by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting (or both) Washington-related stories.
President Bush cited past U.S. wars, particularly Vietnam, to urge continued support for American military involvement in Iraq although critics said the president was misapplying the lessons of the U.S. long and sad conflict in Southeast Asia.
Iraqi militias have seized control of many parts of their nation's electrical grid, increasing the difficulties for the U.S. and Iraqi governments as they try to modernize the electrical infrastructure and raise the amount of electricity flowing to Iraqis.
Gen. George Casey, who President Bush removed earlier this year from direct oversight of the Iraq War, effectively making him the scapegoat, is being vindicated as the White House embraces his strategy of withdrawing some U.S. units while training Iraqis to take their places.
The Bush Administration is poised to issue a new rule that would expand the controversial practice of mountaintop mining in which the tops of mountains are blown off to expose the coal, creating vast amounts of waste in the valleys below.
In a move to calm the roiling financial segment of the nation's economy, Bank of America acquired a $2 billion stake in Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest mortgage lender, which has been hammered by the credit crunch resulting from the subprime mortgage crisis.
The Bush Administration intends to screen employees of non-government organizations that receive money from the U.S. AID to make sure they aren't on associated with known terrorist groups or individuals.
Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, is having difficulty reconciling his positions on abortion, recently saying on one occasion that he'd allow individual states to maintain legal abortion after saying he'd seek a nationwide abortion ban.
The credit squeeze caused by problems in the sub-prime mortgage market has led to a flight of capital from money-market funds, adding to the credit crunch since many of these funds invest in the commercial paper corporations sell to obtain cash for operating and expansion purposes.
Even as Congress has moved to stop lawmakers from accepting lobbyist-paid travel, executive branch officials are taking trips paid for by companies or trade groups with business before federal regulatory agencies.
A senior Republican on the House immigration subcommittee said is President Bush is serious about cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants he should start with his own federal government which has hired thousands of unauthorized workers.
• 
• 
• 
Comments
Fight to win what, Mr Bush?
You were wrong about weapons in Iraq. You were wrong about connections with terror. You were wrong about the consequences of your invasion.
And now you are wrong about your comparison to Vietnam.
There is indeed a comparison to Vietnam, but not the one you made.
Cambodia was a stable, neutral country until American bombing and incursions toppled its government, making room for the people that gave the world the killing fields.
America was responsible for what happened in Cambodia, just as it is now responsible for the horror of day-to-day life in Iraq.
There is no easy answer to the misery you've created in Iraq, but don't forget you were warned years ago by people who understood that this is exactly what would happen.
I guess America's first certified-moron president is talking about his undefined war against people who don't like the United States and the policies it imposes on the world.
He may yet give us more horror by bombing Iran. Just like Hitler, he'll go down with Gotterdammarung. Unfortunately, so will the rest of us.
Posted by: John Chuckman | August 23, 2007 8:50 AM
A story from salon.com about how the Washington media scammed online polls of--the Washington media--gives a revealing look at the lack of ethics of Washington reporters. The money quote:
"What's surprising is not that anyone cheated -- online polls are about as trustworthy as Soviet Bloc elections -- but how brazen, and how easy, the cheating was. ... These were media people in Washington; it was probably too much to expect that they wouldn't rig the contest."
Posted by: Bruce | August 23, 2007 12:06 PM
And the latest CIA report shows that Bill Clinton lied when he claimed he authorized the CIA to kill bin Laden. From Newsweek, a left wing bastion:
"The report also criticized intelligence problems when Bill Clinton was president, detailing political and legal “constraints” agency officials felt in the late 1990s. In September 2006, during a famous encounter with Fox News anchor Wallace, Clinton erupted in anger and waived his finger when asked about whether his administration had done enough to get bin Laden. “What did I do? What did I do?” Clinton said at one point. “I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since.”
Clinton appeared to have been referring to a December 1999 Memorandum of Notification (MON) he signed that authorized the CIA to use lethal force to capture, not kill, bin Laden. But the inspector general’s report made it clear that the agency never viewed the order as a license to “kill” bin Laden—one reason it never mounted more effective operations against him. “The restrictions in the authorities given the CIA with respect to bin Laden, while arguably, although ambiguously, relaxed for a period of time in late 1998 and early 1999, limited the range of permissible operations,” the report stated. (Scheuer agreed with the inspector general’s findings on this issue, but said if anything the report was overly diplomatic. “There was never any ambiguity,” he said. “None of those authorities ever allowed us to kill anyone. At least that’s what the CIA lawyers told us.” A spokesman for the former president had no immediate comment.)"
Posted by: Bruce | August 23, 2007 1:07 PM
Whoa Bruce. Easy does it litle buddy.
Posted by: Doug Zook | August 23, 2007 3:10 PM