.

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