David Brooks has a good piece on how the accelerated transfer-of-sovereignty came to be (key insight: it's not a bug-out strategy, but rather a stay-in strategy) and the new hopefulness it's engendered.

The transfer-of-sovereignty results in this delicious fix for our "allies" the French and the Germans: Now they're forced to say no to Iraqi requests for assistance. It's tough to claim you're struggling virtuously on behalf of the Iraqi people when you refuse to aid them in even their smallest requests.

And yet Chirac continues to try.

A big factory in Baghdad for making car-bombs and roadside-bombs has been captured, along with 51 evildoers. Oh, wait. That's judgmental and not nuanced enough. Let's just call them "thugs," "assassins," and "mass-murderers" in order to appease the left's sensibilities over the "e" word.

Polish troops discover warheads containing cyclosarin and say they've foiled a terrorist effort to buy these very weapons. The US military says the cyclosarin was too degraded to have more than a "limited" effect. I suppose that means the "limited" number of US troops that might have been killed by these weapons have no cause for thanking their Polish allies.

MEMRI reports that in neighboring Iran a reformist is making the case that Islam is not incompatible with democracy and freedom, and the mullahs really ought to stop claiming it is.

Posted by: Ace at 12:37 AM | Comments (7)
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Ace of Spades, July 1: Nick Denton's Newest Blog, the Sassy, Jew-Hatin' Jihadette

Wonkette, July 2: Iraquienne

And that title is used to make this lame joke:

A favorite bit: Saddam's contention that invading Kuwait was justified because "

Odd. Wonkette wasn't calling Jessica Cutler a whore previously. She was previously quite generous about Ms. Cutler's, errm, talents and accomplishments.

My gossip-hungry interns Nicholas and Troi want to know: How did Jessica Cutler go from "talented and funny writer" to "ten-dollar whore" in three weeks?

Has there been a falling out between the faux-lesbians? Is envy eating at Wonkette? (If so: Welcome to the party.) Or is Wonkette's newfound judgmentalism somehow related to Cutler's failure to hire her as a ghost-writer!?!?*

* Always remember, it's not libel if you throw a few cheeky exclamation-points at the end!!! That's the Wonkette rule, and I think it's a good one!!!

Posted by: Ace at 12:20 AM | Comments (5)
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I've been waiting for this dispensation for some time.

For the more potty-mouthed in the conservative movement, this new freedom is every as bit as important as Massacusetts marriage is to Andrew Sullivan.

It's a funny column, by the way.

Editor & Publisher notes the discrepancies in reports as to what vulgarity, precisely, Cheney used.

Everyone agrees that it was some sort of variant on the imperative form of an earthy colloqualism for "fornicate," but no one seems to agree on which particular form the instruction took. I heard it first, and most frequently, as "Fornicate yourself," no "go" preceeding it, and "yourself" rather than "you."

Which I kinda like, because really, who says that? No one I know. But I think maybe soon they will be.

The Washington Post, of course, reported Cheney's directive as "fuck you," all spelled out, only the third time in their history they've used this word in print.

This is the gayest way to report it. It's fuckin' gay because they're only printing this word for the third time ever because they think they can embarass Dick Cheney and alienate his conservative base from him.

For crying out loud. Do these jagwads think they can dance around singing "he said a dirty word, he said a dirty word" and swing an election?

You whining sissies.

Note they chose not to report the vulgarity all-spelled-out when John Kerry said it in a Rolling Stone article -- intending, of course, that it would be reported. They haven't been able to explain the disparity in their coverage. They claimed that Rolling Stone had different standards regarding vulgarity than they do, which is a non-sequitor, because the question wasn't about the difference between RS and the WP, but between the WP's own differing standards.

Ann Coulter has a term for this sort of media caterwauling. She calls it "feminine taunting." That's sexist. Let's call it girlish taunting. There's no need to demean women, but of course we'd prefer our media institutions to comport themselves with more seriousness and objectivity than junior high girls.

The New York Times reported it as an "obscene phrase."

This is trite and vague. It also makes no sense, in the context of New York Times' politics. This is the newspaper, remember, that is always arguing that flat-out hard-core pornography is not obscene (legally, "obscene" material may be censored or restricted by the government).

But F-yourself is an obscene phrase? Please. A vulgar phrase, yes. Obscene?

You know what's really obscene?

War.

George Carlin 60's liberal mode off.

The Boston Globe wins points for both accuracy and cheekiness by referring to the expletive as a "vulgar directive."

Vulgar directive. I like that.

Go vulgarly direct yourself, Senator.

Only the New York Post gets it right (at least as I've heard it), reporting the expression as "F- yourself."

Gee, now that that very-important issue is out of the way, can we get back to the really important issues?

Like Abu Ghraib and gay marriage, I mean.

Posted by: Ace at 10:57 PM | Comments (4)
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That's one reason. I have others. I will share them at a time and manner of my own choosing.

This is more my style, which I define as "Casual Elegance:"

Thanks to Wes for that.

Posted by: Ace at 01:30 PM | Comments (15)
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First Jordan, now Yemen. Arab/Muslim countries offer peacekeepers for Iraq:

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Jordan and Yemen offered troops to Iraq -- a major policy shift that could be an attempt to encourage other Arab and Muslim nations to help the country's new U.S.-backed government restore security.

...

Iraq's new authorities have been opposed to neighboring states, particularly Iran, Turkey and Syria, sending in troops. But the offers from Iraq's western neighbor, Jordan, and Yemen will be welcome in the United States, which has led a coalition of 33 countries -- none of them Arab -- in trying to secure postwar Iraq.

Yes, yes, I know: None of this counts if we don't have our greatest historical ally, France, on board.

John Kerry says so, and I believe him.

Posted by: Ace at 01:13 PM | Comments (4)
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What a terrible day here at the Ace of Spades HQ corporate command center. The jobs numbers didn't dazzle as I'd predicted, and I had to retract my hysterical shrieking over the "9-11 Apology Flick" fooferall.

Might as well get out the rest of the corrections now, while you're all on your way home from work and no longer interested in reading blogs.

Top Ten Other Ace of Spades HQ Corrections

10. Contrary to my previous suggestions, I was never in fact "belted by gamma rays" and I do not grow into a nine-foot-tall jade giant when provoked. My threat to take "Josh Marshall's crappy little Don Johnson stubble-face" and "hulk-out on it" was, I'm afraid, something of an empty boast.

9. I did not "comfort" Jeri Ryan after her divorce from abortive senate candidate Jack Ryan. I did not braid her hair, I did not paint her toes, and I most definitely did not cheer her up with a "Nasty Adolf." If I've given a contrary impression, I apologize.

8. I did not actually star in Who's the Boss? My claim that I had has caused great confusion among my readers: some wondered if I was in fact Tony Danza; others thought I might be Judith Licht or even Alyssa Milano. (To those of you sent me flowers and invitations to roller-skating parties, thank you, but I'm not Ms. Milano, and no, I don't have her "digits.") This error arose from an inadvertant typo; I wrote "I was the star, creator, and executive producer of Who's the Boss?" when I actually meant to write "I once watched Who's the Boss? while eating a bologna sandwich." I think this is a perfectly understandable error, and I trust you'll forgive me for it.

7. I was wrong when I stated that monolguist Bill Maher ("monologuist" is a comedian who's not actually funny) was only 5'1" even in those ridiculously high-heeled 1970's Frankenboots he's always wearing. In fact, his height varies according to which elevator shoes he might have on, ranging from 5'3" to 4'7".

6. It was unfair of me to term Jessica "Washingtonienne" Cutler a "news-skank." In fact, nothing in her blog was actually related to news at all. The proper terminology should have been common whore or street-meat.

5. I earlier predicted that Instapundit would "never" link me. I was wrong. I should have said, "Instapundit will link me once, and never again, due to my sloppy and shrill postings."

4. The capital of Kenya is not, as I stated, "Kenya City." Nor is the capital of Nigeria "Nigeria City," nor the capital of Germany "Germany City." I suppose I should look up the actual capitals and provide them for you, but I'm far too lazy. And I should also say that the capital of the Straits of Malacca is not "Straits of Malacca City," as the Straits of Malacca don't have a capital, being a body of water rather than a political entity.

3. I earlier stated that I had solid information that Dick Cheney would not run for re-election as Vice President, and that George Bush's new running mate would be either WWE wrestler Mick "Mankind" Foley or Meredith Baxter-Birney of Family Ties. My sources badly misled me on that, and I apologize for not better vetting their information.

2. Despite my earlier claims to the contrary, I was never in fact Paul Krugman's "male companion" and "travelling cabana boy." I did not "shack up" with him for "most of the eighties," and while he might in fact have "fingers like a concert cellist," I have no first-hand knowledge regarding this claim either way. I really have no idea why I claimed any of that. I think he just sort of pissed me off.

...and the Number One Ace of Spades HQ Correction...

1. It was inaccurate to call Michael Moore "ugly" and "obese." In actuality, he's "fugly" and "fobese." My apologies for misleading you.

Posted by: Ace at 12:05 PM | Comments (19)
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The New York Times attempts a new feature, an article which neutrally presents both the positive and negative signs emanating from Iraq.

I think it's a pretty cool innovation:

Mr. Mahdi, a Shiite politician, was tortured by Mr. Hussein's men, but prefers not to go into details. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, can recount how, in his own case, Mr. Hussein's thugs folded him up into a ball, hung him from the ceiling and twirled him around for hours on end. Mr. Bremer, in a recent interview, described how at a dinner for members of the Iraqi Governing Council, a woman seated next to him had begun to tell the story of her murdered brother, killed by Mr. Hussein's men many years ago. Before she could finish she had begun to weep.

I asked Mr. Mahdi if it had all been worth it: the invasion, the guerrilla war, the car bombings, the assassinations. He gave a surprising answer.

"We were expecting much worse than this," said Mr. Mahdi, who does not discount the possibility that Iraq could slide into civil war. "Much worse."

"We never imagined this would be easy," he said. "We were telling the Americans, you will have a mess. It is mostly the psychological situation. The suffering."

Hat Tip: Thanks to Erik Svane, who sends me a lot of interesting stuff that I never get around to posting.

One day I plan to have my own entry on IMDB, as Mr. Svane does.

Posted by: Ace at 10:22 AM | Comments (2)
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Or, How I Allowed Myself to Become a Screaming Ninny Over Decidedly Incomplete Information

I think I've already spent too much time on this subject. And if you're already bored by it, I suggest you skip this whole post, although you might want to take note of the main point: I think I was at least mostly wrong about this story.

I'm not writing this because I want to write it; I'm writing it because I think I'm obligated to write it. I don't like having to say "I think I was wrong," especially in the first post that got linked by Instapundit. But I can't see any other alternative (and believe me, I've looked!). more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:45 AM | Comments (11)
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It's not exactly bad news. What it is the absence of good news, which, in this close political contest, is effectively bad news:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pace of U.S. hiring slumped sharply in June after several months of robust gains, the government reported on Friday, as employers added fewer than half the number of payroll jobs forecast and hours of work shrank.


The Labor Department said only 112,000 jobs were created last month, far fewer than the 250,000 that Wall Street analysts had anticipated. April and May new-job totals were revised down, to 324,000 and 235,000 respectively, from 346,000 and 248.000.

The unemployment rate was unchanged, as expected, at 5.6 percent.

June still represented a 10th straight month of job growth that has added about 1.5 million workers to payrolls, but the unexpectedly steep slowdown last month may make it harder for President Bush to campaign for re-election in November on a claim of accelerating economic momentum.

In a sign of broader weakness, the average workweek eased to 33.6 hours in June from 33.8 in May, the shortest since a matching level in December.

All of June's job growth in service industries. The manufacturing sector lost 11,000 jobs, a reversal after four straight months in which factories had added jobs following years of decline.

I sorta had a feeling:

But I actually think that the period of positive surprises is passing us; I think that economists have adjusted their thinking, and that therefore the estimates won't necessarily be lower than the real numbers anymore. We'll start seeing estimates that are high about half of the time and low about half of the time.

...but I'm not taking particular satisfaction in that.

June's job creation wasn't very impressive, but that's not real cause for alarm. Look back at Clinton's record; he didn't manage uniformly good job creation month-to-month. Some months a pittance of jobs were created; in other months, jobs were actually lost. And yet the average, which is all that's really important, remained fairly brisk.

George Bush's average also remains fairly brisk-- better than brisk, actually. I wouldn't want to see the June numbers become a trend, but we also have to be realistic. We can't expect 250,000+ new jobs every month. Some months will feature more jobs, some less.

Expect the media, which remained studiously uninterested in job growth for the past five months, perferring to fret about rising interest rates, to suddenly regain its interest in the subject.

At least until July's report.

Predictable as the phases of the moon.

Posted by: Ace at 09:16 AM | Add Comment
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Kteemac fact-checks my ass (and Tim Noah's ass) and finds that it's not quite true that Hollywood had "no" interest in making Crusader or Alexander pics before 9-11:

From the Dish section of Daily Variety, page 15, July 17, 2001, pulled off of Nexis:

SO GREAT: Alexander the Great, the general who led armies to world dominance by age 24, now has a trifecta of films in the works. "Usual Suspects" scribe Christopher McQuarrie will direct a pic he wrote for the Canton Co., while Dino De Laurentiis has recently hired Ted Tally to adapt a trio of historical novels by Valerio Manfredi. A third's in the works with producer Gene Kirkwood, who just wrapped a redo of the Orson Welles pic "The Magnificent Ambersons" ....
more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:28 PM | Comments (9)
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