Looks like they’re offering $4M in grants to therapies like yoga, Reiki, Qi gong, spiritual ministry and transcendental meditation.
Groovy…
From Wired:
As many as 17 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, one congressional study estimates. Nearly 3,300 troops have suffered traumatic brain injury, or TBI, according to statistics [...]

I’m glad to see they stopped this before they wasted any more money, but this just goes to show you how much money can be wasted on weapons systems that we honestly don’t even need. It makes the lack of focus on domestic issues that much harder to swallow.
From Reuters:
The Navy says it has spent [...]

Here’s why…
The gun battles between soldiers and militiamen, who are all Shia Muslims, show that Iraq’s majority Shia community – which replaced Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime – is splitting apart for the first time.
Mr Sadr’s followers believe the government is trying to eliminate them before elections in southern Iraq later this year, which they are [...]

The Pentagon throws some interesting logic on the table about the recent problems in Iraq.
From AFP:
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite militias, was a “by-product of the success of the surge.”
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said it showed that [...]

Basically, they have 72 hours to put down their weapons or they’ll face the consequences. What those are is not yet clear, but it’s a safe bet it won’t be good for either side.
From NY Times:
BAGHDAD — A day after launching a huge operation that ignited heavy fighting in two of Iraq’s largest cities, Prime [...]

3,232.
3,547.
3,689.
Anybody remember these numbers?
I don’t, and for that I’m a bit ashamed.
But 4,000, well, that one seems to give us pause. For some reason the sight of three zeroes makes us turn our necks long enough to pay attention, ask more questions and continue to find few real answers.
So here’s my question [...]

The Guardian uncovers some troubling news that has the potential to swing the surge the other way…
In an investigation carried out by GuardianFilms for Channel 4, we uncover how thousands of Iraqis [80,000+] employed at $10 a day by the US to take on al-Qaida are threatening to go on strike because they say they [...]

I don’t want to get too far down the rabbit hole on McCain’s slip ups, but I do think that if Hillary or Obama said similar things, well, there’d be no end to that video loop.
If you’re not aware of the gaffes, McCain mentioned a couple times that Iran was training al Qaeda operatives and [...]

“I guess after the picture came out the insurgency picked up and Iraqis attacked the Americans and the British and they attacked in return and they were just killing each other. I felt bad about it … no, I felt pissed off. If the media hadn’t exposed the pictures to that extent, then thousands of [...]

Seriously, just watch…

From the ice to that jump at the end, this is pretty incredible stuff.
I know one thing, I would want that thing running at me. Yikes!

What did he find?
Well, that he couldn’t go the market he visited a year ago because it wasn’t safe enough. He also found a country that’s still teetering on the brink of chaos because of the lack of political progress by Iraqi politicians.

Question: will the war be a main issue this fall or will [...]

The film Rendition was recently released on video, and if you haven’t seen it you should. It’s well told, heartbreaking and speaks to exactly why the practice of extraordinary rendition is not only inhumane but completely unjust, regardless of what the Jack Bauer crowd claims.
The DVD also includes a documentary called Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture, [...]

The surge was designed to give Iraqi politicians the breathing room to create meaningful change in their country. That was, is and always will be the end goal of this particular mission.
Well, we gave them their opportunity. They’re giving us virtually nothing.
And this isn’t just coming from me. It’s coming from General Petraeus…
Iraqi leaders [...]

I wrote about this report yesterday and it inspired a good debate on if we should leave Iraq or not. Alan brought up some good points about maintaining stability in the region, but I remained unconvinced that our continued presence there has demonstrated increased safety for our country. In fact, I think the facts prove [...]

Yesterday, I wrote about John McCain’s involvement in a Air Force tanker deal that ultimately went to Airbus as partnered with Northrup-Grumman. McCain’s involvement aside, the story raised the question as to why we’d ever let a foreign company win a contract to build American military equipment. Now, via RealClearPolitics, American Thinker Editor and Publisher [...]

Greg Craig worked in the Clinton White House and saw what went down. He now supports Obama. Here’s why:
There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton played an important domestic policy role when she was First Lady. It is well known, for example, that she led the failed effort to pass universal health insurance. There is [...]

They looked through more than 600,000 of the regime’s documents and have found nothing.
I repeat…they have found absolutely no evidence whatsoever of operational ties to al Qaeda.
From McClatchy:
The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam’s regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials [...]

Back in 2004/2005, as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, John McCain helped bust up a corrupt deal between Boeing and the U.S. Air Force that would have cost tax payers a bundle for what could have been an inferior tanker plane. Several people ended up in jail and there is no dispute that the [...]

The benefits of running a blog? I can post stuff like this…

Okay, who wants to make a predator made out of popsicle sticks?
UPDATE:
I can’t believe I didn’t think of the obvious Balloon Juice jokes.
John Cole will not be pleased.

He’s apparently leaving the possibility open, and Times Online has more…
Senior advisers confirmed that Hagel, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and one of McCain’s closest friends in the Senate, was considered an ideal candidate for defence secretary. Some regard the outspoken Republican as a possible vice-presidential nominee although that might be regarded as a [...]