In Brief - August 25th, 2006

Here is today's quick news digest:

• United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced today that several European countries, namely Italy and France, have committed to supplying about half the troops for a new 15,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. Annan has warned that the fragile ceasefire is liable to fall apart without peacekeeping forces. The Bush administration has declined to participate, mostly because our military is unnecessarily stretched thin thanks to the neocon-ordered invasion of Iraq.
• Meteorologists are sounding the alarm about Tropical Storm Ernesto, which formed in the Carribbean on Friday and could easily morph into a hurricane threatening the Gulf Coast - very close to the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst disasters to hit the U.S. (besides George W. Bush). Ernesto also has the potential to damage offshore oil and gas rigs in the Gulf.
• Surprise, surprise - David Postman comments on an Associated Press story which reveals that the pro-Reichert ads by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were funded by Big Pharma - the drug industry.
• A DailyKos diarist thoughtfully analyzes the reason why George W. Bush just can't seem to talk straight.
• Joe Lieberman is having a lot of trouble finding a credible Democratic firm to take care of his website and technical needs. They started with Blue State Digital (who laughed them off) and they haven't had much luck since - everyone is turning them down.

Oh, and one more thing: if you haven't seen the video of Darcy Burner addressing a recent meeting of the Democratic National Committee, you can see it here. To clarify, it wasn't the Democratic National Convention as some bloggers have mistakenly reported. The convention only happens every four years.

If you have something you'd like to add, leave a comment.