Situation in Iraq

37 percent: Number of military-family members who “approve of the job Bush is doing as president,” according to a new Bloomberg/LA Times poll. Just 36 percent of active-duty military, veterans, and their families believe “it was worth going to war in Iraq,” compared to a 2004 survey that found “64 percent of service members and their families supported the war.” VetVoice has more.

President Bush’s mortgage relief plan was “set by the mortgage industry and Wall Street firms. The effort is voluntary and it leaves plenty of wiggle room for lenders. Moreover, it would affect only a small number of subprime borrowers.”

“Senate Republicans are planning to call for a congressional commission to investigate the conclusions of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran as well as the specific intelligence that went into it.”

“In a sharp rebuke to White House counterterrorism policy,” the Senate and House intelligence committees agreed last night “to require all American interrogators to abide by the Army Field Manual, which prohibits coercive methods,” effectively outlawing harsh techniques used by the CIA.

With just a week before News Corporation takes control of Dow Jones & Company, Rupert Murdoch plans to remove many executives in the “upper echelon at Dow Jones” and replace them with his “trusted lieutenants.” (more…)