(Note: TMV Assistant Editor Michael van der Galien normallt does this post but since he can’t yours truly is filling in.)
Winds of Change’s Joe Katzman reports on Yemen making a coastal defense upgrade with radars. The idea: to combat piracy and smuggling.
There’s a GREAT SELECTION of political tidbits (must read) over at Politopics.
Intel Dump’s Phil Carter on his always solid centrist blog has a required-reading post called “Reign of terror on the Tigris?” He talks about executions in Vietnam and Iraq. A key quote:
The Maliki government is the Achilles heel of our effort in Iraq. Its grip on power is tenuous; its support among the people is shaky; its legitimacy wavers by the moment. Acts like this do not help it, despite whatever legitimate case can be made for these men’s execution. I remain skeptical that this government can effectively do what the U.S. government is asking of it. There may soon come a time, insha’allah, where the U.S. government must decide to abandon the Maliki government so the Iraqis can form a new coalition government which better serves them.
Bad News via The Influence Peddler: We haven’t heard the last of former Senate Majority Leader Bill “Finger In The Political Wind” Frist, who is considering running for another political office. (Will his logo be a weathervane?)
Meawhile, Matt Welch (always a great and informative read) fills us in on How John McCain Found God.
Oxblog’s David Adesnik is asking readers if they still consider Oxblog centrist. (P.S. Oxblog is one of our favorite blogs. It is consistently one of the most thoughtful weblogs on the Internet — a statement that holds up even if you don’t always agree with it. There’s little name calling, anger or bitterness…just thoughtful perspectives).
FYI, Politics and raging about it is NOT what life is all about. Thought Theater reminds us HERE.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.