Around The Intertubes

• Bush has appointed a War Czar. Didn't that job used to be called 'Commander and Chief'? I don't get it.
  

• Jerry Falwell is dead. I've never been a big Falwell fan so I'll just say this: He lived a long, full life and may we all be that lucky.

• Wolfowitz behaved with impropriety on the job and now it's time for him to go. As much as I have enjoyed watching Bush dig his heels in like a spoiled four year old (without the slightest pretense of mental maturity), and as much as I'm saddened that the US is involved in yet another institutional scandal, I think it's stupid for him to keep fighting this one.

• Do people understand that Bush sees himself as above the law and, furthermore, chooses to surround himself only with others who will support that view?

• Firedoglake has a good post on Feingold-Reid. It's a lot of posturing, of course, but the fact is that the Dems don't have the votes to force a troop withdrawal while, on the other hand, have a constituency that is demanding it. Interestingly, Republicans are starting to warm up to the idea of enforced benchmarks. I say 'enforced' because Bush has long claimed to support benchmarks without ever actually holding the Iraqis to any of them. Meanwhile, the Iraqi parliament is still scheduled for their two month vacation.
  

• US Attorney scandal tied to bogus voter fraud accusations? Sure looks that way.
  

• The Washington Note thinks Bush has got it right on The Law of the Sea. First I've heard of it!

• University professors are endangered in Iraq. I wouldn't be so melodramatic as to claim a linear similarity between the US and Iraq on this matter but I don't mind doing so in the abstract: There is something very unsettling about the open, educated mind to authoritarian types. While US professors are only rhetorically under fire for their 'liberal' minds, Iraqi professors face the threat of death for theirs. The dynamic is the same, it's only different by degree (pun intended!).
  

• Good news in Iraq. Ultimately paving the way for some sort of peacenik Iraq state? I don't think so. As much as I'm happy to think that the militias recognize that they've lost control, they've still... well, lost control.

• Americans like the IRS better than the airlines. I would probably say the same although I think what I really hate most is the process of flying. I fly American whenever I can since I've never had anything horrible happen with them (my worst experiences by far have been with Delta and United). But the process of flying is always 'hurry up and wait' all the while shuffling along like cattle through a chute. I have to work myself into some kind of zen-like state just to get through it with my sanity intact.