CNN reports: Al-Sadr bloc talks of alliance with Sunnis, Christians.

Something that people miss is that unlike other Shi’ia blocs, the group around Moqtada al Sadr wants a unified Iraq and opposes breaking up the country into three loosely federated states. Al Sadr has maintained contacts with Sunni and Kurdish groups hoping to form a unity government that would govern the entire nation.

It is indeed ironic that the Shrubbery and Moqtada al Sadr are probably the only people left on the planet who believe this is possible.

Update: Pat Lang muses on the motives behind this.

Ellroon of Rants from the Rookery was the first place I saw this reference to Palestine, and then Juan Cole of Informed Comment had the bulk of the statement up yesterday: King Abdullah II: It’s Palestine, Stupid.

This meshed with a Jimmy Carter interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross promoting his new book, Palestine – Peace Not Apartheid.

Assassination and natural death has rendered Jimmy Carter the only major figure left among those who once saw how it was possible to achieve peace in the Middle East. Mr. Carter has the standing to push the issue if the current leaders would just call on him to do it. He knows the shape of the possible compromises and isn’t worried about anything except peace.

Abdullah is right, as long as the Palestinian situation continues to be unresolved; there is no hope for long-term peace in the region. It is the festering wound from which the infection spreads.

I can’t recommend strongly enough that you should not use crack and then go skinny-dipping in a lake with alligators.

The BBC reports on a US man saved from alligator jaws. “Four members of the Polk County [Florida] Sheriff department waded through waist-deep mud in the dark to reach Adrian Apgar, 45, and pull him free from the alligator.”

The 12-foot ‘gator was later captured by a trapper, no doubt based on the fact that in was the only ‘gator in the lake in handcuffs [sorry, local joke referencing Florida police procedures].

As I was speaking of jokes, you might want to see Alliance of Wimpiness by Mark Fiore.