Free kibbles

It looks like Putin is setting up a puppet government in Russia that he can run from the shadows while he sits out next term.

Article reports that Centcom commander Fallon did not like Gen. Petraeus or the surge. The commanders have different responsibilities.

We don't have to trust Gen. Petraeus about the security situation improving in Iraq. The facts speak for themselves. Gen. Petraeus didn't put any spin on those facts either.

Papers ask if going back to pre-surge levels is really a draw-down. That's a valid question, and it shows that the president has taken every issue from the Democrats. He's repositioned himself as the person cutting troop levels even though they are only coming down to pre-surge levels by next summer. The President has taken the compromise position from Democrats too by withdrawing a battalion by the end of the year. This illuminates how badly the Democrats have played politics with the war. They should have supported their country. Because they played politics instead, Democrats played themselves into the worst possible position.

Bin Laden may have wanted to drag us into a protracted war in the Middle East, but he certainly didn't want us to win that war like we still might. Neither did he want us to destroy al Qaeda all over the world like we have. I don't care what bin Laden wants. I care that we win. We're destroying al Qaeda all over the world and in Iraq, and that's good for us and bad for them. Terrorists kill top US ally in Anbar province.

President Bush's youngest brother making a living off the federal gravy train of No Child Left Behind. That's almost as shady as Harry Reid's land deals.

Susan Estrich succinctly summarizes the Democrats Petraeus problem. They've followed a dumb political path into a corner.

Hillary Clinton refused to condemn the Moveon.org "Betray Us" ad and she called the General a liar in so many words. And it appears the NYTimes subsidized the Moveon.org ad by $116,000. This whole debacle is going to cost Democrats dearly. I can easily imagine 1 million or more voters who have voted Democrat faithfully for decades simply because they or their parents loved FDR suddenly abandoning the Democratic party - and rightly so.

Clinton pardoned frauds because they hired Hillary's brother.