Kevin Drum, as usual, has the pithiest take on today’s bombshell NIE release:

I guess Cheney finally lost his turf battle on this one. … I wonder who pushed back? Who’s got the juice?

Indeed, this is the most important part of today’s revelations: not that the intelligence community has undercut the Bush Administration’s rationale for war with Iran, but rather that Cheney’s lost a doozie of an administrative battle in having these documents released to the public. I don’t place hope in war being averted due to a lack of a proper slam dunk casus beli. It’s certainly not stopped this administration before. Only a properly de-fanged Cheney will keep us out of trouble for the next year.

Ever hear of Ling Chi? I came across some photos (caution: very disturbing and probably not work safe) of the gruesome practice in some Georges Bataille book a few years back.

WaPo this morning:

Obama aides sharply disputed the initial stories suggesting that he was a Muslim, and in Iowa, the campaign keeps a letter at its offices, signed by five members of the local clergy, vouching for the candidate’s Christian faith. Aware that his religious belief remains an issue, Obama has denied a separate charge: that he does not hold his hand to his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. This rumor stemmed from a photo that was taken while the national anthem was being played.

Also this:

Another e-mail, on a site called Snopes.com that tracks Internet rumors, starts, “Be careful, be very careful.” It notes that “Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim,” and that “since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are seeking political office in the United States, Obama joined the United Church of Christ to help purge any notion that he is still a Muslim.”

Obama seems to be taking it in stride and tries to convert the attacks to his advantage. Can he survive this crap, though? Comparatively lesser stuff did John Kerry in.

Expect more of this in the coming weeks:

“If the independence of Kosovo is recognized, it would not be the final stage of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, but the first stage of new disintegration and secession in the Balkans,” Serbia’s Kosovo minister, Slobodan Samardzic, said.

For those not up to speed on what’s going on inside Serbia, this is a good primer on the political dynamics. The DSS is the party of Vojislav Kostunica, who was until recently fêted in the Western press as a welcome change after Milosevic. Whoopsie!

Signs point to most Balkan specialists still not really “getting” it. The International Herald Tribune runs an article titled “A Balkan crisis that some see as overblown”, which cites a certain European study:

In a recent paper published by the European Stability Initiative, a group based in Berlin that advocates the EU’s expansion throughout the western Balkans, argues that contrary to the rhetoric by Kostunica and Gregorian, Bosnia has made enormous strides in recent years, and this current crisis is political, not interethnic.

Fools!¹ It’s always been political, not interethnic! That’s the single biggest misapprehension of the recent Balkan wars: that they were the product of inscrutable ethnic hatreds. I’ve got an article coming out in the next issue of The American Interest on this very topic.

Stay tuned…

Jesus, I don’t think I could listen to Rudy lisping for four years. Please, good people, let’s not vote this man into office. If not for the sake of the country’s welfare, at least for our own sanity. Thtateth of the Union would be painful.

Don’t get me wrong, I have friends who lisp, and my own esses are far from perfect, hissing out the side of my mouth as they do. But I like my friends. And we’re not running for office.

…going on, feeling strong.”

I hope this is the sound of nails being pounded into the coffin of Hillary’s campaign:

The only thing that made me grit my teeth was his minimum wage proposal. It felt forced, like it was inserted at the behest of some campaign advisor: “Gotta take that advantage away from Edwards.” I understand that Obama is genuinely further to the left that most people give him credit for, so perhaps he just wasn’t feeling particularly moved when delivering that part of the speech.

I think that pledging to raise the minimum wage is a very bad idea, so you have to give credit to the genuinely irresponsible and fucked up Republican field for making a guaranteed minimum wage increase seem like a palatable price to pay.

Post coverage of Mukasey’s nomination getting through the Senate panel:

Schumer and Feinstein said they took solace in Mukasey’s assurances that he would enforce any future waterboarding ban passed by Congress. That argument prompted a robust retort from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

“He will, in fact, enforce the laws that we pass in the future? Can our standards have really sunk so low?” Kennedy said. “Enforcing the law is the job of the attorney general. It’s a prerequisite, not a virtue.”

Best sound-byte in a long while. American politics sometimes surprises.

EU makes goodwill gesture towards Belgrade, signs pact beginning the process of accession. Serbs rejoice:

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told the state news agency Tanjug the move showed Belgrade “can at the same time successfully handle European integration … and defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.”

Translation: my government can get us into the EU without compromising on Kosovo. Plus we’re sure to get Republika Srpska chopped off from Bosnia sooner or later.

The Eastern Question never dies, but the Sick Man of Europe isn’t the Ottoman Empire any more…