Quick Hits, Everything But Iraq Edition

We were quite Iraq-heavy today, and I suspect we will be tomorrow, so I want to clear the decks of a few things that have piqued my interest.

• Paul Hackett gives new meaning to the term "Fighting Dems":

Indian Hill lawyer and former congressional candidate Paul Hackett - armed with a loaded assault rifle - chased down three men in a car after it crashed into a fence at his home in the early morning hours of Nov. 19.

The driver was charged with failure to maintain reasonable control, driving under suspension and carrying a concealed weapon - a pair of brass knuckles found in his pocket - according to the Indian Hill police [...]

Hackett told police Nov. 30 that he was carrying an AR-15. He said one round was in the chamber and that he usually has 28 rounds in the magazine. He also told police that he did not point the weapon at the three men, the safety was on and he never put his finger on the trigger.

Hackett said he had followed a trail of fluid left by the car, and the vehicle stopped in a driveway. Hackett told police that he hopped out of his truck and that he was armed.

"He told the boys to 'Get the ---- out of the car and get on the ground.' ... He said he did not touch the vehicle with the rifle and maintained his distance. 'I knew they saw I was armed,' he said. He said he had done this about 200 times in Iraq, but this time there was not a translation problem," the Indian Hill police report said.

Moore said Hackett was woken up by "criminal activity" and "took affirmative action to protect his wife and family from an unknown disturbance at his house." He then "attempted to bring the perpetrators to justice who had fled from the scene," according to Moore.

They messed with the wrong Marine. I'm not one for vigilante justice, and maybe this was excessive, we'll have to see the result of the investigation. But it's hard to paint Democrats with that "feel-good liberal" label with guys like this around, no?

• A couple days ago, the Army had to apologize because they sent letters to dead soldiers urging them to re-enlist. It was a clerical error, but one that highlights how these brave men and women are nothing but sausage to the Pentagon brass.

• Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) has been upgraded to fair condition and I think that's great news.

• Mitt Romney, despite the flip-flopping and the hiding of his former self, can still raise money like a machine. $6.5 million in a day is nothing to sneeze at. He thinks he can still win the nomination, obviously. Dick Morris had a funny line that, of the four top contenders for the GOP (McCain, Guiliani, Gingrich and Romney), the only one without multiple wives is the Mormon.

• ABC, in their continuing post-"Path to 9-11" slide toward Foxification, hired Glenn Beck to be a commentator for Good Morning America. After this hire, ABC should prove to me that they're not working for our enemies.

• There's another surge going on in the war on terror, over in Afghanistan. Only it's the Taliban that's surging. These quotes are extremely disheartening.

A US Army battalion fighting in a critical area of eastern Afghanistan is due to be withdrawn within weeks to deploy to Iraq.

Army Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata and other US commanders say that will happen as the Taliban is expected to unleash a campaign to cut the vital road between Kabul and Kandahar.

The official said the Taliban intend to seize Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, where the group was organized in the 1990s. With NATO unable or unwilling to stem the rising violence, the Taliban are pressing their advantage.

Rather than withdrawing to regroup over the winter, intelligence officials and combat commanders said, the Taliban forces — clad in new cold-weather boots and fleece jackets — are fighting through the bitter cold months.

"It is bleak," said Colonel Chris Haas, commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan.

Conway said US commanders understand that the Afghan war is an "economy of force" operation, a military term for a mission that is given minimal resources because it is a secondary priority, in this case behind Iraq.

• CA-11: The 2008 election has already begun for Jerry McNerney. They're sending out hit pieces in the mail to his constituents. In January 2007. Progressives in CA-11 have to have Jerry's back, unless Pombo wins the nomination that'll be a very tough fight.

• I'm both surprised and happy that Dianne Feinstein wants a Congressional probe into the events surrounding my friend James Kim's death. BLM might be at fault for not locking the gate to the logging road where the Kims got stuck. James' father wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post on the subject this past weekend. I hope some good comes out of that senseless tragedy.

• Refreshing to see all these editorial boards coming out against the Bush Administration's belief that they have the right to open American's mail without a warrant. Now if the media will only lift the self-imposed gag order on printing the uncomfortable images of war from Iraq. This All-Spin Zone piece is a must-read. There are pictures out there from the massacre in Haditha that the Washington Post has decided are too gruesome from our fragile little eyes. The only consequences of hiding the true cost of war is more war. Americans deserve to see the reality of what their tax dollars finance.

• Finally, on a more bizarre note, James Brown's body is still not buried. His heirs are bickering over his estate and the burial site. Even in death, The Godfather of Soul is making multiple encores.

See you tomorrow.