US gives up hunt for Iraqi WMD; Iraq Survey Group pulls out

Story.

I supported the war; I supported the war without regard for whether Saddam did or did not have WMD, and truthfully, I don't remember giving much thought to being concerned whether or not Saddam posed a threat to us. The liberation of Iraq was right because it was the right thing to do; that was my position then, and it remains my position now.

I was incorrect, of course, to claim at the time that it made no difference at all what the administration's motives were for going into Iraq; the rationale, I believe now, materially affected the postwar landscape. I've also posted in the past that I think that the Bush administration had many reasons for going into Iraq, but chose to emphasize WMD as the reason most likely to be marketable to the US electorate. That strategy is now in tatters - but of course, as Charles Krauthammer pointed out in Time magazine recently, Bush/Cheney are now unaccoutnable to an electorate which (Newt's predictions r.e. Cheney '08 notwithstanding) neither of them have to face, or be especially concerned with, ever again.

New "geek project" for me

One of the projects I've been working on for my employer may have useful applications for a project I'm interested in being part of. My predecessor created a content management system for about a dozen of the sites we host, which enables the customers to add and edit content on their own sites. It's very primitive. I've been developing a content management system that upgrades the existing system, but goes much further - it will allow an administrator to create users with various levels of permissions over groups of pages, such that there can be an administrator who has control over the entire site, and they can define a user or group of users which have control over only a subset of pages. I'm also upgrading the interface substantially so that it functions more like a message board (vbulletin, phpbb, webwiz, snitz, etc.), making it easier for customers who don't know HTML to put together fairly nice-looking sites. This is, in effect, an attempt to give people who don't know anything about web design a better option than frontpage.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about a project that I'd be interested in participating in (I'll go so far as to organize it, I'm just not capable of handling the volume of work involved on my own), which is a website that will act as both a watchdog on Congressional activity, and a clearing house for news, analysis and resources relating to the same. I don't think that there's any single website which covers all that ground.

We discussed an idea similar on the forumz just after the election, and so I'm thinking there may be mileage in the project, especially since the content management system I've been developing includes what are essentially group collabortation tools. Interesting project on many levels. ;)

Or, as I'm sure my wife would say, it's just an excuse to be geeky about three subjects at once. ;)

Reid goes after Justice Thomas

Following up on my 11/15/2004 article, r.e. the institutional racism of assuming cultural and political values:

http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21PRHarryReidClarenceThomas1204.html

In the wake of the hurtful and racially-insensitive comments made by incoming Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) about U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, members of the black leadership network Project 21 are demanding the liberal senator immediately apologize.

"Senator Reid has revealed the intolerance found on the political left for minorities who do not reside on their ideological plantation," said Project 21 member Wendell Talley. "Justice Thomas has been in the public eye for approximately 15 years and conducted himself with integrity. Reid seemed to be around just 15 minutes before he made a fool of himself. He should apologize to Justice Thomas for his comments."

While being interviewed on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" on December 5, Senator Reid was asked about the possibility of Justice Thomas replacing current Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is currently being treated for thyroid cancer. Reid called Thomas "an embarrassment to the Supreme Court" and said his "opinions are poorly written."

In the same interview, Senator Reid praised Justice Antonin Scalia, calling him "one smart guy." Scalia and Thomas share many of the same views. Scalia, of course, is white.