The Dish

Now that Zipcar and Flexcar are merging, it may be time to think of the next wave: stackable mini-cars you can rent and drop off.

The world’s first trillion dollar company – and it’s not American. But Americans can now own shares!

Ron Paul hauls it in in a single day. And most Republicans are despondent that one of their number could generate such enthusiasm. Heh.

… keeping your cell phone turned off in church.

Rick Brookhiser has another take.

A RedStater gets off the fence.

There increasingly seems as if there is no question that violence of all kinds has subsided in Iraq. There’s no question in my mind that Petraeus has made a difference – but why he has made a difference, what other factors are in play, and what this means for our long-term strategy are all far less clear. Phillip Carter has some sharp thoughts here:

The situation does present a paradox, however. If the surge is the reason, as the generals claim, we’re in trouble, because the surge is about to end. If Iraqi reconciliation and ethnic cleansing get primary credit, and the surge is mostly acting as a catalyst, our inevitable drawdown over the next six months to pre-surge levels may not be catastrophic, because the positive trends result more from Iraqi societal shifts and less from American soldiers brokering the peace. As commanders plan for the 2008 reduction in troops, they must try to reconcile these competing explanations and find a way to sustain the success when there are fewer—or no—American soldiers on the streets.

We may only find out as we withdraw. But my guess is that some neoconservatives will use this success as a reason to continue the occupation indefinitely. And if the Iraqi factions are fine with that, the argument will have more force. The case for empire will expand.

The costs and benefits of the Lieberman-Warner carbon-emissions bill.

It’s now a year and a half since Bilal Hussein of the AP was detained by the US military as a terror suspect. He has been charged with nothing. But he is still detained. Sami al-Haj, a cameraman for al Jazeera, has been in Gitmo for six years on similar grounds – and again without any charge being brought against him. Guilty until proven innocent by Sean Hannity seems to be the new standard of American justice in this war – and it’s particularly dangerous when the government is empowered to arrest and indefinitely detain journalists without due process of any kind. Glenn Greenwald helps keep these cases alive.