Another victory for the crafty al-Sadr, I'm sure, even though this involves Sunnis well outside of his former bases of operation in Basra and Sadr City.

Damnit, this is awesome.

School teacher Raad Mohammed Mahdi used to take on another role after classes: foot soldier in the Sunni insurgency north of Baghdad.

He grew weary of his double life last year and wanted to lay down his arms. The problem was he didn't know how to surrender formally without facing possible jail time.

Last week, Mahdi entered a U.S. military base and signed a form that amounts to a personal truce. More than 140 other men came the next day after learning that soldiers did not detain Mahdi, whose late brother was an insurgent leader.

It marked some of the first steps in a new U.S.-Iraqi program to offer a way out for those who renounce violence — part of widening attempts at national reconciliation as sectarian violence shows signs of easing.

The latest offer promises a clean slate for fighters if they claim their only targets were American troops. It also pledges a "fair" legal process for those wanted for attacks on Iraqis troops or civilians.

Since the program was expanded this month to Sunni areas near Balad, more than 300 men have surrendered. Most have been released, although 76 were given a court date to face Iraqi charges.

Mahdi was one of the first to take up the offer. On May 21, he signed a cease-fire agreement and pledged to follow Iraqi laws.

"We are tired of raids. We want to protect our area by ourselves," the 31-year-old teacher said during a recent interview at the base in Balad, a mostly Shiite city near a major U.S. air base about 50 miles north of Baghdad.

"The policy of the American forces has changed. Now the American forces are on the right track. We have trust in them," he said.

Not all agree. Some men have refused to participate, saying they feared the Americans and the Iraqis would use the written pledge against them.

U.S. and Iraqi officials, however, are hopeful that the program will stem support for the insurgency by giving former fighters an exit.

"There are a lot of guys who kept fighting simply because they didn't have an out," said Lt. Col. Bob McCarthy, commander of the 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment that operates in the Balad area. "At the end of the day, if they've quit fighting we've got to figure out how to let them move forward."

True, the imperative of justice would demand more from these people than a truce. But peace is usually won by relaxing on the demands for justice.

If this continues, there'll be a lot fewer fresh American (and Iraqi) dead, which is a kind of solace for those already killed.

Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 01:57 PM | Comments (20)
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A story from Snopes you have to read, though you'll regret doing so for the rest of the week.

It's the same old story you've heard a million times before -- man wants to masturbate in a machine-shop by holding his penis against the canvas drive-belt (!) of a heavy piece of floor machinery, man's scrotum gets caught in the works, man's left testis gets ripped out, man staples his sack together with, well, eight heavy-duty staples (which by the way were rusty), man waits three days before seeking medical treatment that doesn't involve an industrial staple gun.

It's actually worse when you read the clinical medical write up-- I don't know what "avulsed" means, but my use of "context clues" in this sentence...

"His left testis had been avulsed and was missing."

...tells me it's not anything good.

The really surprising thing? That man's name -- Scott McClellan.

Thanks to tmi3rd.

Posted by: Ace at 01:13 PM | Comments (48)
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Because you don't want to jinx it. more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:03 PM | Comments (18)
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"Miserable creatures:"

"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who donÂ’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues," Dole wrote in a message sent yesterday morning. "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."

...

"In my nearly 36 years of public service I've known of a few like you," Dole writes, recounting his years representing Kansas in the House and Senate. "No doubt you will 'clean up' as the liberal anti-Bush press will promote your belated concerns with wild enthusiasm. When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, 'Biting The Hand That Fed Me.' Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years"

Dole assures McClellan that he won't read the book -- "because if all these awful things were happening, and perhaps some may have been, you should have spoken up publicly like a man, or quit your cushy, high profile job"

...

He signs the email simply: "BOB DOLE"

Dole explains the reasons for the email here, and they are, sadly, personal. He keeps using the word "turncoat" which really undermines his point, because it suggests (without intending that suggestion) that Scott McClellan's crime is telling true tales out of school. Where in fact Dole's real beef is that he's lying.

Not that he's disloyal, but dishonest.

McClellan's claims are self-refuting. His offers up his integrity to establish his claims are true -- but if he in fact had the integrity he claims as his offer of proof, he would have resigned not terribly long into his tenure. So he comes to us now, inadvertently confessing his own lack of integrity or honor, and asks us to believe him.

McClellan didn't need to write a book indicting the Bush Administration. His own three year post as WH spokesman -- an ineffectual, bumbling fool and milquetoast who even managed to make the WH press corps look omnicompetent by comparison -- is a much greater indictment.

He was supposed to project authority and competence. Instead he projected weakness, confusion, and ineptitude. Having been stupidly promoted far above his abilities and exposed as the feckless incompetent that he is, his job prospects for serving as the spokesman for anything loftier than a regional tire distributor are pretty dim. This is his last, best chance to make serious coin.

And to answer Allah's question: Yes, the fact that he was paid a smallish advance ($100,000) means that of course he can only make more money than that by selling a hell of a lot more books than a $100,000 advance would typically predict.

Not only that, but a bigger advance means a bigger promotional budget in order to make sure a book at least makes back most of its advance. A small advance means less promotion. And that means little Scottie McClellan has to do most of the promotion himself -- by making the juiciest possible claims that libel law will permit.

Dick Morris had an interesting point -- there's nothing really in this book. Facts would be game-changing, politically. But McClellan has precious few to offer. From the excerpts, he seems to offer only his own interpretations of facts already on the record, and, given his general stupidity, seem less authoritative than the interpretations and critiques offered up by your average small-market newspaper columnist. He also offers some rather implausible speculations -- Rove and Scooter Libby almost never talked (huh?), so when they did talk, it must have been about Plame -- which is the sort of noodling guesswork lowly bloggers offer up on a daily basis.

So, what do we have? We have a borderline retard not included in any significant policymaking meetings, basically given a set of talking points every day and told "Go read these to the press; if you have trouble with a longer word, try sounding it out," who now offers his take on matters he knew very little about.

But because his take is anti-Bush, he's suddenly elevated to the status of Sage, and, apparently, credited with the psionic power of telepathic scanning of the thoughts of Karl Rove.

Posted by: Ace at 12:31 PM | Comments (87)
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He also talks about Georgie Monbiot's "comic" attempt to "arrest" him, and makes important point:

“I think there’s a larger issue here. You have a democratically elected parliament and its government assessed the war as legal and proper.”

When individuals took actions outside the law, in their eyes to bring those responsible for the war to justice, “that is the point you move towards lawlessness and fascism,” he said.

And when one’s views do match those of the democratically elected government, “you have to accept that”, he added.

Does the left really want to push for the notion that Every Man A Law Unto Himself?

Because, if they do, they should be aware that there are many "laws" those of us on the right would like to execute with no authority except our own conscience as well.

And we have guns. And aren't pussies.

Well, I am. But I know people who aren't.

Thanks to Nurse Cheri.

Posted by: Ace at 12:18 PM | Comments (29)
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Look at Gene Simmons eye-groping her.

Thanks to krakatoa.

Bonus Silly: Evil Dead, the Musical. It's a funny idea, but if the song played here ("Cabin in the Woods") is their best stuff, I think it's safe to say "Just watch the movie again."

Thanks to dri.

And More: Tom Cruise, the Website, and it does appear official and authorized.

It's an internet shrine to Tom Cruise.

Thanks to Drew M.

Posted by: Ace at 11:23 AM | Comments (44)
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Well, it look like he was resigning from the Boston Globe over some Beauchampian style prevarications and allegations of plagiarism.

Barnacle of course thinks we're all "nitwits".

I gotta say this to you though Mikey -- you were busted for faking shit by the freaking Reader's Digest fact checkers. Who's the "nitwit" here Mikey? Dude, if you can't get over on Reader's Digest with some dubious scribblings, then your shit is way way lame. Its not like we're talking IEEE's Spectrum here.

Integrity is like virginity Mikey.

Barnacle vid calling us nitwits is below the fold. more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 10:59 AM | Comments (24)
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After Pfleger donated to Obama, naturally.

Though the donations seem too small to be payoffs. No, the most likely motivation is ideological solidarity, or just paying off the right political figures.

I only put this in the sidebar yesterday figuring it was no big deal. I thought it was just incremental, didn't tell us much we already didn't know about Obama's church, and besides Pfleger isn't Obama's spiritual mentor like Wright was.

It seems I was wrong. Everyone's still talking about it.

So here it is, officially on the front page:

There's no question this is yet another hardcore race-baiting left-winger Obama counts among his ideological (and spiritual) soul-mates and political boosters. Once again the Obama's credentials as "post-racial" candidate and a "uniter" are brought into sharp question.

He seems, quite frankly, like the most radical leftist to ever with a strong chance of capturing the presidency, and that's including George McGovern.

Obama and Pfleger have put out the standard-issue pro forma bullshit apologies, apologizing, near as I can tell, for accidentally telling the world exactly who they are and what they think and what they would do with power, if only they could get their hands on it.

Idiotic: Once again, the MSM is attempting to play spokesman for Obama by promoting this video of a "GOP pastor" getting political at an invocation:

Um... seems sort of anodyne to me. It lacks the racism of Pfleger's rant, and is in fact specifically anti-racist.

They keep trying this. They attempt to claim "McCain's pastor," either Hagee or Parsley, is the equivalent of Wright, despite the fact that McCain barely even knows these guys, and certainly didn't sit in their pulpits for all of his adult life basking in racial hatred.

And now confronted with another Obama buddy who not only gets political at the pulpit, but gets specifically racist or race-baiting, they offer up a Republican who gets political at the pulpit. Hmm... Obama's friends do less-egregious thing Z and more offensive thing X, and some Republican does less-egregious thing Y, too, while condemning Obama's friends for doing more offensive thing Z, so... it's a wash? Huh? How did that happen?

Among other stuff Allah's link notes that the liberal line, here offered up for the billionth time by MSNBC hackette Mika Brezinsky, that white people cannot judge the roiling racism of Obama's church... even, as here, when it's offered by another white. Now that's nuance.

It appears we're going to get that long-anticipated Great National Discussion on Race after all, the one Obama claimed he wished to start but of course wants to avoid at all peril.

First topic in this Great National Discussion -- Are blacks entitled by the color of their skin to be racist, and are black candidates allowed, by the color of their skin, to count racists among their closest advisers, mentors, and political allies?

Yes or no? The answer from liberal quarters seems to be "Yes." I don't think the rest of the country agrees.

As I've said before, sure, I'll painlessly concede the liberals' talking point that white racism is more pernicious that black racism, in the main. But the fact that white racism might be worse in its overall effects than black racism does not in fact make black racism harmless or acceptable.

Murder is worse than manslaughter, but we don't routinely excuse manslaughter or claim "Who are we to judge?," now do we?

And that's where liberals want to take this argument. For a group which claims to be concerned above all else with racial tolerance and harmony, they sure seem to excuse racism pretty quickly when practiced by, or countenanced by, their fellow travelers.

Posted by: Ace at 10:12 AM | Comments (82)
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Mortal Kombat goes gay. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:57 AM | Comments (15)
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The priority appears to be let's totally disarm the United States.

"As President, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people. With diplomacy. And nuance. Maybe a puppy too. Everybody likes puppies".

Heard about this on Rush just now. Here's the vid:

Oh. IreneFingIrene tells me it's a repost; sorry. I did see that he made this sometime late in 2007. Anyway, it was new to me. And it's retarded. more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 08:37 AM | Comments (94)
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