corrente

Juan Cole has been on a real tear lately, giving a better analysis of the Spy Scandal du Jour the other day than any other source for one. He's not the guy, though, that I look to for coverage of the Republican convention.

Silly me. Professor Cole found an angle on the RNC that I have not seen anywhere else, and in the process manages to outsnark us all:

The Republicans also had an Iraqi woman speak. Apparently they could not find an eloquent Iraqi with good English who still would come and support them. This woman at one point alleged that there have been recent free municipal elections in Iraq. I doubt that very much. Or, if any municipal elections have been held, they wouldn't be considered free or fair if done in the same way in Topeka, Kansas.

I also objected to the use of 9/11 and the US military for partisan purposes. 9/11 happened to all of us, Republican and Democrat. Is it really plausible that all those firefighters from Queens are Republicans? But that was the impression they tried to give. As for singing all the service songs, not all servicemen support Bush.

One person with direct knowledge of the incident told me that a US officer in Iraq had had to threaten his tired, dusty, frightened men with being disciplined if they did not stop referring to Bush as "the Deserter."

Wanna bet that incident happened even before these guys heard about the Deserter's friends' fun and games with the "purple heart bandaids?" I'm sure that went a LONG way to restoring their morale and faith in their commander in chief.