Rep. Ed Markey has been on the right side of net neutrality, but this is cause for alarm:

Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass.) wants the federal government to arrest security researcher Christopher Soghoian for creating the Northwest Airline Boarding Pass Generator, a site which lets anyone create a facsimile of a Northwest Airlines boarding pass. Soghoian hoped to spur Congress to look closely at the nation's aviation security policies, which he calls "security theater."

OK, hint to Markey: You don't arrest people who discover security holes. You arrest the people that use those holes to, you know, kill.

Wired writes:

"the security hole it exposes has long been known. Boarding passes that are printable online can be edited simply by manipulating the html code, and Slate magazine, among others, publicized a method for those on government watch lists to avoid extra-screening or being banned from travel."

Eye on the ball, Rep. Markey.

But thank you, New York Times, for reminding us of this yet again.

In my bizarro fantasy world, I see an article written by a major newspaper that points out the people who are in charge of the Congress and White House have absolutely no plan for Iraq, other than some sloganeering about cutting and running.

It would also point out that if the minority party became the majority, they would, you know, caucus and work out a position.

Also, in my bizarro world, a guy who works for John McCain and the Christian Coalition doesn't get to be called a Democratic strategist.

State SC:

The State Supreme Court in New Jersey said today that same-sex couples are entitled to “the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes.”

Despite issues around what you call this sort of thing, and as much as the conservatives can't stand the fact that courts get to make these rulings, the debate regarding whether gays can be treated as second class citizens is essentially over. Again, unfortunately for the conservatives, it is actually the courts that decide on issues of constitutionality and liberty and equality. That's the system we have.

Either equality means something, or it doesn't.

No need to dig deeper, CNN. Conventional wisdom is good enough. Any lazy news narrative will do:

CROWLEY: What is wrong with these people? From Virginia, to Montana, to Georgia, crack open a Democrat, and they will tell you: It's the wussy factor.

DAVID "MUDCAT" SAUNDERS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: And the culture is the reason the Democrats have been losing elections. It has nothing to do with policy. It has to do with culture.

ELAINE KAMARCK, FORMER POLICY ADVISER FOR AL GORE: Look, it was the Democratic Party that more or less folded in the anti-war sentiments and the anti-Vietnam War sentiments. A big portion of the Democratic Party is still a party that is suspicion of the use of military power.

SAUNDERS: It's like the Metropolitan Opera wing of the Democratic Party. You know, they talk about tolerance but in reality a lot of them, the only real tolerance that I have ever seen them exhibit is for their own intellectual arrogance.

COWAN: For Democrats to build a majority, we not only have to hold the liberals in the party, we've got to win almost two thirds of moderates. The math is brutal for Democrats.

CROWLEY: This is party with so many identities, it has no identity.

SAUNDERS: You know, Al Gore has a little bit of a stiff style and it comes off as a planner, you know, style, you know, a little landed gentry. When he went goose hunting, John Kerry looked very elitist in that hunt. I mean, first, he didn't carry his game out. That was a huge mistake.

COWAN: Democrats are so blown out among the white middle class, that unless you address all three core problems at once, credibility on security, mainstream on cultural values, and middle class on economic issues, if you don't address all three of those at once, you cannot actually fix what ails the Democratic party.

Insights, from the best political news team on television.

In an age when wars do not take place, media takes on a central role.

CNN recently aired footage given to Michael Ware, showing the stalking and killing of U.S. military personnel:

...we also understood that some might conclude there is a public relations benefit for the insurgents if we aired the material, especially on CNN International. We also understood that this kind of footage is upsetting and disturbing for many viewers. But after getting beyond the emotional debate, we concluded the tape meets our criteria for newsworthiness.

CNN's criteria included the number of U.S. troops today getting killed by these kinds of attacks. They blacked out the screen at the time of the actual shooting, and their report included a much larger context than just this incident.

An uproar has ensued -- you can see the comments in the above-linked CNN blog post. The simplistic view is this is "enemy propaganda."

A more critical perspective is to not only examine how the insurgents are using media technology (the fact that they are recording these events in the first place is interesting), but to step back and question whether we, the public, should even see these events.

Baudrillard was right -- a sanitized war is no war at all.

The buzz from this weekend is that Obama may run for President in 08. Now, that sounds great. Except, remember, David Brooks also wants him to run (sub. req.).

Therefore, it cannot be a good idea.

I oppose the nomination of Barack Obama for President.