Bill Crawford has more good news coming out of Iraq.

Claude Salhani, on the other hand, thinks a conference scheduled to convene in Jordan may be Iraq's last chance to reach some sort of compromise that would allow them to put a government together and end the violence.

This article, from the New York Times, says that efforts to bring more democracy to the Arab world are faltering. It appears more and more leaders in that region are hoping that they can wait out the Bush administration, which will eventually be replaced, they think, by an administration that will return to America's historic policy of valuing stability over democracy.

The National Review has put an article on their website from 2001 questioning the veracity of Seymour Hersh in his reporting. They say it is helpful to remember Hersh's past "mistakes" when evaluating his current reporting.

As larger pro-immigration rallies continue across the U.S. (with an effort being made by organizers to get the participants to leave their Mexican flags at home and, instead, bring U.S. flags to the demonstrations), some House members are warning their Senate colleagues not to "vote scared" on immigration reform. The problem facing members of Congress is that, while the demonstrations showcase the millions who want to stay in America and work (which is true), it doesn't reflect the silent majority of Americans disturbed by massive illegal immigration (for a variety of reasons). Combined with pressure from their most powerful interest groups, you get the current impasse, which I don't think will be broken before the elections.

John Fund thinks the GOP is looking more and more like the Democrats did in 1994 just before they were swept out of power. I think he is right.