Oh here’s some big news: Barack Obama has officially declared defeat in Iraq! War is over and our troops are headed home in shame! Stay with us as our president explains how he is going to pull soldiers out of the Middle East, a little bit at a time, until at some point in the future we have mere tens of thousands of troops overseas instead of hundreds of thousands. MORE »

Oh ho ho: “According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain’s haul.” Wow. Barack Obama hates American troops so much that he takes all of their money! [OpenSecrets via AMERICAblog]

We had forgotten about these crazy war-dances the Maori like to do before important events like rugby matches and visits from the American First Lady. What is it with the Bushes and their weird knack for ending up at nutty dance parties? [YouTube]

The Pentagon finally has a new, workable strategy in Iraq. The Iraqis may not have been impressed with the size of our force or its movements, our earth-shattering explosions or our collaborative efforts with other forces, but the smart folks at the Pentagon think they’ve hit upon on the one thing they’re sure will awe Iraqis into submission.

MORE »

Barack Obama is the first presidential candidate to “come out” against the military’s sodomy ban — the first candidate with any chance in hell of winning the nomination, anyway. (Biden and Kucinich and a few other losers are also pro-ass-fucking.) MORE »

• Under pressure, White House declassifies portions of the National Intelligence Estimate. [NYT, WP, LAT, USAT, W$J]

• What does it say? What does it mean? The big papers are handy with analysis. [NYT, WP, LAT]
• New campaign ads debuted yesterday, fueling “the most toxic midterm campaign environment in memory.” [NYT]
• Government rat and former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow sentenced to only 6 years. [WP]
• Senate Democrats propose bill to reimburse states for cost of using paper ballots in mid-term election. [NYT]
• Local woman who was the “first female graduate of West Point to die in Iraq” given a soldiers funeral yesterday. [WP]
• Jon Stewart serves President Musharraf a twinkie, hilarity ensues. [WP]

Here’s the Good News You’re Not Hearing from Iraq: MORE »