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Thousands of ’surge’ troops may remain past July ‘08.
Last night, President Bush announced that because the “troop surge is working,” he would be pulling out roughly 23,700 troops by mid-July 2008 and returning the U.S. force in Iraq to pre-surge levels. Yet as the AP notes today, the United States may actually “wind up with thousands more troops in Iraq next summer than [...]

Cornyn Embraces Bush’s Plan For Iraq, Earlier Criticized Warner’s Same Proposal As ‘Curious’
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has released a statement praising President Bush’s speech on Iraq last night, saying he is “pleased” that “troops will come home before the year’s end”:Our commanding officer in Iraq, General Petraeus, came before the Congress this week and made clear that the surge is working; military progress is being made [...]

$13,000 for brownies and cookies at the Justice Dept.
Today, an internal Justice Department audit exposed excessive spending on lavish DoJ parties and events. Some highlights: An internal Justice audit, released Friday, showed the department spent nearly $7 million to plan, host or send employees to 10 conferences over the last two years. This included paying $4 per meatball at one lavish dinner [...]

Video Compilation: ‘Loyal Bushies’ Throw Lavish Farewell Ceremony For Alberto Gonzales
Today marked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ final day in office. Several top Justice Department and Bush administration officials gathered this afternoon at the Great Hall in the Department of Justice to bid the Attorney General a fond farewell. Senior Justice officials heaped unabashed praise on Gonzales.Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury:“[H]undreds of innocent human [...]

Iceland to pull lone soldier out of Iraq.
In his Iraq speech last night, President Bush took a moment to thank “the 36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq.” TPMmuckraker’s Spencer Ackerman has been counting coalition members with troops on the ground and has been able to find only 34 — many of whom have just a minor presence in [...]

Giuliani: ‘Listen’ To Me On Iraq, Even Though I Quit The Iraq Study Group To Get Rich
In the New York Times this morning, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) ran an ad supporting Gen. David Petraeus’ recent sugarcoated testimony before Congress. In the ad, Giuliani asks “who should America listen to” on Iraq” — critics of the war, or Petraeus and Giuliani:On MSNBC this morning, Giuliani’s senior communications adviser, [...]

Fox ignores Reed’s response to Bush.
Following President Bush’s speech last night, Fox was the only broadcast network that did not air Sen. Jack Reed’s (D-RI) rebuttal. Instead, anchor Shepard Smith directed viewers to watch Reed’s reply on cable at Fox News. “ABC, NBC, and CBS all aired the Democratic response,” MediaMatters notes.

Snow On Long-Term Military Occupation: ‘Yeah, The Iraqis Want That’
Yesterday, President Bush told the nation he would endorse a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq:At the same time, they understand that [Iraq’s] success will require U.S. political, economic and security engagement that extends beyond my Presidency. These Iraqi leaders have asked for an enduring relationship with America. And we are ready to begin building [...]

Inhofe Praises Bush’s Iraq Plan As ‘Wise,’ Earlier Blasted Same Proposal By Warner As ‘Irresponsible’
On Aug. 23, Sen. John Warner (R-VA) called on President Bush to announce on Sept. 15 that approximately 5,000 troops “could begin to redeploy and be home to their families and loved ones no later than Christmas of this year.”That same day, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) put out a statement blasting Warner’s proposal, calling [...]

McCain dismisses Boehner’s gaffe: ‘He misspoke.’
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a Vietnam veteran, weighed in last night on House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-OH) comment “that the sacrifice of soldiers who have died or been wounded in Iraq “will be a small price if we’re able to stop al Qaeda.” McCain spoke to Time’s Ana Marie Cox on his campaign bus:“He [...]

Kurtz: Fox News is ‘entitled’ to ‘misinform our society.’
On Wednesday, during an appearance on Glenn Beck’s CNN Headline News show, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz said that Fox News is “entitled” to be “a cheerleader for the Bush administration” that is “misinforming our society.” Kurtz’s comments came in the context of dismissing the criticisms of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who routinely mocks the [...]

Bush Admin Tamps Down Right-Wing Desire For Mass Deportation Of Undocumented Immigrants
At her Senate confirmation hearing this week, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Julie Myers reported that it would cost $94 billion to deport all 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. An ICE spokesperson later reported that this figure does not include any costs for apprehension of undocumented immigrants. While [...]

Defying Bush And Cheney, White House Science Adviser Acknowledges Man-Made Warming Is A Fact
In an interview with the BBC, Professor John Marburger, Bush’s chief science adviser, said it was an “unequivocal” fact that climate change is man-made and that greenhouse gases emitted by human activity are to blame.Marburger said he “strongly agrees” with the IPCC reports and “supports its conclusions.” He added:I think there is widespread agreement [...]

ThinkFast: September 14, 2007
The mother of Sgt. Omar Mora, the soldier who co-authored a New York Times op-ed critical of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq, is calling on the Army to explain her son’s death. “I want to know all the details of how he died. I want to know the truth,” said Olga Capetillo.Attorney General Alberto [...]

12:
Number of times President Bush referenced al Qaeda in his Iraq speech last night, which lasted just under 18 minutes. A recent Congressional Research Service concluded that attacks from al Qaeda are only a small percentage of the violence in Iraq.

Snow Snipes At CNN’s Malveaux: ‘Your Credibility Ratings Are Lower Than The President’
On CNN’s The Situation Room yesterday, Tony Snow got testy in an interview Suzanne Malveaux, snidely telling her, “Your credibility ratings, journalists credibility ratings, are lower than the President’s.” Malveaux was asking Snow about a New York Times/CBS News poll that found