Here's the headline (just posted by AP):

General warns Iraqis attacks must stop

Laughable at first, but then read the story and see he's threatening that we'll "get tough":

America's top general in the Middle East has warned community leaders the U.S. military will use stern measures unless they curb attacks against coalition forces, an Iraqi who attended the meeting said Monday.

Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, delivered the warning to tribal sheiks and mayors in the "Sunni Triangle" city of Ramadi west of Baghdad, according to Fallujah Mayor Taha Bedawi.

"We have the capabilities and equipment," Bedawi quoted the general as saying at Saturday's meeting.

Great. I wonder how well that will work.

Hmmmm. Check out this quote later in the piece:

Fakhri Fayadh, a 60-year-old farmer, said reprisal attacks "will only increase our spite and hatred of them."

Duh. Do we ever learn? Will we just keep digging our grave deeper and deeper?

Just watching Charlie Rose, catching up from last week, and he just mentioned "the [Iraq] reconstruction is going so much more difficult than anyone ever imagined."

What?

I mean What!

I think the boy needs a bit more imagination. Guess that explains why he was such a freaking hawk before the war, pretty much unwilling to even accept any views counter to invasion.

He couldn't picture this? What the hell did he think was going to happen?

I just don't get it sometimes. Really bright people, who just think the whole world is sitting around waiting to kiss America's ass.

They don't dislike us necessarily, but what the hell is this delusion that we can just roll the tanks in, invade a country and be rewarded with universal gratitude?

There's this feeling in this country that the whole world should be grateful to us, no matter how contemptously we treat them. How would we expect them to react?

I just don't get it.

I was just writing about Kerry in the Dean blog comments, and the problem of his presentation of self, and I realized I was chanelling one of the more revelatory books of my life.

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.

The title pretty much captures what it's all about, the cover fills in the rest--either a couple old ladies in capes and tiaras, or a couple of smirky drag queens impersonating the same. I could never tell which, which just added to the irony. I linked to amazon in the title--click and grin.

I came across the book when it was assigned for a grad school anthro class, so it's definitely the real deal. But it was a gas to read--written for a general audience, none of that withering academic-fog prose.

Great stuff. Will change your whole perception of the humans around you. It's all just a stage, and this guy--Erving Goffman--pulls back the curtain. {I went back and pulled this line out for the title, so I guess now I wrecked my ending thought. At least I cleaned up the Shakespeare quote.}

Kerry who?

I imagine that was the most common reaction to the news that John Kerry ousted his campaign manager this morning. The guy practically had better name recognition before he started running for president.

A quick summary of Kerry's shaky status in the dry AP story:

An 18-year veteran of the Senate, Kerry is third in most polls in Iowa, where the nation's first presidential selection caucuses will be held, and trails Dean by a double-digit margin in New Hampshire, a must-win state for both men.

And they might have mentioned that he's drawing anemic crowds, no excitement, fallen well behind on the money, and his position in most important polls has been a gradual drift downward rather than improvement. Shitty position on all fronts and getting steadily worse.

My favorite line:

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kerry told Jordan the reason he was removed was because changes were needed in the campaign.

That's for sure. But I'm not sure it's the manager that's the problem. I think it's the candidate. Not his stature as a man, he's a good guy, just his personality. He's a sominex pill and comes across as a pretentious double-speaking windbag.

I haven't read Salon's Monday cover story yet, but it certainly focuses on the question that's been bugging me all day--since I wrote my response to the This Week story about Dem leaders being depressed about Howard Dean.

Here's the Salon head and deck:

The Democrats' campaign blues
Americans are turning against Bush's disastrous Iraq policy. So why aren't they embracing his presidential rivals?

I sure hope they have an answer, because the situation has really come to bug the crap out of me.

The New Yorker just posted an 8,000-word story on Wes Clark online:

GENERAL CLARK’S BATTLES

Too tired to read it now. Hopefully in the morning I'll get a chance. Or let me know in the comments whether it's worth it.