Climate Progress: Saudis redefine chutzpah: After decades of overpricing and trillions of dollars in future revenues, they want aid if use is cut by a long overdue climate deal.

Prairie Weather: Harry Reid - Harry Reid! - is threatening to hit the insurance companies where it hurts. And here's the bottom line on Olympia Snowe

Hysterical Raisins: The road to Shell is paved with bad intentions

Crooked Timber: Thought Crime and Mens Rea

Bay Area Houston: America can learn a lot from Texas

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: Corner hilarity...Profanity Gate?...It gets worse...Anonymous sources...Too tough for the NYT...WSJ scribe knocks own editorial page...Shafting carriers...WaPo's bizarre Taliban editorial...Tom Tancredo is now writing for World Nut Daily...Wrong opinion... Iran away...National Partisan Radio

Hmm...why do I feel sure that Dick Cheney is sitting in his undisclosed bunker trying to figure out if he could make this work in this country?

NYTimes (reg. req'd)

An outspoken Saudi blogger is being held for “purposes of interrogation,” the Saudi Interior Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

Gen. Mansour al-Turki, an Interior Ministry spokesman reached by telephone, said that the blogger, Fouah al-Farhan, was “being questioned about specific violations of non-security laws.” Mr. Farhan’s blog, which discusses social issues, had become one of the most widely read in Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Farhan, a 32-year-old Jeddah resident, was arrested at his office on Dec. 10, local news sources reported. Two weeks before the arrest, Mr. Farhan wrote a letter to friends warning them that his detention was imminent.

“I was told that there is an official order from a high-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior to investigate me,” read the letter, which is now posted in English and Arabic on Mr. Farhan’s blog.

Since his arrest, friends of Mr. Farhan have continued to blog on his behalf under a banner that reads “Free Fouad” and features his picture. The blog’s Web address is www.alfarhan.org.

“The issue that caused all of this is because I wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia, and they think I’m running an online campaign promoting their issue,” the letter continued, noting that Mr. Farhan had been asked to sign a statement of apology.

“I’m not sure if I’m ready to do that,” Mr. Farhan wrote. “An apology for what? Apologizing because I said the government is a liar when they accused those guys to be supporting terrorism?”

Ahmad al-Omran, a fellow blogger and friend of Mr. Farhan’s, said that Mr. Farhan was the first Saudi blogger to be detained by state security. The arrest has created widespread anxiety among other Saudi bloggers and activists, he said.

I think it's important to note that many people justify their bigotry against Muslims by saying that they aren't hearing "peaceful Muslims" railing against terrorism done in their name. Farhan was just such a voice, so it's ironic that the Saudis are trying to silence him for not following their talking points.

Martyrs' In Iraq Mostly Saudis

Web Sites Track Suicide Bombings

Before Hadi bin Mubarak Qahtani exploded himself into an anonymous fireball, he was young and interested only in "fooling around."

Like many Saudis, he was said to have experienced a religious awakening after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and dedicated himself to Allah, inspired by "the holy attack that demolished the foolish infidel Americans and caused many young men to awaken from their deep sleep," according to a posting on a jihadist Web site... read on

Download | play -WMP Part I (Frontline's expose says it all)

How much more proof do we need that Iraq is a breeding ground for terrorists, no matter how many times the repubs try to deflect it.. We are not fighting evil dictators, but religious fanatics. Nation building does not work against religious fervor. Are we really surprised that most of the hijackers of 9/11 were Saudi's? The administration will never admit that we would have been much better off focusing on Afghanistan and Homeland Security instead of ginning up the evidence and attacking Iraq.

Part II will come hopefully later today.