The McGraham Crackers!

I'm staking my entire reputation as a pundit that this will be the Republican Ticket!Don't they look good together?

The Pentagon Wants to Sanitize Bush's War

Zoriah Miller, the freelance photographer who took the image below and others of marines killed in a June 26 suicide attack and posted them on his Web site, was subsequently forbidden to work in Marine Corps-controlled areas of Iraq. Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the Marine Corps commander in Iraq, is now seeking to have Mr. Miller barred from all United States military facilities throughout the world. Mr. Miller has since left Iraq.

In November 2004, Stefan Zaklin, a photographer then working for the European Pressphoto Agency, was embedded with a United States Army company. Mr. Zaklin photographed this soldier, who was shot and killed in Falluja, in a house used as a base by insurgents. The photograph ran in several European publications, and Mr. Zaklin was immediately banned from working with the unit.

Two New York Times journalists were disembedded in January, 2007, after the newspaper published this photo of a mortally wounded soldier. Though the soldier was shot through the head and died hours after the photo was taken, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno argued that The Times had broken "embed" rules by not getting written permission from the soldier.

After Michael Kamber, on assignment for The New York Times, took photos of wounded American soldiers in Latifiya in 2007, he was told by military public affairs officers that the images could not be published. Though embed regulations prohibit only publishing photos of identifiable wounded soldiers without their permission, Lt. Col. Josslyn Aberle insisted in a phone conversation with Mr. Kamber that no photos could be published that showed faces of non-wounded soldiers. Later the same day she further tightened the rules, saying that any photos that showed division shoulder patches could not be used.

You are looking at the blood of a “gravely wounded soldier at the Ibn Sina Hospital” in the Green Zone 2007.

Chris Hondros of Getty Images was with an army unit in Tal Afar on January 18, 2005, when its soldiers killed the parents of this blood-spattered girl at a checkpoint, and his photo was published around the world. Mr. Hondros was kicked out of the unit, though he soon became embedded with a unit in another city.

NYT

Sheldon Adelson: GOP's Answer To George Soros?

Sheldon Adelson, the 72-year-old casino billionaire who has become the third richest man in America. Past evidence suggests that Adelson will capitalize on his ascent to the top of the Republican money elite to try to build opposition in America to any Middle East peace settlement calling for the division of Israel into two states, one Jewish, the other Palestinian.

In the past, Adelson has shown a substantial interest in Israeli politics as well as in American elections. He is a strong backer of Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu, former Prime Minister of Israel and current Likud Party chair. Adelson has financed the creation of an Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, so outspoken and aggressive in backing Netanyahu that it has become known as "Bibi-ton".

In the current election cycle, Adelson has surpassed such past financial mainstays of conservative causes and of the GOP as oilman-corporate raider T. Boone Pickens ($4.6 million 2003-4), Houston real estate magnate Bob Perry ($18.5 million 2003-6) and former Univision CEO Jerry Perenchio ($9.1 million 2003-6).

According to some estimates, Adelson has put over $30 million in the 2007-8 cycle and has now even surpassed George Soros, the Democratic financier who in 2003-4 and 2005-6 broke all records by investing $27 million in liberal get-out-the-vote and media campaigns.

Huffington Post

Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki's Interview with Spiegel

Maliki disses McCain's 50-year German occupation model in favor of Barack Obama's timeline.

SPIEGEL: Germany, after World War II, was also liberated from a tyrant by a US-led coalition. That was 63 years ago, and today there are still American military bases and soldiers in Germany. How do you feel about this model?

Maliki:

Iraq can learn from Germany's experiences, but the situation is not truly comparable. Back then Germany waged a war that changed the world. Today, we in Iraq want to establish a timeframe for the withdrawal of international troops -- and it should be short .... However, I wish to re-emphasize that our security agreement should remain in effect in the short term.

.....So far the Americans have had trouble agreeing to a concrete timetable for withdrawal, because they feel it would appear tantamount to an admission of defeat. But that isn't the case at all. If we come to an agreement, it is not evidence of a defeat, but of a victory, of a severe blow we have inflicted on al-Qaida and the militias.

.....As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned. US presidential candidate Barack Obama is right when he talks about 16 months. Assuming that positive developments continue, this is about the same time period that corresponds to our wishes.

.....Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic. Artificially prolonging the tenure of US troops in Iraq would cause problems. Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement. Who they choose as their president is the Americans' business. But it's the business of Iraqis to say what they want. And that's where the people and the government are in general agreement: The tenure of the coalition troops in Iraq should be limited.

Der Spiegel

From Saturday's Spiegel:

A Baghdad government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said in a statement that SPIEGEL had "misunderstood and mistranslated" the Iraqi prime minister, but didn't point to where the misunderstanding or mistranslation might have occurred. Al-Dabbagh said Maliki's comments "should not be understood as support to any US presidential candidates." The statement was sent out by the press desk of the US-led Multinational Force in Iraq.

A number of media outlets likewise professed to being confused by the statement from Maliki's office. The New York Times pointed out that al-Dabbagh's statement "did not address a specific error." CBS likewise expressed disbelief pointing out that Maliki mentions a timeframe for withdrawal three times in the interview and then asks, "how likely is it that SPIEGEL mistranslated three separate comments? Matthew Yglesias, a blogger for the Atlantic Monthly, was astonished by "how little effort was made" to make the Baghdad denial convincing. And the influential blog IraqSlogger also pointed out the lack of specifics in the government statement.

SPIEGEL sticks to its version of the conversation.

Spiegel

Nelson Mandela

Happy Birthday (90th)!

27 years in prison.

Jesse Jackson on Fox

How the Jesse Jackson Episode Should Instruct Us:

• Fox (Faux) News (Noise) is not an authentic channel for informing the public on current events.
• Faux Noise is a propaganda-driven business. They are only in it for the Gotcha's.
• Only second-class liberals, in dire need of a 2nd income, appear on this conduit: the likes of Jesse Jackson and Dick Morris. (Who did I leave out?)
• Faux Noise should be boycotted by Democratic Party campaigns this year. No interviews. No debates. Nothing.

End of story.