Department of Redundancy

Michael Kelly's column on North Korea is excellent, as ever.

Love Labor Lost

First Al Gore and now Tom Daschle. The second largest vote getter in the nation's history and the nation's most powerful Democrat (legislatively) have both dropped out of the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination campaign. We will never know all the reasons why they chose not to run. And at some level, decisions like this are based on instinct not on check-lists.

But one thing is clear. Labor is for Gephardt. Labor is totally for Gephardt. Gore made a play for AFSCME with his single-payer health plan and the response from that union was: Gephardt. Daschle and his former Clinton Administration advisors cast about for support from Labor and the response was: Gephardt. The fact is Labor didn't want Daschle to run for president. They wanted him to run for re-election. And that's what he's doing.

EDLP

It stands for Every Day Low Prices, which has been the WalMart mantra for as long as anyone can remember. Today, The Financial Times has a long interview with Lee Scott, WalMart's CEO, which is terrific. The only problem is you may need a subscription to FT.com to read it.

Elsewhere in WalMart news, the company announced yesterday that it would begin offering financial services (in the form of money transfers) to its enormous customer base. Adios Western Union. And good riddance.

Day Seven: 232 pounds.

Whining Zone

The blown call at the end of the Giants-49ers game cannot obscure the fact that the Giants held a 34-10 lead with roughly 20 minutes to play and proceeded to give the game away. Coach Fossel's lame attempts to shift the blame to (a) the officials and (b) the holder, do not obscure the fact that his team was poorly coached. He should resign.

Maybe He Just Doesn't Want To See You

Just as articles about the homeless reappear when Republicans recapture the White House, so too do articles bemoaning the dreary social life of Washington. Today's New York Times adds to the collection.

P.S. A friend of mine who worked for President Carter writes:

I'm not sure your portrayal of the Times' "social life" column as a partisan thing is accurate. As I remember, the Carters were criticized endlessly as boring and/or boorish and the Reagans were greeted as bringing elegance and style back to the White House. Actually, I think the Alman Brother's B-B-Q on the South Lawn was less boring than the average Washington social event, but it certainly lacked the elegance normally associated with the White House. I think the Washington social scene does "jaded" in pretty bi-partisan fashion.

RBOC Victory

The Bush Administration has handed the Regional Bell Operating Companies a huge victory with its decision to reverse Clinton-era telecom policy regarding local/long distance land-line telephony. Today, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page puts the best face on this decision, basically arguing that the RBOCs need pricing power.

The spectacular collapse of telecom (roughly one trillion dollars in global market cap has evaporated) required some kind of action to stabilize the sector. All things considered, shoring up the RBOCs is probably the safest policy path to a reconfigured and rationalized telecom market. The decision is bad news for WorldCom and ATT and various local resellers. It's good news for text messaging services and Internet telephony companies.

In fact, I would bet that this decision leads to a revival of interest and investment in Internet telephony. Not that anyone at AOL is paying attention.

Inside Al Qaeda

I'm about halfway through Rohan Gunaratna's book, which is -- for now -- the definitive study. Russ Howard, who along with Reid Sawyer edited the definitive textbook on terrorism and counter-terrorism, says that Gunaratna's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the subject. He's right.

Day Six

233 lbs. Weight training today.

Day Five.

233 lbs.