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The headline:

Nouri al-Maliki humiliated as gamble to crush Shia militias fail

The Times (of London) can explain the facts. Why can't our papers?
Also consider, that this happened pretty much in the British bailiwick.

Meanwhile,

...the receptionists greeted visitors with sweets to mark their victory over Nouri al-Maliki...

It gets worse. A Kurd talks shit about the U.S. They are supposed to be our allies! Maybe the A-OK for the Turkish bombing of Kurdish villages had something to do with that.

This is bad Juju!

Here is the story, if you aren't too fucking disgusted to read it.

Whirled peas

What Jonathan Schwarz says:

I don't think there's much chance the people of the world can create world peace based on mutual love. However, we might be able to build it based on mutual hatred of the violent idiots who've ruled this planet for the past 6,000 years.

Boutique Rum Blogging

Woo Hoo,
Sumfin' New

the next one will be even better

Roy props a third stringer up against the fence for some target practice:

For him, this is a low key, off-the-cuff kinda post. But wait, this "suggested" link seems interesting. Oh, yeah! I remember this.

It may be that we are so saturated with inside political information these days that even amateur analysts begin to think of these races as if they took place in a vacuum, or in a focus group. We're used to thinking of campaign messages as another form of marketing: find the target, flatter their prejudices, and sell them the product. But the kind of thinking on offer here misses even the essential logic of marketing: people have needs as well as psychological profiles. If the patriotic brand of detergent doesn't do the job, even patriots may turn to the hippie brand.

I got a chuckle from it when I originally read it. Now it scans perfectly. I see a powerful paradigm with which historians study the Great Cheney Shakedown Cruise of '01-'09.


And he ties it up with a nice little bow, Lady Anne from Richard III.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The always inane Maureen Dowd:

The dollar’s crumpling, the recession’s thundering, the Dow’s bungee-jumping and the world’s disapproving, yet George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly, tap dancing and singing in a one-man review called “The Most Happy Fella.”

Mrs. Kelley has some words on that:

Re “Soft Shoe in Hard Times” (column, March 16):

Surely it must have been a slip for Maureen Dowd to align the artistry of my late husband, Gene Kelly, with the president’s clumsy performances. To suggest that “George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly” represents not only an implausible transformation but a considerable slight. If Gene were in a grave, he would have turned over in it.

When Gene was compared to the grace and agility of Jack Dempsey, Wayne Gretzky and Willie Mays, he was delighted. But to be linked with a clunker — particularly one he would consider inept and demoralizing — would have sent him reeling.

Graduated with a degree in economics from Pitt, Gene was not only a gifted dancer, director and choreographer, he was also a most civilized man. He spoke multiple languages; wrote poetry; studied history; understood the projections of Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes. He did the Sunday Times crossword in ink. Exceedingly articulate, Gene often conveyed more through movement than others manage with words.

Sadly, President Bush fails to communicate meaningfully with either. For George Bush to become Gene Kelly would require impossible leaps in creativity, erudition and humility.

Patricia Ward Kelly
Los Angeles, March 16, 2008

File this under Ooops

Atrios bwo Avedon

Otto quarantaotto

Dien Bien Phu

A really good interview with Gen. Giap.
That old mother fucker is still above ground.

Via a great post

I miss John!

Contrapuncti

Right next to each other:

Spitzer faces mounting calls to tender his resignation

Eight US soldiers killed in Iraq attacks

Getting your ashes hauled or getting your asses blown-the-fuck up.
I wonder which one has legs (rhetorical device, I know the one I will have to hear about for 8 months).

Hopefully, there was no wetsuit or anal plug involved.
C