BAGNEWSNOTES: Your Turn: Things Looking Up In San Antonio

[ It’s hard for me, as someone who spent 21 months in Iraq, to see these pictures. The human body just wasn’t made for these sorts of injuries. ]

Reid plans Thanksgiving Senate session to prevent recess appointments

[ Democrats are refusing to be made turkeys over the holidays by a lame duck president, a capitol newspaper reports.

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has decided to keep the chamber in session over the Thanksgiving break to block President Bush from making any unsavory recess appointments while Senators are out of town," Erin P. Billings reports for Roll Call. ]

Senate Republicans block funding for U.S. troops

[ Senate Dems gave the GOP an opportunity, but they rejected it.

The Senate on Friday blocked a Democratic proposal that would have paid for the Iraq war but required that troops start coming home.

The 53-45 vote was seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance. It came minutes after the Senate rejected a Republican proposal to pay for the Iraq war with no strings attached.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the only way to get troops the money was to approve the restrictions outlined by Democrats.

“Our troops continue to fight and die valiantly. And our Treasury continues to be depleted rapidly, for a peace that we seem far more interested in achieving than Iraq’s own political leaders,” Reid said. ]