memeorandum: Sitting Ducks — At last my heart and mind are at rest, until tomorrow. (Inside Iraq)

US generals 'will quit' if Bush orders Iran attack — Michael Smith and Sarah Baxter, Washington — SOME of America's most senior military commanders are prepared to resign if the White House orders a military strike against Iran, according to highly placed defence and intelligence sources.

Discussion: QandO, The American Street, NewsHog, Hot Air, f a t c a t politics, Talking Points Memo and digg

Los Angeles Times:

U.N. calls U.S. data on Iran's nuclear aims unreliable — Tips about supposed secret weapons sites and documents with missile designs haven't panned out, diplomats say. — VIENNA — Although international concern is growing about Iran's nuclear program and its regional ambitions …

Discussion: Rising Hegemon

Reuters:

U.S. developing contingency plan to bomb Iran: report — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Despite the Bush administration's insistence it has no plans to go to war with Iran, a Pentagon panel has been created to plan a bombing attack that could be implemented within 24 hours of getting the go-ahead …

Discussion: AMERICAblog and My Two Sense

New York Times:

Al Qaeda Resurgent — Almost five and a half years ago, America — united by the shock of 9/11 — understood exactly what it needed to do. It had to find, thwart and take down the command structure of Al Qaeda, which was responsible for the deaths of 3,000 innocent people on American soil.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Riehl World View, AMERICAblog and NO QUARTER

Telegraph:

Secret report: Terror threat worst since 9/11 — The terrorist threat facing Britain from home-grown al-Qaeda agents is higher than at any time since the September 11 attacks in 2001, secret intelligence documents reveal. — The number of British-based Islamic terrorists plotting suicide attacks against …

Discussion: Hot Air

Marc Schulman / The Moderate Voice: Al Qaeda's Resurgence

Associated Press:

Romney family tree has polygamy branch — SALT LAKE CITY - While Mitt Romney condemns polygamy and its prior practice by his Mormon church, the Republican presidential candidate's great-grandfather had five wives and at least one of his great-great grandfathers had 12.

Discussion: All Spin Zone, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Reaction, Middle Earth Journal, The American Street, Iowa Voice and The American Mind

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
... And Brigham Young's Great-Great-Great-Grandson Won A Super Bowl

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money

James Joyner / Outside The Beltway: AP Smears Romney With 155-Year-Old Family History

Sinan Salaheddin / Associated Press:

38 killed in attack near Baghdad college — BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber struck Sunday outside a college campus in Baghdad, killing at least 38 people and injuring dozens as a string of other blasts and rocket attacks left bloodshed around the city. — Most of the victims were students …

Inside Iraq:

Sitting Ducks — At last my heart and mind are at rest, until tomorrow. — I was waiting for a phone call from my daughter to tell me she is home safely. — She, like thousands of university students in Iraq, is taking her mid-term tests, starting today. They have a fixed schedule, i.e. are sitting ducks - for ten days.

Discussion: Unqualified Offerings

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo: This morning's headlines are about a suicide bomber killing …

Patrick Ruffini / Townhall.com:

Shhhh... The Surge is Working — A gloomy haze has settled over the nation's prosecution of the War on Terror as of late. It seems like we can only watch helplessly as Nancy Pelosi and Jack Murtha size up new angles of attack for undermining the war effort.

Discussion: Jules Crittenden

Dafydd / Big Lizards: Whack-a-Mole and Seal-a-Hole Redux

William Booth / Washington Post:

Al Gore, Rock Star — Oscar Hopeful May Be America's Coolest Ex-Vice President Ever — LOS ANGELES — In the annals of vice presidential history, tonight will be something different. In his black tux, the man known to his most fervent fans as "The Goracle" will arrive by hybrid eco-limo and …

Discussion: Extreme Mortman, NewsBusters.org and Tennessee Guerilla Women

Anne E. Kornblut / Washington Post:

Clinton Fights to Keep Impeachment Taboo — After Spat, Campaigns Know to Expect Swift Reprisal for Any Hint of the Scandal — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new commandment for the 2008 presidential field: Thou shalt not mention anything related to the impeachment of her husband.

Discussion: Riehl World View

Tim McGirk / time-blog.com:

Jesus: Tales from the Crypt — Brace yourself. James Cameron, the man who brought you 'The Titanic' is back with another blockbuster. This time, the ship he's sinking is Christianity. — In a new documentary, Producer Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, make the starting claim …

Discussion: Jay Reding.com, Classical Values, Texas Rainmaker, Pajamas Media, News Bloggers Blog, CorrenteWire, Truthdig and My Two Sense

Deborah Howell / Washington Post:

Covert Question, Open Controversy — Was Valerie Plame covert or not? It's hard to tell from reading The Post. — Her identity as a CIA operative has been at the center of a long-running soap opera, culminating in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney.

Discussion: The Sideshow

Newt Vs. Hillary / US News:

Michael Barone — Pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that in a recent presidential pairing, Hillary Rodham Clinton would beat Newt Gingrich by a 50-to-43 percent margin. That sounds fairly plausible, although it's a little better showing for Gingrich than I would have expected.

icwales.icnetwork.co.uk:

800 civilian contractors killed in Iraq — In a largely invisible cost of the war in Iraq, nearly 800 civilians working under contract to the Pentagon have been killed and more than 3,300 hurt doing jobs normally handled by the US military, according to figures gathered by The Associated Press.

Discussion: skippy the bush kangaroo

Nicole Belle / Crooks and Liars:
The Numbers Game — Since the beginning of the occupation …

Discussion: Associated Press

Rob Pegoraro / Washington Post:

More Patent Pain — Alcatel-Lucent won the tort lottery yesterday when a federal jury in San Diego ordered Microsoft to pay it $1.52 billion. The jury found that the MP3 software in Microsoft's Windows Media Player program violated two Alcatel-Lucent patents that describe ways to store music as compressed digital files.

Kevin Drum / Political Animal:
PATENT ABUSE....You may or may not be aware of this …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias