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In a statement of the obvious the BBC headline reads: Blair ‘failed to influence Bush’.

The Chatham House report found that, despite military, political and financial sacrifices by the UK, Mr Blair had been unable to influence the Bush administration in “any significant way”.

It said there was no evidence British pressure had led to Mr Bush accepting a two-state solution in the Middle East.

“Blair has learned the hard way that loyalty in international politics counts for nothing,” said Professor Bulmer-Thomas.

“And his successor will not make the same mistake of offering unconditional support for US initiatives in foreign policy at the expense of a more positive relationship with Europe.”

Not content to leave well enough alone and acknowledge the obvious: Blair stands by US relationship.

[Read more →]

I was writing a post that was sparked by Ellroon pointing to this article on Media Matters about Robert Pollak being ignorant, but Terry of Nitpicker is subbing for Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory and he covers what I was going to say in his post: There’s easy and then there’s magic.

Update: Also see: Surging To Defeat In Iraq by W. Patrick Lang and Ray McGovern

The practice of inserting advertisements on stories at news sites using computer algorithms is frequently not a good idea.

The headline: Texas family of 4 dies in plane crash.

The ad: ORBITZ: Texas Family Vacation.

What a crock.

Jonathan Alter writing for Newsweek penned this jewel, Is America Ready?, speculating on the chances of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama becoming President.

Mr. Alter states: “For 220 years, Americans have elected only white male Christians with no hint of ethnicity to the White House.”

Prove it, Mr. Alter. Several of the people who have been President were definitely not “Christian” in the commonly understood meaning of the word, and a few may well have been atheists, although it wouldn’t have been politic to admit it.

As for them all being “white male”, I would like to see the DNA to prove that claim. I might concede “male”, but America is a country of mixed races and bad record keeping. There have been rumors of tampering with National Guard records, criminal records, and educational records at various times.

Now if Mr. Alter would care to change his quote to: “For 220 years, Americans have been under the impression that they were electing white male Christians,” I could accept it. Bigotry in the US has forced this meaningless restriction on the political classes.

After more than 50 million American voters cast a ballot for the current resident of the White House in 2004, I would think that most people would have to agree that the bar to enter 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been lowered to its Constitutional level of 35 years of age, 14 years of residence in the United States, and a native-born citizen.

Fortunately the Supreme Court will probably not recognize the conversion factor for dogs, or we could have a golden retriever as the next President.

Time magazine has decided not to decide because they aren’t the “decider” and declared ‘Net users the “Man of the Year.”

As August Pollak so eloquently puts it: Lamer than anything that has ever been deemed lame.

Atrios wonders why Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was under consideration?

Simple answer: Because Time doesn’t understand that the President of Iran doesn’t quite have the political power of the Prince of Wales.

Update: I bought the album – from TBogg: We’re so lame, we probably think this story is about us

Because of careful planning the Swedish Christmas Goat Survives Attack.

If you would like to verify its existence you can check the Gävlebocken webcam.

From Steve Bates of Yellow Doggerel Democrat in the comments:

Why build a giant goat of straw,
Which most of us would scarcely note?
Some, though, defy the very law,
To vandalize the Gävle Goat.

In some years, they used wayward cars;
In others, flaming arrows smote.
This year’s survives, although with scars…
A fact that gets some people’s goat.

A webcam and some watchful eyes,
A flame-retardant second coat,
Should save it… unless Dubya spies
The thing, and claims it’s his pet goat!

– SB the YDD

These two symbols represent the same organization in different parts of the world. Someone should inform the US military, especially those in Iraq.

“Hearts and Minds,” people, I’m sure someone mentioned it to you.

I’ve written about General Peter Schoomaker, the Army Chief of Staff, before, when he asked Congress for more money in September to fix all of the worn and broken equipment that is piling up in repair depots.

Now he’s asking for more troops for the Army, because the commitments are exceeding the capacity of the Army to meet them without breaking.

General Schoomaker was Rumsfeld’s personal choice for Army Chief of Staff; he was called out of retirement to fill the job. He isn’t a maverick and has been toeing the party line for years. Things are so bad that he can’t be quiet any longer.

Mark Fiore highlights one of the problems that General Schoomaker faces when trying to hold on to trained personnel.

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends. I miss the latkes and jelly doughnuts my roommates received for the holiday at college. [Their grandmothers were afraid they wouldn’t celebrate or couldn’t get “real” food at that terrible Baptist university.] It was a great break.

One of the nice things about Hanukkah is that there are established “gifts”, so you don’t have to rack your brains about what to get: a card and gelt covers just about everyone.

[Note: on the Jewish calendar the day changes at sundown, not midnight, so it’s now the 16^th.]

So, Haloscan was down recently, Jo Fish of Democratic Veteran has had to dump comments because of spam problems, Karen at Peripetia had to dump the graphic check at her place because it was flakey, POP of Morning Martini has discovered that Blogger Beta comments doesn’t like non-beta BlogSpot [and vice versa], and now Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof is talking about John McCain’s crusade to stop child pornography by making bloggers file federal reports on their comments.

As Elayne keeps saying: this isn’t a job, it’s a hobby. We do this to exercise our minds, not put food on our tables. It is a method of communications, a release for our frustrations. One of the reasons it has become popular is because we can’t afford the time or the money to meet in person.

I’m getting tired of all the crap required to comment anymore, but I’m turning furious at all of the attempts by pandering politicians to violate the letter and spirit of the First Amendment because it is considered a political plus.

McCain, and most politicians, don’t care about “collateral damage,” like Constitutional rights, only scoring political points. There aren’t any short cuts. Discover the crime, investigate it, determine the suspect, and prosecute. That’s what works – always. These wide-net tactics don’t work and just annoy innocent people to the point they give up on the government.

Andante reminds us that Santa gets letters, even from children who should realize they are on the “Naughty” list.

Juan Cole thinks that bicycles might make a good gift for everyone.

Ellroon thinks that overdoing the decorations could be dangerous.

Ellroon also looks at the problem of determining who’s naughty and who’s nice.

Via Holden at First Draft I read a Washington Post article by Robin Wright announcing Saudi Ambassador Abruptly Resigns, Leaves Washington.

I checked with Informed Comment and Needlenose, but found nothing. Laura Rozen at War and Piece only had some speculation that it was something at home.

Prince Turki al-Faisal has only been in the position 15 months, while his predecessor, Prince Bandar bin Sultan stayed for 22 years.

It may be related to Prince Turki’s brother, Prince Saud al-Faisal, Saudi foreign minister, who is ailing. Prince Turki may need to return to deal with the internal squabbles that would arise at his brother’s incapacitation, or to help his brother during the approaching Hajj.

Prince Turki headed Saudi intelligence before being assigned the post in Washington, but he tends to be truly frank, rather than diplomatic, when describing relationships between the US and Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis are not happy about the disaster on their doorstep, Iraq, nor unconcerned about the fate of the Sunnis in Iraq. Prince Turki may be too truthful an emissary to deal with the Shrubbery.

If you are looking to celebrate the solstice or yuletide and don’t want to get involved with the Christian holiday here are a few things you can use: a Yule log, The Tannenbaum or Fir Tree, Mistletoe, Holly, Ham, and Wreathes. There is no need to get into what happens to wrens, or the role of the European robin. Also, the local authorities would probably get upset if you tried to have a bonfire.

These are all part of the Nordic/Teutonic solstice celebration long before the missionaries arrived with Christianity.

The only real Christian symbol is the Crèche, so if you don’t put up that scene and you avoid stars and angels in the tree, you are celebrating an ancient northern European winter festival.

This is why the Puritans banned the celebration of Christmas: they could smell a dodge to justify enjoying yourself.

As for the chubby elf in red – pure commercial propaganda. Come on, the standard outfit is based on Coca-Cola ads, which is why it is red and white.

I keep hearing people like John McCain, who are supposed to be informed about the armed services of the US, talking about sending more troops to Iraq. It is really annoying for a very simple reason: THERE ARE NO MORE TROOPS!

If you go to the cupboard, it is not only bare, it is gone, as it the pantry it was in – zero, nada, nil, zilch, nothing.

To maintain, not increase but maintain, the current level of troops they have had to extend deployments, violate the rules on time between deployments, “borrow” people from other missions, violate the rules for the Reserve and National Guard.

Drop by your local military base and you will see civilian security people on the gate because the military doesn’t have the military policemen left to staff their own gates. Civilians are guarding convoys, because there are no military personnel available.

You should have demanded an increase in the military after 9-11, John, but you didn’t. The military is stretched to the limit because a bunch of idiots decided to test their “theories” during two wars, and unless something changes we could lose Afghanistan. We have lost Iraq, but there is a chance that Afghanistan might be saved if we concentrate the necessary resources there.