President Bush plans to ask Congress for an additional $50 billion in funding to help pay for the surge in Iraq, the Washington Post reported. This is on top of the $147 billion in supplemental funding already requested for Iraq and Afghanistan. The cost of the war in Iraq now calculates to more than $3 billion a week.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
After Reps. Mark Foley and Rick Renzi, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Sens. David Vitter and Ted Stevens, Republicans didn’t think the scandals could get any worse. Wrong.
"The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness," GOP strategist Scott Reed lamented to the New York Times about the scandal involving Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. "You can’t make this stuff up. And the impact this is having on the grass-roots around the country is devastating. Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Republicans still don’t have an obvious nominee for 2008, but they already have an obvious cause — to prevent four more Clinton years. That’s surely why Karl Rove took pains to attack Hillary Clinton on his way out the White House door this month. “As Hillary Clinton becomes the nominee,” GOP pollster B.J. Martino said at a weekend Midwest Republican Leadership Conference in Indiana, “Republican intensity will simultaneously spike.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Include Libertarians among those who are glad that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned. Shane Cory, executive director of the Libertarian Party, said in a statement that the resignation “is a welcomed conclusion to what will be seen as a dark time for justice in America.” He added: “I feel that the civil liberties of all Americans are at least a little bit safer now that Gonzales has resigned.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
When asked at a beauty pageant why one-fifth of Americans couldn’t locate the United States on a map, Miss Teen South Carolina, Lauren Caitlin Upton, delivered a rambling response that seemed to be evidence of the problem, speculating that many “U.S. Americans” lack maps and then for some reason mentioning South Africa and Iraq.
A YouTube video has turned the 18-year-old into a figure of fun. But Upton got a second crack at the question Tuesday:
“Well, personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t. And if the statistics are correct, I believe there should be more emphasis on geography.”
That’s close enough for beauty pageant work. Go to the head of the class.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison recently burnished his tough-guy image by taking on a Doberman. That’s right — a Topeka woman said her Labrador retriever was being viciously attacked by a Doberman pinscher when a truck pulled over and Morrison stepped out. He managed to separate the dogs.
The owner was grateful. “I mean, what other attorney generals in their states just stop in some neighborhood when they see something going on?” she asked.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
