The headline says it all, don’t you think? Anyway, click over and lend Jeff Goldstein a hand. He’s earned it.

UPDATE: The headline, which I cribbed from Jeff, has been corrected. His computer is so old, it doesn’t even have SpellCheck.

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Martin Kettle’s Guardian column on the Bush/EU rapprochement has some solid reporting and analysis, making it today’s Required Reading. But it also contains this whopper of a paragraph:

Much of this is summed up in the current transitional fluidity over the politics of Iraq. The war was a reckless, provocative, dangerous, lawless piece of unilateral arrogance. But it has nevertheless brought forth a desirable outcome which would not have been achieved at all, or so quickly, by the means that the critics advocated, right though they were in most respects.

So – war critics were right, even though the means they desired would have led to bad ends. And the warmongers were wrong, even though their means have brought about a “desirable outcome.”

Some days, you just can’t win.

UPDATE: Mark Steyn’s angle is – no shock here – a bit different:

But, in the broader sense vis-

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Earlier today, I linked to this story from China, with the promise I

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Must-see TV?

Might there be something in those rumours about Mark Hamill strapping on the saber holster again for a “Star Wars” TV series?

IESB caught up with the actor – forever known as Luke Skywalker – at the DVD Exclusive Awards, who hinted that, yes, there might well be a “Star Wars” TV series in the works (Guess it’s safe to say then that I’ve spoke to some official troopers who’ve also confirmed it – but were hoping the news would stay under lock-and-key for a spell) and that there’s always a possibility that an aged Luke Skywalker might make an appearance.

“Never Say Never”, Hamill cheekily tells the site, stressing that “He hasn’t heard anything officially about it”, though.

I’m trying so hard right now not to get too excited about what is essentially just a rumor. But with the return to quality of Enterprise this season, and that oh-so-great “reimagining” of Battlestar Galactica on the air… well, it’s hard for a part-time sci-fi geek not to drool in anticipation of yet another quality show.

And even if it sucks, it’d still be Star Wars.

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More on the jailed Iranian bloggers:

TEHRAN, Feb. 22 (UPI) — A newly-formed Internet bloggers group is urging its members around the world to seek the release of two imprisoned Iranian bloggers.

The Committee to Protect Bloggers is asking those with blogs — or Web logs — to dedicate their sites Tuesday to the “Free Mojtaba and Arash Day,” reports the BBC.

The call is in support of Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad, who are imprisoned in Iran. Iranian authorities are clamping down on blogs, which are free sites through which people publish thoughts and opinions.

The group has a list of actions it says bloggers can take, including saying nothing on a blog except ‘Free Mojtaba and Arash Day’

“That would mean you could see that phrase 7.1 million times. That alone will shine some light on the situation,” says the group. “If you don’t have one, find one dedicated to that — it takes about 30 seconds.”

Can a few thousand blogs change the policies of the world’s most dangerous therocrats? I doubt it – but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying.

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Will Collier forwarded this story, asking “Is the Afghan War over?” Maybe:

One of the Taliban’s most senior and charismatic commanders has become a key negotiator as more and more members of the Islamic militia in Afghanistan give up the fight against the Americans.

The commander, Abdul Salam, earned the nickname Mullah Rockety because he was so accurate with rocket propelled grenades against Russian troops.

He later joined the Taliban as a corps commander in Jalalabad before being captured by the Americans after September 11.

Now he is a supporter of President Hamid Karzai and is tempting diehard Taliban fighters to accept an amnesty offer and reconcile themselves to Afghanistan’s first directly elected leader.

“The Taliban has lost its morale,” he said, speaking by satellite phone from the heartlands of Zabul province, a Taliban redoubt.

“But you have to go and find the Taliban and call to them and ask them directly. If they believe they will be secure and safe they will come down from the mountains.”

After the Taliban’s three-year struggle against a superior US force, there is growing optimism among the Americans and Afghan government that the end is close.

Afghanistan isn’t going to become Vermont (or even New Jersey) any time soon, but there’s no way to paint this story as anything but good news.

Not that some won’t try.

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This story sounds kind of cute and silly. . .

China wants more residents to visit key sites in the country’s revolutionary history in a “red tourism” campaign to instill faith in the communist leadership and boost development in rural areas, state media reported Tuesday.

Such sites include the bleak northern town of Yanan, the one-time civil war base of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong and his forces, and Xibaipo, a town southwest of Beijing where the party Central Committee met in 1949 on the eve of their victory.

. . .but it isn’t. I’ll explain why in a couple hours, when I have a bit more time.

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No evening updates tonight – I’m beat. Back bright and early Tuesday morning.

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George W. Bush, on Jacques Chriac:

Only months after he criticized countries “like France,” President Bush was lavish in his praise of French President Jacques Chirac, one of the sharpest critics of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

“I’m looking for a good cowboy,” Bush said Monday when a French reporter asked him whether relations had improved to the point where the U.S. president would be inviting Chirac to the U.S. president’s ranch in Texas.

And the headline:

Bush Suggests Chirac Is ‘Good Cowboy’

I can’t imagine a more damaging sentence in the eyes of the French electorate.

Moral of the story: Don’t mess with GWB. He plays rough.

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I don’t normally do legalblogging, but I’ll keep my eye on this case:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A fight by homeowners to save their New London, Connecticut, neighborhood from city officials and private developers — an important property rights case with an unusual twist — will reach the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

At issue is whether governments can forcibly seize homes and businesses, for private economic development. Under a practice known as eminent domain, a person’s property may be condemned and the land converted for a greater “public use.” It has traditionally been employed to eliminate slums, or to build highways, schools or other public works.

The New London case tests the muscle of local and state governments to raise what they see as much-needed revenue, which they argue serves a greater “public purpose.” Legal analysts said they see the case as having major implications nationwide in property rights and redevelopment issues.

I’ll make clearer what the story is trying to say. Eminent domain has been abused in recent years, as a way for politicians and developers to profit at the expense of home- and small business-owners – by way of legally forcing them off their land. Developers get what they want (prime property at cut-rate prices) by force of arms, and government gets what it wants (tax revenue) in exchange.

It’s got to be stopped.

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As if Vodkapundit doesn’t already provide you with enough links to severed penis stories, here’s one from Alaska:

ANCHORAGE — Police in Alaska say a woman upset about an impending break-up with her boyfriend cut off his penis and flushed it down a toilet.

Utility workers recovered the severed body part and surgeons reattached it.

The woman is charged with first-degree assault, domestic violence and tampering with evidence. She’s being held without bail pending arraignment Monday.

Hear that, ladies? If you’re planning on chopping off your man’s man-bits, don’t flush it down the toilet after. Otherwise, you could get charged with tampering with evidence. Now, if the toilet clogged would that be “obstruction of justice?”

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Once Warmonger Bush is done turning Syria into (more of) a parking lot, Russia had better look out:

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – President Bush urged Europe on Monday to move past Iraq war divisions and work together to advance Middle East peace and put pressure on Russia to renew its commitment to democracy.

“Together we can once again set history on a hopeful course,” Bush said in a keynote speech in Brussels, home of the European Union and NATO, pledging to work in partnership with Europe in implicit contrast to the much-criticized go-it-alone thrust of his first term in office.

The speech, on the first day of a European tour, set the tone for his first trip to the continent since beginning his second term a month ago.

That’s right, chickenhawks, Bush is set to unleash the EU on Holy Mother Russia.

All kidding aside, applying moral pressure is exactly what the EU should be good at in foreign affairs. Let’s see if they can do any good in Moscow.

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President Bush, taking us down yet another fast lane on the road to war:

President Bush, in Brussels for the keynote speech of a trip to Europe, branded Syria an “oppressive neighbor” to Lebanon and insisted it “end its occupation.”

In Beirut, 15,000 Lebanese protesters echoed his message.

Chanting “Syria out,” they marched in protest at last week’s killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a bomb which Lebanon’s opposition blamed on Syria.

“The truth is, we can’t stand Syria,” they chanted.

The 25-nation European Union called for an international probe into Hariri’s death and underlined their support for a United Nations resolution calling for Syria to withdraw.

Oops. Did I say something about a rush to war? What I meant to say was, “generating international pressure and encouraging local opposition in order to end a multidecade occupation.”

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Medienkritik is organizing a pro-Bush rally in the German city of Mainz Wednesday night. I’m curious to see what the turnout is like — not to mention the inevitable counterprotest.

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Barcepundit rounds up reaction to Spain’s EU Constitution referrendum.

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About the secret Bush Tapes, Mickey Kaus says that “another round of explosive front-page revelations from secretly recorded phone conversations like today’s and Bush’s approval will hit 70 percent.”

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It’s hard to keep track of who’s who (and who’s dead) in al Qaeda without a scorecard. Need one? Well, here ya go.

Hat tip to StrategyPage, which sums things up like this:

Short version, al-Qaeda is on the run throughout most of the globe. Even Abu Musab Zarqawi, in charge of all al-Qaeda elements in Iraq, is on the run

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President & CEO magazine has jumped on the let’s-pay-attention-finally-to-bloggers bandwagon. They’re now posting a monthly “Best of Blogs” feature. Good for them.

But a couple suggestions, guys:

1. Monthly? In the blogosphere cycle of life, a story can be hunted, dressed, prepared several different ways, eaten digested and returned to the soil… seventeen times. Just because a magazine is published monthly, doesn’t mean its blog feature can’t be (cheaply) updated more often.

2. Links! Provide the links!

That is all.

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Two Iranian bloggers have been jailed – for being bloggers. You can help.

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La Shawn Barber might have unlocked the mystery behind the dearth of female bloggers…

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Steve and I were both pretty tough on Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post and CNN a couple of weeks back, when Kurtz (along with everybody else in the major media) was studiously ignoring the Eason Jordan story. I still think that criticism was merited, and like Mickey Kaus, I think Kurtz really ought to recuse himself from stories involving CNN in the future.

All that said, I’d be a complete cad if I didn’t take this chance to thank Kurtz for noting VodkaPundit on CNN last week (the site was mentioned several times on Inside Politics’ week-long segments on blogs, first by Kurtz) and accurately quoting me today in a pretty good WaPo column about the impact of bloggers on the MSM.

(I apologize profusely for the title above this post, by the way. I should have resisted.)

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Heh.

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Scott Burgess emailed me a week or two ago, and asked if I’d like to write something for his excellent blog.

Boy, would I.

But – I barely have time enough to keep up my own blog. So I countered his offer: “How’d you like to write whatever, whenever, for my blog?” Scott, obviously drunk, agreed.

So here’s the new deal on VodkaPundit.

Almost every day, except when I feel like taking off for a month without an explanation, I’ll be posting the usual assortment of oddball links, smart-ass remarks, and oooh-look-how-smart-I-think-I-am newspaper-type columns.

Will Collier, aerospace engineer, Auburn fan, and generally way-cool guy, will continue to do what he does. What Will does is pop in on occassion and demonstrate to the world that he’s a lot smarter and funnier than I am.

Scott Burgess, the American ex-pat in London, says he’ll post something on Fridays. Something smart and oh-so-slightly-inebriated about the State of the MSM in Britain. Of course, once he discovers I don’t care what he writes, how often he writes, or how much he links back to his own (excellent) blog… well, I think we’ll be seeing more of Scott around here. Which is a shame, because he’ll probably do the same thing to me Will does.

Anyway, welcome aboard, Scott. If yesterday’s post was any indication, you’re well on your way to showing me up for the half-assed blogger I’ve always been.

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The Insta-Wife is undergoing surgery this morning. I hope all your thoughts and prayers are with the Reynolds family.

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Hunter S. Thompson has killed himself:

“On Feb. 20, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado. The family will shortly provide more information about memorial service and media contacts. Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family,” Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.

“Details and interviews may be forthcoming when the family has had the time to recover from the trauma of the tragedy,” Braudis said in an interview from Owl Farm, the rural Woody Creek home he moved into in the 1960s.

Whatever demons caused Thompson to kill himself were, I think, the same demons which made him one of America’s most compelling and iconoclastic writers. He’ll be missed.

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For a guy who usually paints himself as an old fuddy-duddy, John Leo certainly understands what blogging is about. Weighing in on the Eason Jordan affair, Leo writes:

Why some in mainstream media keep depicting bloggers as inaccurate is a mystery. In the blogs I follow, accuracy is crucially important, and errors have to be admitted quickly, usually on the day of the mistake. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com suggests that mainstream media might want to hire some bloggers to check their stories before publication. This is a cheeky but polite reminder that bloggers are in the checking business, and big media should get used to someone looking over their shoulder.

Hiring bloggers to vet stories is a delightfully cheeky suggestion, but not a very workable one. No single blogger is going to be less biased or be any less prone to error than any single reporter – or even any single news story. Hiring an in-house blogger, or even a team of them, isn’t likely to do much good.

So how about a less cheeky (I am sometimes capable of that, you know) but more workable solution?

Blogs, as the MSM are belatedly discovering, already parse damn near every news story for inaccuracies, bias, outright untruths, etc. If the story is big enough, then blogs can eventually force some kind of change. The change can be something as miniscule and ineffective as a Corrections notice on page A17, all the way up to a firing/forced resignation. The way things work now, news consumers (a definition not including reporters and bloggers) are left out of the loop. Most of the good stuff happens when they’re not looking, since only a small fraction of Americans read blogs. The first most people heard of the Jordan Affair was when it was over.

Glenn’s idea, at least as presented by Leo, isn’t much of an improvement. In-house bloggers would act as — what? An extra layer of editorial staff? Yet another ineffective ombudsman? Would-be reformers to be bought out and co-opted by the system? Look at most existing in-house MSM blogs, and tell me again why they’re a good idea.

With all that in mind, here at long last is my not-so-cheeky idea: Dedicate news space in either Section A or on the op-ed page (or both) to bloggers, and link to bloggers on the web.

Dallas News is already doing something like the first part, with an occasional “Best of the Blogs” op-ed feature. And their in-house blog is actually pretty good. For print editions, that’s a pretty good start.

E-editions of newspapers and magazines should throw some money Technorati‘s way, and come up with some simple RSS or HTML code to include at the bottom of every story or article. The code would provide links, in real time, to what bloggers are saying about what the paper has published. The Technorati Solution is editor-free

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The UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees has stepped down:

In a bitterly worded resignation letter, Mr [Ruud] Lubbers suggested the UN secretary-general had bowed to media pressure amid a number of scandals including the alleged mismanagement of the oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

“Now, in the middle of a series of problems and with ongoing media pressure, you apparently view this [matter] differently”, he wrote. “Despite all my loyalty, insult has now been added to injury and therefore I resign as high commissioner.”

This news reminds me of Richard Nixon throwing Vice President Spiro Agnew to the hounds during Watergate. Agnew’s resignation gave Nixon some temporary relief, but in the end Dick still got what he deserved.

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