US: Armor-piercing bomb attacks down
BAGHDAD – The U.S. military worried Sunday about “mixed messages” from Iran, listing a dramatic drop in Iranian-made weapons reaching Iraq but no reduction in the training and financing of Shiite militants.

U.S. forces may be in Iraq for 10 years
As security conditions improve in Iraq, the United States should be able to reduce forces at a slow but consistent pace beyond this summer, but air support and ground troops are likely to be needed for five to 10 years, a top military commander said Thursday.

Ailing GIs deployed to war zones
Fort Carson sent soldiers who were not medically fit to war zones last month to meet “deployable strength” goals, according to e-mails obtained by The Denver Post. One e-mail, written Jan. 3 by the surgeon for Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, says: “We have been having issues reaching deployable strength, and thus have been taking along some borderline soldiers who we would otherwise have left behind for continued treatment.”

US to deploy 500 mine-resistant vehicles to Afghanistan
The US military plans to ship 500 roadside bomb-resistant vehicles to Afghanistan amid a reinforcement of 3,200 extra US troops to be deployed to fight Taliban militants. While the mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles remain a top priority for Iraq, where US soldiers face frequent attacks from armor-piercing explosives, more MRAPs will be sent to Afghanistan, said Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
But the surge is working.

CIA blames Al Qaeda, Taliban for Bhutto assassination
Director of CIA says “no reason” to doubt Islamist group’s responsibility, echoing findings of Scotland Yard.

DHS Suggests a REAL ID Could be Necessary for Medicine
A top homeland security policy maker suggests that the recently released mandates for a de-facto national I.D. card could help stop meth labs, if the government required that pharmacy’s demand that cold medicine buyers show their REAL ID.
And would birth control pills and condoms be next?  If Republicans stay in power, there’s that real danger.

Montana Governor Foments Real ID Rebellion
Montana declared independence Friday from a federal identification rules and called on governors of 17 other states to join him in forcing a showdown with the federal government which says it will not accept the driver’s licenses of rebel states’ citizens starting May 11. If that showdown comes to pass, residents of non-complying states could not use a driver’s license to enter a federal courthouse or a Social Security Administration building nor could board a plane without undergoing a pat-down search.

Court Rules that Children’s Faces Put on Adult Bodies Does Not Constitute Child Porn (by Jonathan Turley)
In the last few years, the Supreme Court and lower courts have been considering claims of virtual child pornography — where the images look real but are actually computer generated. It creates a difficult legal question. However, Marshal Zidel presented an equally difficult question for the New Hampshire Supreme Court: Is it child pornography when the camp photographer took the faces of children at the camp and superimposed them on the bodies of adults? The state supreme court ruled that it is not.
Disgusting.  I don’t know what the answer is to the problem, but this is sick.

Record Nevada turnout for both parties
Voters showed up in record numbers for Saturday’s presidential caucuses in Nevada, surprising Democratic and Republican organizers who anticipated lower turnouts instead of overflow crowds. About 116,000 Democrats, 28 percent of all Nevada’s registered Democrats, showed up at 520 precincts around the state. The previous record for a Democratic caucus was nearly 9,000 who turned out for the 2004 presidential race.

Clinton: ‘Solutions,’ not ‘rhetoric’
Her win today in Nevada’s Democratic presidential caucuses was based on a “message of real results,” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton just told reporters in Las Vegas. And, in a comment directed at her main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, Clinton said “the people of Nevada (wanted) somebody who’s going to give them solutions, not just rhetoric.”

John Edwards, Kingmaker?
Former N.C. senator hasn’t won a primary and is dropping in polls, but he could be a force at the convention.

McCain wins key South Carolina primary
Sen. John McCain won a hard-fought South Carolina primary Saturday night, avenging a bitter personal defeat in a bastion of conservatism and gaining ground in an unpredictable race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Weather, voting machine issues dog SC
Nasty weather in the north and dysfunctional voting machines in one coastal county marred South Carolina’s Republican primary Saturday. Most of the 400 voting machines in Horry County didn’t work at the start of voting and residents in at least one precinct were turned away when officials ran out of paper ballots It was not clear how many voters would be unable to make their choice known after up to 90 percent of the county’s voting machines failed to turn on when polls opened at 7 a.m.

Clinton, McCain Ahead in Pennsylvania
A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic presidential race with 40%, followed by Sen. Barack Obama at 20% and John Edwards at 11%. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain leads with 30%, followed by Rudy Giuliani at 14% and Mike Huckabee at 12%.

Clinton, McCain Lead in Connecticut
Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain hold double-digit leads among likely voters in the Connecticut presidential primaries on Feb. 5, according to a Hartford Courant poll. For Democrats, Clinton leads with 41%, followed by Sen. Barack Obama at 27% and John Edwards at 9%. For Republicans, McCain leads with 39%, followed by Rudy Giuliani at 16% and Mitt Romney at 11%.

Americans Abroad Can Now Vote Online
MEXICO CITY (AP) – This year, for the first time, expatriate Democrats can cast their ballots on the Internet in a presidential primary for people living outside the United States.
And we thought VOTING MACHINES were a problem!

US abortions at lowest rate since 1974
The number of abortions in the United States fell to 1.2 million in 2005, down 25 percent from the all-time high of 1.6 million in 1990 and dropping the abortion rate to its lowest level since 1974, according to report 

Economy & Finance

US recession fears sink global markets
TOKYO – Asian and European stock markets plunged Monday following declines on Wall Street last week amid investor pessimism over the U.S. government’s stimulus plan to prevent a recession.

Overseas Investors Buy U.S. Holdings at a Record Pace
Last year, foreign investors poured a record $414 billion into securing stakes in American companies, factories and other properties through private deals and purchases of publicly traded stock, according to Thomson Financial, a research firm. That was up 90 percent from the previous year and more than double the average for the last decade. It amounted to more than one-fourth of all announced deals for the year, Thomson said.

Oil Profits Could Spark Some Backlash
Already, Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, has predicted it will earn a bigger profit in the fourth quarter than it did in the third, when it earned $3.72 billion, because of higher energy prices. Last February, Chevron reported its third consecutive year of record profits: $17.1 billion for 2006. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial predict Exxon Mobil [expected Feb. 1] to top its year-ago result and post quarterly revenue of $112.7 billion, a 25 percent jump from the fourth quarter of 2006. Exxon Mobil’s $39.5 billion profit for all of 2006 was the largest annual profit by a U.S. company.

SEC urged not to revive “terrorist” watch list
Two business groups urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday not to reinstate a Web tool aimed at helping investors identify companies with investments in countries the United States designates as “sponsors of terrorism.” 

Aerospace industry fears aging workforce’s impact
WASHINGTON — Roughly a quarter of the nation’s 637,000 aerospace workers could be eligible for retirement this year, raising fears that America could be facing a serious skills shortage in the factories that churn out commercial and military aircraft. “It’s a looming issue that’s getting more serious year by year,” said Marion Blakey, the president and chief executive of the Aerospace Industries Association. “These are real veterans. It’s a hard workforce to replace.”
Industry has yet to realize the impact of the wave of retirements that are coming.  Temporary placement companies could ease the pain for both the companies and the retirees, if they were able to see how short sighted it is to refuse to hire older workers.