International:Bombers killed an Iraqi provincial governor on Monday
This is the second assassinated in two weeks — “amid mounting tension between rival Shiite armed factions in Iraq’s southern cities.” Both governors were members of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, “one of Iraq’s most powerful parties and a bitter rival of another Shiite movement led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.”
North American Summit: More or Less?
A thick layer of confusion surrounds the three leaders of North America – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President George W. Bush, and Mexican President Felipe Calderón – as they meet at Montebello, Quebec on August 20-21.
The three countries are exceptionally important to each other, and the annual summit is a recognition of that fact. And yet, by their silence or defensiveness, they have allowed the relationship to be defined by an extremist fringe that fears any cooperative initiative is a slippery slope toward the dissolution of sovereignty. More here. What is the "North American Union" idea? Click here to find out...
The United States and the international community have launched an ambitious plan to double the size of the Afghan National Army, to build a fully functioning police force, and to establish a National Afghan Air Corps. But building a strong army in the middle of a war is a difficult undertaking.
National:
Sen. Patrick Leahy Pushes for Contempt Charges Against Administration Officials
A top Senate Democrat on Monday threatened to hold members of the Bush administration in contempt for not producing subpoenaed information about the legal justification for President Bush's secretive eavesdropping program.
"When the Senate comes back in the session, I'll bring it up before the committee," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I prefer cooperation to contempt. Right now, there's no question that they are in contempt of the valid order of the Congress." More here.
Army Too Stretched if Iraq Buildup Lasts
Sapped by nearly six years of war, the Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decides to extend the Iraq buildup beyond next spring. Get details
Passports for DOMESTIC Flights?
Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.
The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver's licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver's licenses will be issued and what information they must contain.
Wall St Week Ahead: After Fed's rescue, volatile days ahead
"It restores confidence, but we're not out of the woods yet," said Bill Hoskins, managing director of fixed-income research at Mellon Capital Management, in San Franscisco.
In a surprise before the market's open on Friday, the Fed cut the discount rate on its loans to banks to 5.75 percent from 6.25 percent. The fed funds rate on interbank loans was left at 5.25 percent. Read the full story here
In Other News:
General Petraeus testimony scheduled for September 11th. This was first revealed this morning by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in a conference call with conservative bloggers. According to the National Review’s Jim Geraghty, McCain said he had “been told” Petraeus would testify on the 11th.
Speaking of catastrophe...Hurricane Dean is upgraded to a Category 5 storm -- capable of inflicting catastrophic damage when it makes landfall early Tuesday.
From The Right: Burt Prelutsky:
The Left is Brain-dead I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make sense of the world. Which is probably all the proof anyone needs to prove that I?m certifiably loony. Even though I know that one of the most obvious symptoms of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again in the foolish belief that the end result will be different this time, I can?t help myself.From the Left: Logan Murphy: Cooper: Rove Leaked Plame's Identity to Me Former Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper, speaking on "Meet the Press" on Sunday morning, indicated Karl Rove did leak Valerie Plame's identity to him.
Quote Of The Day: "I had something picked out for you, too - a little IED (improvised explosive device) to put on your desk." John McCain to Jon Stewart
(Sources: AP, Reuters, DrudgeReport, CNN, FOXNews, ThinkProgress, NYT, TownHall, NationalReview, AFP, MagPortal, SourceWatch, LatinBusinessChronicle,PoliticalCartoons.com)
1 comment:
Recent clues point to Abbott and Costello as original architects of Plame Leak.
Grand Jury testimony of Karl Rove, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff of the United States (COSTUS), leaked by Rove-ing reporter (humor). How much will COSTUS cost us?
It is posted at: Karl Rove Says Who Leaked First
Bobbing and weaving, a tangled web we do. Book him, Danno.
Please keep my identity a secret. Double super Secret.
Middle-aged, Middle-of-the-road, Mid-Westerner
We can only hope that Fitz doesn't fizzle.
I think Mr. Fitzgerald's motto should be: "If you do a white collar crime then you will serve blue collar time." Look where he lodged Judith Miller. A few months in a blue collar jail and she was ready to sing. Unfortunately, she says she forgot the words
Post a Comment