Swamp Gas, July 23, 2007

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting (or both) Washington-related stories.

The U.S. military's increased security responsibilities in Iraq have slowed the training of Iraqi security forces according to a U.S. general just returned from Iraq who added that the Iraqi forces would need U.S. support for at least two more years.

Sunni and Shia tribal groups reached a pact to fight al Qaeda and other extremists in Anbar province, according to the U.S. military which negotiated the deal, though extremists appeared to quickly retaliate with a car bomb.

House Democrats are poised to make changes in health-care funding, like cutting Medicare payments to private health plans supported by Republicans, that they say would expand care to children and adult Americans, setting up a clash with the White House which accuses the Democrats of heading down the road of nationalized healtcare.

The concerns over Guantanamo of a conservative Republican Army colonel, the first insider to complain about flaws he perceived in the legal process given to detainees there, appeared to play a key role in persuading the Supreme Court to reverse itself and hear an appeal where lawyers for detainees will argue that their clients have a right to contest their detention in the courts.

Japan's defense force has been raising the concerns of other East Asian nations by steadily moving past the limits imposed by the nation's pacifist constitution with the latest in a series of more assertive actions being the dropping of live bombs during a joint military exercise with the U.S. in the South Pacific.

China's very active economic espionage efforts have caused U.S. law enforcement to increase its investigations of such activity by 12 percent since 2001 as China tries to quickly level the playing field between itself and other economic rivals.

Democrats have so far raised $100 million more than Republicans in campaign money, placing them on a trajectory to raise more money than the GOP for the first time since the federal government began keeping strict tabs on such fundraising 30 years ago.

Congressional Democrats are seeking to expand federal assistance to those laid-off workers like computer programmers and call-center workers who are obvious victims of globalization.

Blackwater USA, the controversial private contractor which has been criticized for providing a privatized army because of the security role of its employees in Baghdad and elsewhere, is drawing more attention for a training facility it has constructed in a rural Illinois community.

Evangelical Christian and Arab Muslim leaders have begun to talk to each other in the hope of finding common ground and furthering their agendas--Muslims want Americans to better understand their culture while the evangelicals seek better treatment for Christians in Muslim countries.

Sen. John McCain's choice of a manager for his troubled campaign who some viewed as one of the reasons for its problems has led to major defections from the Republican's presidential effort.