Meanwhile

The Senate averted a show down on the nuclear option last night--causing much wailing and gnashing of teeth among those with wingnut persuasions...by the way, Nightline viewers were treated to yet another appearance of Mary Landrieu, senior senator from the Gret Stet.

Landrieu gets a lot of face time on national broadcasts, it seems. Perhaps this is an attempt by the national Democratic Party to raise her profile--I really don't know--but if nothing else, it provides a net positive down here.

Giving credit where it's due, Landrieu spoke with some degree of sense. She noted that it's not a good idea to stop business in the Senate, when we're faced with massive budget deficits, when Louisiana desperately needs action taken on coastal erosion (she mentioned the energy bill contains provisions for this)--and she mentioned the war in Iraq, aka Operation-Let's-Go-Out-of-Our-Way-to-Do-EVERYTHING-Wrong.

Speaking of which: Eight more US soldiers now have no interest in what sort of morons Team Bush nominates for federal judgeships, and what sort of rules should govern the "advise and consent" process in the Senate:

Four soldiers died in two separate attacks in central Baghdad today, and another four were killed south of the capital on Monday.

Two Iraqi civilians were also killed in Baghdad today when a car bomb exploded near a police station.

Today's attacks came after at least 33 people were killed on Monday in car bomb blasts aimed at Iraqi Shiites in what appeared to be the latest attempt to exploit the sectarian divisions that have tormented the country.

Three United States soldiers with a Task Force Baghdad convoy were killed when a car bomb exploded at about 1:30 p.m. today in the central part of the city, a military spokesman said.

About an hour later, in the same area of Baghdad, gunmen shot and killed an American soldier at an observation post. The soldier later died from his wounds, said the spokesman with Task Force Baghdad, Sgt. First Class David Abrams.

Also today, the military said that four soldiers assigned to the Marines were killed on Monday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle during combat operations in Haswa, about 25 miles south of Baghdad...

All told on Monday, attacks across Iraq killed at least 43 people, including Waiel al-Rubaie, a senior aide in Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's administration, and his driver, who were shot to death in the Mansour district of Baghdad. The American military said three American soldiers were also killed in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday.

In other Iraqi news, it turns out that Rummy was, as you might guess, flat wrong (again) when he implied that reports of looting museums were exaggerated:

The latest figures, presented to the art crime conference yesterday by John Curtis of the British Museum, suggested that half of the 40 iconic items from the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad still had not been retrieved. And of at least 15,000 items looted from its storerooms, about 8,000 have yet to be traced.

And, in case you were wondering, more than 150 foreigners were kidnapped in Iraq last year. Of that number, roughly one third were eventually killed.

US occupation forces are supposed to provide internal security. I'd say it's pretty apparent they're unable to do the job. Which isn't exactly a good sign.