November 25, 2006 – Capitol Hill Blue

Hagel: America cannot win its failed war in Iraq

November 25, 2006

Sen. Chuck Hagel, one of the few Republicans with guts enough to speak out against President George W. Bush’s failed Iraq war, is also willing to admit the United States cannot win the conflict. He also says we will not leave in defeat. The solution, he says, is not a military one.

Writes Hagel in Sunday’s Washington Post:

Bush turns to other Arab nations for help on Iraq

November 25, 2006

With Iraq near all-out civil war, the Bush administration is renewing efforts to break the cycle of violence there by enlisting the help of moderate Arab nations while also seeking to tackle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

While politicians talk, domestic spying continues

November 25, 2006

A year after President George W. Bush revealed existence of a secret administration program that spies 24/7 on Americans, the National Security Agency continues to wiretap the phones of U.S. citizens and politicians continue to talk about the need to control the program.

And yet it continues.

Reports Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times:

Full-blown civil war adds to body count in Iraq

November 25, 2006

The Bush administration won’t admit it but Iraq is in the midst of a full-blown civil war.

After Thursday’s bloodbath turned into the deadliest day of the war, retaliations between Shiites and Sunnis added to the body count and a threat by the Shiite bloc to walk out could doom the already-shaky government of the country.

From most points of view, the United States’ ill-conceived invasion of Iraq has turned the nation into a living hell where civilians die daily and thousands upon thousands flee their homeland.

Iraqi insurgents gun down 21 as violence continues

November 25, 2006

Gunmen raided two Shiite homes in Diyala province, a hotbed of Iraq’s Sunni-Arab insurgency, and shot and killed 21 men in front of their relatives, police said Saturday.

The Capitol Hill office shuffle begins

November 25, 2006

There’s a double meaning in the sign taped to a Dumpster outside the Capitol Hill office of Virginia’s soon-to-be-ex-GOP-Sen. George Allen. It pleads: “Allen: Do not remove.”

Tons of paper, furnishings, equipment and years’ worth of nostalgia are being yanked from the suites of lawmakers who weren’t re-elected this month or are retiring to make way for colleagues who called dibs on their office space.

Changes…they are a-coming

November 25, 2006

Incoming Democratic leaders in the House are trying not to appear vindictive as they return to power after 12 years of Republican rule by not making too many petty rules or administrative changes during the transition.

Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi is even considering backing a rules change that would give staffers of defeated members two months’ severance pay while they look for new jobs — a benefit already extended to Senate staff.

Romney wants to force issue on gay marriage

November 25, 2006

Gov. Mitt Romney asked Massachusetts’ highest court Friday to force a proposed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment onto the state’s 2008 ballot if the Legislature fails to vote on it.

The people have spoken

November 25, 2006

The American people have spoken and they want to go to the bathroom.

Then they want some decent food and don’t want to step in goose droppings getting to it. And after that, being Americans, they don’t want to have to walk too far to get to their car.

Oh, and do something about the rats.

Iraqi violence burning out of control

November 25, 2006

Revenge-seeking Shiite militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left Friday prayers, drenched them with kerosene and burned them alive, and Iraqi soldiers did nothing to stop the attack, police and witnesses said.