THE U.S. DELEGATION IS TAKING THE OFFENSIVE in Johannesburg:

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) – The United States launched a diplomatic counterattack at the world summit Thursday, declaring itself to be the world’s leader in sustainable development and challenging the need for timetables to tackle poverty and environmental damage.

In a forceful – nearly angry – presentation, a dozen Bush administration officials laid out a series of partnerships with industry and foundations in what they described as a “new approach” to address some of the world’s most pressing problems: energy, clean water, sanitation, hunger, among others.

Prediction: no approach that doesn’t produce a lot of jobs for internationalista bureaucrats and NGO-crats will get good reviews.

WINDS OF CHANGE IS FINISHING UP ITS WEEKLONG SERIES of firsthand reports on the Sudan. Follow the links and read the whole thing; it’s very interesting.

MICHAEL RUBIN SAYS PUNDITS ARE overestimating Iraqi military power, just as they did in Gulf War I. Reader Tim Callahan adds:

I predict a ground war of less than 72 hours, with massive desertions, less than 1,000 Iraqi civilian casualties and less than 100 American military ones. This will have to be preceded by an air campaign of 15-30 days. The number of civilian deaths caused in that is the wild card — expect howls of outrage from the usual suspects quoting “official” Iraqi gov’t figures multiplied by a factor of 5. On the other hand, an effective air campaign might cause such massive desertions or even a coup that would obviate the need for any ground action.

Of course, I’m nobody, but if you look at Gulf War I and compare both militaries then and now, it’s hard to argue otherwise. My only worry is that the US won’t have the will to implement a Marshall Plan-like restructuring of the country. As far as I see it, *that’s* where the debate should be right now.

Yes, and that last item is what the Saudis, and the other Arab despots, fear most.

UPDATE: Here’s an interesting piece from the Asia Times on U.S. military operations in and around Iraq.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF SADDAM: Nothing especially new, but interesting. And here’s a summary of Iraqi propaganda by Carla Passino.

THE INDEPUNDIT ISN’T IMPRESSED with reports of Saudi plans for a PR offensive. He has some constructive suggestions for the Saudis as to how they might make a better impression. Excerpt:

8. Allow American citizens being held against their will by their Saudi relatives to return to the United States.

9. Stop oppressing your people. Beating women in public for allowing a lock of hair to slip from their veils does nothing for your image in the international community. Neither does forcing little girls to die in a burning school because they aren’t properly dressed to venture onto a public street.

Good advice, but unlikely to be heeded.

PATRICK RUFFINI IS SURVEYING THE BLOGOSPHERE on attitudes about war with Iraq.

WHAT’S SCARIER? That Marc Weisblott has a new blog? Or his email that it was “inspired by Jim Treacher?” Brrrr.

MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS SODA-BAN GETS A SPANKING:

I can’t believe that the local media thinks this is big news, but they don’t think incompetent teachers, grossly low reading scores, a state crackdown on home-schooling parents, political indoctrination in public schools, and teachers unions illegally using union dues for political purposes are not news stories. No, wait a minute. I do believe it.

So do I.

ANOTHER TRIUMPH of globalization over racial prejudice.

UPDATE: There’s more on this at The Lexfiles.

HOWARD KURTZ: “By the way, do you think there were any Hill hearings on removing Adolf Hitler?”

CORPORATE GREED VERSUS PRIVACY: Here’s more on Democratic Rep. Howard Berman’s ($191,891 from Big Entertainment) plan to open your home to Hollywood Hackers. And read this piece by Katherine Mangu-Ward on the subject, too.

Where are famous protectors of the little guy on this issue? You know, like Hillary Clinton ($603,845 from Big Entertainment), or Ted Kennedy ($239,000 from Big Entertainment), or Chuck Schumer ($450,185 from Big Entertainment).

If the Democrats keep this up, you know, people will start thinking they’re just tools of Big Business or something. . . .

AUSTIN BAY WRITES that Iraq is no Vietnam, and that fears of an urban-warfare quagmire are overstated:

The Iraqi Army of 2002, including the Republican Guard and special units, is deployed not to defend Iraq but to oppress it. Yes, that means it is deployed to defend Saddam’s ruling cohort. Still, loyalty from even elite units is bought with better bread and Mercedes-Benzes. When someone else — like Washington — offers steaks and Porsches, as well as a chance to remain alive, who’s true to the Butcher of Baghdad? Recall Iraqi troops’ surrender to French photographers in Desert Storm.

Saddam’s regime is brittle. The apt analogy is Nicolae Ceausescu’s vile Romanian dictatorship, a multitiered police state akin to Saddam’s. In late 1989, with the political context of the Cold War suddenly shifting, Ceausescu’s own secret police quickly put him in a grave. U.S. strategy remains directed at provoking a Baghdad coup. Aggressive “war talk” and troop movements promote that optimal result.

Stay tuned.

AIR SECURITY JUST GOT A BIT LESS STUPID. And it’s about time. Think those “Impeach Norm Mineta” stickers are having an effect?

A friend who is a bigshot at the Department of Transportation tells me that he thinks Norm Mineta is the fallguy in a conspiracy by the Bush Administration to make big government look bad — that the Administration’s agreement to federalize air security last fall was basically a rope-a-dope strategy. That’s a theory that I’ve propounded here before, mostly in jest, but he seemed to be serious. Go figure.

It would certainly explain a lot.

UPDATE: Reader John Tuttle has some other candidates for “conspiracy programs” to make big government look bad:

Education Reform

The Farm Bill

Campaign Finance Reform

The Steel Tariffs

Homeland Defense

George Tenet

FBI Dir Mueller

Hey, come to think of it. . . .

UNIVERSAL RECORDS LIABLE FOR SEX ATTACKS? Well. . . . Read the item and make up your own mind concerning what’s just.

JOHN HAWKINS HAS AN INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL PIPES ON HIS SITE. Who says bloggers can’t do “real” journalism? Excerpt:

The key thing to understand about US/Saudi relations at this point is that it’s a very private affair. The American electorate, think tanks, Congress, lobbyists, and others have had no say over it. It’s been a very cliquish affair for decades now. The change in the last year has been the opening of the relationship. The President has invited the Saudi ambassador to visit him at his Crawford Ranch as a way of saying, “we’re sticking with you.” It’s a clear response to the vehement anti-Saudi feeling. . . . Saudi Arabia is our rival, not an enemy, not a friend, a rival.

There’s much more, including a statement that the Oslo Accords set back prospects for peace by decades, and a discussion of the likely fallout from deposing Saddam Hussein.

JEREMY LOTT has a contrarian thought about this 9/11 slogan: “Has there ever been a more un-American mantra than ‘We shall never forget?'”

He’s right. The American way is to stomp hell out of people who do us ill, then forget all about it within a decade or two.

UPDATE: I like this slogan better.

JAMES LILEKS HAS UNEARTHED A HUGE SCANDAL at NPR’s Car Talk. Did I say huge? I meant HUUUGE! It’s like finding out that Martha Stewart serves her guests Hot Pockets.

“GAY MEDIA DOMINANCE” CLAIMS BILL O’REILLY! Well, that’s what some people are saying, anyway. That this is what they are saying proves that gays are doing pretty well in the PR battles.

HOMELAND SECURITY: Van Harp, who’s in charge of the FBI’s anthrax investigation, was recommended for discipline for misconduct relating to the Ruby Ridge incident:

The department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, in a confidential report, concluded in 1999 that Harp “committed misconduct” by helping make an incomplete report that protected “some subjects of the investigation,” according to Saturday’s Washington Post.

In January 2001, an assistant attorney general overruled an Office of Professional Responsibility recommendation that Harp – by then the agent in charge of the Cleveland office – be censured or suspended. His clean record intact, Harp in July 2001 was transferred to Washington, where as the agent in charge of the Washington field office he is overseeing the FBI’s anthrax investigation.

Yeah, this boosts my confidence. Kinda the way this does.

UPDATE: This looks pretty lame, too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hesiod Theogeny emails:

Given all the revelations about how the FBI royally screwed up prior to 9/11, including its ignoring of Congressional and Justice Department mandates to

upgrade its computer systems, I think it’s time to create an “indict Louis Freeh” bumper sticker campaign.

Or, at the very least, it’s time to drag his pathetic carcass in front of a Congressional investigating committee for a high-profile barbecue.

How this guy gets away with so little criticism is beyond me.

Well, he may not have been good at his job, but he was very good at the politics of his job.

ALL DAY LONG, I’ve been wondering what to say about this Maureen Dowd column. But I think Josh Chafetz speaks for me, too.

THIS 9/11 DOCUMENTARY ON DVD won’t be released for two more weeks, but it’s already number 22 on Amazon. And read the reviews.

People want the unvarnished truth, not a soft-focus version. I wonder if the networks’ anniversary coverage will reflect this.

MATT WELCH ASKS YOU TO HELP victims of the Czech floods. He has a link.

I’M A BIG FAN OF BILL QUICK, but I’m not sure that DailyPundit Premium is going to fly. But hey, I could be wrong, and I wish him and the other Premium Bloggers the best of luck.

InstaPundit remains free (except for the tipjar), and is likely to stay that way.

THE SEGWAY MUST BE HORRIBLY DANGEROUS! How do we know? Because there are no data on accidents!

Horace Hinshaw, spokesman for the Postal Service in San Francisco, said there have been no problems with the Segways being tested in the city. The only reported accident nationally appears to have been in Atlanta — where an employee of one of the several agencies there that use the scooters fell off.

That didn’t stop the San Francisco protesters from carrying signs saying: “Stop the Segway slaughter,” and “Segway: Zero Emissions, Senior Killer.” . . .

The group’s executive director, Bob Livingston, tried to get on the machine and ended up plowing into furniture. Price said the board voted unanimously to oppose any and all use of the scooter where the elderly might encounter one.

“It really did scare a lot of our people,” Price said. “If that machine comes down the sidewalk behind you, you never know what it’s going to do. It could be disastrous.”

This just defies parody.

(Via Faisal.Com.)

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