TODAY'S TOP FIVE: I Think "Jeff" Has a Question.
Puppet Vs. Theocrat: Who To Root For? Iyad Allawi, the stooge picked by the American occupational authorities as the post-interim-constitution, pre-interim-election prime minister, says he will gather up his handful of votes and stage a secular challenge to the Shi'a party and their choice for prime minister, Al Dawa leader Ibrahim Jaafari. Allawi, only slightly delusionally, believes he is "poised to block Dr. Jaafari's nomination and possibly peel off enough members from the Shiite's United Iraqi Alliance to form a government of [his] own." Despite barely scraping into double digits in the percentage of the vote his party got, he seems pretty optimistic. You think maybe Washington is telling him something they're not telling the rest of us?
It Must Be Time for Another Appearance on Leno The popularity of make-believe California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to plummet, with just 55 percent of citizens approving of his job in office, down from around 70 percent in September. Additionally, about 53 percent of Californians now think their state is on the wrong track, compared with 38 percent previously. Boy, California, I sure didn't see that one coming: You mean the guy whose old job was pretending to be a murderous robot from the future isn't such a good choice for governor? Huh. Live and learn.
But, Dash It All, Chaps, We Had Wogs to Abuse! A very interesting read today: The Guardian goes in-depth on how the British government rushed to the Iraq War, against the advice of a number of top cabinet officials, including Blair's own attorney general. Right up until the outbreak of hostilities, Lord Goldsmith, the AG, was equivocating on the legality of the war, seeking assurances that there were, in fact, weapons of mass destruction currently in production. He never drafted an opinion endorsing the legality of the war, which is one of the conditions demanded by Blair's defence minister; no matter, Blair's government just lied and said that Goldsmith had written such an opinion. Interesting stuff.
Good, Old-Fashioned Mob Justice A group of 500 armed yayhoos calling themselves The Minutemen have announced that they're going to "patrol" a 40-mile stretch of border between Arizona and Mexico in April, when the number of illegal border crossings is at a peak. In other words, 500 people have announced their intention to usurp a function of the U.S. government. So what's the reaction of the U.S. Border Patrol? "Concern," because apparently it's not illegal to form an armed band of vigilantes dedicated to bashing Mexicans. Doesn't this sound like an area ripe for new legislation?
When the Going Gets Weird, the Weird Turn Pro ...as Hunter S. Thompson once opined. And this is about as weird as it gets: The Pro Wrestling Republican Coalition, dedicated to linking the Republican Party and sports entertainment. There is much to enjoy in this profile of various coalition members. Like this reference to a wrestler/Republican who recently served as press secretary for a GOP congressional candidate in New Jersey: "Most recently, Roman served as one of Undertaker's Druids at Wrestlemania XX in Madison Square Garden." But the reason I'm posting it today is because of the last man profiled: Bobby Eberle. That's Bobby Eberle the Texas Republican, of GOPUSA fame, and the owner of none other than Talon News, the fake web site that enabled hot military stud "Jeff Gannon" to get drawer-drippingly close to spin hunk Scott McLellan in the White House press room. Oh, what a tangled web, etc.
-Consider Arms
