• Obama will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, which is a popular idea with absolutely no one besides Barack Obama. [New York Times]
• Full “first state dinner coverage” at the Washington Post! The piece contains no fewer than two (2) Sorkin references and descriptions of at least ten (10) fancy-sounding things. [Washington Post]
• The Ft. Hood military base will have tighter security and better mental health treatment programs. All of this seems logical. [CNN]
• People are actually buying homes again, some of which they may even be able to afford. [AP]
• Airlines will now be fined for stranding passengers. Airlines, you’ll recall, have neither the infrastructure to run smoothly, nor the money to pay the fine. [WSJ]
• New documents reveal that Tony Blair for sure knew that there were no WMDs in Iraq.  [Times Online]

• Not content with hating, on principle, the executive and legislative branches of government, conservatives now find America’s court system not to their taste either really. [New York Times]
• Some environmental people do not despise nuclear energy anymore mostly because the technology has gotten a lot safer and partly because at this point what choice do they have? [Washington Post]
• Nidal Hasan is awake, paralyzed from the chest down, and still in the hospital, which everyone is trying to make seem as much like a jail as possible. [WSJ]
• Tonight fancy Obama is holding his first state dinner ever in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit! [CNN]
• Next couple days will see Obama’s decision about how many troops to send to Afghanistan. [Reuters]
• Strike-thru yesterday’s story about 31 Filipino hostages dying; hillside mass grave discovery means that 46 is now the correct number. [AP]

Now listen, Joe Lieberman doesn’t want to ascribe any motives to Nidal Malik Hasan. “It’s premature to reach conclusions about what motivated him,” Lieberman very reasonably said on some Fox News teevee something or other last night. But! But! Lieberman will say this: Hasan was a “self-radicalized, homegrown terrorist” who “had turned to Islamist extremism.” He will say that.  Islamist extremism: or perhaps you might recognize it by its street name? “TERRORISM“, also “bennies,” “black beauties,” “crystal,” “Sy Hershey kisses,” and “pep pills.” Anyway, Lieberman intends to launch some congressional investigation, because that’s what he does, and because that will get to the root of this terrorism once and for all. [The Hill]

• If you were hoping to buy or rent a bunch of abortions and charge them care of whatever new health care bill ends up passing, this will not be possible! [New York Times]
• China is very upset with the Dalai Lama for going to some Himalayan town that is not technically a part of China but is so close it’s probably at least entertaining the notion. [Washington Post]
• It’s probable that Nidal Malik Hasan acted alone at Ft. Hood. Oh plus President Barack Obama, but other than that, alone, yes. [Wall Street Journal]
• So guess now’s as good a time as any to take a look at mental health policy and practices in the military. [Los Angeles Times]
• Even though Tony Blair will never admit it, he still wants to be the president of the EU. [Times Online]
• Hurricane Ida is the first hurricane to hit America this year. It struck parts of Mississippi, Florida, and New Orleans. All three still exist.  [AP]

It has been let’s see, around 20 hours or something since the Ft. Hood massacre, so it was weird that someone who lives on the Internet hadn’t suggested a connection between Obama and alleged gunman Nidal Malik Hasan. So yes, quite sorry for the delay, but conspiracy theorist dilettante Jerome Corsi would like to do just that! So get this: last May, GWU held some vague security brainstorming transition task force thing that does not actually offer security or transition advice to the President. There’s a document and everything. That’s part A, of the theory. Parts B-Z? MORE »