Hovering around a 700 point drop at this point...
UPDATE: (Nicole) The Dow closed 777.68 points to 10365.45

That's lower than on Bush's first day in office, January 22, 2001

When it comes to kicking Americans out of the military because they’re gay, the occasional defense — offered by conservatives who know the policy is absurd — is that the Pentagon is merely following the law. If Congress wants able-bodied, patriotic, American volunteers to join the Armed Forces, regardless of sexual orientation, lawmakers should change the policy. If not, the Defense Department doesn’t have a lot of choice.

Except, that’s wrong. Gay soldiers discharged under the DADT policy have dropped from 1,200 a year in 2001 to less than half of that now -- and it's probably not a coincidence.

The U.S. military says it is enforcing the ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, as it has for decades, in the face of statistics that show a sharp drop in the number of discharged homosexuals as wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue.

Homosexual rights advocates cite the plunge as evidence that the military is losing interest in enforcement and lets openly homosexual men and women serve because commanders need every able-bodied troop.

"Truth be told, I don't think the Pentagon is a big fan of the law anymore," said Steve Ralls, spokesman for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which is pushing for the ban's demise.

Then maybe it's time to end the ban?

Wait, I thought it was secure:

The deadliest insurgent attack since the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 destroyed a bus full of police instructors at Kabul's busiest transportation hub on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding 52, officials said...read on

Juan Cole on the Turks and Kurds....

Dennis Milligan, the new chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, probably shouldn't sound quite this excited about the prospect of domestic terrorism.

He said he’s “150 percent” behind Bush on the war in Iraq.

“At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001 ], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country,” Milligan said.

I have no idea what Milligan is talking about. Then again, I suspect Milligan doesn't know what he's talking about, either.

Raw Story:

Early indications are that the "miniseries event" actually tied a rerun of a documentary on the same subject, and barely edged out the eighteenth season premiere of The Simpsons.

The New York vs. Indianapolis game earned rival NBC a 15.1/23 rating, according to overnight returns.

Part one of ABC's "Path to 9/11," in comparison, earned a rating of 8.2/12--about half as many viewers. This tied a CBS repeat of a documentary, also about the September 11, 2001 attacks on America. The CBS repeat was somewhat handicapped by a half hour delay caused by an overrun of a U.S. Open Tennis match. Read on....

That's not a whole lot of ratings share for something so widely promoted through conservative channels, is it? Twice as many people watched football and the same number watched a re-run of a factual documentary. Does that $40M production aired without commercials still seem like a good investment, ABC/Disney?

AP:

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomber struck a convoy of U.S. military vehicles Friday in downtown Kabul, killing at least 16 people, including two American soldiers, and wounding 29 others. It was the Afghan capital's deadliest suicide attack since the Taliban's 2001 ouster. The blast near the U.S. Embassy came as NATO chiefs appealed for member nations to send reinforcements to combat resurgent Taliban militants fanning the deadliest violence in five years. A top British general said the fighting in volatile southern Afghanistan was now more ferocious than in Iraq...read on

Reefer Madness: The debate about Medical Marijuana is on!

Does marijuana help people like Angel Raich? Is it illegal if a doctor prescribes it? "The justices refused three years ago to protect distributors of medical marijuana from federal anti-drug charges." Or do people just want to get stoned?

There’s also the argument that says we need the FDA to study it more closely. What about the Vioxx scandal and a supposed coverup by the FDA that David Graham brought to the public? I think all you need to do is talk to someone from the seventies and you'll get all the information that you need to know. Why did it take a study from 2001 to tell us that pot gives you the munchies?

I'm surprised the big drug companies aren't pushing to allow them to distrbute yet another drug legally out into society. There are ads on 24/7 that makes it seem like happiness is a just a pill away!

Yet children are commiting suicide from these Antidepressants that are supposed to be a godsend.

Where’s the outrage?

When has anyone jumped off a bridge after smoking a joint? You might want to eat the bridge, but normally, one wants to lie on the couch with a bag of chips and a subway footlong sandwich and watch the tube.

The side effects for oxycodone, percocet, and vicodin often include addiction and painful withdrawals, yet are almost completely ignored as a deterrent in their prescription by doctors.

The other argument that doctors will write prescriptions blatantly like drug dealers is capricious at best. I don’t think a person will be able to walk into a doctor’s office and say, "I have this twinge, can you write a script for chronic?" They can already go to the mall and do that. If marijuana will help people, then what is all this hubbub? Do we still have Reefer Madness on our minds?

Talk Left has a series of great articles about MM.

Here's an in-depth video clip segment from Aaron Brown on the subject:

Video

9/11 victims are so 2001

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Debunking those fatuous arguments in the same-sex marriage debate. A recent poll revealed that only a measly 3 Percent of us think the issue matters. G-Dub has his finger on da pulse of America!

Martini Republic: "Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing.”

Sic Semper Tyrannis 2006: Vanity Fair writer Craig Unger interviews nine former intelligence and military officials who have served in the C.I.A., the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Pentagon, all of whom say, on the record, that they believe the Niger documents were part of a campaign to deliberately mislead the American public.

Your New Reality: "This Crusade...is going to take a while." George W. Bush-September, 2001

The Poor Man Institute: Crack Rock the Vote

This post is vintage Digby...go read.

Afghanistan: The Shining Model of Democracy

"Afghanistan saw one of its bloodiest days since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban on Thursday as hundreds of insurgents attacked a southern town and fighting flared across the country. Fighting raged for hours after insurgents attacked the town of Mosa Qala, 470 km (300 miles) southwest of Kabul, in Helmand province, late on Wednesday. Government officials said 13 policemen and at least 40 Taliban were killed, taking the death toll across the country to about 100. The Taliban have stepped up attacks on foreign and Afghan government forces in recent months as thousands more NATO peacekeepers arrive in the country...read on"

Christy says: "Remind me again - we haven’t captured Osama Bin Laden or finshed off the Taliban yet, have we? Just once, just one freaking time, could George Bush finish what he's started and do the job right?"