Four and a half years after the nation's top military leaders saluted and fell in behind President Bush's pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, their replacements are beginning to question the mission and sound alarms about the toll the war is taking on the Army and the Marine Corps. The change at the Pentagon is striking but little-noticed, in part because Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a longtime veteran of the CIA, is quiet where his predecessor Donald H. Rumsfeld was not. read more
GOP urges probe in China firm deal
Several Republican members of Congress yesterday called for a Treasury Department probe into whether Pentagon computer networks will be compromised by the merger of a U.S. network-equipment maker and a Chinese firm with links to Beijing's military.
Opening of US Embassy in Iraq Delayed The opening of a mammoth, $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which had been planned for last month, has now been delayed well into next year, U.S. officials said Thursday. The Vatican-sized compound, which will be the world's largest diplomatic mission, has been beset by construction and logistical problems. Read the full story.
National:
Poll: U.S. 'Better Off' Losing War?
Nearly one out of every five Democrats thinks the world will be better off if America loses the war in Iraq, according to the FOX News Opinion Dynamics Poll released Thursday.
I'm Here, Get Used To It
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig defiantly vowed to serve out his term in office on Thursday despite losing a court attempt to rescind his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting.
"I have seen that it is possible for me to work here effectively," Craig said in a written statement certain to disappoint fellow Republicans who have long urged him to step down. Details...
Approval of Bush, Congress Hits New Low
Only 31 percent said they approve of the job Bush is doing, according to the survey released on Thursday. His lowest previous approval in the survey was 32 percent—a virtual tie with the new reading—recorded several times, most recently in June.
Only 69 percent of Republicans voiced approval of Bush, about where he has been in recent months but still an anemic showing for a president within his own party. That included only 29 percent from the GOP who said they strongly approve of the job he is doing.
Underlining the widespread political polarization sparked by the Iraq war and other issues, just 7 percent of Democrats and 19 percent of independents gave positive marks to Bush's work. More
In Other News:
Despite releasing a legal opinion in Dec. 2004 that declared torture is "abhorrent," the Alberto Gonzales-led Justice Department issued a secret opinion shortly after his arrival in Feb. 2005 that provided "an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used" by the CIA. A lengthy New York Times expose describes the Office of Legal Counsel, headed by Steven Bradbury, as having become a politicized tool for the Vice President's office.
There were "317,000 applications for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week," and the biggest jump in four months. Analysts believe the increase "could be a further sign that the labor market is slowing under the impact of the worst slump in housing in 16 years."
President Bush's veto of SCHIP has divided conservatives. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said yesterday, "We've got to do what we can to try to override" the veto. "If we're truly compassionate, it seems to me, we'd want to endorse this program," added Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
After initial reports that the FBI agents investigating Blackwater in Iraq would be guarded by Blackwater, the agency announced last night that it won't use security guards employed by that company. The action was taken "to avoid even the appearance of any conflict."
3,315: Number of people in Iraq infected with cholera, according to the World Health Organization. Cases of cholera were first detected in Kirkuk on Aug. 14 and have now spread to all of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Senate leaders "have developed a plan that would allow them to move the controversial nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC to the floor for a separate vote Thursday." Aides predict his nomination will pass, which would allow senators to "move to votes on the other three uncontested FEC nominees."
Is President Bush is buying a 100,000-acre ranch in Paraguay?
From The Right: Congressman Thomas Price: The Left?s Push to Silence Free Speech
Shockingly, Americans today face a Democrat Congress seeking to deteriorate our freedom under the guise of "fairness". Our First Amendment rights are being threatened by Congressional Democrats who seek the revival of the Fairness Doctrine, a law to drastically increase government regulation of free speech on television and radio.
From the Left: Scott Shane, David Johnston and James Risen: Secret US Endorsement of Torture Revealed When the Justice Department publicly declared torture 'abhorrent' in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations. But soon after Alberto Gonzales's arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Quote Of The Day: "If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women." -Ann Coulter
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