Seems like good news:

Negotiations on how exactly to share posts among the rival ethnic and sectarian factions will convene in the coming days in Baghdad, Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani said after he and Iraq's Kurdish interim president Jalal Talabani met minority Sunni Arab leaders from the Iraqi Accordance Front.

"We have agreed on a national unity government," Barzani told a news conference in the Kurdish capital Arbil. "The negotiations will continue in Baghdad among all the parties."

Also, an inquiry into claims of a rigged election will result in the annulment of a small number of suspect ballot boxes, but not enough to change the results in any district.

And this is pretty amusing. Sunnis are calling it "barbarism" that US strike fighters bombed house in Baiji.

A statement issued by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division said soldiers monitoring film from a reconnaissance drone spotted three men digging a hole by a road around 9 p.m. (1800 GMT).

Pilots were alerted, the military said: "The individuals... were followed from the air to a nearby building. Coalition forces employed precision-guided munitions on the structure."

...

Asked whether a bomb -- an improvised explosive device or IED, in military jargon -- had been found in the road and what measures were taken to determine who was in the house before the attack, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ed Loomis said he could not detail tactics but said : "Digging in the road surface in the hours of darkness are the actions of someone emplacing an IED."

Reporters want proof that the men weren't merely victims of the Greatest. Snipe-Hunting Prank. Eveh.

Posted by: Ace at 11:14 PM | Comments (2)
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Or "metrosexual conservative." I think this is going to be a heavily discussed piece in the next week:

As most people know, a metrosexual is a heterosexual man who has good taste in art and music, and likes to pamper himself with nice clothes and expensive grooming. There's only one drawback: I can't stand much of the so-called common-man culture celebrated by the Right.

...

[The song "Redneck Woman"] represented the one thing I truly cannot stand about modern conservatism: its defense of anything dumb, tacky, and second-rate, as long as it comes from "the people." The common man is deified by the right. NASCAR, an absolutely idiotic "sport" which consists, as the joke goes, of "a bunch of rednecks makin' left turns," is hailed as red state America's favorite pastime -- and ipso facto comparable to the Olympics of ancient Greece. Actually, scratch that: NASCAR is not treated as something grand and noble, which makes it all the worse. To populist conservatives, the simple fact that Bush country embraces the sport makes its aesthetic quality quite beside the point. ...

This attitude would be less irritating if it were an acknowledgment of reality rather than a celebration of the mediocre. When Bill O'Reilly goes into his just-an-average-Joe-from-Levittown riff, he doesn't come across as a man who aspires to lose some of the provincialism of his upbringing, much less expand into different areas of knowledge and artistic appreciation. He's proud of being a blockhead.

Well, I think he goes too far, and I sure the hell wouldn't call myself a metrocon (as I've said-- I don't even bothering washing my junk), but I guess he makes some good points. But his piece is an overreaction.

It's an overreaction to an overreaction to an overreaction. Liberal swells made common folk feel bad about watching NASCAR, as if there's something wrong with preferring one sport over another. (This writer seems to feel there's something enobling about choosing baseball over football, apparently since George Will does, and guys who wear bowties must know something.)Conservatives overreacted -- sick of liberals' endless chidings and insinuations of superiority -- first by skewering their pompousness but then by arguing the point on the merits (i.e., NASCAR is the greatest thing ever). And now this guy overreacts to that overreaction.

I don't mind NASCAR and, in fact, learned to appreciate it slightly as a sport through the fairly nice bit of introduction that was the underrated Days of Thunder. Not really my thing, but I guess I don't see why I should prefer watching college rugby over NASCAR. One's associated with the cultural elite, and one's associated with the cultural non-elite; but I'm not sure people should spend their limited pleasure-time doing things just to be associated with an elite. Do what you like with your off time.

One part of metrosexuality is the devotion to fashion, and I think this writer chooses to his past-times according to what's fashionable. Or at least fashionable to those he wishes to impress. I'm sure he does like the symphony, but his appreciation of it was surely spurred by the desire to ultimately appreciate the symphony. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but many people have better things to do than cultivate their tastes. Cultivated tastes are just wonderful and all, but there's a steep entry cost in time and money to achieving them which many just can't be bothered with.

Still, there is something of a good point here. If NASCAR shouldn't be dogmatically denigrated, neither should finer pursuits. And really, well-paid, culturally-blue-state Northeastern city dwellers shouldn't go on and on about the virtues of hick culture unless they actually do admire it and enjoy it -- which I suspect many really don't.

Hey, I'll admit it: I don't really find Larry the Cable Guy very funny at all. "Git-R-Done"? What the hell's that supposed to mean?

Related: I couldn't think of any reason to post this find of -- yes -- Allah's, until now. It's a nasty but sort of funny letter to Larry the Cable Guy, by the nasty but sort of funny comic David Cross. He's a leftist prick, yes, but the letter does pretty much sketch out the running snobs-versus-slobs battle in our Caddyshack culture wars.

Posted by: Ace at 11:12 PM | Comments (55)
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The lone survivor is hospitalized.

Posted by: Ace at 11:03 PM | Comments (9)
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Either that his public relations consultant is Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Yeah, that's a good look for a man accused of serious crimes. Now all he needs to do is complete the ensemble by burning the relief of a $100 Indian casino chip into his palm.

Just guessing: This won't be as damaging to the Republican Party as the New York Time so obviously desires, but it will be quite damaging indeed to individual Republican politicians -- and some Democratic ones too.

Mr. Abramoff, 46, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, and prosecutors said he used campaign contributions, lavish trips, meals and other perks to influence lawmakers and their aides. Court papers filed on Tuesday singled out just one member of Congress, "Representative No. 1," identified elsewhere as Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio.

But that was cold comfort on Capitol Hill, where there was a sense of lawmakers and lobbyists' waiting for the other shoe to drop. In a city whose history is rife with scandal and the political price it exacts, from the F.B.I. sting operation known as Abscam to the savings and loans collapse involving "the Keating Five," some experts feared that the Abramoff investigation would eclipse all the rest.

While Mr. Abramoff is most closely linked to Republicans, even Democrats, many of whom also benefited from his largesse, acted skittish.

Notice how that's phrased. "Even Democrats, many of whom also benefited from his largesse, acted skittish." Well, if they benefited from his "largesse," why the hell wouldn't they be skittish? What's that "even" doing there? Are they not in the exact same position as Republicans who took money from Abramoff and his cronies?

Apparently not. Republicans are presumed guilty, Democrats are presumed... well, desperate for money and just doing what needs to be done to win elections.

And the passive voice is cute: While Mr. Abramoff is most closely linked to Republicans... Linked by whom? Well, by NYT reporters, among others.

Jack Abramoff is linked to specific Republicans and specific Democrats, not chiefly "the Republican Party." It's those who took the money who have to worry -- and have to prove to the public (if not to the court) that they didn't do any quid pro quo favors for Abramoff.

Although, who are we kidding? They all did.

Letterman Bashing: Just using this Instalanched post to point out this story on David Letterman tellling Bill O'Reilly he's "full of crap" for saying that Cindy Sheehan called terrorists "freedom fighters." She did. And I did a kinda-funny top ten about the very lame and very tired David Letterman just killing time before a long overdue retirement.

Update: John tips, and John Podhoretz confirms at the Corner. His fashion comes from his religion-- he's a Hasidic Jew. I've really never seen a Hasid dress like that, so forgive me.

Kinda ruins the joke a little. Although J-Pod says he's embracing the trappings of his religion a bit more now that the heat's on than he has previously.

Incidentally, I kinda like the look, and would wear it if I could get away with it.

I just wouldn't wear that when photographed during what is, effectively, a perp-walk. Why not throw on a eyepatch and pencil-thin moustache while you're at it?

Joke's Back On Update (Maybe?): Jim Geraghty from TKS says that he's seen Abramoff dressed like a regular K-street lobbyist before, suggesting this was a fashion choice.

Various pictures show him not wearing the black coat and fedora. But then, they all seem to be taken inside. Perhaps Hasid only need to wear the dark coat or clothes and hat when outside? I don't know. Does anyone?

Posted by: Ace at 10:50 PM | Comments (58)
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I suppose swingers/swappers/etc. should be allowed to converge on a hotel... but only if it closes its doors to the general unwarned public.

That didn't happen here:

The families said the sexually adventurous partygoers sometimes flashed breasts and bare buttocks in front of the children as they sashayed through the hotel atrium. The parents described the dress at the Crowne Plaza Hotel-Airport in Orlando as "raunchy, despicable and worse than prostitutes."

"We thought we were coming to Orlando, not the Las Vegas Strip," said Mark Gilbert, the father of a boy who plays on the Clearwater Chargers, a group of 13-and-under players from Florida.

Another father complained of the "confusing message" bare breasts would send to the boys. "They're soccer players, for crying out loud," the father said. "We're trying to raise our boys to be homos, and that's hard to do with all these gazongas and pooters around."

Posted by: Ace at 10:44 PM | Comments (14)
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Pretty horrifying, actually. Not really ha-ha funny at all.

The [Walt Disney] cartoon image of wildlife may have prompted a 49-year-old South African woman in October to try to help a seal which she believed was stranded, allowing her 1-year-old grandchild to stroke the creature in the process.

The seal responded by biting off the woman's nose.

And:

Then there was the South African robber who made the mistake last month of taking refuge in an enclosure which turned out to be home to a pair of unimpressed tigers.

A jury found him innocent by reason of being already eaten by tigers.

Keep reading it... it's all good stuff.

Posted by: Ace at 10:07 PM | Comments (3)
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...while engaging in apologetics for Clinton's similarly faulty intelligence.

More here, including link to a short video clip.

Letterman: “See, I’m very concerned about people like yourself who don’t have nothing but endless sympathy for a woman like Cindy Sheehan. Honest to Christ.” [audience applause]

O’Reilly: “No, I’m sorry.”

Letterman: “Honest to Christ.”

“O’Reilly: “No way. [waits for applause to die down] No way you’re going to get me, no way that a terrorist who blows up women and children.”

Letterman: “Do you have children?”

O’Reilly: “Yes I do. I have a son the same age as yours. No way a terrorist who blows up women and children is going to be called a ‘freedom fighter’ on my program.” [mild audience applause]

Letterman: “I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling, I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap. [audience laughter] But I don’t know that for a fact. [more audience applause]

My friend Steve actually was in an argument with a college hippychick one time, and she said, "Well, I may not know all the (finger quotes) 'facts' but I just feel that..." At least she was 19 and not 87, or however old Letterman is.

Repost time (sorry, but he's a dick and I hate him):

Top Ten Signs That David Letterman's Just Killing Time Before Retirement

10. Recent Stupid Pet Tricks include "Sit," "Shake hands," and "Hump the Leg"

9. Has become so jaded he demands that at least one guest per show get up on his desk and perform a striptease; last week's show with Nathan Lane was particularly uncomfortable

8. Old Letterman comedy staple: puckish irony; New Letterman comedy staple: nonstop racial slurs

7. To amuse himself during interviews, has begun playing drinking games; drinks when someone calls a director "generous," chugs when someone says "This script really spoke to me"

6. Wardrobe for show has degenerated into nothing but baggy sweatpants and "Who Farted?" T-shirts

5. Features a new twenty-minute segment in middle of every show called "Dave's Quiet Time," in which audience members are asked to "pursue independent reading" or "engage in quiet group-study"

4. Questions to celebrity guests sound suspiciously similar to clues to the day's New York Times crossword puzzle

3. Last Thursday's "show" was nothing but a taped teleconference with his tax lawyers, interspersed with "wacky" sound effects and still photos of Larry "Bud" Melman

2. Standard end-of-show sign-off, "You've been great! Drive safely!" replaced with ominous-sounding "Another hour nearer the sweet embrace of blissful death"

... and the Number One Sign That David Letterman's Just Killing Time Before Retirement...

1. He's "really looking forward to" his next-scheduled bout of pink-eye

Forget it, Dave. Jon Stewart may not be very funny, but no one's paying attention to you anymore, and emulating his lefty politics aren't going to make you must-watch TV again.

Posted by: Ace at 09:43 PM | Comments (80)
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But can he catch Ed Rendell?

Lynn Swann, the former Pittsburgh Steelers star and veteran football commentator for ABC Sports, is expected to declare his candidacy for Pennsylvania governor Wednesday.

Swann planned to open a three-day tour of the state at a rally in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night, before flying to similar events in six other cities - Erie, Altoona and Scranton on Thursday, and Philadelphia, Allentown and Lancaster on Friday.

Aides declined to confirm the purpose of the tour, but Swann's political committee - Team 88, named after the number on the former wide receiver's football jersey - has been raising money for 11 months. Swann also has billed himself as a prospective candidate as he has courted GOP activists across the state.

"It might be easy to assume" the subject of Swann's announcement, acknowledged his campaign spokeswoman, Melissa Walters, who also referred to the upcoming flyover as an "announcement tour."

It surprises me that more athletes and ex-military men don't run for office on the Republican ticket. They're naturals for the party with either big name recognition or a great resume (or both), and yet... not a huge number of them.

If Swann doesn't announce (which, apparently, he's going to), then I say we just draft Jerome Bettis. Get on the bus.

Posted by: Ace at 09:28 PM | Comments (11)
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Asylum & amnesty in the works?:

Retired General Ali Duba, known as father of Syrian intelligence and loyal aide of Presidents Assad father and son has fled to London from Damascus

Thanks to Allah.

Posted by: Ace at 09:05 PM | Comments (6)
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I presume that MyDD will give Bush all the credit.

Posted by: Ace at 09:03 PM | Comments (6)
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