HH: Hi, it’s Hugh Hewitt. Welcome to the program, General. Good to have you on. MD: Thank you. HH: General Dempsey, can you give us a quick rundown on where the Iraqi Army stands today, in terms of numbers and by specialty. I know you’re aiming, for example, ten divisions. How far along is the Iraqi Army? MD: Yeah, it’s about 85% complete, and let me put a little sharper edge on that. There are ten divisions, and they’re geographically disbursed. They’ve got on average ten battalions in each, but a few of them, the Baghdad division, notably, has seventeen battalions. The support structure that provides...

HH: On Friday, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times published the story detailing the SWIFT program to track the money of terrorists. The Los Angeles Times was represented in some of those conversations, and the decision to go forward with the story by Doyle McManus, their long-serving and widely-respected Washington bureau chief of the Times. Mr. McManus joins us now from D.C. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it very much, Mr. McManus. DM: Thank you for having me on. HH: When you were being approached by the federal government not to run with this story, which officials did you meet with? DM: We met with officials...

From yesterday’s interview with Professor John Eastman: HH: John Eastman, a question for you. Does the president of the United States, in time of war, have the authority to order the surveillance of our enemies abroad in touch with their agents operating in the United States? JE: Of course. HH: Does he have that authority even if those agents operating in the United States are American citizens? JE: Yes, he does. HH: And does he have that authority, even if he does not have a warrant to conduct that surveillance? JE: Yes, he does, and look. This authority comes directly from Article 2 of the Constitution. Every president...

Here is a great thread with pictures from FreeRepublic on early voting in Iraq. From my interview with Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik: HH: No, I’m just curious about whether or not you think the people of Iraq are better off than they were three years ago? MH: I really don’t...

I interviewed Congressman Tom Tancredo earlier today. We spent most of the time discussing the Congressman’s views on the efficacy of threatening Mecca as a potential deterrent, but the Congressman also brought up The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe: HH: You don’t like the Chronicles of Narnia? TT: It was good, but you know what, I kept thinking, you know, I don’t think there’s going to be a sequel here. It just didn’t seem like there was enough action, and I was worried… HH: Tom, it made a$107 million dollars. TT: Yeah, yeah, that’s what they were just saying, and that’s why I am...

From the Washington Post: [Sen Specter] said “there’s a good chance” that Alito will spend more time before the committee than did Roberts, who faced 2 1/2 days of questions. But he said his plan is to conduct the entire hearing — including senators’ opening statements and outside witnesses — in one week, allowing the full Senate to vote on whether to confirm Alito by the end of January. This is great. More time for every Democrat to embarrass themselves, though I look for Slow Joe Biden to out do his mangled baseball analogies and fractured logic big time as this time, folks will actually be...

From yesterday’s interview with Senator Jon Kyl: HH: Thirty seconds, Senator Kyl. Brett Kavanaugh. I gig you about him every time you come on. JK: I know, and in fact, excuse me for interrupting, but I raised him with Senator Specter last night when we met. I said look, there’s a bunch of other stuff we have to do, too, including getting a bunch of people confirmed for judgeships. And he said yes, we do need to do that. So yes, we need to do it. But we’re going into a holiday period here, so it’s not going to happen real soon. Brett Kavanuagh was originally nominated by President Bush to a seat on the United...

Yesterday I quoted extensively from Judge Bork’s introduction to “A Country I do Not Recognize: The Legal Assault on American Values,” a book which Judge Bork also edited. The very first chapter in the book is by Professor Lino Graglia, a great light among conservative ConLaw scholars, and the A. Dalton Cross Professor of Law at the University of Texas. I did not know what professor Graglia thought about the Miers nomination, so I interviewed him today. I will post the transcript here a little later. Be sure to check back. Especially if you are Orin Kerr. UPDATE: The transcript: HH: It’s a great honor now...