by Frank James
A quick guided tour to some of the morning's most important or interesting (or both) Washington-related stories.
A huge car bomb exploded at a Baghdad bus depot during the Thursday morning's rush hour, killing at least 22 while at least 20 beheaded bodies were found in an area south of the Iraqi capital.
The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House for documents related to the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping counterterrorism program.
The immigration bill's fate appeared to worsen heading into Thursday morning's key procedural vote which could result in the bill dying as some members of the 64-vote coalition that voted to revive the bill earlier in the week peeled off because of the failure of certain amendments.
New Senate Democrats who won their seats by slim margins are cool to the immigration legislation, in part responding to grass roots opposition to the bill.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has remained steady in his support for the immigration legislation in Congress but it has cost him dearly in his run for the Republican presidential nomination.
The second-tier presidential candidates are working hard to break into the top tier where the media and public attention are, as well as the campaign cash, but the odds are against them.
In a reversal for President Bush's efforts of expanding the Republican Party base, Hispanics are returning to the Democratic Party, apparently in time for the 2008 presidential and congressional elections, according to recent polling, with Sen. Hillary Clinton gaining much of the support.
Seven of ten of the largest cities are within 500 miles of the U.S. southern border, according to the Census Bureau, which has said the fastest growing cities remained in the Sunbelt with New York City the one exception.
A congressional committee found a large amount of waste, fraud and abuse in 187 contracts for $1.1 trillion that were part of the trend towards privatizing formerly publicly provided services.
Iraqis have more than tripled the number of Washington lobbyists they've hired since the start of the war.
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Comments
a huge car bomb exploded at a Baghdad bus depot during the Thursday morning's rush hour, killing at least 22 while at least 20 beheaded bodies were found in one of the city's neighborhood.
Bruce says...But the trib fails to mention that a new soccer field was built showing that things are getting better.
Posted by: bill r. | June 28, 2007 8:36 AM
How many articles were published in the "Swamp" about Tom Delay last year? Yesterday his conviction was thrown out by the TX Supreme Court, whch held that the prosecution was politically motivated and didn't prove any crime.
When can we expect a similar "Swamp" spate of Delay articles expounding on his innocence?
Posted by: Bruce | June 28, 2007 9:30 AM
bill r.,
But the Iraqis have tripled their number of lobbyists here. This surge is working!
Posted by: Doug Zook | June 28, 2007 9:43 AM
Yes. Stick and ball games are the hallmark of a stable civilized society. They are so important to a functioning democratic society that the public demands that entire segments of all print and TV news media be dedicated to those games.
Typical of the leftist media in this country to ignore the great strides being made in the development of sports venues in war-torn Iraq.
Posted by: Lemo | June 28, 2007 10:40 AM
Bruce lies again. What a shock.
Delay's conviction was not thrown out. (Well first off Delay hasn't actually been convicted of anything. He hasn't gone to trial yet) The court refused to reinstate a conspiracy charge that had already been thrown out in 2005.
Delay remains charged with multiple counts of money laundering.
Posted by: Tony | June 28, 2007 10:52 AM
Brucie,
Delay's not off the hook yet, with serious charges ahead of him. As for yesterday's ruling, it was covered in the Trib (suggest you actually buy a newspaper from a reliable news source for the news once in a while):
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-nat_delayjun28,1,2338985.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | June 28, 2007 11:02 AM
Bruce asks "When can we expect a similar "Swamp" spate of Delay articles expounding on his innocence?"
First thing to understand is that never in the history of this state(Texas) has the courts here been described as as, fair, competent or incorruptable.
A ruling that is not tainted by influence, generally by he who has the most bucks, would undoubtedly cause PTSD in 90% of the sitting judges, and 99.9% of the general populace.
Even Federal Courts in these regions have a closely spotted record. So win, lose, or draw, a verdict of any sort is simply suspect on the face of it.
Stay under the radar, if y'all ain't got the gitus, pardna!
Posted by: Didereaux | June 28, 2007 12:07 PM
[quote]
How many articles were published in the "Swamp" about Tom Delay last year? Yesterday his conviction was thrown out by the TX Supreme Court, whch held that the prosecution was politically motivated and didn't prove any crime.
When can we expect a similar "Swamp" spate of Delay articles expounding on his innocence?
Posted by: Bruce | June 28, 2007 9:30 AM
[/quote]
Nice bunch of lies you posted, Bruce.
1. De Lay hasn't even gone to trial yet, so how can his "conviction be thrown out"?
2. One of the charges against De Lay was not reinstated. From Google: "The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday refused to reinstate a dropped conspiracy charge against a former House majority leader, Tom DeLay."
3. He still has several other charges pending. From Google: "Two charges — money laundering and conspiring to launder money — remain against the former congressman."
Posted by: BC | June 28, 2007 12:29 PM
Easy guys...Let Bruce feel good for a little while over the fact that one count out of many have been re-dropped. There aren't many good news items for the right at the moment.
Posted by: bill r. | June 28, 2007 2:20 PM
To hell with Delay, we have better things to do, like trying to get OUR COLA $$.
"Despite low approval ratings and hard feelings from last year's elections, Democrats and Republicans in the House are reaching out for an approximately $4,400 pay raise that would increase their salaries to almost $170,000."
I suggest you all do a search on 'Mouseland'. Learn it's lessons well.
Posted by: zak | June 28, 2007 2:23 PM
To hell with Delay, we have better things to do, like trying to get OUR COLA $$.
"Despite low approval ratings and hard feelings from last year's elections, Democrats and Republicans in the House are reaching out for an approximately $4,400 pay raise that would increase their salaries to almost $170,000."
I suggest you all do a search on 'Mouseland'. Learn its lessons well.
Posted by: zak | June 28, 2007 2:23 PM