By way of introduction, I think everyone who thinks there's a tiny chance we will attack Iran is dumb.  There are a million reasons not to, and Bush doesn't have any daddy legacy issues with Iran.  Also, his friends in the oil industry are aware of what it would mean, Iran could stop all Saudi and Kuwati shipping at the drop of a hat.

According to al Jazeera, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for early  elections  

Today, another dubious truce was announced between Hamas and Fatah.  This is the fifth attempt at such a truce in the last two weeks or so and although there has been sporadic fighting, it seems in the last few hours to have largely died down.  There have been exchanges of hostages (many on both sides shot in the leg before release to prevent them re-entering combat) and it looks, well, crappy, but better than it has the last two weeks.  Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel continue, with 9 launches so far today.  Israel has sporadically responded over the last few days, sometimes returning artillery fire at launch sites and launching a couple attacks at Hamas operational leadership believed to be behind the launches.

The situation is still extremely flammable, but there appears to be a window.  What do Israel, the Arab World and the West do now?

Every Presidential candidate has a plan to leave Iraq within 6 months to 2 years (that is, 1 to 4 Friedmans).  I'd like to explore the 2-4 Friedman, just over the horizon "sweet spot" that most of these candidates are in and why I think it's utter BS on most of their parts.

I'd just like to get something off my chest first.  This is the most important development since the release friday of the US-French draft resolution.  So I come to dkos, and what do I see?

So a couple months ago when CAFTA was passed, I noticed two things:

1.  A majority of dems voted against.
   
2.  Those that voted for were excoriated here for either breaking the party line, or for disagreement with the actual policy.

I know a bit about economics and pretty much anyone will tell you free trade is the way to go.  I think that it's necessary for this community to have an honest discussion about free trade that involves more than knee-jerk responses and bile.  Free Trade is the wave of the future;  If we just seal off our borders and quit trading, we'll be left behind.  So the question becomes one of managing the problems that it does create.