Tonight’s Republican presidential primary in Michigan is “this election
year’s first
clear referendum” on the economy, state voters’ top concern. Conditions have left
Michigan “in a virtual single-state recession” with an unemployment
rate of seven percent, the highest in the nation.
“Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) returns full time to the Senate this month
with high expectations from his colleagues — and particularly his leadership — that
he will play a key role in their plans to make
the economy a dominant issue this year.” An aide added that “Dodd will not lose
focus on the FISA issue.”
With “just 32 percent of Americans” now approving of the way he is
handling his job, “President Bush starts the last year of his presidency with the
worst approval rating of his career.” Sixty-six percent of Americans disapprove
of Bush’s job performance.
President Bush yesterday “launched a rare round of intensive personal diplomacy
with Saudi King Abdullah aimed at winning support
for a variety of American objectives such as rebuilding Iraq, pressuring Iran,
fighting al-Qaeda and backing the U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the
Palestinians.”
The House Intelligence Committee has postponed testimony from former CIA official
Jose Rodriguez Jr., who destroyed videotapes showing harsh interrogation
tactics, “after being told that he would not answer questions without
a grant of legal immunity for his testimony.” Senior CIA lawyer John
A. Rizzo is still scheduled to appear tomorrow.
Federal authorities expect to “deport more than 200,000 immigrants this
year who are convicted criminals serving time in prisons and jails across the country,
said Julie Myers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which is spearheading
the effort.
“Patients are waiting longer for care in the nation’s emergency rooms,
a potentially deadly result of the shrinking number of emergency departments and rising
demand for emergency services, according to a
new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School.” Between 1997 and 2004, median
waiting times increased by 36 percent.
Iraqi defense minister Abdul Qadir said Monday that Iraq “would not be able to take full
responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own
to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.” The predictions
were “even
less optimistic than those he made last year.”
And finally: Love can transcend politics. Meghan McCain, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ)
“bloggy” daughter, recently went
on a date with “an ardent Ron Paul supporter.” “The date became all about
him trying to convince her about Paul,” noted one of Meghan’s friends. “Finally she
said, ‘You know my dad’s running for president. You’re
not going to change my mind!‘”
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/15/thinkfast-january-15-2008/
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