LIVEBLOGGING THE PETRAEUS TESTIMONY, with extra snark toward the BBC’s coverage. And lots more at The Tank.

Plus, threat of civil war in Iraq has been averted, according to Maliki. Further background, with charts and numbers, here.

And read this, too. Best quote: “‘No one wants to call [Petraeus] a liar on national TV,’ noted one Democratic senator, who spoke on the condition on anonymity. ‘The expectation is that the outside groups will do this for us.'” Nice to know these folks have the courage of their convictions. . . .

UPDATE: Silencing Petraeus! Well, the mike didn’t work, which the Limbaughs and Hannitys will have fun with. Plus this observation: “So you think technology is bad in Iraq? The U.S. House of Representatives can’t get the commanding general a working mic in Washington, D.C. . . . Completely embarrassing.” Video here. And this: “If this were a hearing or speech in Iraq, this would be a mocking example of how badly things are going there, how inept the infrastructure and the people who run it are. But it’s not Iraq, it’s Ike Skelton’s committee.”

Plus, trying to pretend it’s July.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Full Petraeus transcript and slides, here. Further thoughts here.

And regarding that anonymous Democratic Senator who wants outside groups to do the name-calling, a reader emails:

What I find particularly interesting about the good Senator’s position is that the Senate confirmed Petraeus by a vote of 81-0. Not one single Senator voted against putting him in charge of the campaign in Iraq. And the plans to “surge” more troops into the fight had already been announced, so they can’t even claim “if we knew then what we know now”.

Indeed.