thanks to one of my chums for pointing this out

A blog of Congressional testimony on Iraq by two guys who are pretty smart.

including:

Odom again spoke about what would happen when/if the United States pulls out. The aftermath is going to be great, he said. It was going to be great the day you went in, but the longer you wait the greater it will be. And, Odom added to noticable effect, this will be the greatest strategic defeat in American history.

Congressman Rothman said that he had voted for the war because he had believed Bush and Rumsfeld, and that he now understood they had been lying. He said he saw the same approach now underway with Iran, and that he thought it was aimed at the coming U.S. elections.

Odom again spoke of leaving Iraq and said "It takes a very high level of ignorance to believe America can leave behind in Iraq any government that will not be anti-American."

But Odom argued that staying longer in Iraq would make things worse, whereas getting out would dramatically improve America's standing in the world. Our standing went up as soon as we got out of Vietnam, he said.

"Beating the war drums on Iran," Odom said, "is a disaster that will make this one look small."

...

Rep. Hinchey asked Odom "How do we get out?" Odom's reply came without a pause: "Well, the Constitution gives the House the right to impeach."

random post #1

I so want to do this. Hopefully I will end up living somewhere that I can.

random post #2

It's been suggested that the (human) residents of an taigh anns na craobhan spend a weekend here during December.

Despite the deadly danger of the sun (it is trying to kill us all!), I am in favour.

random post #3: perfect quote

"Above all, I wanted him to be clever. I always admired people who were enormously clever, you know, bigwigs from Oxford and so on. I was always almost clever, but not quite."

--- Colin Dexter, talking about his creation, Inspector Morse

That's very much the way I feel; I really couldn't have said it better: "almost clever, but not quite.". :-)