Updated: 9/1/2004; 9:10:31 PM.
John Robb's Weblog
Thriving on rapid change.
        

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

 Dear sir, it seems we have misplaced an oil tanker.  ;->
9:09:31 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

 WSJ.  Glenn Reynolds writes that left leaning big media can be matched by hordes of right leaning weblogs.
5:03:46 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

 AP.  The provisional government in Iraq has started to dissemble on export shipments.  This is parallel to the halt in information electricity disruption.  This is an attempt to slow/impair the feedback loop for global guerrillas.  This won't work.  It is more than likely that internal agents, working for GG groups, know the real story and will convey that information.  Externally, disinformation does more harm to efficient markets -- since it drives uncertainty -- than it helps.
12:49:04 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

 LOL.  The Saudis are running ads (like this one in the Washington Post) to prop up their image.
8:27:34 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

 Does anyone realistically think this plan will work?  Given the number of opportunities for improvement, this is a fairly poor effort.
5:26:28 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

 I like this comment:  "Why read Robb if you're not prepared to digest and think?" 
11:26:21 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

 WSJ.  Stem cell research has become a "third rail" issue.  If Bush loses, it will be because he touched the third rail.  An important part of America is a belief in progress, particularly scientific progress.  Stand in the way of that at your own risk.  Bush's "Star Wars:  Attack of the Clones" defense doesn't register.
8:28:32 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

Monday, August 30, 2004

 WSJ.  Negroponte hits the claxon over Iraq.  John Negroponte, who arrived at his post in late June, described the dire security situation in a lengthy cable sent last week to his superiors at the U.S. State Department.  The new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, arguing that the insurgency there has become more protracted than anticipated, wants to shift more than $3 billion in U.S. aid away from reconstruction projects and into efforts aimed at improving Iraqi security, creating local jobs and boosting oil output, U.S. officials said.  More than $1.8 billion of the $3.37 billion would be used for hiring, training and equipping more Iraqi security forces, including 45,000 additional Iraqi police, 16,000 national-guard troops and 16,000 border guards, according to a breakdown of the spending.   Unfortunately, global guerrillas have learned the methodologies necessary to keep up their pressure on Iraq's infrastructure, even in the face of improved security.  We are at least a year behind the powercurve in Iraq, and falling farther behind.
7:18:45 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

 Juan Cole riffs on how the US is becoming Israel.
4:16:42 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

 I forgot to thank Britt.  Thanks!
12:45:56 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

 AT.  Handicapping the election.  Bush will win.  I agree.  It will come down to security.  Kerry's defense team is essentially a technocratic version of Bush's.  Without major differences, people will opt for the devil they know.

Frankly, neither of the candidates have any new ideas on fighting terrorism -- particularly a vision for how to fight this war without writing a blank check for a defense bill that currently runs at $140,000,000 a year for each global guerrilla.  We are light years away from any sustainable formula for dealing with this threat over the long term.
10:24:49 AM    Comment_ Trackback []


 NYTimes.  Cryptome in the news. 
8:54:13 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

 The cumulative impact of the attacks mentioned below (particularly the attack on five pipelines from Rumaila -- the King of Iraq's oil basin), has caused the shut down exports from Iraq.  The shutdown is anticipated to last a week at a potential loss of $400 m ++.
8:32:53 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

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