Is the insurgent network foundation finally cracking?
News of the Jordanian reaction to al-Zarqawi’s latest proclamations and deeds indicate a prime nerve has been hit.
Rumours of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death may be exaggerated. He was reported by several Arab TV networks to have been among eight terrorists who self-detonated in Mosul on Sunday.
Still, whether or [...]

Can a group of superfast computers find new medications to fight the scourge?
The World Community Grid, counted among the top 10 supercomputers in the world, will work with the La Jolla, Calif.-based Scripps Research Institute in designing new therapeutic tools to counter HIV, the fast-mutating virus that causes AIDS, IBM said Monday.
The initiative, dubbed FightAIDS@Home, [...]

Looks like there’s at least one Arab country that’s embracing capitalism in a major way…
The Burj Al Arab, one of the world’s premier luxury hotels, doesn’t have Wi-Fi.
It does, however, feature a personalized butler for each of the 202 rooms (suites, actually, which cover a few hundred square meters each), a helipad and Rolls Royce [...]

The vocal half of Penn and Teller talks about his beliefs:
I believe that there is no God. I’m beyond Atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy — you can’t prove a negative, so there’s no work to do. You can’t prove that there isn’t an elephant inside the [...]

(Note: I fixed the link…) Biting bit of satire from the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Beginning in 2008, public school students in Kansas will be tested under that state’s new science standards, which open the door to criticism of evolution. Here are sample questions — some new, some adapted from current biology exams — to help them [...]

Looks like the Washington lobbyist and former DeLay aide has struck a deal.
I bet this isn’t sitting well with the “The Hammer.”
Mr. Scanlon, 35, was accused of conspiring to defraud Indian tribes out of millions of dollars as part of a lobbying and corruption scheme that involved wining and dining of some lawmakers, treating them [...]

CNN flubs on air and flashes a big black X over the VP’s face while he’s giving a speech.
My fake guess is that CNN is secretly trying to influence viewers into thinking that Cheney should become an eX Vice President…you know…because of the X they flashed…
Heh.

If you’re optimistic. If you’re not, a glance down the road not taken that should have been taken.
James A. Gavrilis writes on the Mayor of Ar Rutbah. Foreign Policy’s summary lede is this:

Amid the chaos in Iraq, one company of U.S. Special Forces achieved what others have not: a functioning democracy. How? By relying on [...]

Once again, leave it to Jeff Goldstein to spell out, in bulleted, plain English, what the Administration seems to be trying to say:

Clearly, the important administration arguments are beginning to coalesce: 1) Criticism of the war is not by itself unpatriotic 2) Similarly, answering anti-war critics is not challenging their patriotism 3) But opportunistic [...]

Sounding more presidential than many of his peers. And than he has at times in the past.

The only thing surprising about the job cuts announced by GM is that they have been very long in coming.
General Motors said today that it would cut up to 30,000 jobs and close a dozen automobile and parts factories and distribution centers in the next three years in an effort to stem the company’s billion-dollar [...]

Reports have been making the news source rounds this morning that terror leader al-Zarqawi might have been killed during a gunfight with U.S. forces over the weekend.
U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight � some by their own hand to avoid [...]

We all knew it was going to come eventually.
Howard Fineman explores…
Murtha had known he would set off an explosion. He did. His arrival on the House floor was greeted with cheers from fellow Democrats, by dagger glances from Republicans. A near riot ensued. An Ohio backbencher named Jean Schmidt, eager to demonstrate coldbloodedness, was given [...]

They have high taxes rates (45%) and one of the most egalitarian countries in the world.
So why does it work?
HELSINKI, FINLAND – Fifty years ago, Finland was known for little more than the wood pulp from its endless forests. A poverty-stricken land of poorly educated loggers and farmers on the edge of the Arctic Circle, [...]

Fox News has the first review of what will soon be known as a highly controversial film…
Syriana is a thriller but it can be a bit confusing. The basic story is that an oil company has set up shop in the Gulf, just as a merger is going through. The local royal Arab family is [...]

Ariel Sharon is leaving Likud.
Could he actually be tired of his hawkish ways?
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will announce on Monday that he intends to quit the Likud and form a new centrist political party, sources close to Sharon said on Sunday.
Sharon is to visit President Moshe Katsav on Monday and ask him to dissolve the [...]

A very good tech blog talks the France Riots:
It’s tempting to blame the recent problems in France on some combination of disguised Gallic racism and Muslim militancy; tempting and probably partly right but not very useful and way too smug. Like France, we have third world ghettos in the midst of our first world [...]

Did you read The Moderate Voice’s opinion on the new blog consortium?
Maybe you read mine?
Whatever you may have heard, I think is a positive step. Open Source Media may fail, but it’s the one of the first voices to say, “We Matter.” That alone is worth something.
Here’s to acknowledgement!

His words, my thoughts…
I do not advocate an immediate withdrawal or a specific date for withdrawal at this point. But I do intently follow all of the SERIOUS (non-demonization) debate in Congress, in the news, and on thoughtful weblogs of the right and left. So, no, yours truly isn’t an anti-war critic and does not [...]

Notice the headline was a not a question. This is actually happening, and it represents a clear shift in the White House’s messaging strategy.
So, I welcome it. Why? Basically, if the President is going to start being intellectually honest with the American people, that’s NEVER a bad thing. And if it works to his advantage, [...]