From the Washington Post:

Congressional and CIA investigations into the prewar intelligence on Iraq’s weapons and links to terrorism have found no evidence that CIA analysts colored their judgment because of perceived or actual political pressure from White House officials, according to intelligence officials and congressional officials from both parties.

So I guess the whole “Bush lied, people died,” mantra is completely false. This is not to say that there shouldn’t be concern over the intelligence failures that lead us to believe that Saddam’s weapons programs were something that they have turned out not to be … yet. The good news for Bush, thought, is that he can rightfully claim that he made decisions based on the intelligence he had to work with, both domestic and British.

Ran across this article (via Jordon Cooper) and thought it served as an interesting jumping off point … Here are some of the most thought-provoking points:

1) Worship is planned and led by a team. Various kinds of expertise are represented, including such areas as music, the arts, theology, philosophy literature, poetry, graphic design, and audio and video technology. Ordained persons may or may not be in the team.

3) The arts, including painting, sculpture, graphics, poetry, drama, dance and movement are used extensively to provide non-discursive, nonlinear expressions of thoughts and feelings.

4) Language is a key issue. Emphasis is given to “real” experiences and words; rote , “churchy” language is meaningless.

5) Worship is not over defined or prescribed. Spontaneity is important. Multiple interpretations are expected. Meanings are found not anticipated by the planners.

7) The worship space and time are usually not traditional. Part of the worship experience includes creating a sacred time and space, sometimes in an intentionally profane setting.

10) Suffering– personal, social, and environmental– is acknowledged as a critical part of reality.

11) There is a self-conscious awareness that new forms of worship are needed during epochal change. Christians talk of a “second reformation.” Jews seek an expression that is more than survival.

13) There is a sincere appreciation of diversity of age, gender, race, economic status, religious background or lack, sexual orientation, ethnicity. All human experience is valid.

15) Worship grows out of and creates community.

16) God is experienced as radical transcendence and radical immanence. All three members of the Trinity are given equal importance in Christian worship.

17) Preaching and teaching and texts of songs, hymns and rituals may be classically “orthodox.” An “ancient-future” connection between postmodern and premodern traditions may be felt and explored.

18) There is not a need to judge or condemn other faiths.

19)Worship includes an opportunity to connect personally with the “spiritual” through silent and directed meditation, silence, music, the arts, etc.

20) Real, actual experience — of the individual and of the group– is always paramount. Conceptual or theoretical descriptions are suspect.

Nothing too surprising out of New Hampshire last night. Kerry rode the momentum from Iowa pretty well. Everyone expected Dean, Kerry, and Lieberman to do well in New Hampshire because it’s their backyard. In the same way that Tsongas did well in 1992. The problem is that Dean really didn’t do all that well, considering he held a huge lead in the polls for a long time going into the campaign.

The real question now will be how can Edwards do in the South to keep himself in this thing. Clark may fade faster now than ever before with his no-show in Iowa and a disappointing virtual tie for third with Edwards. There’s been some buzz about a Kerry-Edwards ticket, but Edwards is saying no.

At the same time, Dean is trying to shake things up by demoting Joe Trippi right out of the campaign. Not a good sign for people in Camp Dean.

At this point, this race has really tightened up between the frontrunners — Kerry and Edwards — and those playing catch-up — Dean and Clark. I think next Tuesday will reveal a lot about how many of those names will stay in the race.

Keep in mind that the last two Democrats to win the White House have been Southerners, so those counting out Edwards should keep in mind his strong showing in Iowa and the upcoming primary in South Carolina which could easily bump him to the front of the line.

So the day after Dean comes in third in Iowa and concludes his evening with a red-faced, growling, bi-lingual geography lesson, he breaks into song at a campaign rally in New Hampshire:

Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean on Tuesday unleashed an unlikely weapon to disarm hecklers — the U.S. national anthem.

When a rally at the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord was interrupted for a second time, the former Vermont governor led his supporters in a rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to drown them out.

I’m waiting for this guy to lose it in the middle of a debate. I’m imagining something like Dean twitching and mumbling, scratching himself while he swats at invisible bugs that are buzzing about his head. He’ll collapse on the floor, shaking and foaming at the mouth until he curls up in the fetal position. That’ll mark the end of Dean. It’ll be beautiful.

I haven’t written much about the problems within the Episcopal Church USA in recent months mainly because it’s one of those discussions that generates a lot heat but very little light.

With the ordination of a gay bishop last year, the ECUSA has diverted from centuries of church tradition, the consensus of Biblical interpretation, and the will of a large number of its members. Further, the ECUSA is using its power and wealth as a club to beat other Anglican provinces into submission. They are essentially telling African, Latin American, and Asian provinces to fall into line when it comes to accepting the ordination of gay clergy or suffer the consequences.

In addition, conservative American Episcopalians are reaching a boiling point. They are on the verge of walking out of the communion, which is a HUGE deal if you know anything about Anglicans. However, it seems like one response has been to form a network of conservative clergy within the ECUSA that would circumvent the more liberal establishement.

Quite frankly, I think ECUSA is on the verge of becoming irrelevant. When you begin trying to bully other provinces with your money, you’ve lost sight of what it means to be the church. Americans will find ways to remain part of the Anglican communion, even if that means leaving the ECUSA.

A couple of thoughts on Iowa … Big story is Kerry and Edwards emerging from the scrum with a huge showing in Iowa. Dean is in BIG trouble. Gephardt had one chance and blew it. Lieberman is next to go, unless Kucinich jumps of the Edwards bandwagon and drops out. Clark better be bracing himself for New Hampshire. Sharpton, well, Sharpton is still practicing his convention speech.

Going into New Hampshire, Kerry will be riding some great momentum. He will eat away at whatever lead Dean is holding. Clark may drop considerably in the polls in NH since Democrats seem to have found an electable candidate in Kerry. It’s conceivable that Kerry could take NH with Dean in second or third place along with Clark. Edwards might end up in fourth place or better. Lieberman will be as big a disappointment in NH as Gephardt was in Iowa.

Best observation of the night: “Did Howard Dean just go insane? His speech sounds like Macho Man Randy Savage participating in a geography bee.”

Second best observation of the night: “Gephardt: ‘This wasn’t as bad as cancer.’ Yeah, that’s not exactly the speech of confidence, is it?”

Third best observation of the night: “The Iowa caucuses look like a meeting of senior citizens’ recreational committee.”

And just like that we have a race for the Democratic nomination. Whereas just weeks ago all the pundits were giving the nomination to Howard Dean, today it’s four or five-man race. The two big stories should be John Kerry’s apparent resurrection and Dick Gephardt’s unbelievable disappearance. If Kerry goes on to win the Iowa caucus, it’ll signify an amazing comeback and blow this campaign wide open. The same is true for John Edwards, who, if he finishes second or better in Iowa and at least shows in New Hampshire, might be able to capture South Carolina and make a claim on the nomincation.

Gephardt’s only chance was Iowa. He’s fading fast. Unless his union support can REALLY put people in these meetings, he’s toast. It’s hard to believe that Gephardt of all people would fail in Missouri, but I guess nothing is for certain these days.

The problem for Dean now is one of expectations. He’s been the front-runner since August but has allowed the criticisms mounted by his rivals to drag him down, along with his own arrogrance, anger, and gaffes. Democrats have finally looked up and realized this guy really isn’t electable. He must finish in the top three in Iowa and win New Hampshire to have any chance down the road. If he’s third or worse in both these races, it might go down as the biggest meltdown by a candidate since Al Gore in 2000.

The other name not to forget is Wesley Clark, who might benefit from Dean’s slide more than anyone else. He also needs to do really well in New Hampshire to keep his momentum going.

Gephardt will be the next to drop out (unless Sharpton or Kucinich wake up and realize they aren’t really running), followed by Lieberman. That leaves Dean, Clark, Kerry, and Edwards for the long haul. This will be interesting.

I’m like most people of my generation, in that I always think of anything pre-WWII as being in black and white. Because all I’ve ever seen are pictures and film of that era in black and white, I suppose I assume that’s how the world might have actually looked back then.

Some great work is being done to restore photos shot pre-WWI by a process that actually captured color images long before it became widely practiced. The result are some pretty amazing images from a time and place that previously always fell neatly into my black and white world. Click here to see the images (via MetaFilter).

As the Iowa caucuses loom large this week, Howard Dean is feeling some heat on his back in more places than just Iowa.

In Iowa, Dean’s lead has narrowed to just 3 points over Dick Gephardt. Zogby has Dean at 26% and Gephardt at 23%.

Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, Dean’s lead over Wesley Clark has slipped. The American Research Group (via The Command Post) is reporting that Clark has gained 8 points in New Hampshire while Dean has lost 5. This leaves Clark still trailing, but within striking distance in the finals weeks leading up to the primary.

One could assume that if Dean loses to Gephardt in Iowa, there might be a domino effect in places like New Hampshire and South Carolina, where Dean is trying to fend off challengers. The nightmare scenario for the Democrats would include a primary season that does not yield a single candidate with enough delegates to clinch the nomination. That coupled with Dean’s insistence that he might not support another candidate if he doesn’t get the nomination could make for a very interesting couple of months. Could we see Hillary show up at the convention with her operatives to make a power play for the nomination, in an attempt to unify her party?

Okay, so I’ve said that Dean would be completely unelectable if he’s nominated. I still stand by that no matter what happens in Iowa or New Hampshire. In the words of my father, “Howard Dean is an idiot.” This from a man who voted for Democrats starting with McGovern.

Wesley Clark seems like the obvious next in line if Dean crashes and burns. He’s not much better. Here is a transcript of an interview Clark did with John McQuaid, publisher of the The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News:

McQuaid: Let’s take an issue. Abortion. Are there any limits on it in your mind?

Clark: I don’t think you should get the law involved in abortion—

McQuaid: At all?

Clark: Nope.

McQuaid: At all?

Clark: It’s between a woman, her doctor, her friends and her family.

McQuaid: Late term abortion? No limits?

Clark: Nope.

McQuaid: Anything up to delivery?

Clark: Nope, nope.

McQuaid: Anything up to the head coming out of the womb?

Clark: I say that it’s up to the woman and her doctor, her conscience, and law — not the law. You don’t put the law in there. Yesterday, Simmons said “Republicans and conservatives want to pin you down in debates about timing, but this isn’t about timing, it’s about whether we trust a woman and her doctor to make medical decisions that are in the best interest about her and her life.”

“The issue here is whether or not we’re going to try to inject politics and government into a medical decision by a woman and her doctor and his answer is ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’”

THAT is an extremist position on abortion. Basically, anytime, any place, for any reason, abortion, in Clark’s view, should be legal. You don’t get much less mainstream than that.

I watched part of the Democratic candidates’ debate from Des Moines last night. It was painful. It really was. If Howard Dean wins this nomination, it will set the Democratic Party back thirty years. This guy is clueless. Nothing he says corresponds to any reality. He simply has this ideas of how the world should be, and he gets upset if you don’t agree with him.

Al Sharpton, God bless him, really stuck it to Dean last night with a question about the number of minorities in Dean’s cabinet in Vermont. The look on Dean’s face was priceless. You could see his eyes darting back and forth, trying to find a response, but nothing was coming. He tried to use the old Trent Lott / Martin Luther King, Jr. joke from K Street, but it died. It was almost as great as the clip of Dean on Fox News retracting his statements about the Iowa caucuses from four years ago. This man can’t think on his feet to save his life.

Anyway, Wesley Clark was not as the debate, but the NY Times found some statments from Clark suggesting that even he thinks Iraq and al Qadea are linked

Less than a year before he entered the race for the Democratic nomination for president, Gen. Wesley K. Clark said that he believed there was a connection between the Iraqi government and Al Qaeda.

The statement by General Clark in October 2002 as he endorsed a New Hampshire candidate for Congress is a sign of how the general’s position on Iraq seems to have changed over time, though he insists his position has been consistent.

“Certainly there’s a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda,” he said in 2002. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that they would be talking to Al Qaeda, that there would be some Al Qaeda there or that Saddam Hussein might even be, you know, discussing gee, I wonder since I don’t have any scuds and since the Americans are coming at me, I wonder if I could take advantage of Al Qaeda? How would I do it? Is it worth the risk? What could they do for me?”

I really haven’t intended to write so much about Howard Dean in recent days, but he keeps popping up in the news. This story suggests that Dean took took personal pay from special interests while he was governor of Vermont:

While governor of Vermont, Howard Dean accepted personal pay from special interests at least five times for speeches and also received more than $60,000 in checks and pledges for his charity fund from insurers who benefited from a state tax break, according to documents and interviews.

Dean’s fees and charitable donations were legal and did not have to be disclosed under Vermont law but were detailed in correspondence and tax records reviewed by The Associated Press …

Dean’s campaign said Friday that any suggestion that the payments or donations influenced his actions as governor was “laughable.”

“Anyone who knows Howard Dean knows he’s a straight-shooter who calls them as he sees them and nothing, aside from his interest in the best public policy, ever influenced his decisions as governor,” spokesman Jay Carson said.

But many of Dean’s former gubernatorial colleagues, including his successor in Vermont, said they don’t accept special interest speaking fees to avoid appearances or because of legal prohibition.

The bloom has really come off the Dean rose in the last month or so. I really think Democrats are going to begin rethinking this man’s candidacy.