Linkmeister

We won; who's next?

In the spirit of many of the statements in this story, "shh...you didn't hear this from me, but...we want to make the Patriot Act permanent."

Triumphalism would be a mistake, says Robert Kagan in the Post. I agree, but I'll bet it happens despite Kagan's misgivings. The neo-cons are going to crow like crazy and quietly begin planning for Syria and Iran. And with the consummation of this deal, Fox will be cheering them on in even more places. Murdoch has managed to acquire Hughes Electronics and its DirectTV unit from GM. Can anyone spell media consolidation?

Here's an interesting document: a memo to incoming Israeli President Netanyehu written in 1996 by Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, among others. It gives the reader a little more insight into the Perle neocon agenda, in this case thoughts about what Israel should do about the peace process (trash it), Syria (raid it from Lebanon with Israeli proxy forces, or directly if need be), and abandon "land for peace." Along the way it should cut taxes, sell off publicly-owned business, and (here's the cynical one) wholeheartedly agree with missile defense in order to "broaden Israel’s base of support among many in the United States Congress who may know little about Israel, but care very much about missile defense." (Italics in original).