by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.
A Pakistani official said his nation's parliamentary elections which had been scheduled for next week will be delayed to February because of the chaos uncertainty and disorder in the aftermath of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's murder last week.
The rules of the Iowa caucuses are so exacting, that many would-be voters, like deployed soldiers or workers with early evening shifts are unable to vote because of the lack of absentee balloting.
The Iowa caucuses are loved and hated by politicians because of the odd requirements that come with it, like finding babysitting for voters or getting agreeable snacks for those who turn out.
As the presidential campaign heads towards the first real voting that matters, which will occur in Iowa Thursday, Republican candidates have toughened their message on illegal immigration as they try to outflank one another on the issue.
Sen. Barack Obama's hopes for coming in first Thursday rest heavily on his ability to get independents, first-time voters and even some Republicans to caucus for him. While the Des Moines Register poll showed him significantly ahead based on a large turnout among independents, it remains to be seen whether he has energized such voters to the point of action.
A large study found that whites who visited hospital emergency rooms were prescribed narcotics for pain relief far more often than blacks who complained of pain, with the wide discrepancy seen in both urban and rural settings.
The military's use of unmanned drones capable of hunting and attacking insurgents increased sharply in 2007, so much so the Air Force was compelled to take pilots out of cockpits so they could perform all the additional remote-flying duty.
Despite federal efforts to make them less accessible, Social Security numbers can still be found on millions of documents on file in government offices across the nation, aiding those who would perpetrate identity theft.
The two people who were with Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich when he saw a UFO in 1982 described the experience, saying they indeed saw something and adding that none of the three had used alcohol or drugs that day.
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Have a question about Iowa? E-mail it to us and we'll answer them during our video chat scheduled for 12:30 pm central time today.
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Comments
America, the icon for democracy, cannot even hold a proper election.
More than anything else, we need to create a balloting system which works and is fair. Without that, there is no democracy.
We need this more than we need anything else.
If one person does not trust our balloting system, democracy has failed that person. Many, many Americans do not trust our balloting system.
We need to approach this the way we put a man on the moon. This must be the number one national priority.
Posted by: San Miguel | January 2, 2008 9:54 AM
I wonder if the perp or the planner of Bhutto's assassination was the al-Qaeda detainee who President Bush released from custody at Guantanimo because the Australian PM asked him to stop torturing the poor little Australian terrorist and release him. I wonder what Republics would be saying if Clinton set a known and captured terrorist free because a "friend" asked him to?
Posted by: jethro | January 2, 2008 10:34 AM