Blue Crab Boulevard

The New York Times has a detailed article about the bombings in Bali.

The document offers a rare glimpse into the minds of the most cunning terrorist plotters and of the kind of meticulous planning that lies behind their operations. It also shows what even a small, local group with few resources can do, and the difficulty of thwarting their plans.

"It tells us that these guys tried to think of every contingency," said Sidney Jones, project director of the International Crisis Group's office in Jakarta, and one of the foremost authorities on terrorism in Southeast Asia. "Even when they're being hunted, they had the capacity to think through what had to be done right down to the second."

The 34-page document, titled "The Bali Project," was found on the computer of Azhari Husin, a Malaysian-born engineer educated in Australia and Britain who became a master bomb maker and was one of the most dangerous terrorists in Southeast Asia until he was killed in a shootout with the police last November.

The document was given to The New York Times by a person who requested anonymity because it had not been officially released. It was first reported on by Tempo, an English-language weekly newsmagazine here.

Mr. Azhari's co-planner was Mohammad Noordin Top, who has narrowly escaped capture several times and remains on the run, one of the most wanted men in Southeast Asia.

So, the question is: did the now destroyed money tracking program lead to these people being identified and tracked?

I think the public has a real right to know that, Mr. Keller.

Oh man, did Roger Simon just spank hell out of the Times Two. This is a true thing of beauty.

What fascinates me in all this is what a tin ear some of the major players in our media have to one of the most basic of all themes in American life - You don't truck with stoolies! You would think anyone who had a seen even a couple of movies from the glory days of Hollywood - the thirties and forties when the movie industry practically invented our national character - would know better. There's nothing more loathsome than a stoolie.

Now these stoolies are dressed in Brooks Brothers and even Armani suits and are employed by the CIA, the State Department, banks and the like, yet they are still stoolies. Worse - they are anonymous stoolies. We have almost no way of knowing the veracity of what they are saying and even less the motives for why they are saying it. But the Times and the Times insist that they have checked these people out, that they are not stoolies, but patriotic "whistle blowers."

Say what?

They are stoolies.

This is pure poetry, and needs to be read in it's entirety.

The thing is, Roger Simon is dead, spot on right here. This is exactly what the Times Two have done to themselves. They have destroyed their credibility by playing with informers. Politically motivated leakers. They can't say any crime was committed. They have proof - admitted proof - that the program was effective. But they willfully, wantonly and, I think, foolishly, exposed and destroyed the program. Saying it was well known and yet touting it as a closely held secret is nonsense and they can't honestly think anyone believes that spin.

I have had a rash of agenda-driven commenters trying to spin this using the same, tired talking points. The problem is, that with me at least, my upset with the Times Two has no political basis whatever. I am not motivated by agenda, and I think many of the bloggers who are upset by this are not, either. What the Times Two did, in absolute terms, not political terms, is a wrong. A bad thing for this country and for the people of this country. There simply was no good reason to shout this story out. None.

And the Times Two laid down with the leaking, stoolie dogs. Good luck with the fleas, boys.

Keller gone by the end of summer, Pinch Sulzberger gone at the next shareholders meeting. Sleep tight, boys. Although the fleas you got from the company you keep might be bothering you by now.

The Washington Post is reporting a virtual dead heat in the Mexican presidential election. This is based on exit polls, which I have almost zero faith in, anyway. Still it appears to be close.

Two leading newspaper exit polls said Felipe Calderon of the ruling party and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-wing former mayor of Mexico City, were locked in such a tight battle that it was impossible to declare a winner.

Lopez Obrador's party said most exit polls showed him winning, adding to fears of election disputes and possible unrest in the hours and days ahead.

One exit poll from GEA-ISA said Calderon had a lead of 4 percentage points over Lopez Obrador, although it is not one of the most closely-watched polling firms and its pre-election polls never had Calderon trailing even when all others did.

The Federal Electoral Institute was expected to announce official results at around 11 p.m.

If it is unable to call a winner, Mexico could face days or weeks of legal wrangling and protests similar to the fight that followed the U.S. presidential election in 2000.

It is going to be a long night for a lot of people.

UPDATE: For example, Mark In Mexico is, for all intents and purposes, live blogging it. He is also saying it too close to call but notes some odd facts as well.

Today, my ongoing mission to visit one member of the fighting 101st each day led me over to Blonde Sagacity. ALa has a bit of fashion advice that the hippies I posted about earlier today might want to listen to. There's also a nice comedy video from Mitch Hedberg.

I haven't done a Gunday in a really long time, so here's one for a really slow Sunday. Smith & Wesson SW40VE in .40S&W caliber.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has directed the IDF to step up actions to free the kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit.

Coming just hours after an Israeli airstrike blasted offices of the Palestinian prime minister, Olmert's threat signaled the government was losing patience with diplomatic efforts to end the crisis and preparing for a possible escalation of its military offensive.

Israel shelled northern Gaza early Monday, slightly wounding one person in a house on the outskirts of the town of Beit Hanoun, Palestinians said. The military confirmed artillery was fired in the area.

The Israeli military said its aircraft also hit a building in Gaza City used by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas'  Fatah movement. There was no immediate word of casualties in the strike early Monday.

Israeli aircraft, gunboats and artillery have pounded Gaza since troops and tanks took up positions in the south of the coastal strip on Wednesday. The operation is aimed at pressuring Palestinians to free Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier abducted a week ago. Five Palestinian fighters had been reported killed, four of them on Sunday.

Israel has been massing forces across from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. Olmert called off a planned invasion late last week, but there were signs that the military was ready to roll again.

Hamas-affiliated militants holding Shalit have offered to give Israel information about him in exchange for the release of hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails, a deal Israel rejects.

"These are difficult days for Israel, but we have no intention of giving in to any form of blackmailing," Olmert said Sunday. "Everyone understands that giving in to terror today means an invitation to the next act of terrorism, and we will not act that way."

It looks like Hamas has the war it has been pushing for. Be careful what you wish for.

UPDATE: The Washington Post has more.

"We and the international community know that Gilad is being held by a bloodthirsty gang of terrorists who are causing us much suffering but who are mainly hurting the Palestinian population, which is bearing the results of this terrorist activity," Olmert said.

Weather concerns again forced a cancellation of the launch of the Discovery. There is another launch attempt scheduled for Tuesday.

NASA decided to "stand down" Sunday in order to top off on-board supplies of liquid hydrogen, used as fuel in powering the shuttle's electric system during flight. The hydrogen, despite being cooled several hundred degrees below zero Fahrenheit, boils off as it sits in fuel cells on the launch pad.

By using Monday to reload hydrogen, engineers will be able to attempt launches both Tuesday, at 2:38p.m., and Wednesday, if necessary. Also, while bad weather is predicted for Monday, some improvement is expected Tuesday. At no time Sunday were the chances of launch rated any better than 30 per cent.

Shuttle officials have cautioned for a week that mid-summer afternoons in central Florida are generally rainy. NASA, however, must launch Discovery in the afternoon so it will be on course to intercept the space station yet remain in daylight after lift-off so cameras can photograph the external fuel tank when it is jettisoned half a world away. Damage caused by fragments of foam insulation from the external tank caused the shuttle Columbia to disintegrate over Texas in 2003, and have remained the program's chief concern ever since.

Discovery's 12-day mission to the international space station will focus on replenishing the station, repairing station machinery and testing new shuttle equipment. In addition, the shuttle will deliver European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter to the station to join Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeffrey Williams, bringing the station's complement back up to three for the first time since the Columbia disaster.

NZ Bear does the math and asks, "So, who's for paving over Georgia?"

Fair question.

The other thing is, of course, what do you do when the sun isn't shining? No more late night television. No Leno or Letterman.

I just spotted this op-ed from the Hartford Courant by Marshall Wittmann and Steven J. Nider, both affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council. It makes a strong argument that someone like JFK, who was a "progressive" who also firmly believed in a strong defense, might not fair real well in today's Democratic party. Or at least in the Democratic party the so-called progressive elements of today would the party.

Kennedy himself was a hawkish, pro-growth progressive who certainly was not the darling of the liberals. In fact, in 1960, the true-blue liberals supported Hubert H. Humphrey or even longed for another run by Adlai Stevenson. However, compared with today's left, yesterday's liberals were downright centrist. Just consider the stirring words of JFK's inaugural address: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

In the current political environment, some on the left would view those words as indicative of a Manichaean, unilateralist, militarist war hawk. Yet that memorable phrase was uttered by a progressive Democrat committed to defend America against a totalitarian adversary.

Since the Vietnam war, liberalism has shifted leftward, particularly on the use of force and on the social issues that emerged in the 1970s. Today, we are confronted by another totalitarian foe, in the form of radical jihadism, and there is a need for progressive leadership that can forcefully defend America and our values.

Joe Lieberman, more than any other national Democrat, represents the JFK tradition in the national Democratic Party. Like so many others of his generation, including former President Bill Clinton, Lieberman came of age politically with the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy.

I'm not a particularly big admirer of JFK because of a number of issues, but he did have several good points and he stood firm on the Cuban missile crisis - which probably did the most good in his all-too-brief presidency. Still, I can see why Wittmann and Nider are making the analogy. I've been saying all along that Lieberman is a solid Democrat even if he doesn't meet the Koz Kidz' standard.

That tradition is now being challenged by the left in the Democratic party. Driven by a motley coalition of left-wing bloggers and the MoveOn.org crowd, a serious primary challenge has been launched against Lieberman. However, if Lieberman is defeated, a disastrous message would be sent to the nation that centrist hawks are unwelcome in the Democratic Party.

The Connecticut Senate primary is nothing short of a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. That is why outside left-wing groups have converged on this state.

By any standard, Joe Lieberman is a progressive. What his leftist critics do not realize, or have ignored, is that Lieberman bravely stood up for civil rights long before many of them were born. In 1963, a young Lieberman went to Mississippi to assist in the effort to register African American voters.

The very soul of the party is exactly what this is about. Frankly, if the leftmost elements succeed in knocking Lieberman out of politics, in the long run the Democrats as a whole will - and should - lose as a party.

I think that's starting to scare the core of the party, too.

Alexandra von Maltzan from All Things Beautiful posts a moving tribute to her father on this, the 14th anniversary of his death.