In the predicable follow up to the recent report on the failed prosecution of the “Second Lebanon War” there have been many calls for Ehud Olmert’s head, job, dignity, etc. Robert Fisk, of The Independent has finally fired his shot.

So it has come to this. All those bodies, all those photographs of dead children – more than 1,400 cadavers (we are not including the 230 or so Hizbollah fighters and the Israeli soldiers who died) – are to be commemorated with the possible resignation of an Israeli prime minister who knew, and who cared, many Israelis suspect, little about war.
Robert Fisk: Olmert undone by the militia he said he could destroy – Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk

Touché Robert

Okay, Pawn was at best uncharitable to The Note the other day.  After over a month on haitus ABC News told us readers that their edgy political blog was back.  We were disheartened by what we found, to say the least.  Turns out ABC jumped the gun on their announcement by a couple of days.  The Note is now really back, and Rick Klein is doing a passable, if in-baby-steps job of delivering the informed and slightly snarky writing which made The Note a brand in the first place.

Here’s a snippet from today’s issue:

No knockout punches, no game-changers, nothing that’s likely to change the dynamic of a Big Three flanked by seven dwarves. None of them wants Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to win the White House (surprise), all of them would rather talk about Ronald Reagan than the current president (another shocker), and Karl Rove will have to look for work in the private sector (it’s time to make money anyway).
ABC News: The Note

Keep up the good work, Rick.

That reliable font of ill reasoned rantery, Lou Dobbs, has let loose on religious influence on politics. Dobbs was mute on this topic until some religious leaders took aim at one of Dobbs’ favorite populist themes, Illegal Immigration.

Here is a Dobbs comment:

The separation of church and state in this country is narrowing. And it is the church, not the state that is encroaching. Our Constitution protects religion from the intrusion or coercion of the state. But we have precious little protection against the political adventurism of all manner of churches and religious organizations.
Dobbs: A call to the faithful – CNN.com

And one of his retractors:

If given the choice on this issue between Jesus and Lou Dobbs, I choose my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners Magazine

Pawn is no fan of religious interference in politics (or in life, for that matter) but no big fan of the opportunistic populism of Dobbs. So, this looks like a tie…

Picking up on a theme with great currency, Vladimir Putin purportedly said this:

“We do not have the right to forget the causes of any war, which must be sought in the mistakes and errors of peacetime,” Mr. Putin said. “Moreover, in our time, these threats are not diminishing,” he said. “They are only transforming, changing their appearance. In these new threats, as during the time of the Third Reich, are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world.”
Putin Is Said to Compare U.S. Policies to Third Reich – New York Times