So reports Reuters.

Israel plans to halt military operations for three hours a day near Gaza City to enable aid to flow through a humanitarian corridor it is setting up in the Hamas-ruled territory, a military source said on Wednesday.

"The idea is for the Israeli military to lay down its weapons every day from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., starting today, in the area of the city of Gaza," the source said.

This news comes as rockets continue to be fired into Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza. No word if this news augurs a speedy end to the fighting between Israel and Hamas forces, which many Israelis I have spoken with seem to believe will continue for at most another week if not less.

In 1999, Indonesia still entertained hopes of holding onto the former Portuguese colony of Timor Leste (East Timor) which it invaded with Secretary of State Kissinger's consent in December 1975 formerly annexing the territory in July 1976. Strong resistance to Indonesian rule resulted in a brutal repression, forced resettlement and famine in which 200,000 (a quarter of the population) are believed to have died in the two decades that followed. But by early 1999, the Clinton Administration, the Portuguese government, the United Nations and world opinion had forced Indonesian government to allowing a referendum on independence. Still opposing this was the Indonesian military, the TNI, which viewed itself as the ultimate protector of the territorial integrity of the Republik Indonesia. Into this steps Admiral Dennis Blair, Obama's pick to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI), who in April 1999 is sent by the Clinton Administration to have a chat with General Wiranto, the commander of the TNI.

Writing in September 1999 for The Nation, Allan Nairin filed this report:

US officials say that this past April, as militia terror escalated, a top US officer was dispatched to give a message to Jakarta. Adm. Dennis Blair, the US Commander in Chief of the Pacific, leader of all US military forces in the Pacific region, was sent to meet with General Wiranto, the Indonesian armed forces commander, on April 8. Blair's mission, as one senior US official told me, was to tell Wiranto that the time had come to shut the militia operation down. The gravity of the meeting was heightened by the fact that two days before, the militias had committed a horrific machete massacre at the Catholic church in Liquiça, Timor. YAYASAN HAK, a Timorese human rights group, estimated that many dozens of civilians were murdered. Some of the victims' flesh was reportedly stuck to the walls of the church and a pastor's house. But Admiral Blair, fully briefed on Liquiça, quickly made clear at the meeting with Wiranto that he was there to reassure the TNI chief. According to a classified cable on the meeting, circulating at Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii, Blair, rather than telling Wiranto to shut the militias down, instead offered him a series of promises of new US assistance.

We don't usually blog as much about personal things around here but I was sorry to learn from Todd Beeton that his father passed away a few days ago, and offer my best wishes for Todd and his mother.

Sean Paul Kelly, over at the Agonist, is Globe trotting (see In The Land Where "All Is King",  and Six Months Gone for recent samples), and is also now the also the Global Correspondent for The Young Turks, so congrats there- he's headed to India next.

I blogged about the suspicion of this a few weeks ago, and now Iran has confirmed that they are holding the prominent Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan under arrest "over remarks he allegedly made about key figures in the Shiite faith, local media reported." P2Pnet has more info.

I spent the last 3 weeks chumming with family and relatives out in the NW winter storms of OR & WA. My favorite thing: taking my Mom up one morning to Carson Hot Springs where I sat in the sauna for 30 minutes, soaked in their tubs for 30 minutes, got a body wrap for 30 minutes, and then a massage for 60 minutes. For only $90. I was relaxed enough to hang out at OMSI with the kids the whole afternoon.

I know I haven't been blogging much (the '09 VA Gov race has been occupying a lot of space), but if you want to hear more of "the Armstrong voice", then I've got a solution for you. I noticed two of my younger cousins, Adam and Matt Armstrong, becoming increasingly political over the past year through the internet. So, I wasn't surprised to see them start a blog, Daily Censored. Good stuff.

Blessed are the gatekeepers, for theirs is the power to getting things done.

If President-elect Obama thought that changing the way Washington works was going to be a breeze, he got his first lesson in comeuppance with his selection of Leon Panetta to head the Central Intelligence Agency. His mistake wasn't the choice per se but rather not checking with the gatekeepers, the Washington power brokers pertinent to this decision. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the incoming chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she was surprised by the pick and complained that she wasn't consulted. That's one gatekeeper with ruffled feathers. Another gatekeeper not reckoned with, and therefore not terribly amused, was the outgoing chairperson Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). Through an aide, the long-serving member of the Intelligence Committee let it be known that while he "has tremendous respect for Leon Panetta" the aide said that Senator Rockefeller "believes the CIA director should go to someone who has significant intelligence experience and someone from outside the political world of Washington DC."

Had these gatekeepers been consulted prior to announcing the selection, I suspect their tone would have been more conciliatory and supportive. Certainly, we would have fewer ruffled feathers.

Even Senator 'for two more weeks' Joe Biden conceded it was a "mistake" in not consulting the Senate's gatekeepers before tapping Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

"I'm still a Senate man and I always think this way," he told reporters in the Capitol. "I think it's always good to talk to the requisite members of Congress."

Yup. It's always good to talk to those blessed gatekeepers. In doing so, President Obama will likely get his way more often than not but ruffle their features by pulling surprises seems like a recipe for not getting things accomplished. Blessed are the gatekeepers, for in their hands is the power of the gavel. Some aspects of Washington, it seems, will never change.

Bruce Braley (IA-01) was elected to Congress in 2006 with the support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red to Blue" program. In 2008 he helped manage the DCCC's Red to Blue efforts. For the next election cycle, he's been promoted again:

The DCCC today named the second of its three Vice Chairs - Congressman Bruce Braley (D-IA) will serve as Vice Chair for candidate services, responsible for the DCCC's offensive efforts including recruitment, money, and training.  

DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen said, "The DCCC will stay aggressive this cycle and continue to challenge Republicans who are out of step with their districts.  As a former chair and former member of the Red to Blue program, Bruce Braley knows first hand what it takes to be a successful candidate; his battle tested leadership will be a real asset to our candidates facing tough elections."

Congressman Bruce Braley brings his experience as chair of the DCCC's successful and effective 2008 Red to Blue Program and as a former member of the Red to Blue Program.

Vice Chair Bruce Braley said, "I'm looking forward to continuing my work at the DCCC in this new leadership role.  It's critical for us to continue assisting our candidates with the money, messaging and mobilization they will need to get elected in the 2010 election cycle.  I will work hard to help our candidates win their races."

Congressman Bruce Braley will serve as Vice Chair for candidate services.  The DCCC's candidate services include recruiting, money, and training.  A Vice Chair focusing on Member participation will be named at a later date.

Last month, Van Hollen named Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida the DCCC Vice Chair for incumbent retention. Given her refusal to endorse three Democratic challengers to Republican incumbents in south Florida, it was appropriate for Van Hollen to remove her from a leadership role in the Red to Blue program.

The third vice chair "will seek to increase House member participation in DCCC efforts," which presumably means getting more safe Democratic incumbents to pay their DCCC dues.

So Braley's niche will be finding and capitalizing on opportunities to pick up Republican-held seats. 2010 is likely to be a more challenging environment for Democratic candidates than the past two cycles, but it's good to know the DCCC is planning to remain on offense as well. We have a chance to achieve a political realignment, given the Democratic advantages with certain demographic groups in recent elections. Building on our success in 2006 and 2008 will require the DCCC to do more than protect our own vulnerable incumbents.

Good luck to Representative Braley in his new role. He'll be quite busy the next couple of years, with a seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a Populist Caucus to lead.

The old adage of "if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again" might serve Roland Burris well in his attempt to become the junior Senator from Illinois. He may actually need only to try but once for it seems the unity of the Democrats in blocking the appointment has collapsed. Dianne Feinstein, the senior Senator from California, is urging the Senate to settle the matter and by settle she means sitting Burris.

"If you don't seat Mr. Burris, it has ramifications for gubernatorial appointments all over America," the California senator said. "Mr. Burris is a senior, experienced politician. He has been attorney general, he has been controller, and he is very well-respected. I am hopeful that this will be settled."

Senator Feinstein who chairs the Senate Rules Committee, which judges the credentials of senators argues that the governor has the power under the law to make the appointment. The matter, in her mind, seems settled.  

I am not a lawyer so I have no idea the legality of all this but as a political observer I can only say this entire episode is such a tragic comedy. If the appointment is, in fact, legal then there isn't any point in any further discussions that only serve to distract from the important business facing the nation. So is this appointment legal or not? To answer this question should not consume the nation.

It appears the Bush boomlet is over before it really even started.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will not run for the open Senate seat of Sen. Mel Martinez, he announced in a statement released moments ago.

"After thoughtful consideration, I have decided not to run for the United States Senate in 2010," said Bush. "While the opportunity to serve my state and country during these turbulent and dynamic times is compelling, now is not the right time to return to elected office."

This news almost undoubtedly makes it easier for the Democrats to win the open seat Senate contest to succeed unpopular one-term Republican Senator Mel Martinez -- though at the cost of depriving the party the opportunity to make 2010 yet another election about the Bushes. At this point, despite the prattling of George Bush the elder, my guess is that talk of a Bush comeback will occur nearly every two years into the future, talk that isn't backed up with any real movement towards a restoration of the clan's electoral success (or even real attempts at such a restoration).

We all know that George W. Bush's economic track record has been bad, but just how bad was it. The depth and long term effects of the Bush recession are not yet known, but some of the preliminary numbers compiled by Pew look horrendous.

• While both GDP and per capita GDP rose during the eight years of the Bush administration, by 19.4 percent and 11.0 percent respectively, median household incomes are actually down -- a discouraging signal that indeed not only are the rich getting richer, it is the rich who have benefitted to a much greater extent that other Americans.
  
• The national debt has nearly doubled from $5.7 trillion to $10 trillion -- and that doesn't even include the amounts that the Obama administration will have to spend to try to dig the country out from the Bush recession, as well as the costs of the ongoing war in Iraq. Note, too, that George W. Bush inherited an unprecedentedly large budgetary surplus, so this blowup in debt was by no means a foregone conclusion.
  
• Unemployment is up significantly, from 3.9 percent in 2000 to 6.7 percent today. Even worse, when discouraged jobseekers and the under employed are included, that rate has gone from 6.9 percent to 12.5 percent -- fully one in eight American workers.

Of course these numbers shouldn't come as a surprise to those who have watched American politics in recent years, and certainly not to those who have borne the brunt of Bush's failed economic policies. That said, it's important for these numbers to be firmly established in the record so that Republicans are not allowed to shift blame for the woes their backward ideology foisted upon the country to the current leadership in Washington.