Compromise on Oil Law in Iraq Seems to Be Collapsing  —  A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq's rich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talks among Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed.  The apparent breakdown comes just as Congress …

Spy Master Admits Error  —  Intel czar Mike McConnell told Congress a new law helped bring down a terror plot.  The facts say otherwise.  —  In a new embarrassment for the Bush administration top spymaster, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is withdrawing an assertion …

President Petraeus?  Iraqi official recalls the day US general revealed ambition  —  The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according to a senior Iraqi official who knew him at that time.

First Online-Only Candidate Mashup  —  The Associated Press reports on the online mashup sponsored by Yahoo!, Slate Magazine and the Huffington Post....

Tonight, the Petraeus plan becomes the Bush plan  —  President Bush, announcing the "surge'' in a nationally televised addressed from the library of the White House in January, said: "The year ahead will demand more patience, sacrifice, and resolve.'' White House photo

Do you care if national security criminal Sandy Berger is re-embraced by The Triangulatrix?  —  This is a story about a buffoon who became one of our nation's top national security officials, and then became a confessed national security criminal.  His probation ended last week …

Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: The Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op-Ed Columns  —  Executive Summary  —  This project did something that has never been done before: It amassed data on the syndicated columnists published by nearly every daily newspaper in the country.

A Bundle of Nerves  —  HSU ARE THEY?  —  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton previously supported campaign-finance reform proposals that would have required immediate and full transparency of donor names involved in bundling of political donations.  But now Clinton has ordered that none of the 200 …

A woman's right to Hsu's  —  I know what Mark Hemingway means when he praises the MSM coverage of the Hsu/Clinton scandal, but honestly, the difference between Democrat and Republican scandal fever is very telling.  I loved the New York Times headline:

Jon Stewart Tears Apart Petraeus' Dog and Pony Show  —  Last night Jon Stewart did what the media fails to do: namely, take General Petraeus' long record of rosey predictions into account when judging the accuracy and objectivity of his report on Iraq.  —  Download (11558) |  Play (19114) Download (5333) |

Austria Arrests Three in Latest Islamist Terror Plot in Europe  —  Austria became the latest European country to grapple with the threat of terrorism as it arrested three people with links to al Qaeda who posted an online video threatening attacks against Austria and Germany.

Hsu Sent Suicide Note Before Disappearance  —  Before Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu skipped a court hearing and temporarily vanished last week, he typed out a suicide note and sent copies to several acquaintances and charitable organizations, according to people who received it.

Okay, if this isn't portrayed as a major gaffe, with wall-to-wall condemnations from the pundits, it'll be stunning.  (Editor's note: That was meant to be bitterly ironic.)  —  I've just received some advance excerpts of an interview CNN's Wolf Blitzer has done with GOP House leader John Boehner.

Researcher: Bin Laden's beard is real, video is not  —  On the Friday before the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Osama bin Laden appeared in a new video, his first since prior to the U.S. presidential elections in 2004.  In analyzing the video, Neal Krawetz of Hactor Factor, an expert on digital image forensics …

Limited Pullout Is Middle Way on Iraq, Bush Will Say  —  When top Democratic leaders visited him at the White House this week, President Bush told them he wanted to "find common ground" on Iraq.  But when the president said he planned to "start doing some redeployment," the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, cut him off.

Democrats Push Toward Middle On Iraq Policy  —  Democratic leaders in Congress have decided to shift course and pursue modest bipartisan measures to alter U.S. military strategy in Iraq, hoping to use incremental changes instead of aggressive legislation to break the grip Republicans have held over the direction of war policy.