Blackmail!

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There is no other word for it. The Bush administration is now threatening the Iraqi's with denying access to $50,000,000,000 in the Federal Reserve if they don't agree to US…

We are safer

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Suicide The large number of attacks -- more than double the number in any of the past 25 years -- reflects a trend that has surprised and worried U.S. intelligence…

Do quotes like this scare you?

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“You can’t really repair anything that is broken until you establish security,” said Lt. Col. Dan Barnett, commander of the First Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment. “A wall that isolates…

My letter to Frank Rich.

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I love reading Frank Rich on Sunday’s The guy is a great writer. So when he wrote this yesterday:

It’s not just torture we want to avoid. Most Americans don’t want to hear, see or feel anything about Iraq, whether they support the war or oppose it. They want to look away, period, and have been doing so for some time.

I finally can disagree with him and start to consider him a media elite. Someone that may not be AS in touch as I thought. You see, Mr. Rich. We don’t want to avoid, WE ARE TOTALLY POWERLESS TO DO ANYTHING. You see, we have people like Torturing Tom Carper that suspend habeas Corpus. People Like Mike McCastle that vote lockstep with Bush. That are ok with letting lawbreaking companies get a free pass.

Live Blogging the Petraeus/Crocker Hearings

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Well, I didn’t do it, that’s for sure. Even if I wasn’t working, I’m not sure how much more of the neocon-job I can take anymore.

Both Tom Ricks from the Washington Post and Spencer Ackerman at the Washington Independent did live-blog today’s hearings (Ricks will be doing so tomorrow too). Ricks was in the hearing rooms (taking comments too!) and Ackerman saw it all on CSPAN. I just read through both of them and they are certainly more information rich than the evening (NPR) news (the Ackerman is out-right funny in places). Neither is a real replacement for reporting, I think, but as a replacement for watching several hours of this stuff and knowing what generally happened certainly helps to see how the traditional media creates its narrative.

The Presidential candidates seem to be acquitting themselves well (although McCain — predictably now — loses the details when talking of the affiliation of AQ in Iraq) and their input (as well as the media focus) is a welcome change from the usual campaign trail horserace. Joe Biden as Chairman of Foreign Services Committee evidently did really well — getting Crocker to admit that Afghanistan is probably the better focus area AND reminding Petraeus and Crocker that they cannot bind the next President’s hands in this thing without coming to Congress first.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YqrAfSpn28[/youtube]