Poland’s decided to adjust its military committment (original) in Iraq. There aren’t any fewer Polish troops over there, but they’re not quite as interested in administering the area near Baghdad as they once were. You know, we’re gonna wind up turning this mess over to the UN sooner or later, whether or not that’s a good thing.
Baghdad Burning is a new addition to the blogroll; it’s written by a 24 year old Iraqi in Baghdad. It’s strong and angry and educated. No- I’m getting great at it. I can tell you if it’s ‘them’ or ‘us’. I can tell you how far away it is. I can tell you if it’s a pistol or machine-gun, tank or armored vehicle, Apache or Chinook… I can determine the distance and maybe even the target. That’s my new talent. It’s something I’ve gotten so good at, I frighten myself. What’s worse is that almost everyone seems to have acquired this new talent… young and old. And it’s not something that anyone will appreciate on a resume… ...
I don’t have anything really brilliant to say about the Baghdad bombing. What’s there to say? A lot of people died — a lot more people died, I should say, because it’s been a busy summer for terrorists in Iraq — and that’s depressing. The buzz is that it was an Al Qaeda operation. Oddly, Jay Bremer disagrees. “These are probably people left over from the old regime who are simply fighting a rear guard action by attacking Iraq’s assets.” I’m not sure what that means; the Bush administration has been pushing the theory that the US occupation will act as flypaper, and if the UN bombing was not carried out by Iraqis, that would support their theory. But maybe Bremer just thinks Bush is wrong. ...
Ah, those wacky politicians. The Bush campaign is very excited about their news feeds (original). You can now get a feed of the latest headlines from the Bush campaign site right on your blog! Exciting! You accomplish this by means of a Javascript include. You have the choice of two possible layouts. Enjoy. This is actually about right for a lot of people; just cause you keep a blog doesn’t mean you know an RSS feed from a hole in the ground. If I’m Howard Dean, which I’m not, I take notice and get something quick and dirty like that up on my site. But it also misses everyone who knows how to deal with RSS feeds, all the people who use aggregators, and so on. ...
Some good news, which seems awfully slim in the wake of today’s Baghdad bombing: Saddam’s vice president was captured. No idea what he was doing in Mosul — is there Iraqi resentment up there because of the Kurdish activities? Saddam’s sons were up there too. I wouldn’t have thought it would be hospitable territory for ex-Ba’athists. Anyhow. He was a bad person, and I’m glad he was captured. There are now two necessary tasks ahead of the United States… no, three. ...
I lifted the Tom DeLay quote of the day from Talking Points Memo. You can read the whole transcript here (original), or just marvel at my carefully selected quote: “We’re supposed to, by Constitution, apportion or redistrict every 10 years. The state legislature in Texas couldn’t do it in the last legislature, and three judges did it and they did a very poor job, as evidenced that the fact that we have a minority of Republicans in our congressional delegation.” ...
I’m linking to this fairly amusing article on the Texas Democrat walkout not because I am shocked and horrified by the thought that the Republicans may try to delay elections, since I’m not. I could care less if the Republicans want to delay primaries; I see no real reason why primaries should be part of the legal framework of American elections. If the real elections happen without the Republicans selecting a candidate, well, that has its own rewards. ...
The Ultimate California Gubernatorial Recall Candidate List is a nice overview of who’s who, with annotations. “This candidate failed the Turing test in 1999.” Heh. And I didn’t know Bill Walton’s son was running. Although I think he was too kind to Gallagher and Gary Coleman. They belong in the publicity seeker category.
I said something flippant early this week about West Wing setting unreasonable expectations for a Presidency. Stephen Kaye (nice new blog location and layout) noted that some people do ask why President Bartlett couldn’t be president, which actually doesn’t surprise me. All this in preamble to today’s California recall news: Schwarzenegger asked Rob Lowe to join his campaign. Lowe is in fact a Democrat, and of course was a regular on West Wing. George Schultz and Warren Buffett are already on board the campaign. ...
LiveJournal from the streets of Baghdad. Yeah, no kidding; rebelcoyote is a National Guardsman who’s serving a tour of duty over there. He’s got some interesting stories to tell. (Thanks to rollick for the pointer.) Of the other LiveJournallers who list their location as Baghdad, slownewsday, notquitejesus (original), and giantlaser are the only ones who seem to actually be in Baghdad. Or at least are making a good effort to fake it. The directory of people listing their location as Iraq has 161 people in it, so perhaps I will not sort through them just now. Best guess: “not many of ‘em.” ...