So, W. Thomas Smith, Jr., who criticized me for a post I made earlier this year by declaring his holier-than-thou reporting and fact-checking methods, seems to have run into quite a bit of trouble himself over his “reporting” in the Middle East.
The story is all over the Web, but the Columbia Journalism Review blog has […]

I like this comment made in a blog post about the recently released National Intelligence Estimate deflating the Bush administration’s rhetoric advocating bombing Iran:
It reminds me of that quote from Kurt von Hammerstein:
I divide officers into four classes — the clever, the lazy, the stupid and the industrious. Each officer possesses at least two of […]

GovExec.com is reporting that Foreign Service Officers — the folks who work for the State Department at embassies around the world — are upset over a new policy that would force them to serve in Iraq:
Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department’s decision to force foreign service officers to […]

Captain Bill Putnam, an Army Reserve intelligence officer, suggests in the Small Wars Journal that soccer may be an effective strategy for building national unity in Iraq, a prerequisite for American withdrawal:
Soccer is Iraq’s only true national sport. The passion it generates is twice that of the Super Bowl or the College Football national championship. […]

What if only poor people were allowed to vote? Or only middle-income? Or just the rich?
Well, the 2004 election would have looked something like this:

[Hotel Tango: Crooked Timber]

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that [Stephen] Colbert is preferred by 13% of voters as an independent candidate challenging Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani. The survey was conducted shortly after Colbert’s surprise announcement that he is lusting for the Oval Office.
The result is similar when Fred Thompson […]

PolitiFact.com from the St. Petersburg Times examines politician’s statements and ranks them on their truth-o-meter. Here’s a great Huckabee quote from the last Republican debate in Orlando that got a “Pants on fire!” rating from PolitiFact.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence were “brave people, most of whom, by the way, were clergymen.”
Politifact’s conclusion?
We’d […]

What You Missed If You Didn’t Read Today’s NYTimes

No need to worry about poor and elderly minorities being disenfranchised by new Voter ID laws. They’re disenfranchised by death before it becomes a problem, according to the Bush administration’s civil rights czar.
The Marines get fashion conscious.
The Maine Middle School Contraceptive Controversy: “It brings home the fact […]

And for good reason.
The Dallas Morning News is reporting that
More than 750,000 Texas drivers haven’t paid mandatory annual surcharges on their traffic violations, forcing them to drive without valid licenses and depriving the state treasury of nearly $620 million – much of which was supposed to be used for trauma care.
[…]

What You Missed If You Didn’t Read Today’s NYTimes

Black women in South Carolina are afraid to vote for Barack Obama because he might be assassinated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Oh, what a character.We have this: “We cannot build Russia’s future by tying its many millions of citizens to just one person or group of people,” he […]