10/10 Quick Hits

1. The Right Hand's Right Hand resigns, due to improper involvement with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Susan Ralston, Special Assistant to the President and a top Assistant to Senior Adviser Karl Rove, accepted gifts from Jack Abramoff and gave inside information to Jack Abramoff. The scandal has officially hit the White House.

2. FBI not really ready to fight terrorism, according to this article (registration required). I've always felt the FBI was a good criminal enforcement body, but not necessarily such a great criminal prevention body. I'm fine with that, but it cuts to a debate the American public has not had (and may not be ready to have): are we more interested in preemptive, Future Crimes Prevention, at the expense of our Constitution, or are we willing to accept the inevitable loss of life as a cost of a free and open society? Perhaps it's a false choice, but I still welcome the debate.

3. In Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor, one of his Japanese characters recollects from World War II and how the Japanese would proclaim huge victories on the radio, but the character bitterly noted how the "victories" kept getting closer and closer to the Home Islands. I'm starting to feel that way about Iraq. We've gone from dealing with isolated pockets of resistance, to having 14 of 18 provinces under control, to having lost only Anbar province, to having Baghdad under our control, to today. Our soldiers are "fight[ing] block-by-block" in Baghdad, and our casualties have spiked to the deadliest levels in years. I predict the Green Zone, roughly the size of the Charleston peninsula, will suffer daily attacks from sectarian and anti-US forces before the year is out.

4. Interesting, but not surprising. After all, Cheney is an a--hole.

5. Remember this exchange from July? As much as I think Suzanne Malveaux is a softie, she at least showed some spine in confronting President Bush about his policies toward North Korea. At the time, he didn't even want to accept the premise of the question. I just thought this might provide some useful perspective on this President's idiocy, but here is a timeline of the Bush Administration's policy towards North Korea.

6. Whoa, slimey little weasel Tucker Carlson speaks honestly for about 30 seconds. Wow.

7. If you support Hillary Clinton for President in 2008, remember that a lot of the same people from Bill Clinton's presidency will also be back. And they're traitors to the party. Can you really afford to trust these people? I say no, and because of that I will fight Hillary Clinton's nomination to the last.