The boat is sinking,…

Bush’s top political strategist and deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove (r.), announced his resignation at a press conference on Monday. Ron Edmonds/AP/file

.Rove departure marks end of era for White House

President Bush’s political strategist strove to cement GOP control.

By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 14, 2007 edition

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Washington – Strategist Karl Rove’s departure from the White House may signal the official end of an era of ambition for both the presidency of George Bush and the Republican Party as a whole.

The man President Bush dubbed “The Architect” long dreamed of leading a shift in US politics that would establish the GOP as the nation’s clear majority party. His policy goals were similarly grand – he pushed for seismic change in American education, retirement programs, and immigration policy, among other things.

His plans won two tough presidential elections. But US political realignment, if it’s happening, appears to favor Democrats. And today, the administration’s domestic agenda is at best stalled – and at worst gone with the wind.

“I think this takes the broadest claims for the Bush presidency off the table, as Karl Rove goes out the door,” says Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Mr. Rove’s departure may also deprive the administration’s critics of one of their favorite targets.

Democrats have long accused Rove of favoring a scorched-earth style of campaigning designed to win by dividing the electorate. They’ve seen his hand in everything from the leak to the press of the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose husband was a critic of the war in Iraq; to the firing of eight US attorneys last year, possibly for improper political reasons.

The White House has declined to allow Rove to testify under oath before Congress in the US attorneys matter, citing executive privilege. Whether lawmakers continue to pursue him in private life with subpoenas to testify remains to be seen.

“Many in Congress believe Rove was behind all this US attorney business and really orchestrated it,” says Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. “But they’ve not been able to prove it.”

In one sense Rove’s departure was expected. Officials often leave an administration as its time in office winds down, and the Bush White House is no exception. Among those who have already left are White House counselor Dan Bartlett, budget director Rob Portman, and top White House attorney Harriet Miers. [Editor's note: The original version misspelled Mr. Bartlett's name.]

“For someone to be in a White House for a full eight years is a very unusual thing,” says Professor Jillson.

But from a tactical point of view, Rove’s announcement was a shock. There were none of the usual rumors of departure. The news was passed, unusually, in an interview with Paul Gigot, the editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Karl Rove has been Bush’s political adviser since the beginning of the latter’s political career as governor of Texas.

“We’ve been friends for a long time and we’re still going to be friends,” said Bush at a White House appearance with Rove on Monday.

Rove told The Journal that he plans to write a book about his experiences, and that in all likelihood his days as a political consultant are over.

“There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family,” he told reporters on Aug. 13 at the White House. Rove plans to return to Texas with his wife and son, who is a university student in San Antonio.

crisis looming

NEWS ALERT
from The Wall Street Journal

Aug. 10, 2007

The Federal Reserve, in a statement that underscores the deepening severity of developments in credit markets, said it is “providing liquidity to facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets,” and will pump enough money into credit markets to keep the Fed’s target for the federal funds interest rate at 5.25%. U.S. federal-funds futures early Friday priced in about a 100% chance that the Federal Reserve will reduce its key lending rate by a half-percentage point to 4.75% by the next policy meeting on Sept. 18.

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118673195378094167.html?mod=djemalert

Read the Fed’s statement:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118675254324894252.html?mod=djemalert

About one-quarter of America’s 577,000 bridges were rated deficient in 2004

Bridge collapse spotlights America’s deferred maintenance

By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 3, 2007 edition

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The tragic rush-hour collapse in Minneapolis of the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River is again forcing a reexamination of the nation’s approach to maintaining and inspecting critical infrastructure.

According to engineers, the nation is spending only about two-thirds as much as it should be to keep dams, levees, highways, and bridges safe. The situation is more urgent now because many such structures were designed 40 or 50 years ago, before Americans were driving weighty SUVs and truckers were lugging tandem loads.

It all adds up to a poor grade: The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation a D in 2005, the latest report available, after assessing 12 categories of infrastructure ranging from rails and roads to wastewater treatment and dams.

“One of America’s great assets is its infrastructure, but if you don’t invest it deteriorates,” says Patrick Natale, executive director of ASCE.

Among scores of recent examples:

•Last month, a 100-year-old steam pipe erupted in midtown Manhattan, killing one man and causing millions of dollars in lost business.

•The inadequacies of levees in New Orleans became horrifyingly clear in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. The city is still recovering.

•In 2003, the Silver Lake Dam in Michigan failed, causing $100 million in damage.

America’s 577,000 bridges are of particular concern because they are subject to corrosion. According to the website of Nondestructive Testing (NDT), which advocates not damaging structures during testing, the average lifespan of a bridge is about 70 years. Bridges are inspected visually every two years. However, NDT notes, “it is not uncommon for a fisherman, canoeist, and other passerby to alert officials to major damage that may have occurred between inspections.”

In the federal government’s rating system, any bridge that scores less than 80 – on a scale of 1 to 100 – is in need of rehabilitation. A bridge scoring below 50 should undergo reconstruction under federal guidelines. In 2004, 26.7 percent of US bridges, urban and rural, were rated deficient, down from 27.5 percent in 2002, according to the US Department of Transportation (DOT).

Minnesota’s record is far better, with only 12.2 percent of its bridges falling into the deficient or obsolete categories.

Bridges down, foes weapons up

Last Updated: Monday, 6 August 2007, 09:35 GMT 10:35 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version 190,000 weapons ‘missing in Iraq’ AK-47 assault rifles might have ended up in insurgents’ hands The US military cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces, an official US report says.The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Pentagon cannot track about 30% of the weapons distributed in Iraq over the past three years. The Pentagon did not dispute the figures, but said it was reviewing arms deliveries procedures. About $19.2bn has been spent by the US since 2003 on Iraqi security forces. GAO, the investigative arm of the US Congress, said at least $2.8bn of this money was used to buy and deliver weapons and other equipment. Correspondents say it is now feared many of the weapons are being used against US forces on the ground in Iraq. Discrepancies The GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005. MISSING IN IRAQ AK-47 rifles: 110,000 Pistols: 80,000 Body armour pieces: 135,000 Helmets: 115,000 During this period, security training was led by Gen David Petraeus, who now commands all US forces in Iraq. The GAO reached the estimate – 111,000 missing AK-47s and 80,000 missing pistols – by comparing the property records of the Multi-National Security Transition Command for Iraq against records maintained by Gen Petraeus of the arms and equipment he ordered. Deputy Assistant Defence Secretary Mark Kimmitt told AFP the Pentagon was “reviewing policies and procedures to ensure US-funded equipment reaches the intended Iraqi security forces under the Iraq program”. Weapons delay The report comes as a political battle rages in Washington over the progress of the war in Iraq. Gen Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker are scheduled to report to Congress by mid-September on the success of efforts to halt sectarian violence and return Iraq to viable self-governance. Meanwhile, at the end of July, the US Defence Department admitted that the US-led coalition in Iraq had failed to deliver nearly two-thirds of the equipment it promised to Iraq’s army. The Pentagon said only 14.5m of the nearly 40m items of equipment ordered by the Iraqi army had been provided. The US military commander in charge of training in Iraq has asked for help in speeding up the transfer of equipment. Iraq’s ambassador to the US said the delays were hindering the fighting capacity of its armed forces.

Finding the found

Spotting Bias In The News From The Bush Administration. A Really Really Serious Skill…

Seldom do you come across a story with such blatant bias that even a mainstream news reporter can spot it. Such is the case with a story in the Globe today headlined “Study says 95% of Guantanamo detainees had posed a threat”. The story was nicely written by William Glaberson of the New York Times News Service.

Is there an strategy other than making money for Haliburton?

Iran’s growing presence in Iraq

The US, Iran, and Iraq agreed Tuesday to form a subcommittee on stability in Iraq.

By Sam Dagher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Breaking with Bush

GOP senator to Rove: Bush legacy on the line in Iraq

Voinovich told CNN he has warned Karl Rove that the president needs to salvage his legacy.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A Republican senator says he warned top White House aide Karl Rove that President Bush quickly needs to craft a workable plan to withdraw U.S. troops fom Iraq in order to salvage his legacy.

White House spokesman Tony Snow insisted last week that Bush’s GOP allies in Congress are not breaking with Bush over the war. But Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, told CNN that he warned Rove last week that “The president is a young man and should think about his legacy.”

He should know history will not be kind unless he can come up with a plan that protects the troops and stabilizes the region,” Voinovich said he told Karl Rove, whom Bush dubbed “the architect” of his 2004 re-election.

Voinovich added that other Republicans are close to speaking out against the President’s current strategy.

“I won’t mention anyone’s name. But I have every reason to believe that the fur is going to start to fly, perhaps sooner than what they may have wanted.”

In private, Voinovich is more blunt, using a profanity to describe the White House’s handling of Iraq by charging the administration “f—ed up” the war.

Voinovich stressed he expressed his views to Rove as a positive “opportunity” for the president to come together with Democrats and Republicans on an exit strategy that will be good for the country.

A White House spokeswoman confirmed to CNN that Rove, who speaks with Voinovich frequently, had the phone conversation with the senator last week and they did discuss the President’s legacy. But the spokeswoman declined to provide further details, citing Rove’s desire to keep phone conversations with senators private.

“I got into this to get them to move, and they’re moving,” said Voinovich, who is pushing for the president to put together a workable plan for withdrawing U.S. troops that will be ready in time for a September progress report on the military surge from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

“I really think that they understand,” said Voinovich. “We’ll see by September what they put together. But the main thing is were running out of time — we should take advantage of this time.”

And while Voinovich is giving the White House some breathing space until September to receive the progress report from Gen. Petraeus, the senator is privately warning if there’s not a dramatic new strategy ready to be unveiled in the fall, he will endorse a Democratic plan mandating a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days.

In June, Voinovich urged Bush to take a new tack in Iraq — one he dubbed “Plan E,” for exit. Voinovich called for a decrease in U.S. military engagement, coupled with a “surge” in diplomatic engagement.

His break with the White House came one day after another senior Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, delivered a dramatic Senate floor speech declaring the president’s current strategy was not working.

Since then, Voinovich said he has spoken to both Rove and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and is expressing some satisfaction that in the short term, the White House has heard his concerns.

– CNN’s Ed Henry and Dana Bash

Silent surge in contractor ‘armies’

A key support for US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, civilians have little oversight and, back home, little help.

By Brad Knickerbocker | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Dreamworld

Good ideas pave the road to hell

Why?

The Vietnam war was deemed unavoidable. Now, Vietnam is a commercial partner to the US and it maybe that it has closer ties to the US than to Russia and of course they are no close friends to China that even tried to invade. What exactly is the purpose of the war in Irak? What sense does it make to say that insurrection would take years to eradicate if the reason for the insurrection is the occupation of the country?