Odds And Ends Tuesday

First of all, this is great news:

U.S. officials say the Justice Department has indicted Alaska Senator Ted Stevens on charges related to a long-running investigation of business dealings in Alaska.

Stevens, who has served in the U.S. Senate for 40 years, is up for re-election this year, and Democrats view his seat as one of their top pick-up opportunities. * * *

I'm not sure if it is too late for the GOP to put someone else in there to run for that Senate seat. I sure hope it is too late.

And here is an article that caught my eye:

The United States can defeat al-Qaida if it relies less on force and more on policing and intelligence to root out the terror group's leaders, a new study contends.

"Keep in mind that terrorist groups are not eradicated overnight," said the study by the federally funded Rand research center, an organization that counsels the Pentagon.

Its report said that the use of military force by the United States or other countries should be reserved for quelling large, well-armed and well-organized insurgencies, and that American officials should stop using the term "war on terror" and replace it with "counterterrorism."

"Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors, and our analysis suggests there is no battlefield solution to terrorism," said Seth Jones, the lead author of the study and a Rand political scientist. * * *

I couldn't agree with this more. In fact, I seem to remember that George Bush said something similar just after the 9-11 attacks. Unfortunately, folks like Donald "There Are No Good Targets in Afghanistan" Rumsfeld and the rest of the neocons got ahold of Bush and that is why we are in the mess we are in right now.

Finally, I have a question -- why isn't the Obama Camp launching attack ads against McCain? Perhaps Obama's internal polling is showing that McCain's recent bullshit attacks aren't having any effect, but I think it is a mistake for Obama to not saturate the airwaves with ads which viciously attack McCain.