Revealing more about himself than he ever has, Garry Trudeau gives us tantalizing clues about what's behind his venerable comic strip's recent burst of genius, and pain.

This is a good read on many levels.

Doonesbury's War - washingtonpost.com

Al-Maliki said he believed the U.S. talk of timelines was driven by the upcoming U.S. midterm election."We are not much concerned with it," al-Maliki said.

U.S., Iraqi Forces Raid Sadr City - washingtonpost.com

Top U.S. officials in Iraq today predicted that Iraqi security forces could be largely self-sufficient within 12 to 18 months and said the Iraqi government is building a timetable for disarming militias, quieting insurgents and solving ongoing struggles for economic and political power.

The administration has finally agreed to a timeline for leaving Iraq. The question is whether this number is actually meaninful in regard to substantive progress or if they are merely providing a number to create the appearance of progress which is, of course, not immutable in the future...

Transcript here

U.S. Officials: Iraqi Security Could be Ready in 12-18 Months - washingtonpost.com

Shuttle Launch as it would be seen from a high-flying aircraft.

Shuttle Launch as seen from Aircraft

Nearly every night here for the past month, Iraqis weary of the tumult around them have been turning on the television to watch a wacky-looking man with a giant Afro wig and star-shaped glasses deliver the grim news of the day.

A TV Comedy Turns an Unconventional Weapon on Iraq’s High and Mighty: Fake News - New York Times

Until recently, their biggest concern was that someone might steal the laptop. But now there's a new worry: the laptop will be seized or its contents scrutinized at customs and immigration checkpoints upon entering the United States.

Laptops at U.S. border: No privacy rights - Technology - International Herald Tribune

"Lynwood," Yankovic's 12th album, debuted this month at No. 10 on the Billboard 200, his first top 10 album ever. Meanwhile, the Chamillionaire parody "White and Nerdy," reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, besting his previous high of No. 12 with "Eat It" in 1984.

For his part, Yankovic tends to credit the Internet. "The ("Nerdy") video has gotten a lot of attention, and the proliferation of places like YouTube (has) been a big help," he says.

Once "Nerdy" hit outlets like YouTube, there was no stopping it. "As much as people are griping about the Internet taking sales away from artists, it's been a huge promotional tool for me."

Take THAT RIAA!

'Weird Al' Yankovic finally hits the top 10 - CNN.com

"ACLU State of Civil Liberties: Scalia & Strossen." C-SPAN has posted online at this link (RealPlayer required) archived video of this evening's discussion.

C-SPAN's website is architected in such a way that it is almost impossible to easily link to individual videos on their site. Fortunately, this blog links the debate between Scalia and Strossen, which is worth a look.

I think Scalia comes off very well here. I agree that loose interpretation of the Constitution leads as often to the death of liberty as to it's defense. The problem is that I disagree with his conclusion that the American people are tolerant. Brown vs. Board, which he shows a lot of chutzpa in admitting may be in error under his conception of the law, is a perfect example of a large portion of this society being dragged kicking and screaming into a more tolerant world by judicial fiat, if you will. The right wing commentators blasting at me from nearly every station on the AM dial don't seem the epitome of tolerance, and they like Scalia not because he is defending freedom, but because he offers them hope that they might take freedoms away. I might feel a lot better if I need only convince them to change their policies, but the sort of open dialog among critically minded people that would be required simply does not exist.

Scalia vs. Strossen

The card companies have implied through their marketing that the data is encrypted to make sure that a digital eavesdropper cannot get any intelligible information. American Express has said its cards incorporate “128-bit encryption,” and J. P. Morgan Chase has said that its cards, which it calls Blink, use “the highest level of encryption allowed by the U.S. government.

”But in tests on 20 cards from Visa, MasterCard and American Express, the researchers here found that the cardholder’s name and [credit card number] was being transmitted without encryption and in plain text.

Sounds like RFID Credit Cards are as bad as they could possibly be. Response from the PR people at the credit card companies is also as bad as it could possibly be.

“This is an interesting technical exercise,” said Brian Triplett, senior vice president for emerging-product development for Visa, “but as a real threat to a consumer — that threat really doesn’t exist.”

Brian Triplett sounds like Marie Antoinette. If there is a single RFID credit card that has my name, just my name, unencrypted, that is a privacy threat to the consumer that is unacceptable. Period.

But it gets worse:

The companies, however, argue that testing just 20 cards does not provide an accurate picture of the card market, which generally uses higher security standards than the cards that were tested. “It’s a small sample,” said Art Kranzley, an executive with MasterCard. “This is almost akin to somebody standing up in the theater and yelling, ‘Fire!’ because somebody lit a cigarette.”

The choice of analogy here is obviously intended to imply that the researchers may not have the legal right to tell the public what they are telling them. Its an implicit threat. Glad I don't have a Mastercard.

Researchers See Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards - New York Times

We The Creators of this site, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish Fantasy Congress for the United States of America.

In this game, we give you the power to draft and manage a team of members from the U.S. Congress. Enjoy our gift to you, o great nation: the power to play politics!™

NYT coverage here.

For those who have no idea how many yards Peyton Manning threw for on Sunday but can cite every legislative amendment proposed by Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, the game could be an alternative to the prevailing fantasy sports culture.

Wow... OK, whose down?

Fantasy Congress - Where People Play Politics!