“The Air Force’s fleet of warplanes is older than ever and wearing out faster because of heavy use in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the service’s top combat commander.”
“The chance that an Iraqi child will live beyond age 5 has plummeted faster than anywhere else in the world since 1990,” according to the group Save the Children, which “placed the country last in its child survival rankings. One in eight Iraqi children died of disease or violence before reaching their fifth birthday in 2005.”
Senate conservatives “effectively killed a measure that would have let Americans buy prescription medicines from foreign suppliers, which sponsors said could have saved consumers billions of dollars.” A ‘poison pill’ amendment from Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) passed 49-40 in a “major victory for the pharmaceutical industry.”
“Former President Bill Clinton announced agreements with drug companies Tuesday to lower the price in the developing world of AIDS drugs resistant to initial treatments and to make a once-a-day AIDS pill available for less than $1 a day.”
“Leading governments of Europe, mounting a new campaign to push Paul D. Wolfowitz from his job as World Bank president, signaled Monday that they were willing to let the United States choose the bank’s next chief, but only if Mr. Wolfowitz stepped down soon.”
“Patricia Roe, Rep. Rick Renzi’s (R-AZ) chief of staff, has quit her fundraising duties for the lawmaker to spend more time concentrating on her Congressional job while her boss is engulfed in legal troubles.” Roe’s husband, Jason, who was formerly the chief of staff to Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), also recently resigned from the campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
“Congressional leaders from both political parties are giving President Bush a matter of months to prove that the Iraq war effort has turned a corner, with September looking increasingly like a decisive deadline.” Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) said, “I do think this fall we have to see some significant changes on the ground.”
And finally: On Sunday night’s episode of “The Sopranos,” Carmela Soprano is seen reading a peculiar book in bed: Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes’ “Rebel in Chief,” an admiring character study of President Bush. Asked about what lessons a mafia wife might take away from his book, Barnes replied, “there is a theory that the mafia represents a certain conservatism — unrestricted capitalism and traditionalism.”
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
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