It’s all over the news today–the soon-to-be-released National Intelligence Estimate. The Washington Post starts its story like this:

Worldwide counterterror efforts have restrained Osama bin Laden’s network from again attacking the United States, but al-Qaeda’s capabilities to mount such an attack have been “protected or regenerated” partly by securing a safe haven in northwest Pakistan, according to portions of a National Intelligence Estimate made public today.

“Greatly increased worldwide counterterrorism efforts over the past five years have constrained the ability of al Qaeda to attack the U.S. homeland again and have led terrorist groups to perceive the homeland as a harder target to strike than on 9/11,” the new estimate states.

It warns, however, that bin Laden and his top core leadership continue to plot attacks against the United States and “will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al Qaeda in Iraq,” whose activities in that country have energized “the broader Sunni extremist community” and helped recruit and indoctrinate new operatives.

No lengthy analysis here. No dissecting the spin from the Current Federal Administration.

Clearly and simply, this assessment shows that the Current Federal Administrator’s strategy (like, for example, you know, making up a war out of whole cloth and invading a country that, like, you know, however disgusting its government may have been, had nothing whatsoever to do with the attack against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, while failing to complete the cleansing of Afghanistan) has been a complete and total failure.

Just as has the Current Federal Administration. (Except for making the rich richer and the poor poorer–they did pretty good at that.)

This is what happens when ideology and delusion trump facts.

I mentioned David Vitter once before and figured that was enough. I don’t like to beat topics to death.

Just to insensibility.

Nevertheless (a fancy word that means “I’m going to contradict myself now”), Jon Swift has disclosed some implications of Mr. Vitter’s situation that I overlooked.

I commend Mr. Swift’s analysis to your attention.

As I was driving to the cooling tower place, a driver did what I find one of the most irritating things (outside of what happened to Phillybits).

On a moderately open road, with plenty of room to change lanes, she ran right up to–almost on–my rear end before she realized, “Hey, there is a vehicle in front of me. Perhaps I should consider moving into the passing lane and overtaking that vehicle which has the effrontery to obey the 65 mph speed limit.”

At the last minute, she whipped into the left hand lane and proceeded to tailgate the next driver until she was out of sight.

Perhaps she was distracted by the memo she had propped against the steering wheel.

But there are worse distractions.

Well, someone’s number:

A 34-year-old mum who swapped lines from BT to Virgin Media was somewhat shocked to find her new phone number besieged by chaps demanding to speak to “the young nympho”, the Sun reports.

Youth worker Rachel Collick made the switch on 2 July at her Plymouth home, and is now enjoying around six calls a day from horny punters. She explained: “It started almost immediately. It’s always men and after I say hello they say something about talking to the nymphomaniac. I presume they expect me to talk dirty.

Later on, Ms. Collick points out the irony of her carrier’s being Virgin Mobile. . . .

“Liberal bias,” as far as I can tell, is a code word for “I don’t like it–it makes me uncomfortable.”

TBogg lays it out.

There is really no point to attempting to excerpt or summarize this.

Just read the whole thing. It’s not spin. It’s not interpretation.

It’s just facts. And the facts shall make us free.

We were tired tonight.

So we went with Stouffer’s Lasagna.

(Aside: I’m a big fan of Stouffer’s entrees: Lasagna, stuffed peppers, creamed chip beef. Their TV dinners, in contrast, leave me calling for Banquet.)

The Stouffer’s corporate lawyers have clearly gotten hold of the Packaging Department:

Frankly, anyone who keeps something in an oven at 350 degrees for an hour or so and doesn’t use potholders to remove it deserves third degree burns.

But at least this warning points out a real danger, unlike those about using cell phones while refueling your car.

On the Media takes another look at mercenaries.

I’ve mentioned Swampwater before.

Hiring mercenaries–whatever they may call themselves–is not a good thing. We place our defense and security in the hands of those whose loyalty is to those who grease their palms, not to the Constitution, and who consider themselves accountable to no one. (Sound familiar?)

U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now outnumber military combat troops there. But you’d never know that from listening to officials and watching the news. Political scientist Deborah Avant talks about why the war’s privatization is slipping through the media’s cracks.

Download the MP3 here or listen below:

And one reporter who has pursued the Blackwater story tells of his experiences:

Despite the many obstacles to reporting on military contractors, a few journalists have pursued the story. Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise Of The World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, talks about what it takes to see even a small part of the contracting picture.

Download the MP3 here or listen below:

And their government sent them on a fool’s errand.

Click here to see the documentary.

Via Brendan.

Upyernoz dissects them here.

Addendum, Later That Same Evening:

Dick Polman on the benchmarks:

Which brings us to all the benchmarks that even the Bush team had to mark as “unsatisfactory.” These are all the big-ticket items: No progress on setting up provincial elections; no progress on establishing a a serious program to disarm the sectarian militias, no progress on permitting Iraqi army and security police to crack down on militias without interference from sectarian factions; no progress on the key legislation to fairly distribute oil revenue to all sects and ethnicities; no progress on ratcheting up the number of Iraqi military and security forces that can protect citizens without U.S. help (on the contrary, the Pentagon yesterday said there has been a “slight reduction” in those all-important numbers).

Nor did Bush happen to mention, in his press conference yesterday, that the government’s National Intelligence Council signaled this week that the political situation in Iraq is actually far worse than Bush’s report card suggests. In House testimony the other day, deputy director for analysis Thomas Fingar said there have been “few appreciable gains,” primarily because the sectarian strife is so intractable: “(C)ommunal violence and scant common ground between Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds continues to polarize politics.”

Pass it over to me.

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Peace Patroller, also known as an anti-war liberal or hippie. You believe in putting an end to American imperial conquest, stopping wars that have already been lost, and supporting our troops by bringing them home.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

Via Susie.

Yeah, I know, those of you who have met me may think that it’s difficult for me to feel embarassed.

It is. When you get a certain age, you realize that, ultimately, it doesn’t matter what other people think, as long as you have tried to comport yourself with integrity.

But, dammit, I didn’t vote for him. I didn’t vote for him twice. But he’s still my president, for good or ill.

And he still embarasses me. Dan Froomkin reports:

After a 12-minute introductory statement, Bush did what he normally does at press conferences: He ducked the tough questions, and instead launched into long rambling rehashes of familiar talking points.

Asked why Americans should trust his vision for Iraq, given all the mistakes he has made thus far, Bush essentially blamed his commanders — but then said that Americans should trust him because he relies on his commanders.

Asked if he was sufficiently realistic in his appraisal of Iraq, he said “Yeah,” then talked at length about the threat posed by al Qaeda.

He repeated his inaccurate and misleading assertion that “the same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th.”

And he generally argued that disagreeing with his policy is tantamount to undermining the troops and emboldening Al Qaeda.

I wonder whether he actually believes his lies?

High publishing fees:

A jilted lover who wrote a book of lies about his former girlfriend, then distributed it to her workplace and family, owes her $52,000 for defamation, a Cecil County jury decided.

Charles W. Azain, 56, said he was despondent over his 2004 breakup with the plaintiff, Bonnie Gifford. He wrote a 54-page manuscript called “The Bonnie Chronicles,” where he falsely accused her of having HIV and bipolar disorder.

This merger certainly brings to mind interesting possibilities for that favorite of the management consultants, “synergy.”

Hillary Clinton gives me the willies, as I told Jeremy and Jason at Drinking Liberally last week.

It’s strictly an emotional reaction.

It has nothing to do with policies or positions or principles.

Her policies and positions seem to be thoroughly manufactured middle of the road.

Her principles seem to be what can get her elected hard to fathom–oh, never mind.

Bill Clinton seems to have been very much what he appeared to be. For good or ill, faults and strengths, he was himself. What you saw was what you got.

But Hillary seems to be a cipher.

I frankly think that, of the candidates for the Democratic nomination, John Edwards is the best choice. I also think that he doesn’t have a prayer, because he has let himself become an object of ridicule.

But, in the long run, remember, any Democrat is better than every Republican.

Thoughts?

Michael Chertoff says he has a gut feeling something is going to happen. From Gene Robinson:

I agree with Bush on one thing: Surely al-Qaeda’s surviving leaders are up to no good. We haven’t neutralized al-Qaeda, we’ve dispersed it; we haven’t decimated the organization, we’ve inspired new recruits to take the place of those members we have killed or captured. And Bush has us worrying about the political leanings of obscure tribal leaders in Iraq’s Anbar province, while the real enemy schemes and waits — and probably laughs.

Meanwhile, we haven’t even put in place effective controls over radioactive materials. I guess it makes sense that Chertoff is feeling a little queasy.

Maybe it has something to do with the new terror alert system. From Delaware Liberal:

Nothing to add.

Two prominent Senate Republicans have drafted legislation that would require President Bush by mid-October to come up with a plan to dramatically narrow the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq.

The legislation, which represents a sharp challenge to Bush, was put forward Friday by Sens. John Warner and Richard Lugar and it came as the Pentagon acknowledged that a decreasing number of Iraqi army battalions are able to operate independently of U.S. troops.

This is too true to be good!

I’ve turned on Firestats. We’ll see how the new box holds up.