Couple of points deducted for not awarding it jointly to Petraeus and the troops under his command.

For a man whose critics say he is far too fond of the television cameras, General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, has been rather out of the limelight this Christmas.

The sprightly, media-friendly 55-year-old is not perturbed, however, that his face is no longer number one item on the US networks. As he said last week, where Iraq is concerned, "No news is good news."
General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, is The Sunday Telegraph's Person of the Year
Achieving what many feared impossible: General David PetraeusÂ’s surge has reduced violence in Iraq

Today, we put him in the spotlight again by naming Gen Petraeus as The Sunday Telegraph's Person of the Year, a new annual accolade to recognise outstanding individual achievement.

He has been the man behind the US troop surge over the past 10 months, the last-ditch effort to end Iraq's escalating civil war by putting an extra 28,000 American troops on the ground.

So far, it has achieved what many feared was impossible. Sectarian killings are down. Al-Qaeda is on the run. And the two million Iraqis who fled the country are slowly returning. Progress in Iraq is relative - 538 civilians died last month. But compared with the 3,000 peak of December last year, it offers at least a glimmer of hope.

...

To appreciate the scale of the task Gen Petraeus took on, it is necessary to go back to February 22, 2006. Or, as Iraqis now refer to it, their own September 11. That was when Sunni-led terrorists from al-Qaeda blew up the Shia shrine in the city of Samarra, an act of provocation that finally achieved their goal of igniting sectarian civil war.

A year on, an estimated 34,000 people had been killed on either side - some of them members of the warring Sunni and Shia militias, but most innocents tortured and killed at random. US casualties continued to rise, too, but increasingly American troops became the bystanders in a religious conflict that many believed they could no longer tame.

Except, that is, for Gen Petraeus.

The Dallas Morning News gives its Texan of the Year award, meanwhile, to... illegal immigrants.

Posted by: Ace at 11:53 AM | Comments (21)
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Gib rounds up a couple of cases of juries finding evidence that prosecutors and defense attorneys missed. And it doesn't seem to be goofball evidence, either; in one case, a robbery case, juries inspected a jacket belonging to the defendant and found a rolled up wad of cash and a rubber glove -- which had been entirely missed by lawyers for both the state and defendant.

Jurors said they hadn't based their verdict on the discovery (to be honest, it's not smoking-gun proof anyhow, just baffling that it could have been missed) but the judge ordered a new trial anyway, which was probably the right call, given the fact that the sixth amendment guarantees the right to have one's case prosecuted and defended by people who aren't drooling imbeciles.

Posted by: Ace at 11:46 AM | Comments (7)
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A statistically insignificant lead over the next runners-up, but a hell of a comeback.

Fred Thompson remains in the thick of it at 12%.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The race for the Republican nomination for the presidency appears to be a rollar-coaster ride this year, as John McCain is the new leader in a fresh national poll by Rasmussen Reports.

For the first time all year, the Arizona senator finds himself on top with support from 17 percent of likely Republican primary voters.

McCain becomes the third person to top the poll this month and the fourth since October.

But, according to Rasmussen, McCain's lead is statistically insignificant.

Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are just a point behind at 16 percent, and Rudy Giuliani is two points back at 15 percent. Slightly off the pace, but still within five points of McCain, is Fred Thompson at 12 percent. Ron Paul retains his base support at 7 percent.

"One of the more amazing things about the Republican race this year is that it has grown closer and closer over time," notes Rasmussen. "In a poll with a four-percentage point margin of error, the fact that five candidates are within five points means there is absolutely no national frontrunner. Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that 13 percent of likely primary voters remain undecided."

Posted by: Ace at 09:20 AM | Comments (44)
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Congressman Murtha took a beating in yesterday's Washington Post for obtaining millions in wasteful earmarks.

The National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence opened its doors in 1991 with a $5 million earmark from a powerful lawmaker [Murtha, named in the eighth paragraph]. Operating in Johnstown, Pa., the privately run center has received at least $671 million worth of federal contracts and earmarks since then to research and develop pollution-abatement technology and other systems for the Defense Department.

The center's researchers have examined scores of software systems and other gear, including groundwater monitoring equipment, gun cleaners and ultrasonic devices, according to its managers. They said the center had delivered nearly 500 technology products and tools to protect the environment, improve safety and cut Pentagon costs.

But a months-long examination by The Washington Post, including a review of documents and interviews with Pentagon officials, found that little of the center's work has been widely used or deployed by the Defense Department.

The reason that the NDCEE's programs aren't widely adopted? In more than half the cases the technologies did not save money as promised. I'm even more dubious about the non-profit, "tax-exempt charity" organization that administers the NDCEE and pulls in $250 million in annual revenue. Murtha started that group, too.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:07 AM | Comments (20)
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I must have missed this yesterday, but Ron Paul has been excluded from the Fox News debate to take place the weekend before the New Hampshire primary. It's about time. Of course, he's not going down quietly:

"They are scared of me and don't want my message to get out, but it will," Paul said in an interview at a diner here. "They are propagandists for this war and I challenge them on the notion that they are conservative."

Paul's staff said they are beginning to plan a rally that will take place at the same time the 90-minute debate will air on television. It will be taped at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown.

"They will not win this skirmish," he promised.

Heh.

Related: The Washington Post is running a series of voter profiles each Sunday during the primaries. Today was the first one. I haven't been able to find it in the web version, but the print edition has, just underneath the voter profile, examples of the "Typical Iowa Voter" with mini-bios of one Republican and one Democrat.

Their Republican example, one Jim Thalacker, is planing to vote for Ron Paul.

UPDATE: LGF has a link to an article claiming that this story isn't true. The Fox debate has been canceled for three weeks. If that's the case, I wonder what Paul was talking about when he was quoted above, or if he was quoted accurately.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:02 AM | Comments (18)
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I caught Fred Thompson on Fox News Sunday while I was at the gym this morning (nice facilities here at my bro's apartment complex, BTW; I'm jealous). Thompson did pretty good, but I don't think it got him any more votes than he already had, in Iowa at least. It was too generic, too same-ol' same-ol'. (This re-cap and summary is based on memory alone at the moment, I'll post video as soon as I find some.)

As per his usual, Thompson was unfailingly polite, declining to bad-mouth the other Republican candidates. He even backed off of Wallace's question asking if Huckabee were unfit to be president. I can't tell what Thompson's strategy is here. Sometimes he's all about pushing on his opponents. Today, he was just the genial, gracious Southerner.

He also managed to stop himself from accusing FOXNews of an institutional bias against him, even after Wallace opened with this quote from yesterday, that will surely frustrate his web supporters:

"I like to say that I'm only consumed by very, very few things and politics is not one of them. The welfare of my country and my kids and grandkids are one of them. But if people really want in their president a super type-A personality, someone who has gotten up every morning and gone to bed every night thinking about for years how they could achieve the presidency of the United States, someone who could look you straight in the eye and say they enjoy every minute of campaigning — I ain't that guy."

"Nowadays, it's all about fire in the belly," he said. "I'm not sure in the world we live in today it's a terribly good thing that a president has too much fire in his belly."

His other major weak moment was when Wallace discussed the recent Iowa polls with him, using RCP's averages. Thompson applied a generous amount of gloss, claiming a third-place spot by nature of a flawed poll RCP included in the average. No mention was made of the private poll of 15,000 likely Republican caucus goers that puts Thompson at 1%, behind Ron Paul.

In all, I suspect that FOX did Thompson a favor by making him the last candidate to be on FNS before the Iowa caucus. Unfortunately, I don't think Thompson took best advantage of it.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:38 AM | Comments (46)
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Ten years and £150 million later, massive sex education effort fails to curtail teen pregnancy.

....Britain tops the league table of teenage mothers in western Europe, despite also having a record number of school-age abortions.

That's right. Almost 60 percent of their teen pregnancies end in abortion, yet the number of teen moms has still risen.

Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust charity, said that the Government had allowed the "systematic removal of every restraint that used to act as a disincentive to under-age sex". There was no evidence that easy availability of contraception reduced teenage pregnancy rates, instead it added to pressure on young girls by normalising under-age sex, he said.

--------------------------------------------

Girls who could obtain contraception before the age of consent were more likely to become sexually active, leading to higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, pregnancies and abortions, he said.

The combination of sexual images in the media with explicit sex education had broken down the natural inhibitions of children about sex, while progressively easier availability of contraception meant that young girls could no longer use fear of pregnancy as a reason to reject sexual advances, Mr Wells added.

There's another reason that early sexualization leads to disease and pregnancy despite the availability and widespread use of condoms and other contraceptives, and nobody ever mentions it.

If I may be so bold: kids are clumsy dumbshits. That's not a putdown. We were all helplessly stupid once.

This is why parents are legally required to protect them and keep an eye on them until they're 18, and why we pay public schools to educate them.

You can't trust children not to get themselves killed or do stupid nonsensical shit for years on end, but you're going to tell them 'We know you're gong to have sex, it's inevitable,' and trust them to be 100% responsible with contraceptives at age 13? Really?

Isn't it, just as a practical matter you understand, easier and more effective to tell girls not to give it up or else they'll be a huge disappointment to their parents and ruin their fuckin' lives? That's old-school, but apparently it worked as well or better than contraceptives every damn day of the week.

The article glosses over the epidemic of disgusting venereal diseases that are affecting younger and younger kids. Diseases that often have lifelong health consequences.

What would you rather your daughter experience: a few years of inhibiting shame, or chlamydia?

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said that the Government's failure was rooted in an attempt to find "state-led solutions" to problems that needed to be tackled by families and communities. "Our research has shown that progress is only being made in the areas where people are relatively well-off, whereas in deprived areas the situation is often getting worse.

"What we actually need is for family-led organisations, and local communities and the voluntary sector to work together on these problems."

Emphasis mine. These are the same people who were getting the job done before people advanced such bright ideas about trusting kids to behave sexually like responsible adults. You remember, the stifling traditional society that has been discarded because it was threatening our joie de vivre?

What's old is new again, it would seem.

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:29 AM | Comments (33)
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The drive for regular season perfection comes down to this game.

I hope there's extra security on hand to make sure none of the geriatric members of the '72 Dolphins try to go all Tanya Harding on Brady or Moss.

UPDATE [Dave in Texas]: Jeebus, is there any channel this friggin thing ISN'T on?

mesa, what about the cooking channel?

Posted by: DrewM. at 05:02 PM | Comments (157)
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Christmas was a little delayed for one girl this year.

he was getting an iPod for Christmas but ended up getting a rude surprise. She got the box but when she opened it up, she found a surprising switch: the iPod had been replaced with a bizarre note.

The note reads "Reclaim your mind from the media's shackles. Read a book and resurrect yourself. To reclaim your capitalistic garbage go to your nearest Apple store."

Gotta love those anti-consumerist jerks.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:46 PM | Comments (24)
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Why tell the truth when a lie will do?

The girl won a makeover that included a blonde Hannah Montana wig, as well as the grand prize: airfare for four to Albany, N.Y., and four tickets to the sold-out Hannah Montana concert on Jan. 9.

The opening line in the essay was: "My daddy died this year in Iraq."

The girl's mother had told Club Libby Lu officials that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq, company spokeswoman Robyn Caulfield said. But the mother, Priscilla Ceballos, admitted later Friday that the essay and the military information she provided about her daughter's father were untrue.

"We did the essay and that's what we did to win. We did whatever we could do to win," Ceballos said in an interview Friday with KDFW-TV of Dallas. "But when (Caulfield) asked me if this essay is true, I said 'No, this essay is not true.'"

Back when I was a boy scout I competed in the usual Pinewoods Derby type stuff. My dad's business had all the industrial machinery to make a truly world class car, but we didn't. We could have hard chrome plated the nails that were the axles - but we didn't. We could have inserted micro ball bearings on those chromed axles- but we didn't. The only thing my dad did to help was tell me that it would go faster if *I* took a jewelers file and worked over the heads of the nails to remove the forming crimp relics under the heads and polished them a bit with some 400 grit sandpaper. Of course I lost because other's were having their fathers build their cars for them.

I was permanently damaged by these sort of archaic values my parents put into my head. Its taken me several decades to come to the realization that once you give up on integrity all things become possible.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 03:27 PM | Comments (45)
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