WILLblog

Why should we stay the course in Iraq? "We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of brutal dictator," said President Bush today on the eve of Iraq's first parliamentary elections. "It is to leave a free and democratic Iraq in his place." In a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the President admitted that "much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." He unveiled a "National Strategy for Victory" and fired more arrows at critics with the "cut and run" phrase we've heard so much of lately. And he acknowledged for the first time that as many as 30,000 Iraqi civilians may have been killed since the U.S. invasion. But why am I telling you these things, because you can listen to President Bush's speech here: streaming RealAudio downloadable MP3

Here's a handy web site for checking up on your Member of Congress: it's the Votes Database, the site that "lets you browse every vote in the U.S. Congress since 1991," created and maintained by The Washington Post. Not the sexiest of marketing slogans, but then who said democracy is sexy? You can browse by member, bill, vote margin, and "vote missers," among other options. We think options like this that make you better informed are a good thing.