] Spanish police have arrested eight suspected Islamic
] militants. Authorities say they were planning to carry
] out a terrorist attack in the center of the capital.
 . . .
] A ministry statement says the suspects belonged to a
] terrorist cell and were in touch with individuals in the
] United States, Europe, and Australia.
]
] Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso says the suspects
] were preparing to bomb the headquarters of the Superior
] Court in Madrid.

Spain Arrests Terror Suspects

] "Well," he sighed, "no one's going to take this idea
] seriously, but here's what I would do. I would free
] Saddam and tell him to go form a new government.'
]
] That got my attention. "You'd do what?" Everything he'd
] said up to that point had seemed sensible. if grim.
]
] "Look," he said, "Saddam's been the only bastard mean
] enough to govern Iraq for any length of time. I'd hold
] him to a few conditions - no WMD's, no rewards to the
] families of suicide bombers, right of first refusal on
] Iraqi oil - then I'd tell him to go back to doing what he
] knows how to do. I mean, if you want a stable Iraq, he's
] a lot more likely to produce one than we are."

I'll underline Barlow's proposal (which is not the above lead in text) because it relates to something Stratfor has advised: Figure out how to minimize exposure to problems in Iraq without conceeding anything. I.E. Liberal democracy is impossible because a democratic election would bring Mullahs to power. The place is going to become an extension of Iran, which is a serious problem for us in the long run, but our short term goal is dealing with Al'Q, and in that respect our purpose is merely to show strength, and for that much the job is done, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are ever so slowly moving to address the issues.

I'm not sure if I agree that a "free and democratic" Kurdistan would be a symbol for the region anymore then a "free and democratic" Israel is. The Islamic world is not going to identify with the Kurds. Then again, if Iraq is going to make such a shining example then why wouldn't Afghanistan?

For that matter, it ought to be underlined that as bad as Saddam was, he was contained, and a contained Saddam is very likely to be better then anything else that we get out of that place regardless of how expedient it was to attack him.

Was it really impossible to convince the Saudis and Pakistan to move without creating this mess in Iraq? This seems amazingly unlikley to me, particularly given the relationship between the Bush administration and the Saudis. You'd think we could have negotiated it without firing a shot. You'd think they would have known Bush well enough not to think he was bluffing.

Is there any serious commentator out there who thinks everything is going to work out fine in Iraq?

Kerry has signed up for a hell of a job, inheritting this nightmare, the soft economy, the coming baby boomer entitlement and savings crunch, the serious economic competition coming out of Asia, and the disaster that our healthcare system has become. No one knows how to solve these problems, and the solutions that are bandied about amount to political pandering. Its going to be a long, cold winter and my generation will be passing on by the time it thaws.

BarlowFriendz: Exit Strategies

Japaneese people rule! Not only are these fun, but one placed on a plate of sushi with a carefully positioned peice of ginger over the interface is a perfect way to covertly exchange files with your sushi chef.

USB Sushi drives

This 11 page bush bash was in the NYT on Sunday. I've been avoiding memeing it for 24 hours. Its just too long. And its not news. But its absolutely everywhere. Every blog is discussing it. So I decided that some people up here might enjoy reading it. So here it is.

] In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that
] the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications
] director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush.
] He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me
] something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I
] now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.
]
] The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based
] community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions
] emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and
] murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism.
] He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he
] continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own
] reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will
] -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too,
] and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all
] of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"

The New York Times - Magazine - Without a Doubt

] Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a
] flawed felon voter list before it went out to county
] election offices despite warnings from state officials

Screwing up who can and can't vote once is probably an error. Do it twice, and you're probably trying to screw someone. They have had time to fix this. Failure in this regard is unacceptable.

Yahoo! News - Report: Jeb Bush Ignored Felon List Advice

The alternative to blind belief is not simply unbelief but a different kind of belief -- one that embraces uncertainty and enables us to respect others whom we do not understand. In a complex world, wisdom is knowing what we don't know so that we can keep the future open.

What Derrida Really Meant

One-third of the Arab population is under the age of 15.

'Oops. I Told the Truth.'

] At the final presidential debate, Bush said Kerry had
] passed only five bills during his career, and Kerry said
] he had passed 56. Actually, we found eleven measures
] authored by Kerry have been signed into law, including a
] save-the-dolphins law, a law naming a federal building,
] a law giving a posthumous award to Jackie Robinson last
] year, and laws declaring "world population awareness
] weeks" in 1989 and 1991.

Just How Many Bills Has Kerry Passed?

STEWART: You know, the interesting thing I have is, you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.

CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think.

STEWART: You need to go to one. The thing that I want to say is, when you have people on for just knee-jerk, reactionary talk...

CARLSON: Wait. I thought you were going to be funny. Come on. Be funny.

STEWART: No. No. I'm not going to be your monkey.

(LAUGHTER)

BEGALA: Go ahead. Go ahead.

STEWART: I watch your show every day. And it kills me.

CARLSON: I can tell you love it.

STEWART: It's so -- oh, it's so painful to watch.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: You know, because we need what you do. This is such a great opportunity you have here to actually get politicians off of their marketing and strategy.

CARLSON: Is this really Jon Stewart? What is this, anyway?

IFILM: John Stewart vs. CNN Crossfire

] "Let history be witness I am a criminal."

This story is interesting on a number of levels.
Outwardly, you've got the small town library fighting to protect it's patron list.

Secondly, you've got the FBI not using the Patriot act to collect that list. Its informative on that level. They likely didn't use the patriot act because the conservatives are fond of defending the ability to collect library records by saying that its never been used. On the other hand, because they didn't use the patriot act the library is screaming to high heaven about the inquiry. If they had reason to suspect that an Islamic terrorist did actually read this book that guy has lots and lots of notice that the feds are on to him. In a way, by running screaming to the press the library is demonstrating why the feds need gag orders on libraries. (My defense here of gag orders should not be misconstrued as a defense of the collection of this data without a court order.)

The third level is the interest in the first place. Why get a grand jury involved just because someone scribbled a quote in the margins of a book? Is this a Bin Lauden quote? Googling the quote only returns references to this story. One blogger from the area claims to have seen another quotation in a TV news report about the incident. I wonder if the quotation is entirely different then these two and one which hasn't been made public... Something only someone connected to the base would know...

(Turns out the correct quote is "Let history be witness that I am a criminal." Google it.)

komo 4 news | Small Town Library Takes On The Feds