Curveball

Dowd: "As necessity is the mother of invention, political pressure was the father of conveniently botched intelligence." [NYT]
More on "curveball" [Reuters]

There is no denying that the intelligence agencies really messed up in the days/months before 9/11, but to say that there was NO political pressure from the White House before we illegally invaded Iraq is just plain lunacy. I believe the quote from Bush was: "F**K Saddam, we're taking him out." Nice.

Herbert: "You feel sorrow," he said, "because you know there are so many servicemen and women out there who want to do the right thing, who are doing tough jobs every day. And to see these events blacken their names and call into question their whole mission just makes me sad. Very, very sad." [NYT]
US Soldiers told to beat the F**K out of detainees. [Common Dreams]

What can we learn about ourselves and others from the way we fill out NCAA brackets...[NYT]