Initial Benchmark Assessment Report  —  This report to Congress is submitted consistent with Section 1314 of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 (Public Law 110-28) (the "Act").  It includes an assessment …

A Bush Aide's Long Road From The White House  —  On a snowy evening in December 1998, Sara M. Taylor, the daughter of a former pipe fitter at a John Deere plant in Iowa, came to a meeting at the Capital Hilton.  Washington had grown dark and quiet, and the hotel restaurant was empty …

Bush to Declare Gains in Iraq on Some Fronts  —  The Bush administration will assert in the next few days that progress in carrying out the new American strategy in Iraq has been satisfactory on nearly half of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress, according to several administration officials.

U.S. Warns Of Stronger Al-Qaeda  —  Administration Report Cites Havens in Pakistan  —  Six years after the Bush administration declared war on al-Qaeda, the terrorist network is gaining strength and has established a safe haven in remote tribal areas of western Pakistan for training and planning attacks …

McCain Call Raises an Ethics Question  —  About 3 p.m. Tuesday, Senator John McCain ducked off the Senate floor, entered the Republican cloakroom and took out his mobile phone.  Just hours after accepting the resignation of his two top campaign aides, he was making a conference call …

Rep. Bob Allen arrested on sex charge  —  TITUSVILLE - State Rep. Bob Allen was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a local park after offering to perform a sex act on an undercover officer in exchange for $20, police said.  —  Allen, R-Merritt Island, was booked into the Brevard County jail …

A Nuclear Ruse Uncovers Holes in U.S. Security  —  Undercover Congressional investigators set up a bogus company and obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March that would have allowed them to buy the radioactive materials needed for a so-called dirty bomb.

Lazy, Stupid or Willfully Ignorant?  —  Right now, all the talk in DC is whether there has been any progress in Iraq.  No one can wait till September.  They need to know now.  Primarily, it appears, because they need to kill the war for their own domestic political reasons before it kills them.

Wishful Thinking on Iraq  —  IT SEEMS like just weeks ago, because it was, that Congress approved funding for the war in Iraq and instructed Gen. David H. Petraeus to report back on the war's progress in September.  Now, for reasons having more to do with American politics than with Iraqi reality, September isn't soon enough.

CAIR's duplicitous ways  —  While the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been busy attacking syndicated columnist Cal Thomas recently for supposedly "Islamophobic" comments, the media-hungry group did not condemn the foiled terrorist plots in London or the successful one in Glasgow, Scotland.

Thompson Waffles On Pro-Choice Lobbying Past  —  Fred Thompson has effectively admitted in an interview with Sean Hannity that he did lobby in behalf of a pro-abortion rights group.  —  Hannity served up a chest-high, 25 mph softball:  —  "They have attacked you, they have attacked your family …

'A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi... You know, so what?'  —  Interviews with US veterans show for the first time the pattern of brutality in Iraq  —  It is an axiom of American political life that the actions of the US military are beyond criticism.  Democrats and Republicans praise the men and women in uniform at every turn.