A blonde American deemed a "sheik" by Sunni Arabs.

Horn, 25, a native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., acknowledges he had little interest in the region before coming here. But a local sheik friendly to U.S. forces, Dr. Mohammed Ismail Ahmed, explained the inner workings of rural Iraqi society on one of Horn's first Humvee patrols.

Horn says he was intrigued, and started making a point of stopping by all the villages, all but one dominated by Sunni Arabs, to talk to people about their life and security problems.

Moreover, he pressed for development projects in the area: he now boasts that he helped funnel $136,000 worth of aid into the area. Part of that paid for delivery of clean water to 30 villages during the broiling summer months.

"They saw that we were interested in them, instead of just taking care of the bases," Horn said.

Mohammed, Horn's mentor and known for his dry sense of humor, eventually suggested during a meeting of village leaders that Horn be named a sheik. The sheiks approved by voice vote, Horn said.

Some sheiks later gave him five sheep and a postage stamp of land, fulfilling some of the requirements for sheikdom. Others encouraged him to start looking for a second wife, which Horn's spouse back in Florida immediately vetoed.

But what may have originally started as a joke among crusty village elders has sprouted into something serious enough for 100 to 200 village leaders to meet with Horn each month to discuss security issues.

...

To Horn's commanders, his success justifies his unorthodox approach: no rockets have hit their base in the last half year.

"He has developed a great relationship with local leaders," said Lt. Col. Bradley Becker, who commands the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment. "They love him. They're not going to let anyone shoot at Sheik Horn."

He has even won occasional exemption from the military dress code — villagers provide a changing room where he can change from desert camouflage to robes upon arrival.

...

"I still refuse to kiss him," joked Becker, referring to the cheek-kissing greetings exchanged among sheiks. "He doesn't have any sheep — he can't be a sheik," said Becker, apparently unaware of the recent donation of the small flock.

Thanks to NickS.

Posted by: Ace at 11:16 AM | Comments (11)
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Some sanity from the reality-based community (ahem), as a Daily Kos diarist takes Howard Dean to task for, well, lying about the Kelo case. He claims Bush's "Right wing court" gave the okay to seize private property for corporate use, conveniently forgetting that 1) no one on that court was appointed by Bush and 2) more importantly, the three strongest conservatives (joined by Daffy Sandra Day O'Connor) dissented and the three strongest liberals (joined by the ever-"evolving" Kennedy) okayed this power.

Kind of brave of a Kosmonaut to actually speak the truth:

There's simply no way that Dean's comments can be spun to make them even remotely defensible. Dean's tendency to shoot his mouth off was endearing to us Deaniacs as a matter of pride during the campaign, but as DNC chair it's been a constant embarrassment.

...

However, Dean's trajectory of late has me worried. It's a different one from early 2003 or even late 2004. The new trajectory takes us too close to Democratism should the trend be extended to a futue where Republicanism is defeated - if we replace the Elephant with the Ass, has America been well-served?

Far better to make the course correction now - and ensure that there is no overcompensatory swing to the same kind of excess for which we rightly castigate the Right for. Update [2005-7-26 17:17:22 by azizhp]: in case you're wondering why Dean's comments are factually incorrect, ask yourself. How many Bush 43-appointed justices voted in favor of Kelo? How did Scalia and Rehnquist vote? How did Ginsburg vote?

But check out this comment, disagreeing with the diarist and supporting Dean's lie:

I'm 100% behind it. Why? Because it resonates, and I'm perfectly willing to go for a false statement that illustrates a truth.

Now, all of this might be deemed trivial, the musings of idiots with nothing better to do than write silly shit on-line all day (umm... ahem), but the Kosmonauts have a lot of influence on the left-wing of the Democratic Party, and I think the mindset of this commenter -- "Lie, lie, lie, so long as your lies promote a 'greater truth'" -- is quite common on the left.

Obviously it's not shared by all on the left; the diariest certainly knows the difference between truth and lie, and seems to think that lying is a bad thing per se, whatever political usefulness the lie might have. But this is a common belief on the left, that our country is faced by such dire peril by Chimphitler McHalliburton that any underhanded tactics are justified, if not demanded.

Thanks to Slublog.

Posted by: Ace at 10:11 AM | Comments (20)
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Also from Blaster: A liberal throws in the towel on trying to poor-mouth the economy and instead now just decides Bush is "lucky."

When it comes to economic policy, George W. Bush has all the luck. He's like a drunk who wanders across a six-lane highway and somehow never quite gets smushed.

First Bush proposed enormous tax cuts to shore up his conservative credentials in the 2000 primaries. Then, after the first reckless cuts were enacted, along came the perfect after-the-fact justification: terrorism. Suddenly people were terrified about air traffic grinding to a standstill, consumers being too frightened to go shopping and buildings being uninsurable. The economic boost from the tax cuts seemed almost prescient.

Why, one might even speculate that tax-cuts are a generally useful economic move, having numerous benefits!

Nah. Bush just got "lucky" and wound up seeming "almost prescient."

His big gripe is that the markets aren't properly "punishing" Bush-- he really thinks they ought to, and wishes they would. He discounts the possibility that Bush isn't "lucky" in not being so punished, but is, perhaps, actually managing the economy rather prudently (with points docked for overspending) and thus making the US an attractive place for foreign investment.

Nah. Gotta be just "luck." Without liberal-approved economic policies, there's no way for the economy to grow in a stable fashion absent "luck."

He whines:

So thanks to Asian central bankers, cash-rich oil states and testy European voters, Bush has escaped the consequences of his profligacy -- and now, because the economy is growing, the budget deficit is coming down. In the long term, to be sure, Bush has put the federal government on an unsustainable financial glide path, and one day the foreigners will refuse to keep us airborne. But there's no justice in politics. The comedown may not happen on Bush's presidential watch.

Setting him up for his defense of any bad economic news during a future Democratic Presidency: It's still all Bush's fault!

Oh, I missed this: The GDP grew at the healthy rate of 3.4% in the second quarter, according to current estimates, and, as usual, that will probably be adjusted upwards by .3 or .4% in the coming months.

Click on Gene to hear Blaster's "I got a feevah" theme.

Posted by: Ace at 08:45 AM | Comments (52)
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I've been told, frequently, that King Fahd was one of the "good guys" -- liberalizing, Western-oriented, etc. -- before succumbing to the stroke that removed him from decision-making, but this FoxNews piece makes clear that the story isn't so simple:

He assumed the throne just three years after two events in 1979 that would fuel extremism in Saudi Arabia: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini founded the strictly religious Islamic Republic in Iran just across the Persian Gulf, and radical Muslims briefly took over the holy mosque in Mecca, proclaiming the Saudi royal family not Islamic enough to rule.

Those developments, coupled with Fahd's reputation as a former gambler and womanizer, made the liberal-leaning king move toward appeasing the powerful Saudi religious establishment, including the morals police who enforce strict social codes that oblige women to wear veils and ban men and women from mingling.

Saudi Arabia did not want Shiite Iran to be seen as more Islamic than the Sunni kingdom, birthplace of Islam. So Fahd took the title "custodian of the two holy mosques" — referring to Islam's holiest shrines at Mecca and Medina — and he poured millions of dollars into the religious establishment and into enlarging fundamentalist universities.

H/t to Blaster's Blog.

Posted by: Ace at 08:36 AM | Comments (3)
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Some questioned whether Mark Steyn's account of Mohammad Atta's meeting with a Florida bureaucrat named Johnelle Bryant was real or if it's been debunked.

Steyn answers here, debunking some of the debunkers (and calling one a "kook" for good measure, and noting the entire case against the Bryant story seems to rely on Atta's June 3rd 2000 passport entry date.

It comes down to how much credence you put on a passport. Did Atta have multiple passports? The FBI says no, but as Steyn points out, the FBI also wants to debunk the alleged Prague visit based on the fact that Atta's cell phone made a call from the US at that time.

As if he couldn't have left it with a confederate when he jetted over to Prague. Not like the cell phone would have worked there, anyhow.

Anyway, Steyn, I'm guessing, recounted a story he had heard and didn't realize had been challenged, and does his best to rehabilitate that story. It does appear that this story is officially doubted. But, as Snopes would say, I'm putting it in the "undetermined" category.

Thanks to Arthur.

Posted by: Ace at 08:31 AM | Comments (7)
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