Blue Radar

As I post each morning, here are some of the political stories thatmight not be worthy of their own posts, but are nonetheless newsworthy:

• On Labor Day, the CIA will declassify an internal report on the agency's performance prior to 9/11.
• US troop levels in Iraq have reached a record 162,000.  This comes more than four years after President Bush declared an end to major combat operations.
• The Pentagon is asking Congress for $750 million to airlift the new armored vehicles to troops in Iraq.  The flight takes 13 hours.
• Nearly 75 militants in Afghanistan tried to overrun a US base.
• Federal authorities will announce new rules this week that would require employers to fire workers that use fake Social Security numbers.
• A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that terminally ill patients do not have a constitutional right to use medicines that have not yet received federal approval.
• Rudolph Giuliani raised a few eyebrows yesterday while on the campaign trail by sort of endorsing John McCain.  When asked about the McCain-Feingold Act, Giuliani responded rather strangely: "If I weren't running for president, I'd be here supporting him... Iffor some reason I made a decision not to run, he'd be my candidate."
• During the Democratic forum last night, Barack Obama fired back when he was attacked by Chris Dodd for his statement about Pakistan: "I find it amusing that those who helped to authorize and engineer thebiggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticizingme for making sure that we are on the right battlefield and not thewrong battlefield in the war against terrorism."
• Newt Gingrich says he might still run for the Republican presidential nomination, but would decide either in late September or early October.

If we left anything out, feel free to add any stories in the commentbox.