Hiatus

This blog is going on hiatus. It will return some time after now. Bye.

Today's OED antedating: "whatchamacallit"

Whatchamacallit, colloquial, code for an unrecalled word (first use cited 1928): Untitled item by Franklin P. Adams, New York Tribune, November 17, 1915, p 9, col 1: "It is, one might say if one were desperate for a two-line ¶, a what-you-McCall-it shame."

Thursday 11/18 links

Blogger Hugh Hewitt offers his list of candidates to replace William Safire at The New York Times; they are: Jonah Goldberg, Stephen Hayes, James Lileks, Peter Robinson, and Mark Steyn. I'd be happiest with Goldberg or Steyn, then Lileks, then Hayes, then Robinson. As though they're going to ask me.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak reports that Sen. John "McCain told [Porter] Goss the CIA is 'a dysfunctional organization. It has to be cleaned out.' ... McCain told Goss that as director, he must get rid of the old boys and bring in a new team at Langley." And that is what Goss is doing.

London Times Washington correspondent Gerard Baker explains to his slow-learning readers how "The day of reckoning has arrived for the Bush-hating foreign policy elite."

Canny Captain's Quarters blogger "Captain Ed" Morrissey supplies two interesting posts: first, he argues that it would be bad tactics for Colin Powell to run against Hillary Clinton in the 2006 New York senatorial race; and second, he reveals that Nebraska Democratic senator Ben Nelson may be offered Sec'y of Agriculture--the Democrats don't want him to take the job, but Nelson's no idiot and he saw what happened to other Democrats in Red America two weeks ago.

The understated and demure syndicated columnist Ann Coulter: "As we wait for CBS to concede the election, Democrats are claiming Kerry lost because Americans are stupid – and if there's one thing voters respond to, it's crude insults."

Syndicated columnist Emmett Tyrrell admits he wrote his 1984 classic The Liberal Crack-Up twenty years too early.

Syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell observes that the liberals' widely-bruited support of the military did not survive past the election.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan offers a great suggestion: "Ssssshhhhhhhh'"

Today's OED antedating: "to clean house"

To clean house, transferred, anti-corruption action (no entry): Untitled item by Franklin P. Adams, New York Tribune, September 29, 1920, p 10, col 5: "The managers of the league, The Paterson Call believes, should have taken the bull by the horns and cleaned house ... ."

Wednesday 11/17 links

Conventional wisdom held that Pres. Bush would purge the neoconservatives after the election. Wrong! Los Angeles Times editorial writer Jacob Heilbrunn reports: "Far from being headed for the political graveyard, neoconservatives are poised to become even more powerful in a second Bush term, while the 'realists' — those who believe that moral crusading is costly and counterproductive in foreign policy — are sidelined."

Washington Times columnist Tony Blankley: "With the nominations of Condoleezza Rice at State, Porter Goss at CIA, Donald Rumsfeld (or an equally tough replacement) at Defense and Stephen Hadley at NSC, the president has created an all-Patton foreign and defense team. Moreover, he has a team that understands that among the necessary targets of their firepower must be, not only our foreign enemies, but also the slouching, sly, insubordinate bureaucrats under their chain of command."

New York Times columnist William Safire: "This president is no sore winner, and has learned the hard way to have in hand a post-victory plan. In decisively choosing those who stay and those who come in, he shows a determination to win the policy battles of his second term. "

Former Army major and now New York Post columnist Ralph Peters analyzes why "Why the Dogs Didn't Bark."

30-1. That's the KIA ratio in Fallujah--and in urban warfare it is almost invariably the attacker who bears the brunt of the casualties. We've built a new and apparently invincible Army, which New York Daily News columnist Zev Chafets describes in "The victory beyond Fallujah."

Why are people so stupid? Why do they presume the terrorists are supermen, rather than inferior fanatics? A Wall Street Journal editorial also wonders, and concludes: "The Lessons of Fallujah: Killing terrorists doesn't make them stronger."

Re Condoleezza Rice's upcoming confirmation hearings, Washington Post columnist George F. Will offers suggestions to senators who wonder "What to Ask the Nominee."

It is not clear whether the title of Front Page Magazine managing editor Ben Johnson's piece re Condi Rice is misspelled or not; you decide: "Reigning in Foggy Bottom."

Washington Times columnist Joel Mowbray doubts that Rice--or anyone else--can reform the State Dept.

Wall Street Journal columnist Claudia Rosett: "Come Clean, Kofi: The U.N. secretary-general ducks responsibilty for the Oil for Food scam."

Blogger Hugh Hewitt wonders whether Chris Matthews will ever grow up. Fat chance.

Jerusalem Post columnist Herb Keinon reveals that the Israelis are pleased with the new Rice-Hadley team: "Both, as one official put it in diplomatic understatement, are 'positively predisposed toward Israel.' Or, as another said, 'they are both our good friends.'"

Aussie blogger Arthur Chrenkoff explains "How Poland came to say 'Non' to France and hitch up with America."

Columnist Janet Dailey in the London Daily Telegraph: "Europeans and American Democrats are in denial. George Bush has just got the mandate for pursuing his global policy on terrorism that he did not have in his first term: his position is stronger, not weaker. For the domestic market (which is all that matters to an American president), he has less need than before for the spurious credibility that European approval might offer."

National Review Online columnist Stephen Moore proposes subsidizing lefties who threaten to move to Canada with an "Export a Liberal Fund. From this pool we will donate $100 to every liberal who agrees to give up his U.S. citizenship and flee the country permanently. Warning #1: There's no coming back for health care when you get sick. Warning #2: There will be no amnesty program. These are one-way tickets."

The prolific satirical blogger ScrappleFace Scott Ott offers not one, not two, but three hilarious items: first, "Sears, Kmart Merge to Set New Bankruptcy Record"; second, "Expert Warns of 'Bickering Deficit' in New Bush Cabinet"; and third, "NBC Reporter Declines Al-Jazeera 'Best Video' Award."

Pardon for Barghouti?

The Israelis launched a trial balloon via Dan Izenberg's piece in today's Jerusalem Post, titled "Background: Only Katsav can free Barghouti":

Barghouti had been touted by Palestinians as a possible successor to Yasser Arafat, and as a possible replacement by some Israelis; even after he was captured by the IDF in Ramallah, there were rumors in Israel that the government was grooming him for the job. Before the outbreak of the intifada, Barghouti had been regarded as a moderate who supported the Oslo Accords.

By the time of his capture, however, he had come to be viewed as the most dangerous figure among the non-Islamist forces arrayed against Israel.

Even now, there seems to be ambivalence in Israel regarding Barghouti. It appears that many outside observers and military and government officials still believe he would be the best choice to end the chaos in the PA.

Barghouti clearly has the support of the Palestinian prisoners, who constitute one of the most influential forces in Palestinian society. According to media reports, the prisoners regard Barghouti as their candidate.

But in order for Barghouti to take over the Palestinian leadership, he must first get out of prison, and there is only one way he can do that: President Moshe Katsav must pardon him. Katsav has the sole prerogative to do so according to the Basic Law: The President.

On Sunday, however, Katsav said he sees no reason to do so. The Internet media outlet Ynet quoted Katsav as saying, "I do not think we have to pardon Barghouti just because Arafat has died."

And Village Voice writer Kareem Fahim and others reported that former Bush 41 secretary of state James Baker ratcheted up the temperature last week when he told CNN's Larry King that Israel should release Barghouti:

"There is now. . . . in an Israeli prison a man named Marwan Barghouti, who is one of the young guard of Palestinians," Baker told King last night, speaking about the post–Yasir Arafat era. "And if the Palestinians are going to make this work against the really hard-line elements, the Islamists and some of the people of Hamas, they're going to have to have a coalition of the young guard and the old guard." (Hat tip to Charles Johnson/Little Green Footballs)

Yeah, right. We'll see ...

Today's OED antedating: "hard-edged"

Hard-edged, figurative, adjective, cynical, tough ("hard," a., sec 22, first use cited 1954): Essay titled "Corpora Delictorum," by Alexander Woollcott, New Yorker, November 2, 1929, p 42, col 1: "It was a compact and startling melodrama [with] ... grubby, hard-edged little French actors who looked as though they had been cut out of some old numbers of L'Illustration."

Tuesday 11/16 links

Joe Strupp of Editor & Publisher reports that William Safire is retiring his New York Times column on January 24. Jonah Goldberg: "If the New York Times would like to make me an offer, I'm all ears."

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak picks up on the most startling implication of Colin Powell's resignation; that is, that Pres. Bush did not want him back: "There was a sense, in an administration that puts a high premium on teamwork and loyalty, that Powell was really not a team player. Critical insiders often compared Powell unfavorably with James Baker, the elder George Bush's secretary of state. While Baker was seen as the president's representative to the State Department, Powell was the State Department's representative to the president. That is, Powell was criticized for coddling career Foreign Service officers."

A Wall Street Journal editorial suggests that the Powell resignation should warn the State Dept. to join the team: "His way ... was to represent the department's consensus views in the White House, rather than represent -- and enforce -- Bush Administration policy on his department."

Brilliant stuff from Power Line blogger "Deacon," aka Paul Mirengoff: "The deepest urge of many liberals is to prove their intellectual and moral superiority. One of the ways they accomplish this is by eschewing obvious explanations for misconduct -- greed, cruelty, or (in extreme cases) evil -- as too simplistic. Liberals would rather identify 'root causes,' as if the basic motivations just mentioned are insufficiently rooted. And the root causes that satisfy liberals generally turn out to be flaws in America and its policies."

National Review Online columnist Michael Ledeen on the CIA: "Spymasters? The crowd that proclaimed East Germany to be the world's seventh greatest industrial power? The people who claimed to be running scads of agents in Cuba, only to find that every one was a double? The people whose counterintelligence superstar turned out to be a Soviet agent? The organization that didn't seem to have a single reliable agent on the ground in Iraq? The geniuses who thought that Saddam was in a nonexistent bunker on the eve of the invasion of Iraq?"

Washington Times guest columnist Burt Prelutsky has some ideas for the Democratic party, but they won't like them.

Influential blogger Hugh Hewitt has lots to say about lots of things.

Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein: "The fact remains: Hollywood has a tin ear when it comes to understanding which issues and values matter to average Americans. Showbiz people spend an inordinate amount of time compiling research about consumer attitudes, but when you travel first class or in your private jet, you don't meet too many of those consumers."

Reuters correspondent Michele Kambas reports that an American claims to have found Atlantis submerged a mile below the Mediterranean Sea between Cyprus and Syria. If so, Donovan can update his song. (Hat tip to "Captain Ed" Morrissey/Captain's Quarters)

Prolific satirical blogger ScrappleFace Scott Ott: "Iran Pleads with UN: 'Slap Us with Sanctions Like Saddam's.'"

Today's OED antedating: "sob song"

Sob song, musical genre of sad stories sung ("sob," n.1, sec 3 (b), first use cited 1927): Untitled item by Franklin P. Adams, New York Tribune, July 12, 1915, p 9, col 1: "Two or three years ago we reprinted, with great pleasure to ourself, at least, a lot of the old-time sob-songs."

Monday 11/15 links

News flash posted early this morning by Associated Press reporter George Gedda: "Secretary of State Colin Powell has told top aides he intends to resign from President Bush's Cabinet."

Alas, the Associated Press is forced to admit "U.S. Ground Assault on Fallujah 'Ahead of Schedule,' Says Marine Commander."

Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer on Yasir Arafat: "He was single-minded, but not about statehood or a real peace."

"TIESW" (ie, "the Israeli ex-spook website") DEBKA has two breaking items: First, no fewer than 40 terrorist gunmen strolled into a mourning tent in Gaza, killed two bodyguards, then after shooting into the air warned Mahmoud Abbas, aka new Palestinian chief Abu Mazen, that if he didn't continue the terror campaign they would kill him. And second (though perhaps irrelevant after the first item), the US, Israel, and new Palestinian chief Abu Mazen are conspiring--yes, conspiring--to establish Abu Mazen's rule. Apparently you can't trust anyone any more.

Asia Times columnist "Spengler" examines "The assassin's master sermon."

Washington Times columnist Arnaud de Borchgrave describes the "Mini clash of civilizations" between Moslem immigrants and native Dutch in the Netherlands. I would suggest more careful language: I would characterize the Moslems more by "culture" than "civilization," for the latter term implies a level of development that the Moslems have not achieved for the better part of a millennium.

Daily Standard writer Stephen F. Hayes details how wily spook bureaucrats are leak-leak-leaking to the MSM varsity to attempt to undermine the sweeping reform that new CIA chief Porter Goss has ordered.

Hold the presses! Scoop from New York Times columnist William Safire: The UN is corrupt--and they're covering up the Iraq oil scandal! And Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak quotes a real live US Senator who is angry about it.

Syndicated columnist Michael Barone is not altogether sad to say that it was "A bad election for old media."

Beldar blogger William J. Dyer pokes fun at the "NYT's confusion on the basic concepts of government."

New York Times guest columnist and Yale economist Michael J. Graetz, presumably left-of-center, suggests a simplified tax structure with no income taxes below $100K; 25% above that; and the usual mortgage and charitable deductions. So what the heck.

Barghouti steamroller picking up speed ...

From Donald Macintyre's piece in today's London Sunday Independent:

The jailed Fatah leader, Marwan Barghouti, could emerge as a kingmaker in the succession to Yasser Arafat, even if he eventually rejects growing advice to run for the Palestinian presidency himself, his supporters suggested yesterday.

With recent polls showing that, before Mr Arafat's death on Thursday, Mr Barghouti was the second most popular Palestinian politician after him, Mr Barghouti's wife Fadwa yesterday issued a pointed warning that the transitional Palestinian leadership should be "more aware of their need to have Marwan Barghouti standing beside them".

From a Saturday Associated Press report:

JERUSALEM - Imprisoned uprising leader Marwan Barghouti has decided to run for president in upcoming Palestinian elections, a source close to the popular politician said Saturday.

Barghouti, widely seen as the strongest candidate to replace Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, will only bow out of the race if his ruling Fatah movement selects a different candidate in internal voting, the source said on condition of anonymity. That is unlikely as Fatah is not expected to hold a primary.

And from an analysis by Jason Burke in Saturday's London Guardian:

The greatest challenge to the old guard - who may yet look for a reason to postpone the poll - comes from Marwan Barghouti, a firebrand leader currently serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison. Barghouti, who was deeply involved in running the recent al-Aqsa uprising, is hugely popular among Palestinian youth and is seen as a potential leader by many.

P&C has watched closely as Barghouti has prepared his ground well. The particularly startling and Machiavellian angle involved here is that the Israelis may be among Barghouti's strongest and most influential supporters, but they must cover their tracks extremely well because the public disclosure of their approval would be fatal to any Palestinian's chances.

Among the nearly dozen P&C posts on this unfolding story:

On Friday (11/12), P&C linked to a Tel Aviv Ha'aretz column written by left-wing Israeli journalist Amira Hass:

Palestinian security detainees [ie terrorists in Israeli prisons] are waiting to hear what prisoner Marwan Barghouti has to say: What is his position on the emerging leadership? Does he intend to contend in the planned elections? According to a lawyer who met with prisoners at Nafha prison this week, the security detainees, particularly those belonging to Fatah, speak of Barghouti as the Palestinian people's new leader. They await his pronouncements as they waver between wanting to give the collective leadership now taking shape a chance and mistrusting it.

P&C's conclusion:

The Palestinian hard cases in Israeli prisons instinctively respect and defer to Barghouti. If, as has been reported, the Israelis also like him, and grabbed him up primarily to prevent rival Palestinians from clipping him--then Marwan Barghouti is the future of Palestine. You read it here first.

On Monday (11/8), P&C linked to a Jerusalem Post column written by Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab, who described the widespread support Barghouti enjoys on the Palestinian street.

And on September 28, P&C introduced the subject with this post, under the title "Marwan Barghouti":

A significant development buried in Mark Lavie's Associated Press piece about the latest carnage in the Middle East:

"The wife of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti said her husband will run in Palestinian parliamentary elections expected next year."

Until he was captured in Ramallah by an elite Israeli commando unit in April 2002, Barghouti was the area chief of the "Tanzim," an Al-Fatah offshoot that Yasir Arafat ordered established after the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. Arafat needed the Tanzim because he was too closely identified with Fatah and required plausible deniability for future terrorist actions that he might personally order. Barghouti also founded the notorious Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, another terrorist group responsible for dozens of murderous attacks.

Before the newest Palestinian terror campaign started in 2000, Barghouti got along well with the Israelis and gained their respect. He speaks fluent Hebrew (he did time in Israeli prisons) and is regarded to be an opportunistic moderate. The Israelis believe that Barghouti helped to plan terrorist actions--including suicide bombings--during the two years before his capture primarily to maintain his position within the Palestinian hierarchy.

The word is that the Israelis captured and jailed the charismatic Barghouti to protect him from jealous rivals who wanted him dead--a list which included Arafat. Had Israel intended to eliminate Barghouti, it would have killed him in a targeted attack with little potential risk to the Israelis. Instead, the Israeli generals sent an elite "Duvdevan" unit deep into the West Bank to snatch him.

Then the Israelis broke with longstanding practice and held Barghouti's trial in open court--not in the closed military court where Palestinian terror suspects are usually tried. And in his trial, with the world media watching and reporting, Barghouti offered a spirited and colorful defense that in practical terms kicked off his political campaign: he shouted his defiance; he characterized himself as a patriot in a kangaroo court; he denied that the Israelis had any jurisdiction to try any Palestinian for any act committed on his own land. The performance was a great hit in the Palestinian-controlled areas.

There is talk that Israel took great care to provide Barghouti with this forum for the purpose of building his street cred among the Palestinian public. And there are whispers that Israel and the US are carefully grooming Barghouti to succeed Arafat--and that Arafat knows it.So yesterday, safely ensconced in an Israeli prison, Barghouti kicked off his formal campaign ...

And one last extract, from David Aaronovitch's column in today's London Observer. After listing a series of "solutions" broached here or there, but which he dismisses as impossible (in some instances more because he dislikes them than due to any inherent impracticability), he concludes:

In an Israeli jail, convicted of complicity in murders, sits Marwan Barghouti, hero of the camps, planner of the intifada, condemner of suicide bombings and - quite possibly - the only man who could deliver a peace. If he were brave enough to try, if the Israelis were brave enough to let him. He won't be elected this time, but he is, many think, the Nixon for this China. Remember the name.

This is just beginning ...

Today's OED antedating: "to add (it all) up"

To add (it all) up, colloquial, to make sense (of it) ("add," v., sec 5 (b), first use cited 1942): Book titled Ade's Fables, by George Ade, 1914, p 91: "[T]he poor gink who calls loudly for English Mustard ... may have his brief Hour of Triumph, but no man ever really got anywhere by doping Salad, when you stop to add it all up."

Sunday 11/14 links

Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes is talking realignment. We'll see.

Newsweek columnist George F. Will observes that the leftist mindset simply cannot tolerate the possibility that they lose election after election for reasons of substance; therefore, it must be the voters' fault: "Belief in the infantilism of the American public has been an expanding facet of some "progressive" thinking for 50 years—since the explosive growth of advertising, especially on television, in the 1950s."

Washington Post columnist David S. Broder suggests that lefties calm down: "Bush won, but he will have to work within the system for whatever he gets. Checks and balances are still there. The nation does not face 'another dark age,' unless you consider politics, with all its trade-offs and bargaining, a black art."

US News & World Report columnist Gloria Borger concludes that "Democrats need a twang."

The US military has tons of shiny toys, but former Army officer and now New York Post columnist Ralph Peters explains that it ultimately comes down to grunts going door-to-door, "Down and Dirty."

Jerusalem Post columnist Herb Keinon is relieved that Tony Blair could not persuade Pres. Bush to screw Israel.

New York Daily News columnist Zev Chafets was appalled by the conduct of the crowds at the Arafat funeral--"chaotic, violent and hysterical"--and concludes that the Palestinians are "Still not ready for prime time."

Los Angeles Times guest columnist Dennis Prager, a Jew, defends the cross on the Los Angeles city seal.

Chicago Tribune columnist James Coates explores Microsoft's new search engine, which will never conquer Google--just as MS Word could never hope to compete with WordPerfect.

Prolific satirical blogger ScrappleFace Scott Ott can draw distinctions: "While the vice president has a history of heart trouble, spokesman Mary Matalin said tests showed that 'this time it's only an ordinary cold, not the kind of cold that Soviet leaders used to get.'"

Jews barred from Norwegian Holocaust commemoration

From an editorial in yesterday's New York Sun:

Norway managed to forbid Jews from marking the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a step the French haven't yet taken. The local TV2 News reported that no Norwegian Jews participated in Oslo's commemoration of Kristallnacht. "TV2 also reported that the authorities, saying they didn't want trouble, forbade any Jewish symbols, including Stars of David and Israeli flags," according to Israel's Arutz-7 radio station.

"On the TV2 evening news, a group of Jews and their friends who wanted to take part in the commemoration were shown being firmly told by a policeman to 'please leave the area,'" according to a dispatch from an American journalist living in Norway, Bruce Bawer, on AndrewSullivan.com. "This in a city where Muslim demonstrations take place on a regular basis, and include signs and banners bearing hateful, barbaric slogans."

The ban prompted a protest from the Simon Wiesenthal Center to the government of Norway.

So the Europeans want to involve themselves in the Mideast so-called "peace process." What do you think?

Today's OED antedating: "Wailing Wall"

Wailing Wall, the surviving portion of the western wall of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem ("wailing," vbl. n., sec (c), first use cited 1919): Article headlined "Red Liberals," by Ren Mulford, Jr, Sporting Life, June 3, 1911, p 7, col 1: "In fact, they ... emitted a howl that sounded like a symphony of sorrow at the Wailing Wall of the Sons of Abraham at Jerusalem."

Saturday 11/13 links

This one's a classic, from the Weekly Standard's "Scrapbook": "Disappointed Democrats have had two weeks to argue about what went wrong for John Kerry on November 2. And they've had any number of plausible theories to choose from. ... But none among the most commonly circulating postmortems has yet won an enthusiastic Democratic embrace. Except, that is, for this one: George W. Bush won reelection because . . . well, because there are just too many damn dumb people in this country, that's why."

One of the new favorites, Captain's Quarters blogger "Captain Ed" Morrissey, ruthlessly fisks Brent Scowcroft's insidiously anti-Israel Washington Post column.

Paleoblogger Andrew Sullivan on Barbara Plett, the idiot BBC correspondent who claimed she "started to cry... without warning" when Arafat left Ramallah: "Do you think she'd shed a tear for the Pope? Or Mother Teresa? The far left's attraction to foreign murder and tyranny endures, doesn't it? Notice also this BBC timeline for Arafat's life. The last two dates are his Nobel Peace Prize and the 2001 Israeli blockade in Ramallah. No mention of Camp David or Taba. The BBC has the historical objectivity of Stalin."

Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and Walter Pincus faithfully take down notes from CIA lifers who are leaking--drip, drip, drip--ie whining that the new CIA director is mean. The leakers warn darkly that resignations are being tendered! Good! The CIA is like the Chicago Cubs--every trade or other transaction is a winner because you're getting rid of a presumably incompetent-spook/Cub and getting a presumably non-incompetent-spook/non-Cub in return.

New York Times columnist David Brooks cuts straight to the point: "Now that he's been returned to office, President Bush is going to have to differentiate between his opponents and his enemies. His opponents are found in the Democratic Party. His enemies are in certain offices of the Central Intelligence Agency."

Weekly Standard correspondent Irwin M. Stelzer asserts that the European Union is perhaps not not our enemy, but certainly our opponent: "The positioning of the E.U. as an anti-American force has not been lost on Washington's policymakers, who now realize that this country's historic support for a united Europe is dangerously contrary to U.S. interests."

Power Line blogger "Deacon," aka Paul Mirengoff, examines the Democrats' newest rhetorical trick--imputing statewide statistics to individual voters. Thus Pres. Bush was only popular among less educated, stupider, and less productive Americans, who by implication are not quite equal enough to count. Of course there are much more precise statistics available, which indicate that when sorted by level of education Sen. Kerry took two classes of voter: those with post-grad experience, and those without high school diplomas. Pres. Bush took college graduates, some college, and high school graduates. What would you conclude from that?

Weekly Standard writer Robert Satloff suggests that Palestine already possesses many of the attributes of a modern Arab state--that is, it's a mess. Then he supplies a lot of useless advice.

London Times columnist Ben Macintyre notices blogs. Good for him. As he puts it: "Welcome to the New Tom Paines."

Alas, poor Earth Mother--IOWAHAWK satirical blogger David Burge recounts the angst of "Blue State Blues as Coastal Parents Battle Invasion of Dollywood Values."

Suha's $22 million/year shakedown reported here (from DEBKA) 2 days ago

Uri Dan and Andy Soltis in today's New York Post:

Suha Arafat, who jealously guarded her husband's bedside during his final hours, brought his body home from France yesterday for burial — after sealing a deal that will make her a very rich widow.

Suha agreed to a settlement with the Palestinian Authority that will reportedly pay her as much as $22 million a year for divulging the secrets of her husband's fortune.

This item appeared in P&C two days ago:

According to the Israeli DEBKA website, the Palestinian Authority surrendered to Suha Arafat's shakedown--she'll get $22 million per year for the rest of her life. If the Islamoterrorists hear about the terms of the deal, that latter contingency may occur much sooner than she expects.

Now you know where to get it first.

Yet more about Barghouti

From Amira Hass's piece in the dovish Tel Aviv Ha'aretz daily newspaper:

Palestinian security detainees are waiting to hear what prisoner Marwan Barghouti has to say: What is his position on the emerging leadership? Does he intend to contend in the planned elections?

According to a lawyer who met with prisoners at Nafha prison this week, the security detainees, particularly those belonging to Fatah, speak of Barghouti as the Palestinian people's new leader. They await his pronouncements as they waver between wanting to give the collective leadership now taking shape a chance and mistrusting it.

Hass goes on to describe how keenly Barghouti follows current events as they unfold, his democratic instincts, etc, etc--all the things a lefty swoons over in an enemy's legend--but none of that really matters.

What does matter is this: the Palestinian hard cases in Israeli prisons instinctively respect and defer to Barghouti. If, as has been reported, the Israelis also like him, and grabbed him up primarily to prevent rival Palestinians from clipping him--then Marwan Barghouti is the future of Palestine. You read it here first.

Today's OED antedating: "leak"

Leak, disclosed confidence (n., sec 1 (d), first use cited 1950): Untitled item by Franklin P. Adams, New York Tribune, January 3, 1917, p 9, col 1: "Well, it appears, in the first place, that nobody in Washington had anything to do with the 'peace leak'; and, in the second place, there was no 'leak' in the first place." And a more illustrative untitled item by Adams, New York Tribune, February 1, 1917, p 11, col 1: "Peace note leak motto: Hutton, Hutton, who got the information?"

Friday 11/12 links

Some very big stuff evidently leaked to New York Sun reporter Jamie Dettmer: Karl Rove wants Don Rumsfeld out. Dick Cheney is attempting to protect him, and will manage to keep him around until spring. Condi Rice wants Defense, and will likely move out the neocons. Douglas Feith has already announced he is leaving. Colin Powell will probably stay a few months longer than Rumsfeld.

There clearly is a concerted campaign starting here: the World Tribune quotes anonymous sources more-than-willing to leak the news that Pres. Bush intends to shake up his personnel and involve himself more in the Israel-Palestinian situation. Which is bad news for Israel.

Washington Post columnist George F. Will urgently catalogues "What Hinges on Fallujah": "Success in Iraq, people here believe, is contingent on three ifs: if Iraqi military and security forces can stay intact during contacts with the insurgents; if insurgents are killed in sufficient numbers to convince the Sunni political class that it must invest its hope in politics; and if neighboring states, especially Syria, will cooperate in slowing the flow of money and other aid to the insurgency. If so, then the United States can -- this is the preferred verb -- 'stand up' an Iraqi state and recede from a dominant role."

Belmont Club blogger "Wretchard" explains that "the battle for the Sunni Triangle is a single, integrated theater which does not consist of Fallujah alone."

Re the accolades to Yasir Arafat pouring in from the Arab world, London Times foreign editor Bronwen Maddox warns that "it would be wrong to interpret these words as indicative of deep, unqualified mourning. The tributes conceal more than three decades of mutual mistrust between the Palestinian leader and the Arab world. Arafat tried to play them off against each other and ended up losing the support and respect of almost all. They found his cause useful to them — until he became an embarrassment and even a threat. "

Washington Times columnist Cal Thomas: "As part of its obituary, The New York Times said, 'Arafat led a long and failed effort for statehood' for the Palestinians. He did no such thing. Arafat led a long reign of terror, the purpose of which was to kill Jews and eliminate the state of Israel."

US News & World Report guest columnist Fouad Ajami: "Character is destiny. And in the end, character doomed Arafat."

London Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips also blogs, and supplies two interesting items today. First, "a permant cessation of Palestanian violence will not happen while Blair and the Europeans insist on piling the pressure not on Palestinians such as [Gaza strongman Mohammed] Dahlan but instead upon Israel to stop defending itself, leaving Bush alone to champion the victims of terror against their slaughterers, and uphold right against wrong." And second, she is appalled to observe that "the degradation and corruption of British and western society, not to mention the United Nations, are now on sickening display for all with eyes to see from the disgusting response to the death of Arafat." Not here.

Perhaps the world's media are finally willing to hint at the cause of Arafat's death. International Herald Tribune writer Elisabeth Rosenthal: "Low platelet counts in the blood are a common finding in a wide range of illnesses, including severe infections, liver disease, end-stage cancer, and even AIDS."

Kaddoumi and Jibril and Dahlan, oh my! Tel Aviv Ha'aretz columnist Bradley Burston supplies a roster of Arafat's feuding would-be successors. A useful guide.

Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger: "In the Information Age, authority is a priceless franchise. But it is this franchise that Big Media, incredibly, has just thrown away. It did so by choosing to go into overt opposition to one party's candidate, a sitting president. It stooped to conquer."

Washington Post writers Glenn Kessler and Al Kamen report that senior White House aide Robert Blackwill resigned after hurting an embassy secretary in Kuwait. Just as well--the top Iraq guy in the White House was an old-school State Dept. Arabist.

Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens makes a splendid point: "What makes liberals think they have the right to decide what's acceptable to say?"

Classicist/National Review Online columnist Victor Davis Hanson warns of "The Ironies Ahead--What George W. Bush faces."

Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer has the numbers to comprehensively refute the "'Moral Values' Myth" and concludes: "This does not deter the myth of the Bigoted Christian Redneck from dominating the thinking of liberals and infecting the blue-state media. They need their moral superiority like oxygen, and they cannot have it cut off by mere facts. Once again they angrily claim the moral high ground, while standing in the ruins of yet another humiliating electoral defeat."

London Spectator columnist Paul Johnson is pleased to note that "English marches on in the age of Bush and Blair."

Prolific blog satirist ScrappleFace Scott Ott: "Bush Applauds Arafat's 'New Attitude.'"