There's a very good reason Allawi's speech to Congress last week sounded so much like Bush's fairy tales --
They shared speech writers:

"...administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the prime minister was coached and aided by the U.S. government, its allies and friends of the administration. Among them was Dan Senor, former spokesman for the CPA who has more recently represented the Bush campaign in media appearances. Senor, who has denied writing the speech, sent Allawi recommended phrases. He also helped Allawi rehearse in New York last week, officials said. Senor declined to comment."

As Josh Marshall observes, "The whole Allawi speech was exactly what the most cynical observer would have figured, a cheap Bush-Cheney '04 campaign stunt."

In the same story, we learn that to combat the perception that violence is growing in Iraq, the US has "curtailed distribution of reports showing increasing violence in that country." Well, that helps.

A reportedly private email from Wall Street Journal correspondent Farnaz Fassihi has been making the email rounds today. It's pretty grim reading:

[excerpt] "Iraqis like to call this mess 'the situation.' When asked 'how are thing?' they reply: 'the situation is very bad.'

What they mean by situation is this: the Iraqi government doesn't control most Iraqi cities, there are several car bombs going off each day around the country killing and injuring scores of innocent people, the country's roads are becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of landmines and explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The situation, basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four days, 110 people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad alone. The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health -- which was attempting an exercise of public transparency by releasing the numbers -- has now stopped disclosing them.

Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day."

Well, the debate is beginning and I'm still at work. Will be for awhile, yet. I'll catch the KRON 4 rebroadcast at 10 p.m. But do your thing, folks! Counter Republican Spin! (Scroll down to the bottom of that post for links to counterspin opportunities.)