Lest We Get Sidetracked By Sports

I found three interesting bits in the MSM today to remind us not to succumb to the antiseptic theatre that is the Super Bowl. Have a gander:

A dump truck hauling a ton of explosives hidden beneath boxes of food exploded in the center of a crowded Baghdad market Saturday, killing at least 130 people and injuring more than 300 in one of the deadliest blasts since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The attack, carried out by a suicide bomber, was designed to inflict a massive physical as well as psychological toll on a population haunted by a string of devastating strikes on other markets, including one Thursday that killed 73 people in the southern city of Hillah, and another in Baghdad last month that killed more than 80.

What do our deferred tax dollars borrowed from China get us in Iraq? More corrupt contractors:

Without a public debate or formal policy decision, contractors have become a virtual fourth branch of government. On the rise for decades, spending on federal contracts has soared during the Bush administration, to about $400 billion last year from $207 billion in 2000, fueled by the war in Iraq, domestic security and Hurricane Katrina, but also by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does.

:Lastly, there's a snazzy Vietnam style graphic to remind us that things aren't going swimmingly in Iraq.