Harry Reid finally came out and says what everyone already knows: the war is lost. Of course a crazy story like this VT shooting is more resonant to Americans than the constant stream of horror that comes out of Iraq. Exceptional things happening to everyday people is what makes good fiction and its what makes interesting news. The story is complex, we will never really understand why he did what he did. It makes for great television. (I say this with all respect for the people who died and those survived this tragedy)

On the the other hand the hundreds of men, women and children dying every in Iraq isn’t a good story. A good story has a mystery. It has suspense. The story in Iraq is predictable and tragically explicable. The only outstanding question about this war is how much longer and how many more people need to die. Forty innocent people die every day in Iraq as a direct result of this predictable and avoidable tragedy. The worst thing is that we can say for certain, even if we leave tomorrow, is that thousands more will die.

Make no mistake, yesterday’s supreme court decision should come as no surprise. The christian right is nothing if not organized and disciplined. The great thing about trying to organize a group of authoritarians is they love being told what to do and they always do what they are told. Once the leadership had set their sights on the courts it was a matter of time before they succeed in what they always called “legislating from the bench”.

Here is a quick roundup of good posts on this:

Defending Choice: why it is good politics This is important because a lot of (male) democrats like to talk as if the abortion issue is one we can throw under the bus to improve electoral chances.

A great article in Salon about “a decision that might as well have come with a gift card made out to President Bush’s base“.

Where the stand via NY Times.

Take My Uterus, Please from pandagon.

And finally, I strongly recommend, in addition to the appaling decision linked by Vijay, Justice Ginsberg’s great dissent (pdf).