Sure, everyone knows that America's military is hunkered down in the Middle East, but what's it doing in the rest of the world? Quite a lot, as it turns out. The Pentagon is several years into its biggest overseas base reshuffling since the Cold War, a realignment that is expected to cost US taxpayers $20 billion.

Given these rapid changes, our intrepid editorial and technical teams embarked on a yearlong project entitled "Mission Creep: US Military Presence Worldwide" to find out what our soldiers are up to, country by country. At its heart is this interactive world map that lets viewers zoom in to almost any place on the planet to learn about US involvement there. I'm already hearing it described as "addictive," and I highly doubt so much up-to-date information about America's overseas military presence has ever been available in one place in a fashion so accessible to casual readers. So what if my wife and children no longer recognize me. It's finished! (See more highlights below.)

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This is awesome or awful PR work. I'm not sure which. A collection of things McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post about the "How Many Houses?" scandal that is brewing:

On Obama's house:

"It's a frickin' mansion."

On the McCains' definitely-not-elitist housing habits:

"The reality is they have some investment properties and stuff. It's not as if he lives in ten houses. That's just not the case. The reality is they have four that actually could be considered houses they could use."

On how the McCain campaign apparently sees Obama:

"In terms of who's an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type."

On something completely irrelevant:

"This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison."

A couple observations: (1) Isn't it weird how the McCain campaign simultaneously paints Obama as an effete nerd and a super-cool celebrity? (2) Noun-verb-POW!

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Earlier this month, journalist Ron Suskind published a book in which he explosively charged that the White House had directed the CIA to concoct a letter from former Iraqi intelligence chief Tahir Jalil Habbush alleging falsely that 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammad Atta had trained for his mission in Iraq. The bogus letter exists and was indeed passed by an Iraqi exile figure close to the CIA Ayad Allawi to journalist Con Coughlin who published it in the Sunday Telegraph; Newsweek quickly exposed the letter as phony. The White House described Suskind's claims as "absurd," and a CIA official quoted in Suskind's account, Rob Richer, has disputed Suskind's characterization of what happened, as has former CIA director George Tenet. Today, Dan Froomkin follows up at his washingtonpost.com column:

Someone is finally demanding some answers about author Ron Suskind's charge that the White House, seeking to justify its invasion of Iraq, ordered the CIA in late 2003 to forge documents linking Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda and nuclear imports from Niger.

It's not the press, however -- it's the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

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The Obama campaign has the quickest video team on these here internets. It already has an ad up on what is quickly becoming my new favorite story.

I know they had to keep it simple, but I would have tried to work in this point. Take a look at the spending habits of the McCains ("Cindy McCain charged as much as $500,000 in a single month on one American Express card and $250,000 on another") and the fact that they have so many million-dollar homes that John McCain can't even remember them all. And then consider the fact that wasteful spending is supposedly John McCain's animating passion.

I view this as a more serious hypocrisy that John Edwards' zip code-sized house. And we all know how long that story hung around.

Update: Another point Obama's team could have made: how can someone oversee the housing crisis when he doesn't have any day-to-day concerns about his own mortgage? Or mortgages, as the case may be? How can this person set tax rates for the middle class? All of that is implied, I suppose...

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