President Bush has appointed a new senior domestic policy adviser: Karl Zinsmeister, a “longtime scholar at the American Enterprise Institute,” and editor of the think tank’s magazine. Last June, he wrote about the “central reality” in Iraq: “With the exception of periodic flare-ups in isolated corners, our struggle in Iraq as warfare is over.”
“The FBI is seeking interviews with top House Members from both parties to determine whether they leaked details of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program to The New York Times, further fanning the flames of an already tense relationship between Capitol Hill and the Bush administration.” One Senator said “the FBI will interview current and former Senators about the leak as well.”
A new study finds New Orleans “is the U.S. city most likely to be struck by hurricane force winds during the 2006 storm season.” Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers has finished repairing the city’s levees, but experts say New Orleans is “still very much at risk“¦ because the level of protection the corps has reached is still not as strong as the city needs,” not even good enough for a Category 3 storm.
13: The number of days before VA Secretary Jim Nicholson was told about the burglary of data on 26 million veterans.
“Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry is calling on the Bush administration to negotiate directly with Iran, saying he believes that is the only path toward resolving the nuclear crisis.”
Yesterday, Special Counsel Patrick Fizgerald released Scooter Libby’s 2004 grand jury testimony. In it, Libby said “Vice President Cheney was personally angered by” Joe Wilson’s “newspaper column attacking a key rationale for the war in Iraq and repeatedly directed” Libby “to ‘get all the facts out’ related to the critique.” Cheney also raised the issue that Valerie Plame “worked at the CIA and that she allegedly played a role in sending” Wilson to Niger.
More than half of America’s hunters and fishermen “have seen first-hand the impact of global warming, according to a poll released Tuesday by the National Wildlife Federation.” Fully 71 percent “said they were concerned about diminishing fish and wildlife populations and many had seen direct impacts of climate change in the field,” and a majority “also rejected the Bush Administration’s fossil-fuel-based energy policy and want more conservation and clean fuels.”
The Senate yesterday voted 73-25 to end debate on a compromise immigration bill “that would toughen border security and put most illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship,” suggesting it will pass easily today. “Its advance set up a showdown with the House over the most substantial overhaul of immigration law in 20 years.”
Big Pharma up to no good: “Drug companies fund a growing number of the studies in leading psychiatric journals,” and for good reason: 78 percent of company-funded studies give the drugs favorable reviews, while only 48 percent of independent studies are positive.
And finally: the National Review has come up with a playlist for George W. Bush’s iPod. The magazine issued a list of what it believes are the “top 50 conservative rock songs of all time.” Number 1 was the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” closely followed by the Beatles’ “Taxman.” The list — which is “overwhelmingly white and male” — also includes “I Fought the Law” by the Crickets. (Bush will love this one.)
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
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