Reality Check On Aisle 3!

International:
Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran
Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

“As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources. Read all the details here

What About North Korea?

Since President Bush has been in office, North Korea has developed 10-11 bombs worth of plutonium suitable for use in nuclear weapons, and conducted its first nuclear weapons test. All of the administration's efforts to control North Korea's nuclear program have failed. Congress decided something had to be done. On Sept. 30, 2006, Congress passed the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, which required the President to appoint a Coordinator of Policy on North Korea to "provide policy direction and leadership for negotiations with North Korea relating to nuclear weapons." Bush signed the act into law on Oct. 17, 2006. The law required Bush to make the appointment within 60 days. (View the relevant section of the law.) The 60 days were up on Dec. 16, 2006, which was 19 days ago. The situation in North Korea continues to deteriorate, but Bush still hasn't acted.

U.S. readies new nukes.
“The Bush administration is expected to announce next week a major step forward in the building of the country’s first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades,” the New York Times reports. “It will propose combining elements of competing designs from two weapons laboratories in an approach that some experts argue is untested and risky.” The overall bill is “estimated at more than $100 billion.”

Bush's Iraq Plan Already Facing Trouble
President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq already running into trouble on Capitol Hill, with Republicans and Democrats raising eyebrows before president even makes his case.

National:
US Army urges dead to re-enlist
The US Army is to apologize to the families of officers killed or wounded in action who were sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

The letters were sent to more than 5,100 Army officers listed as recently having left the military.
But this figure included about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action.
More than 3,000 members of the US military have died in Iraq since the war began.

"Army personnel officials are contacting those officers' families now to personally apologize for erroneously sending the letters," the army said in a statement. More here

Big Easy Weighs Curfew After 8 Slayings

With at least eight slayings in the city in the first week of the new year, officials are considering a curfew to help stem the violence, the police superintendent said Saturday.

"It's something we're just sort of talking about, to see if that will make a difference," police Superintendent Warren Riley said. Details at MyWay

From The Right:

Donald Lambro: Conservatives search for their knight-errant
Twelve months before Republicans begin choosing their 2008 presidential candidate, conservatives remain deeply divided over who they want to be the GOP's nominee.

From The Left:

Keith Olbermann: Special Comment About "Sacrifice"
"The former labor secretary, Robert Reich, says Senator John McCain told him that the 'surge' would help the 'morale' of the troops already in Iraq. If Mr. McCain truly said that, and truly believes it, he has either forgotten completely his own experience in Vietnam ... or he is unaware of the recent Military Times poll indicating only 38 percent of our active military want to see more troops sent ... or Mr. McCain has departed from reality."

Quote Of The Day:

"I know that as successful as I believe we will be, and I believe that the success will be fairly easy, we will still lose some American young men or women."

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) describing the prospects of war in the rosiest terms Sept. 24, 2002 on CNN

(Sources: The Sunday Times, BBCNews, MyWay, ThinkProgress, Library of Congress, TownHall, TrutoOut, CNN, FOXNews, DefenseTech, NYT)