Tidbits 02Mar05

To get you started - another good day for the National Review

1. OpinionJournal reprints a Commentary article - What Became of the CIA? It's dismissive of Imperial Hubris and Michael Scheuer with good reasons why. Even better is its review of a book by Melissa Boyle Mahle, a former clandestine services operative, on how the CIA became so ineffective. One of the reasons: the affirmative action policies enforced by the Clinton appointees were deemed much more important than the effectiveness of the agency. [For more on Scheuer, and why his worldview is harmful to the US, see here, and here -- TKM]

2. Jay Nordlinger has an enlightening little blurb on Darfur. Bush WILL act. Also, the last 't' in "Turandot" is NOT silent (because it's Italian, not French)

3. David Frum from NRO has a quick primer on Lebanon and why it will be messy. In short, boy Assad withdraws completely at his mortal peril. And Bush isn't in the mood to compromise.

4. Larry Kudlow hammers the New York Times for - surprise, surprise - braying about bad news on the economy (preliminary Q4 GDP) and burying the good news (substantially higher revisions)

5. Germany, the new Sick Man of Europe, from Powerline.