A Big News Day...Here's What's Happening

Pelosi says that the bill that came out of the Senate is large enough and has the right priorities. Congress and the Senate have reached a deal on the $789B Nelson-Collins Stimulus bill with little or no changes. Collins, Snowe and Specter had fragile votes and Nancy Pelosi clearly recognized that. I never thought the conference comittee would only take one day.

The Taliban kill twenty people in attacks in Kabul. This event is making it very easy for President Obama to sell his plan to surge troops in Afghanistan. Unlike in Iraq, I don't believe we are obliged to rebuild Afghanistan because the country under the Taliban embedded our enemies. That is reason enough to invade a country and we do not need to stick around and wait for a strong government to appear. On the other hand, we do have to make sure that that strong government is never again the Taliban.

As Pres. Obama promised when he was posed the question the other night, Secretary Gates has ordered a review of the policy on media showing soldier's coffins. It is absolutely necessary that the media be allowed to show these images so that we the people can see the human side of this war. That is our right.

Henrietta Hughes is "satisfied" with what the White House promised her after she moved Pres. Obama with her request for help at the town hall meeting. The Obama staff contacted her local housing department and the wife of Florida Congressman Nick Thompson has offered Hughes use of a home she is not using. Some in the blog world are calling Hughes "the face of the economic crisis".

The President of the Peanut Corp. of America pleaded the fifth to Congress today saying he did not want to incriminate himself. People will go to jail over this and changes will have to be made. One of the saddest stories was one of a husband telling the tale of his cancer surviving wife's death calling for jail time for anyone who knowingly sold tainted peanut products.

The scheduled story on FDR and Reagan will appear in the next week.