Here's what I thought you'd like to hear about today:

1. Some progress in Iraq - Going Up the Teeter Totter to the Tipping Point
2. The Powerful Judicial Philosophy of Clarence Thomas - ABC's Jan Greenberg tells the story
3. Fred Thompson Enters the Race - as the Anti-McCain Candidate

Some progress in Iraq - Going Up the Teeter Totter to the Tipping Point

LTG Ray Odierno is the Commander of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq. On May 31 he spoke via satellite with reporters at the Pentagon, providing an update on ongoing security operations in Iraq. Most of the questions from reporters were asking for a progress report on the surge. He resisted by saying that it is too soon to assess, and we will know more starting in August, and Petraeus will provide a report to President Bush in September. Listen to these clips from the press conference. I like the tipping point analogy in the first clip. Thanks to the Pentagon Channel for the audio.

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Later on, Pam Hess of UPI asked if we negotiate with the insurgents. Here's the question and his answer.

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Talking to the enemy appears to be working in some places. And note the caution about whether the success in Anbar can be extended to regions that have more mixed sectarian populations than the Sunni Anbar province.

The progress in Anbar was discussed in a recent PBS News Hour segment with Ray Suarez, David Wood of the Baltimore Sun, and Bing West of the Atlantic. Listen to this rare good news story in the mainstream media.

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It was clearly a case of working with the tribal leaders who hated Al Qaeda that caused the change in Anbar over the past year. If we can create the same kind of conversion in other areas, Iraq could become peaceful at last. Of course, if we pull out immediately, then Al Qaeda will "take the tribes" as Bing West warns.

But such sober thinking has no place in the Democratic dominated Congress. Listen to this incoherent clip from Sunday's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. George interviewed Jack Send our troops to Okinawa Murtha.

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So let me try to trace through Murtha's murky logic. The only reason we have home-grown terrorists is because our presence in Iraq is inspiring them. The attack on 9-11-2001 doesn't count, because that came from Afghanistan. Just in case you didn't hear that bit of lunacy, here it is again by itself.

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Later on, Murtha uses his favorite technique when asked about the consequences of his surrender strategy: piling on. Listen as he loads the air with dozens of unrelated points instead of answering Stephanopoulos's question about a bloodbath if we leave.

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I can't understand half of what this guy says. It's a few claims surrounded by empty words. What did he mean by "Everything right now, the incentive is on the side, as all of us know"? And of course it will get worse if we leave. Claiming that it won't, or ignoring the question is scandalous.

Still on the subject of Iraq, I listened to one of the Pentagon Channel's press conferences from Iraq. This one was with Col. Bryan Roberts, a brigade commander with responsibility for the Karkh neighborhood in the middle of Baghdad, with a population of 250,000 people. He's getting great results in a formerly upper class neighborhood along Haifa street, which had been a hot bed of sectarian murders and criminal activity. This clip picks up about five minutes into his presentation.

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I don't know how representative this region is, but it shows that at least some areas are improving. He attributes the success to the Command Outposts and Joint Security Stations, and checkpoints. But I especially liked the reference to graffiti removal. That was one of the key factors that contributed to the "tipping point" of crime reduction in the 1980's New York Subway system. They must be listening to the Wizbang Podcast where I talked about Malcolm Gladwell's book of the same name.

The Powerful Judicial Philosophy of Clarence Thomas - ABC's Jan Greenberg tells the story

Jan Greenberg is ABC's Legal Correspondent. She blogs with a conservative viewpoint at Legalities on the ABC news site. Ms Greenberg has a new book out on the Supreme Court, titled Supreme Conflict and she was invited to give a talk about the book to the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington recently. She is the polar opposite of the New York Times, which lead the opposition to the confirmation of Clarence Thomas 17 years ago, and continues to hound him to this day. Before I play Greenberg's description of Thomas, I'll read an example of the Times Thomas angst. Here is an excerpt from an opinion piece by Adam Cohen from June 3.

In the last 100 Supreme Court arguments, Clarence Thomas has not uttered a word. Court watchers have suggested a variety of explanations. Among the least flattering: he is afraid that if he speaks he will reveal his ignorance about the case; he is so ideologically driven that he invariably comes with his mind made up; or he has contempt for the process.

In their provocative new book, "Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas," two Washington Post journalists, Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher, ponder Justice Thomas's extraordinary silence, and many other puzzles. They offer a wealth of insight, but they have no answer to the central enigma he poses: why the justice who has faced the greatest hardships regularly rules for the powerful over the weak, and has a legal philosophy notable for its indifference to suffering...

When Justice Marshall retired, Justice O'Connor noted that he "imparted not only his legal acumen but also his life experiences" and made the court respond not only to his arguments but to "moral truth." America will be a much less just place if Justice Thomas's life experiences and moral truth start to shape the court's agenda -- and the nation's.

The authors that Adam Cohen refer to, Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher, recently spoke at the Harvard Institute for Race and Justice. In this clip, answering a question by someone in the audience, shows none of the animus that Cohen found in the NY Times piece. It's almost as if Cohen were using the author's book not as source material for a review, but as an excuse to ridicule Thomas. In this clip, the questioner takes the view that Thomas, as a beneficiary of affirmative action, should vote on the court to uphold the practice, even if the law would point him in another direction. The authors provide a fine answer to this criticism.

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Now on to the clip of Jan Greenberg at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Listen as she dispels one of the most persistent rumors about Thomas, that he is a lackey of Scalia with no mind of his own. Hint: It's not as some would have you believe.

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Fred Thompson Enters the Race - as the Anti-McCain Candidate

As the Washington Post said this week:

Law and Order star Fred D. Thompson will make his flirtation with a White House bid official this week, forming a presidential committee and launching a fundraising effort that could culminate in a formal announcement over the July 4th weekend, the former senator's advisers said.

In a speech at a Virginia state party dinner, the conservative former Tennessee senator and Hollywood actor made only passing reference to his presidential ambitions but took a jab at Democrats while praising limited government and lower taxes.

As I listened to his speech, I was struck by how clumsy he seemed during most of the presentation. He stumbled over some lines, and did not seem very comfortable with all the attention. He seemed most effective when he was cobling together one-liners designed to cristalize a point with something humorous. Here's an excerpt of that speech, in which he stakes out a position diametrically opposite John McCain, one of the sponsors of the current Senate immigration bill.

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Hopefully he will hit his stride as he jumps on the campaign trail, and improves his delivery. He has the conservative credentials on most issues, with the exception perhaps of campaign finance laws, which he favors to a certain extent. His advocacy of the first principals of liberty and small government has me on his side. But we'll have to see how he fares under the bright lights of the media in the next few months.

That's it for now podcatchers. I'm Charlie Quidnunc reporting from a beautiful chilly Mercer Island, WA.