Rep. Baird, my Democratic Representative from Washington, was on Tucker Carlson to discuss his recent change of heart in regard to leaving our troops in Iraq. (It's the headline story on the Tucker web page.) Here's my letter to him.

Dear Rep. Baird,

I was very disappointed to learn of your change of heart in regard to the war in Iraq and your willingness to be used as a pawn on cable news.

I come from a military family and I'm not anti-war. But I am against the war in Iraq. And I don't think, as you apparently do, that protecting the military with legislation on troop preparedness is "looking backwards". Yes, we have a moral responsibility to the Iraqi people, but we also have a moral responsibility to our troops.

You dismiss those of us who want the troops brought home now as "looking backwards. But that's too simple.

I listened to Bush's press conference on the firing of the US Attorneys and thought it was oh so well written to hide a few key facts - namely that his staff won't testify (they'll just be interviewed) and that the White House document dump won't include any communication between White House staff (like Karl Rove and Harriet Meiers). So I translated what he read - what his staff wrote - into his own words. And sprinkled a bit of truth throughout. Here's what I came up with.

THE PRESIDENT: Earlier today, my staff met with congressional leaders about the resignations of U.S. attorneys.

I sent my attorney over to Congress to talk about those attorneys I fired.

As you know, I have broad discretion to replace political appointees throughout the government, including U.S. attorneys.

I can fire almost anyone I want whenever I want for whatever reasons I want.  Even attorneys.

And in this case, I appointed these U.S. attorneys and they served four-year terms.

I put those attorneys in their jobs and I let them keep them for four years. They should be thanking me.

I get email from the GOP - I like to stay up on their messaging and all. Today, I got an email touting their 5/22 house parties. The big news is that they're announcing a competition and the top five house party hosts (top in terms of money raised of course, not volunteers signed, information shared, total people attending) win a very special gift: a GOP iPod. I had to check that out and here it is:

So I read in the Washington Post today what are the Bush team "lessons learned" from the last year. Before we look at those lessons, let's look at the the instructional material they had to work with.

• Spectacular failure in the effort to privatize social security
• Shocking incompetence responding to a natural disaster, Katrina, for which we had ample warning - after four years of justifying everything on the basis of making us safer
• An exploding deficit and an out of control budget
• A popularity rating so low that a rise to 47% is cause for celebration
• An economy that looks good on paper (the wealthy's tax returns that is) but hasn't translated into wage stability or increases
• The continued presence of over 160,000 American troops in Iraq, with no end in sight, a rising death toll, and Congress restless to finally exercise a bit of oversight
• The beginnings of a real anti-war movement, growing loss of support for the war in Iraq (a clear majority of Americans), and the call for troop withdrawal from a career Marine, Rep. Murtha

Not everyone is convinced that this is an appropriate topic for this site or that the volume of diaries is warranted. In a recent diary, a Kossack complained about the number of "rape diaries" appearing on the recommended list. In the comment thread, you'll find the following:

"...they're taking up valuable space on the Rec list, and confirming our image as a bunch of whining weaklings....And it IS whining, especially on a political blog."

It's appalling, really, that a substantive discussion on the very real problem of sexual assaults - from groping to violent rape - is dismissed here with those sharing their stories described as "whining weaklings" and their disucssion as "whining, especially on a political blog".

Here's a news flash. It's not whining. It's not weak. It is political.

A great deal of ink, both real and virtual, is being spent today on the revelation that Mark Felt is Deep Throat. It's interesting, historically and in it's relevance to current discussions on the use of anonymous sources. It's also interesting to see parallels between then and now, although I'm not suggesting that the Bush administration is morally bankrupt like the Nixon administration was. I don't think the Bush team lacks morals - I disagree with how they prioritize them. They seem to put loyalty ahead of truth, to put ideological purity ahead of competence. That leads them in directions that I find immoral - like the invasion of Iraq.