For months, President George W. Bush harangued Democrats in Congress for not moving quickly enough to support U.S. troops and for bogging down military bills with unrelated issues.

And then on Friday, with no warning, a vacationing Bush announced that he would veto a sweeping military policy bill because of an obscure provision that could expose the new Iraqi government to billions of dollars in legal claims dating to Saddam Hussein's rule.

The decision left the Bush administration scrambling to promise that it would work with Congress quickly in January to restore dozens of new military and veterans' programs. Those included an added pay raise for service members, which would have taken effect on Tuesday, and improvements in veterans' health benefits, which few elected officials on either side want to be seen opposing.

Bush's veto surprised and infuriated Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans, who complained that the White House had failed to raise its concerns earlier.

"I am disappointed in the way the Congress compiled this legislation, including abandoning the goal I set early this year to reduce the number and cost of earmarks by half," the president said in a statement. "Instead, the Congress dropped into the bill nearly 9,800 earmarks that total more than $10 billion. These projects are not funded through a merit-based process and provide a vehicle for wasteful government spending."

Bush, who had used his veto power to remain relevant in the debate with Democrats on national spending priorities, had agreed to sign the spending measure, which includes $70 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, after winning concessions on Iraq and other budget items. The bill bankrolls 14 Cabinet departments and federal agencies and funds foreign aid for the budget year that began on Oct. 1.
Fiscal conservatism my ass

Pakistan's Bhutto assassinated

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide bombing that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, a party aide and a military official said.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack.

"She has been martyred," added party official Rehman Malik. Bhutto was 54.

A party security adviser said Bhutto was shot in the neck and chest as she got into her vehicle, then the gunman blew himself up.

F Musharraf!

Most active West Bank militant group in security team for Middle East visit

JERUSALEM - Members of the most active West Bank terror organization are set to participate in security forces being deployed to protect President Bush during his visit to the Palestinian territories next month, WND has learned.

Bush is due in the region Jan. 9 as part of a follow-up to last month's U.S.-led Israeli-Palestinian Annapolis summit.

According to Israeli security officials coordinating deployments of forces with the PA for Bush's Ramallah visit, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's declared military wing, have been called upon by the PA to participate in the protection of Bush's convoy and in securing the parameter during the meeting with Abbas.

The Brigades is listed as a terror organization by the U.S. State Department. The group took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror organization for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006, and is responsible for thousands of shootings and rocket firings. Statistically, the Al Aqsa Brigades perpetuated more terrorism from the West Bank than Hamas, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

Kobach admits to coordinated voter supression

Earlier today Kris Kobach, chairman of the Kansas GOP, sent out a self-congratulatory litany of accomplishments. Among them was one particularly eye-catching item:

To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!

We're going to move past the fact that any amount of voter identification would be more than the amount the GOP has done in the last two years, or four for that matter. The practice of caging is what caught out eye.

Caging is a particularly devious and underhanded method of purging likely Democratic voters from the pollbooks. It's also illegal.

Bush backs Turkish strikes on Kurdish rebels

US President George Bush has spoken with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip and gave his backing for military strikes by Ankara on Kurdish rebel rear bases in Iraq.

The two men hailed the cooperation in the battle against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has seen Turkey launch air raids and a limited ground incursion into northern Iraq.

They agreed to continue sharing intelligence and again classed the PKK as a "common enemy", press agency Anatolia said.

EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson announced Wednesday that because President Bush had signed an energy bill raising average fuel economy that there was no need or justification for separate state regulation. He also said that California's request did not meet the legal standard set out in the Clean Air Act.

But his staff, which had worked for months on the waiver decision, concluded just the opposite, the sources said Thursday. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the media or because they feared reprisals.

California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said....Johnson's decision showed "that this administration ignores the science and ignores the law to reach the politically convenient conclusion."

Some staff members believe Johnson made his decision after auto executives met with Vice President Dick Cheney and after a Chrysler executive delivered a letter to the White House outlining why neither California nor the EPA should be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases, among other reasons. The Detroit News reported Wednesday that chief executives of Ford and Chrysler met with Cheney last month.

New Report Shows How Conservative Minority Rules by Filibuster, Preventing Up or Down Vote on a Record Number of Bills

The Republican Senate minority today filibustered an omnibus budget bill, setting a modern-day record for blocking the most legislation during a congressional session. A new report released today by the Campaign for America's Future details the 62 times conservatives have used the filibuster to block legislation (or force modification of bills) in the first session of the 110th Congress. In just the first year of this two-year Congress, their use of the filibuster in the Senate topped the previous record, reached during the entire 107th Congress.

"In just one session, a minority in Congress has prevented a mind-blowing 62 pieces of legislation from going to the floor for an up or down vote," said Campaign for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey. "Our report shows how over and over again, the uncompromising minority has thwarted the will of majorities in Congress and of the American people, holding the Senate floor hostage to a radical right-wing agenda."

Sixty votes are needed to invoke cloture and end a filibuster. The 62nd cloture vote of the session is more than any single session of Congress since at least 1973, the earliest year cloture votes are available online from the Senate. Republicans are on pace to force 134 cloture votes to cut off a filibuster, according to the Campaign for America's Future analysis, more than double the historical average of the last 35 years.

Even pieces of legislation that have made it past the Senate filibuster blockade have been obstructed by President Bush. Last week the President vetoed for the second time a popular bill that would expand health coverage for 10 million American children. According to the Campaign for America's Future report, Bush has threatened to veto 84 bills and has vetoed six as of December 17. In contrast, during the period when the Republicans were in the congressional majority, Bush went the longest time without vetoing a bill since President Arthur Garfield.

• Step 1) Drug a young attractive American woman and gang rape her vaginally and anally
• Step 2) Lock her in a trailer under armed guards with no food and water for 24 hours so she can't talk to anybody about it.
• Step 3) Destroy evidence of the crime
• Step 4) 2 years later, after failing to investigate, don't even bother to show up to testify at Congressional hearings

Appearing before a hearing on the enforcement of laws to protect Americans working in Iraq, Ms Jones said that on her fourth day in Baghdad some co-workers, who she described as Halliburton-KBR firefighters, invited her for a drink. "I took two sips from the drink and don't remember anything after that," she said.

The next morning she woke up groggy and confused, and with a sore chest and blood between her legs. She reported the incident to KBR and was examined by an army doctor, who said she had been repeatedly raped vaginally and anally.

"The KBR security took me to a trailer and then locked me in a room with two armed guards outside my door," Ms Jones said. "I was imprisoned in the trailer for approximately a day. One of the guards finally had mercy and let me use a phone."

An army doctor collected DNA evidence, including vaginal swabs and scrapings from her fingernails, and placed them in a box for evidence. Ms Jones said the doctor gave the box to a KBR security officer but it went missing. A State Department diplomatic security agent recovered the kit in May 2007, but the doctor's notes and photographs are now inexplicably missing, undermining any chances of bringing the case through the criminal courts.
Destruction of evidence at Cheney's old company? Get out.

The Department of Justice refused to send a representative to answer questions from Congress today on the investigations into allegations of rape and sexual assault on female American contractors.

"I'm embarrassed that the Department of Justice can't even come forward," said the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, D-Mich.

"This is an absolute disgrace," said Conyers. "The least we could do is have people from the Department of Justice and the Defense over here talking about how we're going to straighten out the system right away."

"The Department of Justice has not informed Jamie or me of the status of a criminal investigation against her rapist if any investigation exists," Poe said today. "It is interesting to note that the Department of Justice has thousands of lawyers but not one from the barrage of lawyers is here to tell us what if anything they are doing. Their absence and silence speaks volumes about the hidden crimes in Iraq. Their attitude seems to be one of blissful indifference to American workers in Iraq," said Poe.

The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, directed the Committee to prepare subpoenas to seek testimony about the CIA destroying the interrogation tapes of two al Qaeda operatives.

According to an aide to Rep. Reyes some subpoenas have already been completed. The subpoenas include requests for Acting General Counsel John Rizzo and former CIA Operations Chief Jose Rodriguez to testify before the Committee.

The subpoenas also include requests for documents relating to the tape's destruction. According to an aide to Rep. Reyes, CIA staff met with the Committee yesterday and were shown copies of the subpoenas.

In a joint letter to the House Intelligence Committee last week, the Justice Department and the CIA asked that the Committee ease the pace of their investigation. "We fully appreciate the committee's oversight interest in this matter but want to advise you of our concerns that action responsive to your requests would present significant risks to our preliminary inquiry."

Colorado's looming primary and presidential elections were thrown into turmoil Monday when many of the state's electronic voting machines were deemed unreliable and unsecure by Secretary of State Mike Coffman.

It is clear that Coffman's decision to "decertify" machines made by three of four manufacturers - Sequoia Voting System, Hart InterCivic and Election Systems and Software, or ES&S - will have far-reaching impact, Coffman and others said.

"The results today will have national repercussions across the country," Coffman said during a news conference, adding that other states are likely to take a look at new certification standards Colorado has put in place.

At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials.

The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.

Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel.

One former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said there had been "vigorous sentiment" among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes. The former official did not specify which White House officials took this position, but he said that some believed in 2005 that any disclosure of the tapes could have been particularly damaging after revelations a year earlier of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Bush issued a veto threat because of the lack of Iraq funds. Still, the administration noted "recent progress on the substance" of the measure, indicating that Bush may accept the legislation if Iraq funds are added by the Senate.

House Republicans said they were being forced to vote on a bill they hadn't been given enough time to read. "This is no way to run a railroad," Representative Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said last night.
Bloomberg

Bush added, "If the Congress can't get the job done - in other words, those jet fumes'll start to be moving out ... pretty soon here, later on this week - if they can't get the job done, then I've got a suggestion for them, and just pass a one-year continuing resolution. That's all they've got to do. If they can't get the job done, like I'm hopeful they will, then all they've got to do is just take what's called a continuing resolution, get the people's business done that way and go on home. They've got to make sure they fund the troops, though, on the way out of town."
That's easy for him to say

Even though Congress has bowed to his spending wishes, Bush warned lawmakers that he will be "watching very carefully as the Congress works through how to spend your money coming down the stretch before Christmas. They can't have any gimmicks - accounting gimmicks - in there."

The new report said that the federal budget deficit would have been 69 percent higher than the $162.8 billion reported two months ago if the government had used the same accounting methods as private companies. Under the accrual method of accounting, the deficit would have totaled $275.5 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

The deficit on a cash-flow basis of $162.8 billion represented the lowest imbalance in five years. The administration noted the decline in the deficit under both measurements.
The Budget is Screwed

Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd's threatened filibuster of a bill giving immunity to telecoms that helped the government spy on Americans unexpectedly carried the day Monday, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided to postpone the vote on the measure until after the winter break.

The announcement was an unexpected victory for civil liberties groups, whose anti-immunity fortunes looked grim this morning as the Senate looked primed to pass an expansive spying bill that would free telecoms like AT&T and Verizon from privacy lawsuits.

Dodd showed his moxie and determination all day, as he held the floor for long stretches, railing against an administration-backed bill that would have freed telecoms from 40-odd lawsuits pending against them in federal court.

The presidential candidate threatened to filibuster and hold the Senate floor if the Senate shot down his amendment to strip immunity from the bill. That threat moved Reid to postpone a vote on the bill, so that the Senate could take up war funding bills, a massive domestic spending bill and changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax before the winter break.
WIRED

Interestingly, President Bush threatened to veto any FISA bill that did not include retroactive telecom immunity, saying that the FISA bill was essential to saving American lives.

Senator Ted Kennedy commented, "So if we take the president at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies." Kennedy continued, angrily, "The president's insistence on immunity as a precondition for any FISA reform is yet another example of disrespect for honest dialogue and the rule of law."
Filibusters Work

Nearly five years into the occupation of Iraq, the 'coalition of the willing' is about to lose two of its key supporters.

The British handover to Iraqi forces is seen as the beginning of the end for Britain, which plans to cut its troop numbers dramatically.

With Australia planning to withdraw its combat troops, the United States will soon be the only country left.
Coalition of the Shrinking

Turkey yesterday launched the biggest attack on Iraq since the US invasion in 2003, sending more than 50 warplanes to bomb suspected Kurdish insurgent bases inside Iraqi territory, accompanied by long-range artillery shelling. Kurdish officials reported at least one civilian fatality, a woman, and two others injured.

The head of Turkey's military said last night it had US approval for the air strikes. "America last night opened Iraqi airspace to us. By opening Iraqi airspace to us last night America gave its approval to the operation," the Anatolian state news agency quoted General Yasar Buyukanit as saying.

But a US official said: "We have not approved any decision. It is not for us to approve. However, we were informed before the event (the air strikes)."

At a meeting in Washington George Bush persuaded Erdogan to put off a full-scale land invasion of northern Iraq. In return, the US agreed to accept limited cross-border strikes and to provide US intelligence on Kurdish rebel movements. But Turkey still has tens of thousands of troops massed along the mountainous border with northern Iraq, along with tanks and artillery.
This will end well

Sen. Joe Lieberman endorses John McCain for president

Sen. Joe Lieberman is crossing party lines and endorsing Republican Sen. John McCain for president.

"Being a Republican is important. Being a Democrat is important. But you know what's more important than that? The interest and well-being of the United States of America," the Democrat-turned Independent said in announcing his decision Monday morning in New Hampshire.

"Let's put the United States first again, and John McCain is the man as president who will help us do that," he said.

Lieberman was the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2000.

The Connecticut senator decided to endorse McCain because he considers him "the most capable to be commander in chief on day one of his administration, and the most capable of uniting the country so that we can prevail against Islamic extremism," a Lieberman aide said earlier.

Joe Sucks!

The House of Representatives has adopted a bill requiring US intelligence agencies to renounce all forms of torture by following explicit rules set out by the US military.

The provision passed by the House, part of a 2008 intelligence budget, says the military's rules on interrogation methods must apply to civilians as well, including CIA staff.

The measure still needs to be passed by the Senate and the White House warned President George W. Bush would veto the bill. Democrats in Congress apparently lacked enough votes to overcome the expected veto, with the House bill passed by a vote of 222 to 199.

The White House said Tuesday the text "would prevent the US from conducting lawful interrogations of senior al Qaeda terrorists to obtain intelligence needed to protect Americans from attack."

"We are stunned that the Justice Department would move to block our investigation," Reyes and Hoekstra said. "Parallel investigations occur all of the time, and there is no basis upon which the Attorney General can stand in the way of our work. ... It's clear that there's more to this story than we have been told, and it is unfortunate that we are being prevented from learning the facts. The executive branch can't be trusted to oversee itself."

Last January, House Democrats inaugurated their control of Congress by picking a fight with Big Oil, moving to repeal the industry's tax breaks within the first 100 days of the new Congress. On Thursday, the battle ended - and Big Oil won.

Facing a veto threat from the White House, Senate Democrats were defeated in an attempt to raise more than $12 billion for alternative energy by revoking production tax breaks and raising other taxes on oil and gas producers.

Earlier in the day, after Republicans blocked the bill that included the rollback of tax breaks, Mr. Reid's top lieutenant, Sen. Richard Durbin, lashed out at oil companies that opposed the bill.

"Oil companies are now celebrating in their boardrooms," said Mr. Durbin, D-Ill. "They continue to have a death grip on this Senate."

U.S. blocks global plan to cut emissions

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon conceded Wednesday that the United States had succeeded in achieving one of its key objectives at the climate conference here, blocking a proposal that called on industrialized nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020.
Chicago Tribune

"My own country the United States is principally responsible for obstructing progress in Bali," spurring rapturous applause and cheers.

Arriving fresh from Oslo, where he had collected the Nobel Peace Prize, Gore urged governments to forge a "new path" towards a global climate change agreement in spite of what he described as an obstructive United States.

"I don't know how you can navigate around this enormous elephant in the room which I've been undiplomatic enough to name. But I'm asking you to do it," he said. Gore was defeated by President George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race.

Earlier on Thursday, the EU accused the United States of climate inaction, saying the rest of the world was still waiting for U.S. leadership, and threatened to boycott a U.S.-hosted climate meet of major economies next month.
Reuters

For the second time in three months, President Bush on Wednesday vetoed legislation that would have expanded the State Children's Health Insurance program by $35 billion over five years and would have boosted its enrollment to about 10 million children.

Bush cited the same reasons that led him to veto a version of the bill on Oct. 3 - that it raised cigarette taxes and provided coverage for children of middle-class families instead of focusing on the working poor.

CIA Destroyed Tapes Despite Court Order

The Bush administration was under court order not to discard evidence of detainee torture and abuse months before the CIA destroyed videotapes that revealed some of its harshest interrogation tactics.

The CIA destroyed the tapes in November 2005. That June, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. had ordered the Bush administration to safeguard "all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay."

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued a nearly identical order that July.

"It's logical to infer that the documents were destroyed in order to obstruct any inquiry into the means by which statements were obtained," Remes said.

.Bush ready with children's health-care veto No. 2

President Bush is ready to veto -- again -- a bill offering an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Bush vetoed the first $35-billion S-CHIP expansion that crossed his desk, complaining that it covered middle-class children at the expense of the poor. And his veto was sustained.

Democratic congressional leaders insist the expansion of a popular program which assists low-income families with health care could offer insurance to nearly 10 million children whose families cannot afford coverage on their own. But the White House says Congress still lacks the votes to override another S-CHIP veto -- which will be penned today.

"We have the votes still to sustain the veto," Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, said this morning. "We'll get that done today, because the deadline is today.

Bush: 'I Doubt I'd Be Standing Here If I Hadn't Quit Drinking Whiskey'

"I had too much to drink one night, and the next day I didn't have any," Bush said. "The next day I decided to quit and I haven't had a drink since 1986."

"I wasn't a knee-walking drunk," Bush said. "It's a difficult thing to do, which is to kick an addiction."

"What's outrageous is we have an administration that sits on its hands while we have 47 million people who are uninsured ... This administration has ignored this health care crisis," says Charles Idelson, spokesman for the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee. "They're indifferent to pain and suffering."

The group is advocating proposed universal government-run health care legislation, one of whose 88 co-sponsors includes Democratic presidential underdog candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).

Poll Finds G.O.P. Field Isn't Touching Voters

Three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Republican voters across the country appear uninspired by their field of presidential candidates, with a vast majority saying they have not made a final decision about whom to support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Not one of the Republican candidates is viewed favorably by even half the Republican electorate, the poll found. And in a sign of the fluidity of the race, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who barely registered in early polls several months ago, is now locked in a tight contest nationally with Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

On the Republican side, in contrast, Mr. Giuliani is viewed favorably most frequently, and that is by only 41 percent. Senator John McCain is viewed favorably by 37 percent, and Mr. Romney by 36 percent. Mr. Huckabee is viewed favorably by 30 percent, and 60 percent say they do not know enough about him to offer an opinion, suggesting that he may be vulnerable to the kind of attacks that his opponents have already been mounting against him.

A Democratic deal to give President Bush some war funding in exchange for additional domestic spending appeared to collapse last night after House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) accused Republicans of bargaining in bad faith.

Instead, Obey said he will push a huge spending bill that would hew to the president's spending limit by stripping it of all lawmakers' pet projects, as well as most of the Bush administration's top priorities. It would also contain no money for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Absent a Republican willingness to sit down and work out a reasonable compromise, I think we ought to end the game and go to the president's numbers," Obey said. "I was willing to listen to the argument that we ought to at least add more for Afghanistan, but when the White House refuses to compromise, when the White House continues to stick it in our eye, I say to hell with it."

(snip)

"It is extraordinary that the president would request an 11 percent increase for the Department of Defense, a 12 percent increase for foreign aid, and $195 billion of emergency funding for the war while asserting that a 4.7 percent increase for domestic programs is fiscally irresponsible," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) said.

Report:Abstinence Only Programs Don't Work

Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of mil lions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.

"At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the study concluded.

The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."

Study Debunks Theory On Teen Sex and Delinquency
New Analyses Challenging Many Old Assumptions

Other things being equal, a more probing study has found, youngsters who have consensual sex in their early-teen or even preteen years are, if anything, less likely to engage in delinquent behavior later on.

The team looked at identical twin pairs in which one twin initiated sex younger than the other, then team members tallied subsequent problem behaviors. If sex really adds to the chances of delinquency, then early-sex teens should end up delinquent more often than their later-sex twins.

"It turns out that there was no positive relationship between age of first sex and delinquency," Harden said.

Perhaps most surprising, the Virginia study found that adolescents who had sex at younger ages were less likely to end up delinquent than those who lost their virginity later. Many factors play into a person's readiness for sex, but in at least some cases sexual relationships may offer an alternative to trouble, the researchers say.

Teenage Birth Rate Rises for First Time Since '91

The birth rate among teenagers 15 to 19 in the United States rose 3 percent in 2006, according to a report issued Wednesday, the first such increase since 1991. The finding surprised scholars and fueled a debate about whether the Bush administration’s abstinence-only sexual education efforts are working.

Teenage birth rates are driven by rates of sex, contraception and abortion. In the 1990s, teenage sex rates dropped and condom use rose because teenagers were scared of AIDS, said Dr. John S. Santelli, chairman of the department of population and family health at Columbia University.

But recent advances in AIDS treatments have lowered concerns about the disease, and AIDS education efforts, which emphasized abstinence and condom use, have flagged.

Perhaps as a result, teenage sex rates have risen since 2001 and condom use has dropped since 2003. Abortion rates have held steady for a decade, although numbers from 2005 and 2006 are not available.

President George W. Bush is expected to outline on Thursday a plan to freeze mortgage rates for five years for many U.S. homeowners facing sharp increases in their monthly payments, industry sources said on Wednesday.

Final details of the plan are still being worked out after a trade group that represents large mortgage investors presented its framework for implementing a broad rate freeze to the Treasury Department late on Tuesday, the sources said.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has worked closely with the investor trade group - the American Securitization Forum - as well as mortgage servicers and lenders to hammer out a comprehensive plan to modify troubled loans.

The backing of mortgage investors is important to the success of any rate freeze plan as it would give some cover to mortgage servicers and others in the industry who could face lawsuits from bondholders if they began to tinker with loans.

During Wednesday's "Ellen Degeneres Show," first daughter Jenna Bush demonstrates just how easy it is for her to get through to her famous father.

Jenna Bush's appearance on the show was taped on Tuesday. During the conversation that ranged from living as a celebrity to Jenna's recent engagement, Ellen asked how easy it is to call her parents.

So Jenna called President George W. Bush from the set to show her.

"This is the Ellen Degeneres Show," Jenna tells the president when he gets on the line.

"Well, that's great!" the president said.

"How's it going?" Ellen asked.

"It's going great, Ellen. How's my little girl doing?"

Bush talked to a lesbian! OMG!

There are no outfits to buy, costumes to rent, rivers to dye green. Simply celebrate the day by stopping by your local bar, tavern, saloon, winery, distillery, or brewhouse and having a drink. Pick up a six-pack on your way home from work. Split a bottle of wine with a loved one. Buy a shot for a stranger. Just do it because you can.

The 21st Amendment
Ratified December 5, 1933

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use there in of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that Iran remains a danger despite a U.S. intelligence report that Tehran halted its atomic weapons program four years ago.

Bush also said "all options" are on the table for dealing with Iran. He was speaking at a news conference a day after intelligence agencies released an assessment that contradicted his administration's earlier assertions that Iran was developing a nuclear bomb.

A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.

The new estimate declares with "high confidence" that a military-run Iranian program intended to transform that raw material into a nuclear weapon has been shut down since 2003, and also says with high confidence that the halt "was directed primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure."

Rather than painting Iran as a rogue, irrational nation determined to join the club of nations with the bomb, the estimate states Iran's "decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs." The administration called new attention to the threat posed by Iran earlier this year when President Bush had suggested in October that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to "World War III" and Vice President Dick Cheney promised "serious consequences" if the government in Tehran did not abandon its nuclear program.

The president demanded that legislators authorize funding for the war in Iraq without requiring troop withdrawals; permanently approve legislation that allows eavesdropping in terrorism probes while also prohibiting private lawsuits against telecommunications companies that have provided the data; adjust the alternative minimum tax to reflect wage inflation; and pass 11 pending government spending bills without loading them down with pork.

Bush excoriated Congress for enacting only one of 12 government spending bills. Congress has actually approved two bills, but the president vetoed one.

Don't ever say the Bush administration doesn't take care of its own. Nearly three years after Paul Wolfowitz resigned as deputy Defense secretary and six months after his stormy departure as president of the World Bank-amid allegations that he improperly awarded a raise to his girlfriend-he's in line to return to public service. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has offered Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Iraq War, a position as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, a prestigious State Department panel, according to two department sources who declined to be identified discussing personnel matters. The 18-member panel, which has access to highly classified intelligence, advises Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMD issues and other matters. "We think he is well suited and will do an excellent job," said one senior official.

Wolfowitz, now a visiting scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, will replace former senator Fred Thompson, who quit over the summer to run for president. Although officials declined to say how Rice came to choose him, Wolfowitz began his government career in the 1970s in the State Department as an arms-control expert; he forged a relationship with Rice during the 2000 presidential campaign, when they both served as top foreign-policy advisers to the then candidate Bush. But his selection has raised more than a few eyebrows within State because he'll be providing advice on some of the same issues that critics say the administration got spectacularly wrong when Wolfowitz was pushing the case for the Iraq War at the Pentagon. (One of the department sources called the appointment "amazing.") At least Wolfowitz, who did not return calls seeking comment, will have like-minded company: other panel members include Robert Joseph, the former National Security Council official in charge of Iraq WMD intelligence, and ex-CIA director James Woolsey, both strong allies during the Iraq debate.

The sources said Wolfowitz has already accepted Rice's offer to fill the part-time position, though it won't be announced until the completion of a standard check for conflicts of interest. But he won't have to worry about any complaints from pesky Democrats. The position doesn't require Senate confirmation.