Iraqi Cabinet is Formed

• Gateway Pundit has video, photos, foreign reaction . Maliki says security is top concern.
• Iraq the Model: Light at the end of the tunnel but will it collapse before we emerge?
• Andrew Sullivan: Some progress but violence is increasing.
• Jawa Report: a milestone event getting “ho-hum” media treatment.
• Curiouser and Curiouser: “Good news hatefully reported” Daily Kos: Iraqi Cabinet Formed, Kind of Juan Cole: Things So Bad the Dead Can’t be Buried

Three Gorges Dam Completed California Yankee says of China’s Three Gorges Dam: whether or not it is an environmental disaster its scale is vast: holding back more water than Lake Superior and generating more than 21 times the power of the Hoover Dam. “It is unimaginable that a project of this scope would even be contemplated in the U.S. anymore.”

Hotly Contested Coverage Gateway Pundit describes how Fatah has given new meaning to hotwiring a car, as militants burned down an Al Jazeera vehicle in protest against what they regarded as biased coverage.

Knock, knock Revealed: how strangers knocking at the door forced Cathy Seipp to join the Republican Party. No, really. But the Progressive Network canvasser had the better one-liner.

The Wrong Guy Eric Umansky links to BBC interview gone horribly and comically wrong. Instead of ushering IT expert Guy Kewney into the studio, where he was scheduled to discuss industry trends, producers mistakenly grabbed a man waiting to be interviewed for a job as a support cleaner. What subsquently transpired was “priceless”.

The Dying American Book Clive Davis ponders a telling statistic. “Publishing database Web site Bowker reported that there were more new book titles sold in Great Britain last year - 206,000 new titles, an increase of 28 percent - than in the United States -172,000 new titles, a decrease of 18 percent.” And wonders what it means.

Going Around in Circles The Big Pharaoh is worried about the Talibanization of Iraq, with militias instructing people on their personal behavior. “Everyday I get bombarded with evidence that Ali didn’t turn out to be the one who’s ignorant.”

Gitmo "Suicide" Faked to Lure Guards Jihad Watch comments on an AP story that Guantanamo prison inmates pretended suicide to ambush guards who’d try to stop it. “Looks like the anti-jihad rehab program is going swimmingly; I hope more of these capital fellows will be released soon.”

Rajasthani Buttermilk Curry

101 Cookbooks

In addition to this recipe, 101 Cookbooks says, “Other recipes I’m excited to try: Chile-hot Bhutanese Cheese Curry, Bangla Dal with a Hit of Lime, Dal with Coconut Milk alongside a Fresh Bean Sprout Salad, Tamarind-Mint Tea, and Nepali Polenta with Himalayan Grilled Tomato Sauce.”

If the US Were a Football Franchise.... Krauthammer asks Why Is Border Security ‘Conservative’? : “We essentially have an NFL draft in which the United States has the first, oh, million or so draft picks. Rather than exercising those picks, i.e., choosing by whatever criteria we want — such as education, enterprise, technical skills and creativity — we admit the tiniest fraction of the best and brightest and permit millions of the unskilled to pour in instead.”

Future News -- Today Tim Blair follows a TruthOut.org claim of a Karl Rove indictment that has not materialized. Truthout director Mark Ash said, “While we paid very careful attention to the sourcing on this story, we erred in getting too far out in front of the news-cycle.” Blair calls it a variation of the fake-but-true defense.

All the Gitmo You Can Get The Mudville Gazette has a roundup of recent news about Guantanamo prison. Items: not enough interrogators to question everyone; 16 Saudis repatriated; 8 Pakistanis repatriated. Five Chinese Muslims formerly released to Albania are now in “danger” — in Albania.

The Smaller Elephant of Iraq War up close is still war, but this letter from Iraq questions the scale: “I just wonder if it’s presumptuous of me to say that I’ve seen the Elephant when so many of my brethren in green throughout history have been through so much worse.”

Internet telephone troubles

Lily Tomlin as operator Ernestine

Amy Alkon says her friends are dissastisfied with Vonage, the Internet telephony service. The WSJ reports a small-business owner spent eleven hours on the company’s support line, trying to switch back to his traditional carrier. His complaint: the Internet phone wouldn’t ring. All this while Vonage is about to “go public”.

The Ultimate Reality Program Winds of Change is running its HateWatch roundup. “Welcome! This briefing will be looking hard at the dark places the mainstream media sometimes seem determined to look away from …” It’s a cheerful beginning, but all downhill from there.

The Dark Frontier The Brussels Journal asks, what do European public intellectuals Hirsi Ali, Hans-Peter Raddatz and Flemming Rose have in common? Besides a one-way ticket to the US, that is?

The Bare Facts Glenn Reynolds blogs about faculty members who pose topless. “I think they should be more reluctant to call student bloggers ‘unAmerican’ just for criticizing them over their political views, though.”

The Conservative Plastic Turkey Tim Blair thinks it’s fairly clear the report that Iran will force Jews to wear yellow badges is false. “This story should be widely stomped, lest it grow into a right-wing version of the Plastic Turkey fable.”