Daily Democratic Wire 7-19-2009

George Wenschhof

President Barack Obama will host the Apollo 11 Crew at the White House tomorrow - marking the 40th anniversary of the U.S. landing on the moon. All close to 80 now, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstong will all visit wit the president. You can read more here.

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in New Dehli, India - as part of a overseas trip that will also include a visit to Thailand. She spoke yesterday of hope the U.S. and India can come to an agreement on climate control measures. Both India and China with emerging technology and industrialization are currently major polluters. You can read more here.

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Meanwhile, no resolution has been reached in regard to the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya - the President of Costa Rica; Oscar Arias has been mediating talks between representatives of Manuel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, the interim President of Honduras. Talks centered around restoring Zelaya to power and creating a coalition government have not proved successful to date. The NY Times has more here.

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Taliban releases video of captured U.S. soldier in Afghanistan - in it, the captured soldier pleads for the people in the U.S. to pressure the government to end the war and to bring them home. These type of videos bring home the horrors of war as the captors coerce statements from prisoners to be used for propaganda purposes. MSNBC.com has the video here.

The U.S. military condemned the use of the video and said it violated international law, adding they were doing everything they could to bring the man home safely. Reuters.com has more here.

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Health Care Reform continues to move forward - in spite of the Republican Party of "No" and concerns about a rising budget deficit, the passage of universal health care is on a course for passage. President Obama has secured the support of the pharmaceutical association, the hospitals, nurses, and doctors as the push to insure the 47 uninsured Americans remains strong. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) who has fought for this all of his political career, has a good read in Newsweek. You can read it here.

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