Now an NBC investigative report and other analysts believe our military is not using the best body armor protection for our troops in Iraq.

The current system, Interceptor, is being used, while an alternative system, Dragon Skin, has tested better in independent tests. The original creator of Interceptor publicly states that the Dragon Skin system would be safer and more mobile for the troops and should be used.

From here, we cannot conclusively decide which system is better, but emergency tests are possible and the issue should be resolved ASAP.

Meanwhile, while Congress heads towards the all-important recess, there remain major abuses and shortcomings in the treatment of wounded troops.  Read more...

I have only one question for President Bush and this absurd immigration "reform" proposal he cooked up with Uncle Teddy:

"Mr. President, why do you hate the Republican Party?"

Clearly, the president bears great animosity toward the GOP, which elected him twice. What else could possibly explain not only a lax immigration bill that legalizes nearly 12 million illegal immigrants but a bill so liberal that Senatuh Kennedy would do high kicks and cartwheels for it?

Ah, a clue (and a new conspiracy theory). We elected Dubya twice. Is this immigration bill payback for Republicans who gave the presidency to Bill Clinton by voting for Ross Perot over Papa Bush?  Read more...

I don’t know about you, but I’m very suspicious of whatever “deal” they’ve cooked up on Capitol Hill that will ostensibly provide meaningful reform to a system that is horrendously broken. For starters, I am immediately wary of any deal that is described only through talking points and platitudes on the Hill rather than a substantive piece of legislation the public can review, reflect on and react to.

Earlier today, Heritage Foundation policy expert Robert Rector discussed some startling statistics that have me quite concerned. For one, he estimates that there are some 9 million (probably a low estimate) working-age individuals who are here in the United States illegally. Should the Congress provide amnesty or some other path to citizenship, the benefits paid out by the government to these folks will be in excess of $2.5 trillion — yes, trillion — when they reach retirement age. Given the inability of Congress to address the entitlement shortfalls we have with legal, tax-paying Americans, I’m shocked they would kick the can down the field to allow politicians in later years to address this significant and potentially devastating hit to the Treasury. Read more...

From the moment we posted our poll on reforming immigration last week, nearly 2 out of every 3 respondents indicated that border security is more important in reforming immigration than a guest worker program. And that ratio held firm through the week as border security registered 64 percent of all votes. We coincidentally ended this poll on the same day that Senate lawmakers have struck a major deal on immigration.

Our new poll addresses the Paul Wolfowitz controversy and whether he is a victim or an embodiment of corruption at the World Bank. Scroll down the page and cast your vote.

The Democrats hope that by attempting, symbolically, to force a timetable for withdrawal and then failing they will appease the left sufficiently to cave into White House demands for a pretty clean funding bill. But the left will not be easily fooled. The four Democratic senators running for president all sided with 26 of their colleagues to support an Iraq funding bill with a withdrawal provision attached. Now that that bill has failed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will trot happily to the White House to raise the white flag and support a war-funding bill with only token restrictions. If Clinton, Obama, Biden and Dodd vote for this compromise they will be voting themselves into a perilously weak position in the presidential primaries. But if Clinton and Obama vote against the compromise, their votes will leave John Edwards without a campaign platform and will guarantee a two-way race on Feb. 5. If they split — with Clinton backing the compromise and Obama opposing it — it will breathe new life into the Obama candidacy.

Fellow blogger Brent Budowsky has decided Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should be impeached for refusing to follow the law. Mr. Budowsky noted Gonzales's "goon-like" trip to John Ashcroft's sickbed, now made famous by James Comey's congressional testimony this week. I can't say I agree this merits impeachment, but I too was struck by the notion of Andrew Card and Gonzales playing Tony Soprano and Mob deputy taking the opportunity to intimidate someone suffering in a hospital bed.

What is more important than their tacky, cruel tactic at Ashcroft's bedside was the underlying untruth that the warrantless surveillance program caused no controversy within the Bush administration. Yep, that was brought to us by AG AG himself in his 2006 testimony before Congress. "None of the reservations dealt with the program we are talking about today," he said at the time. Then, of course, he was equally reassuring about who took the lead in firing the U.S. attorneys — he wasn't involved; no, he was involved; well, he isn't so sure. It is beginning to seem like a joke we haven't been let in on.   Read more...

I thought I’d take this moment to interrupt the endless stream of bitterness and bile from the left toward the departed Rev. Jerry Falwell and insert some lighter observations about the GOP presidential candidates and the next (no doubt highly anticipated) debate.

My dad used to say, “If a little is good, a lot is better” — usually in reference to the handful of Rolaids he was chewing. It looks like the Romney for President campaign has picked up on my dear father’s words of wisdom:

"The more [voters] look at these top three guys as presidential contenders, the more they will look at the differences between them. The only thing better than a little Mitt Romney is a lot of Mitt Romney." (Alex Castellanos, Romney media adviser) Read more...

So now that the House Democrats have had about six months to figure out how to be in the majority, what do they do? Change the rules.

The test for germaneness has stood in the House for 185 years. But because the new majority has lost vote after vote (11 in all) on motions to recommit, they are seeking to change the test to make it harder for the minority to win.

This may seem like procedural mumbo-jumbo. But the rules of the House not only dictate how the laws of the land are made, they also indicate how secure the House majority is.

A majority leadership’s approach to the rules of the House quite often shows how well it is doing, how in touch it is with the people, how cohesive it is as a team, etc. Read more...

At last, an honest answer out of Tony Snow.

When asked why, after four years in Iraq, President Bush decided he needed a war czar, the White House press secretary responded: “I honestly don’t know.” No, Tony, and neither does anybody else.

After several generals turned down the job, because they don’t support the president’s policy in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute accepted the assignment. But that still leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

1.    If the president is commander in chief, why do we need a war czar?

2.    If the war czar is now in charge of the war, what happened to the secretary of defense? Read more...