Not Fair, Says Kerry

John Kerry says that last year's presidential election wasn't fair:

“Leaflets are handed out saying Democrats vote on Wednesday, Republicans vote on Tuesday. People are told in telephone calls that if you’ve ever had a parking ticket, you’re not allowed to vote,” he said.

Don't worry, John, you can always get even by winning the next election in, um, 2009. Go for it, man!

The Slippery SF Slope

Regarding Chris Nolan's synopsis on SF's anti-blogging legislation, legislation that maybe really isn't anti-blogging ... yet:

But here's the important part, at least for the short-run: Pretty much everyone on the board agreed that on-line sites like this were and are exempt. The revised version of the bill makes this crystal clear. But in speech after speech, almost all of the 11 members of the board said they didn't intend to regulate web logs or – like they would try – stand alone journalists.

If I read Chris correctly, what is happening is that SF is making a legal distinction between journalists and bloggers, as if journalists are a different (more respectable?) class of opinion broker. And bloggers aren't protesting, since - for the nonce - it doesn't specifically target them.

But the next step towards licensing journalism is being taken nonetheless, as predicted. This is not a good thing.

The WMD Red Herring

Hearing the "conclusions" (more like allusions, actually) of the “The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, it brings to mind a subject I've been meaning to make for a while.

In all the talk about WMDs, a key point, probably the key point, at least militarily, seems to have been missed by the commentators left, right and center:

With the US massing troops on his border, Saddam disarmed himself of his most effective weapons. Saddam was an experienced commander, the scourge of his region, and as hard-nosed as they come. Yet he was so confused by the situation that he steadfastly did what he could to weaken his military right before battle!

That he had WMDs is not in dispute, really - just ask the Kurds that he gassed, for example. The only real question is whether he dismantled, deported or destroyed them, pick one.

Yet while everyone argues about which path he chose, we all seem to missing the bigger story, that he disarmed himself in the face of an invasion. Wow.

BTW, the above also means that Bush, the simplisme that he is, both anticipated and used the French to aid him in his war effort, since it was they who largely convinced Saddam that the invasion, all evidence to the contrary, would never happen.

Think they've figured it out yet?