JOHN WIXTED ON BOB WOODWARD and “secret” levels of violence in Iraq:

A shocking fact the administration has kept secret? Please. As I noted, information about the number of attacks on American troops — including this particular statistic of one attack every 15 minutes — is not secret. Instead, it is very publicly available in the form of a big graph on page 22 of the Iraq Index (published by the Brookings Institution). In fact, that’s probably where Woodward himself got the information. Some secret. The Iraq Index has been publishing attack statistics for a long, long time for anyone who is interested. . . .

But this talk of withdrawing troops is made with reference to the anti-American insurgency only, with no mention at all of sectarian violence when that is the real problem. In other words, like Bob Woodward, they gloss over the most important detail — the one that undermines their position. The insurgency is not getting worse, but sectarian violence has gotten worse. If we leave, it will get worse still, and the Iraqi experiment in democracy could easily fail. And that’s why calls for a timetable for withdrawal reflect a strategically unwise, anti-humanitarian attitude.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Read this item, too.

156 to 1: “Yes, if only there was some sort of media outlet — I don’t know, a newspaper or something — who could tell us about the important issues.”

DEAN BARNETT: “It may have escaped you, but ’24’ is not a documentary, nor is it a scholarly inquiry on effective interrogation techniques.”

TOM MAGUIRE has thoughts on torture. He’s a bit hard on Andrew Sullivan, but not as hard as Sullivan is being on me — Sullivan has brought out the waterboard of blogging, reprinting emails from readers of his who say they’ll never read me again, only Sullivan, from now on. Okay, it’s actually more like the endless-replaying-of-Barry-Manilow of blogging.

I’ve gotten some emails from readers wondering why Sullivan seems to think that my blog is the most important aspect of the torture debate, especially as — once the Bush-bashing and posturing is set aside — my position and Sullivan’s aren’t really very different. (As I wrote a while back, “What would I do? Ban anything that causes injury or outright pain. I’m not so sure about sleep deprivation and things like that. I’d permit playing Barry Manilow, too.” Okay, so now I’m rethinking the Barry Manilow part.) I’ll spare you the text of those emails; I used to wonder about that, but I’ve pretty much given up. Andrew will blog about what he wants to blog about, and I will blog about what I want to blog about. And that state of affairs will bother, well, at most one of us.

Meanwhile, note this comment by Tom Holsinger.

UPDATE: Reader Steven Jens demonstrates that the email thing works both ways:

I’d just like to say that I will never read Andrew Sullivan again. I have been increasingly put off by his hysteria, his double standards, and his rumored habit of squeezing the toothpaste from the middle of the tube. Time Magazine has given him a bully pulpit, and it’s a shame that he can’t be as wise, reasoned, or downright handsome as you are.

Heh. I think we’ve just seen the future of the blogosphere. And it scares me.

UPDATE: Uh oh. Manilow-blogging is spreading.

ANOTHER UPDATE: It’s an out of control blog phenomenon!

CHARLES DUNLAP WARNS about military involvement in law enforcement:

Converting the war-fighting mind-set of the professional military to one that readily accepts the risks — and delays — inherent in policing under our Constitution can be extremely challenging and confusing to those wielding the guns and attempting to establish order.

Nonetheless, some military officers welcome domestic law enforcement roles. In a world where hijacked airliners, anthrax-infested envelopes and other serious threats arise close to home, there is a certain appeal to their thinking. And praise for the better-late-than-never Katrina effort has created an attitude friendly to domestic security duties among many in uniform.

What are they missing? Appreciation for the erosion that law enforcement duties could cause in the public affection and admiration the military wants — and needs — to sustain itself as an all-volunteer force. Americans in the end do not like heavy-handed security efforts, regardless of how well-intended they are, and typically react quite negatively to them. Think Kent State, Waco and Ruby Ridge.

He’s right. Typically soldiers make bad police, and using soldiers as police for very long tends to make them bad soldiers, too.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Prof. Kenneth Anderson.

FOLEYGATE: “The perfect blogstorm.”

RECHARGING the cars of the future.

PROF. KENNETH ANDERSON: “Are academic bloggers prepared to be quoted in the MSM?”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON DOESN’T LIKE JIMMY CARTER MUCH: “In his dotage, Carter is proving once again that he is as malicious and mean-spirited a public figure as he is historically ignorant. And for all his sanctimonious Christian veneer, and fly-fishing, ‘aw shucks blue-jeans image, he can’t hide an essentially ungracious and unkind soul. . . . Carter’s Waterloo, of course was the Iranian hostage crisis. It was not just that his gutting of the military helped to explain the rescue disaster. Far more importantly, we can chart the rise of radical political Islam with the storming of the American embassy in Teheran and the impotent response of Jimmy Carter.”

WELL, YES: “Al Qaeda increasingly reliant on media.”

GEORGE ALLEN AND JAMES WEBB: “A Confederacy of Dunces.”

Heh. It’s not a campaign to inspire admiration.

ILYA SOMIN: “California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed into law five almost completely ineffectual post-Kelo eminent domain reform laws. . . . the enactment of post-Kelo reform laws that look impressive to the public, but actually achieve nothing, is all too common.”

MICKEY KAUS ENGAGES IN A BORDER-FENCE GLOATFEST at the expense of a lot of people — including the New York Times, about which he writes: “Readers who wanted to know what was actually happening would have been much better off reading Captain Ed.” Isn’t that always the case?

Meanwhile (via Kaus) Tom Maguire notes many other media errors and misrepresentations. Michael Duffy of Time is singled out.

UPDATE: Don Surber doesn’t think the media problems are helping the Democrats.

LARRY KUDLOW SAYS WE’RE ENJOYING “A GOLDILOCKS ECONOMY:”

“We are enjoying a goldilocks economy, not too hot and not too cold.” In other words, there’s no economic bubble out there that’s about to go “pop.”

Recent economic reports confirm this: Factory production is strong. Core inflation has settled down. Excluding energy, consumer prices haven’t moved all that much in the last three years. In the third quarter, real consumer spending is running 3.2 percent at an annual rate, ahead of the second quarter average. Non-defense capital-goods shipments (excluding aircraft) are 7.6 percent ahead of the second quarter. After-tax real disposable income is 5.4 percent higher than last year. And tax revenues are rolling in, with both states and the U.S. Treasury reporting record revenue collections.

Rising stocks, falling gas prices, low tax rates and the Goldilocks economy are powerful pluses for election-year Republicans. With so many indicators leaning positive, the Democrats aren’t even talking about the economy anymore.

That last is the revealing bit. Just remember that, even in the Goldilocks story, the bears do eventually come home.

MICHAEL BARONE looks at poll numbers on Iraq, and finds they’re not what you might expect given the tenor of media coverage.

HERE’S A ROUNDUP ON EVENTS IN BAGHDAD, from Pajamas Media.

UPDATE: Omar reports from Baghdad that things have calmed down:

The situation in Baghdad calmed down soon after we made the previous post. Saturday has been so quiet so far, never a single explosion happened as far as I know and there was hardly any sound of gunfire in or around our district in Baghdad.

What can be noticed about this particular curfew is that it’s being strictly enforced by Iraqi and US forces in Baghdad. During most previous days of curfew, vehicles and pedestrians were occasionally seen on the streets but this is not the case today.

Apparently the authorities got the idea that something bad was about to happen, and moved to scotch it.

YES, BLOGGING’S BEEN LIGHT: Michael Totten is passing through town, and we hung out, had dinner, visited a brewpub, and recorded a podcast interview that will be up later. It was nice to see him.

FENCE BILL PASSES SENATE: “The U.S. Senate on Friday overwhelmingly agreed to authorize construction of a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico, sending to President George W. Bush before the November 7 elections a bill that Republicans hope will showcase their efforts to stop illegal immigration. The Republican-written bill authorizing construction of about 700 miles of fence was one of the last bills to clear Congress as lawmakers prepared to leave Washington to campaign for the congressional elections. On a vote of 80-19 the Senate approved the bill already passed by the House of Representatives and it now goes to Bush for his signature.”

Advantage: Kaus.

REP. MARK FOLEY (R-FL) resigns from Congress. This should make things a bit easier for the Dems.

WELL, photoshopping me into a bikini is the traditional way to beg for a pointless link, but okay.

GAY MARRIAGE UPDATE:

A gay couple from Rhode Island has the right to marry in Massachusetts because laws in their home state do not expressly prohibit same-sex marriage, a judge ruled Friday.

Wendy Becker and Mary Norton of Providence argued that a 1913 law that forbids out-of-state residents from marrying in Massachusetts if their marriage would not be permitted in their home state did not apply to them because Rhode Island does not specifically ban gay marriage.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly agreed.

Sounds like clever lawyering. And it worked.

THE LAST-MINUTE FLURRY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY CONTINUES:

The House approved a bill Thursday that would grant legal status to President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program with new restrictions. Republicans called it a test before the election of whether Democrats want to fight or coddle terrorists. . . .

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., that give legal status under certain conditions to Bush’s warrantless wiretapping of calls and e-mails between people on U.S. soil making calls or sending e-mails and those in other countries.

Under the measure, the president would be authorized to conduct such wiretaps if he:

_ Notifies the House and Senate intelligence committees and congressional leaders.

_ Believes an attack is imminent and later explains the reason and names the individuals and groups involved.

_ Renews his certification every 90 days.

The Senate also could vote on a similar bill before Congress recesses at the end of the week. Leaders concede that differences between the versions are so significant they cannot reconcile them into a final bill that can be delivered to Bush before the Nov. 7 congressional elections.

It’s almost as if they’re more interested in forcing Democrats to vote on this before the elections than they are in actually getting the bill out.

AMANDA CONGDON, having left Rocketboom, is now videoblogging from the road at Amanda Across America.

GUNTER GRASS HYPOCRISY UPDATE:

First there is a new revelation about Günter Grass. The writer who has only recently admitted to having been a member of the Waffen SS (more here), wrote two letters to SPD politician Karl Schiller in 1969 and 1970, calling on Schiller to admit he’d been an SA member (storm trooper): “Dear Karl Schiller, once more I would like to remind you of our discussion and ask you outright to speak openly at the next opportunity – and I mean publicly – about your political past during the Nazi era. The postwar generation knows nothing but placation, and inadmissible playing down of the Federal Chancellor’s past, for instance, with all the talk that he was a member of the NSDAP neither out of personal conviction nor as an opportunist. I would hope you would openly admit your mistake. That would be a relief for you, and at the same time it would have the beneficial effect of a cleansing rain.”

Wigbert Löer tells how the FAZ came across the letters. The young Freiburg political scientist Torben Lütjen discovered them as he was “carrying out research on his biography of Karl Schiller. He had already finished the manuscript when Grass acknowledged his own ‘mistake’. Lütjen had no way of knowing that he had discovered in the federal archives in Koblenz an extraordinarily intimate example of Grass’ talent for suppression.”

Lame.

JOE LIEBERMAN: THE PAJAMAS MEDIA INTERVIEW — video and transcript are available here. Excerpt: “The fastest growing political party in America is no party, which is to say, that the fastest growing group of voters are unaffiliated with either party. That’s a market statement on the two major parties.”