Oh, well. Two out of three ain't bad:

BEIRUT has long been known as a city of fashionable bars and clubs, a scene that has survived even amid the bullets and bombs of war.

But the nightlife in this melting pot of a metropolis has taken on a drastic change in the last few days.

By 8pm, women in their 20s and early 30s are prowling in packs of five and six, casting glances at any and all passing men. In the bars the women dance for hours - often on top of the bar - with legs, midriffs, and barely-covered breasts on show.

Samir Khalaf, a professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut, said the situation astonished his American colleagues. "They are just shocked," he said. "'This is Lebanon, the Middle East?' they say. They can't stop talking about all the belly buttons, about all these highly eroticised bodies. You see it everywhere here, this combination of consumerism and postmodernism and female competition."

For a few weeks twice a year, after Ramadan and before Christmas, thousands of Lebanon's young men return from jobs abroad - and run smack into one of the world's most aggressive cultures of female display. Young women of means have spent weeks preening and planning how to sift through as many men as possible in the short time available. The austere month of Ramadan ended just over a week ago.

The country's high rate of unemployment pushes the young men to seek work elsewhere, sometimes in Western countries such as France and Canada, but mainly in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the other oil states on the Persian Gulf. The women, inhibited by family pressures, are generally left behind.

"The demographic reality is truly alarming," Khalaf said. "There are no jobs for university graduates, and with the boys leaving, the sex ratios are simply out of control. It is now almost five to one: five young girls for every young man. When men my sons' age come back to Lebanon, they can't keep the girls from leaping at them."

For the men, who return with deep pockets and high spirits, the welcome is gratifying.

"In Doha it is completely impossible, because you can't talk to women in the Gulf," said Wisam Hamdan, 35, back from Qatar, where he manages hairdressing salons. "But Lebanese girls are very friendly. I am hoping to meet lots of girls, and then I will pick one."

Thanks to Jack M.

Posted by: Ace at 12:11 PM | Comments (28)
Post contains 422 words, total size 3 kb.

To be hanged until dead, dead, dead.

After the Kurds go through their trial, and then through the appeals, etc.

Democrats are already questioning the timing of his hanging in 2016 as being designed "to help Republicans against Chelsea Clinton's presidential run."

CNN, MSNBC Spin The News By Ignoring It: To be honest, I think this changes the public's view on Iraq trivially, if at all. Which makes CNNN's and MSNBC's noncoverage of this all the more blatant.

From Instaheh's verdict round-up:

Hmm. Turned on the TV. Fox was covering Saddam, but CNN was running an election-themed piece on stem cell research, and MSNBC was reporting on the hot prospects for the Harold Ford campaign. You'd think this would deserve more attention than that . . . .

Oh, wait, they just teased a coming story with "Will Saddam Hussein's sentencing spark more violence in Iraq?" I should've figured on that spin, shouldn't I?

Not only will they ignore or spin stories that help Republicans, not only will they ignore or spin stories that might help Republicans, they're now set on ignoring or spinning stories that have a trivial chance of helping Republicans to a statistically-insignificant extent.

Now that's staying on message. John Kerry could learn from them.

Posted by: Ace at 10:51 AM | Comments (42)
Post contains 226 words, total size 2 kb.

I think that's what this videoblog is saying.

Volunteer to call potential GOP voters.

And remember: I'm not sure about this, but I think if you sign up, Mary Katherine Ham will sleep with you.*

* Again, I could be wrong. It might just be a phone sex deal or something.
Still, not too shabby.

Posted by: Ace at 10:17 PM | Comments (63)
Post contains 81 words, total size 1 kb.

Fluke? Outlier? Or the real November surprise-- people getting more serious as the elections approach?

A WaPo/ABCNews Poll:

Bush job approval: 43%, up from 40 (Registered Voters)

Generic Likely Voter, Dem +6 (down from Dem +14)

Right Track/Wrong Track (RV): 39/59, up from 32/66

Who do you trust on Iraq (RV)? Dem 42, Rep 42, up from Dem 48, Rep 40

AJ Strata and Decision '08 have more.

Also very big: Rumors are swirling that ultraliberal Justice Stevens will announce his retirement this year due to failing health. Supposedly Chuck Schumer has gotten a commitment from Casey to fillibuster conservative replacements. And Ford, Webb, and Tester won't rule that move out.

Rumors, but the guy does have to retire eventually. He's four hundred thirty six years old. He attended Yoda's bar mitzvah.

Jim Geraghty... has been covering the polls and such really well, and he's been far, far more optimistic than most pundits or bloggers.

Of course he's all over the latest poll.

Little teaser for that link:

Guess what the final WaPo/ABCNews poll showed on the generic ballot question in 1994, when Republicans swept into Congressional power?

If he turns out right, I know a lot of people are going to be buying his book (Voting to Kill: How 9/11 Launched a New Era In Republican Leadership), and a lot of those new readers are going to be Democrats trying to figure out how the hell it all went so terribly wrong.

Bad news... From Rasmussen, showing Democrats' advantage in party affiliation peaking, as they say, at just the right time.

At a three month high -- six points higher than the GOP.

And Rasmussen at least got it close to right in 2004 (having Dems ahead by 1).

Trying to put lipstick on this pig... well, it's adults, not likely voters, and further, when one party's being perceived as being in bad shape Dem-leaning "independents" may feel more comfortable about declaring themselves Democrats (which they are, really, anyway), while Republican-leaning moderates shun identifying themsleves as Republicans (but will still, mostly, pull the lever for Republicans).

Posted by: Ace at 10:09 PM | Comments (62)
Post contains 365 words, total size 3 kb.

Maybe this is just me.

But does anyone else repeatedly watch a movie they don't like, maybe hoping that somehow it's suddenly going to become good?

I just realized, for me, it's the Coppola version of Dracula. I wanted to like it at the time, and hated it, as just about everyone did.

But since then I've watched it three times, knowing I would hate it. What, exactly, was I expecting to be different?

Well, I just put it on now (it's on Comcast's free movies).

Why?

Posted by: Ace at 04:28 PM | Comments (195)
Post contains 95 words, total size 1 kb.

Just in case you hadn't heard, all four are just industry magazines published by Gannett, which also owns USAToday. They're "military" magazines in the sense they cover the military.

But not "military magazines" in the sense that they're actually published by the armed forces.

The editorials they offer may or may be persuasive (haven't read them myself), and the editorials are in fact written by former military personnel.

Still, the media is breathlessly reporting this as if official military papers like Stars and Stripes had come out against Rumsfeld -- which would be so enormous it also wouldn't ever happen (can't criticize superiors, after all).

So, if you're imagining that the actual military is now in open revolt against Rumsfeld, you've been "inadvertantly misled" by our very fair and balanced media.

By the way, Fox has been hyping this all day.

Posted by: Ace at 03:42 PM | Comments (85)
Post contains 165 words, total size 1 kb.

Nuance.

Posted by: Ace at 02:37 PM | Comments (45)
Post contains 33 words, total size 1 kb.

CNN ran terrorist footage of an American soldier being killed by a sniper. Their defense was that this was information the American public ought to have, no matter what conclusions the public might draw from it, or how the public may be influenced by terrorist propaganda. They would, they argued, trust in the public's wisdom to draw the right conclusions and not be overly influenced by enemy propaganda in a time of war.

No one on the right bought this argument. Superficially, it does make some sense. But we knew CNN, despite its protestations, does in fact censor the news when it feels the public will be "misled" by stories, or be overly influenced by some stories. And CNN, and the rest of the MSM, of course exercise this censorship whenever a story may unduly influence voters to vote Republican, or support the War in Iraq, or support any other position the MSM doesn't support.

If the MSM really has a "let it all be reported and let the public figure it out without our censoring the news" philosophy, why are they embargoing the rather interesting story that terrorists support the Democrats in the upcoming midterms? Surely the public has the wisdom to not be unduly swayed by such information, right?

Apparently not. The terrorists have in fact endorsed the Democrats without any ambiguity, but the MSM now decides that some terrorist propaganda isn't fit for print. Or broadcast.

National leaders in the Democratic Party, including Howard Dean's Democratic National Committee, potential House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, possible presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and longtime party stalwart Ted Kennedy don't want to talk with WorldNetDaily about an endorsement their party has received.

The endorsement came via a WND article by Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein, who interviewed leaders of several prominent Mideast terrorist organizations, including Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Islamic Jihad.

"Of course Americans should vote Democrat," Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, and infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, told WND.

"This is why American Muslims will support the Democrats, because there is an atmosphere in America that encourages those who want to withdraw from Iraq. It is time that the American people support those who want to take them out of this Iraqi mud," said Jaara, speaking to WND from exile in Ireland, where he was sent as part of an internationally brokered deal that ended the church siege.

Jaara and others told WND that they believe if the Democrats come into power because of the party's position on withdrawing from Iraq, that ensures victory for the worldwide Islamic resistance.

...

Muhammad Saadi, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, said the Democrats' talk of withdrawal from Iraq makes him feel "proud."

"As Arabs and Muslims we feel proud of this talk," he told WND. "Very proud from the great successes of the Iraqi resistance. This success that brought the big superpower of the world to discuss a possible withdrawal."

But WND was unable to get a single comment from dozens of telephone calls made over two days and messages left with various leaders' offices and press secretaries.

Before the inevitable defense "Well that comes from WND, we can't necessarily trust it" -- um, aren't the news organizations in the business of gathering and verifying news? WND provided all the names of those quoted -- the MSM can rather easily arrange interviews to verify those terrorists said what WND said they said.

Or disprove the story, perhaps, if all of those terrorists deny making the previous statements.

But the media knows damn well the quotes are genuine, and certainly will not arrange telephone interviews (with people quite happy to talk to the press) in order to report the story themselves. They'll just embargo the story completely.

That's the media's most potent power -- not shading or slanting stories this way or that. But simply refusing to report major stories they feel may cause Americans to think "the wrong things."

So CNN can hang itself with its claim that "We're not in the business of censoring the news." That's precisely the business it's in, and business is good.

Thanks to Intaglio.

Posted by: Ace at 10:50 AM | Comments (88)
Post contains 725 words, total size 5 kb.

Scientists are baffled, but optimistic. If certified morons can master the subtleties of irony, perhaps they can be trained to handle other complex and possibly productive tasks, such as light janitorial work or perhaps even maintaining the computerized targeting system of an Abrams tank.

Posted by: Ace at 10:14 AM | Comments (14)
Post contains 68 words, total size 1 kb.

Thanks, Bob.

His successor candidate for the House and Republicans generally have been calling on him to resign for months. Rather than do so, he lets the stink of his corruption taint the entire Ohio Republican Party virtually until the day of the elections.

Seems like payback. And payback for what? Noting that he was a criminal, as he is?

Reminds me of Bob Loblaw's advertisements (Arrested Develompent is now running in repeats on the tech/video game channel G4 at 11:30 each night). A specialist in corporate/white collar criminal defense, Bob Loblaw asks, "Why should you pay for a crime that someone else... noticed?"

Bob Ney seemed determined to make the Republican Party pay for noticing he was a scumbag.

Also At Alabama Liberation Front... Confirmation that, despite the fact no one's ever heard of him outside of Colorado, meth-and-gay-hooker preacher Ted Haggard is The Most Important Figure In The Religious Right In The Entire History Of The Universe.

How do I know?

Page One of the New York Times, baby. (Link to ALF, not NYT.)

They still haven't really reported on Kerry's Stupidgate, of course.

Posted by: Ace at 10:02 AM | Comments (26)
Post contains 202 words, total size 1 kb.