Doctors administered an electrical shock to Vice President Dick Cheney’s heart and restored it to a normal rhythm during a 2 1/2 hour hospital visit Monday. The procedure was described as a low-risk, standard practice. Cheney, 66, went home from George Washington University Hospital and was expected back at work on Tuesday.
One of the great scandals — maybe “disgraces” is a better word — of the Iraqi war effort is our treatment of the Iraqis who risked their lives to work for the U.S. military and government and American civilian contractors.
Many of them are in exile in neighboring countries, having been forced to abandon their homes and careers in Iraq and facing assassination if they return. Many want to settle in the United States, and they think that’s only fair because they lost everything in our service. And they’re right.
Here’s a science question for you. When does an ounce of lead differ from another ounce of lead?
Answer: When it is being tested in an FBI laboratory.
Oops, my mistake. When it USED to be tested in an FBI laboratory for the purpose of identifying from which gun it was fired.
It’s tempting to think of all Iranians in terms of the mob that stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 or the intemperate remarks of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about Israel and the Holocaust. But certain recent events in Iran provide insight into what its people are really like and why we shouldn’t be hasty about dropping bombs on them.
Trent Lott, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, said on Monday he will retire, ending a 34-year career in Congress in which he became a powerful conservative figure.
“I am announcing today that I will be retiring from the Senate by the end of the year,” Lott, a former college cheerleader, said in his hometown of Pascagoula, Mississippi.
“Let me make it clear, there are no (health) problems. I feel fine. I may look my 66 years, but I honestly feel good.”
Lott made a remarkable political recovery from a gaffe in 2002 that cost him his position as Senate majority leader.
Two Republican senators said Monday that unless Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki makes more political progress by January, the U.S. should consider pulling political or financial support for his government.
The stern warnings, coming from Sens. Lindsey Graham and Saxby Chambliss, are an indication that while GOP patience on the war has greatly increased this fall because of security gains made by the military, it isn’t bottomless.
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who made a farewell speech to House colleagues 11 day earlier, made his resignation official Monday with a letter to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Hastert’s formal resignation, which was to take effect at 11:59 p.m. EST Monday, came the same day that Mississippi GOP Sen. Trent Lott announced he would retire by year’s end after 35 years in Congress.
Hastert had announced in August he wouldn’t seek another term and earlier this month confirmed he wouldn’t finish his 11th term, but he hadn’t said when he would resign his seat.