Swamp Gas, July 26, 2007

by Frank James

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

Mortar and rocket attacks by insurgents into the Green Zone in Baghdad have gotten more accurate in recent months, according to a U.S. general who alleges it's because of the training the attackers are receiving in Iraq.

The House Judiciary Committee approved on a partisan vote contempt proceedings against a current and a former White House aide cited executive privilege to defy congressional subpoenas to either testify or deliver information in Congress's probe of the controversial firings of nine U.S. attorneys.

A presidential panel led by former Republican Sen. Bob Dole and Donna Shalala, the Clinton Administration's Health and Human Services Secretary, called for a total overhaul of the health-care system for wounded military service members in the wake of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal.

Contradicting President Bush's recent assertions, a top U.S. intelligence official said al Qaeda in Iraq was largely a home-grown phenomenon, adding that the greatest terrorism threat to the U.S. remained al Qaeda in South Asia which is regrouping.

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has made much of the large number of campaign donations he's received from small donors, but much of his record-setting cash comes from wealthy and even superwealthy politically connected contributors.

Democrats have noticeably shifted their approach on abortion, sounding more conservative themes and supporting legislation meant to reduce unnecessary abortions as they try to reflect the ambivalence in the nation over the issue in an attempt to appeal to more voters.

Farm-state lawmakers have so far succeeded in thwarting efforts at reining in farm subsidies, drawing a veto threat from President Bush.

U.S. counterterrorism officials have kept watch on financial transactions through Saudi Arabia's largest bank by extremists with ties to al Qaeda but have opted for lobbying the Saudi government instead of taking stronger actions.

Senate Democrats defeated a $3 billion Republican proposal to strengthen border security and employment enforcement, instead proposing a new agriculture program that would offer legalization to many farm workers already in the U.S. illegally and bring in more documented agricultural workers.

The use of corporate and privately-owned jets by many presidential candidates has raised issues concerning just how beholden the politicians will be to the corporate and private interests who are allowing them to travel less expensively than if the presidential campaigns had to charter jets.