Is it just me, or is the surge improbably exceeding all expectations? Have they really turned this thing around so quickly?

The U.S. military said Thursday it had captured the leaders of a Shiite insurgent network responsible for kidnapping and killing five American troops — one of the boldest and most sophisticated attacks on U.S. soldiers in the war in Iraq.

The statement said the arrests took place over the past three days in the cities of Basra and Hillah south of Baghdad. The military said the network was led by Qais Khazali and his brother Laith Khazali. Several other members of the network also were captured.

The network was "directly connected" to the January kidnapping and murder of the Americans in the holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, the military said.

In the Jan. 20 attack, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers at Karbala's provincial headquarters and later shot them to death. A fifth soldier was killed in the attack.

That's not the only datapoint. Mohammad Fadhil in Baghdad:

I was listening to the radio this morning and the first headline was ‘Policeman killed in an explosion south of Baghdad’. The story later explains that ‘south of Baghdad’ actually meant Babil. Babil is actually 60 miles away from Baghdad. The misleading headline underscored again how most media try to associate every piece of bad news with Baghdad to maintain the image of violence associated with the city.

No doubt people who follow the news as it is being reported in the West get the impression that we’re fighting a lost war, and I feel that there won’t be a day when our struggle to live a normal life and what we achieve in this path will make headlines that run above those of death.

You look around in Baghdad now and see hundreds of men working in the streets to pick up garbage; to plant flowers and paint the blast walls in joyful colors. Many of Baghdad’s squares are becoming green and clean. The picture isn’t perfect, but it’s a clear attempt to beat violence and ease pain through giving the spring a chance to shine.

Nights in Baghdad now are far from quiet, but the sounds cause less anxiety for me than they did before. I recognize the rumble of armor and thump of guns and they assure me that the gangs and militias do not dominate the night as they once did.

When Arabs or westerners ask me about the situation and I answer that hope remains and that we’re looking forward to a better future most would say ‘Are you living in this world?’ I answer, ‘Yes, it’s you who live in the parallel world the media built for you with images of only death and destruction’.

If it surprised some of them that a poll found Iraqis optimistic, then I’m surprised that someone finally bothered to ask Iraqis how they feel.

And Sunni tribesmen just battled Al Qaeda, killing 39 terrorists:

The Al-bu Issa tribes in Amiriyat al-Fallujah, backed by local police and the MNF, clashed today with members of the al-Qaeda linked “Islamic State in Iraq” terror organization, according to al-Hurra TV.

The tribe involved in the clashes has opposed al-Qaeda for months now and is part of the Awakening Council.

The battles that are still ongoing have so far left 39 terrorists killed including the “ministers of oil and war” of the terror organization. Six policemen and 11 tribal fighters were also killed during the fighting.

The report adds that US troops found and securely detonated a tanker filled with chlorine gas the terrorists were planning to use in chemical attacks on the area.

When even an anti-war ninny on the Huffington Post admits the surge may be working, you know, maybe it actually is working. (Terrific spin from that dope, by the way: The fact that the surge is working is just further evidence we should pull out as quickly as possible! See, all this success shows that the Iraqis can easily wipe out Al Qaeda if we just get out from up their business!)

Posted by: Ace at 12:34 PM | Comments (9)
Post contains 711 words, total size 5 kb.

Is it just me, or is the surge improbably exceeding all expectations? Have they really turned this thing around so quickly?

The U.S. military said Thursday it had captured the leaders of a Shiite insurgent network responsible for kidnapping and killing five American troops — one of the boldest and most sophisticated attacks on U.S. soldiers in the war in Iraq.

The statement said the arrests took place over the past three days in the cities of Basra and Hillah south of Baghdad. The military said the network was led by Qais Khazali and his brother Laith Khazali. Several other members of the network also were captured.

The network was "directly connected" to the January kidnapping and murder of the Americans in the holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, the military said.

In the Jan. 20 attack, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers at Karbala's provincial headquarters and later shot them to death. A fifth soldier was killed in the attack.

That's not the only datapoint. Mohammad Fadhil in Baghdad:

I was listening to the radio this morning and the first headline was ‘Policeman killed in an explosion south of Baghdad’. The story later explains that ‘south of Baghdad’ actually meant Babil. Babil is actually 60 miles away from Baghdad. The misleading headline underscored again how most media try to associate every piece of bad news with Baghdad to maintain the image of violence associated with the city.

No doubt people who follow the news as it is being reported in the West get the impression that weÂ’re fighting a lost war, and I feel that there wonÂ’t be a day when our struggle to live a normal life and what we achieve in this path will make headlines that run above those of death.

You look around in Baghdad now and see hundreds of men working in the streets to pick up garbage; to plant flowers and paint the blast walls in joyful colors. Many of BaghdadÂ’s squares are becoming green and clean. The picture isnÂ’t perfect, but itÂ’s a clear attempt to beat violence and ease pain through giving the spring a chance to shine.

Nights in Baghdad now are far from quiet, but the sounds cause less anxiety for me than they did before. I recognize the rumble of armor and thump of guns and they assure me that the gangs and militias do not dominate the night as they once did.

When Arabs or westerners ask me about the situation and I answer that hope remains and that we’re looking forward to a better future most would say ‘Are you living in this world?’ I answer, ‘Yes, it’s you who live in the parallel world the media built for you with images of only death and destruction’.

If it surprised some of them that a poll found Iraqis optimistic, then IÂ’m surprised that someone finally bothered to ask Iraqis how they feel.

And Sunni tribesmen just battled Al Qaeda, killing 39 terrorists:

The Al-bu Issa tribes in Amiriyat al-Fallujah, backed by local police and the MNF, clashed today with members of the al-Qaeda linked “Islamic State in Iraq” terror organization, according to al-Hurra TV.

The tribe involved in the clashes has opposed al-Qaeda for months now and is part of the Awakening Council.

The battles that are still ongoing have so far left 39 terrorists killed including the “ministers of oil and war” of the terror organization. Six policemen and 11 tribal fighters were also killed during the fighting.

The report adds that US troops found and securely detonated a tanker filled with chlorine gas the terrorists were planning to use in chemical attacks on the area.

When even an anti-war ninny on the Huffington Post admits the surge may be working, you know, maybe it actually is working. (Terrific spin from that dope, by the way: The fact that the surge is working is just further evidence we should pull out as quickly as possible! See, all this success shows that the Iraqis can easily wipe out Al Qaeda if we just get out from up their business!)

Posted by: Ace at 12:34 PM | Comments (10)
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Every once in a while I wonder if America has the backbone and grit anymore to face down Al Qaeda, and then a story like this comes along and answers my doubts with a resounding "Hell yeah!"

It should be noted that "J" considers the half-hour between "second brunch" and "pre-lunch" (or "plunch") to be a daily hunger strike.

Keep Sanjaya In: Anyone notice his sister is, um, more action-packed than The Temple of Doom on ladies' night(every lady gets a rose and a still-beating heart!)

They chose the wrong sibling. You can't teach the kind of talent she's got spilling out of her shirt.

You can, however, see it on YouTube.

Seriously:

They chose Sanjaya because he was a better singer. But only marginally so. Meanwhile, she's a born performer.

By the way, while Vote for the Worst has long been telling people to vote for the worst possible singer in order to ruin American Idol (if such a thing were possible), now Howard Stern is telling his many listerners to vote for the worst, too. Sanjaya, they've all decided.

I'm not sure if that's the cause of Sanjaya's dubious staying power. American Idol's largely teenaged-girl voters seem to have a bias in favor of males who are not sexually threatening to women. And also, seemingly, not sexually interested in women either.

The judges seem to be pulling a 180. They're praising Sanjaya's lame performances, with Randy offering the gold standard of "That was HOT, dude!" I think they're coming around to the possibility that 12 year old girls and 40 year old Howard Stern fans might just make Sanjaya the contest's winner, and they've got to start pretending they'll be happy with that outcome.

Next week even Simon may begin claiming that Sanjaya has really "evolved" as a performer.

Posted by: Ace at 11:29 AM | Comments (36)
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Interesting detail: the "victim" will be called in tomorrow has been called in today for a last chat with prosecutors.

Allah thinks it's to give her one last chance to explain how she was wasn't raped by 20 a dozen five three twozero guys with moustaches and red hair and weighing 300 pounds with a light five o'clock shadow, brown hair, and weighing "approximately as much as a college lacrosse player might weigh, whatever that might be."

Nah.

It's to give the "victim" a diginity and courtesy she doesn't deserve -- first notice of the case being dropped, and an overly kind explanation for the state's decision.

Because they just don't have the onions to say what we all have known for a half year: She's a half-crazy drugged-out hooker and a God-damned liar. (And I choose my words carefully. Mean every one of them.)

What the prosecutors should do in tomorrow's meeting is inform the "victim" she's being charged with filing a false police report, obstruction of justice, perjury, and anything else they can throw at her. But of course they don't have the balls to do that, and life is rarely so just.

Correction: The meeting with prosecutors is today, not tomorrow. And Megyn Kelly says she's already been summoned.

She also says the "victim" just wants the case to end.

Yeah, I'll bet she does.

Posted by: Ace at 11:07 AM | Comments (15)
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Ah, the Sun. On one hand, the source of light and warmth that makes life possible.

On the other hand, a bad "environmental citizen" responsible for catastrophic planetary heating and cooling not only on our world but on Mars as well as Pluto.

This aggression will not stand.

Anyway, some cool stuff about our hot neighbor.

The restless bubbling and frothing of the Sun's chaotic surface is astonishing astronomers who have been treated to detailed new images from a Japanese space telescope called Hinode.
...

"Everything we thought we knew about X-ray images of the Sun is now out of date," says Leon Golub from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. "We've seen many new and unexpected things. For that reason alone, the mission is already a success."

Hinode (Japanese for "sunrise") was launched in September 2006 to study the solar magnetic field and how magnetic energy is released as the field rises into the Sun's outer atmosphere....

Hinode has sent back startling images of the Sun's outer limb. Where astronomers expected to see a calm region called the chromosphere, they saw a seething mass of swaying spikes[.]
]
"These structures are 8000 kilometres long and some extend twice that high," says SOT science team member Alan Title from Lockheed Martin Advance Technology Center in Palo Alto, California, US. "Their speed is such that if you sat on the end of one, which I don't recommend, you could travel from Washington, DC, to San Francisco in about four minutes. These things are really moving."

Another surprise sighting is that of giant magnetic field loops crashing down onto the Sun's surface as if they were collapsing from exhaustion, a finding that Golub describes as "impossible". Previously, scientists thought they should emerge from the Sun and continue blowing out into space.

"Almost every day, we look at the data and we say – what the heck was that?" says Golub, a member of the XRT science team.

By all means, let's cripple the world economy before we have a chance to actually do more meaningful study of the body that is, by universal scientific opinion, not only responsible for "global warming" but also simple "global warmth."

Must-watch video here. Seriously, it's better than porn. Well, most porn.

Thanks to Blacksheep, who says "Blame Bush."

Posted by: Ace at 10:51 AM | Comments (32)
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Just delightful. First, John Edwards is a hero for ending his presidential campaign to tend to his wife:

Edwards Suspends Campaign

22 Mar 2007 12:17 pm

He does it because his wife has a recurrence of cancer in some degree to be further explored. It is of a piece with his character to do this; and a simple testament that he has the right priorities and values to be a president of the United States. Sorry, Ms Coulter. But this man will be remembered for a character you do not even want to possess.

I enjoy the unnecessary dig at Coulter, too. Like Coulter's offense was mocking a Democratic candidate, rather than using the word "faggot." But whatever. One track mind for Andy.

Just twenty two minutes later, Edwards announces he won't be suspending his campaign to tend to his wife. Sullivan's take? He's a hero for that, too!

Edwards Forges On

22 Mar 2007 12:39 pm

So, despite earlier reports, Edwards will not suspend his campaign. Good for him. The diagnosis is not as dire as it seemed only a little time ago, it seems. And if anyone did not know of Elizabeth Edwards' extraordinary character before, they do now. What I saw in this press conference was the reality of family values - not the rhetoric, not the divisiveness, not the politics, just the reality of an actual family dealing with real issues. We all face such issues. Cancer survivors and their families know it all too well. So do those of us who live with HIV, diabetes, Parkinsons and many other diseases that patients can now live with, rather than die from. In this, John Edwards is doing a public service. He was admirably candid about his wife's cancer being treatable, if not curable. That paradigm is increasingly common - and it's affirming to see someone in public life live through it so positively, so admirably and so passionately. She shouldn't give in to it. One key to surviving serious illness is to live positively and candidly while you treat it. With HIV, I learned to repeat to myself a triad that was essential to surviving any serious medical condition: Own it, face it, beat it. That's what the Edwardses did today, and they will help a lot of people through their example.

The campaign should go on, as life goes on. The cancer should neither help nor hurt it. But I will say this: Elizabeth Edwards is a truly remarkable human being. And her marriage is an inspiration.

Incidentally, I had similar thoughts through the news process -- Edwards is a nice guy for dropping out of the race, then Edwards is selfish, then finally "Who the hell am I to have any opinion whatsoever on how a family deals with cancer?" -- but I didn't blog them.

I run a slapdash blog that's often much too stream of consciousness and first (poorly considered) draft for its own good. But honestly, no one can compare with Sullivan on this score. He's got a screechy, shrill, 100% absolute opinion on everything, but this opinion often reverses itself completely in the course of a day or two.

But 22 minutes for such a shift? That's a new record, even for Sullivan.

He defends this habit by claiming he's just trying to give an "honest" account of his thinking as the day goes on. Well, for one thing, it may be "honest" to constantly offer up one's stream-of-consciousness barely-even-given-a-first-thought-let-alone-a-second, but who wants to read that?

For another thing, it's simply not honest. True, people have kneejerk opinions that may reverse themselves over a period of time. But the dishonesty comes from Sullivan's strident, absolutist, fulsomely emotional attachment to each and every of his micropunditries, e'er accusing those who disagree of bad faith and bad motives, despite the fact that Sullivan himself frequently disagrees 100% with Sullivan.

Sure, people change their minds. But do normal, non-psychotic people change their minds with such passionate devotion to all of their conflicting opinions? Is Sullivan honestly psychotic in that manner? Or his his hyperemotional, archjudgmental rhetorical style simply fundamentally dishonest, the tactic of a sloppy-thinking hack trying to buttress his shabby analytical skills with constant namecalling, venom, and appeals to emotion?

I can go either way on that one; I'm of two minds on that question.*

To be honest with you.

Thanks to Kevin.

* Actually, I'm not. I think it's the latter. I was never as impressed with Sullivan's heartfelt, soaring, childishly naive rhetoric in favor of the war as other war-supporters seemed to be. It always seemed to me all emotion. No crunch of fact or analysis. Just glib idealism, sometimes embarrassing hero worship for Bush which I myself found distasteful, and nasty, venomous attacks on anyone who disagreed with him.

It was in the last capacity Sullivan was at his best. Everything sounds better in a British accent as they say, and it was nice to see some elevated namecalling with words we don't hear often enough like "vile." But namecalling is still just namecalling. Calling someone "vile" sounds nicer than calling them a "fucking asshole" -- and like your teachers told you, there always is a nonprofane manner of making a point that's better than simpler resort to profanity -- but at the end of the day calling someone "vile" isn't really any different than calling them a "fucking asshole."

It's more rhetorically effective to call them vile, but that's just rhetoric. Better rhetoric, yes, but still just empty rhetoric. Again, no crunch.

Sweet: From someone calling himself "Andrew Sullivan."

Cornflakes are the best breakfast cereal

March 22, 2007 - 2:13 p.m.

This morning, shortly after rising from my bed and looking at the view from my window, I walked to the kitchen to get myself a bowl of cornflakes. I did so with the full realization that while some may think this breakfast cereal the stuff of kitchy, nostalgic commercials and Eisenhower-era repression, I believe that my breakfast choice is a testimony to the simple human decency of the American farmer and their hard work. Hard work made harder by Bush administration policies.

Actually, make that Frosted Flakes

March 22, 2007 - 2:15 p.m.

After pouring myself a bowl of cornflakes, I realized how plain, how pedestrian they looked. If this was the best the American farmer could do, then America is truly doomed under the reign of King George. The cornflakes at the bottom of the bowl were far too homogenous - there was no spice, nothing to make them special. So in an act of supreme self-empowerment, I poured the cereal down the drain, content in the thought that I was ridding America of this mockery. I poured myself a bowl of Frosted Flakes, which are without a doubt the best breakfast cereal on earth.

Can Andrew Sullivan ever just say "I guess I just don't know" or "I'm not sure what my opinion is" ever? I know he offers such statements retroactively to square his wildly contradictory previous stances (and then, of course, pats himself on the back for practicing the "politics of doubt").

But he rarely offers such sentiments in the actual moment, or caveats an opinion with doubt as he's writing it. Sure, when you call upon him later, he'll talk about the exquisite torment of living with doubt, and how that makes him better than you, etc.

But as he's churning out his half-baked opinions, he doesn't seem very doubtful at all. When he's actually hacking this crap out, he's supremely confident that he is right and that you are a fucking asshole if you disagree with him.

Or, rather, you're "vile" to do so.

More Andrew Sullivan Opinionizing! From the comments:

I like Coke, but I hate Pepsi

March 22, 2007 - 1:24 PM

I realize now more than ever that Coca Cola is the one for me. I am given to understand that the cowboys in the White House drink nothing but Pepsi, which is fine if you happen to be a Christianist pedant with a nose for a vintage that is a month and not a year. I will never understand how we came to this place in history, an addled tyrant for a Chief Executive whose penchant for pandering to the extreme right is matched only by his desire to control our lives, rip away our liberty and privacy, and encroach upon the citizens he claims to represent.

I hate Coke, but I love Pepsi

March 22, 2007 - 1:56 PM

It appears as though Bushco is much more heavily invested in CCE than Pepsico, hardly a surprise given their willingness to play both sides of any issue without regard for principle or dignity. Frankly I'm surprised he divested his Halliburton shares in favor of the Atlanta-based beverage interest, but I'm sure there are things going on behind the scenes. It's only a matter of time before we are all forced to accept that Coke Zero is replacing Diet Pepsi across the nation. A chill wind indeed!

And the "politics of doubtless doubt" continue with regard to breakfast cereals:

Kellogg's Anti-Gay Rhetoric

March 22, 2007 - 2:30 p.m.

Last night, I was watching "American Idol" (go Sanjaya!) and during the commercial break, saw an advertisement that struck me to the core. It seems the Kellogg company wants American consumers to purchase a cereal called "Froot Loops." At first, I thought the commercial must be a joke - surely no one, not even a Christianist, would think of something so vile, so hurtful. But I did some research and found out that yes, there is such a cereal and it's actually widely sold in the heartland of this country, no doubt to those who believe Ann Coulter is a minor deity.

I thought America had sunk as low as possible under King George and his minions.

I guess I was wrong. Shame on us.

Posted by: Ace at 10:05 AM | Comments (59)
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Pixy tells me he had to shut it off due to yet another furious assault of comment spammers. I don't know if it'll ever be up again.

There's always the New Comment Thingy, of course.

Posted by: Ace at 09:40 AM | Comments (64)
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Hi all.

We've been getting hit with huge waves of spam the last few days, and it's been overwhelming the old comments thingy and causing problems on the server. I've been forced to turn the old comments thingy off for now.

I have some stuff in the works that should cure our comment problems for good. I'll be making a big announcement about that next week; there are freebies involved, so watch for it!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:33 AM | Comments (12)
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...after word went out that he was going to abandon it, in order to be with his wife through her treatment for cancer.

Posted by: Ace at 08:40 AM | Comments (36)
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(click)

Thanks to DaveS.

Posted by: Ace at 08:28 AM | Comments (19)
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