Situation in Iraq

Today, President Bush will announce a freeze on some subprime mortgages in an effort to stop a wave of foreclosures. Bloomberg writes, “Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s success in crafting agreement on a five-year fix of subprime mortgage rates owes a debt to an unlikely source: congressional Democrats.” Atrios has more. The NIE’s conclusion that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program came about after intelligence agencies obtained notes last summer of Iranian military officials complaining “bitterly” about the “decision by their superiors in late 2003 to shut down” a central part of the program. One in three Americans “want to deny social services, including public schooling and emergency room healthcare,” to undocumented immigrants, according to a LAT/Bloomberg poll. However, 60 percent still favor creating a pathway to citizenship for law-abiding individuals.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) yesterday took offense at being described as a “puppet” of President Bush by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Jim Manley, a Reid spokesman, “said it’s understandable that Republicans are sensitive about being associated with Bush.” The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday blocked a Bush administration rule under the “Healthy Forests Initiative” that “allowed logging and burning projects in national forests without first analyzing their effects on the environment.” (more…)