Technical experience vs people skills

The airwaves are full of talk about experience, who has it, who needs it, who brings what experience to what ticket. "Foreign affairs experience" is spoken of with bated breath, as if it were the unified field theory revealed but to a few. Actually, foreign affairs are about the same as domestic affairs, only the foreigners can't vote against you. So you can push them a little harder than domestic opponents and still get reelected.
A president comes into office and is immediately overwhelmed by a zillion professional advisers from the bureaucracy, the military, the intelligence services, the lobbyists, the congress, the press, academia, the party, and every joe citizen with access to email. There is no lack of experts on any question under the sun. The trick for the office holder, is to find the few truly knowledgeable advisers and filter out the zillions of loudmouths with mere opinions. Everyone has an opinion, only a few truly know what they are doing.
In this respect, Sarah Palin is well experienced. Taming the Alaska political machine, winning the governorship, acheiving an 80% approval rate, raising five children, dealing with a husband who races snowmobiles, and cutting a tough deal with big oil, shows a rare understanding of people and negociation therewith.
If God forbid, something should happen to McCain, Palin looks tough enough to carry on. And, she shares McCain's views, so a succeeding Palin Administration would not negate everything a McCain administration managed to accomplish. Her practical experience exceeds that of Obama.

Island of Seven Cites by Paul Chiasson

Sub Title Where the Chinese Settled when they discovered America. The author discovered a big, previously unknown stone walled settlement at the top of Cape Breton Island. It's in the gulf of St Lawrence, right on the northern end of Novia Scotia. The author gives a solid, spare no obscure reference, review of European exploration records of the area, going back before Columbus, and finds no mention of a European settlement on the spot. He suggests that Chinese voyagers from the heroic era of Zhang He (1400's) settled on Cape Breton to work a gold mine. He points to strong Chinese influences on the local Micmac Indians, matters of dress, advanced knowledge of navigation, sailing, and medicine. The Chinese were sailing to East Africa, and there is a Chinese map from the 1400's showing both sides of Africa, good evidence that they had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, a century before Bartholomew Diaz.
Chiasson points to favorable ocean currents that could carry a ship from Cape of Good Hope to the St Lawrence. The Chinese vessels were capable of round trip voyages from China to East Africa. Any ship with that sort of range could make the trip from an East African harbor to Canada.
Personally, I feel the voyage length is extreme, and there are plenty of more inviting sites to settle in North America than Cape Breton Island. Also, the Atlantic westerly winds would sooner or later drive a Canada bound Chinese vessel into a European port.
Since, it's a fascinating thesis, and the site on Cape Breton Island deserves excavation by a professional archeologist.

New Orleans dodges a bullet, barely

Thank the good lord, the levees held, and New Orleans didn't flood, again. On the other hand, it was close. That video of the water sloshing over the top of the Industrial Canal levee is sobering. If the water rose another foot, it would have poured over the top and filled New Orleans up just like last time. Sounds like a lot more expensive, federally funded levee raising is in order.

Democrats slam Palin

Chatting with some democratic neighbors. "I can't understand how he could pick some one with just a journalism degree from Idaho. Couldn't he find someone from a decent school?" "And then she had that child, when she knew it was going to be defective."
Yuck.

"The Strongest Tribe" by Bing West

Great book on the Iraq war. Tells the story from the beginning right up to a couple of months ago. Tells of the combat, the units engaged and what they did, the political maneuvering in Washington and Baghdad, and gives thumbnail sketches of colorful American soldiers doing their best under tough circumstances.
Bing West, the author, was a Marine infantry man in Viet Nam, so he knows something about counter insurgency warfare. He has spent much time in Iraq, out in the field, ever since 2003. West is a well informed man with practical experience and first hand observations.
West details policy blunders by Washington and by the generals, but shows how the sheer excellence of the American fighting men overwhelmed the enemy and turned defeat into victory. US troops never flinched, never faltered, and always ran toward the sound of the guns. They endured back to back tours in Iraq, 120 degree summer heat, IED explosions, and enemy snipers. Out in the wild west of Anbar province, the front line soldiers made the connections with the tribal sheiks that sparked the Anbar Awakening and won the war. They used email and blogs to keep home front political support alive. With guys like this, anything is possible,
Great read.

Sarah Palin will be a great VP

That's the consensus of Republicans up here. Everyone loves her. Every one admits they never heard of her before McCain picked her, but they think she is great. The general feeling is any one who can raise five kids AND become state governor has got a lot on the ball. The other observation is that the other names (Romney, Huckabee, Guiliani and company) are boring and dull. Up here a gutsy and independent pick plays better than a conventional and boring pick.

Michael Totten says the Russians started it

Michael Totten is a free lance journalist who has spent much time in Iraq, out in the field with the troops. His dispatches on the Internet were/are the best reporting to come out of Iraq. He takes good photographs too. Any how Michael is in Tbilisi the other day getting a briefing from an American doing media relations work for the Georgian government. Sitting in on the meeting is Tom Goltz, old Caucausian hand, author of "Georgian Diary" and "Azerbaijan Diary", fluent in Russian, Georgian and various other dialects. Both men, Totten and Goltz, are highly creditable, experienced men of good judgment, and they are on the scene, not commenting from a cozy TV studio in New York.
They say the Ossetian "militia" , untrained and closer to bandits than a military, started the war by attacking and shelling existing Georgian positions. When the Georgians moved up re enforcements, the Russians called it an attack and rolled in the tanks.
There is a lot of different stories about who started it flying around. I'll believe Totten and Goltz 'cause I have read their stuff in the past and found it good, neither of them is a taker of sides, and they are present on the scene.