Suggested Reading -- 8/16/07

National Journal: As repair needs mount, highway trust fund faces shortfall
From the story: "The fatal collapse of the 40-year-old Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis into the Mississippi River on August 1 has focused attention on the nation's chronic underinvestment in its aging and ailing infrastructure.

"Now Congress needs to tackle the politically tricky question of where to get the money to improve the transportation system, even as the highway trust fund that pays for it is facing a multibillion-dollar deficit."

Plenty of money for war and abstinence-only programs and a whole list of other useless crap that doesn't stand a chance in hell of ever working, though.

CNN: Iraqi women: Prostituting ourselves to feed our children
From the story: "The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children -- for as little as $8 a day."

I'm pretty much speechless here, the story speaks for itself.

Associated Press: Suicide Rate in Army at a 26-Year High
From the story: "Ninety-nine U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year, the highest rate of suicide in the Army in 26 years of record-keeping.

"Nearly a third of the soldiers who committed suicide did so while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to a report released Thursday. Iraq accounted for most of those _ with 27 of the suicides coming from that conflict and three from Afghanistan. Also, there were 948 attempted suicides, officials said, adding that they didn't have a comparison for previous years."

Can we get Lindsey Graham to brag about re-enlistment rates again?

Washington Post: An Early Clash Over Iraq Report
From the story: "Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration's progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense."

Wait, are we to believe that the Brilliant Gen. David Petraeus Iraqinus, the Lion of Asia Minor, can't stand up on his own before by a bunch of lilly-livered cut and runners?