Today Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) gave his parting speech on the floor of the House. DeLay broke with tradition and bitterly attacked his liberal colleagues, many of whom walked out. Watch an excerpt:
We will miss you too, Tom DeLay.
Full transcript below: Read more
A bill to repeal the estate tax on the ultra-rich was just defeated in the Senate. “The vote was a big defeat both for President Bush and for Senate Republican leaders, who had framed their opposition to what they called the ‘death tax’ as a popular and even populist crusade.”
The last time Congress voted to phase-out the estate tax (aka the Paris Hilton Tax) in 2001, Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, enthusiastically called for repeal. He took out full-page ads in national newspapers, granted interviews, even gave speeches claiming that a repeal “will help close the wealth gap“¦between African-American families and white families.”
But Johnson’s argument is seriously misguided. Roughly 38 million blacks live in the United States. Of those, an estimated 59 — yes, 59 — will pay estate taxes this year, and that number will drop to just 33 in 2009, according to American Progress economist John Irons (using estimates derived from The State Of The Estate Tax As Of 2006). The truth is the wealth gap between whites and blacks will only exacerbate when there are fewer tax credits and services offered to the rest of us who start out with zero inheritance.
So now that the Senate is again planning to vote to repeal most or all of estate tax, where is Bob Johnson and his cohort of black millionaires? Hopefully they realized that the only people who will benefit from repeal is themselves.
House and Senate negotiators have neared a compromise to finally pass the supplemental spending bill, which will provide more than $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. “After the talks broke early yesterday morning, lawmakers came back to prepare a new fiscal 2007 Pentagon budget that includes another $50 billion in emergency funding, largely for Iraq operations. The cumulative U.S. investment in Iraq is now approaching $370 billion; more striking is the rapid escalation in the pace of monthly expenditures.”
The death of terrorist Abu Marsab al-Zarqawi is unquestionably good news. But there is little evidence that his absence will create a vacuum in the foreign fighter leadership in Iraq. Two points:
1. Zarqawi was replaced as the head of Iraq’s insurgency months ago. Recall the news from earlier this spring that Zarqawi had been replaced as the leader in Iraq by Abdullah bin Rashed Al-Baghdadi (a nom de guerre). Al Qaeda’s Iraq cells had already reorganized before this happened and will readjust again.
2. Al Qaeda’s global leadership was getting sick of their partner in Zarqawi. Last year, Osama bin Laden’s chief deputy Ayman Zawahiri sent a letter to Zarqawi that contained a “striking critique” of Zarqawi’s insurgency strategy. “He comes down like a ton of bricks on what has happened tactically,” one U.S. analyst said describing the letter. Even Iraqis sympathetic with the goals of the insurgency have grown to disapprove of al Qaeda’s actions. Over the last year, there were several instances in which the local population turned on Zarqawi’s followers and attacked them.
In other words, Zarqawi’s star had fallen over the last six months, and there is reason to believe that his falling from favor was a key ingredient in this operation. Someone gave up details on him because they wanted him out.
Of course, this doesn’t change the fact that we should rejoice in today’s news. But we should also be clear in our analysis about what it means for the next steps. There is little evidence of a leadership vacuum in the foreign fighter leadership and cause for serious concern that the current violence in Iraq will not abate.
– Brian Katulis
Approval of Bush’s handling of Iraq, according to a new AP/Ipsos poll. Bush’s overall job approval is at 35 percent.
The FDA has approved a vaccine to protect against a sexually-transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. (Cervical cancer affects over 10,000 women in the United States each year, killing more than 3,700 annually.) The vaccine was opposed by prominent religious right groups because they said it would be seen as a “license to engage in premarital sex.”
U.S. officials: Al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed.
UPDATE: Also yesterday, Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki finally filled the remaining security-related positions in his cabinet, completing the formation of Iraq’s first permanent government:
The Iraqi parliament approved on Thursday Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s candidates for interior and defense ministers, ending wrangling that had threatened to plunge his three-week-old unity government into crisis.
UPDATE II: “The news [of Zarqawi's death] came amid more reports of violence in Iraq, with two bombs striking a market and a police patrol in Baghdad, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 40.”
UPDATE III: Reports from U.S. military officials indicate Zarqawi was exposed by those closest to him, suggesting an internal power struggle. Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq said, “Tips and intelligence from Iraqi senior leaders from his network led forces to al-Zarqawi and some of his associates who were conducting a meeting … when the air strike was launched.”
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