“The administration’s North Korea policy has not worked.  By virtually every measure, Bush’s North Korea policy has been a failure.  Diplomatic efforts have broken down and Norht Korea has resumed plutonium production.  When Bush took office, North Korea had produced enough plutonium under George H.W. Bush for 1-2 nuclear weapons.  Today, the country posses material for 4-13 nuclear weapons.  If North Korea unloads another batch of fuel, it may have enough nuclear material for 8 to 17 nuclear bombs by 2008.  Sunday’s test was simply the culmination of the ‘Bush administration’s haphazard diplomacy in Northeast Asia over the past six years,’ noted the Center for America Progress’s Joseph Cirincione.  The Bush administration ramped up the rhetoric, including North Korea in the ‘axis of evil’ in his 2002 State of the Union address and talking about possible need to take preemptive military action against the regime in the 2002 National Security Strategy Statement.  But when North Korea responded by expelling international inspectors and unsealing its nuclear facilities, the Bush administration had no effective response.”

“Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), the Senate’s king of pork, “killed a requirement for the Defense Department to evaluate unauthorized earmarks imposed by members of Congress on the Pentagon,” Bob Novak reports.  See the Progress Report here.

“George Bush signed a homeland security bill that provides funds to construct 700 miles of fencing along the border with Mexico.  Congress rushed through the measure before it adjourned last week.”

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“The inability of the besieged Hamas-run Palestinian Authority to pay civil servants or the security forces resulted in violent clashes between Hamas and Fatah militia in Gaza and the West Bank.  Some 12 people were killed.” Read the article here.

As this Republican Rubber Stamp Congress prepares to come to a close, our last real opportunity to get things done has been squandered. Republicans have failed to bring the minimum wage to the floor for a fair vote. They have failed to present a plan for our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have failed to make college more affordable. They have failed middle class Americans, working families, and the legacy of this great nation. But they have succeeded in their primary goal. They have succeeded in blocking any reform, any action, any legislation that would bring meaningful change to the American people.
read the rest here….

“an american court ruled that luis posada carriles, a cuban former cia agent, should be releasd from an immigration centre. he is wanted by cuba and venezuela in connection with the 1976 bombing of a cuban plane that killed 73 people and a plot to kill fidel castro. the americans refuse to deport hum, believing he could be tortured.”