wrap up

Way too busy to blog... so let's send a shout out to Martin Luther King, Jr. And in his honor, I'm gonna drop a shitload of links and go sleep with my wife. In no particular order: Walter Cronkite says: it's "time for U.S. to leave Iraq" Updated today, the Project on Defense Alternatives webpage and reports: "Iraq Withdrawal and Exit Strategies & Plans" The New Children of Terror, a chapter from the book The Making of a Terrorist by James Forest at Brookings. Confused Republicans don't understand separation of Church and State Someone mail a copy of The Pentagon's New Map to the Iranian President please.

Iran issues stark warning on oil price: "'Any possible sanctions from the west could possibly, by disturbing Iran's political and economic situation, raise oil prices beyond levels the west expects,' "

Check out the pervs monitoring Britain's CC television cameras (hat tip to Bruce Schneier) Its hard times for editorial cartoonists nowadays:

Kevin Kallaugher, known as KAL to Sun readers, concluded a 17-year run as the paper's editorial cartoonist Friday after accepting a buyout as an alternative to an uncertain future. But Kallaugher has no intention of retiring.

Chomsky says "There is no war on terror" Dick Marty, head of the European investigation into the secret CIA prisons says that our current strategy to fighting terrorism is illegal. Straight-shootin' Putin attempts to moderate the Iran Nuclear Crisis. This is pretty fascinating: Bird Can Mimic Others in Context to Apparently Signal Alarm They needed a study to figure this out... ? Profit-Driven Corporations Can Make Management Blind to Ethics In a perfect world... today's editorial in The Washington Post:

Political long shot that it may be, a national ban on the general manufacture, sale and ownership of handguns ought be enacted. It would not pacify kids or adults with violent tendencies, and it might not curb general criminal activity markedly. But it might well save thousands of lives. Handgun exceptions could be made for federal, state and local law enforcement and military agencies; collectors of antique firearms; federally licensed handgun sporting clubs with certain safety procedures; security guard services; and licensed dealers, importers or manufacturers that are determined to be meeting those needs.

Focusing on 'Success' In Iraq, today's column by Brent Scowcroft

The stakes -- for the United States and for the world -- are enormous. Iraq lies in the center of a region critical to the well-being of the global system. It is surrounded by states intensely concerned about the nature and future of that country and its government. A failed Iraq could be a catastrophe for the Middle East and a calamity for the world. At the moment such an outcome would be inevitable without the U.S. presence.