Mother Teresa and General Jack Ripper, in the belfry, with a missile. God Bless.

campaign blog is off to a far better start than I thought it would be, and the writers are already showing signs of getting testy with reporters on the political beat, as per this snippet about a New York Times story on the Bush recess appointment of token Martian Charles Pickering to a federal . . . → Read More: The Columbia Journalism Review

with no intention of establishing any sort of government other than one pre-shaped to your specifications, a decision that pits the occupiers against everyone but the relative few who stand to benefit from the prefab structure, you’re probably doomed. We’ve been in Iraq more than nine months and people are still launching assaults on . . . → Read More: When you invade a country and occupy it

The Council on Foreign Relations has a new report out addressing US drug war policy in South and Central America. The press release on the report summarizes the recommendations, all of which are likely to be adopted post-haste by the populist zealots in the White House.

Meanwhile, in the US, the feds are focusing . . . → Read More: Drugs, thugs and morality bugs.

If George Bush had gone the AA route instead of doing the cold turkey thing, he’d know the first step toward resolving any problem is the admission you’ve got one. Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, is attempting an intervention. “The president should lead the effort to improve his intelligence . . . → Read More: A 12-step program for liars

I don’t know why this column is turning up now, but Wicker, a former NY Times columnist (take him back, oh pleasepleaseplease) writes in Editor & Publisher that he’s not particularly impressed with the press over the past 18 months or so. He wrote the column late in December and nothing much has changed; . . . → Read More: Tom Wicker notices something amiss.

Of the two 911 commission members given direct access to the pre-911 presidential daily briefings, one, the executive director of the commission staff, was an advisor to (and former employee of) Condi Rice for the Bush transition team.

That’s right, folks: the guy looking for possible negligence on the part of, say, Condi . . . → Read More: “I have here in my hand a list…”

Yesterday I gave the new Columbia Journalism Review campaign blog a bit of crap because they had misspelled the school’s dean on their front page. They hadn’t, and they were very gentle in pointing that out to me, and they’re off to a roaring start.

From Reuters … WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – David Kay, the chief U.S. weapons hunter in Iraq, has told the CIA he will not return to his post, a U.S. government source said on Thursday, a move that critics could seize upon as a sign that he has given up hope of finding banned . . . → Read More: David Kay is quitting.