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  • 31 Mar 2008
  • 10:41pm EST
  • Politics, War & Peace
  • This post contains political opinions. Reader discretion is advised.

about those imaginary iraqi terror links

Surprise! Saddam Hussein had links to terrorist organizations. You need a moment? It’s okay. I’ll wait.
. . .
Project Harmony, which is sifting through hundreds of thousands of captured documents from the previous regime, released a report on the various links that Ba’athist Iraq provided training, intelligence, or materiel to groups as diverse as:
* Hamas;
* The Army of Muhammad–a Bahraini terror group linked to Osama bin Laden;
* The Egyptian Islamic Jihad;
* The Palestinian Liberation Front, in addition to Yasser Arafat’s goons;
* Islamists in Somalia, where al-Qaeda was fighting against a US humanitarian mission;
* Sudanese fighters–how about that Darfur, eh?
But, hey, we could’ve just hugged ourselves out of those strategic dangers.

  • 31 Mar 2008
  • 10:14pm EST
  • Politics, War & Peace
  • This post contains political opinions. Reader discretion is advised.

a peek inside the NSC

Duke professor Peter Feaver writes a fascinating article in Commentary magazine about the shift in the administration’s Iraq policy during his two-year tenure from 2005 – 2007. It’s an interesting look into the process of formulating a policy and watching hundreds of opportunistic leaders do their best to rip it to shreds. Those influenced by candidates because they can “talk change” would do well to read this article.

This new and different strategy, now called the “surge” but at one point called by insiders the “bridge,” emerged out of a growing recognition over 2006 that our critics were right about one thing: our Iraq policy was not working. At the same time, however, and whether knowingly or ignorantly, many of those same critics were insisting that the answer lay in pursuing precisely the same strategy we already had in place. That is, they were telling us that we needed (a) to push Iraqi government officials to come together politically and (b) to train Iraqi troops so that they could take over from American forces. We had been doing exactly these things for a year, and we had been driven to the brink.

In fairness, Feaver does leave out the parts about lighting evil cigars with hundred-dollar bills, playing evil darts using Iraqi prisoners as dartboards, and twirling their evil Snively Whiplash mustaches.

why american kids aren't crazy about the OLPC

Kevin Delaney has a good article and video over at the WSJ about the One Laptop per Child initiative’s XO-1, which I reviewed in depth last December. It was an interesting concept, but as Delaney points out, the execution has a ways to go. . . even for a kid who isn’t all up on the latest Web 2.0 synergistic orgy of AJAX and social networking.

Post Scriptum: How impossible was the XO-1 to use as a subcompact notebook computer? I just sold my XO-1 and bought an iPhone, and find I can type faster on the 2″ wide virtual keyboard.

links for 2008-03-31

links for 2008-03-29

  • 26 Mar 2008
  • 3:29pm EST
  • Sport

the nba is dead to me

I used to defend the NBA against those who thought college basketball was the superior incarnation of the game. Fan disillusion after a major point-shaving scandal in the college game, after all, was the reason the fledgling Basketball Association of America (BAA) was able take off as a viable league. Fittingly, NBA Commissioner David Stern has taken this opportunity in the midst of March Madness to, in no uncertain terms, throw Seattle professional basketball under the bus:

While taking questions about an NBA relocation subcommittee’s recommendation to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City, Stern said, “The reason that this journey began was because KeyArena was not an adequate arena going forward and there were a lot of recommendations made for another arena … but the tax revenues and the various contributions weren’t forthcoming.”
. . .
“I think Seattle is actually a terrific market. It just doesn’t have an NBA-ready arena of the future that’s been agreed to by all parties for many years,” Stern said. “It’s a very strong market that has, in fact, supported NBA basketball well over the years. When you come to a place like Oklahoma, you look for the single-team market as opposed to, for example, a market that has three or more professional sports leagues in it.”

Thanks a lot, you schmuck. At least we now know that it’s not a case of the league standing by as an owner makes the midnight move to, say, Indianapolis. No, this is a league colluding with some backstabbing Oklahomans against even its own best interest, somehow believing that market share trumps revenues–to say nothing of loyalty.

You can take your league and shove it, Stern. Under your watch, your refs have turned crooked, your players have turned into egotistical circus acts, and now your own front office has all the warmth and tact of Stalin’s cold, dead body. I hope even the NHL buries you for defecating on what was once my favorite league.

  • 26 Mar 2008
  • 9:27am EST
  • Politics
  • This post contains political opinions. Reader discretion is advised.

quote of the day

From Hotline On Call:

“I’m not of the Washington world. ”

– James Carville, “AC 360,” CNN, 3/24.

Nor was Gollum.

there will be vader

This is why mashups were invented. This one stars Daniel Plainview as Darth Vader.

[h/t: Kottke]

links for 2008-03-24

links for 2008-03-23

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