Entries for February 09, 2006

The other day I mentioned John Fund's book on vote fraud. Here's his latest.

If you haven't already read this week's U.S. News cover story on the CIA by my colleagues Linda Robinson and Kevin Whitelaw, you should do so. It's a first-rate piece of journalism, reporting the facts without disclosing things that should be kept secret and presenting the very different interpretations of what's going on at the CIA. Is CIA Director Porter Goss purging too many career veterans? Or is he cleaning out deadwood and reinvigorating a worn-out agency? Robinson and Whitelaw report; you can decide—or keep your mind open to the various possibilities.

This week I also met with Bill Drayton, one of the most interesting thinkers I know. I knew him at Harvard and Yale Law, where he already showed a contrarian instinct: He was one of the few people on campus who supported Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Not long after that, Drayton founded and has for many years headed an organization called Ashoka, which finances and encourages what he calls social entrepreneurs around the world.

This week I had a chance to meet Michael Yon. He's the blogger who was embedded with troops in northern Iraq for most of last year and whose reports, and photos, have deservedly won wide acclaim. One of his photos has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Here's his blog. If you haven't read his "Gates of Fire" story, you really should. By the way, Yon says that Lt. Col. Kurilla's recovery is going well.

Yon says that before he went to Iraq, he was struck by the negativism of mainstream media reporting on the struggle there. He wanted to see for himself what was going on. His conclusion is that we are making progress. He's currently writing a book on his experiences and plans to return to Iraq in May.