There are now reports that he’ll call for “troop cuts.” The standing troop rotation schedule has us reducing the force from 20 to 15 combat brigades by next August. My guess is he won’t go any deeper than where we’re already going.

Congress won’t be back in town for a few weeks, but I’m excited about some of the legislation that awaits their return. One of the least covered but most crucial bills would help restore popular faith in the fundamental building block of our democracy – elections. If Congress doesn’t act, around 41 million Americans in [...]

Is the NYT tampering with Wikipedia too? I have to say, if true, these edits suggest that the Times staffers are much funnier (and more immature) than you’d ever guess by looking at the paper itself. Condoleezza Rice trained to become a “concert penis“? That’s Gutfeld territory, people. (Maybe they meant Mr. Penis…)

I had an immediate gut reaction to this post, from the National Review’s Corner, regarding Lindsey Graham being spotting in Iraq armed with a Beretta: The Hermes Solution [Lisa Schiffren] When I was a reporter in a war zone where all civilians carried guns — i.e. Afghanistan in the 1980s — reporters were strongly advised [...]

A reminder: The Jumble is a list of the shiny news-like objects that have caught my eye. Please feel free to crow about your finds in the comments. • Unstoppable force meets immovable object? “On Wednesday, secret documents that purportedly chronicle parts of the governments’ secret warrantless spying on Americans’ communications will collide with… the [...]

The LA Times has this speculation about what Petraeus is going to say next month. The administration officials quoted in the piece say the general will ask for a restructuring of the force, moving troops from Anbar into Baghdad, but not reducing troop levels. I think this may be a smokescreen: I suspect that with [...]

Last month, Religious Right activists in the Senate gallery made a scene by attempting to shout down a Hindu clergyman who was scheduled to deliver an opening prayer. You can watch the shameful episode here: But as if that wasn’t bad enough, Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) managed to make matters much worse last week. Sali [...]

More saber-rattling from the Bush Administration. I remain convinced that Bush won’t bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran–the military and much of his party in Congress would go nuts; senior Republicans have told me that bipartisan impeachment hearings would be inevitable–but that doesn’t mean Bush won’t continue to try to provoke the Iranians into some sort of military [...]