Blackwater is getting out of the security contracting business because “U.S. government scrutiny and negative media attention had made the business too costly.”

So what’s the new racket? Dry goods? Day care?

Actually, the AP article says they’re now going to focus on “training, aviation and logistics.”

Come to think of it, ‘training, aviation and logistics’ sounds a lot like military contracting. But who knows.

Eric Kleefeld suggests another possibility. As a partisan Republican mercenary outfit, they may rightly anticipate slackening sales under a Democratic president.

Earlier today I flagged the question of just what Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said today about the Iraqis’ timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. The year 2010 puts them more or less in line with Barack Obama’s stated plan. But there was some question about whether he said during 2010 or by the end of 2010.

Looking at the evening reports in the LA Times and NY Times, it seems clear that he did say ‘by the end’ of 2010.

The LAT described this as “roughly the same time frame laid out by Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, who has called for removing most troops by the summer of that year.”

Says the NYT: “Mr. Obama has said he would seek to withdraw American combat forces over 16 months if he is elected president, starting upon taking office in January, meaning his plan would be completed on roughly the same timetable as suggested by the Iraqis.”

So following up on my post this afternoon, the Post seemed to have the translation issue right — but their tendentious editorializing still confirms me in my sense that the paper is pushing McCain.

With Barack Obama in the midst of a much-hyped trip to the Middle East and with all the news that came out over the weekend regarding the Iraqi government’s positive comments toward Obama’s withdrawal timetable, we figured it was only fair to allow John McCain a full episode of TPMtv to explain away the headlines …

High-res version at Veracifier.com.

After nearly 13 years on the run, Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, was arrested this evening in a Belgrade suburb and turned over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Karadzic is under indictment for war crimes stemming from the 1995 massacre of some 7,000 people (estimates vary) in Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo.

A late report from Reuters:

It brought people out in the night onto the streets of Sarajevo, the city his troops shelled mercilessly during a 43-month siege, to celebrate the capture of the man charged with authorizing the slaughter of 11,000 of their fellow citizens.

“I called and woke up my whole family,” said Sarajevo resident Fadil Bico, as cars streamed through the streets honking horns and Bosnian state radio played excerpts of Karadzic’s wartime hate speeches.

Serbia has been eager to be reincorporated into the larger European community and eventually join the EU. Karadzic’s arrest is an important step in that direction and comes just two weeks after a pro-EU government came to power in Serbia.

When I was in Belgrade last month, the desire for a return to the community of nations was palpable among the Serbs I spoke with, although I was admittedly traveling in reform circles. “See, we’re not bad,” one eager Serb told me.

It’s entirely possible that Condi Rice simply feels its unseemly or inappropriate for a sitting Secretary of State to say who she’s going to vote for for president. But her refusal to give an answer yesterday in response to Wolf Blitzer’s question was enough to get us wondering …

Don’t miss the deadline.

TPM brings on a new class of interns each season. And we’re now taking applications for our Fall 2008 cycle. TPM interns are probably as intimately and rapidly involved in the preparation and production of news coverage as interns at any other news organization. And that ranges from work on the news section of the front page to research for our news blogs to video editing to bylined articles. Needless to say, this fall is going to have no shortage of political news. The application deadline is July 25th. To find out details for how to apply, click here.

A new Rasmussen poll shows that Anchorage Mayor has opened up an 8-point lead on Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), 52-44. Here’s some of our interview with Begich from over the weekend at Netroots Nation: