Liberal Talk Radio

Daniel Byman has a worthy article in Slate on the subject, which is especially relevant if the U.S. is indeed trying to cleave Syria and Iran. Elsewhere in Slate, John Dickerson makes the case that the President should swear more often.

The Professor asks why Bush declines to make an issue out of axes of evil after laying the groundwork for so long and hard when no one believed him. Simple answer: because he doesn’t need to — Iran/Syria are making that case for themselves! More complicated answer: because perhaps there’s some mega-earth shattering diplomacy in [...]

So it looks like there’s actually evidence of Syrian and Iranian complicity with Hezbollah in the current Middle East crisis. From the NY Times: American and Israeli officials said the successful attack last Friday on an Israeli naval vessel was the strongest evidence to date of direct support by Iran to Hezbollah. The attack was [...]

The Seattle Sonics have been sold to a group from Oklahoma City.** Don’t let the door hit you in the a** on your way out of town. **Now back to things that are, uh, actually important.

Exhibit one, a random Google News hit, on why even if Ariel Sharon magically rose from his coma and made Wahhabi Islam the official religion it still wouldn’t change some people’s perception of Israel: Israeli military attacks on Palestine and Lebanon on retaliation for the kidnapping of a few Israeli soldiers have uncovered Tel Aviv’s [...]

Even if some are unsure whether it has much to do with Iran or Syria (oh, well if Kevin Drum says so . . .), some Middle East countries are certainly acting as if that’s the case, even going as far as publicly chastising Hezbollah, the inference being that regional geopolitics are behind this: With [...]

While we’re all worried about cesnsorship in China, the other billion-person emerging economic giant has quietly started banning blogs: India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) passed an order to ISPs Friday to block several websites. The list is confidential. Indian ISPs have been slowly coming into compliance. SpectraNet, MTNL, Reliance, and as of Monday afternoon, Airtel. [...]

Israel’s recent actions in Gaza and Lebanon are clearly an endgame strategy. Olmert’s government is acting like the homeowner who tells his neighbor “I’m gonna shoot your dog next time he comes into my yard,” and then makes good on the threat when the offending cur merely pokes his nose through the fence. A better [...]

The environmental case for Nuclear Energy (if there is one), what the U.S. can do about the escalating violence in the Mideast (not much) and what the accident in Boston’s Big Dig means for Seattle’s underground tunnel plans (ditto).

A good buddy of mine says that he can feel the rise in housing prices in his gut. “Every day that I wake up, petrified that I haven’t yet bought a house and won’t be able to afford one,” he tells me, only half-jokingly. It’s a common refrain here in Seattle, where housing prices increase [...]