McClatchy reports that Iraqi leader threatens fight ‘to the end,’ as militia puts up fierce resistance

BAGHDAD — As gun battles raged in the southern port city of Basra, parts of Baghdad and neighboring provinces, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in effect declared war on Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Army, saying he’d fight the militia “to the end” and never negotiate.

In Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday, President Bush praised Maliki’s “bold decision” to confront Shiite militias and said it was evidence that the Iraqi military is increasingly confident and able to act on its own. In fact, the U.S. military is providing air cover, embedded advisers and ground reinforcements for the Iraqi offensive.

Three days into a U.S.-backed government offensive, however, the Mahdi Army retained control of key neighborhoods of the southern port city of Basra and was able to prevent Iraqi soldiers and police from penetrating its strongholds.

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Some people might think that such things happen by accident. Those people are still waiting for Santa Claus on Christmas eve. The Republicans made no attempt to disguise what they were up to, and they left records, including this PDF file of the notes used by Jack Merkl during the redistricting debate in the Florida Senate.

There are 67 counties in Florida and 25 Congressional districts. Some might wonder why there are 6 members of Congress representing parts of Broward County, including 5 of the 8 Democrats. Florida District 21 has a piece in the southwest of the county and Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart is the Congresscretin.

You need a lot of screen to appreciated the work that went into Broward, which is just north of Miami-Dade county, so here’s a link to a PDF from the county.

If these guys would put as much effort into fixing the state as they do into fixing elections, they could get elected on their merits.

CNN tells me that the Pentagon has announced an Inventory ordered of all U.S. nukes

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates has formally ordered the Air Force, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency to conduct an inventory of all U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon-related materials to make sure all items are accounted for, according to a Pentagon memo released Thursday.

The order comes in the wake of the discovery last week that four nuclear warhead fuses were accidentally shipped to Taiwan in 2006.

Gates’ memo, issued Wednesday, calls for all items to be accounted for by serial number.

Pentagon officials said at a news conference Tuesday that Gates would call for the review in addition to a full investigation into how the shipment to Taiwan from a Defense Logistics Agency warehouse happened 18 months ago.

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