International:

Cheney: Iraq Is Still a Dangerous Place

Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that Iraq remains a dangerous place, a point underscored by a thunderous explosion that rattled windows in the U.S. embassy where he spent most of the day.

After talks with Iraqi military and political officials, the vice president said Iraq's leaders seem to have a better sense now that they need to do more to reconcile sectarian and political differences.
"I think they recognize it's in their interests as well as ours to make progress on the political front," Cheney said. Read more here.

2nd Most Expensive War In US History
`A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money,’ famously quipped US Senator Everett Dirksen back in the 1960’s. The US government has just estimated that President George Bush’s occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and his so-called `war on terror,’ will cost at least $690 billion by the end of next year. That’s more than the total cost to America of World War I, the Korean War, or Vietnam, and second only to the $2 trillion cost of World War II (in current dollars). -and those wars or overwith! read on truthseeker...

This means that by 2008, Bush’s wars in the Muslim World will have cost each American man, woman and child $2,300.

National:

Republican Congressmen Take It To Bush

At two-thirty in the afternoon, in the private quarters of the White House, the Solarium Room, eleven Republican congressmen had a private meeting with the president, the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, the chief political advisor Karl Rove, and the White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, and others. This delegation was headed by Mark Kirk of Illinois and Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania. It was, in the words of one of the participants, the most unvarnished conversation they've ever had with the president. Another member has said he has met with three presidents and never been so candid. They told the president, and one said, quote, "My district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President." Deatils

Brothers Charged in Terror Plot Lived Illegally in U.S. for 23 Years

Three brothers charged in the alleged Fort Dix terror plot have been living illegally in the U.S. for more than 23 years and were accepted as Americans by neighbors and friends who had no idea they would scheme to attack military bases and slaughter GIs. More here.

Were These Terrorists Among the Albanians Clinton Brought to Fort Dix?

"Let's go back even prior to June the 6th of 1999. Again, on CNN, June 6, 1999 story, "Fort Dix speeds up relocation of Kosovo refugees." Let's go back to May 18th of 1999, just a little short of a month prior. "First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Tuesday an additional $15 million in US relief to the displaced people of Kosovo. The money will help non-government and United Nations groups care for refugees in the border regions of Macedonia and Albania and will also help pay to resettle as many as 20,000 ethnic Albanians who may choose to live with friends and relatives in the United States." More here and PDF here.

Bush-Cheney Impeachment Might Be Idle Talk, But Numbers Show True Trouble
Few serious observers think things will ever get to actual impeachment. And yet the American public seems more open to the concept than many imagine, according to a new national poll.

Pre-War Pentagon Memo Reveals Plan For ‘Rapid Reaction Media Team’ To Control Iraqi Media

In Other News…

The Pentagon's announcement yesterday that 35,000 soldiers in 10 Army combat brigades will begin deploying to Iraq in August as replacements makes it "possible to sustain the increase of U.S. troops there until at least the end of this year."

Partial data on attacks gathered from five U.S. brigades operating in Baghdad show that total attacks since the escalation began in February "were either steady or increasing. In some cases, certain kinds of attacks dipped as the U.S. troop increase began, only to begin rising again in recent weeks. Overall, 'the number of attacks has stayed relatively constant' in Baghdad, said one U.S. officer."

"Christians are fleeing in droves from the southern Baghdad district of Dora after Sunni insurgents told them they would be killed unless they converted to Islam or left," marking "the first apparent attempt to empty an entire Baghdad neighborhood of Christians, the Christians say."

From The Right: Jack Kemp: What Reagan would have done about foreign policy
As a conservative, Reagan would be cautious, prudent and truly wise in seeking peace, but only through strength on all fronts, i.e. economic, diplomatic and military.

From the Left: Jonathan Kaplan & Elana Schor:

Pelosi Threatens to Sue Bush Over Iraq Bill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) is threatening to take President Bush to court if he issues a signing statement as a way of sidestepping a carefully crafted Iraq war spending bill compromise.

Quote Of The Day: "As you know, my position is clear -- I'm the Commander Guy." --George W. Bush, who apparently is no longer "The Decider" (Watch video clip)

Thought To Ponder: If 85% of what someone tells you turns out to be wrong, would you continue to trust their judgement?

(Sources: Townhall, CenterForAmericanProgress, FOXNews, WashingtonTimes, EricMargolis, RushLimbaugh, RandiRhodes, WashingtonPost, NYT, ChicagoTribune, TruthOut, EurekAlert, DrudgeReport)