Frank Rich on the bigger picture:

The hyping of post-9/11 threats indeed reflects the same DNA as the hyping of Saddam’s uranium: in both cases, national security scares are trumpeted to advance the White House’s political goals. Keith Olbermann of MSNBC recently compiled 13 “coincidences” in which “a political downturn for the administration,” from revelations of ignored pre-9/11 terror warnings to fresh news of detainee abuses, is “followed by a ‘terror event’ – a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning.” To switch the national subject from the fallout of the televised testimony of the F.B.I. whistle-blower Coleen Rowley in 2002, John Ashcroft went so far as to broadcast a frantic announcement, via satellite from Russia, that the government had “disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot” to explode a dirty bomb. What he was actually referring to was the arrest of a single suspect, Jose Padilla, for allegedly exploring such a plan – an arrest that had taken place a month earlier.

The bigger picture still?

Have we made positive strides when it comes to the so-called war on terror? Is our infrastructure stronger? Are our first responders better prepared? Have we made progress in efforts to lessen threats from abroad?

Ultimately, one so disposed could argue that all of the administration’s half-truths and outright lies were motivated by an obsessive desire to protect America.

But what if the ends and the means are both similarly flawed?

I used to have a football coach who told players to identify their weaknesses and then to focus on improving that weakness until it became a strength.

According to the latest poll numbers, W has managed to do the opposite. He took one of his core selling points and watched it work its way down until it became his adminstration’s achilles heel.

Do you think the overall level of ethics and honesty in the federal government has risen, fallen or stayed the same with Bush as president?

Risen: 15%
Fallen : 46%

Looks like bloggers are getting a pretty nice placement. Check out the folks in the reactions section of the NYT front page.

Blogs v Mainstream journalism. Aside from the massive upside of Webvan, this still ranks as the most overtold and least accurate internet story ever.

Protestors (joined by their country’s president) carried signs that read Death to Israel, death to America in Iran.

Now we’re not going to war with Iran (nor should we). But how do we bolster the sane people there and help marginalize the haters?

That’s the plan I’ve been waiting to hear about since 9-11 (as I’m sure are many in Iran).

Anyone seen it?

Michael Kinsley:

Confused? Sure. Who isn’t? One entertaining aspect of the story that reaches some sort of climax today is the struggle of the media to summarize or label it (hence, “the story that reaches some sort of climax today”). Once upon a time, someone went to Niger, which is not Nigeria, and off we go in time and space. Even Fox News has been driven to compound sentences.

Follow along with some of the latest and best takes on Libby, Rove and all the rest in the Newsmonger Politics section...