Good news in Iraq - rugs are cheap

John McCain says we're not getting the good news from Iraq and demonstrated how safe Baghdad is by holding a press conference in the heavily guarded Green Zone, arriving under heavily armed escort that stayed off camera.

Thirty minutes later, to underscore the safety of the city, a barrage of half a dozen mortars peppered the boundaries of the Green Zone, where the senators held their press conference.” In fact the formerly supremely secure Green Zone has increasingly come under attack by insurgent forces to the point where the US embassy workers are now instructed to wear protective gear, including helmets and anti-flack jackets, even they're just walking a few feet to the cafeteria and the pool has been put off limits on account of the escalating mortar fire of late.

It might appear to those who are less inclined to buy into staged photo ops that the only real good news is that McCain's companion, Sen. Lindsey Graham scored five rugs for five bucks. That's good news for him but for the Iraqi economy, I'd think not so much. The least he could done to help out the floundering local economy would have been to tip them a couple of bucks more for each rug. At least a few cents would have trickled down to the majority of Iraqis who are unemployed.