Hey, I know that guy!

Via The Carpetbagger Report:

Jon Wolfsthal, Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, goes point by point, highlighting the overwhelming flaws in McCain’s speech, concluding:

McCain’s speech is a feeble attempt to try to tie all Republicans and Democrats into the failures of the Bush administration nuclear policies. Before 2000, the US was on the right track. The regime needed work, but was sound — more states had given up nuclear weapons and weapon programs in the 1980s and 90s than had begun them.

Now that track record lies in ashes — because of the Bush Administration approach, backed by a Republican Congress that killed the CTBT and sought to restrict funding for nuclear security efforts during 2000-2004. McCain is promising more of the same.

I know that guy! Stayed at his house this weekend. Drank his beer. Went to a soccer game with him. He's a good guy. Guess he knows his stuff too.

Update: Jon's now been referenced by The Washington Monthly. He's the darling of the liberal-blogger set. Woohoo!

Sign of the Times

Fantasy Face-lift

I've redesigned Fantasy Premier League. It's pretty sharp, if I do say so myself.

Bringing it home

Two-year-old Ali Hussein is pulled from the rubble of his family's home in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. The child, who later died at the hospital, was in one of four homes destroyed by U.S. missiles. More than two dozen people were killed when Shiite militants ambushed a U.S. patrol in Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district, bringing the death toll in area on Tuesday to more than 30, a U.S. military spokesman and Iraqi officials said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

In fact, the photo looks like a work of art. It is beautiful, on one level, capturing an intensely human moment. The photo could simply be admired as a wonderful piece of work.

Except for the shoes. The tiny sandals on Ali's feet are a child's shoes. My sons have worn those same sandals. Those are sandals that should be clomping about the living room, not a piece of collateral damage...

There’s no way to know the actual number of children who’ve been killed by this fighting _ by Americans, by Iraqi insurgents, by Al Qaida terrorists, by private security forces. And if there’s no way to know how many of the estimated 100,000 to 700,000 civilian dead were children, there’s no hope of knowing how many have died in Sadr City.

So I don't have any overwhelming statement about Iraq to make based on this moment. I don't really have any statement to make, at all. Beyond this: I can't stop myself from crying for Ali, and the children of Iraq.