70% registration rate in Fallujah.

Powerline sees this as good news. I'm not quite sure. It's good news if Sunnis want to join the political process. If their primary motivation is to scotch the vote on the constitution, however, then they're really only signing up to vote to sabotage the political process.

Yes, voting "no" is their right, and that's also "part of the political process." But many Sunnis seem to think that rule is their right, and they will attempt to undermine any effort to create a permanent government in which they are not made the masters of Iraq for all eternity. I suspect that most Sunnis signing up to vote are only doing so to try to tank the constitution and thereby keep Iraq in a state of chaos and flux, hoping that somehow everyone will agree to put them back in charge.

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Comments (4)
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Starting with Aaron Broussard being challenged by Tim Russert on his previous lies about the phone calls his friend placed to his mother.

And it seems that the anti-war moonbats didn't observe Kos' "rules" about appearing all moderate and huggable.

I don't mean to be a jerk, but that last picture? Wow. That must violate one of Kos' implied rules.

Update: Rho says that picture is a photoshop, which wouldn't surprise me. I don't know either way.

More Moonbats: Video of McKinney, Jackson, Galloway, and Mother Peace, if you can stomach it.

Posted by: Ace at 09:47 AM | Comments (13)
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One benefit of the withdraw from Palestinian territories, it always seemed to me, is that Israel could start treating Palestine as what it is -- a hostile neighboring state making war on it, rather than an occupied territory requiring less warlike policing.

Israel just killed four Hamas leaders, and they're not done yet:

Meeting Saturday night, the cabinet ratified Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's proposal that the IDF be instructed to create buffer zones within the Gaza Strip in areas near the border, in order to move the rocket launchers away from Israeli communities.

Military sources told Haaretz Saturday night that the zones will include neighborhoods as well as open areas. "If necessary, we will create ghost neighborhoods, we will use artillery to prevent the rocket launchers from entering even at the price of removing civilians from their homes," the source said.

The IDF believes stiff measures could induce the Palestinian civilian population to pressure Hamas into showing restraint. The operation, which has been named "First Rain," is expected to continue for a few days.

There are certain obligations of a state, and keeping its citizens from making transborder attacks on a neighbor is one of them. And if a state can't or won't, it is effectively in a state of war, no matter what bullshit its cuckolded leader might say.

And if you're at war, the rules are different.

I actually don't want a lot of Palestinians to die, but if they continue supporting those who make war on Israel, they have no one to blame but themselves.

To some extent the Palestinian people have been infantilized, their collective decisions never really resulting in their inevitable consequences -- namely, the full fury of war being visited back upon them. Hopefully they will grow up in a hurry and avoid further deaths.

Posted by: Ace at 09:12 AM | Comments (13)
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Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is in hot water for selling off stock in the company his family built, Hospital Corporation of America, the nation's largest private chain.

The short story is that Frist contacted his blind trust fund manager, ordering the sale at a rather curious moment: just after an unusually high volume of selling by HCA execÂ’s and just before the stock took a tumble on a bad earnings announcement. (The long story is here.)

The SEC and the U.S. Attorney are now investigating him for “insider trading.”

Frist's explanation for the sale is that he was just trying to avoid an ‘appearance of conflict.’

There’s truth in this. As a Senator, he could rule on medical legislation directly impacting HCA’s value – that’s why it went into a blind trust. But the problem is that he’s had that conflict since he entered the Senate in 1995 (and when he first created the blind trust). But, the whole issue with insider trading is timing. Why was it suddenly such a conflict? Why such a conflict just before the stock took it’s biggest tumble in two years?

Tigerhawk, kicking ass on this issue (with charts even), offers a defense for Frist, pointing out smart investors regularly watch a companyÂ’s executive's personal selling and buying of their company's stock. Such sales must be reported regularly, and because execÂ’s are closest to the company, they are usually a good bellweather of future stock price. If they buy, you buy. If they sellÂ… Frist was just being a smart investor.

Another, more politically minded explanation for the timing is now emerging:

Frist has a fairly clean reputation around Washington. Privately, operatives in both parties said they would be surprised to learn that he deliberately violated the law. Analysts and observers said it was likely Frist stirred up this controversy only because he was trying to clean up his financial holdings before he ran for president.
"If I were a political adviser and I was thinking that he's preparing himself for a possible run for president, I would tell him, 'Sure, get rid of the stock. It's just not worth the headache in a presidential campaign,' " said Jan Baran, a Republican ethics lawyer."

Well, there you go. Makes sense to me. Did you really think Bill Frist was so stupid as to do something he'd so obviously get caught at(well actually, people do get greedy sometimes. Greedy begets stupidÂ….) Of course not.
Bill just needs to explain this, and if subpoenas donÂ’t turn up phone records of some HCA executive calling him in the middle of the night, just before the sale, why heÂ’s probably gonna be okay. Okay everyone, move along.

Not so fast. more...

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 08:51 AM | Comments (6)
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5.46%, and that's not peanuts.

And this was the guy who tried to buy Rudy Giuliani, too, by offering him a $10 million check after the 9/11 attacks while simultaneously blaming the attacks on American foreign policy.

I don't think this guy bought up FoxNews stock to influence their coverage of the partial-birth abortion debate.

Posted by: Ace at 08:27 AM | Comments (7)
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David Gregory was pretty angry at Bush for not being in New Orleans immediately after Katrina.

Now it seems he frets that Bush *is* in Texas after Rita. See, he might get in the way.

Pretty similar to the NYT's recent makes-no-sense editorial, which also blasted Bush for... doing what it had so recently fumed that he hadn't done:

The president's recent schedule of nonstop disaster-scene photo-ops is reminiscent of the principal of a failing school who believes he's doing a great job because he makes it a point to drop in on every class play and teacher retirement party.

Dave From Garfield Ridge lays into them with the heavy wood.

Anyone remember the Times being so critical of Clinton's and Gore's post-disaster tours?

Posted by: Ace at 08:06 AM | Comments (13)
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Go ahead, I'll wait for the shock to wear off.

Damn, my surprise meter must be busted. It's not moving.

Omar over at Iraq the Model is not too impressed.

Posted by: Harry Callahan at 05:33 AM | Comments (8)
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Michael Ledeen paints a grim picture of our Iranian non-policy.

Money graphs:

The mullahs are altogether capable of deciding that events are now running strongly in their favor, and that they should strike directly at the United States. They look at us, and they see a deeply divided nation, a president who talked a lot about bringing democratic revolution to Iran and then did nothing to support it, a military that is clearly fighting in Iraq alone, and counting the days until we can say "it’s up to the Iraqis now," and — again based on what they see in our popular press — a country that has no stomach for a prolonged campaign against the remaining terror masters in Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

Osama bin Laden came to similar conclusions, and ordered the events of 9/11. Why should the Iranians — who have been major supporters of the terror network ever since the 1979 revolution — not do the same?

Sad to say, I don't think we as a nation have the stomach for the fight to come, at least until something happens to get our attention again. I just fear the cost of that attention-getter.

Side note: Mr. Ledeen makes an excellent point about the press. Our enemies are always watching, and when they see the MSM constantly harping on problems, difficulties, and slagging Bush for the smallest of things about Iraq and never giving credit or showing positives, our enemies are encouraged. Thanks, MSM!

Posted by: Harry Callahan at 05:18 AM | Comments (10)
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It isn't easy for former slave-states to move toward true freedom, a main pillar of which is economic freedom. It seems to come in fits and starts. Well, here's another start.

This would be important for the future direction of economic reform in Poland, since Civic Platform is committed to radical change to stimulate the economy, including the rapid adoption of the euro and the introduction of a 15 percent flat tax rate for personal, company and consumption taxes.

I spoke to a Pole a couple of years ago who lamented to me that many in his country were still unwilling to let go of their 'guaranteed' subsistence-wages-for-minimal-output way of life. The scrappiness that full-on capitalism requires frightened many.

Not so much anymore it would seem.
Let us raise a glass to the Polish people and wish them well in this time of change and opportunity.

Posted by: LauraW. at 06:17 PM | Comments (13)
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Sharpen the tridents. Mend the nets. It's on:

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico...

Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.

'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'

These dolphins were sleepers.

(Part I here. And before you know-it-alls start in with the pro-dolphin lobby's "Dolphins are mammels" propaganda, look at one. You know what side they're on. Fins=Fish. Know your enemy.)

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 03:10 PM | Comments (21)
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