Let's be honest. It's painful listening to the news right now. It's not just our imaginations, things are getting worse, and this recent report from the BBC provides even more damning evidence that we're on a slippery slope in Iraq.

Hundreds of bodies showing signs of torture or execution arrive at the Baghdad mortuary each month, a senior UN official has told the BBC.

John Pace, until recently UN human rights chief in Iraq, told the BBC News website that up to 75% of the corpses showed signs of extrajudicial death.

Mr Pace blamed an "endemic" breakdown of security for increasing violence."Anyone with a gun who is reasonably well organised can do whatever they want with impunity," he said.

...But Mr Pace played down suggestions that Iraq was heading towards civil war, blaming a political vacuum and the collapse of law and order - rather than a generalised Shia-Sunni split - for the escalating violence.

I was going to make my first blog post on Better Donkey a cheerful one about interesting political and news podcasts that are rocking my iPod right now. But while reviewing a recent podcast of NOW, I heard an interview with Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper, of Tennessee.

NOW's commentator remarked that a conversation with Cooper was "a downer." --That's because Rep. Cooper is a realist and a fiscal conservative who is understandably concerned about our federal fiscal situation. So concerned, that Cooper created "The Budget School", a Power Point presentation that effectively (some might say devastatingly) explains the national debt, it's significance, and the deep threat it poses to our generation. If you've been wondering why your American greenback hasn't been stretching as far recently, click the link to get informed.