"What should have made Condi hysterical, she deemed 'historical,'" writes Maureen Dowd. "On Iraq, they ran roughshod over the system. On Al Qaeda, Condi blamed the system..." Plus: uggabugga compares Rice's testimony with the text of the PDB, and the Washington Post revisits August 2001, when 'Bush gave no sign of worry.'

The PDB spotlight has shifted to a pair of new questions, reports the Los Angeles Times: "How did the president respond? And what did the FBI do?" Plus: David Corn on "the pre-9/11 blunder you’ve probably never heard of."

The Editor & Publisher article refers to an op-ed by former Senator and 9/11 commission member Bob Kerrey that praised Rice. Kerrey also said the time is now, for "something completely different" in Iraq.

Richard Reeves' exit strategy is to 'Fire Them All,' including Vice President Cheney, "a huckster with contempt for the rights and consent of the governed, a man who feels he has no responsibility to facts." Plus: 'I'm Fired!'

The Independent's diplomatic editor considers four scenarios for what happens next in Iraq and Time solicits the opinion of a diplomat, a Senator and a former general, as to 'What Should Bush Do?'

Knight Ridder's Warren Strobel checks in with several Middle East analysts about progress in 'the quest to bring democracy to Iraq.' A former U.S. ambassador says, "It was going to transform the Middle East, remember? Now all we want to do is save our butts."

A BBC survey of world editorial opinion on U.S. policy in Iraq, includes a Ha'aretz commentator's call to bring back Saddam, who, as Patrick Cockburn pointed out in an article on the one-year anniversary of the toppling of Saddam's statue, "should not have been a hard act to follow."

American setbacks in Iraq are making Israel anxious about its own security, according to an article in the Jerusalem Post, which refers to an Israeli military oficer's prediction that it will be a "hot summer" in Iraq.

A column by Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria and a Washington Post article review U.S. mistakes in advance of the uprising in Iraq. Zakaria cites a 2003 RAND Corp report, which estimated that 20 security personnel were needed per 1,000 inhabitants, for a total of about 500,000 soldiers and police.

News that a battallion of the Iraqi army refused to go to Fallujah follows reports that security forces abandoned their posts.

In interviews with the Los Angeles Times, refugees from Fallujah describe a city increasingly sympathetic to the uprising, which, according to an article in Scotland's Sunday Herald, was plotted at a secret meeting last month in London, where senior Islamic activists decided to "stir the Iraqi Shiite resistance."

"They seemed like they were well-funded," said a wounded Marine of the Fallujah fighters. "We captured one of their vehicles. They had a couple hundred dollars in American money. Then they had a lot more money hidden in other places in their car. And they were driving BMWs." Earlier: Message board poster claims to have noticed "significant increase in inbound air traffic to Dover AFB."

As a New York Post columnist says it's time to "fight like Americans" in Iraq, a senior British Army officer tells the Telegraph that the British high command is increasingly uneasy with U.S. military tactics and that American troops view Iraqis as "untermenschen." Plus: 'How GI bullies are making enemies of their Iraqi friends.'

A New York Times article airs the concern of U.S. military officials, who see "an increasing mismatch between what American troops are being asked to do in Iraq and what is being accomplished in the political field there."

The article quotes Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt as saying that Iraqis watching images of civilians being killed should "change the channel." Islam Online, which reports that the U.S. wants Al-Jazeera out of Fallujah, recounts an on-air dispute that one of the station's anchors had with Kimmitt over events in Fallujah.

PINR looks at how the upsurge in violence, which has "brought the brutality of the conflict directly into the living rooms of America," threatens Bush's reelection prospects, and New Yorker editor David Remnick contrasts Bush's "simplicities" with Kerry's "complex views," calling Kerry a "sterling biography in search of a coherent language." Plus: Kerry's campaign releases middle-class misery index.

As the U.S. military backs off its prediction that Osama bin Laden will be captured this year, Pakistan's Daily Times reports that he left Pakistan in mid-2003. An Asia Times article on the hunt cites estimates that Pakistan lost up to 800 soldiers in its recent search for "high-value targets," not 50 as the government officially admitted.

April 9-11

The New York Times reports the acknowledgement by White House officials that two examples in the now declassified PDB -- the surveillance of federal buildings in New York City and a May 2001 warning call to an American embassy -- do not match National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's description of the memo as containing "historical information based on old reporting."

'Darling Condi' The Daily Howler says journalists should have researched this before Rice’s Thursday session. "Instead, they wandered aimlessly onto the air, marveling at the PDB’s long-public title," without "examining what The Icon has said."

A Christian Science Monitor article details the 'perfect storm' that began with the move to close the Al Hawza newspaper and has led to the building of bridges "between the US-led coalition's enemies inside Iraq and drawn more people to the insurgency."

AFP reports that thousands of Iraqis chanting "No Sunnis, no Shiites, yes for Islamic unity," forced their way through U.S. checkpoints to deliver aid to Fallujah, which is also said to be attracting Shiite fighters. More signs of a Sunni/Shiite alliance.

An AP article on mounting concern over the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, cites 30-year CIA veteran Milt Bearden, who "notes that in the last 100 years any insurgency that has taken on a nationalist character -- for instance, a shared goal of getting rid of Americans -- has succeeded." Bearden had warned the U.S. against underestimating its adversaries in Iraq.

Robert Novak says U.S. generals are privately "outraged" by inadequate troop levels in Iraq and that Gen. John Abizaid is determined not to be the fall guy if things continue to deteriorate. The Washington Post reports that Abizaid may have to retake positions seized by Shiite militia that were supposed to be under control of other members of a coalition that is showing signs of fracture.

In a letter from Iraq, a U.S. civilian contractor offers this assessment of private security forces: "Instead of a professional military outfit here we have a bunch of cowboys and vigilantes running wild in the streets." Plus: 'Under fire, security firms form an alliance' and a Blackwater VP says of Fallujah attack: "We were set up."

Reporting from 'Bitter Baghdad,' the New York Observer's Tish Durkin hears "the sound of wheels coming off" as the U.S. labors to "keep the grateful Iraqi people at a safe distance from their liberators." Plus: Iraqi blogger predicts bloody weekend.

The Independent has a one year on assessment of the situation in Iraq from Patrick Cockburn, and an anniversary then and now on pro-war commentators, including a Daily Mirror columnist who went from writing "Being against this war when British soldiers are fighting and dying seems cheap, grubby and inappropriate," to "The whole sorry mess looks like a bloody disaster."

A Washington Post article on Sec. of State Colin Powell's "sober assessment" of rising U.S. casualties, also reports that President Bush, who toured his ranch Thursday with the head of the NRA and various hunting groups, has spent "more than 40 percent of his presidency" either at his ranch, at Camp David or in Kennebunkport. Plus: Fishing for votes.

Questioning Condi The Center for American Progress fact checks and provides additional commentary on National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the 9/11 commission.

Slate's William Saletan decodes Rice's 'self-serving' testimony and a New York Times op-ed contrasts the two worlds that CNN viewers saw during the hearing. Plus: "Jersey Girls" say what they saw.

He Says She Said Richard Clarke told ABC's Peter Jennings that Rice "corroborated" his testimony when "She said that the president received 40 warnings face to face from the director of central intelligence that a major al Qaeda attack was going to take place and she admitted that the president did not have a meeting on the subject, did not convene the Cabinet."

The Star Tribune editorializes that Rice's testimony shows the Bush administration to have been "outrageously derelict in its duty to protect the American people" and describes her performance leading up to 9/11 as "unconscionable."

The Daily Howler notes how the 9/11 panel changed its rules to accommodate Rice. Plus: Did Al Franken get to Newsweek's Howard Fineman?

Bill Clinton goes it alone in a closed-door session before the 9/11 commission, after which chairman Thomas Kean said the former president was "totally frank, totally honest, and forthcoming," adding that Clinton offered to "stay just as long as you all want me to."

Reuters reports on a steady exodus of White House counterterrorism staffers since 9/11, many citing frustration with Bush administration policies.

"Troubling" FactCheck.org finds a new Bush campaign ad appropriately-named because it recycles bogus claims and accuses Sen. John Kerry of planning "the exact opposite of what Kerry says he'd do."

The Los Angeles Times reports on First Amendment fallout after a deputy U.S. marshall, apparently on orders from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, seized and erased recordings made by two reporters at a Scalia speech.

The Washington Post's Jefferson Morley says "The sensational story of Sibel Edmonds," the former FBI translator who claims to have read 2001 intelligence reports that al-Qaeda operatives planned to fly hijacked U.S. airplanes into skyscrapers, "illuminates the world of difference between the international online media and the U.S. press."

uggabugga distills William Safire's (neo) chemistry of the Middle East, and Web questioners ask Ayatollah Sistani about alcohol usage, the lottery, oral sex, sea animals and more.

April 8

Contradicting statements by the Bush administration and American officials in Iraq, U.S. intelligence officials tell the New York Times that there is evidence of a "broad-based Shiite uprising."

As the Christian Science Monitor reports that "Neither Iraqis nor the U.S. appear prepared to take on Sadr's militia," the Pentagon says it will increase the number of troops in Iraq and the Washington Post reports that the U.S. is seeking a new global force to protect the U.N. there.

"Marine engineers patrolling near Ramadi on Wednesday reported coming across a mass grave containing up to 350 bodies of Iraqis who appeared to have been killed in the fighting," reports Knight Ridder. "It wasn't clear whether the bodies belonged to combatants, civilians or both." Plus: Director of Fallujah's hospital says more than 280 Iraqis killed and 400 wounded.

Brendan O'Neill sees the outbreak of violence in Iraq as "less like a coherent uprising against occupying forces or the early days of a civil war, than an angry lashing out against the coalition," which, "created a dangerous vacuum...In removing a regime that dominated every aspect of Iraqi society, with little sense of what might take its place."

A Seattle radio talker, currently broadcasting from Baghdad, is quoted in a New York Times article as saying his callers have recently included "more military families expressing reservations about the mission," and that in his opinion the invasion seems to have "delivered 130,000 Americans to the front door of a bunch of terrorists who now have a much shorter commute."

Naomi Klein reports from Baghdad, where she finds no room at the inn for anyone presumed to be an American, and a city "blanketed with inept psy-ops organs like Baghdad Now." Plus: 'The Iraqi Inversion.'

Rock the Vote?  In a link-rich essay, Maureen Farrell examines public pronouncements that a terrorist attack in the U.S. could result in the cancellation of the 2004 elections.

Reuters reports on the hip hop community's election-year activism, including the first "National Hip-Hop Political Convention," which is being modeled on 1972's "National Black Political Convention" where attendees strategized about how to defeat Richard M. Nixon.

"Democracy Now!" interviews John Dean about his bestselling new book, "Worse than Watergate," in which he outlines "something like 11 inchoate scandals that are available right now to really become a serious part of this administration." Earlier: Carl Bernstein laments 'idiot culture.'

Cynthia McKinney is running to regain her seat in the U.S. House, telling the Los Angeles Times that the 9/11 commission hearings have validated the criticisms she raised before her defeat.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that when Rice met privately in February with the 9/11 commission, "only five members showed up." But McClellan didn't tell reporters the whole story.

Defense PAC A political action committee geared to raising money for "first-rate minority GOP candidates," finds few takers and comes under fire for diverting money to other causes, such as House Majority leader Tom DeLay's legal defense fund.

Daschle's Nader In South Dakota, home to about 60,000 Native Americans, the editor/publisher of the Lakota Journal is running as an independent candidate against Sen. Tom Daschle. Mother Jones covers that race and other 'Senate-Show Downs.'

An analysis of employment trends in the nation's 100 largest labor markets, dating back to the Reagan administration, shows that nearly 2/3rds have lost jobs since President Bush took office. Plus: Rising gas prices spark urge to fuel and flee, and Wal-mart hits a wall.

Pulitzer, Schmulitzer Slate's Jack Shafer traces the history of Pulitzer boasting, and suggests setting up parallel awards for the year's worst reporting. Plus: 'Winners not best-kept secret.'

Head of Traditional Values Coalition accuses Jimmy Breslin of making up quotes in column. Earlier: 'Sticking With Tradition.'

"On the Media" examines the controversial practice of TV stations setting up ratings-boosting stings of online sexual predators, who are recruited from chatrooms by the volunteer vigilantes at Perverted-Justice.com.

A Baltimore Sun article on a U.S. Justice Department "operation to rid the world of porn," notes that "The Bush administration is eager to shore up its conservative base with this issue. Ashcroft held private meetings with conservative groups a year and a half ago to assure them that anti-porn efforts are a priority." Plus: Greg Beato convenes with Ashcroft's antagonists in Las Vegas.

April 7

'Chaos Theory' Mark LeVine looks at who stands to gain from the turmoil in Iraq, as an alliance "unthinkable a week ago" suddenly emerges with Shiite and Sunni leaders finding common cause in opposing the U.S.-led occupation. Plus: 'Muslim rivals unite in Baghdad uprising.'

Witnesses say as many as 40 people were killed when rockets fired by U.S. Marines hit a mosque compound in Fallujah filled with worshippers, reports the AP. And according to a Fallujah hospital official, sixteen children and eight women were killed when U.S. warplanes struck four houses on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, President Bush said, "We've got tough work [in Iraq] because, you see, there are terrorists there who would rather kill innocent people... These people hate freedom. And we love freedom." A "NewsNight" report on the day's violence showed an Iraqi fighter in Fallujah saying, "We're not the terrorists as Bush said. The terrorist is the one attacking me in my country, in my home."

Commenting on fighting in Baghdad, Fallujah, Basra, Amarah, Nasiriyah and Najaf, U.S. occupation head Paul Bremer said: "If you just report on those few places, it does look chaotic." But Back-to-Iraq notes that "those few places" are home to about 77 percent of Iraqis.

A Los Angeles Times article predicts that the June 30 handoff will bring to Iraq a "Sovereignty Lite," watched over by the largest CIA station in the world.

Calling Moqtada al-Sadr Iraq's version of Lenin at the Finland Station, the American Prospect's Harold Meyerson writes that "The only unequivocally good policy option before the American people is to dump the president who got us into this mess, who had no trouble sending our young people to Iraq but who cannot steel himself to face the Sept. 11 commission alone."

In 'The New Saddam,' Justin Raimondo argues that "This entire Sadrist episode has been an American provocation from start to finish." Plus: Iraq no longer safe enough for the old Saddam?

'Deeper Into the Abyss' American Conservative contributor Christopher Layne wonders whether any American political leader will have the courage France's Charles de Gaulle showed when he elected to cut his country's losses in Algeria and get out.

Mark Kleiman tracks GOP efforts to spin Sen. Edward Kennedy's remark that "Iraq is George Bush's Viet Nam" into a prediction of American defeat, and Helen Thomas, saying it would be a travesty if the war in Iraq does not become the focus of debate in the presidential campaign, calls on Bush and Kerry to lay out their exit strategies. Plus: Bush administration's case for war no longer has leg to stand on.

As the only person convicted in the 9/11 attacks is freed by a German court, the Washington Post previews national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's likely strategy in testifying before the 9/11 commission, and a Los Angeles Times report says Rice is "solely responsible" for what Bush knew about Richard Clarke's efforts.

Robert Parry finds it hard to imagine that Rice can't think of anything that "she, her boss or his administration could have done better" in the months preceding 9/11. "But Condoleezza Rice seems to have adopted George W. Bush’s lifetime attitude of never having to say 'Sorry.'"

MSNBC reports that the White House is denying the 9/11 commission access to the full text of the speech Rice was to give on September 11, 2001, because the document is a "draft" and "drafts are classified."

ABC's "Nightline" reports that President Bush's decision to fly to Nebraska on 9/11 instead of returning directly to the White House, was part of an elaborate "Armageddon" plan.

A new report by Amnesty International says that 84 percent of the world's 1,146 known executions in 2003 took place in four countries.

Premiere of William Bennett's "Morning in America" radio show, which included an interview with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, narrowly avoids media shutout. Plus: Conservatives court African Americans for battle against same-sex marriage.

The St. Louis Cardinals deny piping in fake applause to mask potential boos when President Bush threw out the first pitch at the team's home opener. (Scroll down)

April 6

Sadr's City The New York Times Jeffrey Gettleman reports from Kufa, which he describes as "basically an occupation-free zone" where the Grand Mosque "has now become the grand arsenal."

As Moqtada al-Sadr moves to Najaf, where his supporters have reportedly taken over the city, a Los Angeles Times analysis examines the chances of the 'minor cleric' becoming a martyr, and Juan Cole says U.S. cable news is "doing its best to obscure the real issues" concerning al-Sadr. (Scroll up for more.)

A Sunday attack on the U.S. government's headquarters in Najaf, is said to have been repulsed by eight Blackwater commandos, with support from the firm's own helicopters.

'Gas Hogs' A new Pew Research poll finds that more Americans are paying "very close attention" to gas prices than to recent events in Iraq.

David Kay tells Vanity Fair that shortly after arriving in Baghdad last July, he realized that Saddam hadn't been stockpiling banned weapons. Kay says he wanted to resign last December, but CIA Director Tenet told him: "If you resign now, it will appear that we don't know what we're doing and the wheels are coming off."

Also quoted in Vanity Fair's ''The Path to War," is retired CIA official Richard Kerr, who says Vice President Cheney made at least 10 trips to CIA headquarters, and while analysts weren't asked to change their judgments, "they were being asked again and again to restate their judgments -- do another paper on this, repetitive pressures."

"Democracy Now!" interviews three National Guard soldiers back from Iraq, who tested positive for depleted uranium contamination. "Democracy Now!" co-host and New York Daily News reporter Juan Gonzalez, broke the story.

The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh reports on and discusses "The Other War," and the Boston Globe surveys recent intelligence findings on al-Qaeda, which indicate that it has "morphed into splinter groups" and "grown larger and looser, making it far more difficult to track than when bin Laden sat at the head..."

After the Washington Post's Anthony Shadid found out that he had won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, he said from Iraq that "The longer I'm here, the less I understand this story." In early March, Shadid talked about his experience in Iraq during a "NewsHour" interview and a lecture at Harvard.

The Los Angeles Times won five Pulitzers, including national reporting, for "The Wal-Mart Effect." The Toledo Blade won for investigative reporting -- its first-ever Pulitzer-- for its series on "Tiger Force" atrocities in Vietnam, and the New York Times won the public service award for "Dangerous Business" and "When Workers Die."

In a pre-Pulitzer profile, Matt Davies, who won for editorial cartooning, said: "As soon as John Kerry does something stupid, I'll go after him. But I'm so appalled at the complete ramrodding of a right-wing agenda. I feel Bush is president of the Republican Party, not the rest of us." Plus: Anti-Bush story lines go prime time.

As Sen. Edward Kennedy charges Bush with creating the "largest credibility gap since Richard Nixon," a Newhouse News columnist argues that Bush is no Nixon.

The editor of former ambassador Joseph Wilson's forthcoming memoir, tells the Washingtonian that the book will examine "a genre of leakers who leak to create a mendacious effect on a target."

"Who you talkin' to?" That's what President Bush asked an AP reporter who addressed him as "sir" instead of "Mr. President." Have a listen.

Read excerpts from Bill Hillsman's new book, "Run the Other Way: Fixing the Two-Party System, One Campaign at a Time." In an interview, Hillsman, who created advertising for Paul Wellstone, Jesse Ventura and Ralph Nader, talked about why the two parties run the other way from him.

Brian Montopoli calls for eliminating the practice of place-holding for seats at congressional hearings, where companies like Congressional Services charge lawyers and lobbyists $32 to $40 per hour for each spot in line, and then pay the place-holders $10 to $15 an hour. The original -- and longer -- version of Montopoli's article was titled "The Queue Crew."

Marc Cooper finds "The Last Honest Place in America," where a strippers' union organizer incited class warfare and became the talk of the town.

April 5

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