“The Bush administration is expected to announce next week a major step forward in the building of the country’s first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades,” the New York Times reports. “It will propose combining elements of competing designs from two weapons laboratories in an approach that some experts argue is untested and risky.” The overall bill is “estimated at more than $100 billion.”
Report: Israel planning nuke strike on Iran.
Israel is reportedly “planning and training” for a low-level nuclear strike against Iran, Fox News reports.
UPDATE: The UK Sunday Times has more details on this report.
UPDATE II: Israel has denied the reports.
Hastert’s here to stay.
“In an exclusive interview with CBS 2 Dennis Hastert said he can deal with the demotion, and that, contrary to many rumors, he will not quit Congress. ‘I just think that was wishful thinking on the part of some people,’ Hastert said.”
Waxman creates new transparency committee.
“Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has created a new subcommittee that will tackle decisions made by the Bush administration regarding which government records should be made available to the public,” The Hill reports. Waxman’s plan “to create a subcommittee devoted to government transparency foreshadows what is expected to be a contentious debate with the administration over executive branch documents.”
Sen. John Warner’s (R-VA) three months
Save Tom Tomorrow!
Progressive cartoonist Tom Tomorrow was recently dropped from the print edition of the Village Voice newspaper. He’s asked readers to sign a petition respectfully requesting that the Voice reconsider its decision. Sign the petition HERE. More details HERE (and check out Tom’s latest comic HERE).
Casey at the Bat
Appointing General George Casey Chief of Staff of the Army seems a bit at odds with that big long story last week about how Iraq was all Casey’s fault, Bush was through with Casey, the post-Casey era was going to be awesome, etc., etc., etc.
Yes, Bush is Unpopular
Wingnutsphere wrong again, there is no poll showing Nancy Pelosi to be less popular than George W. Bush and the reason MSM coverage of the two politicians doesn’t reflect the fact that Pelosi is less popular than Bush is that Pelosi is not, in fact, less popular.
New Plans
The Washington Post reported in this morning’s edition that “In a speech today unveiling his own revised security plan, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to publicly welcome additional U.S. troops, a condition requested by the Bush administration.” One would hope so. Obviously, if we’re going to flood Iraq with thousands of additional soldiers, the support of the Iraqi government would seem to be crucial. As the Post continues, “Maliki’s cooperation is pivotal to Bush’s own efforts.” So what do I see in my Associated Press coverage:
Al-Maliki is uneasy about the possible introduction of more U.S. troops, aides said, and he has repeatedly refused U.S. demands to crush the militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, one of the prime minister’s most powerful backers.
Sami al-Askari, an al-Maliki political adviser, told The Associated Press on Friday that al-Maliki had not acquiesced to a reported White House plan to send as many as 9,000 more U.S. troops to Baghdad alone.
Oops? I’m not even sure. Once again, we see that this whole thing is backwards and horribly ill-conceived. Note that Maliki’s new plan and Bush’s new plan (which may or may not be the same plan) seem exactly the same as Operation Forward Together, a surge-based Baghdad security plan implemented in June 2006 that failed utterly.
Cavuto Battles Frank: ‘Congressman, Is It Always Incumbent Upon You To Be So Condescending?’
Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto had a fiery exchange with House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) this week. Early on in the interview, Frank criticized Cavuto for repeatedly cutting him off. “If you’re going to interrupt every five words, we don’t have a show.”
Frank also took exception to Cavuto’s suggestion that Frank was in favor of arbitrary caps on CEO pay. “I’ve never said that. I can’t deal with all of your distortions here,” Frank said. Cavuto hit back: “Congressman, is it always incumbent upon you to be so condescending or do you just want to answer my question?”
Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/01/frankcav.320.240.flv]
This isn’t the first time Frank has taken a Fox News anchor to task.
