50,000 'residual' troops in Iraq -- for how long?

None of the news I've seen so far answers this obvious question. Will 50,000 troops remain in Iraq indefinitely, as in Europe, Japan and South Korea? Or until the first suicide bombing after combat troops are withdrawn?

Update, Sunday March 1 -- all remaining troops to be withdrawn by end of 2011, according to Obama in his remarks at Camp Lejeune on Friday. Why the lack of clarity on this point from media coverage remains a mystery.

How much will market drop after Obama's speech to Congress?

Three hundred points -- or perhaps only 200? Then again, it's slumped so much since Obama was elected -- more than it did in September and October -- that a rebound could be inevitable at some point. Still, how will those already paying most of the taxes respond to Obama's plan to milk them further, and to carbon cap and trade?

'Slumdog Millionaire': Why Its Big Night at Oscars is Good for America

My annual Oscar-watching ritual ended years ago, coinciding roughly with parenthood, but I caught the end of the awards Sunday night after watching "The Dark Knight" on DVD in anticipation of the late Heath Ledger winning for best supporting actor (and deservedly so from what I saw).

By the time Steven Spielberg announced Best Picture, "Slumdog Millionaire" had already snagged a half-dozen awards. And even though I've yet to see it (again, waiting for the DVD), it was moving to see so many people from India on stage after the film won the top award.

Why does this matter? Because India is likely to become our most important ally in this century, if it isn't already. We share a natural kinship -- another English-speaking democracy and former British colony that places great value on education, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, situated in a most volatile part of the world. It was only a matter of time before the jihadists took notice, as they did in Mumbai last December. All the more fitting it was the setting for "Slumdog Millionaire."

Many people resent that when they call for tech support, the person on the other end is most likely in India. Not me, I'm glad. That the tide is rising there and wherever else people have languished in poverty for centuries is a good thing. And thanks to a big Oscar night for "Slumdog," millions of our brothers and sisters in India have seen once again how the West offers far more than the jihad's cult of death.

Implosion at libtalk radio Nova M

All hell breaking loose over at Nova M Radio, as described in a startling post by Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer -- Nova M boss and Air America co-founder Sheldon Drobny attempting suicide, guttersnipe host Randi Rhodes off the air, the ever-unhinged Mike Malloy left hanging.

Stock market less than thrilled with stimulus plan

... and shows it with the Dow Jones dropping nearly 300 points, almost 4 percent, today ...

Revealing Freudian slip by unhinged lefty Mike Malloy

Listen to it here in audio for NewsBusters post by Karen Hanna about radio host Mike Malloy, a man so fringe he was once fired by Air America Radio. Here's where Malloy trips himself up --

Rush Limbaugh is a bigger threat to this country than Bar-, uh, Osama bin Laden.

Great days in LWE history

On this day in 1975, Margaret Thatcher is elected leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party.

Haunting "American Experience" on death of Lincoln

Watched last night, most of it well-trod ground, and struck by how the assassination of Lincoln saddens me more as I get older. Available at the "American Experience" website in case you missed it.

Winter of our discontent

Harsh weather ... flu, stomach and cold bugs making the rounds, and hitting hard at this home ... the sudden and unexpected death of a beloved novelist, John Updike ... growing and justifiable opposition to a bloated liberal boondoogle masquerading as a "stimulus" bill ... to paraphrase that old Chinese saying, we live in interesting times, indeed ...

Nice try, Thom

Subtle revisionism by Air America's Thom Hartmann on Friday in observing the anniversary of FDR's birth in 1882. Here is what Hartmann said before playing two audio clips from speeches by Roosevelt --

HARTMANN: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking of what he saw when he became president ...

ROOSEVELT: I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished ...

HARTMANN: ... And what he proposed to do about that, he said we have, that generation, and I would say again ...

ROOSEVELT: There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations, much is given. Of other generations, much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

HARTMANN: There you go.

What Hartmann neglects to mention is that Roosevelt made the first remarks cited above in his second inaugural in January 1937, fully four years after he took office, and not "when he became president" as Hartmann claims. That four year time span, not incidentally, dovetails with the time it took for FDR's predecessor, Herbert Hoover, to allegedly cause the Great Depression.

Nor did Hartmann mention that Roosevelt's famous "Rendezvous With Destiny" speech was delivered at the Democratic National Convention in June 1936, in the last year of FDR's first term.