Three stuffs for your edification right now.

Tristero at Hullaballoo on an interview with reporter Mark Danner.

Digby at Hullaballoo on the March of Folly theory applied to Iraq.

Gleen Greenwald (bookmark him) on how it's not Bush's fault that Iraq is a disaster. It's everyone else's.

And a little bit on culture:

COMICS: I just saw Ivan Brunetti's Schizo #4 at the comix store yesterday and snapped up the last copy with wonder. I've only been waiting, like, five years for the next issue of nihlistic, autobiographical rants.

He's an absolute genius and you should read his stuff pronto. Start with issue one. He's apparently sold out and you must start with issue three. Sorry.

MUSIC: The new Belle & Sebastian record is stunningly good.

Will this post be one line long, like everything else on Salto recently?

Why, no. It won't.

Yes, it's true. Now everyone has a blog.

Wow, this book just wrecked me. Totally and completely.

Order and get some hankies ready.

For no particular reason, I am CRABBY today.

I needed to let you know.

Simply astounding.

Read carefully.

It's time for you to bookmark Glenn Greenwald.

Obviously skew way right.

As if that weren't clear to everybody already.

I bet he paid off the baggage handlers.

UPDATE: They've called off the search. The dog is gone!

Probably sipping Mai Tais on St. Kitts with some seriously hot bitches.

The cost of being away from home for a week? Severely awful kitty-related dreams, accompanied by wild in-dream sobbing (the "Anchorman" phone booth scene comes to mind).

The benefit? Kitty is much more cuddly when I get home, i.e. not as many random clawings.

My week in Philly? Cold.

But very fine people there.

Including Duncan Black, who I spent a half-hour chatting with at Philadelphia's Drinking Liberally. A nice chap! Also, I have nothing to say to him regarding politics or the media that he doesn't already know. Oh well. That's what happens when you're super-smart, blog for a living and have 140,000 readers a day, more or less.

Also? My coworkers induced me to go cougar hunting. Now that was an eye-opener.

"There may be a beer or two in there."

Scrubbed from the MSNBC website.

See here.

Seriously, seriously funny.

Why would they refuse to let Cheney be interviewed about the thing until the next morning?

'Cuz that was what happened.

Awesome.

The shooting was fertile ground for Jon Stewart, the host of "The Daily Show," the popular fake news program on Comedy Central. On Monday night one of the show's correspondents, Rob Corddry, introduced as a "vice-presidential firearms mishap analyst," said that "according to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush," and "everyone believed there were quail in the brush," and "while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he would still have shot Mr. Whittington in the face."

The clip is here.

(Subject lifted from the Daily Show.)

What happened is this:

Cheney shot someone. Then they had to decide whether or not they could keep it secret.

They decided they couldn't. But in the meantime, hours and hours went by.

He thinks he is above the law.

Think I'm wrong? Watch this press conference first.

MORE: More evidence?

CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer reports Texas authorities are complaining that the Secret Service barred them from speaking to Cheney after the incident. Kenedy County Texas Sheriffs Lt. Juan Guzman said deputies first learned of the shooting when an ambulance was called.

This is all unreal.

What a psycho.

Salto's in Philadelphia for the next week. Let me know if there's anything in particular I should be doing there, for fun.

I was gonna stalk Atrios at Drinking Liberally but I'm not sure that's gonna happen.

An excellent review.

I haven't seen it yet. But I will.

Is something going on with the internets? Seems like sites are down and everything is slow.

Froomkin today is excellent.

Isn't it funny how easily other opinion writers have filled the void since the Times erected their op-ed barrier? I pay a lot more attention now to the Post.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff find time to zip off a protest letter to cartoonist Tom Toles. Story here.

Aravosis responds:

Hey, here's a thought. Now that the Joint Chiefs have addressed the insidious threat cartoons pose to our troops, perhaps they can move on to less pressing issues like getting them their damn body armor.

Seriously. How hacktastic. And publicly disagreeing with Donald Rumsfeld might help your credibility a little.

This adminstration has destroyed our armed forces. The Joint Chiefs have a responsibility that goes beyond politics.