Swamp Gas, July 5, 2007

by Frank James

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

President Bush used the July 4th holiday to urge continued American patience with the Iraq War, comparing the four years of U.S. commitment there with the six years of the American Revolutionary War.

The new U.S. embassy in Baghdad, built by a Kuwaiti contractor already under investigation by U.S. officials, has serious construction flaws, including life-threatening ones, according to communications from the staff to State Department officials.

Employees of U.S. contractors in Iraq are often affected by combat stress similar to that experienced by U.S. military service members, but their problems are often poorly treated or ignored entirely.

Republican political strategists working for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are attempting to use the same micro-targeting techniques they used in President Bush's re-election campaign in order to fine tune messages delivered to Republican voters.

Illegal immigrants are increasingly applying for U.S. citizenship, spurred by the uncertainties left by the failure of immigration-reform efforts in Congress.

Republican lawmakers who've were targeted by antiwar groups became of the members' of Congress support for the Iraq War report that the campaign against them appears not to be working.

The National Guard has reached its recruiting goals through appeals to patriotism and more candor with potential recruits, an approach that it thought would depress its numbers but has had the opposite effect.

Mortgage brokers are coming under more scrutiny from Congress because their relative lack of regulation contributed to the subprime mortage crisis.

Bush Administration missteps contributed to Hama's rise and the political crisis in Gaza Strip.

The Endangered Species List is itself endangered because of the Bush Administration's failure to support it, according to critics.