A Sully post dedicated to my comment about the UK/Iraq boondoggle... Am I a total blog-geek (bleek??) for smiling widely about this? My office colleagues were impressed, so maybe not. Still... to have my observations played out on such a large stage ( a follow-up appears here ) is enormously gratifying. Even moreso, by someone for whom I have much respect. Now if I could only find Bill Maher's phone number...

I've been much to busy reading and debating other's posts to keep up this blog, but the UK/Iran drama has inspired me. During the the hostage/POW (depends on the context) ordeal, British confessions of trespassing into Iranian waters were released. These tapes and statements offered contrite prisoners, apparently well-treated and healthy. After a relatively brief period, they were returned home where they immediately repudiated the "confessions" as coerced. The conventional wisdom response... "OF COURSE they were coerced." Honestly, did anyone believe for a second that the British Navy had equipment so sketchy that they couldn't settle their location? No, the sailors said what they needed to in order to get home. Meanwhile, the U.S. position is that torture (or torture-like) techniques garner valuable information as opposed to false statements engineered to end discomfort. Anybody else see a disconnect here? Also, a brilliant poem by Suheir Hammad ...

For the first time in history there are three "minority" candidates with some real steam behind them in the Presidential race. Barack Obama announced first, the ubiquitous Hillary Clinton made it official next and now Bill Richardson has made his intentions clear. In constrast to the GOP offerings of McCain, Romney, Brownback and Giuliani (so far), the Dems have a truly diverse slate that speak to their base in a meaningful way. I just wish they were more electable... Debra Dickerson makes some interesting points about Obama at Salon.com (sign in required). I don't buy off on her rationale for calling Obama "not black," but I understand what she's saying. She also shares my concerns about his relative inexperience and other niggling little details that could derail him. DailyKos has some stats on the nearly worthless "hypothetical match-up polling. Clinton and Obama actually look pretty good here, but either/or polling this early in the game is...