International:
Iran Set to Try Space Launch
Iran has converted its most powerful ballistic missile into a satellite launch vehicle. The 30-ton rocket could also be a wolf in sheep's clothing for testing longer-range missile strike technologies, Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine reports in its Jan. 29 issue.

The Iranian space launcher has recently been assembled and "will liftoff soon" with an Iranian satellite, according to Alaoddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

The move toward an independent space launch capacity is likely to ratchet up concern in the U.S. and Europe about Iran's strategic capabilities and intents. Orbiting its own satellite would send a powerful message throughout the Muslim world about the Shiite regime in Tehran. Read

Curfew Imposed in Beirut After Clashes
University students loyal to Lebanon's government clashed with Hezbollah supporters Thursday, setting cars ablaze and battling with homemade clubs and stones. The melee deepened worries that Lebanon cannot contain the political and sectarian rivalries threatening to push it toward civil war.

At least three people were killed and dozens were injured before army troops backed by tanks and firing barrages of warning shots into the air dispersed most rioters. The military then declared Beirut's first curfew since 1996. More here

Hagel On Iraq Original Use Of Force Resolution

The Bush administration has taken a series of steps in recent weeks that appear to be setting the stage for a military confrontation with Iran. Congressional leaders have been raising red flags. "I'd like to be clear," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said last week. "The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking congressional authorization."

Recent comments made by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) explain why Congress' resistance is so vital. In an interview in GQ Magazine, Hagel revealed that the Bush administration tried to get Congress to approve military action anywhere in the Middle East -- not just in Iraq -- in the fall of 2002. At the time, Hagel says, the Bush administration presented Congress with a resolution that would have authorized the use of force anywhere in the region. "They expected Congress to let them start a war anywhere in the Middle East?" the interviewer asked. Hagel responded, "Yes. Yes. Wide open."

National:

Rummy Remains DoD 'Consultant', He's Opened A 'Transition' Office Near Pentagon

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "has left the Pentagon, but not the Defense Department." The Washington Times reports that on Jan. 4, Rumsfeld "opened a government-provided transition office in Arlington and has seven Pentagon-paid staffers working for him."

Rumsfeld is listed as a “nonpaid consultant,” a status he needs "in order to review secret and top-secret documents, the official said." The Times reports that Rumsfeld has brought with him close adviser Stephen Cambone, a fierce advocate of the Iraq war and the chief planner of questionable interrogation tactics at military and CIA detention sites around the world. Though former secretaries "are entitled to a transition office to sort papers," Rumsfeld's transition office has raised eyebrows inside the Pentagon. "Some question the size of the staff, which includes two military officers and two enlisted men. They also ask why the sorting could not have been done from the time Mr. Rumsfeld resigned Nov. 8 to when he left the building Dec. 18." Rumsfeld’s predecessors, William Cohen and William Perry, both returned to private life immediately after leaving the Defense Department. Cohen had “two military personnel…sort through his papers for about six weeks,” while Perry had his papers mailed via compact disk to Stanford University.

State Department's Top Arms Control Official Resigns

Robert Joseph, the State Department's senior arms control and security official, has submitted his resignation to President Bush.

Joseph resigned amid uncertainty about the future of negotiations to curb nuclear programs in

Iran and North Korea. Talks on both fronts have moved slowly, with U.N. sanctions against both countries showing limited results.

His departure follows that of several other top diplomatic officials, including

Philip Zelikow, who was a close adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick, and John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations;

In Other News...
Senate conservatives yesterday blocked legislation to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25, "insisting it include new tax breaks for restaurants and other businesses."

The Congressional Budget Office reported yesterday that President Bush "can balance the budget within five years, or he can get Congress to extend his tax cuts beyond their scheduled expiration -- but he can't do both."

In the Scooter Libby trial yesterday, former Associate CIA Deputy Director Robert Grenier testified that -- pursuant to a request -- he told Libby that Valerie Plame worked at the CIA in June 2003, a month before Libby claimed to have learned that information from NBC's Tim Russert. Another CIA employee said he delivered a stark warning that the Bush administration's leak "could lead to the deaths of people who aided American intelligence gathering abroad."

"It's water over the deck -- get over it," Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said yesterday about the 2000 Bush v. Gore ruling, "drawing laughs from his audience" at Iona College in New York.

Christine Todd Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush, said the president "missed the 'perfect opening' to call for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions in his State of the Union address Tuesday night."

"After the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion," the Bush administration "will ask Congress for $7 billion to $8 billion in new funds for security, reconstruction and other projects in Afghanistan as part of the upcoming budget package."

"Authorities at Tarleton State University said they plan to investigate a Martin Luther King Jr. Day party that mocked black stereotypes by featuring fried chicken, malt liquor and faux gang apparel."

Ann Coulter: I am woman, hear me bore Girl-power feminists who got where they are by marrying men with money or power -- Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Arianna Huffington and John Kerry -- love to complain about how hard it is for a woman to be taken seriously. It has nothing to do with their being women. It has to do with their cheap paths to power. Kevin Federline isn't taken seriously either.

From The Left:

Matt Renner: "Perfect Storm" for Peace Movement On the heels of the president's State of the Union address, Judith LeBlanc, co-chair for the United for Peace and Justice coalition, described the situation as a "Perfect Storm" for the peace movement. This Saturday, peace movement organizers have planned what they call a "Peace Surge," a massive rally to be held in Washington, DC, to pressure Congress to end the war.

Quote Of The Day:

“the existence of the Congressional Black Caucus and other race-based groups of lawmakers amount to segregation and should be abolished.” Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO)

(Sources: Aviationweek, MyWay, Boston Globe, LATimes, WashingtonPost, NYSun, AP, TheHill, WashingtonPost, CenterForAmericanProgress, TownHall, FOXNews, SFChronicle, GQ, ThinkProgress)