From AP's lips to . . .:

A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war. At the White House, the president immediately promised a veto.

I love this quote from McConnell:

"The solution is simple: Take out the surrender date, take out the pork, and get the funds to our troops," said Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

McConnell says ignore the will of the American People and just bow to the Boy-King. Nice. I have another idea - why not set a date certain where Congress will no longer fund the Bush/Lieberman/McConnell/McCain/GOP Iraq Debacle.

Reid-Feingold. That's a simple solution too.

Update [2007-4-26 15:25:57 by Big Tent Democrat]: Yet again, Senator Obama and I disagree:

In the much, and rightly, acclaimed Bill Moyers program on the Media and Iraq, while Moyers hit all the high notes, I think folks have failed to emphasize a critically important part of the story. Some are missing the fact that the Media stopped doing fact gathering long before the post 9/11 period. In fact, as Tom Shales reports, Moyers shows us then CNN head Walter Isaacson saying just that but seems not pursue the matter:

Former CNN president Walter Isaacson tells Moyers: "One of the great pressures we're facing in journalism now is, it's a lot cheaper to hire thumb-suckers and pundits and have talk shows on the air than actually have bureaus and reporters."

But Isaacson understates the case. His reporters, as do almost all reporters, print or electronic, simply do he said/she said journalism. How many times do you hear "the Republicans say, but the Democrats say" without even a nod at considering what the ACTUAL FACTS are? Every single day in virtually every report. and this was hardly a phenomenon developed in the post-9/11 era. As I have written, it is something that became the norm in the 1990s:

In this post, TalkLeft cautioned against the euphoria that might spring from news that Karl Rove is under investigation by the Office of Special Counsel. Adding to that cautionary note is this story about Scott Bloch, who heads that office.

For three-and-a-half years, Scott Bloch has managed to hang onto his job as head of the federal government’s Office of Special Counsel, despite a flurry of allegations about anti-gay discrimination, cronyism, political use of his office, retaliatory firing of staff, and general incompetence. ... Bloch is a die-hard conservative whom Bush stood by when congressional Democrats assailed him. Moreover, Bloch told the Times that his investigation would work independently of others, including House Democrats, which could allow him to bury unsavory tidbits. This is a highly unusual — unprecedented, even — use of the Special Counsel’s powers, making it irregular to the point of odd.

Additional skepticism is reported in this LA Times article.

This post by Paul Begala on David Broder is good and important:

Broder, of course, is a gasbag. The Hindenburg of pundits.

. . . Mr. Broder has been foaming at the mouth these days. A man generally given to soporific prose, Broder has been downright venomous lately. And what has put the Benzedrine in Mr. Broder's Ovaltine? Not the fact that President Bush continues to lie about "progress" in the war in Iraq. Or that Dick Cheney continues to lie about pre-invasion links between al Qaeda and Iraq. Or that the Bush Administration has neglected our wounded warriors, ignored the victims of Katrina, potentially obstructed justice by firing US Attorneys who were pursuing GOP wrongdoing. Not even that the Bush Administration lied to the families of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch, cynically using their blood to distract from their own incompetence and dishonesty.

More...

Lt. Col. William Steele, Commander of the 451st Police Detachment Unit at Camp Cropper, located at the Baghdad airport, which houses some of Saddam Hussein's top deputies, has been charged with aiding the enemy, having improper sexual relations with a translator and a detainee's daughter and possessing pornographic videos.

The aiding the enemy charge stems partially from allegations he provided unmonitored cell phones to detainees. In all there are nine charges:

The other charges included unauthorized possession of classified information, fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee, maintaining an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter, storing classified information in his quarters and possessing pornographic videos, the military said. Steele also was charged with improperly marking classified information, failing to obey an order and failing to fulfill his obligations in the expenditure of funds, the military said.

Steele is being held in Kuwait pending an Article 32 hearing. The 451st Police Detachment Unit is based in Inkster, MI (pdf).

Too funny:

Last week a series of coordinated suicide bombings killed more than 170 people. . . . Unfortunately, because this slaughter took place in Baghdad, the carnage was seized upon as the latest talking point by advocates of withdrawal here in Washington. Rather than condemning the attacks and the terrorists who committed them, critics trumpeted them as proof that Gen. David Petraeus's security strategy has failed and that the war is "lost."

Um, failing to provide security in Baghdad, says Joe, is not evidence that "Gen. David Petraeus's security strategy is failing?" Well surely it is not evidence that it is working is it Joe? But it gets better:

And today, perversely, the Senate is likely to vote on a binding timeline of withdrawal from Iraq. This reaction is dangerously wrong. It reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of both the reality in Iraq and the nature of the enemy we are fighting there. What is needed in Iraq policy is not overheated rhetoric but a sober assessment of the progress we have made and the challenges we still face.

A sober assessment you say Joe? Like this one from November 2005?

Not content to seek to deprive the Guantanamo detainees of habeas corpus and access to the federal courts to challenge the conditions of their confinement, the Bush Administration is taking it one step further. Now, it wants to limit the detainees' access to their lawyers.

Saying that visits by civilian lawyers and attorney-client mail have caused “intractable problems and threats to security at Guantánamo,” a Justice Department filing proposes new limits on the lawyers’ contact with their clients and access to evidence in their cases that would replace more expansive rules that have governed them since they began visiting Guantánamo detainees in large numbers in 2004.

What limits does the Administration want to impose? Read on...

A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled police skid row searches unconstitutional:

U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson found that officers question — and at times search — parolees and probationers without evidence that they might have committed a crime, which the judge said was unconstitutional. He ordered the LAPD to change its practices.

This is the second victory for those on skid row:

A federal appeals court last year found the city's anti-camping ordinance to be unconstitutional, scuttling LAPD efforts to prevent the homeless from sleeping on downtown sidewalks at night.

TChris reported on that here.

More...

Thursday night, during the Presidential debate, John Edwards will call upon President Bush to fire Karl Rove.

Karl Rove’s shameless attempts to twist the federal government for partisan gain have simply gone too far. Rove is now clearly at the heart of the political firing and replacement of U.S. Attorneys warping the impartial execution of justice that all Americans depend on—and that’s just the beginning. We need to take a stand right now to defend the integrity of our government and our democracy—Karl Rove must be fired.

He has a petition he'd like you to sign.

Will Bush listen? Not to John alone. Not to you or me alone. But if thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of us speak out together to demand accountability for Karl Rove and end their era of cynical, destructive, partisan government—we cannot be ignored.

Please add your name, so when John speaks out at tomorrow's debate it's clear that he's speaking for thousands. We'll keep a signature counter online to show how many have joined the call.

[Note: I will periodically bump this to the top the next day or so, so check below for newer posts on our regular topics.]

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The Iraq funding bill has passed the House by a vote of 218 to 208.

The $124.2 billion bill would fund the war, among other things, but demand troop withdrawals begin on Oct. 1 or sooner if the Iraqi government does not meet certain standards. The bill sets a nonbinding goal of completing the troop pull out by April 1, 2008, allowing for forces conducting certain noncombat missions, such as attacking terrorist networks or training Iraqi forces, to remain.

The Senate is expected to vote and pass the bill tomorrow, and then it will go to President Bush, who has promised to veto it.

"Our troops are mired in a civil war with no clear enemy and no clear strategy for success," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

Videos of the debate are here.

The bill, "Conference Report to Accompany H.R. 1591 - Making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, and for other purposes." is here.

“It is better to be thought a Fool than to speak and remove all doubt. ...

Apparently, Broder is intent on removing all doubt. Greg Sargent tells us:

Over at the Dallas Morning News, which prints Broder's column from time to time, they've done a teaser on the paper's blog previewing the Op-ed columns the paper is running tomorrow. Here it is:

Tomorrow's op-ed columns

. .. (David Broder) How Harry Reid has joined Alberto Gonzales as exhibit A of ineptitude.

I won't say more because you should "[n]ever argue with a fool, they will lower you to their level and then beat you with experience."