I can’t really take part in it, since it’s Lent, but Christopher Taylor has up a piece on our pal, Sy Hersh, that’s worth reading for the wonderful, bloody, stop-action evisceration. The wrap-up: Sy Hersh is riding on the reputation built almost forty years ago and is still respected despite a series of stories promising juicy details on all sorts of alleged evil and horror perpetrated by the US army

Melanie Phillips on the predictable reaction to Chas Freeman’s invocation of the machinations of the shadowy Zionist lobby in his ouster: Charles W Freeman’s outburst after he was prised out of his appointment as chairman of the National Intelligence Council, in which he blamed the ‘Israel lobby’ for his ousting, has provoked a number of others who appear to share his unhinged view of the World Jewish Conspiracy to crawl

H/t Gerry G. and also taken up by Stacy McCain, this article from the WSJ: It is simply wrong for commentators to continue to focus on President Barack Obama’s high levels of popularity, and to conclude that these are indicative of high levels of public confidence in the work of his administration. Indeed, a detailed look at recent survey data shows that the opposite is most likely true. The American

Via Darleen: Prosecutors are looking into why the new White House urban affairs director hasn’t paid an architect for house designs made two years ago—the same time he recommended the architect for a lucrative city contract. Adolfo Carrion, the former Bronx borough president, has said he would pay when he received the bill. But industry experts say the delay of payment is unusual. “Normally after a project is completed, we

Desi Driver sends this: Any larger-than-life figure is bound to have epic personality traits and prodigious talents; certainly Iowahawk fits that bill. He can drink you under the table, drive like James Taylor in “Two Lane Blacktop,” change a tire with the speed of a NASCAR pit crew on Jolt Cola. Yeah, I’m talkin’ ’bout Dave.

Well, that’s one way to try to downsize the military. Plus, it’s the next best thing to billing families for the bullets.

Gormless worm sends me the following from Politico, “Clyburn: Zimbabwe crack “beyond the pale”: House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told me he thinks S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford’s quip comparing President Obama’s stimulus package to Zimbabwe’s economic policies are “beyond the pale” — and suggested they might carry a racial subtext. “For him to compare the president of this country to Mugabe. … It’s just beyond the pale,” said Clyburn,

S.E. (“Size E”) Cupp*: At the end of January, Michael Steele was elected chair of the Republican National Committee – becoming, in fact, the actual leader of the Republican Party. But Steele was smart, likeable, unthreatening – and black. So it was only when he started saying ridiculous things like “off the hook” and “bling bling” that Democrats thought, “He might just be the leader after all . . .”

If he hadn’t been such a freaking douchebag: Had the lobbyists not prevailed, Freeman would have assigned the intelligence analysts this week to figure out why the Chinese provoked a naval incident off their coast and what lessons we could draw from the mixed reactions of other nations. Oh, the music of what doesn’t happen! “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter!” Therefore op-ed columnist, pipe to me