Politics

Because I know I’m going to want to refer to this later. The Weekly Standard story (original) on the DoD memo about Al Qaeda/Iraq connections The DoD press release (original) explaining that the “memo” was a list of reports, some of which hadn’t been vetted, and that the memo is meaningless Glenn Reynolds being an idiot Let’s be clear on this. The reports discussed in the memo are simply the reports Doug Feith used to make the case for an imminent threat from Iraq. Doug Feith is guilty of politicizing intelligence (original) in the worst way. He has been, in the past, cozened by Ahmed Chalabi. He was in charge of post-war planning — the same planning that has been faulty to the degree that Bush is adopting the French plan. ...

The Massachusetts Supreme Court just ruled that bans on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional. That’s the Massachusetts Constitution, not the US Constitution. There’s some pro-same-sex marriage background about the case here (original), and some fairly frothing anti-same-sex marriage background here (original). Or just get the fairly unbiased coverage from Howard Bashman, who knows his stuff. The actual ruling has been mirrored here (original).

For quite some time, England has lived with the reality of IRA terrorists who would like to see various important Brits dead. London knows a lot more about living under that sort of threat than we do. That’s a simple statement of fact; 9/11 was of much larger magnitude, but England’s been dealing with this sort of thing for decades. In all those years, they have somehow managed to keep the Prime Minister and the Queen safe without shutting down the London Underground. One wonders what sort of a cowboy is afraid of risks the Queen of England takes on a regular basis. ...

There’ve been a lot of DoD press releases (original) about deaths recently. They’re fairly abstracted, which I think is appropriate. This one (original) reports the death of Robert A. Wise of Florida. His friend Trueman, who is currently recuperating in a hospital in Germany, gives us his account of the attack which killed Specialist Wise.

Others have made this point, but it’s a good excuse to link to a funny comic, so I’m gonna make it again. Tom Tomorrow isn’t saying you don’t have the right to comment on war unless you’re enlisted or a veteran. He’s saying — well, read the second panel. “I’m waging war on the Islamofascists — on my blog!” He’s saying that’s a really stupid thing to say. Now, that might seem like hyperbole. Who says stuff like that? Perhaps the irate blogger is really meant to represent some other class of bloggers. Warbloggers in general, maybe. Maybe he’s saying all warbloggers are stupid. ...

Juan Cole has the scoop on the new plan for transferring power to an Iraqi government. I could meander on but I think he nails the implications, pros, and cons.

Handy Democratic primary link of the day: Poll Roundup, from a Daily Kos denizen’s diary. There’s a clearer but less detailed version here.

The most interesting thing on television today is the 30 hour Senate debate on judicial nominees (original). It’s not going to change a thing either way, but both the Democrats and the Republicans are tossing their best speakers up there to chew up time and sling rhetoric. Good for those fascinated by process.

Wow, those are certainly some attractive jobless numbers there. In fact, they’re so good I stole the graphic so I could stick it up here. Damn, but that’s good. So good, I decided to reformat it a bit so I could admire it again. Oh. And I guess employment dropped by 41,000 anyhow. So, uh… what’s unemployment look like, anyhow? As they say, all this really means is that the rate of increase has decreased. ...

So this means that the RNC is going to be as critical of the Jessica Lynch TV movie as they were of the Reagan miniseries, right?