America’s consumer choices, voting trends and viewing habits help fill in the mosaic of this big economically, politically and socially diverse country.

Jailbreaks are common in Iraq, but the brazen assaults on the prisons at Abu Ghraib and Taji recently are in a class by themselves. The attacks freed perhaps as many as 800 militants, who are now sought by Interpol as a “major threat” to global security.

Facing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently, Samantha Power, President Barack Obama’s nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, surely didn’t expect to stir up the proverbial hornet’s nest.