by Frank James
A quick, guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.
Christmas retail sales fell short of expectations, meaning post-Christmas shoppers would be greeted with excellent discounts but adding to worries about what slowing consumer spending could mean for the economy.
The ethanol boom has been a mixed blessing, providing high incomes to farmers in the cornbelt but have also contributed to high consumer prices there and elsewhere and the nation's obesity problem.
Republican moderates in Iowa are trying to reclaim the important role they once played in their party which has been dominated for decades by conservatives who have often appeared extreme and harsh to mainstream voters.
Even though violence has dropped sharply in Iraq, there are still spectacular examples of it, like the suicide truck bombing on Tuesday of a line of Iraqis waiting for cooking gas which resulted in at least 25 deaths.
Medical centers are aggressively pushing to install nuclear particle accelerators, once only associated with physics research, to treat cancer but the trend is part of what critics charge is what's wrong with American health-care, an emphasis on expensive high-tech devices whose effectiveness at improving health is unproven.
Texas is now responsible for more than 60 percent of all executions in the U.S. as other states have imposed moratoriums or in the case of New Jersey, an outright ban.
U.S. manufacturers are aggressively pursuing exports, especially of highly engineered products where U.S. companies often have an edge, a trend some believe may help the U.S. economy hold off recession.
Overbudget and behind schedule, the vast U.S. Capitol Visitors Center is completed but won't be opened for at least another year as the security and fire systems are tested.
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) has launched an Internet campaign to gain support for congressional hearings into the potential impeachment of Vice President Cheney for allegedly manipulating intelligence in the runup to the war.
• 
• 
• 
Comments
In the news the DNC Swamp won't report, today's Gallup Poll named President Bush the most-admired man in the country--for the 6th year in a row! See http://www.gallup.com/poll/103462/Hillary-Edges-Oprah-Most-Admired-Woman-07.aspx
for more details.
Posted by: Bruce | December 26, 2007 9:27 AM
My parents named me for him.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=137
On this day, as Roman Catholics celebrate his feast day, let's all hope for a new year that can start to bring and end to war, poverty and other problems that are an unfortunate result of this materialistic world we live in.
We should try to follow in this great Saints footsteps, with faith, hope and compassion for all the people of the world. Freind and foe alike.
I meane, heck, even the "Greatful Dead" wrote a song for him.
"St. Stephen with a rose
In and out of the garden he goes
Country garland in the wind and the rain
Whereever he goes the people all complain
Stephen prospered in his time
Well he may and he may decline
Did it matter, does it now
Stephen would answer if he only knew how
Wishing well with a golden bell
Bucket hanging clear to hell
Hell half way twixt now and then
Stephen fill it up and lower down and lower down again
Lady finger dipped in moonlight
Writing "what for" across the morning sky
Sunlight splatters dawn with answers
Darkness shrugs and bids the day goodbye
Fleeting arrow sharp and narrow
What a lot of fleeting matters you have spurned
Several seasons with their treasons
Wrap the babe in scarlet colors, call it your own
Did he doubt or did he try
Answers aplenty in the bye and bye
Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills
One man gathers what another man spills
St. Stephen will remain
All he's lost he shall regain
Seashore washed in the suds and the foam
Been so long he's got to callin it home
Fortune comes a-crawlin, Calliope woman
Spinning that curious sense of your own
Can you answer? Yes I can
But what would be the answer to the answer man
High green chilly winds and windy vines in loops around the twisted shafts of lavender, they're crawling to the sun
Underfoot the ground is patched with climbing arms of ivy wrapped around the manzanita, stark and shiny in the breeze
Wonder who will water all the children of the garden as they sigh about the barren lack of rain and droop so hungry neath the sky
William Tell has stretched his bow till it won't stretch no furthermore and/or it may require a change that hasn't come before"
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Posted by: Steve34 | December 26, 2007 10:01 AM
In the news that RNC Bruce will not report is that the sitting President has been the most admired man every year since 1981 and 50 of the 61 timees it has been asked overall.
Why did you leave this fact out Bruce? Why do you cherry pick? Why do you lie?
Posted by: jethro | December 26, 2007 11:45 AM