this is an adventure

“Generals are always fighting the last war, the old saying goes, but in reality the Department of Defense has the opposite problem.” Gates is reorganizing a war planning operation around waging war instead. “My attitude was: If you’re in a war, it’s all in. I don’t care what we have left over at the end.”

Beyond CJR bitchiness: “This latest phase has coincided with both the financial crisis and turmoil in the media industry. Time magazine was the latest bureau to shut its physical bureau here, in June. The TV networks maintain skeleton staffs… Still dangerous, Iraq has become a way station for new reporters on their first foreign assignments.”

The Federal Open Market Committee is likely to “maintain its assessment that ‘tight’ bank credit is impeding growth, said economists including former Fed Governor Lyle Gramley. Lending contracted for five straight weeks through Sept. 9, a drop that in part reflects Fed orders to banks to raise more capital and toughen lending standards, analysts say.”

“In recent weeks, the Obama administration has been mired in setbacks and scandals. One of these, at least, has not yet received the attention it deserves–that is, the administration’s effort to enlist artists in support of its policy agenda.” Personally, we think conservative angst about the NEA is overblown — but this is positively Orwellian.