memeorandum: Tripping On Crazy — Atrios has posted a YouTube of Tom Friedman … (Digby/Hullabaloo)

The War as We Saw It — VIEWED from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population.

Discussion: INTEL DUMP, Balloon Juice, Informed Comment, Prairie Weather, TIME: Swampland and Daniel W. Drezner

Sally Buzbee / Associated Press:
Shiite militia expands grip in Baghdad

Discussion: The Newshoggers

Washington Post:

How Rove Directed Federal Assets for GOP Gains — Bush Adviser's Effort to Promote the President and His Allies Was Unprecedented in Its Reach — Thirteen months before President Bush was reelected, chief strategist Karl Rove summoned political appointees from around the government to the Old Executive Office Building.

Discussion: Norwegianity, Outside The Beltway, PoliBlog (TM), Bark Bark Woof Woof, First Draft, Prairie Weather, Greenlee Gazette and McClatchy Washington Bureau

Atrios / Eschaton:

Is Tom Friedman a Bad Person? — All signs point to "pretty hideous human being, one which all good people should shun."

Discussion: Obsidian Wings and PSoTD

Digby / Hullabaloo:

Tripping On Crazy — Atrios has posted a YouTube of Tom Friedman from 2003 saying we needed to unleash hell on the first convenient middle eastern country to teach those bastards a lesson. It's a perfect display of the rampant lunacy that overtook most of the punditocrisy after 9/11, and Friedman in particular.

Discussion: RADAMISTO and Eschaton

ABCNEWS:

The Iowa Debates — Tune In and Talk Back — ABC News Hosts Republican and Democratic Debates Aug. 5 and Aug. 19 — Welcome to the online home of ABC News' Democratic debate, the second of two presidential debates held this month on the campus of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Political Radar

The Corner:

The Muslim Jesus Cont'd — Some interesting emails for late on a Saturday night. Here are a bunch, but I'll hide most of 'em behind one of those more links: … And: … And: … And, from my Middle East Guy: — Keep reading this post . . .

Discussion: The Van Der Galiën Gazette

Mark Steyn / Orange County Register:

Speaking of sanctuary, where's ours? — At the funeral of Iofemi Hightower, her classmate Mecca Ali wore a T-shirt with the slogan: "Tell Me Why They Had To Die." — "They" are Miss Hightower, Dashon Harvey and Terrance Aeriel, three young citizens of Newark, New Jersey …

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Post and Blue Crab Boulevard

Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:

A Deadly Clash at Donkey Island — On a Routine Night Patrol Near Ramadi, U.S. Troops Stumble Upon a Camp of Heavily Armed Insurgents Poised to Retake the City — Staff Sgt. Norman Stark had never seen combat. Nor did the 32-year-old soldier from Baltimore expect it …

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere, Blue Crab Boulevard and Eunomia

Katie Hafner / New York Times:

Seeing Corporate Fingerprints in Wikipedia Edits — Last year a Wikipedia visitor edited the entry for the SeaWorld theme parks to change all mentions of "orcas" to "killer whales," insisting that this was a more accurate name for the species. — There was another, unexplained edit …

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The RBC and MoJoBlog

Clark Hoyt / New York Times:

When the Issue Is War, Take Nothing for Granted — A front-page article 11 days ago prompted a flurry of e-mail accusing The Times of playing into what readers said were Bush administration efforts to gin up hostility toward Iran. — The article reported that attacks on American-led forces …

Discussion: TigerHawk and Prairie Weather

Observer:

The day reality hit home — The writer Andrew Anthony was a committed member of the liberal left - until the attacks of 11 September, 2001. A veteran of CND and Nicaraguan solidarity campaigns, he was astonished at the liberal left's anti-American reaction.

Discussion: normblog and USS Neverdock

Jurassicpork / Pottersville:

FRANK RICH: He Got Out While the Getting Was Good — BACK in those heady days of late summer 2002, Andrew Card, then the president's chief of staff, told The New York Times why the much-anticipated push for war in Iraq hadn't yet arrived. "You don't introduce new products in August," …

Discussion: New York Times and Truth, Justice & Peace

Frank Rich / New York Times:

[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: He Got Out While the Getting Was Good — Karl Rove's departure was both abrupt and fast. The ritualistic "for the sake of my family" rationale convinced no one.

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal, Truth, Justice & Peace, Dohiyi Mir and Prairie Weather

BREITBART.COM:

Climate protest 'will be contained' — Police were confident of being able to contain the expected climax of the climate camp at Heathrow Airport. — Protesters, buoyed by an influx of new arrivals, promised 24 hours of direct action, starting from midday on Sunday.

Discussion: BBC and Little Green Footballs