Dear friends,

I attended the joint hearing of the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees on Monday to receive the testimony of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. I joined the Foreign Affairs Committee this year, so I was too far down the pecking order to ask a question, but I did talk to North Carolina newspapers about the testimony and where things stand now in Iraq.

I talked with the News and Observer (Raleigh): Where N.C. lawmakers stand [1]

I talked with the News and Record (Greensboro): N.C. congressmen split on outlook [2]

And I talked with the Winston-Salem Journal: Iraq report does little to change mind of Jones on ending war [3]

I also gave a video interview to The Hill, a publication devoted entirely to Congress and politics. The Hill hosts a blog on which they invite Members of Congress to post entries, which has resulted in some of the most tepid, uninteresting blogging known to man. They posted portions of interviews with various Members as a "video log," or "vlog." Their question to me was what I would have asked General Petraues if I had gotten the chance.

The question I would have asked was why his very optimistic forecasts of events in the past had proven so wrong. Click here [4] for to listen to my response.

I'm still looking for someone who:

1. Thought invading Iraq was a bad idea in the first place;
2. Predicted that Iraqis would resent the presence of our military on their soil and that nationalistic resentment would result in insurgent attacks on our troops;
3. Warned that the sectarian and ethnic divisions in Iraq would result in the violence that the National Intelligence Estimate said early this year was "self sustaining" and more complicated than your garden-variety civil war; and
4. Now thinks things are moving in the right direction.

Do you know anyone like that?

Also the Associated Press interviewed me recently for a national story on the coming fight over predatory mortgage lending legislation. The article ran this week in publications around the country, including the News and Observer. Click here [5] to read about it.

Finally, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ("NOAA") this week announced that Bill Proenza, who was suspended this summer as head of the Tropical Prediction Center (usually referred to as the "Hurricane Center"), would return to his previous position as head of the Southern regional office for the National Weather Service. I had publicly urged NOAA to return Proenza to his previous position, and it seems the most just resolution, given the different versions of events at the Hurricane Center.

Click here [6] to read the Washington Post's article about NOAA's decision.

And click here [7] to read about NOAA's decision in the Orlando Sentinal.

At least the job's not boring. Thanks.

--Brad