Acid rain has a disproportionate impact on coastal waters

The release of sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere by power plants and agricultural activities plays a minor role in making the ocean more acidic on a global scale, but the impact is greatly amplified in the shallower waters of the coastal ocean, according to new research by atmospheric and marine chemists.

America’s Guardian Myths

By SUSAN FALUDI

San Francisco

AT length they came and beset our own house, and quickly it was the dolefulest day that ever mine eyes saw.” Thus did a minister’s wife, Mary Rowlandson, describe the Indian attack and immolation of her Massachusetts village, 35 miles west of Boston. “On the 10th of February 1675 came the Indians with great numbers upon Lancaster,” she wrote. “Their first coming was about sun-rising. Hearing the noise of some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning, and the smoke ascending to heaven.”

Rowlandson was one of the fortunate that morning: she and her three children were spared and taken captive. Her youngest, a 6-year-old daughter, died in her arms on the forced march north. After 11 harrowing weeks, Rowlandson was released and a few years later wrote “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” which would run through four printings in its first year and become America’s original best seller, the model of the captivity narrative, the foremost indigenous genre of American literature.

US economy loses jobs for first time in 4 years

The world's largest economy was hit with surprise job losses in August as the housing downturn and a credit crunch sparked increased layoffs, a government report revealed Friday.

The Labor Department said US employers unexpectedly shed 4,000 jobs in August, marking the first drop in payrolls since August of 2003.

US backing for two-tier internet

The US Justice Department has said that internet service providers should be allowed to charge for priority traffic.

The agency said it was opposed to "network neutrality", the idea that all data on the net is treated equally.

The comments put the agency at odds with companies such as Microsoft and Google, who have called for legislation to guarantee equal access to the net.

Ward Connerly's 'Equal Rights' con

Conservative philanthropy product Connerly launching 'Super Tuesday for Equal Rights' -- a series of November 2008 anti-affirmative action initiatives

In the aftermath of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling severely limiting the use of race in K-12 integration plans, Ward Connerly is feeling his oats. "I believe that we are now poised for a coup de grâce to say that race preferences in the eyes of the public should not be used," Connerly, the chairman of the Sacramento, California-based American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), said in response to the Supreme Court's decision. Since 1997 ACRI has received more than $5.7 million from conservative philanthropies for its anti-affirmative action activities.

Glenn Greenwald: Fred Hiatt, Michael Ledeen and the "bomb Iran crazies"

Fred Hiatt today unleashes an Editorial Page attack on Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency whom Hiatt labels "the Rogue Regulator." Bizarrely, though revealingly, Hiatt begins by complaining that "Mr. ElBaradei was lionized by opponents of the Iraq war for debunking Bush administration charges that Saddam Hussein had restarted his nuclear program before the 2003 invasion" -- as though having been right about Iraq, and thus admired by "by opponents of the Iraq war," is a sign of low credibility.

It is hard to overstate the bitterness and resentment which the Serious Pro-War Beltway Elite like Hiatt, who were wrong about everything, still harbor towards those, such as ElBaredei, who were right about Iraq, principally because those who were right serve as an ongoing, painful reminder of what poor judgment the likes of Hiatt possess, of how untrustworthy are the foreign policy pronouncements of the Serious People in Hiatt's world. Thus, Hiatt's attack on EdBaredei begins with the complaint that he "was lionized by opponents of the Iraq war" for being right. That's because in Hiatt's world, having been right on Iraq -- and being "lionized" by war opponents -- are actually hallmarks of unseriousness. Ask Scott Ritter (if you can find where he can be heard). Or Howard Dean.

Paul Krugman: Time to Take a Stand

Here’s what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he’ll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq — as long as you don’t count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites, Iraqis killed by car bombs and people shot in the front of the head.

Here’s what I’m afraid will happen: Democrats will look at Gen. Petraeus’s uniform and medals and fall into their usual cringe. They won’t ask hard questions out of fear that someone might accuse them of attacking the military. After the testimony, they’ll desperately try to get Republicans to agree to a resolution that politely asks President Bush to maybe, possibly, withdraw some troops, if he feels like it.

The Myth of AQI

Fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq is the last big argument for keeping U.S. troops in the country. But the military's estimation of the threat is alarmingly wrong.

By Andrew Tilghman

In March 2007, a pair of truck bombs tore through the Shiite marketplace in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, killing more than 150 people. The blast reduced the ancient city center to rubble, leaving body parts and charred vegetables scattered amid pools of blood. It was among the most lethal attacks to date in the five-year-old Iraq War. Within hours, Iraqi officials in Baghdad had pinned the bombing on al-Qaeda, and news reports from Reuters, the BBC, MSNBC, and others carried those remarks around the world. An Internet posting by the terrorist group known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) took credit for the destruction. Within a few days, U.S. Army General David Petraeus publicly blamed AQI for the carnage, accusing the group of trying to foment sectarian violence and ignite a civil war. Back in Washington, pundits latched on to the attack with special interest, as President Bush had previously touted a period of calm in Tal Afar as evidence that the military's retooled counterinsurgency doctrine was working. For days, reporters and bloggers debated whether the attacks signaled a "resurgence" of al-Qaeda in the city.

Federal judge strikes down key Patriot Act provision

Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: September 06, 2007 08:09:40 PM

WASHINGTON — For the second time, a federal judge on Thursday struck down a Patriot Act provision that authorizes the FBI to demand, without court warrants, that phone companies, financial institutions and Internet providers secretly turn over records for use in national security investigations.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero of New York, in a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, marked another in a lengthening series of court actions nullifying key elements of the Bush administration's counterterrorism strategy.

Global warming could mean more heart problems, doctors warn

VIENNA, Austria: Global warming may be forcing polar bears southward and melting glaciers, but it could also have an impact on your heart.

Doctors warn that the warmer weather expected with climate change might also produce more heart problems.

"If it really is a few degrees warmer in the next 50 years, we could definitely have more cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Karin Schenck-Gustafsson, of the department of cardiology at Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

Daily Kos: Wal-Mart's prices are higher than their competitors' 80% of the time.

by JR Monsterfodder
Wed Sep 05, 2007 at 10:24:06 AM PDT

Cross-posted at the Writing on the Wal.

Many thanks to Damien Sullivan for directing me to this study by Zenith Management Consulting (.pdf) on Wal-Mart's not-so-low-prices. The key concept any Wal-Mart shopper needs to understand is the "opening price point," which Zenith defines as:

a very low-priced high velocity item placed in a highly visible spot in each store section. This creates a perception that since the first item is so very low-priced, the other items in the section are as well.

My Life Among the Neo-Cons

By Mark Schmitt | bio

It's rare that I can beat my friend and office-neighbor Steve Clemons at his own game, and so to divert the wrath of his commentors, I too will “come out”: not only do I know people at the American Enterprise Institute, but I worked there myself. In fact, I worked for Norman Ornstein, whose New Republic diary about being falsely held responsible for the AEI neoconservatives prompted Steve’s post. In my first job in Washington, I was his research assistant in 1988-89.

Tempting as it is to play the conversion card, I was no kind of conservative, then or now (although I move a bit to the left with each passing year, as I think anyone with either a heart or a brain should do.) But I totally enjoyed working at AEI, at that time, and I've never had a moment's regret about that year and a half.

Report says U.S. economy will slow

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 5, 12:08 PM ET

The U.S. economy will slow sharply this year and fall behind growth rates in most of the world, according to forecasts in a U.N. report released Wednesday.

Woes in the housing market will drag U.S. gross domestic product for 2007 to a modest 2 percent growth, compared with 3.3 percent last year, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said in its flagship annual report.

For the first time since 2001, both the European Union, at 2.8 percent, and Japan, 2.3 percent, are predicted to have higher GDP growth than the United States.

The Empty 401(k)

If White House press secretary Tony Snow won't save for retirement, why should you?

By Daniel Gross
Posted Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007, at 5:41 PM ET

From the time he joined the Bush administration in May 2006 until he delivered his final briefing last week, White House press secretary Tony Snow had the unenviable job of defending an increasingly unpopular administration to a press corps intent on making up for its earlier fawning treatment. Snow has also been a chief spokesman for the Bush administration's domestic agenda, forced to argue continually that the typical American is doing just fine, and bravely pushing the unpopular elements of Bush's vaunted "ownership society": privatizing Social Security, eliminating defined-benefit pensions in favor of 401(k)s; and replacing insurance with health savings accounts, high-deductible policies, and other consumer-driven health-care initiatives.

And yet Snow's own life in many ways symbolizes the downside of the ownership society—and suggests how much a government role in health and retirement benefits is necessary.

Empire of Stupidity

[Note for Tomdispatch readers: In the weeks when the first Gulf War was underway -- it seems a lifetime ago -- I began researching a book on the history of American triumphalism (which I came to call "victory culture"), especially as I had experienced it in my 1950s childhood. By the time I began writing, that war was years past; the General Schwarzkopf dolls had long disappeared from the toy store remainder tables, and the book seemed like little short of an autopsy of a once vital American myth -- the cherished belief that triumph over a less-than-human enemy was in the American grain, a birthright and a national destiny. It was published in 1995 as The End of Victory Culture and then I went about my business; but over the years, the book made its modest mark in the world (and in college courses).

I freely admit that I was taken off-guard when, in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, victory culture came roaring back with a literal vengeance. Even then, as I started working on the project that became Tomdispatch, I never doubted that the half-life of this version of victory culture would be short or, when the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq became obvious in 2002, that it would crash and burn in that country.

Intelligence database worrying some

Web Posted: 09/02/2007 11:10 PM CDT
R.G. Ratcliffe, Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — After a commercial airline pilot testified before a government agency against the construction of a nuclear power plant, the Department of Public Safety intelligence division investigated him as a potential terrorist who might fly his passenger-loaded airplane into such a plant.

The First Unitarian Church of Dallas hosted talks by a gay-rights group and was labeled by DPS intelligence as the "sponsor of radical-left groups."

The manager of a West Texas Chamber of Commerce announced that he would challenge the House Appropriations Committee chairman's re-election. The man immediately lost his job, and the DPS created a dossier on him and his wife that was circulated at the Capitol.

SECRET TRADE DEAL: Report Shows Bush/Dem Pact Designed to Let Big Business Evade U.S. Taxes

As Congress reconvenes this week, K Street and a handful of Democratic congressional leaders are gearing up to pass lobbyist-written trade pacts with Peru, Panama, South Korea and Columbia - the group of pacts known as The Secret Trade Deal of 2007, originally announced on May 10, 2007. Over the summer, the Bush White House led "campaign-style" events to pressure more Democrats to support the deals, despite Democrats' 2006 campaign promises to oppose these job-killing pacts. That lobbying campaign is now being backed up by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - and the pressure seems to be working.

Loss of Arctic ice leaves experts stunned

The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced.

Experts say they are "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as the UK disappearing in the last week alone.

So much ice has melted this summer that the Northwest passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the Northeast passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month.

Bush just playing us with 'troop withdrawal'

'Revelation' contradicts every other rationale offered in the last 500 days

SPECIAL COMMENT

By Keith Olbermann

Anchor, 'Countdown'

MSNBC

Updated: 9:20 p.m. ET Sept 4, 2007

And so he is back from his annual surprise gratuitous photo-op in Iraq, and what a sorry spectacle it was. But it was nothing compared to the spectacle of one unfiltered, unguarded, horrifying quotation in the new biography to which Mr. Bush has consented.

As he deceived the troops at Al-Asad Air Base yesterday with the tantalizing prospect that some of them might not have to risk being killed and might get to go home, Mr. Bush probably did not know that, with his own words, he had already proved that he had been lying, is lying and will be lying about Iraq.

Billions over Baghdad

Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency—much of it belonging to the Iraqi people—was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled.

by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele October 2007

Hidden in plain sight, 10 miles west of Manhattan, amid a suburban community of middle-class homes and small businesses, stands a fortress-like building shielded by big trees and lush plantings behind an iron fence. The steel-gray structure, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is all but invisible to the thousands of commuters who whiz by every day on Route 17. Even if they noticed it, they would scarcely guess that it is the largest repository of American currency in the world.

Officially, 100 Orchard Street is referred to by the acronym eroc, for the East Rutherford Operations Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The brains of the New York Fed may lie in Manhattan, but xeroc is the beating heart of its operations—a secretive, heavily guarded compound where the bank processes checks, makes wire transfers, and receives and ships out its most precious commodity: new and used paper money.

How Do We Cure a Sick Health Care System?

By Terrence McNally, AlterNet
Posted on September 4, 2007, Printed on September 5, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/61115/

Every day, millions of hard-working people struggle to find affordable medical treatment for themselves and their families -- unable to pay for prescription drugs and regular check-ups, let alone for hospital visits. Some of these people end up losing money. Others end up losing their health or even their lives.

The United States is the only country in the developed world that does not guarantee access to medical care as a right of citizenship. As outrageous as that fact is, why is it so? What does it mean in the lives of individual Americans and their families? And what can we do about it?

The Great Plastic Bag Plague

By Tara Lohan, AlterNet
Posted on September 5, 2007, Printed on September 5, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/61607/

They're ubiquitous. They accompany us home each time we shop. They swirl about our oceans, they cling to our trees, they drift down our city sidewalks, they adorn metal fences, they're consumed by animals.

They are an urban tumbleweed, a flag of the consumer era.

Aug private sector job growth lowest in 4 yrs

Wednesday September 5, 8:44 am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private employers likely added 38,000 jobs in August, far fewer than analysts had expected and the slowest rate of growth in four years, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

The report also revised July's private sector job growth downward to 41,000 from the originally reported 48,000 jobs. The employment report was developed jointly by ADP and Macroeconomic Advisers LLC.

Kabuki at Camp Cupcake

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, September 4, 2007; 2:36 PM

What exactly was President Bush up to yesterday, making a "surprise visit" to a huge American air base in Iraq, praising the ostensible progress there and hinting at a troop reduction if things keep going so well?

One answer lies in the remarkably forthright interviews Bush gave author Robert Draper for a new book coming out today. As Jim Rutenberg wrote in Sunday's New York Times, Bush earlier this year explained his Iraq strategy to Draper this way: "I'm playing for October-November."

TPM Muckraker: Goldsmith: Legal Memos Were "Advance Pardons" for Lawbreaking

By Spencer Ackerman - September 4, 2007, 11:31 AM

Why did Dick Cheney's lawyer David Addington get so upset over rescinding this or that Office of Legal Counsel memorandum? The purpose of the OLC's review process is to collect legal guidance about courses of prospective policies an administration might want to pursue. Under the Bush administration, however, OLC review became a waiver of immunity for breaking the law. From Jeff Rosen's profile of Jack Goldsmith:

[T]he office has two important powers: the power to put a brake on aggressive presidential action by saying no and, conversely, the power to dispense what Goldsmith calls “free get-out-of jail cards” by saying yes. Its opinions, he writes in his book, are the equivalent of “an advance pardon” for actions taken at the fuzzy edges of criminal laws.

Digby: Let's Rollout

You've got to be kidding me:

Bush slipped out of a side door of the White House for the furtive trip that was aimed at bolstering his position for not drawing down troops from Iraq. During six hours on the ground here, the president was to meet with Army Gen. David Petreaus and other military commanders and Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, before holding a session with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and members of his central government.

Afterward, Bush was to meet with Sunni tribal leaders whose cooperation has made Anbar Province, a former al-Qaeda stronghold, significantly safer during the past year.

GDP growth not reaching paychecks

The economic recovery that began in 2001 has lifted productivity growth and employment of late, but has had little impact on many workers' wages.

September 3 2007: 12:09 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The economic expansion that began six years ago has failed to benefit most workers, according to a report from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, released Monday.

Productivity growth, although slower of late, has been strong since 2000. After a sluggish start in the period, employment has picked up, although at a slower pace than in past recoveries. Yet, that growth hasn't transferred to workers' paychecks, particularly for workers at the lower and middle end of the pay scale, the report found.

Calif. ballot proposal's GOP ties

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 4, 9:35 AM ET

Lawyers behind a California ballot proposal that could benefit the 2008 Republican presidential nominee have ties to a Texas homebuilder who financed attacks on Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Charles H. Bell and Thomas Hiltachk's law firm banked nearly $65,000 in fees from a California-based political committee funded almost solely by Bob J. Perry that targeted Democrats in 2006. Perry, a major Republican donor, contributed nearly $4.5 million to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that made unsubstantiated but damaging attacks on Kerry three years ago.

How Popular Movements Can Confront Corporate Power and Win

By Michael Marx and Marjorie Kelly, YES! Magazine
Posted on August 29, 2007, Printed on September 4, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/61104/

Corporate power lies behind nearly every major problem we face--from stagnant wages and unaffordable health care to overconsumption and global warming. In some cases, it is the cause of the problem; in other cases, corporate power is a barrier to system-wide solutions. This dominance of corporate power is so pervasive, it has come to seem inevitable. We take it so much for granted, we fail to see it. Yet it is preventing solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time.

Iran: The Next Quagmire

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig
Posted on September 4, 2007, Printed on September 4, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/61521/

The most effective diplomats, like the most effective intelligence officers and foreign correspondents, possess empathy. They have the intellectual, cultural and linguistic literacy to get inside the heads of those they must analyze or cover. They know the vast array of historical, religious, economic and cultural antecedents that go into making up decisions and reactions. And because of this—endowed with the ability to communicate and more able to find ways of resolving conflicts through diplomacy—they are less prone to blunders.

Construction Spending Plunged in July

Tuesday September 4, 4:02 pm ET
By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer Construction Spending Falls in July by Largest Amount Since January

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Construction activity plunged in July by the biggest amount in six months as spending on homes fell for a record 17th straight month.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that construction spending dropped 0.4 percent in July, compared with June, the weakest showing since a 0.6 percent fall in January.

Acid rain may hit coastal waters hard

Nitrogen and sulphur compounds contribute to declining ocean pH.

Heidi Ledford

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) isn't the only atmospheric pollutant making the oceans more acidic and threatening the health of coral reefs and plankton. New research suggests that nitrogen and sulphur released into the air by human activities may be driving down the pH more than expected in some coastal waters.

Increasing CO₂ levels are expected to change the acidity of the Earth's waters from 8.2 to about 7.8 by the end of this century. But less attention has been paid to the effects on the acidity of ocean waters of the nitrogen and sulphur compounds emitted by fertilizers and fossil fuels.

Paul Krugman: Snow Job in the Deser

In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressing the United Nations Security Council, claimed to have proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He did not, in fact, present any actual evidence, just pictures of buildings with big arrows pointing at them saying things like “Chemical Munitions Bunker.” But many people in the political and media establishments swooned: they admired Mr. Powell, and because he said it, they believed it.

Mr. Powell’s masters got the war they wanted, and it soon became apparent that none of his assertions had been true.

Glenn Greenwald: Thomas Sowell offers superb Exhibit of the Right-wing Mind

(updated below - updated again)

Thomas Sowell, from his Townhall column today:

We all believe that people are innocent until proven guilty. Some on the left believe that they are innocent even after being proven guilty.

Thomas Sowell, March 2007, on Lewis Libby's conviction on four felony counts:

In the course of this pointless investigation, it turned out that some of Scooter Libby's statements conflicted with the statements of some reporters. So Libby was prosecuted for perjury and obstruction of justice -- and a Washington jury convicted him.

Why Are Some Environmental Groups Caving to Industry?

As someone who once sunk a shrimp boat as an act of civil disobedience, Diane Wilson was disappointed when two big environmental groups opted for a less-than risky alternative to blocking a new coal-burning power plant that's poised to blaze in her community of Calhoun County, Texas.

If she had the time and resources, Wilson, a fourth generation fisherman and leader of the lonely environmental group Calhoun County Resource Watch, says she would have tried to "stop [the plant] dead in its tracks."

Secret Report: Corruption Is 'Norm' Within Iraqi Government

By David Corn, TheNation.com
Posted on September 3, 2007, Printed on September 3, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/61459/

As Congress prepares to receive reports on Iraq from General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and readies for a debate on George W. Bush's latest funding request of $50 billion for the Iraq war, the performance of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has become a central and contentious issue. But according to the working draft of a secret document prepared by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the Maliki government has failed in one significant area: corruption. Maliki's government is "not capable of even rudimentary enforcement of anticorruption laws," the report says, and, perhaps worse, the report notes that Maliki's office has impeded investigations of fraud and crime within the government.

The Vanishing American Vacation

By Don Monkerud, AlterNet
Posted on September 3, 2007, Printed on September 3, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/61122/

In 1882, New York clamored for an appearance by the champion of laissez-faire capitalism, Herbert Spencer, who provided Charles Darwin with the phrase, "Survival of the fittest."

Spencer agreed to meet the captains of American industry, but his appearance was a disaster. Spencer told the assembly they didn't understand his ideas, for he disapproved of American capitalism. Americans, he claimed, are pathologically obsessed with work.

Digby: Coup De Village

Does any of this remotely seem like a good idea? The mere fact that the US is so obviously running this thing automatically makes it an enormous mistake. And it's not just because it's so transparent that there can be no doubt that Allawi will be seen as a puppet. It's a huge mistake because aside from looting the treasury and stealing elections, everything the Bush administration touches turns to shit. Aside from the embarrassingly blatant hypocrisy, does anyone believe they could pull this off and make it work?

Bush's plan for aiding homeowners is less than it appears

Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: August 31, 2007 05:17:58 PM

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Friday unveiled his plan to address homeowners who face foreclosure in the nation's credit crunch and housing slump.

The plan was announced days before Congress returns from its August recess with housing issues high on its agenda. The proposals, however, duplicate efforts already under way by Congress and other federal agencies, would help at most 21 percent of the homeowners facing foreclosures and would do little to help areas in which inflated real estate prices are a problem.

Bush called on Democrats to approve a modernization of the Federal Housing Administration, which passed the House of Representatives last year with bipartisan support but was quashed by Senate Republicans.

Daily Kos: The Surge is Irrelevant: What W and the Pentagon don't want you to realize

by mikepridmore, Sat Sep 01, 2007 at 06:17:48 PM PDT

A hat tip to my friends at RochesterTurning for catching that the military began to block Think Progress shortly after it published an op-ed by General John Battiste that the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times refused to run. (link) What was that it that a lifelong Republican and retired General said to get his voice censored by the military? Could it be the part that says "64 percent of conservative analysts feel the so-called "surge" in Iraq is having no impact, or a negative effect"? Or perhaps it is when he says that he is "outraged that elected officials of my own party do not comprehend the predicament we are in with a strategy in the Middle East that lacks focus and is all but relying on the military to solve the diplomatic, political, and economic Rubik’s Cube that defines Iraq."