Here's some interesting midday reading: Over at Harpers Magazine's new blog, Washington editor Ken Silverstein sharpens the focus on a fuzzy period of Jack Abramoff's biography, his time working with South Africa's apartheid regime. Everything Jack knew about dirty tricks -- "cut-outs, bogus charities, financial trickery, and double- and triple-budgeted projects" -- he learned from apartheid-era spooks, Silverstein says. Check it out.