Hey, Gene – that happened to us, too! We managed to prolong the agony by signing up for our new DSL with an appalling company that rivals AOL for crayola colored useless software that tries to take over your life, a really bad modem that refused to work with our wireless router and tech support that told us the only router they supported was one we could buy from them – the thing was set up for a week and I never once got my email working. To get rid of them and get our old DSL company back we are sending people up poles twice – a ten day ordeal. I’m still on a dial-up and likely will be for three or four more days. On the bright side, this dial-up is faster than the stupid crayola DSL we kicked out. I’m hoping that I’ll get back to normal blogging in the next couple of weeks.
Here’s an interesting post at Lenin’s Tomb on the plight of the Chagossians – Another “Right of Return” That Will Not Be Honoured. “Staring blankly at the screen?” he asks. Yeah, actually, I was. Thanks for the background and analysis.
Bush/Cheney ’04 – Go F*** Yourself! And a bumper sticker, too.
The mortar attack in Samarra July 8 was much worse than generally reported. Thanks to Jeremy for blogging this Financial Times article by Nicholas Pelham that includes these ominous details:
Witnesses said they saw insurgents and looters overrun the base, which the US had recently turned over to the Iraqi National Guard.
Aqeel Hussein, a reporter for the UK-based Institute for War and Peace reporting, said he saw helicopters evacuating troops, as looters and rebels overran the last base…
Witnesses said insurgents wearing the uniforms of the old Iraqi army and the red boots worn by Mr Hussein’s Reublican Guard saluted their superiors before firing rocket launchers in the air.
Jeremy comments: Initial reports yesterday suggested that 3 mortars had hit the building implying a relatively minor attack. Pelham reports today that 38 mortar shells followed a car bomb and a ground assault.
Predictably the US military was still claiming to be in complete control. If they qualified that with “as much as we are in the rest of Iraq anyway” I might believe them.
I read Juan Cole first thing every morning. He’s the go-to guy for understanding events in Iraq, but on economics? Quick, somebody send Juan this or this!
Matt Barganier pointed out an interesting debate between Jacob Levy of The Volokh Conspiracy and Roderick Long of Liberty and Power on the subject of Michael Badnarik‘s anti-war statements and position. The debate is still ongoing as the Catallarchy blogger Brian W. Doss joins in with comments from the Badnarik campaign’s communications director Stephen Gordon, as well as Seth Cohn for Badnarik’s blog. It’s a little tough following the entire thing chronologically, but all the posts are well worth reading, liberventionists and antiwar libertarians alike. One thing that impressed me about the debate is that it is on a level unheard of in ordinary R and D type political party debates. Imagine someone who could utter this sentence:
“I don’t feel like I’ve got all that much too important to say on the kind of big national issues.” – George W Bush, 20/20 ABC, 15th September 2000
trying to participate in the debate.
Oh, and for you liberventionists in the debate. Read this. And this. And this.
There’s a good piece on Chris Albritton of Back to Iraq in Online Journalism Review:
Anyway, Mark Glaser of Online Journalism Review has a piece on B2I with some interesting comments from editors and readers. Somehow he has managed to sum up the challenges of juggling TIME, the New York Daily News and the blog better than I’ve been able to. I guess distance and perspective can help on that one.