Hagel defends Iraq criticism Bush calls criticism harmful to war effort and troops Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) strongly criticized the White House's new line of attack against critics of its Iraq policy, saying that "the Bush administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them."
Brad's Ten-Foot Poll on War Criticism --- RESULT
Posted 9am Wed Nov 16 - 10pm Thur Nov 17, 2005
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel says Americans have the right to criticize Iraq War policy without their patriotism being questioned by President Bush
Hagel is rightly defending free speech
225 -
74%
Hagel is hurting the war effort and troops
79 -
26%
Total votes 304 -
USA TODAY / GALLUP POLL Iraq attitudes akin to Vietnam Now, more than half of those surveyed want to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within the next 12 months. In 1970, roughly half of those surveyed wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam within 12 months. McCain says he is "very worried" about polls showing waning support for the war.
add 230p
John Fund of the Wall Street Journal WSJ Political Diary
With polls showing that 60% of Americans have heard of the infamous “bridge to nowhere,” the $223 million federally-funded span that is supposed to connect Ketchikan, Alaska to virtually uninhabited Gravina Island, Republican leaders have finally decided to get rid of what some were calling “a bridge to our embarrassment.”
The transportation appropriations bill that is scheduled to reach the Senate floor this week will zero out the bridge and give the money to the state of Alaska to spend as it wishes. The tipping point against the bridge came when Reader’s Digest featured an article on it in this month’s issue and it became known that reporters were pursuing the fact that a 33-acre parcel of land on Gravina Island is partly owned by Nancy Murkowski, wife of Governor Frank Murkowski and mother of U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a big booster of the bridge.
Rep. Mike Pence, the chairman of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, says the bridge’s demise is only the opening round in a war he plans to fight against a federal budget that is wildly out of control. But he considers it an important symbolic victory. He compared Study Committee members who bucked their leadership to oppose the bridge to British soldiers depicted in the classic World War II movie “Bridge on the River Kwai.” “Just as in the movie, members of Congress finally convinced their leadership that we should blow this bridge,” he told me.
EDITORIAL: WASHINGTON TIMES The homeland-security pork barrel ".. a more reasonable bill from ... John Cornyn, Texas Republican, never got much traction."
Oil chiefs DID meet Cheney task force
Energy task force meeting was denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress. As the Fark site puts it, "Good thing they weren't under oath."
After 55-year wait, veteran faces new delays in getting compensation More than 13,700 veterans died in the past decade while their cases were in the VA appeals process - some while waiting for their checks to be mailed. Under VA rules, if a veteran wins his or her case but dies before cashing the check, the government generally keeps the money.
Cop's job on the line after he appeared on TV in a canary-yellow dress, sporting dark red lipstick...
74%
