NP: Manchester City vs. Fulham

Some stuff I've been meaning to comment on in the last week, but haven't gotten to:

• The Freakonomics blog and Kevin Drum both note an interesting analysis that views the Iraq surge by the metric of the market for Iraqi government bonds. This is coming from a professor at MIT, so it has some intellectual heft and certainly piqued some interest.
• Also over at Washington Monthly is an interesting piece on the VistA electronic records system in VA hospitals. With all the talk of comprehensive health care reform revolving around how many people are covered, I'd like to see someone cite this as a priority for reform in the larger health care system. I'm not saying larger reform isn't necessary, but this seems like low-hanging fruit that could have a wide impact. Of course, it's open source, so somebody will lose a chance to make some money, and that somebody is probably donating to presidential campaigns like nobody's business.
• Andrew Sullivan on the MoveOn.org ad in a nutshell: "The Moveon ad was dumb and crudely hyperbolic. In other words, it was Coulteresque."
• And, finally, the now-free to read Bob Herbert on the California electoral vote shenanigans. Isn't this only a problem because it's California? If you were to propose this nationwide, wouldn't it be called "election reform"?