Blogocracy @ news.com.au:

The story points out that accompanying McCain were: "100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead." And that's either a fishing vest or body armour he's wearing.

Nonetheless, McCain told reporters: "that his visit to the market today was proof that you could indeed ‘walk freely' in some areas of Baghdad."

MEANWHILE: The six-day death toll to April 1 was "at least 507 people."

Yup, that feels pretty "free" to me. Siun at FDL has a great post on all the violence in Iraq as Saint McCain and Lindsay Graham haggled for carpets in the market.