Attention FoxNews and AP-IPSO Pollees!!

(Or ANY other polltakers in the near future.) When queried about “would the Democrats do a better job on the economy than the current administration“, please refer to these numbers before stepping blindly into the abyss:

Output at U.S. factories, mines and utilities rose by a bigger-than-expected 0.8 percent in June and capacity use also topped expectations…
…Capacity use rose to 82.4 percent, the highest rate since 82.5 percent in June 2000, the Fed reported on Monday.
Industrial production rose at an annual rate of 6.6 percent in the second quarter, the largest quarterly rise since a 7.7 percent climb in the fourth quarter of 1999.
…Manufacturing output in June rose at 0.7 percent on gains in automotive production, while mining output jumped 1.2 percent and utilities output climbed 0.7 percent.
Manufacturing capacity use was 81.1 percent, the highest since May 2000.

Knowledge is power, children and the answer to the question is “No”.
Wake UP.

Continuing Our “Much Loved Classics” (Goats, etc.) Theme…

…GUESS what handsome devil has a birthday today?

GAH-rrrowllll.

Even in a Democracy, the Religion of Pieces

…keeps killing it’s women.

How to Avoid Honor Killing in Turkey? Honor Suicide
For Derya, a waiflike girl of 17, the order to kill herself came from an uncle and was delivered in a text message to her cellphone. “You have blackened our name,” it read. “Kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first.”
Derya said her crime was to fall for a boy she had met at school last spring. She knew the risks: her aunt had been killed by her grandfather for seeing a boy. But after being cloistered and veiled for most of her life, she said, she felt free for the first time and wanted to express her independence.
When news of the love affair spread to her family, she said, her mother warned her that her father would kill her. But she refused to listen. Then came the threatening text messages, sent by her brothers and uncles, sometimes 15 a day. Derya said they were the equivalent of a death sentence.
…Every few weeks in Batman and the surrounding area in southeast Anatolia, which is poor, rural and deeply influenced by conservative Islam, a young woman tries to take her life. Others have been stoned to death, strangled, shot or buried alive. Their offenses ranged from stealing a glance at a boy to wearing a short skirt, wanting to go to the movies, being raped by a stranger or relative or having consensual sex.
Hoping to join the European Union, Turkey has tightened the punishment for attacks on women and girls who have had such experiences. But the violence has continued, if by different means: parents are trying to spare their sons from the harsh punishments associated with killing their sisters by pressing the daughters to take their own lives instead.
“Families of disgraced girls are choosing between sacrificing a son to a life in prison by designating him to kill his sister or forcing their daughters to kill themselves,” said Yilmaz Akinci, who works for a rural development group. “Rather than losing two children, most opt for the latter option.”

How about losing NO children? How about coming out of the f*ckin’ STONE AGE? How about American feminists standing up for these world sisters? Or do you only have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if you’re a Radcliffe/Barnard grad, Quinnipiac speaker, Newsweek columnist or witty playwright who uses the “V”-word in your title?
Phyllis Chesler:

…Western feminism’s failure to confront the problems raised by Islam, Chesler believes, is a result of the creation of a hierarchy of sins, “an intellectual culture in which racism trumps gender concerns”. The example she cites as the embodiment of wrongheaded priorities is “gay and lesbian movement activists rooting for the Palestinians who, meanwhile, are very busy persecuting homosexuals, who in turn are fleeing to Israel for political asylum”.
The result, she argues, is that “instead of telling the truth about Islam and demanding that the Muslim world observes certain standards, you have westerners beating their breasts and saying, ‘We can’t judge you, we can’t expose you, we can’t challenge you.’ And here in the west you have a dangerous misuse of western concepts such as religious tolerance and cultural sensitivity so that one kind of hate speech is seen as something that must be rigorously protected. That means, principally, lies about America and lies about Jews.”

Of course, she’s also been labeled an Islamophobe. Islamic women speaking up, fighting the good fight that holds true, life threatening DANGER for those very thoughts, need back-up. Need to know they’re protected. Need a chance to get the word out and a massive condemnation of the basic, deep rooted inhumanity of fundamentalist Islam. You shouldn’t have to kill yourself ~ or worry that you should kill yourself so your baby brother doesn’t have to go to jail for your murder ~ because you want to wear jeans. (Although I suppose it IS progress after a sort that he could actually GO to jail…God, that’s a S-O-R-R-Y excuse for a culture.)
They
make
me
SICK. Go ahead and label.

The Arab League is Not in League

…with Hizbollah. (How amazing is that?)

…But the group did not throw its support behind Hezbollah. Squabbles over the legitimacy of the rebel group’s attacks on Israel — including the capture of two Israeli soldiers that sparked the 4-day battle — caused dissention in the ranks, delegates said.
The Saudi foreign minister appeared to be leading a camp of ministers criticizing the guerrilla group’s actions, calling them “unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts.”
“These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them,” Saudi al-Faisal told his counterparts.
Supporting his stance were representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, delegates said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

EVEN the Palestinian Authority! Mon dieu! Of course, the usual suspects (From the NYT: “The countries supporting Syria included Yemen, Algeria and Lebanon.”) are PI$$ED…

…Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem lashed back al-Faisal, asking “How can we come here to discuss the burning situation in Lebanon while others are making statements criticizing the resistance?”

…while the Lebanese draft proposal does nothing to separate the Lebanese govenment from Hizbollah in the eyes of the world.

Earlier, Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh presented his fellow Arab League members with a draft resolution condemning Israel’s military offensive and supporting Lebanon’s “right to resist occupation by all legitimate means” — language frequently used by Hezbollah to justify its guerrillas’ presence in south Lebanon.

If Lebanon was serious about resisting occupation, they would have thrown Hizbollah out when they sent the Syrians home a year ago. Instead of bravely “resisting” this Israeli smack down by sitting on their thumbs and complaining, they should take advantage of Israeli cajones and join in the housecleaning. Hizbollah building schools and clinics will never, EVER replace the tourist dollars and booming economy a stable, Islamo-fascist free Lebanon was on the cusp of enjoying.

“Who’s benefiting?” asked a senior official of one of the Arab countries critical of Hezbollah who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “Definitely not the Arabs or the peace process. But definitely the Iranians are.”
There may be no material proof of Iran’s involvement in the conflict, the senior official added, but all indications point to an Iranian role.
Arab leaders have long been wary fof Iran. But with Iran exercising increased influence in Iraq and stirring the emotions of Arab and Muslim masses frustrated about the occupation of Iraq, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and America’s role in the region, fear of Iranian influence has increased.
“You have Hezbollah, a Shiite minority, controlled by Iran, working, and the Iranians are embarrassing the hell out of the Arab governments,” said Riad Kahwaji, managing director of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai. “The peace process has collapsed, the Palestinians are being killed and nothing is being done for them. And here comes Hezbollah, which is actually scoring hits against Israel.”

A little light should go on when you have both the U.N. and FRANCE calling for a cease-fire in your name. (Bernard Kalb just pointed out that the U.N. has never brokered anything that worked in the Middle East. The ONLY brokered peace plans that have EVER worked in the region are Israel/Egypt and Israel/Jordan ~ AMERICAN brokered deals. Remembering watching King Hussein flying his L-1011 at 1000 feet over Jerusalem and dipping his wings to Yitzhak Rabin still brings tears to my eyes. )
Paraphrasing Bob Livingston, just overheard on the telly:

“These Arab nations are going to have to realize this started with Leon Klinghoffer 30 years ago. And those same kooky people, who could throw a poor, crippled man off a ship, are now close to running things…They need to get a handle on it, or it’s a catastrophe for the entire region.”

11,000 Rockets

That’s what the Israelis are facing. And they store them in houses, so when the IDF takes out the depots there are ‘civilian’ causualties for the MSM to boo-hoo over.

On the Lighter Side ~ It Seems a Goat

…can be your best friend.

Looking to Prevent a Fire? Hire a Goat

When it comes to preventing brush fires, a charming brown-and-cream goat named Tim Buck might give Smokey Bear a run for his money.
With fire season under way, residents of a San Diego neighborhood devastated by the 2003 Cedar Fire have commissioned Tim and 350 of his friends to eat their way through chaparral encroaching on newly rebuilt homes.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Quote For Today

From Dubya

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – A microphone picked up an unaware President Bush saying on Monday Syria should press Hezbollah to “stop doing this shit” and that his secretary of state may go to the Middle East soon.

Ground Troops Into Lebanon

Now it gets uglier:

Israeli ground troops have entered southern Lebanon to attack Hezbollah bases on the border, a government spokesman said Monday. Israel’s six-day-old offensive against Hezbollah following the capture of two Israeli soldiers earlier had been an aerial campaign.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the deployment of international forces to stop the bombardment of Israel and to persuade the Jewish state to stop attacks on Hezbollah, while the European Union said it was considering the deployment of a peacekeeping force.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also arrived in Syria for talks with the government on the crisis. Syria and Iran have applauded Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers, which triggered the offensive.

I hope the Israelis smash these guys into nothing.

Quote of the Day

The Israeli Ambassador to the United States on O’Reilly just now:

“When other countries ~ Russia ~ preach to us about disproportionate force, I say you’re damn right we use disproportionate force!”

Reality Wrapped in a Fable

…from Bob Schieffer this morning.

…The frog agreed and the trip went fine until they got to the middle of the river and the scorpion stung the frog. As they were sinking, the frog asked in his dying breath, “why would you do that?”
To which the scorpion replied, “because it is the Middle East.”
It is worth noting that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip did not kidnap that Israeli soldier and provoke all this because the Israelis were invading Gaza. No, all this happened in the wake of the Israeli withdrawal, which was what the Palestinians wanted, but this is the Middle East. Why fundamentalists in Gaza and Lebanon chose to provoke this war makes no sense.
Israel had every right to respond and did. But this is the Middle East. So, the response may have made it worse by giving moderate Arabs in the region an excuse to distance themselves from Israel.
There was a time when America spent a lot of its diplomatic effort on the Middle East and sometimes, it had real impact. Jimmy Carter’s Camp David accords, after all, removed Egypt as the main threat to Israel.
But in recent years, we have stepped back. Why? Hard to say. Except this is the Middle East.

And the “Call It What It Is/What They ARE” award of the day goes to David Brooks…

Why is this Middle East crisis different from all other Middle East crises? Because in all other Middle East crises, Israel’s main rivals were the P.L.O., Egypt, Iraq and Syria, but in this crisis the main rivals are the jihadists in Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and, most important, Iran. In all other crises the nutjobs were on the fringes, but now the nutjobs in Hamas and Hezbollah are in governments and lead factions of major parties.
… Now there is a debate over how Israel should respond to this situation. Some say Israel should temper its response so Arab moderates can corral the extremists, which would be great advice if the moderates had any record of ever doing that or any capacity to do so in the near future. Others say Israel simply must degrade the capabilities of its fanatical opponents.
But this is a secondary issue. The core issue is that just as Israel has been trying to pull back to more sensible borders, its enemies have gone completely berserk. Through some combination of fecklessness and passivity, the Arab world has ceded control of this vital flashpoint to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bashar al-Assad. It has ceded its own destiny to people who do not believe in freedom, democracy, tolerance or any of the values civilized people hold dear.
And what’s the world’s response? Israel is overreacting.

Can’t argue with words like “berserk” and “NUTJOBS” ~ succinct descriptions. How refreshing.

Overheard on FOX News Just Now

During an interview with women who are American University students now trapped in Beirut:

“Where are the Marines? We wanna go home.”

We’re pretty sure they’re already close enough to help.

Reagan And Beirut

There’s an interesting discussion going on at Volokh which echoes what we were talking about in the comments below:

Why Did Reagan Coddle Iran (and Hezbollah)?
I’ve always been puzzled why Reagan didn’t try to punish Iran for taking American hostages. And then barely reacted when Hezbollah killed over 200 marines, and tortured CIA station chief Buckley to death. And then tried to sell weapons to Iran. Near as I can tell, it’s because the Reagan Administration had one huge priority, and that was to defeat Communism. (Although we did back Saddam for a while against Iran.) Fanatical muslims, Administration officials hoped, were potential allies of the U.S. against godless Communism, just as they turned out to be in Afghanistan. Is this a reasonable summary? Any commentors with expertise on this?
You can’t really blame the Reaganites too much, as they did indeed defeat Communism. But they also seem to have sowed the seeds of WWIII, by allowing and sometimes encouraging fanatical anti-Western Sunni and Shiite Islamicism to flourish, just as Roosevelt and Truman laid the groundwork for the Cold War by cooperating with Stalin to defeat Hitler–and being way too naive about their putative “ally.”

What are your thoughts, folks?

BREAKING NEWS

Fox is reporting that Israel has hit the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut. They believe the head bubba was in the building, but can’t confirm it. There’re also reports that that’s where the attacks against Israel are being co-ordinated, but that doesn’t make any sense to me. There’s no reason they’d be running things from such an obvious, vunerable place.
MSNBC is reporting that Hezbollah TV says the Hezbollah HQ has been destroyed, but Sheik Hassan Nasrallah made it out in one piece*. That’s a pity. No links yet.
*AP has that story.
All the network news stations are non-stop with this.
There are 2-4 casualties from the most recent Katyusha rocket barrages into Israel. The 2 that hit Haifa have been confirmed to be a new, juiced up Iranian version.
UPDATE: No decision out of the State Dept. yet, but the Iwo Jima is standing by in case they throw the ‘evacuate Americans’ flag. They’ll use the Marines and their helicopters to ferry folks off shore to the ship**.
The head of Hezbollah is on al-Jazeera now, addressing the Lebanese people. “Israeli agression against Muslims”…”Oh dear people, defiant mujahadeen…you are a people of dignity, honor and defiance…we have two options. We’re not just Hezbollah and not just resistance…”
UPDATE 1p.m.CST: The Sheik has also threatened Israel that they won’t stop at Haifa now ~ they will target it and then move their attacks into the heart of central Israel. MSNBB has more on that.

Speaking in an audiotape aired on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television, Nasrallah addressed himself to Israelis, saying: “You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war.”

Read more »

Aw, Jeez

::sniff::

Bingley in Beirut

Whoops! Sorry! Typo. Wrong “B” guy. Well. Same thing, really.

CELEBRITY chef Anthony Bourdain was stranded in war-ravaged Beirut yesterday after Israeli forces bombed the city’s international airport and blockaded all of Lebanon’s ports.
The best-selling author of “Kitchen Confidential” flew to Beirut on Sunday with a camera crew from his Travel Channel series, “No Reservations,” to do a show on the local cuisine. But after the thunderous assault on the city in response to Islamic extremist group Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers, Bourdain and his crew holed up at the Moevenpick Hotel while they waited for evacuation instructions from the State Department.
“Our network, our friends and our families just want us out of here as soon as possible,” Bourdain told Page Six yesterday afternoon, as Israeli shells exploded in the distance. “We’re not getting a show out of this . . . I just wanna hang out and drink at the bar. The mojitos here are great.

In the Words of the Grail Knight, “If You Must Choose…

…choose wisely…”

The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. – The Complete Series (1993)

You Might Want to Rethink This Gift Package, Guys

Western Incentives for Iran Released
The world powers are prepared to provide Iran with advanced technology and possibly even nuclear research reactors if it agrees to suspend uranium enrichment under a package of incentives revealed in full for the first time Thursday.
The package – put together by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – was given to the Iranians on June 6 and some details were leaked at the time.
But the full proposal showed a broader range of economic, political and energy incentives. They include promoting Tehran’s membership in the World Trade Organization, and the possible lifting of U.S. and European restrictions on the export of civilian aircraft and telecommunications equipment.
Under the incentives, the six powers are prepared to help Iran build state-of-the-art light water nuclear power reactors and to give legally binding guarantees that nuclear fuel will be provided for these civilian reactors meant to produce energy.

It’s über generous, but I see beard boy’s sticky fingerprints all over a Lebanese map…

Minutes before the fire Hizbullah’s al-Manar showed a new rocket which they said will hit “the strongholds of the Zionist enemy.”

“Need some more rockets?”
UPDATE: Yup. We’ll take ’em.

Hezbollah retaliated by raining more than 100 Katyusha* rockets into northern Israel, hitting big population centres such as Nahariya and Haifa, a city of 250,000 people that is 30 kilometres (18 miles) inside Israel.

The SURPRISE in this report? Knock me over with a feather:

But Saudi Arabia broke ranks with the Muslim world, indirectly blaming the crisis on the “irresponsible actions” of Hezbollah.

And after letting Hezbollah run the southern half of the country for the past 20 years, Lebanese leaders are finally waking up:

Lebanese critics as well as allies of Hezbollah insist that the Israeli response was disproportionate. But at the same time, in meetings Thursday, Lebanese officials began to lay the groundwork for an extension of government control to southern Lebanon. Hezbollah largely controls southern Lebanon, where it has built up a network of schools, hospitals and charities.
“To declare war and to make military action must be a decision made by the state and not by a party,” said Nabil de Freige, a parliament member. He belongs to the bloc headed by Saad Hariri, whose father, Rafiq, a former prime minister and wealthy businessman, was assassinated in 2005, setting off a sequence of events that forced the Syrian withdrawal. “It’s a very simple equation: You have to be a state.”
After a cabinet meeting Thursday, the government said it had a right and duty to extend its control over all Lebanese territory. Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat said the statement marked a step toward the government reasserting itself.

Here’s hoping you still have a country left to extend control over.
UPDATE: I firmly and wholeheartedly believe that Iran is the puppetmaster behind this entire crisis ~ what do they care about Hizbollah, other than there are enough of them to cause some damage and take the hits? While searching for reports of massive groups of Iranian “tourists” headed to/in Syria (Bingley gets me careening off on these tangents, curse him), I found a strangely prescient paragraph concerning the Iran/Syria relationship:

Ahmadinejad’s January 2006 visit to Damascus left little doubt that Syria and Iran remain united more united than ever and committed to sponsoring rejectionist forces in the Middle East. The Iranian president met not only with Assad and Nasrallah, but also with the leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP-GC.[16] At a joint press conference, the two presidents vowed to fight the plots of “world arrogance and Zionism” in Lebanon and called for “continued resistance” to Israeli “occupation of the holy Islamic lands.”[17] Syria has clearly drawn some strength from Iranian solidarity. Fearful that Syria’s alignment with Tehran will create a powerful “Shiite crescent” in the region, the Saudis and Egyptians have been trying to mediate between Damascus and the West. However, so long as Assad is unwilling or unable to make the kind of compromises that would facilitate a rapprochement (e.g. full cooperation with the investigation into Hariri’s death), he cannot really make use of this leverage. For better or for worse, he is committed to the “special relationship.” With all signs pointing to a prolonged standoff between Tehran and the West over the nuclear issue, some analysts suggest that Syria, as the low-hanging fruit of the duo, will bear the brunt of Western retaliation.

Who’s yer buddy, who’s yer pal, Bashar?

Read more »

Dear Mr. al-Mashhadani,

Please allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your brilliant piece of intelligence analysis. Both Secretary Rumsfeld and myself are deeply impressed by your keen ability to piece together seemingly divergent pieces of information and get to the key issues at hand. Of course, we know that the usual chorus of robotic, unthinking defenders will rise up and attack your good name and deeds, but please rest assured that Secretary Rumsfeld and myself place very great stock in both your analysis

“These acts are not the work of Iraqis. I am sure that he who does this is a Jew and the son of a Jew.”

and the obvious conclusions that we can draw from it, and we shall act upon it immediately.
Firstly, we have determined the location of the three living Jews still in Iraq. Please be assured that we are even now moving to spirit them out of the country tonight so they can cause no more harm.
Secondly, the above being accomplished and, as you say, since the acts of terror are not (indeed, can not be) the work of Iraqis, we are, effective immediately, removing all Coalition personnel from any and all security duties, including, of course, providing protection for any and all members of the Iraqi Parliament, protecting infrastructure, patrolling streets, so on and so on; heck, we will probably pull all of them completely out of the country. We share your confidence that, having removed the aforementioned 3 Jews (who in fact are, as you said, a Jew and the son of a Jew, plus a cousin of theirs who was visiting from Pittsburgh; dang, you’re good) the Iraqis will return to their peaceful ways, and the streets and markets will be happy places once again, especially with visionaries such as yourself for the people to look up to.
Anyhow, thanks again,
Kisses,
Condi

Zidane Dependz On Zee Eyez Of Zee Beholder

Our boy sure does get around! But how is he viewed around the world? Well…
If you were German, you saw this:

If you are French, you swear that this is what happened:

The Italians had a different view:

Read more »

BREAKING NEWS

UPDATE and bump: 4:00 p.m. CST ~ Israel has pasted the airport a second time for good measure.

Israel attacked Beirut’s airport for a second time Thursday, with helicopter gunships unleashing missiles that set fuel tanks ablaze at Lebanon’s only international air facility, Lebanese security officials said.

…while in New York:

The United States cast the first U.N. Security Council veto in nearly two years Thursday, blocking an Arab-backed resolution that would have demanded Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

…and then, in Iraq, it appears the Jooz are to blame for the mayhem in the markets, the beheadings ~ all the stuff we thought the insurgents were doing. Says who, you ask? Why no less than the speaker of Parliament.

The speaker of parliament Thursday accused “Jews” of financing acts of violence in Iraq in order to discredit Islamists who control the parliament and government so they can install their “agents” in power.
Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani hinted that the Americans and Israelis did not want to see officials of Sunni and Shiite parties running Iraq because “this is not their agenda.”
“They will say that we brought you in a democratic way to the government but you are sectarian people. One of you is killing the other and you don’t deserve to become leaders because you are war lords,” al-Mashhadani told reporters after a parliament meeting.
Al-Mashhadani is a member of the Sunni Muslim Iraqi Accordance Front while Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member of the Shiite Dawa party.
“Some people say, `We saw you beheading, kidnappings and killing. In the end we even started kidnapping women who are our honor,'” al-Mashhadani said. “These acts are not the work of Iraqis. I am sure that he who does this is a Jew and the son of a Jew.”

These people are whack jobs. That ALSO means Zarqawi was an ISRAELI AGENT!! Now that’s twisted ~ he shoulda though this out a little before he shot off his yap. But since they don’t seem to be real on top of ‘reason‘ as a general rule, I can’t see them wasting time on ‘connect the dots’.
********EARLIER TODAY*********
The AP is reporting Israel is not ruling out ground operations in Lebanon.
Great. At least the German Chancellor pointed out in this morning’s rush to crack on the Israelis that Hezzbollah and Hamas…

“The attacks did not start from the Israeli side, but from Hezbollah’s side,” she said.

…brought that sh*t on themselves.

Merkel appealed for restraint from both sides in the Mideast. But she suggested they do not share equal blame, repeatedly noting that the violence began with the kidnapping.
“I think that one needs to be careful to make a distinction between the root causes and the consequences of something,” she said.

She’s about the only one, though.
As far as Lebanon’s Sgt. Schulz act?

Hezbollah fighters operate with almost total autonomy in southern Lebanon, and the government has no control over their actions. But Lebanon has long resisted international pressure to disarm the group.

UPDATE: Cheerful Hezbollah campaign videos. (The feed’s hurky-jerky, but you’ll get the idea.) The music’s pretty snappy ~ makes you want to dance…unless you’re actually watching what’s on the screen ~ beatific mullahs accepting guns and offering them to the sky in perverted thanks, artillery pieces firing…the Lebanese flag with it’s famed cedar sideways…
A Swill Salute to Harry’s Place.

C’mon, Barbaro, Big Guy

FIGHT.

Jessica Lunsford’s Murderer

…catches yet another break. The jury pool’s ‘tainted’, so there’ll be a change of venue.

Jury selection and possibly the trial of the man accused of slaying 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford will be moved outside the 5th Judicial Circuit, a judge ruled this morning.
With jurors dropping rapidly from the jury pool this morning, Judge Ric Howard said seating a jury was simply too difficult.

Oh, I’ll bet it was.

A Better Acronym Might Be “EW” or “OO“

..as in “Another EU ‘OOps’! EW, they stink.”

For four years, the European Commission has been busy digging itself out of the hole it stumbled into in 2002, when three of its merger prohibitions were overturned in court.
This humiliating string of defeats dealt a severe blow to the reputation and confidence of the competition regulator, but also sparked sweeping internal reforms. Brussels introduced new checks and balances into its merger review procedures, abandoned some of the more adventurous theories it previously used in merger cases and beefed up its team of economists.
…On Thursday, however, that confidence was shattered by yet another ruling from the European Court of First Instance.
This time, the EU’s second-highest court took aim not at a Commission merger prohibition but at the decision to clear the merger of Sony and BMG in July 2004. It was the first time a Commission merger clearance was annulled.
To make matters worse, the Sony/BMG deal had been the first big test case for the Commission’s new enlightened approach.

Get it together, kids.

Dr. Death: *ussy Boy

Well, now we know the answer to the question we posed a few months ago: would “Dr.” Kevorkian practiced what he practiced. Shockingly, the answer is “no.”

DETROIT, Michigan (AP) — Jack Kevorkian, whose failing health may deny him a chance to be paroled, said he still believes in assisted suicide but would not choose it for himself.
“Remember that I did not advocate assisted suicide,” Kevorkian, 78, said in a written response to questions from The Detroit News published Thursday.

No, you just killed people.
Murderous, chicken hearted bastard.
* To protect THS’s delicate sensibilities I am refraining from using the ‘P’ word.

It’s a Big Day in Iraq

…that I have a feeling will get lost in the world sauce. And that’d be a shame.

Iraq witnessed a historic event today with the transfer of security responsibility in Muthanna Province from the Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) to the Provincial Governor and civilian-controlled Iraqi Security Forces. The handover represents a milestone in the successful development of Iraq’s capability to govern and protect itself as a sovereign and democratic nation. Muthanna is the first of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be designated for such a transition.

Via a Centcom Press Release.