Tony Blair, a man “whose decade of achievements have faded into the shadows of the Iraq war,” said Thursday that he will step down as British prime minister on June 27. As the war “turned from a military cakewalk to the nightmarish years-long aftermath, Blair’s popularity ratings dived; they stand at just 28 percent today,” the same level as President Bush.
“The former U.S. attorney in Kansas City, MO, Todd P. Graves, said yesterday that he was asked to step down from his job by a senior Justice Department official in January 2006, months before eight other federal prosecutors would be fired by the Bush administration.”
“The Pentagon has placed unprecedented restrictions on who can testify before Congress, reserving the right to bar lower-ranking officers, enlisted soldiers, and career bureaucrats from appearing before oversight committees or having their remarks transcribed.”
59 percent: The proportion of black respondents who described their lives as “disrupted” more than a year after Hurricane Katrina, “double that of whites who said the same (29 percent).”
Congress plans to “introduce a bill this morning that would increase by at least 20,000 the number of Iraqi refugees eligible for resettlement in the United States in 2007 and 2008. It would also admit 15,000 ‘special immigrant status‘ Iraqis and their families for each of the next four years.”
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz was given until Friday evening — two additional days — to make his case in writing against charges of misconduct before the Bank board decides his future. In the meantime, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been lobbying European foreign ministers, expressing her support for Wolfowitz.
A report released by Sen. Edward Kennedy yesterday revealed that four Education Department officials “who helped oversee a federal reading program for young students have pocketed significant sums of money from textbook publishers that profited from the $1 billion-a-year initiative.”
The House Armed Services Committee is considering a measure would cut $764 million from funds for President Bush’s missile defense program. A statistical analysis conducted by the Center for American Progress bolsters the case for funding cuts, finding the threat from ballistic missiles has steadily declined over the past 20 years.
And finally: Yesterday, President Bush toured tornado-ravaged Greensburg, KS. The AP reports that in the midst of the solemnity, Bush was able to joke around. “He briefly grabbed a chain saw, ripping it into action for the cameras and other media that accompanied him. ‘How are you all?’ Bush asked as he moved among residents. ‘Stylish looking hat,’ he joked to a man in a green fedora.”
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