“Trench Warfare” is a new feature on The Washington Post’s Political Browser that brings you news links from right-leaning and left-leaning blogs around the web.

One current letfy post from Campaign for America’s Future advocates “Building Our Way Out” of the current economic crisis with improved infrastructure, a sentiment I couldn’t agree with more. Another current post from right-leaning Town Hall explains “…Why McCain Should Oppose the Bailout”, noting that the discretion of the bailout spending will be left to one man and one man alone, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, which is too much power to put in the hands of one individual who used to himself be the head of Goldman Sachs - also a sentiment I could not agree with more. It looks like the right and left aren’t as far apart on this as you might expect!

Personally, in this age of so much available information I think the need is greater than ever for the “programmed” content of aggregators like this. As much as I like Googling around and finding my own info, seeing other’s links and recommendations for news content like “Trench Warfare” provide an equally important role in the information hunt by introducing you to content you might not find otherwise. It’s like hearing some great new song on the radio rather than being stuck in the same old playlist on your iPod.

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The US Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has a giftshop. As reported by Mary Ann Akers‘ blog The Sleuth for the Washington Post, the highly controversial Gitmo detainee operations center sells T-Shirts, windbreakers and baseball caps to visiting journalists reporting on the facility. Apparently military base officials were thrilled to have reporters buying up their wares as souvenirs for the folks back home in transactions that have redefined the term “crass commercialism”.

Thankfully, the future of the detainee facility is now in serious doubt due to yesterday’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling which restored the right of habeas corpus to enemy combatants imprisoned at the center, reaffirming their right to a fair trial in a United States Federal Court. The ruling struck down the Bush Administration’s efforts to confine any judicial review of the prisoner’s cases to kangaroo courts military tribunals set up at the facility.

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A Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Bob Dylan, it was announced today. The brilliant folksong writer won “A Special Citation Award” for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” Other musicians who have won the Special Citation Award include Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, so Dylan is in good company.

The other announced 2008 winners were, in the field of journalism, The Washington Post (PUBLIC SERVICE), The Washington Post Staff (BREAKING NEWS REPORTING), Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker of The New York Times (INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING), The Chicago Tribune Staff (INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING), Amy Harmon of The New York Times (EXPLANATORY REPORTING), David Umhoefer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (LOCAL REPORTING), Jo Becker and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post (NATIONAL REPORTING), Steve Fainaru of The Washington Post (INTERNATIONAL REPORTING) Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post (FEATURE WRITING), Steve Pearlstein of The Washington Post (COMMENTARY), Mark Feeney of The Boston Globe (CRITICISM), Michael Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily (EDITORIAL CARTOONING), Adrees Latif of Reuters (BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY), Preston Gannaway of the Concord Monitor (FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY).

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