Politics

JOHN LOTT UPDATE….One of the things that John Lott has complained about is bloggers making harsh accusations without bothering to ask him first for an explanation. There is probably some justice to this, and I’ve noticed myself that while he has responded via email to bits and pieces of the accusation about his 1997 survey, […]

THE UN REPORT….I know this is easy for me to say since I’m already convinced that we need to get rid of Saddam Hussein by force if necessary, but yesterday’s UN report was pretty damning. Hans Blix ? hardly a war hawk ? said, “Iraq appears not to have come to genuine acceptance, not even […]

PERFIDIOUS MARIANNE….Glenn Reynolds says: DOES SADDAM HAVE NUKES? ARE THE FRENCH SPYING FOR SADDAM? Trent Telenko has info on both. I’ve gotten some email from military folks suggesting the latter based on the behavior of French ships and aircraft in the Persian Gulf region. If it’s true, paybacks should be severe. Hmmm….let’s click on the […]

PLAYING IN PEORIA….Hesiod provides an assessment of the Democratic presidential field from a….slightly different perspective than his usual one. Check it out.

BUSH, CHENEY, RUMSFELD, AND WAR….Atrios points to this profile of Norman Schwarzkopf in the Washington Post today: [Schwarzkopf] contrasts Cheney’s low profile as defense secretary during the Gulf War with Rumsfeld’s frequent television appearances since Sept. 11, 2001. “He almost sometimes seems to be enjoying it.” That, Schwarzkopf admonishes, is a sensation to be avoided […]

JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE PARANOID DOESN’T MEAN THEY AREN’T WATCHING YOU….Just in case anyone thought I was exaggerating a few days ago in my post about ubiquitous surveillance, check out this paragraph from the Economist: The use of video surveillance cameras is also growing. Britain has an estimated 1.5m cameras monitoring public places. According to one […]

ALL ABOUT OIL?….Via Body and Soul, here’s a truly puzzling story from the Observer: Facing its most chronic shortage in oil stocks for 27 years, the US has this month turned to an unlikely source of help – Iraq. Weeks before a prospective invasion of Iraq, the oil-rich state has doubled its exports of oil […]

DO WE HAVE THE GOODS ON IRAQ?….Martin Indyk and Kenneth Pollack have an op-ed in the New York Times today about the Iraqi “inspections trap”: how does President Bush avoid having UN inspections drag out forever, with Saddam Hussein forever providing just enough cooperation to convince our allies to give him more time? In general, […]

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY….Virginia Postrel ? who apparently thinks that permalinks are a part of the future she’d just as soon do without ? has a bunch of good posts up right now, including this one about U.S. diplomatic missions: In small countries at least, U.S. embassy personnel routinely throw their weight around, getting all sorts of […]

IS THERE A SECRET TO THIS?….Does CNN offer lessons in how to be a talking head? I mean, where do they find this endless parade of people who are able to talk for minutes at a time without taking a breath? I’m just asking.