Global Warming

Indeed.

Melted In Just Six Days: Area Of Arctic Ice The Size Of Florida

An area of Arctic sea ice the size of Florida has melted away in just the last six days as melting at the top of the planet continues at a record rate. 2007 has already broken the record for the lowest amount of [...]

Tags: Global Warming, Arctic Ice

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Another Olbermann Win

And, it’s a big one. Maybe all of us football junkies ain’t so dumb, after all!

Sample Sell

Maybe, just maybe the idea of adding Keith Olbermann to the NFL on NBC roster is paying off for his [...]

Tags: Olbermann, Countdown, NFL on NBC

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Adding To The Report

The official "Report" is certainly important, but I find some of the ancillary information available tonight even more interersting.  Read on..

Iraqi public opinion decidedly negative

There are a handful of interesting new polls out this morning, most of which show Americans’ thoroughly unsatisfied with the status quo when it comes to Iraq. Perhaps the most interesting new survey isn’t the one that gauges public opinion in the U.S., but rather, in Iraq. Barely a quarter of Iraqis say their security has [...]

Tags: Iraqi Opinion, Iraq War, Iraq Report

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The President’s Plan

Biding his time. That’s at the core of everything about Iraq.  Biding his time..

Playing for more time

In talking to Robert Draper for his book “Dead Certain,” the president conceded that his goal was not to end the war or to bring U.S. troops home, but rather, to bide his time. “I’m playing for October-November,” Bush said. For nearly five years, every defense of the administration’s war policy has been just that, “playing” [...]

Tags: Robert Draper, Dead Certain, Iraq War

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The Questions Roll In

Reaction to the Patraeus report, for sure.  But, time has let the pundits generate some questions of their own..

Questions for Gen. Petraeus

Apparently Petraeus is counting "IED hoaxes" in the PowerPoint slide that shows a sharp decrease in IED attacks. That seems odd, doesn’t it? John Cole would like to see that chart replotted with just the actual IED [...]

Tags: Patraeus, IED Hoaxes, IED Attacks

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More Followup

The reaction to the Patraeus report just keeps rolling in..

Kicking the Can

Michael Abramowitz writes at WaPo: The long-awaited testimony this afternoon of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, once seen as a potential turning point in war policy, seemed more like an exercise of kicking the can down the road. Wow. How … expected. Appearing before two House committees, Petraeus confirmed that 30,000 U.S. troops [...]

Tags: Patraeus, Crocker, Iraq War

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On The Ground In Iraq

The McClatchy newspapers consistently deliver the clearest views on the situation in Iraq, because they refuse to spin government information and statistics.  Another stunning example over the weekend..

McClatchy: Civilian Deaths Steady through Surge; August Secret Official Toll Staggering 2,890; Mahdi Army Continuing Ethnic Cleansing

Everybody’s got a status report on Iraq these days. The consistently best and most clear-eyed wire service on Iraq, whose Pentagon correspondents are pointedly not invited to fly with the Secretary of Defense, is McClatchy (formerly Knight-Ridder). It has a long article on Sunday on how the security situation is not in fact better in Iraq now than last January. I’m going to pull out snippets below, some of them out of order: [...]

Tags: Iraq War, McClatchy Newspapers

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Another Osama Tape

Word today that there’s another Osama tape on the way.  We’re not even finished debating the OTHER Osama tape from last week! Plenty of links to keep you busy in the following post…

New Osama Tape: Was It Fake?

There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about Osama’s beard.Was it fake? Was it dyed? There has also been a lot of discussion about the politics in the video. Some suggesting they sound a lot like the American left. There are a lot of oddities that open up questions on the authenticity of the latest Al Qaeda propaganda. Michael Leeden, at the Corner, ponders whether this was really Osama with many good points. Another significant find was pointed out by the leftist site, Booman Tribune. "Osama Bin Laden’s widely publicized video address to the American people has a peculiarity [...]

Tags: Osama bin Laden, Osama Tape

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Ooops. Sorry.

I really didn’t mean it when I said I was guilty.   Sorry, officer.  Also, I had "king’s X" behind my back, so it doesn’t count..

Craig’s guilty plea was not ‘knowingly and understandingly made’

As the Petraeus/Crocker hearing gets underway in the House, I thought I’d take a moment to note that Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) is still not going away quietly. Sen. Larry Craig filed papers Monday seeking to withdraw his guilty plea in an airport sex sting, arguing that he entered the plea under stress caused by media [...]

Tags: Larry Craig

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The Bush Administration And The Saudis

Another excellent bit of reporting from Greg Palast.  It’s worth your time to read. Also includes links to the BBC report (why is the best reporting done from outside the U.S.?)

September 11: What You “Ought Not to Know”

On November 9, 2001, when you could still choke on the dust in the air near Ground Zero, BBC Television received a call in London from a top-level US intelligence agent. He was not happy. Shortly after George W. Bush took office, [...]

Tags: 9/11, Ground Zero, Saudis

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Another Deadline

This might well have been lost in the Patraeus shuffle, but the fine folks at Daily Kos keep track of such things..

By the way… [Daily Kos]

Just in case you were wondering whether there might actually be something else going on this week besides the Petraeus Show, there is. Nothing serious, though. Just the latest in a series of deadlines set by Government Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, demanding the delivery by the "administration" of reports generated by the still-unknown private contractor who claims to have "lost" those [...]

Tags: White House Emails, Henry Waxman, Government Oversight Committee

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The Troops Are Bloggers

In the few hours they have to recover between missions, it seems a lot of the U.S. Troops are blogging. Truthfully.

Troop blogs show increasing criticism of war

“The toothpaste is out of the tube. And, try as they might, the military’s information nannies are not going to be able to stuff it back in,” said Noah Schatman of [...]

Tags: Iraq War, Troop Blogs

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The PR Blast Begins

Heck, it was up and running even BEFORE Patraeus started to talk…way before..

O’Hanlon pushes Iraq line in right wing press tour.

This morning, Brookings analyst Michael O’Hanlon published a column on National Review Online pre-emptively defending Gen. David Petraeus’ testimony to Congress about Iraq. He followed it up with an appearance on Laura Ingraham’s conservative radio show. As Matthew Yglesias points out, O’Hanlon appears to now be casting “himself out of the broad left-of-center community in [...]

Tags: Michael O’Hanlon, National Review Online, Patraeus, Iraq, Laura Ingraham

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Let’s Run The Numbers

Yes, let’s do it.  Because, as AMERICAblog notes, things don’t add up. 

Fact checking the testimony of Petraeus (and the Bush administration). The numbers don’t add up.

The Senate Democrats did a fact check of the testimony delivered by General Petraeus. It’s a very good and thorough rebuttal to today’s presentation — and because of its relevance, we’re posting the whole document: "Today in his prepared remarks, General Petraeus made the following statements regarding sectarian violence in Iraq. Unfortunately, his remarks raise as many questions as answers. [...]

Tags: Patraeus, Iraq War

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Better Things to Do

Oh, boy.  The bunch over on the Right/Conservative side of the blogosphere is lining up to take on the Clintons.  Again. But, don’t you think the Clintons have better things to do than push for a burglary?  To get a book manuscript?  Come on, people!~  I’m far from a blanket apologist for the Clintons, but I think they might have bigger and better things to do..

Clinton-Backed Burglaries?

Last week it was reported that Kathleen’s Willey’s home was broken into, and a manuscript for her upcoming expose on the Clinton’s was stolen… Willey believes the Clinton’s were behind the burglary, as nothing else was taken from her home. Adding to the credibility of her theory, David Schippers, the chief counsel for President Clinton impeachment trial [...]

Tags: Kathleen Willey, David Schippers, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton

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The Patraeus Report

Or, is it really the White House Report, presented by General Patraeus?  Whatever, the reviews are not particularly strong for the General’s presentation…

The magical mystery withdrawal plan

This lovely chart was a centerpiece of Gen. David Petraeus’ testimony this afternoon before the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee. It purports to show the level of U.S. troops deployed in Iraq falling gradually over … some period of time. As withdrawal plans go, it not exactly encouraging. That bottom line — [...]

Tags: Patraeus, Crocker, U.S. Troops in Iraq

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Looking Ahead

Tomorrow.  Pay attention.  It could be big. And, not just because it’s 9/11..

Tomorrow May Be "Make Or Break" For Hillary

As I said in the previous post, the action moves to the Senate Armed Services Committee tomorrow. Petraeus’ testimony will already have been picked apart and fact-checked for 24 hours before he utters his first words or puts up his first chart full of misleading and inaccurate statistics. Will the Democratic senators on the committee go to school on his testimony today and come ready to challenge Petraeus? Take a close look at the committee membership, and see who has the most to lose by [...]

Tags: Senate Armed Services Committee, Patraeus, Hillary Clinton

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Craig Guilty?

Not so fast..

Craig to withdraw guilty plea

Larry Craig is apparently going to attempt to withdraw his guilty plea: Attorneys for Sen. Larry Craig are expected to file papers Monday to withdraw his guilty plea to a Minnesota disorderly conduct charge, a source with knowledge of the case told CNN. Craig’s attorneys are expected to argue that the Idaho Republican suffered a “manifest injustice” [...]

Tags: Larry Craig

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The Timetable in Anbar

Some things just aren’t what they seemed..

Progress In Anbar Initiated Four Months Before Bush’s Escalation

The Bush administration is increasingly touting the reduced violence in the Anbar province as evidence that the President’s escalation policies are working. Last week, President Bush made a surprise visit to the region and used it to argue that the troop buildup should not be cut short: In Anbar you’re seeing firsthand the dramatic [...]

Tags: Bush Administration, Anbar Province, Iraq, Iraq War

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The Right Questions

That, my friends, is the key to getting the right answers. You have to ask the right questions.  And, Schieffer has been around long enough to know about Vietnam…

Asking the right question to Petraeus.

CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer said this morning that one of the lessons we learned from Vietnam “is that we were asking the wrong question” to our generals. “When we have to ask, are we winning? we’re probably losing. Victory is always obvious,” he said. Let me preempt that question to General Petraeus. We [...]

Tags: Vietnam War, Iraq War, Bob Schieffer

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