Morning copy 8.26.2005 (OMG A HURRICANE!!!!!1)

CNN's coverage of this 'Cane is innane. Iraq once again is under a meaningless deadline -- how much meaning can a deadline have if they are routinely extended? Which topic gets more a.m. coverage on CNN? 'Cane or Iraq?

Look at those feeder bands!!

Wesley Clark invokes "strategy" in his Washington Post Op-Ed piece today, and it takes him less than 70 words to do it. Excerpt:

Unfortunately, the administration didn't see the need for a diplomatic track, and its scattershot diplomacy in the region -- threats, grandiose pronouncements and truncated communications -- has been ill-advised and counterproductive. The U.S. diplomatic failure has magnified the difficulties facing the political and military elements of strategy by contributing to the increasing infiltration of jihadists and the surprising resiliency of the insurgency.

And conclusion (Vietnam):

The growing chorus of voices demanding a pullout should seriously alarm the Bush administration, because President Bush and his team are repeating the failure of Vietnam: failing to craft a realistic and effective policy and instead simply demanding that the American people show resolve. Resolve isn't enough to mend a flawed approach -- or to save the lives of our troops. If the administration won't adopt a winning strategy, then the American people will be justified in demanding that it bring our troops home.

A great deal of violence in Iraq, but the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade have calmed down, for now. WaPo News.

More on the clash between al Sadr's Mahdis and the Badrs of SCIRI thanks to the Christian Science Monitor. If there is one thing this battle shows and protests earlier in the week, is that Sadr is no puppet of Iran. CSM LINK.

Rallies planned for both sides in Crawford, Texas. WaPo.

The Charter and the Iraqi government, as an Iraqi government, nears a "breaking point". Bush intervened with a call to SCIRI leader al-Hakim, NY Times.

Professor Juan Cole's analysis (I was going to "pun" with "breakdown" instead of "analysis") of the constitutional process in Iraq, Salon.com LINK.

The brief restoration and then the loss of Baghdad's literary cafes, Salon.com LINK.

General John Vines says that future U.S. troop level is directly tied to the Sunni reaction to the charter, AFP LINK.

Paul Krugman's Richard III reference, LINK.