In March of this year, I had many a battle with Netroots leaders on the Iraq Supplemental. Today, I think any fair person would say that I was right and they were wrong.

But the Netroots leaders won't admit their mistakes or even try to learn from their mistakes. Here is an example of the disingenuous rationalizing we are sure to see from them:

There was a bomb threat at Jerry Falwell's funeral. Interesting that the threat was by a student at his own university.

The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service. The devices were made of a combination of gasoline and detergent, a law enforcement official told ABC News' Pierre Thomas.

Indications are others were involved. None of the Republican candidates for President attended.

From Greg Sargent:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi will present a plan to House Democrats for a war funding bill that won't include a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq but will feature benchmarks with consequences, according to Democratic leadership aides...

The Warner Deal. I told . . . Sorry.

Now for the good news. Harry Reid said:

We now have the timeline that the Republicans have set, and that’s this September. And that’s the very least, and then as I’ve indicated –the Defense authorization– we’re going to start right where we’ve left off with this bill, continuing our push to change direction in the War on Iraq."

I explained in March that the House Iraq Supplemental was a terrible strategy for ending the war. There is one way to do this - NOT funding the war on a date certain and announcing that as far ahead as possible. The Reid-Feingold-Dodd framework. Can we now work on the one actual way to end the Debacle now? Leader Reid? Speaker Pelosi? Let's get to work.

Senator Feingold writes:

This situation is a collapse for Democrats. . . . {N]ow, as Congress gets ready to send the President a bill that does nothing to get our troops out of Iraq, we are just folding our cards. As one person commented under Greg Sargent’s great post at TPM cafe, "Send the Congressional Dems over to my place for some poker - I could use a windfall right now." This is no time to back down. . . .

Senator Dodd is the only Presidential candidate in the Senate who is not lying down on this:

I'm disappointed that there is no firm deadline in this version of the bill, because I believe that's the only way to responsibly bring this war to an end. I will fight for, and hope that the bill that emerges from conference has, a firm deadline to redeploy our troops.

It won't have a firm deadline of course. But now is the time to redouble our efforts for the only way to end the Iraq Debacle, the Reid-Feingold-Dodd framework of setting a date certain for not funding the Debacle.

Andrei Lugovoy, former KGB agent and bodyguard has been charged in the U.K. with the poisoning death of Alexander V. Litvinenko. A third man present at the November 1, 2006 meeting after which Litvinenko fell ill and died, former Russian soldier Dmitri V. Kovtun, was not charged.

Larisa has been following the case from the beginning:

As I have said before, only the hit-man (and maybe some of his team) will get charged and the FSB and Putin won't be touched.

To really understand the questions and issues left unresolved by this "lone shooter" patsy, read through my posts on this case and one of the articles I wrote on it HERE.

Salon today has an article about another CIA ghost detainee, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, kept in a secret overseas prisons for months, undisclosed to the Red Cross and finally transferred to Guantanamo.

The C.I.A. (read White House) takes the position that these detainees are unlawful combatents and not entitled to protections of the Geneva conventions.

While the U.S. military recently adopted new rules for interrogation in the wake of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, legal and human rights experts say the CIA may be continuing to flout the law -- potentially using abusive interrogation tactics at secret prisons known as "black sites" -- at the direction of the Bush White House.

Red Cross officials confirmed to Salon that the CIA did not alert them during the months that al-Hadi was a prisoner with the agency. "We have repeatedly asked U.S. authorities to be notified and have access to all detainees, including those held by the CIA," said Simon Schorno, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Washington. "But we did not have access to Mr. al-Hadi before his transfer [to military custody]. For us, that is problematic."

More...

Joe Klein writes:

This much I can confirm: there is growing pessimism among U.S. officials about the possibility of the long-sought political deal amongst Shi'ites and Sunnis and Kurds. The current feeling is that there's no way to get the Shi'ites to relinquish any significant power.

Hoo boy! What a shocker! The Shias don't want to relinquish the power WE gave them with the drive for Purple Fingers! Um, not so much a shock. And in case people were wondering, this and this are related stories. The first:

The [Iraqi] militias hardly command the loyalty of every policeman. But police commanders warn that sectarianism has seeped thoroughly into the security apparatus, and it threatens to undermine everything McNellis and his colleagues [presumably US Army trainers] have accomplished. The professional police they desire may instead become a sharper instrument of sectarian fury.

The second, Maliki a year ago:

I cannot answer on behalf of the U.S. administration but I can tell you that from our side our forces will be ready by June 2007.

Yes ready to consolidate power and to be prepared to wage the civil war against the Sunni and other groups. You see, the simple truth is, the United States has won the war in Iraq on behalf of Iran and its Shia allies in Iraq:

I had alot of praise for Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) when he first entered the Senate. It seems I was quite wrong about him. Here Phoenix Woman documents Tester playing the pliant fool for Republicans on Reid-Feingold:

"I am doing everything in my power as a U.S. senator to end the war in Iraq, but I will not cast any vote that I believe compromises the safety and security of our troops on the ground," Tester said, also in a prepared statement. "I have said for two years that the president needs to develop a plan to get us out of Iraq," Tester said. "The Congress and the American people have spoken; the president needs to start listening."

Reid-Feingold sets a date certain 10 months from now to NOT fund the Iraq Debacle. It does not "compromise" the troops. It is the only way Congress can protect the troops from Bush.

The American People have spoken Senator. Time for Senators like you to listen and stiop pretending you can't end the Iraq Debacle, which is the biggest threat our troops face today. Political cowardice and dishonesty is not substitute for leadership. And that is what Tester offered on Reid-Feingold. And for those wondering why I did not beat up on Baucus here, it is because I know that this is what Baucus has always been. Tester is a disappointment.

Yesterday the AP reported:

In grudging concessions to President Bush, Democrats intend to draft an Iraq war-funding bill without a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and shorn of billions of dollars in spending on domestic programs, officials said Monday.

This story was not believed by the Panglosses of the Netroots. And today, Rep. Obey gives them hope:

“There is no deal,” said Representative David R. Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who is the chairman of the Appropriations Committee and is one of the lead negotiators over the war money.

Uh huh. Given the history of the Iraq Supplemental bill I think anyone trusting in Obey's words is just being foolish. I'll go through it on the flip.

The New York Times has the story of former Rudy Giuliani insider and head of New York's Office of Emergency Management Jerry Hauer.

In recent days, Mr. Hauer has challenged Mr. Giuliani’s recollection that he had little role as mayor in placing the city’s emergency command center at the ill-fated World Trade Center.

Mr. Hauer has also disputed the claim by the Giuliani campaign that the mayor’s wife, Judith Giuliani, had coordinated a help center for families after the attack.

And then there's Rudy temperment and retaliatory nature:

The two hour season finale of "24" is tonight. I've mentioned before that I only began watching this season, but I got hooked pretty quickly. Media reports are that viewership is down, perhaps because it's been more relationship oriented and less action packed this season. There are also rumors that next season, the show won't feature CTU as it has in the past.

There's also been a lot of attention to the show's right wing creator and executive producer, Joel Surnow.

There's still plenty of violence, some torture, mostly under the ticking time bomb theory, and the villians are Muslim, Russian or Chinese.

I finished watching season five a few weeks ago, and now have season four on my iPod to watch while on the treadmill at the gym, it's perfect for keeping the heart rate up and making 45 minutes go by really quickly.

So, who's watching the finale? Has the show reached a dead end? Is it a wing show that endorses torture or just entertainment?

Update: If you missed it, here's a recap.

I criticized the House Iraq Supplemental funding bill because I knew this day would come:

In grudging concessions to President Bush, Democrats intend to draft an Iraq war-funding bill without a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and shorn of billions of dollars in spending on domestic programs, officials said Monday. While details remain subject to change, the measure is designed to close the books by Friday on a bruising veto fight between Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress over the war. It would provide funds for military operations in Iraq through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

For all the "pragmatists" at Move On, and in the Netroots, you must NOW recognize the total miscalculation you made in March. And you must learn from your mistake. Forget benchmarks, authorizations and timelines.

We must ALL press for an end date certain for the funding of this Debacle. We must insist that NO BILL be passed funding the Iraq Debacle after a date certain. We must insist on the Reid-Feingold framework. The rest is not only a waste of time, but, as the House Supplemental efforts that started this mess, harmful.