Free Republic

Six years separate us from a crime that makes the time of "new world orders" (George H Bush) and "it's the economy, stupid" (William Jefferson Clinton) in the 1990s seem very distant. As if to remind us of who and what fundamentally altered the world's compass, Osama bin Laden has reappeared "live", departing from the manner of his previous media outings since October 2004. This has mainly provoked comment about the shape and colour of the beard of the world's foremost fugitive. Despite the $50 million reward for information leading to bin Laden's capture, he is still at large, somewhere...

As a political party, the Democrats sure make lousy psychics. You may recall Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's famous utterance that the surge was a "failure" even before half the additional troops earmarked for Iraq had arrived. Now the Democrats have turned their powers of prognositication on the report to be delivered by General Petraus next week before Congress and are already dismissing it as unreliable despite the fact they haven't heard or seen it:

“Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq’s diverse political factions.” Cue the grumbling from the left. “With all this undisciplined, rambling ‘the surge is working’ talk and a Republican ad blitz coming around the corner to bolster Bush’s White House Report, it’s clear the Democrats have...