Crooks and Liars has the video of Howard Dean on Face the Nation today.

The question is, what is a reasonable way to get out? And that's - we have no answers from the President on that at all. He keeps - his Administration appears divided. Some of the generals have said we can withdraw some of the troops, perhaps as many as 30,000 after the elections. We have others saying, we're not going to leave. These people do not know what they are doing. They didn't know what they were doing when we got in, they had no plan then, they have no plan now.

[Via Atrios.]

The President should know better than to speak without a teleprompter and prepared script by now. His off-the-cuff comments show his true nature. Leaving for a bike ride at the ranch today,

Bush said he is aware of the anti-war sentiments of Cindy Sheehan and others who have joined her protest near the Bush ranch. "But whether it be here or in Washington or anywhere else, there's somebody who has got something to say to the president, that's part of the job," Bush said on the ranch. "And I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say."

"But," he added, "I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."

Last week we reported that Saddam's daughter had fired all his lawyers. Today, the Iraq tribunal trying Saddam says the lawyers are not fired. Only Saddam can fire or hire lawyers, not his family.

by TChris

Responding to demands for faster lines at airport terminals, TSA officials are considering changes in airline passenger screening rules. Some of the changes under consideration make sense: prohibiting nail files in carry-on luggage has always been a bit extreme, although the ban on ice picks should probably stay. One welcome proposal would allow passengers to keep their shoes on unless they set off a metal detector, while another seeks to reduce patdowns by giving screeners the discretion to keep their hands off passengers who are wearing tight-fitting clothes.

More troubling is the list of individuals who would be exempt from screening requirements:

... federal judges, members of Congress, Cabinet members, state governors, high-ranking military officers and those with high-level security clearances.

These are exactly the people who should know what it feels like to experience an invasion of privacy (however slight) at the hands of a government employee. Exempting public officials from the same travel hassles that the rest of us endure insulates them from the real world in an unhealthy way.

Say Hello to:

• Low and Left, an offshoot from Left Coaster
• Unbossed
• SoapBlox Colorado

Jeanine Pirro's first week on the campaign trail didn't wow the media back home in New York. But they do contain some valuable tips for turning it around. The best one: She needs to bring in an issues trainer on national issues. Jeanine's focus has been on crime, crime and crime her entire career. If she wants to run for the Senate, she needs to learn about the economy, health care, budget deficits, jobs and more. As the column points out, she should have done this before she entered the race.

Also unimpressed with Pirro is Newsday. In an editorial today, the paper says:

One of the curious things about the Jack Abramoff arrest was the differing reports on Thursday: The Miami Herald reported the FBI was looking to arrest him in Baltimore; co-defendant Kidan was allowed to self-surrender; Abramoff was later arrested and jailed in Los Angeles.

Michael Isikoff at Newsweek has this report:

The justice department played hardball last week with former superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, in part because of concerns he might flee to Israel. Hours before Abramoff was indicted on fraud charges in Miami last Thursday, FBI agents tried to arrest him at his Maryland home. But he'd already left for Los Angeles. Agents tracked him down on his cell phone and ordered him to surrender to the local FBI office. When Abramoff did, later that day, he was handcuffed, thrown into jail, then released last Friday on a $2.2 million bond.

With more than 1,800 young American lives lost, does Bush think an Emily Litella "Never Mind" moment will do anything but enrage us and sour the troops?

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say. What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "

Can you spell f-a-i-l-u-r-e?

Actor Christopher Walken is running for President in 2008.

"Our great country is in a terrible downward spiral. We're outsourcing jobs, bankrupting social security, and losing lives at war. We need to focus on what's important-- paying attention to our children, our citizens, our future. We need to think about improving our failing educational system, making better use of our resources, and helping to promote a stable, safe, and tolerant global society. It's time to be smart about our politics. It's time to get America back on track."

Here's the press release, his bio and his platform.

Update: The Technologist says the website may be a fake. [hat tip Patriot Daily]

So says Frank Rich in a must-read column in the Sunday New York Times. He even credits the blogosphere:

Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7.

Also in the Times, this grim op-ed by a returning soldier.

Mark Green writes an excellent piece at Huffington Post on the danger of racial profiling.

....every time civil liberties have been suspended, the result has been a humiliation not only for the targeted community but also ultimately for the United States. Besides the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War Two, for which the government issued an apology and reparations, Bush’s deferral of constitutional procedure for Guantanamo detainees drew a Supreme Court rebuke. Indeed, they make the further suspension of the rights of Middle Eastern-looking folk on New York’s subways that much more gruesome. You’re stopped at Columbus Circle on your way home from work, and you may wake up in Cuba without your family ever getting a phone call.

Wow, how did this one slip through:

President Bush signed into law a bill to create electronic monitoring programs to prevent the abuse of prescription drugs in all 50 states.

The new law creates a grant program for states to create databases and enhance existing ones in hopes of ending the practice of "doctor shopping" by drug abusers seeking multiple prescriptions. It would authorize $60 million for the program through fiscal 2010.

The bill, signed late Thursday at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch, was sponsored by Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Republican representing Kentucky's 1st District.

Now we know what the President meant by a "working vacation" - working hard at eviscerating more of our privacy rights.