Weekend Odds and Ends

Wahhh, our January heat wave is over! I blame Al Gore. Here's the news...

A surge in Afghanistan? News services are reporting that "US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is considering sending some 3,000 additional marines to Afghanistan to boost forces ahead of a Taliban spring offensive." Yessir, 7 years later, time to start taking the Taliban seriously.

Kevin Drum looks at the U.S.-Iranian naval incident from the perspective of Iranian politics. As for those threatening voices in the recording... Navy officials now say "the threat may have come from the Iranian boats, or it may have come from somewhere else." Okay then.

Bill Richardson is dropping out of the race. That actually makes me sad.

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case on voter ID rules, with implications for November. TPMmuckraker looks at the case and how GOP partisans have used voter ID rules for electoral advantage. Slate.com's writers have more here and here.

The telecom companies that the Bush administration wants demands Congress give immunity to may not have cared about warrants or oversight when giving it up to the government, but there's one thing that won't stand for. The AP reports that "Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time."

Meanwhile, Jon Stewart shakes his head the media's ridiculous campaign coverage.

Finally, remember how after Hurricane Katrina the media had apparently learned their lessons? Hahahaha! Now the media doesn't even seem to remember what Katrina was.