CIA: December 2007 Archives

It's a fairly slow news day (for the moment, anyway), here's a few miscellaneous items:

• Eric Ruth at the WNJ suggests that Delaware businesses will gain from the upcoming bump in Maryland sales tax. Good thing, if it happens, but color me skeptical. Folks wishing to dodge Maryland sales tax already come here to shop. Last night I went to Elkton with the family to shop at the only decent Wal-Mart in the region, and parked in a sea of Delaware-tagged vehicles. It would seem that that sales tax isn't the only thing folks consider in choosing where to shop.


• Fox News has been flogging this story about a dog from the Washington Square area possibly being held for ransom. Not to take away from the story itself, as it's truly difficult not to empathize with the dog-owner's loss, but why is this a national top story for Fox? Have they run out of MAWWs (missing attractive white women)?


• I stayed away from the story about the NIE last week. Opinions on the right are as varied as I've seen, and the left predictably has flip-flopped on their view of our intelligence agencies. Before, they were untrustworthy tools of the administration, suddenly the CIA is back in vogue now that the meme is convenient to the reflexive purveyors of hatred toward all things Bush. All kinda predictable, I suppose. A couple of points, though. Applying pressure on a rival nation and actually going to war are very different, and I've seen nothing substantive to indicate that Bush has crossed that line or even plans to. With even many on the right (including me) conceding that the administration has made plenty of errors, why does the left feel compelled to engage in fantastic conspiracy hype and downright dishonesty?


• Okay, one more thought on the NIE. In industry, it's not uncommon to design something even go so far as to prototype it, then shelve the design while waiting for some outside event to occur, such as new availability of raw materials, or the maturing of complementary technology, or an anticipated change in market conditions or politics. The elephant in the middle of the room regarding Iran is that they did indeed have a nuclear weapons program, and they are still enriching uranium they don't need. Isn't it possible that they shelved it for reasons having nothing to do with us? Wouldn't it be folly to assume that "shelved" is the same as "scrapped"? Just asking...


• On the CIA's destroyed interrogation tapes - everyone knows that we waterboarded two or three terrorists a few years ago, and haven't done it since. Does a tape of an event already admitted to really add anything new to anyone's argument on either side? Other than to be used as fuel for demagoguery, that is. Speaking of which, all of the "obstruction of justice" talk seems to be a little overboard in light of the fact that no one was objecting to the CIA's techniques at the time, including some key Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, Bob Graham, and John D. Rockefeller. But I don't hear anyone calling for investigations on their complicities in the matter...


• I agree that Huckabee is starting to look like he has too many warts to go the distance. Shame, too, as he seemed pretty likable before his record started coming to light. Maybe there's still time for Fred to come alive...


• Lots of folks seem to agree with the sentiments in this opinion piece. I can't remember Ron Williams' message, though - all that stuck with me was the childish and petty tone of the piece. Shame, too, as Ron might have had something important to say...