Blank Check

Senate, House OK billions more for Iraq - 25 May 2007 at 9:25am - Bowing to President Bush, the Democratic-controlled House and Senate reluctantly approved fresh billions for the Iraq war on Thursday, minus the troop withdrawal timeline that drew his earlier veto.

Muqtada al-Sadr celebrated the bill's passage by returning to Iraq:

Al-Sadr returns to Iraq - 25 May 2007 at 9:34am - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr appeared in public for the first time in months on Friday, delivering a fiery anti-American sermon to thousands of followers and demanding U.S. troops leave Iraq. The U.S. military also announced the deaths of six U.S. soldiers.

While the U.S. encourages some other Iraqis to leave...

More visas for Iraqi translators - 25 May 2007 at 2:09pm - WASHINGTON -- Congress has agreed to a tenfold increase in special immigrant visas for Iraqi and Afghan translators and interpreters, whose work with U.S. military personnel and diplomatic officials makes them targets for terrorist violence.

Bush blames everything that's gone wrong on one bombing in Samarra', but he seems to have neglected to take something into account:

Report: Iraq problems were anticipated - 25 May 2007 at 12:27pm - WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence analysts predicted, in two papers widely circulated before the 2003 Iraq invasion, that al-Qaida would see that as an opportunity to increase its operations and that Iran would try to shape the post-Saddam era.

Has Gates not received the memo re. the primacy of the unitary executive?

Gates: Congress, press not the enemy - 25 May 2007 at 2:43pm - ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates encouraged the graduating U.S. Naval Academy class of 2007 Friday to "remember the importance of two pillars of our freedom under the Constitution: the Congress and the press."

Science wins, for once?

Government scraps species law reforms - 25 May 2007 at 3:05pm - WASHINGTON -- Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said Friday he has scrapped a proposal that critics said would seriously weaken the law protecting endangered species.

Thought for the day:
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." -Alvin Toffler

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Iraq policy, Muqtada al-Sadr, Robert Gates, endangered species,