Breaking: Fed Raises Key Interest Rate

This just in: the Federal Reserve Board just raised the federal funds rate to 5.25 percent. This is the 17th consecutive rate hike, and the rate now stands at its highest level in more than five years.

Meanwhile, while Fed chair Ben Bernanke has fun raising interest rates, his predecessor Alan Greenspan has to suffer through jury duty. The full story, after the jump.

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Daily Briefing: ‘Manna from Heaven’

• Lawyers at the Justice Department warned that Rep. Tom Delay’s (R-Texas) redistricting plan was illegal under the Voting Rights Act but senior officials vetoed their findings. [WP]
• Senate Armed Services Committee seeks answers about Pentagon’s propaganda campaign in Iraqi media. Scott McClellan: “We’re very concerned about the reports. We have asked the Department of Defense for more information.” [NYT]
• Revelations about Samuel Alito’s views on abortion “are stiffening Democratic resistance and complicating the nomination for moderates in both parties.” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.): “Certainly the chance of a filibuster is greater today than it was the day Alito was nominated.” [WP, NYT]
• Conversation in 2004 with Time’s Viveca Novak is said to have motivated Rove to change his testimony in the leak investigation. [NYT]
• Prosecutors are investigating whether Jack Abramoff “brokered lucrative jobs for Congressional aides at powerful lobbying firms in exchange for legislative favors.” [NYT]
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) breaks from most in her party with support of Rep. John Murtha’s (D-Pa.) plan for withdrawal. Strategist: “If Karl Rove was writing the timing of this, he wouldn’t have written it any differently, with the president of the United States expressing resolve and the Democratic leader offering surrender. For Republicans, this is manna from heaven.” [WP, WT]
• Bush marks World AIDS Day: “I believe America has a unique ability, and a special calling, to fight this disease.” Dean says the administration has “stood in the way of important global efforts to curb this disease.” [WP]

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Bush Is Called Upon to Serve

Bush has been called for jury duty in Crawford, Texas — though (as with some wars we could mention) it seems unlikely that he will serve. Says 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother, a Republican who has a grandson serving in the Army in Iraq, “I don’t think I’ll be sending the sheriff out to bring the president in.” Oh, but wouldn’t be AWESOME if he did? And, hey, if not may his grandson can take his place in the court instead of at war — for a change.

Because you know what’s going to happen if Bush doesn’t go. In twenty years, he’ll be dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase, with a town car delivering him to a courtroom in front of a banner that reads, “Justice Accomplished.”

Will Bush heed his call to (jury) service? [Waco Tribune]
President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended [WhiteHouse.gov]

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