Not quite sure how it rules out an airstrike on Iran, but the last four paragraphs hit home:

The point is, the historic failure of the Iraq war is yet to be fully grasped. On a regional plane, as the Iraq war interminably rolls on, the situation is fraught with the immense consequence of the unraveling of the entire system of states that was created in the Anglo-French settlement after the fall of Ottoman Empire in 1918. The Iraq war has triggered Shi'ite empowerment and unleashed historical forces that lay chained for centuries. Its geopolitical significance is yet to sink in as winds of change sweep across the entire region.

Fischer underscored that the Iraq war has conclusively finished off secular Arab nationalism, which was, historically speaking, European-inspired. In its wake has appeared political Islam, which cultivates "anti-Western" nationalism and taps into social, economic and cultural grievances and combines them with a revolutionary fervor to confront the authoritarian, corrupt, unjust regimes lacking popular legitimacy. Islamists pilot this trend of "modernization", while the future of political Islam itself remains far from clear.

Equally, China has appeared on the Middle Eastern chessboard, which would make the decline in the US dominance of the region increasingly difficult to be arrested. Curiously, on the eve of Bush's arrival in the Middle East, a prominent Chinese scholar, Weiming Zhao, professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of the Shanghai International Studies University, assertively wrote: "China has a significant interest in the Middle East, and any changes in the situation there will affect China's energy security ... Therefore, it will remain a basic posture of China's diplomacy for a long time to come to pay more attention to the development of the situation in the Middle East, to be more concerned with Middle East affairs and to establish closer relations with Middle East countries."

Bush's tour exposed that, alas, the US doesn't have a Middle East strategy to address these manifold trends. It seems all the while, the Bush administration was only pretending it had one. A formidable challenge awaits the next US president.

By Todd and Sludge attempting to argue this position

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/19/kristol/permalink/2284065c18597b54a0c3cc4e1dbb2a40.html

or click sig for link

And I'd wager O'Hanlon isn't the only one who recognizes the truth in your barbs. Screw 'em.

O'Hanlon: "Sure, I was wrong about the war, but other than that, Mrs. Lincoln..."

"I believe Ken Pollack and I have been generally proven right by events."

Isn't this more accurate?

"I can't find a single recent instance where Ken Pollack and I have been generally proven right by events."

Read this!

http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/the-most-curious-thing/?hp

or click sig

http://blog.aclu.org/

GG's post is there, as well as some other very powerful stuff

Especially in the political realm. They simply view each and every situation in isolation, and decide on a case-by-case basis how they'd like it. And want the law to reflect their personal predilections.

F'rinstance, can't tell you how many arguments I've had w/ "small-gov't" conservatives who, as non-smokers, have no problem w/ ordinances banning smoking in private business establishments.

What was that quote? Few people are capable of looking beyond their own perceived self-interest?

New post up.

Occasionally, when my snark detector's not working, I click the "ouvre" linky down by the sig...

Is YCMTSU (you can't make this shit up) an accepted acronym? From the Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry exhorted state university and college leaders Wednesday to fundamentally alter higher education by shifting how public money is spent, how professors are rewarded and how success is graded.

Mr. Perry spoke to about 60 regents, all of whom he appointed, and touted an accountability system that would basically shift power from tenured faculties and university institutions...

...The summit of regents and chancellors was hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think-tank, which invited other speakers and handed out reading materials that suggested great American universities have been blunted by intellectuals and left-leaning doctrine.

Get back to us after you've read the decision you nitwits.

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S147999.PDF

Take your time.

I'll even give you a hint. Look for the words "compelling" and "necessary".

the fact that California has a law that makes civil unions have essentially the same features as marriage

was a a big (perhaps determinative0 factor in the opinion, as I read it.

IANAL, but the question in my mind was whether or not the Court would've arrived at the same decision vis a vis Constitutionality if California had not enacted legislation rendering "civil unions" tantamount to "marriage' in everything but name only.

I'm startin' a pool, taking predictions for the topic of the next post. (Last time I posted something like this, Glenn didn't post that day - so the jinx is in) Prizes to be awarded by a voluntary committee. I nominate Derbig & Pedinska.

My prediction? VARIOUS - including something about this

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Republicans_shift_a_little_on_surve_05222008.html