Swamp Gas, November 7, 2007

by Frank James

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

Democrats won important races in Kentucky and Virginia, regaining the governorship in the former and the state senate in the latter while Gov. Haley Barbour was reelected in Mississippi.

A majority of House Republicans joined Democrats to override President Bush's veto of the very popular water resources bill, a victory for Democrats and a blow to the White House which has been largely able to count on GOP unity until now to sustain presidential vetoes.

House Republicans nearly forced a floor debate and vote on Rep. Dennis Kucinich's resolution calling for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, a situation House Democratic leaders had hoped to avoid.

Democrats were split over legislation that would prevent millions of middle-income families from falling prey to the alternative minimum tax by increasing the tax rate on superwealthy hedge-fund and private-equity managers.

Yahoo came under severe congressional criticism during a hearing for aiding a Chinese government crackdown on dissidenst by allowing officials there access to personal information, leading to a Capitol Hill apology from the company's chief executive.

U.S. commanders in Iraq are often choosing to have their units blow up roadside bombs instead of waiting for highly trained military technicians who do forensic work on the explosives to allow them to learn vital information about the networks who plant them.

Iran said it now has 3,000 centrifuges operating to enrich uranium, an important step in the nation's controversial attempt to join the global nuclear club.

More than 15,000 people since February have asked to have their names removed from the controversial federal terrorism-watch lists, which have included the names of small children and other improbable, would-be terrorists, and have often impeded the travel of innocent people.

Researchers said being overweight doesn't increase health risks and may actually lower some risks, contrary to conventional wisdom.