President Bush, in a speech this morning, announced that the US will be withdrawing 5 brigades from Iraq.  He also says that we have "revived the prospect of success" in Iraq which has become a common talking point by those who are supportive of continuing our engagement there.  Further, he is "decreasing" the deployment lengths from 15 months to 12, but the new deployment lengths will kick in for troops that deploy after August 1st.

There are a few problems with this announcement, most notably that we've known for over a year now that we would be compelled to withdraw at least 5 brigades from Iraq this year.  The surge itself was simply an overlap of deployments where some troops were deployed early and others were stop-lossed into extended tours.  Our military has been over-extended, over-deployed and under-supported.  The draw down is simply an acknowledgement that any further surge would have, in the words of many in the military "pushed the military over a cliff."

On the decreased deployment lengths, these decreases still leave deployments at longer lengths than they have been historically and much longer than everyone who knows these things knows troops should be deployed.  Secondly, by decreasing the tour length of troops only for troops deployed after August 1st, he makes yet another promise that he will not be responsible for fulfilling.

Lastly, President Bush spoke at length about defeating Al-Queda.  It's probably a mistake, but "Al-Queda" (the people associated with Osama bin Laden) aren't actually in Iraq.  There is a group called "Al-Queda In Iraq", which has nothing to do with "Al-Queda".

I'm glad that some of our troops are coming home, no doubt, and I'm also proud of them for their service.  We need to get more of them home sooner, give them real time off between deployments (the military recommends 2 years), and get them the support they need when they get here.

John McCain is in violation of the McCain-Feingold Act in his campaign for President.  He took a loan earlier when his campaign went bankrupt and used an assurance of public funding to secure the loan.  Now that he has money coming in (at least a little), he has decided not to take public financing.  Unfortunately, the law that he wrote says that even if you don't you the funds and only use the promise of funds, you're now bound to public financing.  That bit of the law was written specifically so that shady politicians couldn't use the system as collateral and then not be bound by its rules.

What's worse is that McCain is already over the limit for the amount he is allow to spend as a publicly financed candidate.

More from FOX "News": http://elections.foxnews.co...

The national Democratic party wants campaign finance regulators to investigate whether Sen. John McCain would violate money-in-politics laws by withdrawing from the primary election’s public finance system, filing an official complaint Monday with the Federal Election Commission.

McCain, who had been entitled to $5.8 million in federal funds for the primary, has decided to bypass the system so he can avoid spending limits between now and the GOP’s national convention in September.

Click here to read the full complaint from the Democratic National Committee (.pdf).

FEC Chairman David Mason notified McCain last week that he can only withdraw from public financing if he answers questions about a campaign loan and obtains approval from four members of the six-member commission. Such approval is doubtful in the short term because the commission has four vacancies and cannot convene a quorum.

“John McCain poses as a reformer but seems to think reforms apply to everyone but him,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Sunday.

Part of the issue centers on a loan McCain obtained late last year. The loan was not directly secured by McCain’s potential access to public funds. But his agreement with the bank required him to reapply for public funds if he lost early primary contests and to use that money as collateral.

larger view

We all know John McCain has a temper.  He's called his fellow Senators "F***ing Jerk" and "A**hole" and has said charming things like "I hate gooks".  Now another story has come to light about John and Cindy McCain:

http://rawstory.com/news/20... [WARNING: This link contains profanity.]

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c***." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

Now, I'm no prude, but there's a line somewhere between an f-bomb and calling your wife a trollop.  There's a real bright line between cursing and calling your wife a c***.

He needs to be confronted with this as do the witnesses so we can either put this to bed or put him to bed.