River at Baghdad Burning offers advice on what the U.S. should do with Iraq:

I sometimes get emails asking me to propose solutions or make suggestions. Fine. Today’s lesson: don’t rape, don’t torture, don’t kill and get out while you can- while it still looks like you have a choice… Chaos? Civil war? Bloodshed? We’ll take our chances- just take your Puppets, your tanks, your smart weapons, your dumb politicians, your lies, your empty promises, your rapists, your sadistic torturers and go.

Doesn’t sound good. If this is the prevailing sentiment on the Baghdad street the American loses in Iraq are sure to continue indefinitely.

I’ve been loosely monitoring the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on Iraqi prisoner abuse this afternoon.
One of the interesting things about this hearing is that, in contrast to typical senate committee hearings where only 2-8 members are present, this time you get to see everyone. Ah, the power of live cable news channel broadcasting.
The full roster of examiners may partially explain why I haven’t found this session particularly informative. Since there’s so many questioners, the senators are only getting five minutes a shot. And once they get through the mandatory spiel on how outraged they are about this incident, that leaves time for one question with little or no follow up–no a very efficient fact finding format.
But it does allow each of the senators the opportunity for a good TV sound byte. And that’s perhaps the most important aspect of this exercise, isn’t it?

Josh Marshall notes that none other than Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin (“I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol”) is the superior to a number of the military intelligence officers involved in Iraqi prisoner porn.
Speaking of which, where’s Attorney General Ashcroft and his DOJ anti-porn unit? Shouldn’t they be going after the civilians involved in the production and distribution of these pictures?

I just found out that the last episode of the sitcom Friends will be broadcast tonight. You’d think NBC would try to alert viewers of this.
Anyway, this is a tragic turn of events. I am suspending blogging operations until further notice while I cope with the loss.
Later.
UPDATE: Okay, I’m back. I was out and only got to see the last ten minutes of the finale. But knowing that Ross and Rachel are together has given me the strength to blog on. And it’s wonderful that the Knoxville News Sentinel devoted nearly the entire A1 front page to a sitcom having nothing to do with East Tennessee.
I’m sure I saw an entire episode at one point, but I don’t recall the last time I watched the entire episode of Friends. I caught short segments every now and then, but the show just didn’t have what it took to hold me through a commercial break. It’s not just Friends, either. The only one that’s had it in the last decade is Seinfeld. I’m not sure if that’s a reflection on the quality of the sitcoms or just me.

Members of Congress are supposedly outraged that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld didn’t warn them about Abu Ghraibgate:

Lawmakers are incensed that Rumsfeld gave no hint of the oncoming controversy when he was on Capitol Hill last week for a classified briefing, hours before CBS’ 60 Minutes broke the story. Even Bush administration loyalists are expressing outrage over the lack of communication.
“If we are going to be a partner in this war on terror, then we should be completely briefed, not just on things they want us to hear,” said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Had these same lawmakers paid close attention to the news, they might have picked up on advance hints of the controversy themselves. As early as January CNN reported that the military was conducting an investigation into the allegation of prisoner abuse.
Apparently the Congresscritters needed the media herd’s prompting to get worked up about this story.