Saturday's links and comments

Uh-oh, the horses have escaped let's close the barn door.

Judge issues gag order in Ramsey case

Everyone has focused on the Lieberman/Lamont senate contest in Connecticut. There is another senate primary going on in Rhode Island and in this race there is actually a major difference between the candidates.

In R.I., a Feisty Conservative Challenges Sen. Chafee

As bad as the senate practice of filibustering is it pales compared to the arcane practice of senate holds. Here is an article about how it is being abused in order to hide wasteful spending from scrutiny.

Bad news gets the larger headlines, however slowly but surely things are improving in Iraq.

Gen. John Abizaid made headlines three weeks ago when he told Congress that civil war was a possibility in Iraq. Yesterday he went into two of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods to see whether a new U.S.-led offensive against the death squads and insurgents is making any progress. Abizaid invited me and a CBS reporter to join him on this journey into the heart of the Baghdad battle zone. In what follows, I want to draw a picture of what we saw. First, some background: This summer, any chance of success in Iraq seemed to be slipping away. Even Abizaid, who as head of U.S. Central Command has overall responsibility for the troops here, had to admit in his congressional testimony that the trends were

Read the rest to see what's changed.