A couple of addendums to my previous post:

www.realclearpolitics.com weighs in on Al Gore's speech about visas, as does Kathleen Parker in the Orlando Sentinel. I haven't yet seen any defense of Gore's comments.

Washington Post runs an article by Thomas Ricks on the Tal Afar campaign. It centers on Colonel McMaster but also mentions the mayor; it quotes him as saying he wants McMaster's unit to remain because it does a better job than other American units. It's a good piece of reportage, the kind of thing many of us criticize the mainstream media for not providing. So let's give credit to the Post and to Thomas Ricks.