Daily Political Wire 8-1-2010

George Wenschhof

Uni-Tea Party Rally Falls Flat in Philadelphia - billed as a huge rally to show the diversity of the movement, less than 500 attended the rally held in Independence Park. Interestingly, the non-white attendees were few. TPM.com has more here.

The tea party movement bolstered by main stream media, has begun to sputter out, as the tired old refrain of less taxes and less government espoused by many of the Republican Party right wing is no longer catching on with voters, who instead, want concrete proposals on issues.

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Senators Kerry and Lugar call for Pakistan Enterprise Fund - Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) want President Obama to use funds already authorized by Congress to establish a 1.5 billion a year non-military aid program for Pakistan. TheHill.com has more here.

Not sure this proposal will go over well with the recent revelations from wikileaks.org that Pakistani intelligence agencies have been helping the Taliban battle the U.S. in Afghanistan. The idea of helping economic growth is basically a sound one, but the U.S. can no longer engage in long term nation building efforts in countries who's regimes are fragile and mutual support suspect.

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Wikileaks Cause Rift in Britain-Pakistan relations - on the eve of a trip by Pakistan President Asif ali-Zardari to Britain, remarks made by British Prime Minister David Cameron are causing a bit of an uproar within Pakistan. Cameron, while in India, (a bitter rival of Pakistan) referred to the fact Pakistan is doing little to root out militant extremist in their country. Reuters.com has more here.

Zardari, already hanging onto his position by a thread, and also arguably corrupt, is now under fire by opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who is using the nationalism angle to say Zardari should not meet with Cameron. Both Sharif and Zardari have their sordid pasts in a country that has been beset with corruption.

The fact remains the military is the strength in Pakistan and the corrupt civilian government continues to have little influence on a country beset with extreme poverty.

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House votes to lift 75 million cap on Oil Spills liability - interestingly, with billions of barrels of oil in the Gulf due to questionable drilling and operations by BP and others, the vote was close; 209-193. In addition, the measure calls for increased and new safety measures. CNN.com has more here.

The Senate may take this up in their latest watered down version of a energy bill this week. However, reconciliation between the two chambers would not take place until after the August recess.

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