Earnest, sad, and righteous, they are not. More inspired by M*A*S*H or Dr. Strangelove than The Deer Hunter or Coming Home, a new pack of political films that defy the clichés of the post-9/11 Iraq War cinema has arrived. Rife with satire and absurdity, with more ambiguity and less agit-prop, they don't toe the MoveOn party line and go beyond the familiar war-is-hell mantra. As documentary filmmaker Michael Tucker says: "Yes, it's tragic and horrible. Duh. What else is there?"

For one, there's the bizarre madness of it at all, as shown in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. While ostensibly a raunchy teen comedy, the film's archvillain is a racist, ignorant deputy chief of Homeland Security who sends Harold and Kumar to face the horrors of Gitmo. "While it's obviously absurd," co-writer-director Hayden Schlossberg acknowledges of the film's premise, "there's an element of truth. There have been people thrown in Guantánamo who have done nothing. We like the idea of doing something about these subjects in a way that's not serious."

"Sincerity handicaps you," explains Tucker, who co-directed a number of Iraq docs, including Gunner Palace. "Trying to be earnest about something—it does nothing to explain it," he says. "That's why the fiction films have largely failed—because people are already in that emotional place." 

We’ve known for a while that the Bush administration has been manipulating Iraqi media for propaganda purposes, but the U.S. maintains an independent fourth estate. At least, it’s supposed to.

Many of these retired military commanders knew they were being manipulated by the administration, and knew they were telling the public misleading information, but felt compelled to play along anyway.

For five years, these men have been dominating the airwaves, telling Americans that we’re “winning,” that the Bush policy is “working,” and that the media is ignoring the “good news.” It wasn’t true, as some of them are now willing to admit.

But as offensive as it is to learn about the retired military leaders regurgitating White House talking points for fear of losing lucrative contracts, it’s even more offensive that the Bush gang would view retired commanders as puppets, and the public as suckers.

"Women aren't big and strong enough for combat." I'll buy this when someone explains why the Marine Corps will cheerfully accept a 4-foot-10 male recruit who weighs 96 pounds.

Sure, the Marines will make a man out of him, but even if they water the guy with Miracle-Gro, they won't be able to turn him into a 6-footer. The average man may be bigger and stronger than the average woman, but plenty of women are bigger and stronger than many men. Why discriminate based on gender when you could have straightforward, task-specific strength requirements?

Locking women out of combat positions may help a few American men maintain the illusion of gallantry, but it's time to acknowledge reality. Women will die alongside men in any terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and women, like men, are affected by our national defense policies. It's time to give them the right to fight for their country. 

Ever since the Patriot Act was enacted, Russ Feingold had been almost single-handedly (at least among members of Congress) trying to warn of the potential for abuse of NSLs. Finally, a couple of months prior to the time the Patriot Act was to be renewed in early 2006, Feingold got some help in his crusade, when The Washington Post's Barton Gellman published a superb investigative article which detailed the FBI's increasingly frequent and broad use of NSLs, and surveyed the obvious dangers from these unchecked surveillance instruments.

It seems there are a few brand new lessons that we can perhaps draw from these revelations ... Allowing government officials to engage in surveillance on American citizens with no warrant requirement ensures that surveillance will be used for improper ends, against innocent Americans.  

The military was scrambling Monday to put together defense teams for the six Guantánamo captives singled out by a Pentagon prosecutor for death-penalty eligible charges alleging they conspired to kill thousands in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"I will move as quickly as I can, but we will take our time and we will not be bullied by the government," said Army Col. Steve David, Chief Defense Counsel in the Office of Military Commissions. David, an Indiana state judge who was mobilized to the job, said at a bare minimum he needed six lawyers, six paralegals and six independent investigators with top security clearances to work on the trials.

As of Monday morning, he said, he had a sum total of seven military lawyers assigned to his office.