Bush has Jackson & Calendar has Coulter...

From American Progress:

Think Fast...

According to the Washington Times, President Bush "is benefiting from a Karl Rove-free White House and the lower-profile approach of his successor," Barry Jackson, who is now "the right fit for a president now reliant on Republican legislators sticking with him."

After enjoying "a good rest" at his Crawford, TX, ranch, President Bush returns to Washington with an "ambitious agenda for 2008," which includes "tackling the mortgage lending crisis," "securing more money from Congress for Iraq," and pushing Congress to "permanently revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

In "the most brazen and deadly attack" that Baghdad has seen in months, 36 people were killed and 32 were wounded by a suicide bomber who "targeted a funeral procession for a victim of another bombing." There has been "a slight rise in suicide car and vest bombs" in Iraq since October.

"An outspoken Saudi blogger is being held for 'purposes of interrogation,' the Saudi Interior Ministry confirmed Tuesday." Fouah al-Farhan, whose blog "discusses social issues," wrote in a letter to friends before he was arrested that he is being targeted because of his writings on "political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia."

"Five years after passage of a federal law to create electronic registration databases to deter voter fraud, the new technology is posing hurdles that could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters," according to USA Today.

"The Pakistani election commission, citing uncivil unrest following the assassination of political leader Benazir Bhutto last week, on Wednesday delayed upcoming parliamentary elections until Feb. 18."

"Aid agencies today warned of a humanitarian disaster in Kenya as post election violence escalated amid claims of 'ethnic cleansing' by rival tribes." Estimates say up to 100,000 people have been displaced and more than 300 have been killed.

Oil prices fell two cents on Monday, yet still closed out 2007 "57 percent higher than where they began."

And finally: The Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute wants you to keep track of the new year with its annual "pinup calendar of conservative women." Gracing the pages are political commentator Bay Buchanan, blogger Michelle Malkin, and "author and calendar stalwart" Ann Coulter. Institute President Michelle Easton "fantasizes about a day when a conservative women's magazine competes for supermarket shelf space with Glamour and Cosmopolitan."

Wrap...