Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph W. Giuliani praised President Bush's war leadership on Saturday and mocked supporters of a nonbinding congressional resolution condemning the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq.

The former New York City mayor came to Bush's defense as he promoted his White House candidacy at a California Republican convention. Drawing parallels between Iraq and America's Civil War, Giuliani compared Bush's political troubles to Abraham Lincoln's. When the Civil War was unpopular, Giuliani said, Lincoln "kept his eye ahead."

"He was able to say, 'I know my people are frustrated, and I know my people are angry at me.' " But after weighing public opinion, Lincoln had "that ability that a leader has — a leader like George Bush, a leader like Ronald Reagan — to look into the future," Giuliani said.

And in this corner, we have a pot-smoking-quasi-black-inexperienced-Satan-worshiping Barack Hussein the Anti-Lincoln:

This morning on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol attacked Obama’s Iraq policy, saying he wants to appease terrorists like pro-slavery politician Stephen Douglas tried to appease slave-owners. Kristol said, “Obama’s speech is a ‘can’t we get along’ speech — sort of the opposite of Lincoln. He would have been with Stephen Douglas in 1858.”

Seriously?? I mean, I’m numb at this point to the Bush = Lincoln argument the right has been trying to peddle for years. The assertion that stubbornness is somehow the quintessential encapsulation of Lincoln’s leadership is so patently absurd that I would normally not even bother to post a rebuttal. But to compare Obama to a pro-slavery confederate just takes the desperate and asinine taco. And to manufacture this juxtaposition on the same news cycle reeks of a coordinated GOP smear.

The GOP may be in a slump, but thank the gods we can still count on FOX News for an overtly racist attack in time for Valentine’s Day.

Following Russert’s testimony, mainwebreport observes that the Libby trial appears to be an affirmation of the maxim that “sometimes those who most loudly decry a sin are in fact the most guilty of it.”

Aldon Hynes at Orient Lodge takes a step back from the literal and sees the trial as an exploration of who controls the flow of information and what effect this has on the interplay of cooperation and competition in the media.

For your auditory edification, SilentPatriot at C&L provides the audio coverage of Armitage outing Plame.

Over at TalkLeft, Jeralyn follows Team Libby’s strategy and is left wondering if the journalists played the administration officials or vice-versa and, in the exchange, who is looking out for us?

Posting at the Daily Kos, emptywheel explores the conveniently-timed conversations Libby had with Novak, Russert, and Miller.

Perplexed by Team Libby’s witness strategy, Jane Hamsher at The Huffington Post ponders whether Cheney and Libby (Shooter and Scooter) will actually take the stand. Also, while gushing praise upon their diligence in the courtroom, Swopa nevertheless chastises the MSM for missing the obvious front-page headline.

Finally, Professor Kim provides a sorely needed biographical summary of Judge Reggie B. Walton.

When I doctored this TSA logo last week, who knew I was being literal!

I wish to bring to your attention difficulties one of my patients recently encountered when entering the USA. He is a 48-year-old man with a fistula-in-ano managed with a long-term seton to control perianal sepsis.

A seton consists of a length of suture material knotted to form a loop which lies in the fistula track. It passes through the fistula, out of the external opening beside the anus, into the anus, and re-enters the fistula through the internal opening. Various different materials can be used; in this case the seton was made of a turquoise braided synthetic suture. Many fistulas are treated with setons in the short term, and, in those that are high or associated with Crohn's disease, this management can be long-term.

On arrival in New York in August, 2006, for a holiday, the patient was interrogated by immigration officials, then examined and searched. The presence of the seton gave rise to much concern, I assume because of a suspicion that a drug package or terrorist weapon was in some way attached to it. A rectal examination was done, during which the examining official pulled very hard on the seton, causing severe pain, but fortunately not damaging the anal sphincter muscles encircled by it.

The patient was refused entry into the country unless the seton was removed. Given the somewhat stark choice, he chose removal of the seton, which was done by a doctor at the airport who claimed never to have come across one before. The patient now requires an examination under general anaesthetic to insert a replacement.

Great.

Plagiarized in full from Ezra:

I've written about this before. Here's a first-person account:

When I first came to prison, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly none of this. I'm a tall white male, who unfortunately has a small amount of feminine characteristics. And very shy. These characteristics have got me raped so many times I have no more feelings physically. I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I've had knifes at my head and throat. I had fought and been beat so hard that I didn't ever think I'd see straight again. One time when I refused to enter a cell, I was brutally attacked by staff and taken to segragation though I had only wanted to prevent the same and worse by not locking up with my cell mate. There is no supervision after lockdown. I was given a conduct report. I explained to the hearing officer what the issue was. He told me that off the record, He suggests I find a man I would/could willingly have sex with to prevent these things from happening. I've requested protective custody only to be denied. It is not available here. He also said there was no where to run to, and it would be best for me to accept things . . . . I probably have AIDS now. I have great difficulty raising food to my mouth from shaking after nightmares or thinking to hard on all this . . . . I've laid down without physical fight to be sodomized. To prevent so much damage in struggles, ripping and tearing. Though in not fighting, it caused my heart and spirit to be raped as well. Something I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for.

The crime this man committed for us to throw him into a jail where we know he'll be brutally assaulted, raped, and possibly contract a terminal immune system disease? Drinking and driving.

We spend a fair amount of time talking about detainee treatment and Guantanamo. But there is no greater, or more common, human rights abuses in America than those occurring in our overcrowded, constantly expanding, jails.

Over at MainWebReport, Lance Dutson battles the urge to purge after watching MSNBC’s tragically incomplete coverage of Russert’s testimony which has so far glossed over or ignored compelling reasons to doubt his account.

Eric Brewer at BTC News chastises the blogosphere for buying into Team Libby’s red herring against Russert noting that, regardless of who is on the stand, defaulting in favor of press freedom is the right thing to do.

John Amato at C&L presents Mary Matalin’s theater of the absurd.

As the trial continues to expose the circus of leaks in 2003, Creative Ink’s Wendy Hoke explores how “Big Journalism was talking out of both sides of its collective mouth.”

Jeralyn at TalkLeft explores the debate over whether Andrea Mitchell will testify at the Libby trial.

Parsing two key points the defense plans to make, John at AmericaBlog sounds the BS alarm.

Noting GOP assassin Barabra Comstock’s surprise trial guest, Digby wonders whether it is “too much to ask that reporters refrain from actually sleeping with the people they are supposed to be covering?”

Atrios weighs in on Russert’s role as White House stenographer.

Describing Fitzgerald’s closing witness as two trials in one, Arianna Huffington notes that this is not choosing between two evils – “Scooter Libby lied and lied and lied to Patrick Fitzgerald” and Russert is guilty of journalistic malfeasance. “Two thoughts, both true -- and not remotely mutually exclusive.”

Finally, in part five of a continuing series, eriposte explores one of the key unsolved mysteries of the African uranium scandal.

The latest from Insane McCain:

Senator John McCain, a Republican contender for the White House in 2008, chastised Europe on Saturday for failing to supply the troops and money to win in Afghanistan and said NATO's future was at stake.

In tough comments that singled out specific countries, McCain told NATO allies to move beyond the "false debate" over security and development priorities in Afghanistan -- a dispute that dominated a defense ministers' meeting earlier this week.

Instead, Europe should follow Washington's lead and put more forces and resources into the war effort.

Seriously? How does this joker open his mouth without blushing? McCain and his fellow troupe of enablers are the ones responsible for pulling resources away from Afghanistan to chase an ill-begotten war of self-delusion in Iraq and now he has the audacity to claim the EU is the reason things are accelerating into hell? Seriously, if he had actually done his job back in 2003 instead of posturing for office, we wouldn’t be in the fecal-storm we find ourselves today.

I can’t wait to watch this guy self-destruct on the campaign trail.

With “reputations and fig leaves falling left and right,” Pachacutec splays open the claim that partisan bloggers can’t be trusted – “There are no virgins here, folks. Everyone around this trial has an agenda, including every media outlet.”

On Democrats.comUnity, dlindorff notes that Kristof’s call for Cheney to come clean should also be extended to the president and presents a litany of questions the public has a right to know.

Jeff Lomonaco examines the implications surrounding a surprise revelation that Wolfowitz was in this scandal at least up to his ankles. Also, some further exploration of Bush’s collusion in the pushback against Wilson.

Wonkette blogs about CourtTV blogging about bloggers blogging about Libby – yowza, I need to sit down!

Following 15 minutes of blogular fame, Politblogo explores the layers of ‘meta’ surrounding the Libby case and offers some tough love for the Democratic Party’s complicity with a system that allows for such crimes, metacrimes, and metametacrimes.

Finally, Jeralyn notes the blogosphere’s role in sustaining a story the MSM would have rather seen dead.

I’ve recently become a big fan of Don to Earth, a nonagenarian (93 years old) who is, as far as I know, the oldest living blogger on this blue planet.

As I hurry and stress my way through an impossibly self-inflicted schedule, his daily musings on life (“before blogs, we had wise sayings”) are nothing less than digital perspective. Check him out!

Over at FDL, Jane Hamsher describes Libby’s devolution in the grand jury tapes as a “gradually dawning realization under Patrick Fitzgerald's relentless and dogged questioning that he was in fact screwed.”

Positively giddy over the grand jury tapes, BooMan highlights a revelation about the UN inspections spin and further evidence that Plame-related misconduct may have extended beyond the OVP to leave an indelible stain on Bush’s hands as well.

Jeralyn offers some background and analysis on Tim Russert, the final prosecutorial witness and Fitzgerald’s last hope to end on a high note.

Posting at The Huffington Post, Marcy Wheeler explores the conundrum of Cheney’s testimony through the evolution of his talking points.

From the Desk of Patrick Fitzgerald heaps praise on – well, Patrick Fitzgerald and, subpoena power aside, notes that it was Fitzgerald and not the media who has done the most to ferret out the details of this Washington scandal.

Finally, I would like to extend a hearty welcome to Rev. Brian Donner of The Uncooperative Blogger who will be my doppelganger of sorts in presenting conservative blog round-ups for the remainder of the trial.