Skank

Fragile progress indeed:
The Washington Post writes that “few Iraqis paid much attention” to the testimonies of Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker:

“The Americans have hundreds of meetings and testimonies like this, and what has it done for the Iraqi people? Nothing,” said Allah Sadiq, 49, a carpenter in the capital’s Karrada district. “So why do we care? We just want all the foreigners to leave and stop causing disasters for our country.”

“I don’t even know who Petraeus and Crocker are,” said 31-year old shop owner Yasser Kadhoum al-Khafaji. “I think these sorts of things are more important for Americans than they are for Iraqis.”

More… 

See it here.

The surgeon broke my nose last week. She straightened a badly deviated septum and resected the turbinate structures in the nose. The upshot  is that when everything has healed, I’ll be able to breathe through my nose. I haven’t been able to sleep more than 3 or 4 hours a night for months because my airway shut down. Soon I should be able to get a good night’s rest.

I was prepared to have two black eyes and a tampon-like cotton packing shoved up each nostril for a week. But I escaped those indignities. In the mean time I can’t sleep for more than an hour before I wake up. I’ve been sleeping 4 or 5 on hour stretches each night.

Check it out here.  Hat tip to Atrios.

1. Go to the following site:

http://www.tatuagemdaboa.com.br/

2. Write your first name in the first box.

3. Write your last name in the 2nd !!! No need to write your e-mail address.

4. Press the VISUALIZAR bar.

Back in April 9, 2007, Col. Boylan, Gen. Petraeus’s press flak took exception to my skepticism regarding his claim that a parade was a turning point in the war. In my response I explained why I thought he was wrong. He had  accused me of wanting our troops to be killed. This was my response:

Tell you what, how about a wager? I’ll donate one hundred dollars to any charity you name that helps U.S. Iraqi veterans acquire prostheses for lost limbs if in six months peace breaks out in Iraq and we see Sunnis and Shi’a marching together and passing …out flowers. If this rally is not found to be a turning point in the war, you promise to come back to my blog and say you were mistaken.

Well, the deadline is imminent and peace has not broken out in Iraq. I’m waiting for your admission that you were wrong Col. Boylan.

According to “Tom the Dancing Bug.”

Photo of our great leader meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Thousands of people every year are struck by lightning, how has this sophomoric moron remained untouched.

Over at Liberal Oasis Bill Scher highlights the stupidity of the hundreds of news stories and opinion pieces of the past year where reporters and pundits clutch their pearls at the very bad idea of Hillary’s candidacy–bad because she’s such a polarizing figure. Well, ABC News and the Washington Post commissioned a poll to see just how polarizing Hillary is. Surprise, surprise..not so much.

The Most Polarizing Prez Candidate Is…Not Hillary

Here’s some poll data that I don’t believe has received much attention.

***

ABC NEWS/WASHINGTON POST POLL. Sept. 27-30, 2007

“If [see below] wins the Democratic/Republican nomination for president would you definitely vote for him/her in the general election for president in 2008, would you consider voting for him/her or would you definitely not vote for him/her?”

PERCENT SAYING “DEFINITELY WOULD NOT”

Obama — 39%
Clinton — 41%
Edwards — 43%
Giuliani — 44%
McCain — 45%
Thompson — 54%
Romney — 57%

***

What’s does that mean?

1. Sen. Hillary Clinton is no more polarizing than other Dems, and less polarizing than every leading Republican.

Read the rest of Scher’s parsing of this poll here.

Our Secretary of State Condi Rice said:

“In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development,” Rice told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.

“I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma,” said Rice, referring to the Russian parliament.

Clueless, absolutely clueless, just like her “husband.”