Look, ma, freedom is on the march:

Fires at scores of barricades sent billowing black smoke against a pale blue sky. Across the capital, only mopeds, some carrying Hezbollah cadres with walkie talkies, navigated the roadblocks along usually clogged streets that were empty. On the airport highway, a half-dozen barricades blocked traffic, forcing some travelers to drag their luggage by foot. Government supporters and foes squared off across the barricades, hurling rocks, sticks and insults in clashes that sometimes lasted hours.

GatewayPundit rounds up right blogistan’s reactions — shockingly this wave of protests isn’t being wildly celebrated by hawks and civil disobedience is no longer equivalent to the dawning of democracy. Hezbollah’s protest babes aren’t hot enough I guess?

Much like the Iranian exiles Anne Applebaum praises today, I think the Holocaust did, in fact, take place and that Holocaust deniers are bad people. The lead of Applebaum’s column, however, is fairly strange. She analogizes these Iranian exiles to the exiled Bolsheviks of pre-WWI Russia, and criticizes those who doubted the Bolsheviks could bring revolution to Russia. The German government eventually decided that since Lenin and his party supported surrender in the first world war, that Germany should sponsor the Bolsheviks, and provided transportation for Lenin to return to Russia along with funds and other forms of support in the very early days of the revolution. Lenin took over Russia, signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, and managed to set into motion in Russia a series of incredibly horrifying events that Applebaum herself has documented.

Nevertheless, she appears to be arguing that this German policy toward Russia should serve as a model for America’s approach to Iran. Why not count on exiles? After all, they might turn out to be just like the Bolsheviks! An odd, odd woman.

I’m up with Daniel Drezner in a new episode of BloggingHeads TV. We take on such crucial issues as is Payton Manning loathsome and why I’m sick of the 2008 primaries already. Also, more harping on this Iran business. Dan agrees that Iran is not going to launch an unprovoked nuclear first strike on Israel — is he another cavalier liberal? Blinded by anti-semitism perhaps?

Speaking of which, I have a new column defending Wesley Clark against the Lobby That Shall Not Be Named and I’m going to be on Washington Post Radio at 12:10 today to talk Iran.

Jason Zengerle today:

Worst op-ed of the (admittedly still young) year? Liz Cheney’s Hannity-esque effort on Iraq in today’s WaPo. It’s a really thing of wonder.

And it really is a sucky op-ed. That said, I’m not sure how it differs in substance from what I believe is The New Republic‘s most recent editorial on Iraq from November just after the election:

Many Democrats have embraced a proposal called “phased redeployment,” a politically expedient way of saying immediate withdrawal. Their proposal, which calls for departures beginning in four to six months, doesn’t allow the time and space for the arduous work that a political settlement requires–the kind of agreement that will ultimately allow us to leave with the least damage to the Iraqi people and our own interests. Proponents of “redeployment” might argue that the president will enact any new course as ineptly as he did before–a very reasonable fear. But, having achieved new majorities, the Democrats must use their oversight capability to ensure that this does not happen. This can no longer be a one-party war.

Obviously, this is written with a more TNR-style sneer than a Hannity-style one, and those are different brands of sneer. The substantive points, however, strike me as very similar. And more important, the policy objective — supporting Bush and his open-ended military commitment to Iraq — are actually identical.

Petey draws my attention to this example of the Bush administration appearing to do something clever in the Horn of Africa by arranging for the safe passage of Sheik Sharif Ahmed formerly of the Islamic Courts Union to Kenya and encouraging the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia to work with him. Ahmed was one of the more moderate figures inside the ICU but also a very high-ranking official with perhaps a large following among the ICU rank-and-file. Clearly, I think, the Bush administration’s instincts are correct here. The question is whether it will work.

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