An in-depth report on the military build-up on the island of Guam produced by PBS Now is here.

The report is interesting because the U.S. doesn't appear to take into consideration the wishes of the people of the island if in fact they want the build-up.

(DB Blas) The News Hour with Jim Leherer, a news program on PBS, covers the 2008 primary like no other. For the 2008 Primary Elections, The News Hour assembled renown historians, for example, to discuss the historic context of this year's presidential selection process.

On one recent show, I posed a question regarding California's relatively late voting date and the selection of candiates in the primary election. Well my questions were posed to the panelists, and this is what transpired:

RAY SUAREZ: D.B. Blas writes, from San Diego, California, "As a Californian, I feel, as many of my friends do, that my state is somewhat voiceless during the primary season and selecting each party's candidate. Iowa and New Hampshire have more influence than the largest state in the union. If California was the first primary state, to what degree would it change the selection of the candidate, and how different would it appear? Do the primaries of later, larger states actually have an impact?"

[...]

MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: I think our writer should feel better this year, because one reason why California was moved up to the 5th of February from where it used to be, which was late in the season, sometimes as late as June, is to give it a much greater impact. And I think our writer will see that in 4 weeks.

The downside of having California first is, that's a state where there is very little retail politics of the kind that we've seen in Iowa and New Hampshire, very much dependent on who raises the most money, who can put on commercials. And I'm not sure that's the best thing for the first test in the season.

BEVERLY GAGE: I'd agree with Michael that the advantage of these early states, like Iowa and New Hampshire, which are -- as many people have noted, they're unrepresentative states, they're small states, but they do have a kind of personal door-to-door politics and a door-to-door political culture that's developed over the past few decades that you probably wouldn't get in a place like California.

On the other hand, there are really important questions to be asked as the primary system keeps changing. Right? This is something that was cobbled together from the first, and has now become this, sort of, competitive race between states, and it really seems like 2008 is a moment to take that step back to look at the system as a whole and to ask whose needs are being served, whose needs are not being served. And I think there's a good case that, for a state like California or New York, some of those needs, maybe, aren't being served.

This year, we'll have something -- the -- probably the closest thing we've ever had to a national primary, and we'll just see how that turns out.

It's not very often are questions are posed to informed and intelligent people. It goes to show the power of the Internet.

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