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ThinkFast: December 14, 2006

“The Bush administration asked an appeals court Wednesday to overrule a federal judge and allow the White House to keep secret any records of visitors to Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence and office.”

Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) “underwent emergency brain surgery overnight after falling ill at the Capitol and was in critical condition early this morning, introducing a note of uncertainty over control of the Senate.” CNN reports Johnson has been diagnosed with a congenital arteriovenous malformation.

“Two major studies of male circumcision in Africa have found that the simple surgical procedure reduces the risk of HIV infection by half — a hugely important result that is likely to prompt many African nations hard hit by AIDS to promote it as a means to control the epidemic.”

Yesterday President Bush and Vice President Cheney met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said that they “do not favor adding significant numbers of troops to Iraq.”

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Karl Rove “disclosed during a Washington speaking engagement last week that he will not return to his lifetime profession as a political consultant when he leaves the White House. Rove referred to himself as ‘a former political consultant’ and said that he was leaving the game.”

“This year is set to be the sixth warmest worldwide since records began, stoked by global warming linked to human activities,” a new report by the British Meteorological Office finds.

Former CNN news division chief, Eason Jordan, is starting a “one-stop-shopping clearinghouse” for Iraq information at www.iraqslogger.com. “The name of his new venture, he says, was inspired by a Donald Rumsfeld reference to this war being a ‘long, hard slog.’”

The Bush administration’s handling of a Hurricane Katrina housing program was “a legal disaster,” according to a federal judge. The judge “ordered officials to explain a computer system that can neither precisely count evacuees nor provide reasons why they had been denied aid.”

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will not be speaking in Miami today on ‘The Need for Assimilation,’ following an “alleged threat made against the restaurant where he was scheduled to speak.” “I knew speaking your mind could be dangerous in Havana. I guess it’s equally dangerous to do so in Miami. Apparently, there isn’t much of a difference between the two anymore,” Tancredo said.

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And finally: Rumors that Jenna Bush is dating 25-year-old PR student from Buenos Aires are false. “Sources acquainted with Jenna say she’s still involved with longtime boyfriend Henry Hager. Laura Bush’s spokeswoman Susan Whitson even broke her usual no-comment-on-the-twins policy: ‘We have found that young men who talk to the press and claim to be the boyfriend of Barbara or Jenna are just expressing wishful thoughts.’”

What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.