http://coolblue.typepad.com/the_cool_blue_blog/2005/11/democrats_get_o.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/iraq_strategy_nov2005.html

After reading the executive overview, I find nothing that hasn’t already been stated in one form or another. Most recently in SOS Rices speech, which was discussed broadly in the blogs.

If you’ve been paying attention, none of this (other than its presentation) is new.

This one’s for YOU.

President George W Bush has said he will not accept “anything less than complete victory” in Iraq.

In a major speech, Mr Bush refused to set an “artificial deadline” to withdraw US troops, saying it was “not a plan for victory”.

Your analysis was as always ‘right-on-the-money’. Might I suggest that in the future you read less “Slate” ,and more “Belmont Club”?

Just trying to help.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article325277.ece

A £48m, five-star, 23-storey hotel rising in the city centre; an opulent palace complex being turned into a theme park; cheap flights to the picturesque “Venice of the east” – all the trappings of a country gearing up for a tourist boom.

Except the country in question is Iraq. With a new constitution and elections in the offing, officials insist there is a new beginning. The tourist board has 2,400 staff and 14 offices.

There has been a rise in the volume of travellers, with Iraqis either leaving or expatriates returning for visits. And there is also the continuous and steady number of foreigners, mainly contractors, coming in for the huge wages they can now command for working in such a risky environment.Ö

Another plan is to turn Saddam Hussein’s former palaces at his home town of Tikrit into a themed tourist destination. The complex, which contains 18 palaces and 118 other buildings, is surrounded by rolling gardens overlooking the Tigris.

Mohammed Abbas, a regional official, said: “Ordinary Iraqis were never allowed into these palaces. It will be an opportunity for them to see how their money was spent. International visitors will also be able to see the kind of lifestyle Saddam enjoyed.”

Games featuring graphic scenes of cannibalism, “F.E.A.R.” and “Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse,” were among the 12 “games to avoid” listed Tuesday by the National Institute on Media and the Family.

“It’s something we’ve never seen before,” said institute president David Walsh, warning that today’s games are “more extreme” and more easily available to underage kids than ever before.

In “Stubbs the Zombie,” the lead character eats the brains of humans as blood splatters across the screen.

“It’s just the worst kind of message to kids,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.

That’s pretty wild.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177090,00.html

Hmmm, assuming Sen Joe’s data is accurate, 67% of Iraqis say they are better off now than under Saddam. 80% of Iraqis are not Sunni Arabs. So I would guess the most reasonable interpretation of this statistic that would mean that virtually all Sunni Arabs prefferred Saddam and somewhere around 16% of non Sunni Arabs preferred Saddam. Even if you also assume that the Sunni Turkmen, the Christians, and all the other assorted small minority groups are also all totally pro-Saddam, you still have to have a healthy chunk of Kurds or Shi’ites who are saying they are the same or better off as they were under Saddam. That’s pretty wild considering how Saddam treated both groups.

Anybody else have a different interpretation?

traitors today. The tradition continues.

ìAustralia has stepped up with you every time.î

Yes. As the USA was with you in the dark days in 1942, when the Japanese bombed Darwin and the USS Yorktown and USS Lexington were there to fight with HMAS Australia in the Coral Sea. We havenít forgotten. And we know that there are friends and then there are friends.

ì… nations such as we, who stood with you, were just corrupt nobodies…î

Nobodies like all those people in ìthose dreadful red states.î

Samuel:

“For Democrats to win we all lose….”

Yes. The Democrats are evolving into the party of a national death wish. The real party slogan, which they dare not voice, is ìLetís kill America and replace it with something worthy of us.î The shapers of Democratic Party opinion are frivolous people who became accustomed, addicted perhaps, to structuring the world around their fantasies. Americaís great power and wealth made it possible for them to do that while ignoring the real world. 9/11 was a glimpse of reality and Bush, not Bin Laden, represents for them the face they saw. They still are in shock and ìBush is bad,î in its daily opinion and news versions, is the only thing they are able to say. Their stuff is all frivolous, if elaborate and mean-spirited. But weíve entered an era now when Iíd keep sell frivolity short. Whatís here is serious, itís going to last a long time, and we are only beginning to understand it. And, alas, I donít think weíve seen anything yet, compared with whatís to come. In such times, my money is not on frivolous people. Itís on serious, determined, confident people. People like the Islamists. I’d put my money on them if we didnít have something much stronger. My money is on the quiet people who exemplify the difference between self-respect and self-esteem, know the difference between a cartridge and a magazine, and mean it when they say ìGod bless America.î