My first reaction in looking at the front-page New York Times photo of the president standing above a slogan "Plan For Victory" was, haven't we seen this before? You all remember how he stood on the aircraft carrier emblazoned with the banner "Mission Accomplished." The new slogan, clearly a result of some p.r. shop trying to figure out some market-tested message that somehow will sell the majority of the people who are sick of the war. If the slogan didn't mean that we're in for many months and, perhaps, years of death and destruction, it would be simply sad and pathetic.

Perhaps the only interesting development out of this speech is that House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, who voted for the war and who had distanced herself from Rep. Joe Murtha's call for an immediate withdrawal, has now said she supports Murtha's position. I wonder how much of that has to do with the possibility that my colleague Medea Benjamin was being urged to challenge Pelosi in the Democratic primary.

"We have a strategy for victory." This is what Bush said yesterday in preparation for a much-hyped speech he's giving today at the U.S. Naval Academy. Here's what's clear: this speech is at once a p.r. ploy--they have to say something to blunt the Joe Murtha-inspired calls for quick withdrawal--and also an amazing continuation of an unwillingness to admit the war was a complete fiasco and disaster.

I suppose, for some people, articulating a "strategy for victory" is one step forward from "Mission Accomplished." But, it is the same mindset that will not face reality: there can be no strategy for victory. U.S. military force will not be able to put back together a country we broke.

This isn't the central issue of the campaign but it is something that we're advocating for: a national government-funded WiFi network that will lower costs for working people (and everyone else) to get on the Internet.

I thought I'd just post this quick article I caught just now on-line: New Orleans is going to have the nation's first free WiFi netowrk that is run and owned by the government. What gets me, though, is the point at the end--the city will have to slow the speed down eventually because there is a law preventing government-run WiFi services from offering higher-speed connections.

Yesterday, I wrote about the psychological damages the war is causing 1.2 million soldiers who have served in Iraq. This morning, I came upon this at www.bringthemhomenow.org and it made me both laugh--which it's supposed to do--and fill up with sadness. It was taken from an Army Family Readiness program to help understand what it's like to be on the front lines. One of the things that it reminds you of is how soldiers (and their families) have been sacrificing for the war but few people besides them (and certainly no one in the Administration) have had to do the same:

1. Sleep on a cot in the garage.

I just finished reading today's piece in The New York Times--the same newspaper that was such a cheerleader in the rush to go to war--about the damage the war will have on the now 1.2 million men and women who have served in Iraq.

The tragedy of the killed, wounded and maimed is enough to contemplate. What will become of the minds of the many who have served their country? The article quotes a study that found "that about 17 percent of the personnel have shown serious symptoms of depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder--characterized by instrusive thoughts sleep loss and hyper-alertness, among other symptoms--in the first few months after returning from Iraq..."