Echoing others on this thread, I too read fewer books than I use to. In high school I read about 40-50 books a year for fun (I don’t count books read for school assignments). In college that dropped to around 20-30 per year. Now I’m around 10-15 a year.

But I read a considerable amount on-line, from magazines and other sources. And I read very broad selection of material from news and analysis to original fiction (there are a lot of excellent amateur writers out there that publish on-line). So my overall reading levels are probably about the same or even up from college.

The problem with surveys like this is the snobbish assumption that only ‘books’ are worthy to read. Implicit in this report is the idea that magazines, the internet and other reading materials are ‘trash.’ Speaking as someone who loves books and reading, nothing could further from the truth.

While it takes a little time and patience, one can find good short story fiction on the internet and it’s a hell of lot cheaper than buying books (free vs $5-8 for a paperback). And there are good short story magazines (Analog/Asimov) and a lot of other sources for a good read than just books.

For the past couple of days I’ve been seeing this story pop up. Various Bush Admin officials talk about ‘increased chatter’ or ‘al-Qaeda’ is planning something. They are quick to stress that it’s too vague to increase the threat level. They don’t have anything ‘specific’ just vague warnings. But they just want everyone to know that ‘al-Qaeda’ is still out there.

Is it just me or is it tad convenient that a couple of weeks before Patraeus’s White House written report that will stress our success against ‘al-Qaeda in Iraq’ we’re all of a sudden getting all kinds of warnings about terror attacks against the US. And at the same time we’re getting commercials from a Republican backed group stressing that the enemy we’re fighting in Iraq is the same enemy that hit us on 9/11.

The PR campaign is in full swing.

China’s been increasing their ties to Iran for the past several years and they get a sizable chunk of oil from Iranian wells.

What happens if that oil gets cut off due to a US attack on Iran?

How much US debt does China currently own?

Oh yeah an attack on Iran will have no real blowback effects

Violence has declined. In the months of July and August when violence has ALWAYS declined. The question is how much of that decline is due to the surge and how much is just a part of the cycle that occurs every year.

There are two big tests of the ‘surge.’ The first comes beginning in Oct (conveniently after Patraeus’, (warning real content) report) when violence in Iraq has traditionally started going back up after the summer lulls.

The second is Mar and Apr 2008 when the US will have NO CHOICE but to withdraw between 30 and 50k troops due to already mandated rotation schedules. Taking troops levels down to BELOW their pre ‘surge’ numbers. Then we’ll see the insurgents/al-Qaeda/sectarians and the other factions come out of their holes and we’ll learn if the Iraqi military and security forces really can stand on their own. Hint, they can’t, as multiple reports indicate that unless the US military is riding herd their loyalty and effectiveness are very much in doubt.

Of course by then the US will most likely have deposed Maliki and Bush’s new line will be we need to give the new ‘democratic’ government of Iraq more time.

Short Answer: NO

As reporting over the weekend has indicated it’s already pretty much a ‘done deal’ that Democrats will cave in once again and give Bush his $50 billion dollars to ‘build on the success’ of the ‘surge.’ They’ll be lame talk about ‘bringing troops home’ and more of the ‘blame the Iraqis’ mantra that Democrats have seized on but no real action or effort to stop what is happening in Iraq.

Pelosi and Reid have consistently proven themselves utterly incapable of standing up to Bush and actually fighting for anything. And the majority of the Democratic Presidential candidates (particularly the two frontrunners) have conceded the ‘surge’ has succeeded in ‘decreasing’ the violence.

So it will be the spring all over again with empty talk from the ‘opposition’ party but no action. The various Republican ‘defectors’ will vote ‘support our troops’ with money and against timetables that ‘tie the Generals on the ground hands.’