But it seems to be a top-down sort of thing -- official campaign blogs are awful -- rather than the spontaneous grassroots thing that actually works. But Europe is always at least 10 years behind America:

THE Conservative Right is to turn to new American campaigning techniques and the internet to try to revive the party and overcome what it sees as opposition from the metropolitan Establishment.

Only weeks away from the general election, senior Conservatives will open a new front today in the battle for ideas by creating a website advocating “social conservatism”.

It will invite people to bypass the media and put forward their own views on how the party should evolve.

...

It is independent of the Tory party, though supportive of it, but the website will inevitably be seen as the start of a fresh debate about where the party should move in the event of a third successive election defeat.

...

The site will suggest a values-based approach to politics. It will favour tax relief, oppose British membership of the euro, support the strengthening of marriage and back pre-emptive action in the War on Terror. It will also advocate a broader form of conservatism, opposing the sale of arms to repressive regimes and suggesting that a “bias to the poor” should be its defining mission. Students will be a key target.

...

In a recent article Mr Duncan Smith said that the “blogosphere” would become a big force in Britain and could boost conservatism.

Ahem. If any American know-how is sought, I am perfectly willing to relocate to get shitfaced on a nightly basis work in London for a few weeks to get these bumbling Brits started out on the right foot. I just want some of that crazy-blog-pounds-sterling.

Posted by: Ace at 03:13 PM | Comments (30)
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Good news:

Iraqi soldiers, backed by US helicopters, are reported to have seized 131 suspects in a dawn raid on insurgents planning attacks on the holy city of Kerbala.

...

Several suspected militants were reported killed in the operation, which began late on Friday and culminated in the dawn raid just outside Kerbala, about 100 kilometres south-west of Baghdad.

Officials say say those arrested included foreigners using fake Iraqi identification papers.

Three tonnes of TNT explosive, hundreds of rocket-propelled grenade launchers and at least three prepared car bombs were also found.

Posted by: Ace at 03:06 PM | Comments (8)
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Via FoxNews (broadcast): Watch the NY Sun tomorrow. An ambassador to Pakistan "impounded" the various matchbooks and posters announcing the $25 million reward for information which leads to the capture of Osama bin Ladin because of a disagreement with US policy.

And yes-- the ambassador works for the U.S. Government.

Or, let us say, at least this ambassodor draws a paycheck from the U.S. Government. Whom the ambassador actually works for is a bit of an open question.

Posted by: Ace at 03:02 PM | Comments (9)
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Posted by: Ace at 09:00 AM | Comments (6)
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When all-star tipster GregS says "MUST POST!," I tend to listen:

The deployment of Jordanian peacekeepers to East Timor was probably one of the most contentious UN decisions to follow the bloody independence ballot. It was eclipsed only by the cover-up and inaction that followed when the world body learned of their involvement in a series of horrific sex crimes involving children living in the war-battered Oecussi enclave.

Children were not the only victims - in early 2001, two Jordanians were evacuated home with injured penises after attempting sexual intercourse with goats.

Yes, that's funny. But let us return to the horror:

The UN mission in East Timor led by Sergio Vieira de Mello (who was later killed in Baghdad) did its best to keep the matter hushed up. The UN military command at the time was only too happy to oblige.

Today the cry for justice from the child victims continues to go unheard.

With the UN battered by a series of allegations embroiling its Nobel Prize-winning peacekeepers in a web of global sexual misconduct, new details have emerged of widespread sexual abuse against the civilian population by the Jordanian soldiers in Oecussi.

The findings are contained in a secret report by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, a copy of which has been obtained by Inquirer. It determines that Jordanian peacekeepers routinely sexually abused young East Timorese boys in return for money and food. Witnesses interviewed by UN investigators also claim Jordanian involvement in several alleged rapes of boys and women. The report contains witness testimony, much of it too graphic to repeat in this newspaper.

Thank God for the United Nations. Without them, we might have to rely on stingy American charitable donations to fund worldwide child rape.

Posted by: Ace at 03:50 PM | Comments (23)
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Good stuff.

I'm particularly interested in this:

Update 3: I've just spoken with news sources who argue ABC News only reported the memo was circulated on the Senate floor, and that ABC News never suggested it was of Senate Republican origins. However the headline for the memo posted online reads, "GOP Talking Points on Terri Schiavo." If they weren't authored by Republicans, why call them GOP Talking Points? Even more was suggested when the story was reported on TV. I found the transcript from Good Morning America on March 19, 2005:

KATE SNOW: (Off Camera) ABC News has obtained some talking points that Senate Republicans were circulating, outlining why Republicans should be involved in this case.

graphics: republican talking points

KATE SNOW: (Voice Over) Here's a couple of the points. The pro-life base will be excited, and it's a tough issue for Democrats, which, which raises the question, is this just pure politics, Mr. DeLay?

TOM DELAY: Kate, I don't know where those talking points come from, and I think they're disgusting.

KATE SNOW: (Off Camera) Senate Republicans.

Not only was Kate Snow asking a Republican representative about an alleged Senate memo, she outright said it originated from "Senate Republicans." This does not appear to be true. The actual source appears to be Democratic aides, but ABC News defends its stories as only reporting Republican "use" on the Senate floor. You be the judge.

Show of hands: How many of you believe that if the parties were reversed here that Kate Snow would state, flat-out, that this absurd forgery came from "Senate Democrats," when there is such doubt about that assertion?

I'm developing a new theory about reporters:

They're not so much biased as they are stupid.

Posted by: Ace at 12:16 PM | Comments (16)
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15 brave men died in the past 20 days.

The good news is: it's only 15. Nick says this is one of the lowest casualty rates since the start of the war... I can't vouch for that, and he doesn't crank out the numbers, but certainly this is a far lower number than the 60 or 80 or 100+ KIA's we've seen in bad months.

We've seen drop-offs in casualty rates before, only to be followed by renewed savagery. Let's hope casualties drop still further.

We win, they lose. And then our boys come back home.

Posted by: Ace at 11:07 PM | Comments (22)
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Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. --Henry Adams

Thanks to Nick Kronos of Kronology.

Posted by: Ace at 11:04 PM | Comments (2)
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Well how about that, huh?:

Many of Iraq's predominantly Sunni Arab insurgents would lay down their arms and join the political process in exchange for guarantees of their safety and that of their co-religionists, according to a prominent Sunni politician.

Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein, who heads Iraq's main monarchist movement and is in contact with guerrilla leaders, said many insurgents including former officials of the ruling Ba'ath party, army officers, and Islamists have been searching for a way to end their campaign against US troops and Iraqi government forces since the January 30 election.

...

Insurgent leaders fear coming out into the open to talk for fear of being targeted by US military or Iraqi security forces' raids, he said.

...

Sharif Ali said the success of Iraq's elections dealt the insurgents a demoralising blow, prompting them to consider the need to enter the political process.

Looks like the Democrats finally got their exit strategy. I hope they won't bitch too much over the fact it's the "exit strategy" Bush had in mind the whole time:

We win, they lose.

Thanks, thanks, thanks to LauraW!

Forgive the Optimism/Better Late Than Never Update:

Thanks to Jason for pointing that pic out again.

Posted by: Ace at 01:47 PM | Comments (19)
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Eighty five here, eighty five there, and pretty soon you're talking about real bodycounts.

Notice: not "killed and/or captured." Killed.

See ya in hell, boys!

PS, bad news: those 72 virgins you were promised? Not actually women, as it turns out. They're a bunch of very horny and scary-well-endowed fiftteen-year-old-boys who are really into beards and forcible sodomy.

A little tip for you I learned myself during my time in the joint-- when you're being, erm, Shawshanked, I guess, for lack of a better term, try to think of fluffy clouds and the lyrics to Funkytown by Lipps Inc.

Call me crazy, but for some reason, it takes the edge off.

A little.

Bad News Good News Update: The Iraqi government may have inflated the number of dead terrorists, which may just lie between 11 and 80.

But, on the other hand, this raid was conducted by Iraqi forces.

Thanks to none and Elliot.

Posted by: Ace at 10:39 AM | Comments (45)
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