Olio

• Life in academia for a planner of Iraq war
Doug Feith, now a "Dstinguished Practitioner in National Security Policy" at Georgetown:

"It now appears that there may have been substantial preparation by Saddam's regime for an insurgency of this kind," Feith said, "and yet the intelligence community didn't find it.

"None of the things the intel community produced before the war talked about the ability of the Baathists to recruit and finance and command an insurgency once Saddam was overthrown," he added.

So Georgetown aids and abets the devaluation of "Distinguished", which is now on track to become the new "Classic". Actually, now that I think of it, "Classic Practitioner of National Security Policy" would have been a much better fit.

• Suspicious Devices in Boston Turn Out to Be Ad Campaign for Cartoon

...The devices are dotted with blue and purple lights and are shaped like “Aqua Teen” characters, mooninites. One character, Err, seems angry, with slanted eyebrows and what appear to be raised middle fingers.

Profiling. I suspected as much.

•Equipment For Added Troops Is Lacking: New Iraq Forces Must Make Do, Officials Say

Boosting U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 21,500 would create major logistical hurdles for the Army and Marine Corps, which are short thousands of vehicles, armor kits and other equipment needed to supply the extra forces, U.S. officials said.

For God's sakes, break this to Doug Feith gently.

• McCain Backs Away From Iraq Statement

Sen. John McCain backed away Wednesday from a statement issued on his behalf criticizing the Bush administration for not putting more pressure on the Iraqi government to secure its country.

A statement attributed to McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and quoted Tuesday by The Associated Press said, "America supplying more troops while Iraqi leaders simply supply more promises is not a recipe for success in Iraq."

The old "a staffer erroneously signed off on it" routine. Apparently the guy hadn't read the manual for McCain 3.0.