General Petraeus is trotting out Ahmad Chalabi as the savior of Iraq. (What happened to Iyad/Ayad Allawi?) According to McClatchy Chalabi is back in action in Iraq.

Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial, ubiquitous Iraqi politician and one-time Bush administration favorite, has re-emerged as a central figure in the latest U.S. strategy for Iraq.

His latest job: To press Iraq's central government to use early security gains from the surge to deliver better electricity, health, education and local security services to Baghdad neighborhoods. That's the next phase of the surge plan. Until now, the U.S. military, various militias, insurgents and some U.S. backed groups have provided those services without great success.

Has anyone noticed that Daily Kos has been hacked?

Or is it just my browser?

(Hat tip to the Carpetbagger Report) TheStreet.com is reporting that Jeremy Grantham, Dick Cheney’s investment manager has sent a 4-page scathing indictment of U.S. energy policy to his clients:

Titled "While America Slept, 1982-2006: A Rant on Oil Dependency, Global Warming, and a Love of Feel-Good Data," Grantham's philippic adds up to an extraordinary critique of U.S. energy policy over the past two decades.

Did you just hear what I just heard? Rick Santorum just conceded to Bob Casey in the PA-Sen race, implying that Casey would only be representing the state of Pennsylvania for "the next coupl'a months." What didn't I get? As far as I know, Santorum will still be representing Pennsylvania as a lame duck for the nest two months. What was he telegraphing? Martial law? Cancellation of election results? Legal challenges to the election results?

Below is a time line of reports of military build-up and actions in the middle east in preparation for the Iraq War that I was able to glean from the internet during a week in June, 2005.  Most of this is not on other time lines. Here it is, for what it's worth.

Timeline of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: Build-Up of Forces and Materiel in Persian Gulf and `Spikes' of Bombing in Northern and Southern `No-Fly Zones', in Preparaton for 2003 Invasion of Iraq, Prior to Authorization by Congress

I was working on my letter to Senator Specter when Google brought me to a letter  (warning:pdf) from Congressman Henry Waxman to Representative Christopher Shays in his capacity as chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations of the Committee on Government Reform. Dated March 1, 2005, the 12-page letter is about the executive branch's over-classifying of documents, and gives five examples, one of which is:

"The State Department concealed unclassified information about the role of John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control, in the creation of a fact sheet that falsely claimed that Iraq sought Uranium from Niger."