AMY GOODMAN: Does Zarqawi even exists?

* "The number of competitive House districts has been shrinking, in part because redistricting has protected incumbents in both parties. In 1994, strategists could target 111 members of Congress who had won two years earlier by 55% of the vote or less. This year, there are just 32 members in that category.
Political scientist Alan Abramowitz of Emory University in Atlanta has run two political models for 2006. In one, using such national political conditions as public unease about the country's direction, Democrats gain 33 seats. In a second, which includes more "micro" factors such as the number of open seats, they pick up just eight seats." (link)

* "You may have noticed that pro-war blogs have gone kind of quiet about the Oil for Food “scandal’ lately. But unless you follow the Australian press, you probably don’t know why. While the Volcker inquiry turned up lots of instances of oil export licenses given by Saddam’s regimes to various individuals and groups, presumably with some quid pro quo, the real revelation was that Saddam extracted corrupt payments from suppliers of food and other imports. By far the largest party to these dealings was an Australian quango, AWB Limited which, before its privatisation in the late 1990s, was the Australian Wheat Board." (link)
yay, us

* "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was talking about when she said last week that the United States had made thousands of "tactical errors" in handling the war in Iraq, a statement she later said was meant figuratively." (link)
mistakes r us.

* ron has a new article up at RawStory: "A study by a group that monitors the media reveals that, over a ten month span, 77 television stations from all across the nation aired video news releases without informing their viewers even once that the reports were actually sponsored content"

* amy interviewed " leading Arab journalist Zaki Chehab" - a coupla things of note:

AMY GOODMAN: Some people have questioned whether Zarqawi even exists. Do you believe he does?

ZAKI CHEHAB: Yeah, he exists...

wow - i thought she was a journo and wasnt sposed to ask such irresponsible questions! naughty amy.

and this:

"ZAKI CHEHAB: You know, many, the last few months, have talked about Iraq slipping into a sectarian war or a civil war. I suspect that Iraq will happen. It’s true that large number of killings taking place in Iraq, but the way Iraqi society is, you know, is made up, it is -- make it difficult. Iraq has the largest mixed marriages in the Arab and Islamic world between Sunnis and Shiites. Up to 50% of Sunnis and Shia are married from each other. So I suspect that, you know, you can do something against your brother-in-law or son-in-law or, you know, something related to this. You know, I know ministers in Iraq. One of them is a very close friend of mine. She said, “I’ve got six sisters. I am a Shia. Five are them are married for Sunnis.” How we can go into civil war against each other? This is one.

If you ask the majority of Sunnis, “Do you mind being governed by Shia?” they will say no, or Kurd, they will say no."

i've long thought/hoped/'prayed' that the sunni/shia thing is a beat-up - unfortunately, it gets repeated so damn often...