Iraq and Iwo Jima have a lot in common. One is a metropolitan country in the heart of the Middle East. The other is small volcanic island located due south of Tokyo. One is Muslim. The other is part of Japan's Shinto/Buddhist complex. One has vast oil wealth. The other has some fisheries and military bases. One holds a strategic position in the heart of one of the world's most volatile regions, which is also the incubator of a new global war. The other is, well, still just a small island in the middle of almost nowhere.

The battle for Iwo was one of the toughest in the entire Pacific Campaign. 70,000 Marines invaded, 6,821 of whom never came home. An additional 19,217 were wounded, and 2,648 suffered combat fatigue. All in just five weeks of fighting.

The battle for Iraq continues, but the results aren't nearly so bad. To date, about 1,400 killed and 10,000 wounded in just less than two years of fighting.

But Iraq and Iwo Jima still have a lot in common – and more than might be obvious even to the serious student of history. To see at long last what I mean, let's look at the critiques.

There's a strong chance that invading Iwo was a mistake. We didn't need it as a forward staging area for Operation Olympic. Iwo didn't control some resource vital to Hirohito's war machine. In fact, we invaded Iwo Jima and sacrificed nearly 7,000 lives for… an emergency airbase.

That's right. All of that effort, all of those injuries, all of those lives, just so that bomber crews might have a safe place to put down in case of emergency. I don't mean to say Iwo wasn't necessarily worth it. Every airman who found refuge there owed a debt of honor to the Marines who died there. And the propaganda value of the famous flag-raising on Iwo was priceless.

There are many in this country – and in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere – who in all honesty think that our invasion of Iraq was a mistake. There are lots of reasons, some more sound than others. Quickly, in order of decreasing rationality:

• It was a distraction from the "real" Terror War.
• Iraq isn't ready for democracy.
• We'll never affect any real change in the Middle East.
• We'll just create more terrorists.
• There weren't any WMDs.
• Saddam wasn't a threat.
• Iraq never did anything to hurt us.
• It's all about the oooooooooiiiiiiillllll.

At the time we invaded Iwo Jima, we were planning on a war lasting until, at least, the summer of 1946. No one in Operations knew about the Manhattan Project, and Operation Olympic was assumed to be the only way to end the war – 10-15 months later than it actually did. By that math, Iwo Jima's airstrips would have almost certainly saved more lives than it cost to conquer. The fact the Iwo ended up as a net loss was something we could know only in hindsight.

Same goes for Iraq, only more so.

We went into Iraq for various reasons, some more palatable than others. The primary reason was, despite Bush Administration claims, to gain a strategic footprint in the Middle East with "Democracy" imprinted on the sole. We went into Iwo Jima for one reason, but got multiple benefits for doing so.

Iwo Jima helped teach us how to deal with kamikazes. Iraq is teaching us how to deal with the modern version, the suicide bomber. Iwo made it easier and safer for us to bring the war home to Japan. Iraq has made it easier for us to bring the consequences of the Terror War home to Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Iwo gave us the uplifting vision of the Marines hoisting the flag on enemy soil. Iraq gave us the uplifting vision of eight million first-time voters planting the flag of freedom on their own soil.

Casualties on Iwo helped Truman make his decision to use nukes against Japan – bringing the war to an early conclusion and sparing hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides.

Today's atom bomb is democracy in the Middle East – and it's been dropped on Iraq. The fallout has spread far and wide, to Saudi Arabia, to Egypt, to Palestine, and perhaps even to Syria and Iran. Its effects could well bring an early conclusion to today global war, sparing thousands of lives on each side.

But that's where the similarities end.

We went into Iwo Jima, with the hope of maybe, hopefully, saving a few more American lives than we lost. And probably, we failed. We went into Iraq hoping to bring revolutionary change to the Arab people, who have suffered under odious regimes.

Reading the news this week, it looks like our efforts in Iraq are paying off.

And if they don't? Then we'll have sacrificed 1,400 or so American lives for a great dream – compared to the 7,000 lives we once sacrificed to gain landing fields we never really needed.

Every life lost in battle, whether the war is lost or won, is an almost unspeakable tragedy. But the dream our men and women are dying for today – that's a dream worth fighting for.

Oops – did I say "dream?" From Egypt to Palestine to Syria to Iraq to Saudi to Afghanistan, our fighting men and women are making the dream into a reality.

If I ever getting into videoblogging, it won't be anything special. Just a quickcam capture of me reading Jeff Goldstein and Tim Blair, while I drink vodka martinis and gripe, "I wish I were that good."

Taking a quick break from essay writing to note this from Josh Marshall:

This may surprise some of you, but I rarely if ever get any email from Republicans. But TPM gets email from the whole world, and today I received quite a few from people wanting to know why I wasn't posting anything about Lebanon. Not having any particular thing to say about the happy contingency of the apparent collapse of the pro-Syrian government there, I didn't worry about it much, until I got an email referring to this event as part of a "democracy domino." And then I got it: those insistent correspondents were suggesting that I, as a Democrat, was indifferent to the latest triumph of Bush administration foreign policy.

Now I am aware the State Department made the appropriate noises, as its predecessors would have done, after the Hariri assassination, about Syrian dominance of Lebanon, and I also know the Bush administration has been generally hostile towards the Syrian government, as has been U.S. policy for as long as I can remember. But it literally never crossed my mind that Bush's fans would credit him with for this positive event, as though his pro-democracy speeches exercise some sort of rhetorical enchantment.

This is the kind of thinking, of course, that has convinced God knows how many people that Ronald Reagan personally won the Cold War. It's the old post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this) logical fallacy.

Sure, Lebanon has been under Syria's boot for a quarter century, so it's just coincidence that the locals are demanding freedom at the same time Iraqis are getting theirs.

Sure, Saudis have never voted ever, so it's just coincidence that they had their first-ever, semi-free, all-male elections around the same time Iraqis got theirs.

Sure, Egyptians haven't been promised a free election since the Brits left (and before the Brits even arrived), so it's just coincidence that they're getting promised one right after the Iraqis got theirs.

Sure, Syrians have never had free elections and aren't about to get any, but it's still just coincidence that they're facing an uprising of popular will right after Iraqis expressed their popular will.

Maybe, in the world of Joshua Micah Marshall, that's all just circumstantial evidence.

But juries have convicted guilty men on far less.

Smile, Josh -- we're winning the damn war. Why can't you admit, just once, that the guy in charge is doing an OK job?

UPDATE: Josh Marshall might be better informed if he spent more time reading... Josh Marshall:

In short, the administration is trying to roll the table--to use U.S. military force, or the threat of it, to reform or topple virtually every regime in the region, from foes like Syria to friends like Egypt, on the theory that it is the undemocratic nature of these regimes that ultimately breeds terrorism. So events that may seem negative--Hezbollah for the first time targeting American civilians; U.S. soldiers preparing for war with Syria--while unfortunate in themselves, are actually part of the hawks' broader agenda. Each crisis will draw U.S. forces further into the region and each countermove in turn will create problems that can only be fixed by still further American involvement, until democratic governments--or, failing that, U.S. troops--rule the entire Middle East.

A tip of the hat to the indispensable Frank Martin.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Speaking of which...

Bush's fault? Well, there are pictures to help prove it...

I'm working on what will be, I hope, a damn solid essay. So instead of waiting for hot & fresh & light material tonight, read this and this in full if you haven't already.

Anyway, I hope to have the thing -- titled "Perspective" -- late tonight, lunchtime tomorrow at the latest.

This time, it's the AP and Palestinian "outrage."

NOTE: Right now, I'm willing to cut the Palestinians a little slack. Hell, I'm feeling so giddy, I'll even let the AP slide. Even if there's only a little Palestinian outrage over the most recent boming in Israel, at least:

1. It's there.

2. Outrage is the line the PA is taking.

That's progress. Slow, small... but real.

Hey, kids -- here's a game everyone can play!

Europe's invaluable contribution to Free Iraq:

LUXEMBOURG (current holder of EU presidency): $196,000.

BELGIUM: $261,000 and five to ten driving instructors under German command for a training mission based in the UAE.

DENMARK: 10 trainers and seven soldiers for force protection. It also sent an assortment of pistols, radios, binoculars and other equipment for Iraq's new army.

THE NETHERLANDS: 10 military police and 15 trainers already sent for the mission. It might send some more and contribute some money.

GREECE: $650,000.

What about Europe's heavyweights?

FRANCE: set to train 1,500 Iraqi military police in Qatar, but probably outside
NATO's mission. France may contribute to NATO fund for the mission.

SPAIN: plans to train groups of 25 Iraqis in mine clearance at a centre outside Madrid; several groups could be trained each year.

GERMANY: $652,000; plus it is training Iraqi military in UAE.

All told, that's worth far less than Europeans paid into Saddam's kickback fund during the halcyon days of Oil-for-Food.

Thanks, fellas.

You realize, of course, this means war:

Recent communications between Usama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi indicate that bin Laden has "encouraged Zarqawi and his group to focus on attacks inside the United States," multiple U.S. officials told FOX News on Monday.

The sources would not get into detail about how the communication was made or how it was intercepted by the United States. They also said that there is nothing specific in the message, such as maps or references to particular cities or buildings. Rather, the communication simply encourages a "focus" on attacks inside U.S. borders, sources said.

Well, duh -- we've been at war with these jokers for a decade now. That's not what's interesting.

What's interesting is, the dual messages Osama is sending. Allow me to translate his reported request to Zarqawi:

Hey, pal. Peace be unto you and all that. Now listen up. The Americans have just about run my group into the ground. Most of my people are rounded up or martyred, our sanctuary is gone, and it's getting tougher and tougher to recruit new kids. Well, I don't have to tell you about that last one, do I?

Anyway, it's not like we here at al Qaeda are going to be doing anything big over in America any time soon. And let's be honest: Your gang is hurting the Movement over in Iraq. You just don't know how to get people on your side. But you are good at killing -- so why not do a little less killing of our brothers in Iraq, and concentrate on killing heathens in America?

Allow me to translate that even more: We're winning, kids.

We're winning.

UPDATE: Jeff has more, that brainwave-sucking bastard.

Day By Day... just... read it already...

Best summary yet of the goings on in Lebanon is at new-to-no-one-but-me blog, Across the Bay.

Meanwhile, in America, our crazy-cool lives go on:

Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett was the first person to circle the globe solo in a hot-air balloon. Now, he wants to make the trip in a single-engine airplane without stopping - another aviation first.

Fossett, 60, hoped to take off in his GlobalFlyer on Monday afternoon at Salina Municipal Airport and land there again about 66 hours later. The 23,000-mile flight had already been postponed several times because of shifting jet stream patterns or weather at Salina.

"I'm a bit nervous about takeoff," said Fossett, who has logged about 30 hours in the jet-powered aircraft. "I will be the ultimate test pilot. I have a lot to worry about. It's a major endeavor."

Godspeed.

Adding to an Instalanche is more than a little like pissing into a rainstorm. But on the off chance you missed this link over at the big guy's blog, click and read it now.

Talk about looking for trouble in the wrong direction:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he thought Washington might eventually resort to military action against his country.

"Washington has imposed sanctions on us and isolated us in the past, but each time the circle hasn't closed around us," Assad told Italy's Repubblica newspaper.

"If, however, you ask me if I'm expecting an armed attack, well I've seen it coming since the end of the war in Iraq."

Don't worry about Washington, Baby Assad. Worry about Beirut -- and maybe Damascus.

While revolution brews in Lebanon, it's business as usual for Europe and Iran.

Hitchens on where "the Arab street" went:

In retrospect, it's difficult to decide precisely when this annoying expression began to expire, if only from diminishing returns. There was, first, the complete failure of the said "street" to detonate with rage when coalition forces first crossed the border of Iraq, as had been predicted (and one suspects privately hoped) by so many "experts." But one still continued to hear from commentators who conferred street-level potency on passing "insurgents." (I remember being aggressively assured by an interviewer on Al Franken's quasi-comedic Air America that Muqtada Sadr's "Mahdi Army" in Najaf was just the beginning of a new "Tet Offensive.") Mr. Sadr duly got a couple of seats in the recent Iraqi elections. And it was most obviously those elections that discredited the idea of ventriloquizing the Arab or Muslim populace or of conferring axiomatic authenticity on the loudest or hoarsest voice.

Of course, the Arab street was also going to rise up against us when the Afghan War began. And when Israel put Arafat under virtual house arrest. And when Saddam was captured, etc.

What Hitch leaves out is, where the Arab street is rising up in anger: In tiny Lebanon, in protest against their Syrian overlords. And quietly, in Iraq, during last month's election. With some trepidation, in Egypt, as free elections are promised. Anyway, you get the idea.

The Arab street is marching against homegrown oppression, not against American "imperialism."

Peace Corps volunteer Robert [not his real name, for obvious reasons] writes from Ukraine:

A friend received an sms message from a Lebanese friend currently in Beirut. The message simply said "God Bless the USA". We have very limited access to news so we immediately went online and started searching for news about the US. Was there a bombing? What happened?

While I was searching, she was messaging back and finally received a call from him. In lebanon the news was reporting that Syria was finally pulling troops out. People were having parties to celebrate. People were in the streets shouting "God Bless the USA" and "God Bless George Bush".

Wow, this sounds like a time to celebrate right? But my friends looked like they had been punched in the stomach. Just that morning they had double teamed me and insisted that the bush regime was the most evil on the planet and of course in the history of the US.

So why were they not happy? One meekly commented that perhaps this was
actually the result of Iraq etc. in spite of Bush's evil intentions.
The other simply kept quiet beyond asserting that it was a stupid mistake to think that Bush had anything to do with this development.

It was if their entire world was crashing down on them.

Robert continues:

Iraq's "insurgents" continue to win the hearts and minds of the locals:

BAGHDAD — At least 106 were killed and 133 wounded early today when an apparent suicide car bomber attacked a group of men in the city of Hilla lining up for medical examinations needed to join Iraqi security forces, police said.

It was by far the bloodiest attack since the Jan. 30 election and one of the worst since the insurgency began in the summer of 2003, following the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

The blast occurred outside a medical clinic near the center of Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, and caused now familiar scenes of carnage and havoc. Ambulance workers rushed to the bloody scene and extracted the wounded from piles of dead and wounded and scattered body parts.

The mass murder of men trying to help their country is an act of desperation byh vicious brutes, not a signal of impending victory for a popular front.

Man, talk about burying the lede.

Congrats, Joe.

Photoblogging, Navy style.

Dan Rather is still standing by Mary Mapes:

"To people who have been so loyal and true, I'm not going to give up on them," Rather says, referring to Mary Mapes, who was fired immediately after the release of the critical report, and three others, who were asked to resign by CBS's co-chairman, Leslie Moonves.

RatherBiased has the whole story.

The real Ward Churchill scandal from new-to-me blogger, Coalition of the Swilling.

Love the name.

Beirut:

In a special speech to Parliament, Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister has announced his resignation and that of his government.

Following Monday's statement by Prime Minister Omar Karami, a Lebanese opposition figure called for popular protests in Beirut to continue until Syria quits Lebanon.

"The battle is long, and this is the first step, this is the battle for freedom, sovereignty and independence," opposition MP Ghattas Khouri told a cheering protest in central Beirut, according to Reuters.

Ukraine, Georgia, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Lebanon?

Who's next?

UPDATE: The good professor writes that "the government has just fallen."

Glenn, it didn't fall -- it was pushed over the ledge by popular protest.

UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein's take is meaner and funnier. Which, like you knew that already.

VodkaPundit is a Michael Jackson-Free Zone since February 24, 2005.

We here at VP promise to go at least four more days without a mention of the Wacko One, unless of course something really really funny happens - or double your money back.

I didn't watch the Oscars last night, and haven't since Letterman hosted. Not because Dave sucked -- I loved his schtick. Always have. Just lost interest is all.

Fortunately, La Shawn Barber did watch, and has a scathing review.

UPDATE: No, she didn't really watch. But she really didn't have to.

We'll get to Ward Churchill in a moment, but a story first.

Twenty years ago, my Grandfather Green had a problem with the Teamsters.

Preston M. Green owned a small steel service plant, Southwest Steel, and one of the shop guys was trouble. He refused to work. He showed up drunk. He started fights. Grandpa had been trying to get rid of the guy for months, if not years. If you've ever seen a steel shear or a pickling plant in action, you understand why you don't want drunks or fights anywhere near them.

Then the guy showed up drunk again one day - with a pistol.

Now, this wasn't Preston's first run-in with a Teamster. He'd been through strikes, he'd been through slowdowns, he'd been through every kind of union trouble you can imagine. Grandpa, however, wasn't anti-union. As he told me years ago, "The way management used to run roughshod over the workers way back when, it was criminal. Unions were necessary."

But this guy... this drunk, gun-waving guy... well, he was too much.

After the gun incident, the shop foreman went to Preston's office and said, "You have to get rid of him."

"I can't," Grandpa replied. "All your goddamn rules have my hands tied. He's your problem."

And that was a fact. The company couldn't fire him, because he was a Teamster. The Teamsters couldn't get rid of him, because, well, he was a Teamster.

That childhood story came to mind reading this:

University of Colorado officials are considering offering Ward Churchill an early retirement package that could end an increasingly uncomfortable standoff with the controversial professor.

Two people familiar with internal CU discussions said the still-undetermined offer is in the idea stage. The discussions come just a week before a three-person panel is scheduled to deliver a report on Churchill's fitness for tenure.

David Lane, Churchill's attorney, said he has not been contacted about a buyout offer.

But, he said, while his primary focus is on protecting Churchill's constitutional right to speak out, he would be willing to listen to a university proposal.

"If they offer $10 million, I would think about it. If they offer him $10, I wouldn't," Lane said.

Things have gotten so bad on campus, that UC can't get rid of a known liar and plagiarist - not without a ten million dollar settlement, that is. Things have gotten so bad in the courts, that a ten million dollar buyout might be cheaper than a court fight. Things have gotten so bad, that a liar and plagiarist holds all the cards; he can keep his stature, pay, and influence, or he can get a seven figure check.

Tenure has become the Teamsters of acadamia. Even when acadamia doesn't want the guy around any longer, they still have no easy way to get rid of him.

Ward Churchill is now a brother-in-arms with the drunk, gun-waving idiot in a steel plant. A major university finds itself in the same position as a hated "robber-baron." Ward might be flattered by the comparison, but I doubt the University of Colorado would be.

But they have no one to blame but themselves.

It's too soon to gloat, but I'm going to anyway.

Many of the same people who said that the Iraq War was wrong, stupid, criminal, immoral, Hitlerian, whatever, also told us we just had to keep making deals with Arafat. (Or more accurately, pressuring the Israelis into doing so.) But look what's happening now that Ol' Liver Lips is dead.

For starters, Israel is on the diplomatic offensive against Syria:

Shalom and Major General Ze'evi will meet with ambassadors of the European Union countries and countries that currently serve on the United Nations Security Council to present the evidence that Syrian-based groups have been involved in multiple attacks, including the weekend bombing at a beachfront nightclub, which killed four people.

Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, who heads MI's research department, will make similar presentations in Washington, London and Paris.

Before Arafat's death, an Israeli diplomatic move could always be countered by a "but what abotu the Palestinians?" gambit. Today, however, the Palestinian Authority isn't just freely-elected, it's even taking sides against Syria:

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas angrily accused a "third party" on Saturday of sabotaging the Middle East peace process by orchestrating the suicide bombing on Friday night, as Israel threatened a resumption of targeted killings of militants.

And:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not tolerate attacks such as last Friday's suicide bombing in Israel and reaffirmed his commitment to finding peace.

In an interview with Britain's Independent newspaper published on Monday, Abbas blamed an unnamed party for sabotaging peace efforts.

"We believe peace is possible now and we are ready to negotiate with Israel to reach a true and lasting peace," Abbas said ahead of a meeting in London on Tuesday to discuss Palestinian reforms.

"As for the suicide bombing last Friday, such actions will not be tolerated by us as they are against the Palestinian interests."

"Third party" is code for "Syria." I had my doubts about Abbas - and it isn't time yet to break out the party hats - but let's sound a cheer for free elections, shall we?

Meanwhile, don't think Syria isn't feeling the pressure, from Israel and elsewhere:

A half-brother of former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein has been captured with help from a Syrian government seeking to ward off accusation it is helping Iraqi militants.

Now, we know Syria (along with that secular regime's allies in Tehran) has been aiding the Iraqi insurency. Yet they just sold out one of the biggest insurgents.

Meanwhile, Egypt is promising free(er) elections, the Saudis are calling for a nuke ban, and even Tmo Friedman is sounding cautiously optimistic about the chances of real reform in the Arab world.

Not one of these events would have been possible if Arafat or Saddam Hussein were still in power. President Bush decided that Arafat wasn't worth dealing with, and that future progress would have to wait for a freely-elected PA. President Bush decided that big changes in the Middle East weren't possible until Hussein was dealt with in the most serious way.

It's still too soon to gloat - all of the progress we've seen still could slip away, if we retreat from our principles, from this fight. But looking at the news this week, it's become obvious that President Bush, and his neocon-warblogger-chickenhawk allies here in the blogosphere were right when we said that Arafat and Saddam had to go.

Never wrote anything about Glovegate because, well, it seemed too silly to be news, but not silly enough to bother with. Then a teacher of mine from way back when, Tom Teel, emailed this:

I worked in Germany as a computer simulation technician all across the country supporting the United States Army. While I was in Germany I worked with both German and American soldiers. I lived on the local economy, ate in the local German gasthous, shopped at the local German stores, and was a member of the community. I talked to people from all across Europe every day. I have seen people of all walks of life, community leaders, military personnel, politicians, and clergy shake hands. Some of them took their gloves off during the winter when shaking hands, some left their gloves on. My point during this ranting is that if all the European press has to report about a state visit is who did, and did not take their gloves off, it must be a slow news day. I believe we are surely seeing European snobbery being elevated to a new level.

For the last decade, most of Europe has become a continent-wide slow news day. Why? Because in 1981, another American President Ronald Reagan took his gloves off to fight the Soviets. Eight years later, the Wall came down. And with it, Slovakia gained her freedom.

Hey - maybe that's where the Slovakian tradition came from.

NOTE: All kidding aside, Tom gave me the best advice I've ever received. When I was a young punk with a bad case of Senioritis back at MMA, then-SFC Tom Teel caught me doing who-remembers-what. He didn't report me, didn't lecture me, just looked down and said, "Son, don't be stupid on purpose."

50 years from now, I hope to be telling my grandkids that story.

SSG Daniel Felten turned me on to a really cool photo collection -- color pictures from the First World War.

(Original link here.)

Every picture I've ever seen from WWI looks like we expect that era to look. Black and white moonscapes in the north of France, black and white corpses, black and white gore, black and white trenches, black and white soldiers wearing comical helmets, black and white politicians posing with black and white generals.

Seeing these same scenes in color somehow reminds me that WWI wasn't really all that long ago, and that this fractured world is still suffering its effects.

Not after I show her this, coming out just in time for Christmas '05.

(Hat tip to uh, Tim Martin, I think.)

UPDATE: Of course, she'll still love me. A recent conversation about Condi Rice and those boots went like this:

Me: Did you see that pic I sent you of Condi?

Her: Yes, I want those boots!

Me: Well, I want Condi. Fair trade?

Her: Fair trade.

A match made in heaven, I'm tellin' ya.

Ward Churchill probably couldn't.

It's one thing when Germany's Der Spiegel publishes a "Could Bush Be Right?" op-ed.

But two in one week? Read:

But Bush, for all his diplomatic bumbling prior to and even since the Iraq war (and including his faux pas on Wednesday night when he neglected to take off his gloves when greeting his Slovakian hosts), is not shy about confronting Putin when he sees a problem. Furthermore, he does so publicly, making it much more difficult for Putin to return to business as usual. Indeed, the cheery press conference -- while to be expected -- was all the more interesting for the clear disagreements separating the two leaders and the direct way Bush addressed those differences. Diplomacy, Bush seemed to be saying, can -- and perhaps should -- work like a friendship. Tell your friend when you think he or she is straying. But at the same time, show your commitment to the foundation of the relationship.

Chancellor Schroeder should take the lesson to heart.

Tipping point, anyone?

I never learned how to make a proper veal piccata until recently. Garlic, butter, white wine, lemon, capers - how tough could it be? Not very. My wing-it version was pretty tasty.

Now it's better.

Best Damn Veal Piccata Ever

We're going to make this for two people, because there's something romantic about eating baby animal flesh that's been pounded really thin.

You'll need:

3 or 4 slices (12-16 ounces) veal scaloppini. (Yes, you could use chicken breasts. But why?)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.
1/2 cup veal stock. (Expensive, hard to find, and so worth it. Just use chicken stock or broth if you don't want the bother.)
1/2 cup dry sherry. That's right - dry sherry.
Juice of one lemon, or 1.5 if it isn't very ripe.
3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced.
3 tablespoons capers, drained.
3 tablespoons butter.
Some fresh parsley, chopped.
Some lemon zest.
Some flour.
Some fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Salt & pepper.

Pat the veal dry, and dredge it in flour seasoned with salt & pepper. Turn the oven on "warm" and have a baking sheet handy.

In a large skillet, bring the olive oil and 1/3rd of the butter to medium-high heat. (The butter isn't part of the classic recipe, but I find it helps brown the veal better.) Brown the veal for about one minute or so on each side, turning once. Place on the baking sheet and stick in the oven.

Drain the oil out of the pan, and return to the stove. Sauté the garlic for a few seconds, then pour in the sherry. Bring to a boil and reduce by about a third. Add the veal stock and reduce again. Now stir in the capers and lemon juice. Bring it to a boil, then whisk in the remaining butter to "finish" the sauce.

Take the veal out of the oven (don't forget to turn it off, like I did last week), and put it in the skillet just long enough for the sauce to coat it. Serve on dinner plates, pouring any extra sauce on top. Garnish with the parsley, Parm-Reg, and lemon zest -- and in that order. Season with salt & pepper if you think it needs it.

Serve with (or on top of) lightly olive-oiled, nested tagliatelle and whatever green veggie looks fresh.

I suppose you should drink some nice white wine with this dish, but I'm not much of a white drinker. Instead, try a lighter, fruitier red like Gamay.

What, you expected fresh blogging the same night Season 3 of Curb Your Enthusiasm arrived?

Larry Sabato has four questions about what the Democrats will do between now and Campaign Naught-Eight:

...help themselves by nominating the candidate most likely to win, or will they insist on ideological purity?

...choose a person with broad popular appeal, or pick a controversial standard-bearer? ...broaden their base, or merely attempt to produce the highest turnout possible among liberal constituency groups, a tactic that failed in 2004?

...find a nominee fully able to compete with a Republican on national security, or simply hope to skate by on this greatest of all issue-clusters in the current age of terrorism?

...make any compromises on the hot-button social and cultural issues (abortion, gay rights, gun control, the death penalty), thereby allowing themselves to compete in some red Republican territory, or will they once again just set out to thrill the bluest of their blue state supporters?

Good questions, and as always, fun to watch play out. Of course, there's also this:

Believe it or not, we are nearly four months into the 48 month 2008 campaign--and a mere 35 months away from the start of the primary nomination season.

I need a drink.

Tell me again why I haven't already linked to this guy.

Tom Friedman.

I started - twice - to write about the dangers of a disorderly decline in the dollar, and what events might trigger it. Friedman today has said a lot of what I wanted to say, although he's left out some important bits, too.

Read it anyway, and maybe I'll get to finishing my little essay.

The Palestinian Authority has a new cabinet:

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb. 24 - The Palestinian Parliament overwhelmingly approved a new cabinet composed mainly of professionals rather than politicians today, ending days of crisis and marking a break with the Yasir Arafat era.

All but 7 of the 24 cabinet members were newcomers, many of them specialists with doctorates in fields as diverse as education, electrical engineering and economics.

What, they aren't all lawyers? Sounds like we could learn a thing or two from the PA.

Here's a fable of love, foxes, and bones picked clean.

OK, so the Pope is sick again. What's a non-Catholic supposed to write about that -- a pre-post-mortem? Much as I admire the man for his moral stance against Communism, I despise his moral collapse when it came to covering up molestation in his own church. There ya go.

Think the next two stories are related? First, from the CSM:

"The shooting war is over, but ... we're engaged in a cultural war for the heart and soul of the South and for America, too," says William Lathem, spokesman for the Southern Heritage PAC in Atlanta.

Second, from WOAI News:

From a newly established 'capitol' in the east Texas town of Overton, Daniel Miller, President of the Republic of Texas Interim Government, says a desire to be free, combined with ballooning concerns over rising taxes and property rights, will convince more Texans to support a 'referendum' on whether Texas should become an independent nation.

Mmmmm, could be.

It seems like Vlad the Bad is still a man we can do business with:

Russia and the United States signed a deal Thursday to control the spread of portable anti-aircraft missiles -- a hot stock for militants around the world and a growing threat to civilian aircraft. Washington has expressed worry over reports of planned sales of such Russian missiles to Syria.

Typing in your pajamas is a jailable offense:

An Iranian blogger accused of spying and counter-revolutionary activities has been jailed for 14 years. Newspaper editor Arash Sigarchi - whose blog criticised an Iranian crackdown on similar websites which has resulted in around 20 arrests - was himself cuffed in January on charges of "espionage, insulting the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, and current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei", the BBC reports.

One of these days, some dictator is going to drop all the pretense about the how distributing publically-available information is somehow akin to spying, and just tell the world, "Fuck it. We jail and kill people because we can."

An iPod Photo for $350? That's going on my Amazon Wish List.

There are no blacks on the Michael Jackson jury? What's the big deal? It's not like there's a black man on trial. Next, someone will be upset because there aren't enough men on the panel.

Is this a slow news day, or what? It's going to take me at least another cup of coffee to come up with anything interesting.

Another busy day and busy night - back in the morning.

Pretty damning stuff from the New York Observer:

But whatever breaches of journalistic procedure Ms. Mapes may have committed, CBS News still hasn’t solved the mystery surrounding her fundamental news judgment: Was she the victim of a hoax or not?

The final assessment of the report was that it could not conclude "with absolute certainty whether the Killian documents are authentic or forgeries."

As a result, the panel reported that it had no choice but to focus on the news-gathering sins. "While the focus of the Panel’s investigation at the outset was on the Killian documents," it read, "the investigation quickly identified considerable and fundamental deficiencies relating to the reporting and production of the September 8 Segment and the statements and news reports during the Aftermath."

Joe Hagan has written a fairly lengthy piece, but it's worth reading.

There goes Tim Blair, making the rest of us look really lame in comparison.

(Hat tip, Will Collier.)

Just how did things in Lebanon go from oh-so-bad to maybe-someday-really-really good, so quickly?

In no small part because of a car accident eleven years ago.

Orrin Judd:

Indeed, the most successful conservative presidents -- Calvin Coolidge, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush -- have played up the notion of their own stupidity or at least not fought it very hard. Democratic presidents, on the other hand, have ostentatiously surrounded themselves with Brain Trusts and the Best and the Brightest; played up their ties to Harvard and Rhodes Scholarships; and even, in the case of Jimmy Carter, inflated their resumes to the point of claiming to be a nuclear physicist [5]. However, the tactical and strategic blunders of the Democratic Party over the last few years have been so spectacular that it may be time to reconsider the intellectual wattage of the respective parties.

Ow.

As noted by many others, today's must-read is David Ignatius' WaPo column. The oft-quoted jaw-dropper:

"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."

The speaker, Walid Jumlatt, was up until quite recently a major purveyor of anti-American Arabist conspiracy theorizing, which makes his current stance and statements all the more exhilirating. If we can reach people who used to say stuff like this, there's more than hope: there's fundamental progress.

I'm extremely encouraged by the non-sectarian nature of the Lebanese protests. These don't strike me as the kind of people who'd look at Iran's mullocracy and say, "Yep, we'd like to have that here." Lebanon was at one time by far the most tolerant and pluralistic Arab nation on the planet, as well as the only Arab country with something like a functional democracy. If there are enough Lebanese left who remember those days, and want them back...

Lileks promised us "something big" today -- and, boy, did he deliver.

NOTE: I used to work in radio. Just because my own talents were too meager to take me very far in the business, doesn't mean I don't know good radio when I hear it. And this is good radio.

Robert Samuelson explains why I'm still not sold on Bush's Social Security reform plan:

Bush hasn't yet offered a detailed proposal, but he is expected to build on "Plan 2" of the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security, issued in December 2001. Workers could divert as much as $1,000 annually of their payroll taxes into "personal accounts" invested in stocks and bonds. Now, the CBO has evaluated Plan 2. In 2025 Plan 2 would reduce projected Social Security spending from 5.71 percent of gross domestic product to 5.27 percent of GDP, the agency estimates. This is a trivial cut of the combined spending of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The effects of switching to personal accounts and diminishing "traditional" Social Security benefits are gradual. Indeed, because Bush plans to borrow to pay for personal accounts, his plan would probably raise federal spending in 2025.

Judged by this arithmetic, Bush's Social Security program is a hoax. He's claiming to make Social Security sustainable. In 40 to 50 years, Bush's approach might work. But in the next 25 years -- when the real budget problem occurs -- it does little. Bush wants it both ways: He wants to appeal to younger voters by offering personal accounts; and he doesn't want to offend older voters (including baby boomers) by cutting their benefits. This may be smart politics, but it's lousy policy.

Really, I should be easy to sell on SS reform. Easy like a lonely drunk girl at last call. I understand that in its current form, SS can't meet its promises. I understand that private accounts would increase Americans' dismal savings rate. I understand that private accounts mean inheritable wealth, something too few Americans enjoy.

And as a libertarian crank, I understand that me having control over more of my money is just plain right.

But I'm not some lonely drunk girl; I'm a drunk guy with a serious (and quite personal) interest in the financial health of this nation. From what we've seen, however, Bush isn't serious enough.

Pejman Yousefzadeh on the blogosphere and the Jordan Affair:

Bloggers neither "lynched" Jordan nor prevented him from a fair hearing in which he could have cleared his name and cleared up the situation surrounding him. It is certainly possible for any individual or group of individuals to abuse whatever power they have access to, and the Blogosphere is not immune from this danger. But there is scant evidence at best to suggest that bloggers abused their power when it came to EasonGate. Bloggers did not cause the downfall of Eason Jordan. Eason Jordan did that all by himself.

Read the whole thing.

Incidentally, the always-excellent Tech Central Station is celebrating its fifth anniversary today. In internet years, that makes it as old as... uh, me, I think.

Nick Kristof has seen the genocide in Darfur, and has the pictures to prove it. The text is equally moving:

These are just four photos in a secret archive of thousands of photos and reports that document the genocide under way in Darfur. The materials were gathered by African Union monitors, who are just about the only people able to travel widely in that part of Sudan.

This African Union archive is classified, but it was shared with me by someone who believes that Americans will be stirred if they can see the consequences of their complacency.

The photo at the upper left was taken in the village of Hamada on Jan. 15, right after a Sudanese government-backed militia, the janjaweed, attacked it and killed 107 people. One of them was this little boy. I'm not showing the photo of his older brother, about 5 years old, who lay beside him because the brother had been beaten so badly that nothing was left of his face. And alongside the two boys was the corpse of their mother.

Whatever happened to "never again?"

The US, to be taken seriously when we speak of equal rights in the Arab world, must do more.

Germany, the country responsible for industrialized genocide, needs to lead the moral charge.

The French, who can't stop mucking about in West Africa, should meddle someplace where they might do a little good.

Britain, former co-administrator (with Egypt) of Sudan, has enough local expertise to help.

The UN needs to lead, follow, or get out of the way.

And Arabs, the ones most responsible for this racist war, need to be treated more like responsible grownups by the West, and less like wogs who just don't know any better.

UPDATE: Related stuff from Claudia Rosett.

Rusty Shackleford has some questions:

Could Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the man accused of being involved in an al Qaeda plot to assassinate President Bush be simply following the dictates of a conscience tempered by a radical Islamic education in suburban Virginia?

Was the Saudi government reluctant to press charges against Abu Ali because his father was a diplomat?

Was the Saudi government so slow in turning the suspected al Qaeda member over to American authorities for so long because of the embarassing connections between the Embassy, the school, and the House of Saud?

Just the musings of a pajama-clad nutcase, working without the benefit of facts? Hardly. Rusty did a little research into Ahmed Omar Abu Ali and his Saudi connections:

While an American citizen by birth, his father Omar Abu Ali is a naturalized US citizen but works as a systems analyst at the Royal Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington, DC. Further, the web page of the school attended by Ahmed Omar Abu Ali indicates that admissions priority is given to the children of Saudi diplomats (h/t: Kevin Aylward).

Click on over and read the whole thing. I'm especially interested to see if the Saudi Embassy responds to Rusty's written questions to them.

I'm not sure Ted Rall is the kind of company Steve Lovelady wants to keep:

Borg-like, the various right-wing blogs simultaneously discuss the same stories, applying identical rhetoric. They create blacklists and urge their readers and fellow bloggers to threaten and harass their targets. Surfing this cheesy world of flag-draped neo-McCarthyite HTML makes it impossible to deny Columbia Journalism Review writer Steve Lovelady's conclusion that most are "salivating morons" who form an ideological "lynch mob." Worse, many of the right-wing bloggers are flat-out liars.

Of course, we're still awaiting the construction of that Afghan oil pipeline to prove Ted Rall is no liar.

The headline says it all, don't you think? Anyway, click over and lend Jeff Goldstein a hand. He's earned it.

UPDATE: The headline, which I cribbed from Jeff, has been corrected. His computer is so old, it doesn't even have SpellCheck.

Martin Kettle's Guardian column on the Bush/EU rapprochement has some solid reporting and analysis, making it today's Required Reading. But it also contains this whopper of a paragraph:

Much of this is summed up in the current transitional fluidity over the politics of Iraq. The war was a reckless, provocative, dangerous, lawless piece of unilateral arrogance. But it has nevertheless brought forth a desirable outcome which would not have been achieved at all, or so quickly, by the means that the critics advocated, right though they were in most respects.

So - war critics were right, even though the means they desired would have led to bad ends. And the warmongers were wrong, even though their means have brought about a "desirable outcome."

Some days, you just can't win.

UPDATE: Mark Steyn's angle is - no shock here - a bit different:

But, in the broader sense vis-à-vis Europe, the administration is changing the tone precisely because it understands there can be no substance. And, if there's no substance that can be changed, what's to quarrel about? International relations are like ex-girlfriends: if you're still deluding yourself you can get her back, every encounter will perforce be fraught and turbulent; once you realise that's never gonna happen, you can meet for a quick decaf latte every six – make that 10 – months and do the whole hey-isn't-it-terrific-the-way-we're-able-to-be-such-great-friends routine because you couldn't care less. You can even make a few pleasant noises about her new romance (the so-called European Constitution) secure in the knowledge he's a total loser.

Well, he is a loser. Too talky, too needy, and with very poor prospects for future growth.

Earlier today, I linked to this story from China, with the promise I’d explain why it was more important than it first appears. Here we go.

In trying to get my Real Map of the World prepared, I’ve been re-reading Robert D. Kaplan’s “The Coming Anarchy.” Kaplan describes development in the Third World, and why it often sucks. I’ll give you the short version.

Deforestation and desertification, caused in part by overpopulation, force people off of the hinterlands and into the cities. The cities grow shantytowns, where customs and cultures go to die. Crime, unemployment and disease become rampant, further weakening the culture and the nation. In much of West Africa, the government’s writ doesn’t extend much beyond the capital city, and there only in daylight. This breakdown has been less severe in Muslim North Africa and western Turkey, because Islam acts as a glue to help keep cultural norms going, even under shantytown stresses. But in West Africa, Islamic and Christian traditions are much weaker and less well-ingrained – and tribal customs, with their weak senses of nationhood, generally aren’t up to the task.

China falls somewhere in between the animist traditions of West Africa and the stronger ties of Christianity and Islam. While Chinese culture is, perhaps, the world’s most ancient, the country also has traditionally been held together only weakly by the center. That is, when the Chinese tradition of warlordism has allowed for a central government at all.

While China’s rapid development the last twenty years has been great for industrialization and GDP figures, it’s also caused some severe stresses. Arable land has decreased. Deforestation and pollution have both increased. And despite the One Child policy, China still doesn’t really have a handle on population growth.

From there, things get worse. As in West Africa, millions and millions of Chinese have left the countryside for the boomtowns along the coast. The communal existence they knew has been replaced with the most brutal kind of dog-eat-dog competition. Crime is on the rise. Tensions have increased between the cosmopolitan city dwellers and their recently-arrived country cousins. The money and benefits have gone to the coastal elites, but the Army and the government remain largely in the hands of the so-called peasants. And while the cities enjoy increasingly Western-level standards of living, the interior stagnates (at best).

That’s a recipe for the breakdown of a modern nation-state. We’ve seen the same causes destroy West Africa, and fracture much of North Africa, Iran, and elsewhere. Just because China is big and well-developed on the coast, doesn’t make it immune.

That’s what’s so smart (and so worrisome) about China’s Red Tourism plan. The idea, as admitted in Beijing’s press release, is to reaffirm and strengthen cultural ties between the wealthy cities and the poor interior. The plan, in short, is to give Chinese the cultural strength to endure the stresses of unequal development. What’s smart is, Beijing recognizes the problem and is trying to do something about it.

What’s scary is, that the problem exists in a nation as large and well-armed (and occasionally meddlesome) as China.

Well, that and mere tourism is unlikely to undo the effects of mass internal migration, environmental stress, and class resentment. To generate the enhanced sense of nationhood China will need to survive its growing pains will take something more than feel-good junkets to Xibaipo.

But a feel-good war against Taiwan might do the trick.

UPDATE: Speaking of which...

Must-see TV?

Might there be something in those rumours about Mark Hamill strapping on the saber holster again for a "Star Wars" TV series?

IESB caught up with the actor - forever known as Luke Skywalker - at the DVD Exclusive Awards, who hinted that, yes, there might well be a "Star Wars" TV series in the works (Guess it's safe to say then that I've spoke to some official troopers who've also confirmed it - but were hoping the news would stay under lock-and-key for a spell) and that there's always a possibility that an aged Luke Skywalker might make an appearance.

"Never Say Never", Hamill cheekily tells the site, stressing that "He hasn't heard anything officially about it", though.

I'm trying so hard right now not to get too excited about what is essentially just a rumor. But with the return to quality of Enterprise this season, and that oh-so-great "reimagining" of Battlestar Galactica on the air... well, it's hard for a part-time sci-fi geek not to drool in anticipation of yet another quality show.

And even if it sucks, it'd still be Star Wars.

More on the jailed Iranian bloggers:

TEHRAN, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- A newly-formed Internet bloggers group is urging its members around the world to seek the release of two imprisoned Iranian bloggers.

The Committee to Protect Bloggers is asking those with blogs -- or Web logs -- to dedicate their sites Tuesday to the "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day," reports the BBC.

The call is in support of Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad, who are imprisoned in Iran. Iranian authorities are clamping down on blogs, which are free sites through which people publish thoughts and opinions.

The group has a list of actions it says bloggers can take, including saying nothing on a blog except 'Free Mojtaba and Arash Day'

"That would mean you could see that phrase 7.1 million times. That alone will shine some light on the situation," says the group. "If you don't have one, find one dedicated to that -- it takes about 30 seconds."

Can a few thousand blogs change the policies of the world's most dangerous therocrats? I doubt it - but that doesn't mean it's not worth trying.

Will Collier forwarded this story, asking "Is the Afghan War over?" Maybe:

One of the Taliban's most senior and charismatic commanders has become a key negotiator as more and more members of the Islamic militia in Afghanistan give up the fight against the Americans.

The commander, Abdul Salam, earned the nickname Mullah Rockety because he was so accurate with rocket propelled grenades against Russian troops.

He later joined the Taliban as a corps commander in Jalalabad before being captured by the Americans after September 11.

Now he is a supporter of President Hamid Karzai and is tempting diehard Taliban fighters to accept an amnesty offer and reconcile themselves to Afghanistan's first directly elected leader.

"The Taliban has lost its morale," he said, speaking by satellite phone from the heartlands of Zabul province, a Taliban redoubt.

"But you have to go and find the Taliban and call to them and ask them directly. If they believe they will be secure and safe they will come down from the mountains."

After the Taliban's three-year struggle against a superior US force, there is growing optimism among the Americans and Afghan government that the end is close.

Afghanistan isn't going to become Vermont (or even New Jersey) any time soon, but there's no way to paint this story as anything but good news.

Not that some won't try.

This story sounds kind of cute and silly. . .

China wants more residents to visit key sites in the country's revolutionary history in a "red tourism" campaign to instill faith in the communist leadership and boost development in rural areas, state media reported Tuesday.

Such sites include the bleak northern town of Yanan, the one-time civil war base of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong and his forces, and Xibaipo, a town southwest of Beijing where the party Central Committee met in 1949 on the eve of their victory.

. . .but it isn't. I'll explain why in a couple hours, when I have a bit more time.

No evening updates tonight - I'm beat. Back bright and early Tuesday morning.

George W. Bush, on Jacques Chriac:

Only months after he criticized countries "like France," President Bush was lavish in his praise of French President Jacques Chirac, one of the sharpest critics of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

"I'm looking for a good cowboy," Bush said Monday when a French reporter asked him whether relations had improved to the point where the U.S. president would be inviting Chirac to the U.S. president's ranch in Texas.

And the headline:

Bush Suggests Chirac Is 'Good Cowboy'

I can't imagine a more damaging sentence in the eyes of the French electorate.

Moral of the story: Don't mess with GWB. He plays rough.

I don't normally do legalblogging, but I'll keep my eye on this case:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A fight by homeowners to save their New London, Connecticut, neighborhood from city officials and private developers -- an important property rights case with an unusual twist -- will reach the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

At issue is whether governments can forcibly seize homes and businesses, for private economic development. Under a practice known as eminent domain, a person's property may be condemned and the land converted for a greater "public use." It has traditionally been employed to eliminate slums, or to build highways, schools or other public works.

The New London case tests the muscle of local and state governments to raise what they see as much-needed revenue, which they argue serves a greater "public purpose." Legal analysts said they see the case as having major implications nationwide in property rights and redevelopment issues.

I'll make clearer what the story is trying to say. Eminent domain has been abused in recent years, as a way for politicians and developers to profit at the expense of home- and small business-owners - by way of legally forcing them off their land. Developers get what they want (prime property at cut-rate prices) by force of arms, and government gets what it wants (tax revenue) in exchange.

It's got to be stopped.

As if Vodkapundit doesn't already provide you with enough links to severed penis stories, here's one from Alaska:

ANCHORAGE -- Police in Alaska say a woman upset about an impending break-up with her boyfriend cut off his penis and flushed it down a toilet. Utility workers recovered the severed body part and surgeons reattached it.

The woman is charged with first-degree assault, domestic violence and tampering with evidence. She's being held without bail pending arraignment Monday.

Hear that, ladies? If you're planning on chopping off your man's man-bits, don't flush it down the toilet after. Otherwise, you could get charged with tampering with evidence. Now, if the toilet clogged would that be "obstruction of justice?"

Once Warmonger Bush is done turning Syria into (more of) a parking lot, Russia had better look out:

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - President Bush urged Europe on Monday to move past Iraq war divisions and work together to advance Middle East peace and put pressure on Russia to renew its commitment to democracy.

"Together we can once again set history on a hopeful course," Bush said in a keynote speech in Brussels, home of the European Union and NATO, pledging to work in partnership with Europe in implicit contrast to the much-criticized go-it-alone thrust of his first term in office.

The speech, on the first day of a European tour, set the tone for his first trip to the continent since beginning his second term a month ago.

That's right, chickenhawks, Bush is set to unleash the EU on Holy Mother Russia.

All kidding aside, applying moral pressure is exactly what the EU should be good at in foreign affairs. Let's see if they can do any good in Moscow.

President Bush, taking us down yet another fast lane on the road to war:

President Bush, in Brussels for the keynote speech of a trip to Europe, branded Syria an "oppressive neighbor" to Lebanon and insisted it "end its occupation."

In Beirut, 15,000 Lebanese protesters echoed his message.

Chanting "Syria out," they marched in protest at last week's killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a bomb which Lebanon's opposition blamed on Syria.

"The truth is, we can't stand Syria," they chanted.

The 25-nation European Union called for an international probe into Hariri's death and underlined their support for a United Nations resolution calling for Syria to withdraw.

Oops. Did I say something about a rush to war? What I meant to say was, "generating international pressure and encouraging local opposition in order to end a multidecade occupation."

Medienkritik is organizing a pro-Bush rally in the German city of Mainz Wednesday night. I'm curious to see what the turnout is like -- not to mention the inevitable counterprotest.

Barcepundit rounds up reaction to Spain's EU Constitution referrendum.

About the secret Bush Tapes, Mickey Kaus says that "another round of explosive front-page revelations from secretly recorded phone conversations like today's and Bush's approval will hit 70 percent."

It's hard to keep track of who's who (and who's dead) in al Qaeda without a scorecard. Need one? Well, here ya go.

Hat tip to StrategyPage, which sums things up like this:

Short version, al-Qaeda is on the run throughout most of the globe. Even Abu Musab Zarqawi, in charge of all al-Qaeda elements in Iraq, is on the run – as elements of his infrastructure are taken apart. Eight of Zarqawi’s top aides are dead. Twenty others have been captured. Zarqawi was unable to disrupt the elections on January 30, a serious loss for the terrorists. Al-Qaeda is still potent, as the attacks in Madrid proved, but they are clearly reacting to the multi-pronged offensive in the United States.

Shorter version: The reacting side loses to the side with the initiative.

President & CEO magazine has jumped on the let's-pay-attention-finally-to-bloggers bandwagon. They're now posting a monthly "Best of Blogs" feature. Good for them.

But a couple suggestions, guys:

1. Monthly? In the blogosphere cycle of life, a story can be hunted, dressed, prepared several different ways, eaten digested and returned to the soil... seventeen times. Just because a magazine is published monthly, doesn't mean its blog feature can't be (cheaply) updated more often.

2. Links! Provide the links!

That is all.

Two Iranian bloggers have been jailed - for being bloggers. You can help.

La Shawn Barber might have unlocked the mystery behind the dearth of female bloggers...

Steve and I were both pretty tough on Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post and CNN a couple of weeks back, when Kurtz (along with everybody else in the major media) was studiously ignoring the Eason Jordan story. I still think that criticism was merited, and like Mickey Kaus, I think Kurtz really ought to recuse himself from stories involving CNN in the future.

All that said, I'd be a complete cad if I didn't take this chance to thank Kurtz for noting VodkaPundit on CNN last week (the site was mentioned several times on Inside Politics' week-long segments on blogs, first by Kurtz) and accurately quoting me today in a pretty good WaPo column about the impact of bloggers on the MSM.

(I apologize profusely for the title above this post, by the way. I should have resisted.)

Heh.

Scott Burgess emailed me a week or two ago, and asked if I'd like to write something for his excellent blog.

Boy, would I.

But - I barely have time enough to keep up my own blog. So I countered his offer: "How'd you like to write whatever, whenever, for my blog?" Scott, obviously drunk, agreed.

So here's the new deal on VodkaPundit.

Almost every day, except when I feel like taking off for a month without an explanation, I'll be posting the usual assortment of oddball links, smart-ass remarks, and oooh-look-how-smart-I-think-I-am newspaper-type columns.

Will Collier, aerospace engineer, Auburn fan, and generally way-cool guy, will continue to do what he does. What Will does is pop in on occassion and demonstrate to the world that he's a lot smarter and funnier than I am.

Scott Burgess, the American ex-pat in London, says he'll post something on Fridays. Something smart and oh-so-slightly-inebriated about the State of the MSM in Britain. Of course, once he discovers I don't care what he writes, how often he writes, or how much he links back to his own (excellent) blog... well, I think we'll be seeing more of Scott around here. Which is a shame, because he'll probably do the same thing to me Will does.

Anyway, welcome aboard, Scott. If yesterday's post was any indication, you're well on your way to showing me up for the half-assed blogger I've always been.

The Insta-Wife is undergoing surgery this morning. I hope all your thoughts and prayers are with the Reynolds family.

Hunter S. Thompson has killed himself:

"On Feb. 20, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado. The family will shortly provide more information about memorial service and media contacts. Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.

"Details and interviews may be forthcoming when the family has had the time to recover from the trauma of the tragedy," Braudis said in an interview from Owl Farm, the rural Woody Creek home he moved into in the 1960s.

Whatever demons caused Thompson to kill himself were, I think, the same demons which made him one of America's most compelling and iconoclastic writers. He'll be missed.

For a guy who usually paints himself as an old fuddy-duddy, John Leo certainly understands what blogging is about. Weighing in on the Eason Jordan affair, Leo writes:

Why some in mainstream media keep depicting bloggers as inaccurate is a mystery. In the blogs I