Hoi PolloiMusings, music, mischieviousness.Savior this while it lasts!- March 31, 2004 The Yankees have the worst record in all of baseball! The Red Sox magic number is 162.http://blogs.salon.com/0003285/2004/03/30.html#a122 The Dog That Didn't Bark- March 29, 2004 Condi's defense of Bush's pressing Clarke to find an Iraqi connection to 911 is correct, up to a point. It was a question that had to be asked, even though the answer was as certain as a sunset. Clearly, our rule-by-his-gut President was going with his gut on this one -- after all, Cheney, Condi, Wolfie and Rummy had all been tutoring him on the state-based theory of combatting terrorism from day one. Rule-By-His-Gut may be a slow learner, but after 8 months something probably...http://blogs.salon.com/0003285/2004/03/29.html#a121 My hair is on fire- March 28, 2004 Friedman, Friedman, Friedman. The World's Smartest Man In The Realm Of Foreign Policy (as determined by a poll of one, with an error margin of +- 100 percent) starts his column today thus: I have a confession to make: I am the foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times and I didn't listen to one second of the 911 hearings and I didn't read one story in the paper about them. Not one second. Not one story. Lord knows, it's not out of indifference to 911. It's because I made up my mind.http://blogs.salon.com/0003285/2004/03/28.html#a120 Declassify deslashify- March 27, 2004 The inimitable Bill Frist is calling for declassifying Clarke's earlier testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate the possibility that Mr. Clarke committed perjury, either then, or in his sworn testimony to the 9-11 commission this week. I don't know if Clarke lied in either instance. I imagine that his Senate testimony is pretty much an effort to support the Bush administration's anti-terrorism efforts without wandering too far from the truth. The senators were not,...http://blogs.salon.com/0003285/2004/03/27.html#a119 Notion of the day- March 26, 2004 Ricard Clarke is the left's Ollie North. ..'cept with a long resume of honorable service, honesty, and being right on critical issues.http://blogs.salon.com/0003285/2004/03/26.html#a118 Lies, damn lies, and Republican lies- March 23, 2004 Lifted in its entirety from the Center for American Progress (http:www.americanprogress.orgsitepp.aspc=biJRJ8OVF&b=39828): In the wake of Richard Clarke's well-supported assertions that the Bush Administration neglected counterterrorism in the face of repeated terror warnings before 911, the Bush Administration has launched a frantic misinformation campaign &150; often contradicting itself in the process. CLAIM 1: "Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities to tell us in...http://blogs.salon.com/0003285/2004/03/22.html#a117 Let's hope this isn't a trend- March 22, 2004 http:news.bbc.co.uk2hisouth_asia3555257.stm Afghanistan's Civil Aviation Minister, Mirwais Sadiq, has been killed in the western city of Herat. One report said Mr Sadiq died after a rocket propelled grenade hit his car. The attack followed a failed bid to kill his father, the governor of Herat. After Mr Sadiq's death, heavy fighting broke out between troops loyal to his father and a senior local military commander Zahir Nayebzada, police said. There are reports that up to 100...http://blogs.salon.com/0003285/2004/03/21.html#a116 Let's hope this is a trend- March 21, 2004 I am far, very far, from being an expert on Malaysian politics... but it appears that Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has won re-election in a landslide, with the Islamic Party, Pas, losing control of the two states they control. http:news.bbc.co.uk2hiasia-pacific3554137.stm Now, this could be all upside down...I'm assuming that the winners are more moderate, and less tolerant of radical jihadists, than the Pas people. I hope so, and that this will prove to be the start of a.http://blogs.salon.com/0003285/2004/03/21.html#a115 Reconstruction progress- March 21, 2004 The Christian Science Monitor's Dan Murphy has a nice, brief recap of progress in Iraq on the first anniversary of the invasion (complete with charts!). The lead grafs: BAGHDAD &150; Andy Bearpark, the soft-spoken Briton in charge of the US-led coalition's reconstruction efforts in Iraq, was detailing an impressive list of achievements Wednesday morning. Phone services, basic sewage, electricity, and oil production have all improved to near prewar conditions. A nationwide poll found that.http://blogs.salon.com/0003285/2004/03/21.html#a114 |