Good Eating
September 16th, 2007You’ll definitely have to forgive me for being absent yesterday. It’s been a hectic weekend, but I fully intend on getting right back to work. Three playful notes: Pedro Martinez continues to be amazing, curried chicken-coconut soup is delicious and The King of Kong is excellent. Want more good news? Good, Syrious news? You’ve got it:
IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way. At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.
Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea. The Israeli government was not saying. “The security sources and IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers are demonstrating unusual courage,” said Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. “We naturally cannot always show the public our cards.”
Anytime you can halt the spread of nuclear weapons, you do it. Good for Israel. Want more good news? American, political good news? You’ve got it:
US President George W Bush has chosen a replacement for outgoing US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, reports say. Mr Bush is expected to name retired federal judge Michael Mukasey as his choice for the post. Mr Mukasey has presided over a number of high-profile terror trials and is seen as a conservative, analysts say. Mr Gonzales resigned last month amid accusations that he fired eight lawyers for political reasons and later lied about it - charges he denies. He officially steps down from his post on Monday.
Better than, say, the terrible and rumored Theodore Olson, that’s for sure. Feeling greedy? Need more? You’ve got it (sort of):
ABC News’ John Cochran Reports: Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s memoirs, ‘The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World’ doesn’t go on sale officially until Monday, but already the White House has fired back at two charges he levels. Greenspan writes that “the Iraq war is largely about oil.” That did not go down very well at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where spokesman Tony Fratto told ABC News he would try to restrain himself. But he still took a pretty good shot at Greenspan: “That sounds like Georgetown cocktail party analysis. The reasons we went to Iraq are well understood and had to do with wmd (weapons of mass destruction), enforcing UN sanctions. To the extent that oil has anything to do with our engagement in Iraq today, it is the danger that al Qaeda could obtain control of oil assets and use them to threaten our interests.”
Is it good or bad news? Bad, I think, because it hurts the credibility of the American Presidency. Good because it hurts the President’s credibility. Bad because it means that somebody in the White House really hurt Paul O’Neill’s feelings and so Alan Greenspan needs to fire back on his behalf. Not that I’m really mocking O’Neill, as he’s a hero, but you’d be foolish not to think that the disrespect afforded O’Neill has an influence on Greenspan.