Who The Hell is Gorm Voelver?

Who? Well, for one, he's the Joachim Johansson of New York Press's Wimblehack 2004, having made it into the draw as a late qualifier when Newsweek's Jonathan Alter apparently was disqualified from the competition.

Thanks to Jeffrey at Library Chronicles for providing the link.

Now, onto the tournament--well, just a bit of it: Voelver upset the always hacktacular Bob Woodward in a walk over. Here's what the judges said about his work:

His latest campaign piece ("Bush Har Brug for Hjaelp," Oct. 5) was a taut, trenchant piece of writing of the sort we don't often see in America. "Den proever at saette modstanderen John Kerrys helterolle fra soldatertiden i et daarligt lys," he writes, adding: "Filmen starter med at fortaelle, at mens Vietnamkrigen rasede, blev George W. Bush hjemme i Texas for at beskytte staten mod horder af vietcong-terrorister."

Later, he recounts Bush's response:

"Bevaeg laeberne, som om mikrofonen ikke virker. Stil spoergsmaalet: 'Vi har aldrig tidligere haft en praesident med et hesteansigt. Saa hvorfor nu?'"

Next week is the Final Four. Hmm. I don't know--at this point I think the strongest hacks are Cal Thomas and Elizabeth Bumiller, although James Bennet must feel pretty good about the draw. We'll see.

And, off topic but: I'd like to give Library Chronicles an extra shout out today for this post and this article, which nicely sums up the ridiculous weapons for cash program the US has launched in Iraq. Jeffrey's take:

First, Shiite militants bring us their old guns for which we give them cash. Next, Shiite militants use the cash to buy newer, cleaner, more reliable guns. Thus inefficiencies are removed from the system and the economy is modernized.

I couldn't say it any better myself, so I hope Jeffrey doesn't mind if I lift the entire passage--with proper attribution, of course.