corrente

We can tell that the esteemed Froomkin is a member of the Reality-Based Community, because he not only tells the truth himself, he goes out and finds other bits of the truth and passes them along to those who might not have heard them before. As, for instance, this item which I for one didn't see because WSJ is a pay-only site:

(via WaPo)

Scott J. Paltrow writes in the Wall Street Journal: "As the toll of mayhem inspired by terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi mounts in Iraq, some former officials and military officers increasingly wonder whether the Bush administration made a mistake months before the start of the war by stopping the military from attacking his camp in the northeastern part of that country.

"The Pentagon drew up detailed plans in June 2002, giving the administration a series of options for a military strike on the camp Mr. Zarqawi was running then in remote northeastern Iraq, according to generals who were involved directly in planning the attack and several former White House staffers. . . .

"But the raid on Mr. Zarqawi didn't take place. Months passed with no approval of the plan from the White House, until word came down just weeks before the March 19, 2003, start of the Iraq war that Mr. Bush had rejected any strike on the camp until after an official outbreak of hostilities with Iraq."

We've known the basic facts on this story for quite awhile now, but this nails it right to the door of the White House.

Which address brings me to the second item from today's Froom. It's a letter to the editor of the St. Petersburg Times from a local resident--so local she lives right down the street from the park where this incident occurred--who was not impressed with the Prezwit's people's behavior:

Mary Villa of New Port Richey writes in a letter to the editor of the St. Petersburg Times that she and two Kerry supporter were turned away at the gate of the Bush rally in her home town.

"We were told, 'You may not come in. You are protesters. This is a private party, we paid for this park, and you do not have happy faces on.' "

Mary, I hope the Big Dog comes to the St. Pete area on his swing down there. You don't have to to be ordered to put on a happy face to see Bill Clinton, although to judge from the crowds in Philly today it just seems to happen an awful lot without any orders at all.