Swamp Gas, Aug. 15, 2007

by Frank James

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

The Bush Administration is set to tag Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, a designation that would allow the U.S. to more aggressively target the Iranian military's financial interests and a move meant to increase pressure not just on Iran for its nuclear activities and its anti-U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but U.S. allies as well.

Truck bombers killed more than 200 members of the Yazidis, a small, ancient religious sect in northern Iraq, the deadliest attack of the year.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is considering withdrawing U.S. troops from certain parts of Iraq as a sign of the military's progress in fighting the insurgency.

U.S. military officials are portraying the political situation in Iraq in pessimistic terms, as political actors have failed to make progress on numerous fronts, even though the same officers have sounded more upbeat about the decline of major violence in the country.

Newt Gingrich blasted President Bush on immigration, using the recent murders of several young people in Newark, N.J. for which two illegal immigrants have been charged, as a springboard for accusing Bush of failing to protect the nation and raising speculation that the former Republican House Speaker is planning a presidential run.

Former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert is expected to announce he won't seek re-election to his seat in far west suburban Chicago and may even leave Congress before his term ends, which would set up a special election.

Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, home in Alaska during the August recess, are drawing protesters in pig masks who are shouting "oink oink" as the two Republican lawmakers, well-known for bringing budgetary pork to their state, come under Federal Bureau of Investigation scrutiny for ties to a convicted lobbyist.

An investigation found that some employees of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services unit within the Homeland Security Department funneled information to Islamic extremists and sold restricted information to others outside the agency.

The collapse of the Minneapolis bridge, as well as a 2001 federal study that demonstrated the numerous weaknesses in how bridges are currently inspected, may speed the use of exotic technology, like remote sensors that alert engineers of emerging problems, that can detect structural defects more effectively than present methods.

Attempting to draw distinctions with Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.,) Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he would be able to bring the nation together in a way she couldn't, partly because she is such a polarizing figure, and end "ideological gridlock."