Andrew Sullivan pens one of the more level headed walks through the post Cold War era and details where we find ourselves now and where we must go…

The end of the Cold War was an opportunity to create a new one. For some, we now realize, the Cold War was not about democratic values versus [...]

Provided in full by MSNBC…

Ultimately I think this speech was a worldwide call to unite in the War on Terrorism, and in that respect I think it could help him.
What did you think?

Do we really think that this many people could be a threat to our national security?
From AFP:
A watch list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.
The ACLU said it derived that figure from a Justice Department [...]

In this podcast we discuss (1) the shake up in the McCain Campaign, (2) Obama’s statement on revising his Iraq strategy, (3) Obama and his history with low income housing subsidies for private developers and (4) rumors about McCain’s VP announcement timetable…
[Listen Online] or [Download]
[Subscribe to 2008Central.net's Presidential Election Podcast]
Feel free to email us questions/suggestions [...]

I covered this back on June 27th, and at that time the group had around 550 members. What a difference a week makes, eh?
Not only that, this group is now the biggest on his website now.
TPM points to a story from USA Today about the group…
In recent days, Obama has criticized the Supreme Court [...]

In a Rose Garden news conference today, President Bush said he hopes to be able to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan by the end of this year. While there’s nowhere near a guarantee that Iraq will be stable enough for this kind of redeployment, the move would likely cause some tension amongst Democrats running [...]

I’m sure you’ve heard the reports of what this process actually feels like (a slow drowning), so I’ll spare you Hitchens’ explanation.
Instead, let’s look at the aftermath…
The interrogators would hardly have had time to ask me any questions, and I knew that I would quite readily have agreed to supply any answer. I still feel [...]

Given our lack of attention to this region, is it much of a surprise that the former regime is getting stronger?
A new Pentagon report says the Taliban has regrouped after its initial fall from power in Afghanistan. The new report offers a rather dim view of progress in the nearly 7-year-old war, declaring that the [...]

As hinted at yesterday, it’s happening and this decision will no doubt have far reaching consequences…
The announcement came after North Korea handed over a long-awaited accounting of its nuclear work to Chinese officials on Thursday, fulfilling a key step in the denuclearization process.
Bush called the declaration a positive step along a long road to get [...]

Could this be a sign that our policy of engaging in carrot and stick diplomacy actually worked?
From the Washington Note:
Tonight, The Washington Note confirmed that the Bush administration will “ask Congress” to de-list North Korea from America’s “terrorist watch list.” This request will be made on Thursday — if there are no last minute, unexpected [...]

In a recent interview with John McCain, Fortune magazine began with the question: what do you think is the gravest long-term threat to the U.S. economy? McCain could have answered such a question in any number of ways, but this is what he said:
Well, I would think that the absolute gravest threat is the struggle [...]

Reprinted in full…
“Given the grave threats that we face, our national security agencies must have the capability to gather intelligence and track down terrorists before they strike, while respecting the rule of law and the privacy and civil liberties of the American people. There is also little doubt that the Bush Administration, with the cooperation [...]

A lot of left wing blogs are hammering Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi for reaching a compromise on the FISA legislation, but this is difficult bi-partisanship at work and it ultimately means getting to a better place than we previously were.
From Wash Post:
Ending a year-long battle with President Bush, the House approved, 293 to 129, [...]

He went before Congress today and told us a lot of what we already know. But, again, it looks like this was definitely one of those cases where people wanted to wish that nothing happened instead of accepting the reality that Libby (and Rove and Cheney) were intimately involved with this leaking.
Excerpted liberally from the [...]

George Will takes issue with John McCain’s statement that the recent Supreme Court decision on Guantanamo detainees was one of the “worst decisions in history.”
Will’s complaint is as much about McCain’s hyperbole as it is about McCain’s opposition to the ruling. As Will notes, this is not a clear-cut matter and people of good will [...]

And considering we have about 26,000 troops in Afghanistan, the overall percentage proves that Afghanistan has been a much, much deadlier place for quite some time.
Not surprisingly, I found this news in a story about an attack by the Taliban that freed hundreds of inmates from an Afghan prison:
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - U.S. and NATO troops [...]

Can you tell it’s an election year?
From Swampland comes this transcript of McCain’s statements during a town hall…
The United States Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country. Sen. Graham and Sen. Lieberman and I had worked very hard to make sure [...]

Big, big news.
The Supreme Court restored habeas rights for enemy combatants, and thereby acknowledged that the “War on Terrorism” has no discernible end and so detainees should be able to challenge indefinite detention.
More from AP:
In its third rebuke of the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating [...]

How did the BBC find out what happened to untold billions in Iraq, but we somehow haven’t yet?

I’ll be checking this out later tonight, so I’ll have more thoughts then.

This is very good news, but what about the billions we continue to spend over there with no discernible gain? Remember, lowered troop deaths doesn’t mean political progress, it just means there’s more security and fewer families devastated stateside.
From Reuters:
U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the 2003 invasion [...]