The blogosphere has been abuzz today with the report in the L.A. Times that the little known Office of Special Counsel will investigate the U.S. Attorney firings and political activities led by Karl Rove.

Before you get too excited, let's look at who's in charge of the investigation. It's Scott Bloch, a Bush appointee who's been under investigation himself.

Bloch, a Kansas lawyer who served at the Justice Department's Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, was appointed by President Bush three years ago. Since he took the helm in 2004, staffers at the OSC, a small agency of about 100 lawyers and investigators, have accused him of a range of offenses, from having an anti-gay bias to criticizing employees for wearing short skirts and tight pants to work.

David Corn has many more details in his new Nation column.

I was skeptical this morning. Now, I'm wondering why the LA Times reporter omitted this critical information about Bloch. As Corn says,

It is a dizzying situation. The investigator investigating officials who oversee the agency that is investigating the investigator. Forget firewalls. This looks more like a basement flooded with backed-up sewage--with the water rising.

There can be nothing better for the fortunes of Democratic leaders in Congress than to be attacked by Vice President Cheney, especially on Iraq. Today, Cheney Accommodated Dems:

The battle of words over an Iraq war-spending bill intensified this afternoon as Vice President Dick Cheney suggested that Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, was indulging in cynical political calculation. Mr. Reid dismissed the vice president’s words as the utterances of President Bush’s “attack dog,” and said the administration remained in thrall to a failed policy, one that Democrats would continue trying to change.

Can you doubt that Dems are thinking "more please" from Mr. "Shoot Them In The Face," whose personal approval rating is around 32%?

Privatizing governmental services might not always be a bad idea, but adding a profit motive to governmental functions that have nothing to do with profit often spawns disaster. Take the case of privately run prisons. They can be quite profitable, and states (urged along by lobbyists) are increasingly turning to private enterprise to deal with the prison crisis that politicians have manufactured. This despite evidence that private prisons are neither more accountable nor more cost effective than government-run prisons.

Perhaps the New Castle Correctional Facility in Indiana was dysfunctional before the state turned over its management to the GEO Group, Inc., but it's fair to ask why a riot broke out in its first year of private management.

A "full-scale riot" broke out Tuesday at a medium-security men's prison, according to the mayor, and pictures taken from television helicopters showed at least two fires burning in the courtyard.

Will GEO Group, Inc. pick up the tab for all the taxpayer-funded law enforcement that's trying to clean up the mess it couldn't control?

Omar Khadr was a 15 year old Canadian, captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan. You can read the details here.

The Pentagon today officially charged him with murder.

Khadr is accused of throwing a grenade that killed U.S. Delta soldier Sgt. Christopher Speer during a firefight in Afghanistan July 27, 2002.

He was 15 at the time and was held for three months in Afghanistan before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay, where he remains today. In addition to the charge of murder, Khadr will also stand trial on attempted murder, providing material support for terrorism, conspiracy and spying.

Omar should not be tried by military tribunal. As Human Rights Watch said,

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My quick read of Obama's speech showed me largely nothing remarkable in it. It seemed a boilerplate Democratic speech on foreign policy. In general, I side with Kevin Drum's reaction as well as Matt Yglesias' reaction. Matt Stoller's vitriolic reaction against the speech seems out of left field to me:

What's striking about the speech was no so much what he said, but the reaction. There wasn't one. This was supposed to be a grand pronouncement with a new vision for foreign policy, and yet, the speech could have been ripped out of John Kerry's camapign, Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, or for that matter, Jimmy Carter's.

And this is bad why? Stoller says:

Here's the most annoying line, though there are so many:

I believe that the single most important job of any President is to protect the American people.

Um, Matt Stoller, you don't believe that? Sounds like Kucinich is your man then. What is funny to me is that of all the things in the speech Stoller's criticizes, the one thing he SHOULD have panned was this:

There are five ways America will begin to lead again when I’m President. . . . The first way America will lead is by bringing a responsible end to this war in Iraq . . .

We have to wait until Obama is President to end the Iraq Debacle? Senator Obama won't do anything that will ACTUALLY end the Debacle sooner than that? That is the problem with this speech and with Senator Obama. And it should surprise me that Stoller did not notice it. But sadly, ending the Iraq Debacle has become a secondary issue for some in the Left Blogs.

Responding to Senator Harry Reid's statement:

I understand the restlessness that some feel. Many who voted for change in November anticipated dramatic and immediate results in January. But like it or not, George W. Bush is still the commander in chief -- and this is his war."

Cliff May writes:

Actually, like it or not, it's America's war.

May's criticsm of Reid is right. But what does May NOT mention? That America wants the Debacle ended and Bush is defying the wishes of the American People:

Which of these comes closest to your opinion? 1. Congress should block all funding war in Iraq no matter what OR 2. Congress should allow funding only for a limited period of time OR 3. Congress should allow all funding for the war in Iraq without a time limit.
Block all funding 9
Allow only w/time limit 58
Should allow all funding 29
Don't know/No answer 4

The principles of Reid's proposal are supported by 2/3 of the American People. The President is NOT a King Clifford May. He does not get to rule the American People by diktat. The American People do not support the Debacle in Iraq. They want it over. And Harry Reid is the voice for the will of the American People. The view of Bush that you support is at odds with what the American People want. The war in Iraq is a Debacle the American People want ended. Time to do the will of the People Mr. May.

There's a freezing rain storm here today and very gray skies. It's the kind where you can hear the wind from inside and watch the rain pound the windows and you just know you aren't going outside unless you have to.

I'm going to spend it reading discovery, listening to wiretaps and organizing my files.

I'll leave the blogging to you.

David Halberstam, RIP, was a great journalist before he became famous and pretty good advocacy journalist after he became famous. And I think he realized that. Glenn Greenwald highlights a few of Halberstam's speeches on the "state of journalism" and a section from this Halberstam speech caught my eye:

There are a few things I would like to pass on to you as I come near to the end of my career. One: It's not about fame. By and large, the more famous you are, the less of a journalist you are. Besides, fame does not last. At its best, it is about being paid to learn. For fifty years, I have been paid to go out and ask questions. What a great privilege to be a free reporter in a free society, to be someone whose job is a search for knowledge. What a rare chance to grow as a person. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) I think that is a key insight from Halberstam. When you are not famous, your job as a journalist is to learn facts and then tell the public about the facts you have learned. By and large, as a reporter gets famous or even better known, they become advocates for particular narratives. This too is a worthy role so long as we understand that this is what famous journalists are doing.

And the toll, it just keeps growing.

A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-rigged truck into a U.S. military outpost near Baqubah on Monday, killing nine soldiers and wounding 20 in one of the deadliest single ground attacks on U.S. forces since the start of the war in Iraq, military officials said early Tuesday.

....The truck bombing caused the highest number of U.S. fatalities in a ground attack since Aug. 3, 2005, when 14 Marines were killed after their amphibious assault vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Haditha.

How many times have we heard that phrase, "one of the deadliest attacks since the start of the war?"

The House and the Senate have now agreed on a compromise Iraq funding bill.

The measure, a compromise between separate legislation passed earlier by each chamber, requires U.S. troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq by Oct. 1, with the goal of completing the withdrawal within 180 days. Some U.S. forces could remain in the country for training and counterterrorism operations.

Bush still threatens to veto it. Democrats may not have the votes necessary to override the veto.

Your unitary executive at work. He refuses to listen, is unable to grasp and unwilling to concede this war cannot be won by military means. And every day, more soldiers continue to die.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports a possible explanation for the traffic accident that sent New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine to the hospital.

New Jersey State Police are investigating an allegation that the trooper who was driving Gov. Corzine's SUV two weeks ago when it crashed going 91 m.p.h. may have been distracted by e-mails sent to his mobile phone or BlackBerry.

Perhaps Trooper Rasinski is adept at checking his BlackBerry while driving at high speeds, but was startled by the content of the messages.

A Berkeley Heights police sergeant was quoted in the Star-Ledger of Newark yesterday saying he sent an e-mail shortly before the crash to Trooper Robert Rasinski, confronting him over having a two-year affair with his wife, Susan. He said he enclosed a family photo as an attachment.

An acquittal in a South Carolina rape case. The defense had argued the two teenage girls lied and set him up. They were really after his marijuana. He testified he had consensual sex with one hours before the alleged rape.

....during the six-day trial, Hinson said the girls had consensual sex with him just hours before the alleged crimes took place, which explained why evidence on one of the girl's shirts was consistent with Hinson's DNA. He also described in detail a trip to a sex shop with one of his accusers to purchase a sexual device about a week before the alleged crimes and identified the device in court.

When Hinson saw police cars arrive at his property, he said he assumed they were after the four pounds of marijuana stashed in the underground room so he panicked and hid in the nearby woods.

As to the dungeon,

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The new list of the 50 best restaurants in the world was released today. You can view it here.

Only 8 are in the United States.

How many have you eaten in? I've only eaten in five, one in London, two in Paris, one each in New York and Chicago.

The one I'd most like to try: Bukhara, in New Delhi, which won as best restaurant in Asia. In the U.S., I'd like to eat at French Laundry in California.

Can you tell I'm writing this just before dinner?