THE LIBRARIAN SEND-OFF Closing the week with a new rave weblog site, that of Robin, a staffer at the Library of Congress. Here's a tidbit: "I've been to three days of Library holiday parties, and they are lame, lame, lame, and lame. I had heard about the all-nighters in the Main Reading Room with the bourbon punch; I had heard about the reference team downing kamikazes and singing karaoke. Where are those hard-living librarians of yesteryear? At home with their new livers and their iron lungs and their overdue books, is where. The peak of the 2002 holiday madness was today at the Hispanic division's festivities, when I got to ask a perfect stranger, "Is there eggnog on my nose?"

TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS, DEUX Here's the opening of the NYTimes story [registration required]: "The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users. The proposal is part of a final version of a report, "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," set for release early next year, according to several people who have been briefed on the report." It's nice to see that EVERY FRIGGIN' branch of the government wants to track what people do, but wouldn't an implant be easier?

POLICE STORY I've been posting links to articles beating up on the FBI lately, and while my inclinations parallel those who are disappointed at best with the agency, I thought I'd let Director Mueller defend himself.

DON'T STAND IN LINE Mark Furstenberg, owner of ye olde Washington institution, The BreadLine, concludes his week of diary entries at slate.com.

STILL WAITING President Bush wants every citizen to have their own compassionate American; I want mine now!

CORPORATIONS CAN BE SUCH ASSES Three cheers for Nestle. It always makes me proud when a corporation can act like a jerk, but then they always let me down by suddenly bowing to bad press and doing the right thing. (Yes, yes, there actually is a story behind this story where both sides do stupid things, but sometimes it's important to make one side look more idiotic and petty. In this case, Nestle is it.)

MORE ON INS DETENTIONS eRiposte provides a snapshot of what happened in California this week, then provides his own views. I can't think of anything more irksome than a disengenious government, except maybe one that throws you in jail when you still have legal status.

HERE'S A CRAZY WORD: DIPLOMACY Senators Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel sit on opposite sides of the aisle, and have jointly penned a cogent opinion piece. In it, they make a strong case for building the public mood for significant commitment to a post-war Iraq -- whether you think a war is a good idea, a bad idea or you're torn, thinking about what happens afterward is an important task. They also point to a significant shift in Palestine and Israel around a public readiness on both sides for diplomacy to reengage.

KISSINGER RECAP David Ignatius uses a leaked email making the rounds to demonstrate why Henry Kissinger was exactly the wrong person to lead the investigation into the September 11 attacks, and how the politicalization of the agency in the years since his tenure contributed to those attacks.

ACTIVISM ON STAGE A poignant and brief piece on actress Vanessa Redgrave's search for peace and activism through theatre.

PEACE ON EARTH? Sounds like a good idea to me.

YOUR OWN SQUEEZABLE JESUS (Someone to say your prayers, someone who cares.) Three disappointments with this commercial treasure: 1) It's only available in Caucasian white. 2) I can't get three dozen in time for my party. 3) It's hypoallergenic (Jesus should make you sneeze). What a frightening little doll this is...

A SNOWBALL'S CHANCE The Martin Agency's final Holiday Tips film is up and animated. Peruse the ho-ho-whole series.

COMIC CHIC An interview with Justine Shaw, creator of the vervy online graphic novel, "Nowhere Girl."

REBUILDING WITH INSPIRATION Post architectural critic Benjamin Forgey calls the unveiling of designs for the future of the former World Trade Center site "fantastic" and "good theatre." Even better, he called it "a day in which contentious, dynamic, imaginative and, yes, inspiring avant-garde architecture celebrated itself and -- maybe -- predicted a hopeful new future for downtown New York."

ARAB OVERKILL Hundreds of Muslim immigrants are sitting in California jails today, detained after they stepped forward to comply with new INS registration policies. The INS says those arrested had overstayed their visas or committed crimes, but refused to provide details on any of the detainees. Ah, life during wartime. It's good to see the government can fumble just about any task.

WHERE MORAL OBLIGATION MEETS THE ROAD Here's the squirrely line drawn between what Americans say they want to happen and what really happens. Exhibit A: Afghanistan.

DOWN WITH MAPS No one likes 'em, so down they come. Total Information Awareness on floricane.com is no more.

SHAKE YOUR RUMPAH Angie and the World Famous Pontani Sisters hit town this week with their burlesque stage show, cha cha.

GET IN THE SPIRIT, WOULD YOU? Negroplease.com slams the holiday nail on the head with this post.

BOTSWANA BOOKENDS The title might catch your eye -- it did mine. And then you might be inclined to move on and peruse other books. Apparently, that would be a mistake. "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" is about a detective agency, but it's more about Africa. Read on...

A TURKISH REFORMATION? [link requires registration] Robert Kaplan reviews the recent election in Turkey and elevates it significantly: "It could usher in an Islamic version of the Protestant Reformation... The Protestant Reformation centered on accommodating Christianity to secular life and politics without diluting the religion's moral content and mystical appeal. [New Prime Minister Abdullah] Gul's own views on Turkey's present and future, and his party's accommodation of religion and state, show that he believes a similar reform is possible in the Muslim world and that Turkey could lead the way." It's worth reading, in print or online, and if you don't read it at least keep Kaplan's thesis in mind. Whether it happens in Turkey as a result of the recent election, in Iraq as a result of an American-led invasion or in Indonesia as a result of Islamic development outside of the context of Arabia, the Muslim world is at a curious crossroads and a ground-shaking reformation could be underway.

LESSONS OF WARS PAST If Gen. Wesley Clark decides to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, one of the best outcomes will be his ability to articulate some key foreign policy lessons that can be useful guideposts for the future. He cites the Kosovo campaign as one such lesson -- "[...it] wasn't a pleasant experience for any of the participants. For U.S. leaders during the war, it meant continuing dialogue, frictions, and occasional hard exchanges with some allies to get them on board. For some European leaders, the experience must have been the reverse: a continuing pressure from the United States to approve actions--to strike targets--that would generate domestic criticism at home. There was no escaping the fact that this was every government's war, that they were intrinsically part of the operation, and each was, ultimately, liable to be held accountable by its voters for the outcome." Clark's message is one that the Bush administration wants to ignore, and hopefully can't -- acting in a global environment as a solo player often creates more problems than it solves, while working within a framework of alliances and cooperation is challenging, but ultimately leads to more stable successes.

ONE RING TO SWEEP THE BOX OFFICE... and in the theatres bind them. Call it geek-love, call it good narrative storytelling, call it a reprieve from sappy modern love stories featuring Hugh Grant. Or just call it the second installment in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

AND MILES TO GO BEFORE THEY'RE FREE A new Human Rights Watch report paints a slightly improved but still grim picture of women in Afghanistan, a year after the Taliban was removed from power. HRW's Zama Coursen-Neff describes the situation in the western province of Herat. Two critical solutions to the challenges facing Afghan women (and men and children) are the continued strengthening of the country's central government and the establishment of either a strong, well-trained national police force or a stronger international presence in the provinces.

KALIFORNIA UBER ALLES The eagle-eyed Liz caught this salon.com piece on how the Bush administration has declared environmental war on California, filing multiple court briefs to restrict the world's more enviromentally friendly states' love of Mother Nature. I'm sticking with my new theory on the pending rise of conservatism -- more power to it. (Wait! Don't punch me!) The reasons are simple. Either the Bush-favored measures will fail because they're just plain stupid (a good thing) or they will persevere because they're funded by billionaire corporations (a bad thing on the surface). But I'll tell you all right now, the only thing that's going to give liberals or Democrats or anyone a clear, passionate voice next year or five years from now, will be increasingly clear distinctions with what their opposition is doing. So, welcome the administration to California's court system -- legal fisticuffs are a welcome solution to the wishy-washy stalemate of this past November.

DO WE OR DON'T WE? This is an old debate from CNN's Crossfire -- from last year, in fact -- but former Amassador Edward Peck's views haven't shifted significantly. What I found most interesting about a debate I attended between Peck and former Defense Intelligence analyst Patrick Lang was how closely aligned their views were: Saddam Hussein is bad for Iraq and for the Middle East; he is unpredictable; he is probably trying to obtain chemical, biological and nuclear weapons; a policy of preemptive war by the United States raises troublesome questions... And yet, at the end of the evening, I was disappointed by Peck's constant hyperbole and easy humor, which made his very real and sincere arguments seem trite and unimportant. And Lang, sadly, seemed more resigned than passionate in his defense of current U.S. policy. I say sadly because I think Lang represents a large number of decision makers who had an opportunity eight or nine months ago to steer the Iraq issue in a different direction, and didn't. Which leaves us -- in December of 2002 -- with both sides concluding with the realistic recognition that war with Iraq is almost inevitable for many of the wrong reasons.

PAIN, PAIN, PLEASURE "Secretary" is a curious, and oddly compelling film, and not for the reasons one might suppose (the guilty allure of S/M, for instance). It's compelling for its pain -- and for the ability of both Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader to bring emotional pain to the screen with all of its clumsy, self-conscious and brutal honesty intact. I found the first two-thirds of the film more tragic than amusing; even the comic relief was painful in its realism. But the story reclaims its promise in the end. So to speak.

THE STAIN OF BLAME Vernon Loeb wishes the House-Senate intelligence panel report on the September 11 attacks had quotes like this: "Much is still to be learned about the CIA's actions in the year before the attacks, and we know no reason to criticize the analytic side of the agency, except, perhaps, that it did not voice its concerns a bit louder. The clandestine service, however, evidently had other priorities that it felt deserved resources and attention as much as al Qaeda did. As for the FBI, its record is indefensible; its leadership must bear much of the blame for not preventing the deaths of three thousand people." Those sentences came from "The Age of Sacred Terror," written by former NSC insiders Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, and Loeb echoes some of their conclusions -- Richard Clarke was obsessed with al Qaeda in the 1990s, the CIA rightly saw bin Laden as the Ford Foundation of global terror, and the FBI contributed almost nothing under then-director Louis Freeh that could have helped to prevent the attacks.

LOTT'S POSSIBLE OUSTER CREATES A NEW OPPORTUNITY Bush is in the process of choreographing two years of conservativism, which is bad for some people's immediate sanity and ultimately good for democracy and the Democrats. David From, former White House speechwriter, sees Sen. Trent Lott's recent decline as a White House move: "It couldn’t be clearer if the president actually pulled the lever on the trap door himself, could it?," From writes. Look for a nouveau conservative like Bill Frist or Rick Santorum to take his place as Majority Leader, setting the stage for a conservative agenda that outpaces Bush on issues that will create honest, passionate divisions between Democrats and Republicans -- Iraq, abortion, the Supreme Court, taxes, Medicare, welfare reform, the environment. Mix well with a Democratic ideological battle for the White House and you've got the first real potential for a 2004 contest based on issues, passion and politics. Concerned about the Bush agenda? Just remember: Pride cometh before the fall.

GORIFIC Howard Kurtz loved the hot tub scene on "Saturday Night Live" with Al Gore and Joe Lieberman; I winced beneath my chuckle. But it was his Trent Lott impersonation moments later that cinched it for me; I told friends over breakfast Sunday that Al Gore would not be running for President. This is a good thing -- it opens the door for a dozen candidates reflecting a diverse range of views to battle it out in the primaries. That's what the process is designed for -- not for instant coronations. Some of the less tiresome contenders? John Kerry (lots of cash), Chris Dodd (lots of connections), Gen. Wesley Clark (military cache might be useful in 2004), Howard Dean (the only real "old school" liberal in the bunch).