“For months, media watchers have wondered if we would any time soon witness another “Cronkite moment” — some sort of dramatic statement by a mainstream media figure that would turn hearts and minds against an ill-advised war, for good. It hasn’t happened. But perhaps a not-very-famous, 73-year-old gentleman named John Murtha will be the new Cronkite.” — Greg Mitchell (Editor & Publisher)

“To avoid having to account for his administration’s misleading statements before the war with Iraq, President Bush has tried denial, saying he did not skew the intelligence. He’s tried to share the blame, claiming that Congress had the same intelligence he had, as well as President Bill Clinton. He’s tried to pass the buck and blame the C.I.A. Lately, he’s gone on the attack, accusing Democrats in Congress of aiding the terrorists.

Yesterday in Alaska, Mr. Bush trotted out the same tedious deflection on Iraq that he usually attempts when his back is against the wall: he claims that questioning his actions three years ago is a betrayal of the troops in battle today.

It all amounts to one energetic effort at avoidance. But like the W.M.D. reports that started the whole thing, the only problem is that none of it has been true.” (New York Times op-ed)

“Instead of hearing the anguish of a majority of Americans who have soured on the Iraq war, instead of searching in good faith for some reasonable way forward – or back— the House Republicans turned instead to a game of playground double-dare. Murtha was asking for a series of hearings, for a national dialogue, some sort of bi-partisan search for a policy that starts getting us of out of Iraq. Instead, the GOP leadership bastardized and mocked his notion and put forward a surprise resolution — designed to fail– asking for immediate and unconditional withdrawal. The bogus resolution put forward last night was engineered solely in an attempt to blackmail and embarrass Democrats rather than find some way to stop the bloodshed.

What makes the Republican ploy particularly repugnant is that it comes precisely on the same day that we learn that the top American military commander in Iraq has presented Donald Rumsfeld with a plan to begin withdrawing U.S. military troops — as soon as a handful of weeks from now.

In other words, Democrats who propose a withdrawal are aiding and abetting the enemy, even though the White House and the Pentagon are secretly drafting a plan to do the same.” (marccooper.com)

“The ferocity of the fight in the House over a measure to withdraw American troops from Iraq shows that the war may command the high ground in the coming electoral contest, and that the course of events in Iraq – whether a new government takes hold, whether the violence continues, whether American troops are still committed in large numbers and still being killed by the scores each month – will be of prime political consequence here.” (New York Times )

Profession by profession, what the insiders read to stay current: “No self-respecting industry these days is without a must-read blog. Although they vary wildly on fine points like accuracy, they are now so widely read that it’s assumed anybody in the business is up to speed on the latest postings. For outsiders, they are also a window into the inner workings, preoccupations and gossip of fields ranging from real estate to mergers and acquisitions.” (WSJ)

“Far-right British author David Irving has been arrested for Holocaust denial in Austria and has been in jail in Graz for six days, Austria’s interior ministry confirmed today.

Mr Irving was arrested last Friday on a warrant issued in 1989 under Austrian laws that make Holocaust denial a crime. The charges stemmed from speeches he delivered that year in Vienna and in the southern town of Leoben.

…’I don’t see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz,’ Mr Irving declared in 1991 before a group of rightists and neo-Nazis. ‘It’s baloney. It’s a legend … more women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy’s car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz.'” (Guardian.UKvia walker)

“For a sizable group of people in their 20’s and 30’s, deciding on their own what drugs to take – in particular, stimulants, antidepressants and other psychiatric medications – is becoming the norm. Confident of their abilities and often skeptical of psychiatrists’ expertise, they choose to rely on their own research and each other’s experience in treating problems like depression, fatigue, anxiety or a lack of concentration. A medical degree, in their view, is useful, but not essential, and certainly not sufficient.

They trade unused prescription drugs, get medications without prescriptions from the Internet and, in some cases, lie to doctors to obtain medications that in their judgment they need.” (New York Times )

“A dark outlook got even darker on Monday, when delegates to a meeting at World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva heard grim forecasts of the potential costs of an avian flu pandemic. The H5N1 strain has killed half of the 120 people it has infected; if it acquires the ability to pass directly from person to person it could kill millions and cause as much as $800 billion in economic damage across the world, experts warned.

‘It is only a matter of time before an avian influenza, most likely the H5N1 strain, acquires the ability to be transmitted human-to-human,’ warned WHO director-general Lee Jong-wook. ‘The signs are that it is coming.'” (Hard To Do Any Worse)