kausfiles finds the dots. You connect them!

O.K., everybody gang up on Mookie! A crude summary of the latest Iraq gambit. Makes a certain amount of sense, no? a) Sadr's Mahdi Army seems to be behind much of the anti-Sunni sectarian   thuggery; b) the Shiite Badr brigades are Sadr's rivals; and c) perhaps Iran, if it's really worried about Iraqi instability, could help persuade the Badr forces to assist in stopping the anti-Sunni cleansing. ... Add: And of course the U.S. forces are now  itching to go after Sadr, according to Bing West. ... But kausfiles awaits the judgment of others  who know more. ... 10:37 P.M.

The Case Against Opinion Journalism: Here's the Los Angeles Times' front page headline  over Tracy Wilkinson's Dec. 2 story on the Pope's visit to Turkey--

Pontiff strikes right tone

Is that a fact? Isn't there anyone who thinks it was the wrong tone? I always knew that when the LAT finally abandoned objective journalism and started flinging around words like "right" and "wrong" it would be in order to promote only the most pompous, CFR-approved positions. Just because it's opinion journalism doesn't mean it's interesting! ... P.S.: Did I miss something--did  Eli Broad buy the paper already?  [Tks to reader G.M.] ...

Update--How Much Wood Can a Twit Chop? L.A. Observed has a good example of the dead hand of the LAT's hed writers, compared with Valley rival Daily News. Here are the heds each paper ran after UCLA's stunning football upset of USC:

BRUINED!

--L.A. Daily News

This USC story ends without a title

--L.A. Times

Pathetic.  Can the Tribune Company at least lay the guy that wrote that off? ... All the Times is missing is "study says." 9:55 P.M.

Harman: Looking Better and Better I recently thought I was too ignorant to appear on bloggingheads. That could still be true! But I guess I couldn't possibly be too ignorant to chair the House Intelligence Committee. ... [via IPvia Captain's Quarters ] 9:28 P.M.

I am so not excited about Windows Vista! ... And I was excited about Windows XP, because I thought its sturdier code would stop it from crashing. I was wrong, at least for the early version of XP that I bought. Now I can't see a thing Vista's going to do for me that seems worth braving the inevitable Microsoft early teething problems. [It says you can "spend more time surfing the web"!--ed No I can't.] ... P.S.: Needless to say, if everyone has this attitude Vista (and the need to buy new computers powerful enough to run Vista, etc.) won't provide much of a boost to the economy. ... 9:08 P.M. link

Welcome, Hammer readers! 6:13 P.M.

The Cheese Stands Alone: John Kerry's "open ends" are not like other Dem candidates' open ends. ... 6:00 P.M.