“Despite aggressive efforts to repair the New Orleans levee system following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, it isn’t clear yet whether it could withstand a hurricane with heavy storm surge this year, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers conceded Saturday.”
The United States is “losing the online war against terrorists.”
A new article in Foreign Affairs magazine notes, “The U.S. government is mishandling the growing threat because it misunderstands terrorists. … Al Qaeda and similar groups rely on the Internet to contact potential recruits and donors, sway public opinion, instruct would-be terrorists, pool tactics and knowledge, and organize attacks.” (subscrip. required)
A Paradox
Washington Post: “Maj. Charlie Burbridge, a British military spokesman, said the Iraqi army maintained full control of the camp, even during the looting, and had managed to eject the thieves by early evening.”
How do you maintain full control of something during looting? It seems to me that full control implies no looting, and that looting entails loss of control.
Incompetence and Israel
As you may know, a while back I cowrote an article with my colleague Sam Rosenfeld called “The Incompetence Dodge.” The subject was folks who supported the Iraq War, then came to recognize it was a disaster, and then came to blame its disastrous nature on the ineptitude of the Bush administration. This, we argue, is a mistake — a dodge — an effort to avoid culpability for the fact that the basic concept and premises of the war were mistaken.
As several readers have pointed out, we seem to be seeing a new variant of this as Israelis sour on Ehud Olmert in the wake of the Lebanon War. In this instance, I think the case against the “incompetence” theory is even clearer. Lots of people around the world suggested that Israel’s campaign was ill-advised. And, to the best of my knowledge, absolutely none of us who said that made any reference to Olmert’s competence or lack thereof in framing our critiques. Then the war turned out more-or-less exactly as the skeptics predicted . . . skeptics who had nothing to draw on but a general analysis of the situation.
A coalition of the willing for Iran.
“With increasing signs that several fellow Security Council members may stall a United States push to penalize Iran for its nuclear enrichment program, Bush administration officials have indicated that they are prepared to form an independent coalition to freeze Iranian assets and restrict trade.”
Buchanan Falsely Claims That Hispanics ‘Do Not Wish To Assimilate’
One of Pat Buchanan’s key claims in his new book, State of Emergency, is that Mexicans “prefer to remain outsiders” and “do not wish to assimilate.” Yesterday on Glenn Beck, Buchanan reiterated this argument, claiming that “the road to culture is language” and “they want to keep their Spanish language.” Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/08/GlennBeck.320.240.flv]
A quick look at the statistics shows a much different picture. A Pew Hispanic Center poll shows 96% of foreign-born and Spanish-speaking Latinos believe it is “very important” to teach English to immigrant children. Indeed, they are having enormous success achieving this goal. While only 4% of Hispanic immigrants are primarily English speakers, 46% of their children and 78% of the third generation are English dominant.
Hispanics are assimilating in other ways as well. 32% of second-generation Hispanics marry outside their race, as does 57% of the third generation. Hispanics enlist in the United States military at a greater percentage than whites.
Assimilation is a process that occurs not in a moment but over generations. Hispanics are engaged in that process, just like earlier generations of Germans, Irish and Italians.
– Scott Keyes
Transcript: Read more
