Matthew Yglesias: 75 Percent Of What catches Condi Rice floundering when asked how many al-Qaeda people are being counted as “leaders” when Bush et. al say they have captured or killed '75 percent of the al-Qaeda known leadership' . Given the vagueness of her answer, which appears due to total ignorance as to either the real facts or how this factoid was concocted, Matt Yglesias concludes “they could mean as few as eight people.”
Recent Bluessky Posts- Jotwell Conlaw: Evan Bernick, How Originalism Makes Law, JOTWELL (August 31, 2026) (reviewing Alma Diamond, Lawfinding’s Dilemma: Legal Formalism, or Judicial Neutrality, 104 Or. L. Rev. 117 (2025)), conlaw.jotwell.com/how-original.... August 31, 2026 Jotwell
- This Wednesday, the Rules Committee will hear member testimony on reforming the House. It's no secret that Congress (and the House specifically) is in shambles. What I think--and what people generally don't understand--is that's because it's transforming into something else. August 31, 2026 Daniel Schuman
- Will Republicans ever get asked about support for/association with the hateful (yet oddly powerful) Lora Loomer in anything like the terms various Democrats have been asked the (formerly obscure and utterly powerless) Hasan Piker? I rather doubt it... www.advocate.com/politics/nat... August 31, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Loomer said of FL Dem Senate nominee Angie Nixon, U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson were “all ghetto, entitled, race-obsessed, destructive black BITCHES who are completely unfit for the power they hold.” August 31, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- AI? August 30, 2026 Michael Froomkin
Rice, of course, is supposed to be the person to make sense of the possibly confusing different takes coming up from different agencies.
How much confidence can we have in an administration where the national security adviser does not know within AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE* what impact we are having in our “war” against an enemy which attacked us, an attack which, by the way, CHANGED EVERYTHING.
* [how many killed or captured?] — “I would suspect that that’s in the tens to hundreds”