In a much-awaited move, Yahoo has launched the beta of an all new MyYahoo. There are numerous new features and design and layout choices. But the big news is the total incorporation of RSS into the MyYahoo world.

This is the right move at the right time for Yahoo. And all the recent blog-related press aside, this could be huge news for personal publishers whose content will now be sprinkled in with mainstream headlines. Sure, this has been the case with many excellent RSS readers for quite some time. But Yahoo is now educating the masses. And they’re off to a great start with this new product. As long as headlines link to sites on the web, RSS will want to be in the browser. And it belongs alongside all of your other regularly updated content such as weather, stocks, webmail, etc.

Get an early jump on the crowds and migrate your MyYahoo to the new version now.

And don’t forget to add Davenetics* and Electablog* to your MyYahoo to keep up with all the latest headlines and blurbs from both.

I’ve long believed that spam led to the rise of blogs and rss. Email was the killer app and newsletters were the best way to communicate with a wide audience. But spam and spam filters have crushed the opt-in newsletter option. Blogs and RSS have been around for years. The continuing nuisance of spam is helping to make both increasingly ubiquitous. And start-up pages such as MyYahoo are the next best thing to what your inbox once was.

More here and here.

Orrin Hatch did a nice job of summarizing the Republican view of what role terrorism should play in this election. During an appearance on Hardball (after backing the notion that terrorists around the world are hoping for a Kerry victory) he explained the following:

If there are no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil between now and election day, you should vote for Bush because he has successfully defended the nation. If there is a terrorist attack between now and election day, then you should vote for Bush because he will defend the nation.

Everyone got it?

If one had to identify a front in the ongoing war in Iraq, it would likely be located wherever a significant group of police and national guard recruits gathered. In the last two weeks, nearly 40% of Iraqis killed were new law enforcement officials or recruits.

Here is a great piece on four friends who have signed up to join the new Iraqi police force. They have already been attacked and been the victims of bombings. One of the men profiled explains: “We’re walking dead men.”

The future of Iraq may well be won or lost at these police recruiting places. The insurgents have targeted new recruits. Yet, the new recruits keep pouring in.

Why? For some it is likely a desire to join the fight for the future of a free Iraq. But for most, the call to duty is felt on a much more basic level. It’s all about getting a job. Or as one of the recruits in this story explains (after deciding to return to his training even after his arm and lip were shredded and his tooth was blown out during a bombing):

“Life needs.”

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Service in Iraq is also presenting some difficulties when it comes to the recruitment and retention of U.S. soldiers.

NBC has said that Conan will take over the Tonight Show when Leno’s contract runs out in 2009.

Question for America. Can you take another 5 years?

John Thune on Meet the Press (on Tom Daschle’s criticisms about the President’s Iraq strategy):

“His words embolden the enemy. I think they do. I think when you’ve got political leaders in your country, Tim, in a time of war, when you’ve got young men and women on the ground, South Dakota men and women, Guard men and women, active duty personnel, who are putting their lives at risk for the United States of America and you’ve got a leader from your state who is getting up and attacking in a way that completely undermines the morale of our troops, that’s wrong.”

General Abizaid on Meet the Press:

“Tim, I believe that debate in our country is what our country is all about. And if we’re successful out here, debate will be part of the future of Afghanistan, it’ll be part of the future of Iraq and it will be part of the future of all of the Middle East. As a matter of fact, as I look around the Middle East, we’re going through a revolutionary times right now and debate is happening everywhere. So that there is a debate is certainly a good thing for the peoples of the region. That there’s a debate back home is a good thing for our people.”

How will John Kerry answer these charges (overt or suggested) on Thursday night? How about this?

Poor leadership and flawed strategies embolden our enemies. Public debate emboldens us.

In high school, I had a chemistry teacher who used to regularly offer his students the following advice when it came to solving complex problems:

Write. Don’t think.

The idea was that if one thought too much about something, or took in too much external data (excluding that found, say, on the paper of the smarter student sitting at the next desk over) or paused too long, he or she could freeze-up and never get started. This teacher’s strategy suggested that if one just got started on the problem, it would all work out.

Sidenote: This teacher was borderline insane.

The strategy of Write, Don’t Think never really worked for me when it came to chemistry – although it has certainly become something of a mantra when it comes to my blog writing.

There are times when it’s better to take in a lot of information first, and then to make a move later. On the other hand, there are times when it is more appropriate to just strap on the gloves and start punching.

Governing is better managed with the former strategy. Running for office (and/or beating the living crap out of someone) will benefit greatly when the latter is employed.

Here’s how a recent NY Times article describes John Kerry, the decision maker:

Mr. Kerry is a meticulous, deliberative decision maker, always demanding more information, calling around for advice, reading another document – acting, in short, as if he were still the Massachusetts prosecutor boning up for a case.

That is precisely what I want from a leader. Think First, Speak Later. Intellect over ideology. It’s tough for one person to understand all of the nuances of a complex issue. A president is somehow expected to understand the details required for a good decision when it comes to hundreds of problems and issues. Not possible.

That’s why pulling in the wisdom of the others in order to have the best possible information to get to the best possible answer is the right way to lead.

But as I mentioned earlier, it might be (for better or for worse) the wrong way to run.

Me? I took a totally different adage away from my year of high school chemistry.

Humanities, Not Science.