Diplomatic turnabout?

WASHINGTON — In a diplomatic turnabout, the Bush administration will join an Iraq-sponsored "neighbors meeting" with Iran and Syria, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday. -- AP

A turnabout? Is that, like, a flip flop?

Is the low msm buzz on this because we aren't buying this as a sincere initiative?

This is nuts!

New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

Where in the World?

WaPo: Intelligence Officials Offer Grim Assessment of Security

The new national intell guy, john mcconnell (any relation to mitch?) gave the nat intell estimate today on c-span in front of the levin-warner committee of the senate.

It sounded like a very negative scorecard in the WOT, comparing 2005 to 2006, and projecting 2007.

So I wanted to think about a more detailed breakdown -- see the list of sovereign nations at the link below, and tell us which ones you believe were better off in 2006 than 2005, and which will be better off in 2007.
Link: Wikipedia's List of Countries

Here's the only one I could extract, north korea (and maybe not even them).

Gallows humorously, the part of mexico that is here, is doing better every year.

Tehran, Iran

A few days ago, a thoughtful poster at the TCP Political Forum posted this link to photos of Iran's capital city. It's hard to hate someone when you can see their faces. Tehran, Iran.

A Hypothetical Election

pangloss:
We need to elect a new world leader.
Here are facts about the candidates. Who would you vote for?

Candidate A.

Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists.
He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B.

He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in
college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C.

He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

But wait! FDR is A, B is Churchill, and C is Hitler.



pyrrho:
Hitler had a mistress and was very much into the occult. He got counsel from astrologers and psychics.

forelle:
Partial truths are the most devastating lies. By leaving out the critical information, we can make black into white, and day into night. Watch.

It is all colors. Black or white? All colors reflected = white, all colors absorbed = black.

It is when animals are active. Day or night? Diurnal animals, then day; nocturnal animals, then night.


pangloss:
It's what we KNOW about a person that makes them attractive or ugly. Political elections are like dating, you only see the side of a person he or she wants you to see, and then when it's too late, you see the other side. I think this is what we are speaking of, the other side that is not known of the person is what you need to worry about.

forelle:
It's what we KNOW about [proposed wars] that make them attractive or ugly. [Going to war] is like dating, you only see the side of a person he or she wants you to see, and then when it's too late, you see the other side.

In other words, partial truths are the most devastating lies.

Punchy Palookas

Answering growing criticism in the U.S. and Australia, [cheney] defended the Iraq war as a "remarkable achievement" . . .

In oz this week, I suppose he feels no need to tell the truth in the hinterlands, but wait, he feels no need in the u.s.a!

The line on punchy palookas refers to a theme begun on an earlier post here. There is a great scene in Pulp Fiction where travolta calls willis palooka, willis says, who you calling palooka, and travolta says, that's right, punchy, I'm calling you, palooka.

How lobbying really works

If you want to see a crystal clear example of how lobbying works, read this excellent (and funny) plea for Ditch the dollar greenback by Joel Stein.

In theory it only takes 1 lobbyist to confound the better judgment of 300 million people. More on the tyranny (innumeracy) of democracy later.