A critical part of General Petraeus' strategy:

Another part of the strategy is to wall off communities along their traditional boundaries to control population access and prevent attacks. "That's part of the concrete caterpillar," Petraeus said, pointing out a barrier going up in a neighborhood in west Baghdad. . . .

Iraq PM Maliki's response:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday that he has ordered a halt to the construction of a barrier that would separate a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad, saying there are other ways to protect the neighborhood. The U.S. military announced last week that it was building a large concrete wall in the northern Azamiyah section of Baghdad in an effort to protect the minority Sunnis from attacks by Shiites living nearby. . . . In his first public comments on the issue, al-Maliki said he had ordered the construction to stop. "I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop," al-Maliki told reporters during a joint news conference with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa in Cairo, Egypt. "There are other methods to protect neighborhoods."

Well, I wonder if, unlike John McCain, Gen. Petraeus has a Plan B.

U.S. News & World Report’s David E. Kaplan, in Foreign Affairs, reveals a pending class action lawsuit by past and present female CIA employees over alleged bias in the handling of “close and continuing” relationships with foreigners. From the press release (no link, received by e-mail):

The article reports never-before-told stories of female case officers falling in love and paying for it by losing their careers -- while men in similar situations, they say, merely got their wrists slapped.

For the details, see below:

Iggy Pop turned 60 yesterday, and he's still as energetic in his concerts as always.

The eerily athletic "Godfather of Punk" stripped down to a tight pair of blue jeans and dived off the stage into the arms of his adoring fans during a concert in San Francisco with his reunited band the Stooges.

Pop no longer carves up his chest with a steak knife, rolls around in cut glass, smears himself in peanut butter, or follows a drug regimen that makes Keith Richards look like a choirboy. But the Michigan trailer-park kid otherwise outruns rockers one-third his age.

I'm looking forward to reading the new biography about him, Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed.

Trynka leaves no detail, graphic or otherwise, untold in this hard-to-put-down biography that traces Pop's early years in Ann Arbor and captures the debauchery and drug use that led to his and the band's downfall. But it also tells the very human story of Osterberg and his struggle with his manic Iggy Pop alter ego.

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In discussing the coverage of Senator Harry Reid telling the truth about Iraq, Atrios has two posts that understand that Democrats' ending the war is what the American People want:

People hate Bush and hate this war and the more the Democrats are associated with that view the more support they'll have.

Exactly and this applies to funding the Debacle as well. If Democrats will embrace Reid-Feingold it will be a political boon to their fortunes. Let the GOP and Bush wail that Dems want to end the war, or in the false rhetoirc they will use - "abandon the troops." The American People want to abandon IRAQ.

Whatever the merits of the policy, understand that, the American People want out. Atrios, citing Bill Schneider with the data I have posted here previously:

Watching Meet the Press and the ridiculous talking heads, this time Meacham, Kearns Goodwin and Gregory, say nothing about nothing, I was thinking if that was preferable to what Kyra Phillips did. Of course, Meet the Press is, in theory an opinion show so the issue is should reporters by doing opinion segments. I am pretty strongly in favor reporters and Editors saying NO to that. So Gregory, Meacham, Citizen Stengel and the like should not be doing opinion segments. But that does remind of the one time a reporter did opine on a war:

[Walter Cronkite] was not punished in the ratings when he went to Vietnam and reported that he had seen the lies, corruption, and stalemate in that war and that it was time for us to go. LBJ watching Cronkite's Vietnam report. President Lyndon Johnson listened to Cronkite's verdict with dismay and real sadness. As he famously remarked to an aide, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost America." After all, this was not one of the young, brash reporters like Morley Safer or Jack Laurence pricking the president's power. It was Cronkite, veteran of World War II, a man of unimpeachable patriotism. When he stated the obvious -- that the Viet Cong had no intention of giving up, and we had no intention of remaining in Vietnam for another generation -- the common sense of it stuck with the public.

Can you imagine NASCAR Brian Williams, Katie Couric or ABC's generic anchor (I know his name, but he has no persona) doing that? Of course not. Heck, the Media does not give opinions on issues, it makes fun of politicians. Our political journalism is as pathetic as the President it covers.

We are in an Era of Incompetence, from our President to our Media.

Update: Gore staffers deny the report.

*******

The Telegraph reports that former Gore aides have met in secret and been queried on whether they'd come to work for him if he decided to enter the presidential race.

....aware that he may step into the wide open race for the White House, former strategists are sounding out a shadow team that could run his campaign at short notice. In approaching former campaign staff, including political strategists and communications officials, they are making clear they are not acting on formal instructions from Mr Gore, 59, but have not been asked to stop.

One of his former campaign team said: "I was asked whether I would be available towards the end of the year if I am needed. They know he has not ruled out running and if he decides to jump in, he will have to move very fast. "He hasn't asked them to do this, but nor has he told them not to."

Former President Clinton also suggested on Larry King Live last week that Gore might run.

I disagree with those who think the nomination is his for the asking. Plus, I really don't want him to run. I'm happy with the candidates already in the running, particularly Hillary and John Edwards.

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Big Tent Democrat has already criticized New York Times' columnist Maureen Dowd's article, Running With Scissors.

I'm going to weigh in with Hillzoy at Obsidian Wings who criticizes Dowd for going with the crowd that criticizes John Edwards for his haircuts and day spa expenses. It turns out the day spa expense was for makeup for going on TV.

Who goes on TV these days without makeup? I'm not running for President, and unless it's a breaking news story where there's no time to arrange for a make up artist, I say no if they ask me to go to a studio without one. Not when the anchors and other guests get it automatically because they are either in the studio with the host where make up artists are on site all day and night, or in a city large enough that the local bureau provides it.

It doesn't matter whether you're on for five minutes or an hour. Make up artists charge around $250 per appearance.

If you're running for President, and a last minute call comes in for national tv time and you need a haircut, like Hillzoy, I see nothing wrong with paying the stylist to come to you -- rather than having to take a few hours to go to a salon -- and get a haircut. Time is money, as they say.

But Hillzoy says it much better than me, and she's really angry about Dowd's column, so I hope you'll go over and read her.

And, here's a note to those who find themselves in Denver with a hastily arranged tv appearance. Ask for MFG Studios, they'll call Beth Ryan or Dee (the best in town, in my opinion, and I've probably had them all) and tack it on to the network's bill. MFG also has the most flattering lighting.

Update: Why doesn't anyone report that Laura Bush has paid $700 for a haircut?

New York Times Public Editor Byron Calame today examines the paper's coverage of the Duke Lacrosse players false sexual assault charges.

At one point he discusses whether the false accuser should be named now. He concludes:

Times editors discussed whether “to stick to our policy of not naming accusers in sexual assault cases,” Mr. Keller told me, “and decided to do so.” My first instinct was that The Times should strongly consider adopting a policy of naming false accusers. Then I decided that the mental health of the Duke accuser and the failure of Mr. Nifong to limit the harm she caused by doing his job responsibly combined to keep this case from being a good one on which to debate such a policy change. But I hope Times editors will soon consider holding a discussion, free of deadline pressure, about what purpose the tradition of not naming sexual assault victims serves when their accusations are proved to have no merit.

I disagree. The moment the charges were dismissed, upon the Attorney General's finding there was no credible evidence to support her claim that any attack occurred that night, she became a false accuser. Her name should be published so that she can no longer hide behind the victim label. Mentally ill or not, she caused incalculable damage to the lives and reputations of three innocent young men, who will be traumatized by the ordeal for years to come.

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Synonyms for flip-flop:

about-face, adaptation, alteration, born again, changeover, exchange, flip-flop, flux, growth, innovation, metamorphosis, metanoia, metasis

Which one of the synonyms will Rudy use to describe his flip-flop on the War On Immigrants? In 1996, Rudy said:

The anti-immigration issue that’s now sweeping the country in my view is no different than the movements that swept the country in the past. You look back at the Chinese Exclusionary Act, or the Know-Nothing movement — these were movements that encouraged Americans to fear foreigners, to fear something that is different, and to stop immigration.

Rudy today:

If they want to become citizens, they should have to “get on the back of the line,” he said. “And then, at the end of the line, if they are ever going to become citizens,” he said, “the thing I am really interested in, they have to read English, write English, speak English and be able to understand the basics of American civics.”

But, like abortion, this is not the first Rudy flip-flop on immigration policy:

When he worked in the Justice Department under President Ronald Reagan, he defended the administration’s policy of keeping thousands of Haitian refugees in detention centers and denying them asylum. When he first ran for mayor in 1989, with immigration a potent subject in city politics, Mr. Giuliani moved quickly to distance himself from that policy, and embraced a role as both a spokesman and protector of new immigrants through his power as mayor.

There is not a position he won't abandon or a principle he won't sacrifice to win political office. There is no doubt that if Giuliani was running for Senate in New York this year he would hold the exact opposite views he now espouses. Is there a less principled person in politics than Rudy? Joe Lieberman? It's close.

What's going on at CNN? First John Roberts and now, via Greg Sargent, Kyra Phillips decides to opine rather than report:

Is this the new CNN policy? And if it is, can I ask them if they think the Bush Administration misled the country into the Iraq Debacle? John? Kyra? What do you think about that? Harry Reid has said that too. Any thoughts on the matter?

The latest example of sheer ignorance on not funding the Iraq Debacle comes from Matt Yglesias:

This memo on Iraq funding strategy from John Podesta, Larry Korb, Scott Lilly, and Brian Katulis seems smart to me; about the right combination of politics and substance. It's extremely frustrating that there doesn't appear to be a viable way for anti-war congressfolk to simply use their authority to mandate both a beginning point for withdrawal and an endpoint but, well, there just isn't one.

The Podesta memo is wrong and Yglesias does not know what he is talking about. See this, among my many explanations of why Reid-Feingold, even if NOT passed, can lead to an end to the Debacle.

This type of non-thinking is infuriating, especially on the most important issue of the day from someone who is smart enough to know better.

Via Glenn Greenwald, Powerline writes:

Meet Dave Gaubatz The current issue of the (UK) Spectator has some extremely interesting articles[,] . . . but none surpasses Melanie Phillips's "I found Saddam's WMD bunkers" in interest. Phillips's article tells the story of Dave Gaubatz, an agent in the US Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations who searched Iraqi WMD sites after the fall of Saddam.

Gaubatz "found the WMDs" and says that the Bush Administration has covered up the fact that WMDs were discovered. This is crackpot of course. But as Johnson says, let's meet Dave Gaubatz. Glenn spotted this:

It is our task to conduct an extensive mapping of all the Islamic day schools, mosques, and other identifiable organizations in the US and to determine which ones teach or preach Islamic law, Shari’a. Further, the mapping will scale the Shari’a threat by identifying to which school of jurisprudence it belongs, its historical and contemporary call for Jihad, and whether the Jihad includes violent Jihad against non-believers. . . . Finally, we will examine and map any potential targets situated near these organizations, such as city, county, and federal government buildings, schools and universities, US military installations, major utility or infrastructure sites (i.e., nuclear installations, pipelines, water supply, etc.), and transportation hubs.

His organization is ironically called SANE, for Society of Americans for the National Existence. Hoo boy.