The Stage is Set

Iraq, today:

Scores of people were killed in Iraq today in a suicide car bomb attack and in a gunbattle, making it one of the worst days of violence since the handover of official sovereignty in Iraq last month.

The car bomb exploded in Baquba, a town about 40 miles north of Baghdad, killing 70 people and wounding 56, according to the Iraqi Health Ministry, in the deadliest such attack since the United States-led coalition passed some power to the Iraqi interim government on June 28.

A statement from the United States military put the death toll at 45 Iraqi civilians killed and 98 wounded, and a spokesman for the military could not explain the discrepancy between the death toll figures.

Que the Senator. After your cruise, sir, if you could take the stage and outline your plan, tell us what you'd do, you'll have my vote.

I expect slogans and chants. Surprise me.

Update: Did the invitations say casual? Someone didn't get the memo...

Update 2: This doesn't impress me as a big deal - but I will read the book, and I think that's Drudge's real point. But after all, even MacArthur carefully staged the landings in the Philippines for the cameras (and lost a bid for the presidency too).

Now here's a slogan: "They're not patriots," Moore said (of Republicans) . "They're hate-triots, and they believe in the politics of hate-triotism. Hate-triotism is where they stand, and patriotism is where real Americans stand."

He's probably tired of them censoring him.