President Discusses War on Terror and Operation Iraqi Freedom  —  Fact Sheet: Strategy for Victory: Clear, Hold, and Build  —  THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all.  (Applause.)  Thank you all.  Please be seated.  Sanjiv, thanks for the introduction.  He called me on the phone and said, listen …

My Ideal War  —  How the international community should have responded to Bush's September 2002 U.N. speech.  —  Up until now, I have resisted all urges to assume the mantle of generalship and to describe how I personally would have waged a campaign to liberate Iraq.

The New New Gore  —  Five years ago, Al Gore was the much-mocked pol who blew a gimme with his stiff demeanor and know-it-all style.  Today?  C'mon, admit it: You like him again.  —  The most important speech of Al Gore's post-non-presidency was neither well-covered nor particularly dramatic.

Did Marines Commit Crime in Iraq Civilian Deaths?  —  Prompted by Video and Magazine, Military Investigates Incident in Which 15 Iraqis Died, Including Children  —  WASHINGTON, March 19, 2006 — A bloody videotape shot by a local Iraqi journalism student has prompted the Pentagon to launch …

FBI Was Warned About Moussaoui  —  Agent Tells Court Of Repeated Efforts Before 9/11 Attacks  —  An FBI agent who interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui before Sept. 11, 2001, warned his supervisors more than 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist and spelled out his suspicions that the al-Qaeda operative …

SMALL GOVERNMENT CONSERVATIVES....Atrios is right.  Andrew Sullivan is just being incoherent here in his defense of his own conservatism: … Bush's tax cuts haven't touched Social Security or Medicare taxes (and both programs run surpluses anyway).  They've been solely cuts in personal …

Banker Granted Retrial in a Case From 90's Boom  —  A federal appeals court yesterday overturned the obstruction-of-justice conviction of Frank P. Quattrone, the investment banker who rose to prominence in the 1990's technology boom, and granted him a new trial.

A 'Third Term' for Bush  —  Condi Rice, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove need new jobs.  —  It's time for President Bush to think about a third term.  No, he doesn't need to overturn the Constitution.  He can start the equivalent of his third term now, by filling his presidential staff and cabinet …

Bush warns Iran on Israel  —  US President George W. Bush said he hoped to resolve the nuclear dispute with Iran with diplomacy, but warned Tehran he would "use military might" if necessary to defend Israel.  —  "The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel.

A Place Called Saudi Arabia  —  I find it a little hard to believe Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's "The Israel Lobby" was written while sober.  In their first sentence, the authors assert that, "For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967 …

Soldiers and civilians  —  I understand that Operation Swarmer was hyped, but the air war is real — something the hundreds of Iraqi families who fled Samarra on the first reports understand all too well.  —  Last week, Knight-Ridder reported a fifty percent increase in U.S. airstrikes in Iraq over the past five months.

Afghan Faces Death Penalty for Converting to Christianity  —  Judge Says He Could Escape Punishment If He's Ruled Insane  —  By GRETCHEN PETERS and LARA SETRAKIAN, with reporting by BILAL SARWARY  —  KABUL, Afghanistan, March 20, 2006 — Despite the overthrow of the fundamentalist Taliban government …

Peace just a breath away, says Sharon Stone  —  A peaceful co-existence between the peoples of the Middle East is but a breath away, Hollywood star Sharon Stone said after a highly publicized visit to Israel.  —  "It feels to me that we have an opportunity ... to choose understanding in a new way …

The third anniversary...sacrifice, fear and hope.  —  It has been three years since 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' began and for three years we debated whether the decision was right or wrong and until this moment we have different feelings and opinions about where this operation brought us and where its aftermaths are going to lead us.

Bush staffers ejected 3 at speech  —  Secret Service not responsible.  A federal report shows a White House employee ousted the trio from the president's talk in Denver.  —  A White House staff member was responsible for asking three people to leave President Bush's town-hall meeting in Denver a year ago …

Old Forecasts Come Back to Haunt Bush  —  Erosion in Confidence Will Be Hard To Reverse, Say Pollsters, Strategists  —  Three years of upbeat White House assessments about Iraq that turned out to be premature, incomplete or plain wrong are complicating President Bush's efforts to restore public faith …

Finally!  A White Guy Teaches Black Folk How to "Rap About Race"  —  Eugene Volokh is shocked - shocked - that an editorial in the Los Angeles Times about Claude Allen suggests that his race - together with his conservative politics - might have contributed to his crime.

A reason to believe  —  Iyad Allawi, the former Prime Minister of Iraq, is being quoted as describing Iraq in a state of civil war. … Jalal Talabani apparently rejects this assertion. … The British Defense Minister says that Allawi had said something rather diferent to him just shortly before his BBC interview.

"Big Love"?:  HBO Skips True Polygamy in Islamic U.S.  —  HBO's new show, "Big Love," is getting a lot of hype.  Airing in the prized post-Soprano's slot on Sundays at 10 p.m. Eastern, the show is about a lapsed Mormon in suburban Salt Lake City who has three wives and families.