In an exclusive, the Boston Globe reports this morning that the Obama administration will take part, along with other countries, in direct talks with Iran. This is a significant shift in Iran relations. Nice to have real diplomacy back in vogue:

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration yesterday agreed to join regular, direct talks with Iran concerning its nuclear program along with five other countries, a major policy shift from previous administrations that have rejected face-to-face negotiations with Iranians.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton portrayed the talks as part of a broader effort to open up communications with a nation that the United States has largely shunned since its 1979 revolution.

"We believe that pursuing very careful engagement on a range of issues that affect our interests and the interests of the world with Iran makes sense," Clinton told reporters yesterday. "There's nothing more important than trying to convince Iran to cease its efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon."

This is just crazy. I'd like to think there's a logical explanation:

LONDON (Reuters) - Two senior British judges accused the United States on Wednesday of threatening to end intelligence cooperation if Britain released evidence about the alleged torture of a Guantanamo detainee.

The judges quoted lawyers for British Foreign Secretary David Miliband as saying the U.S. government, by reviewing intelligence cooperation, "could inflict on the citizens of the United Kingdom a very considerable increase in the dangers they face at a time when a serious terrorist threat still pertains."

According to the ruling from High Court judges Lord Justice Thomas and Lord Justice Lloyd Jones, Miliband's lawyers said the threat had existed for some time and was still in place under President Barack Obama's administration.

British media had applied to the court for the release of full details of the evidence the British government held about the treatment of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born British resident who is held in Guantanamo Bay.

The judges ruled it would not be in the public interest to expose Britain to the "real risk" outlined by the foreign secretary's lawyers.

And here we go again. Bush's ineffectiveness in the face of the Gaza attacks will help cultivate yet another generation of Middle Eastern hardliners:

TEHRAN, Iran – Hard-line Iranian student groups have asked the government to authorize volunteers to go carry out suicide bombings in Israel in response to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had not responded to the call by Wednesday. Five hard-line student groups and a conservative clerical group launched a registration drive on Monday, seeking volunteers to carry out suicide attacks against Israel.

In an open letter to Ahmadinjead, the students said "volunteer student suicide groups ... are determined to go to Gaza. You are expected to issue orders to the relevant authorities in order to pave the way for such action." A copy of the letter was made available to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Volunteer suicide groups have made similar requests in the past and the government never responded to their calls. Some hard-liners have claimed previously they succeeded in secretly sending bombers to Israel, but their claims have never been verified, and there has not been any sign of Iranians carrying out suicide attacks in Israel — raising the likelihood the groups' activities are mainly for propaganda purposes.

Open Left: A letter, purportedly from an angry Democrat. I'd like to believe that. Does anybody like this deal? Obama doesn't. Call your Senators and Congressional Representative right now.

Beltway Blips: McCain chief of staff/lobbyist was paid $2 million by Fannie and Freddie for access to McCain and to stop regulation of the banking industry

Informed Comment: Baghdad Mayor: US tanks run amok, and there will never be a street named for Bush in Baghdad

Sadly, No!: Shorter Entire Right-Wing Blogosphere

Scott Horton: Justice in the age of Bush

Pancake City: In the wake of an epic financial meltdown that threatens to derail the U.S. economy for years, Barack Obama announced he was ending his run for President of the United States, declaring to a stunned nation, "Man, this is bullshit." (h/t getalife)

Earl Palmer: One of the most recorded, and highly respected drummers in the history of popular American music has passed away. I had the great privilege of touring and recording extensively with this giant, and he was a good friend for over 30 years. He will be greatly missed.

This story reads like something out of a hard boiled, detective novel.

He met her in the bar of the swank hotel and invited her to his room. Once there, the woman fixed the drinks and told him to get undressed. And that, the delegate to the Republican National Convention told police, was the last thing he remembered. When (Gabriel Nathan Schwartz) awoke, the woman was gone, as was more than $120,000 in money, jewelry and other belongings.

The thief's take stunned cops. "It's very, very, very rare," Minneapolis Police Sgt. William Palmer said. "I can think of a couple of burglaries where we had that much stolen, but it's the first time I've heard of this kind of deal."

"It's embarrassing to admit that I was a target of a crime. I was drugged and had about $50,000 of personal items stolen, not the inflated number that the media is reporting from an inaccurate police report," he said.

Those Republicans sure know how to get involved in some very wild sexual situations. I'm changing my mind now and think that Republicans should go to Hollywood and make movies. They have very active imaginations. Schwartz was interviewed repeatedly and was a real wise guy.

During the convention, Schwartz wasn't shy about talking to the media. In an Associated Press article about Sen. John McCain's acceptance speech, Schwartz was quoted as saying that as far as oratorical skills go, McCain "has more experience in his little pinkie" than Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

In an interview filmed the afternoon of Sept. 3 and posted on the Web site LinkTV.org, Schwartz was candid about how he envisioned change under a McCain presidency. "Less taxes and more war," he said, smiling. He said the U.S. should "bomb the hell" out of Iran because the country threatens Israel.

Asked by the interviewer how America would pay for a military confrontation with Iran, he said the U.S. should take the country's resources. "We should plant a flag. Take the oil, take the money," he said. "We deserve reimbursement.

Sure, just bomb Iran and take their oil. Just brilliant. Well for brilliant republicans like him, there happened to be a story book ending.

A few hours after the interview, an unknown woman helped herself to Schwartz's resources.

Economist's View: Bankruptcy for Lehman, Merrill Lynch sells to BofA, AIG in serious trouble. It looks almost certain that this week will be the one where we see the financial implosion in U.S. banking and brokerage that many have been expecting for some time.

distributorcap NY: The irresponsible, shoddy and pedestrian way the pundits and media use the results of polls to represent news, directly affects the tenor of the campaign.

No Rest For the Awake: A Native Alaskan perspective on Palin

Pruning Shears: This Week In Tyranny

The Mahablog: Teh Stupid, It Runs Our Country. More atrocities below...

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: MSNBC's Brewer aired McCain attack ad without mentioning it was full of lies...Rachel's first exclusive...Frameshop's, Jeffrey Feldman on Bill Moyers...Try and put lipstick on these losers...Old habits die hard...Balz in the tank for the Psychogeezer, but a couple other WaPo reporters noticed the lies...More NYT false equivalence...Even Hactacular Howie is fed up with their lying...George Will attacks firefighters on 9/11, yesterday pretended that, like Palin, he doesn't know what the Bush Doctrine is...FUAX scrapes bottom...Lou Dobbs just loves to spread a little hate...NPR cannot find any pessimistic economists but push the GOP agenda on oil drilling...I thought James Carville was supposed to be a Democrat...It helps when you've got your own network

The Reaction: Nationalist kitsch and the GOP

naked capitalism: Foreclosures and delinquencies reach record highs. McCain nomination greeted by economic collapse

Corrente: Polish prosecutors probe Bush gulag at last

Ta-Nehisi Coates: What the white man means when he says "Ghetto"

Tomgram: In the course of any year, there must be relatively few countries on this planet on which U.S. soldiers do not set foot, whether with guns blazing, humanitarian aid in hand, or just for a friendly visit.

Bob Geiger: The Saturday Cartoons

Connecting.the.Dots: Medical question, travel question, legal question, political question, religious question, literary question, beauty contest question, government question

cab drollery: How...Quaint

Scott Horton: Gonzo gets another pass

Facing South: A"giant pile of crashed ships and barges" clogs New Orleans' Industrial Canal one day after Hurricane Gustav, covering the channel's entire width south of the Interstate 10 bridge -- and raising serious questions about the U.S. Coast Guard's vessel mooring requirements.

BAGnewsNotes: The press as instrument of the State

I get to talk to John Amato multiple times a day, but it's easy for me to forget no matter how familiar and frequent that voice is in my ear, most other C&Lers don't know what John looks or sounds like. But luckily for all you curious C&Lers out there, Jason Linkins, HuffPo's roving reporter at the DNC, caught up with John in Denver and asked him his take on Maliki's insistence that the newly negotiated withdrawal of US troops from Iraq is a "real" withdrawal:

Iraq and the United States have agreed that all U.S. troops will leave by the end of 2011, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday, but Washington said no final deal had been reached.

"There is an agreement actually reached, reached between the two parties on a fixed date, which is the end of 2011, to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil," Maliki said in a speech to tribal leaders in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

"An open time limit is not acceptable in any security deal that governs the presence of the international forces," he said.

Maliki's remarks were the most explicit statement yet that the increasingly assertive Iraqi government expects the U.S. presence to end in three years as part of a deal between Washington and Baghdad to allow them to stay beyond this year.

How's this for spinning Bush's humiliating climbdown in accepting an Iraqi timetable for withdrawal and McCain's poor judgement in wanting a 100 year presence where the US isn't wanted? According to the WSJ's Yochi Dreazen says that Bush was right all along - the timetable can only happen because the Iraqis finally stood up so we can stand down! Wingnuts like the American Power blog are lapping it up. No mention at all of Bush's words from May, 2007:

It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength -- and begin plotting how to overthrow the government and take control of the country of Iraq. I believe setting a deadline for withdrawal would demoralize the Iraqi people, would encourage killers across the broader Middle East, and send a signal that America will not keep its commitments. Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure -- and that would be irresponsible.

However, the Iraqi Army has no artillery, no airpower, no logistical capacity, no field hospitals and little else that a modern armed force needs. It's a glorified internal security paramilitary police force. And it has other problems too. Even Dreazen has to admit that:

Some U.S. officials warn that the army also is still vulnerable to internal sectarian tensions. Baghdad recently ordered a Kurdish brigade operating in Diyala to move elsewhere, but the Kurds refused, saying they would only take orders from the semi-independent Kurdish government in northern Iraq.

So if the Iraqi Army are standing up, it is only a bit - and the important question is "who for?"

No, this timetable is all about Noor al-Napoleon believing his own hype and really thinking his Shiite and Kurdish factions can keep a lid on Kurds, Sunnis and the Sadrists long-term. It's unlikely to be true, but if Iraq is a free and sovereign nation then it should get to sort such questions out as it wishes to and on its own.