It’s a back-door draft — of robots!

Oh, the humanity circuitry!

How Much is that Poodle in the Ranchhouse, or: just Who is Whose Irish Setter Now? :)
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Owing Tony Blair as he does, Big time, President Bush has been Working a case even tougher (albeit a tad less dangerous :) than Iran: Northern Ireland.

I hasten to add: I’ve no reason to doubt that the President, like the PM (and, lest we forget, like Eire’s an Taioseach Bertie Ahern), also believes in the Norn Iron :) Peace Process & its centerpiece Good Friday Agreement (GFA). From whatever micks / check that, MIX :) of Motives, Mr. Bush’s personal involvement is Very Commendable.

It develops that what W’s been Up to is: some nice little Phonechat, not only with Sinn Fein (SF)’s Gerry Adams (the Usual Suspect :) but ALSO with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader, that aging Lion of the County Antrim and distinguished Moderator [sic] of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster since 1951, [big Lambeg Drumroll…] — the Rev. Dr. Ian Paisley. :)

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OK, so there will be 156 parties on the ballot in Iraq in January. Out of the 212 parties that applied to be on the ballot, 56 were rejected “for failing to meet the criteria.” I just wish I knew what the criteria were . . .

UPDATE: Here are the requirements for becoming a political party (PDF format).

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Henry Hyde’s congressional committee is majorly bitch-slapping France, Russia and the U.N. over the oil-for-food fraud scandal right now. Good for them. The hearing is being aired live on Fox News (which is on here in the law-school lounge).

UPDATE: Here’s some of what Henry Hyde said:

I am beginning to believe that the prevailing sentiment regarding the United Nations Oil-for-Food program may have been “hear no evil, speak no evil, and see no evil.” No one seemed to be in charge of watching Saddam Hussein while he and his government were conducting perhaps the largest financial swindle in history. The corruption Saddam and his regime sowed created scores of accomplices around the world at the expense of the Iraqi people. Far too many people looked the other way as Saddam stole billions from the program.

We must remember that the Oil-for-Food program was designed to benefit the Iraqi people. It was imperative that they be fed and their medical needs attended to. Yet, the Iraqi Government, the very government whose responsibility it was to provide that aid, deprived them of the benefits from the sale of their vast oil reserves, cynically using those funds to buy influence and weapons abroad.

Saddam Hussein corrupted every aspect of the program, and various sources indicate that he may have received help from some of our Allies, and perhaps even U.S. citizens, in doing so. This is why this issue has taken on a sense of urgency. We must determine to what extent Saddam’s corruptive influence tainted others and perhaps even those we trusted most to help us to isolate and disarm him. …

Following the release of the recent report by Charles Duelfer who is here with us today, information has come to light as to the breadth of Saddam’s actions both at the United Nations and with our allies. … Some of our allies, eager to do business with Iraq, did all they could to facilitate business there. The commercial advantage they so eagerly sought in Iraq might well have made them susceptible to manipulations by Saddam Hussein and influenced their relations with the U.S. and with Iraq.

Also, here’s a news story noting one of the key revelations in the investigation that led up to today’s hearing:

Saddam Hussein diverted money from the U.N. oil-for-food program to pay millions of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out attacks on Israel, say congressional investigators who uncovered evidence of the money trail.

We always knew Saddam was doing that, but that it came directly from oil-for-food money is an extra special slap in the face, ain’t it?

Jacques Chirac:

“It is like that nice guy in America — what’s his name again? — who spoke about ‘old Europe.’ It has no sense. It’s a lack of culture to imagine that. Imagining that there can be division between the British and French vision of Europe is as absurd as imagining that we are building Europe against the United States.”

So it’s not absurd at all, then!

P.S. His name is Donald Rumsfeld, you insufferable weasel.

“The United States has reported a successful ground-based test of an airborne laser meant to intercept ballistic missiles,” WorldTribune.com reports. Dr. Evil was unavailable for comment.

Again we Cut into the Threads re college football & wardrobe malfunctions, to bring you Breaking Boring Election News.

For Well or for Ill, from his Cell or in the Breeze, I think that This guy is going to Win. (Emphases added as Usual. :)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the Palestinian uprising jailed by Israel but perhaps the strongest candidate to oust Yasser Arafat’s old guard of politicians, plans to run in upcoming presidential elections, a person close to Barghouti said Saturday.

The candidacy of Barghouti, who supports violence but says he wants peace with Israel, [ Flip Flopper / - the Guestblogger ] could shake up the calcified world of Palestinians politics…

Many believe the popular Barghouti is the only leader capable of unifying squabbling Palestinian factions, reining in militants and possibly restarting peace efforts with Israel.

Israel, however, is determined not to free Barghouti, who is serving multiple life terms for his role in the killings of four Israelis and a Greek monk…

Barghouti also could represent the best hope for Arafat’s Fatah movement to beat down a challenge by the increasingly popular hardline Islamic militant group Hamas, which is considering running a candidate…

He once had close ties to Israeli peace activists, and speaks fluent Hebrew that he learned in prison. But after the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting four years ago, he said force - including shooting attacks on Israelis - was justified to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Regardless, he still says he supports peace…

Pressure on Israel to release Barghouti would become intense if he wins.

“If the Palestinians are going to make this work against the really hard-line elements, the Islamists and some of the people of Hamas, they’re going to have to have a coalition of the young guard and the old guard,” former Secretary of State James Baker told CNN on Friday. “It would be really a very positive step in the right direction if Israel would release Marwan Barghouti so that he could participate in bringing about this transition.”

Ol’ Jimbo just possibly might be right.

Stranger things have happened. (OKOK - equally strange, not Stranger - & not Many, granted.)

All right, Gentlemen & Ladies: start your engines & have At it.

Andrew & Josh: Flip for who goes go First. (No Flopping, though. :)

:>

Fallujah update here.

Hmm…

…a heartfelt “thank you” to the brave men and women — past, present and future — who put their lives on the line to defend our freedom and our way of life.

So says CNN.

Heh:

P.S. Fark clears things up:

So much for “the end of all major fighting” in Iraq. The US military has entered Fallujah in what some are calling “the most significant battle” seen in Iraq yet.

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Yasser Arafat is reportedly clinically dead, although a Palestinian spokesman denies it.

UPDATE: Sounds like he’s still alive, but dying.

The FBI is looking into allegations by a member of the Army Corps of Engineers who is involved in military contracts stating that Halliburton was unfairly awarded their no-bid contract in Iraq.

It might be too late to be any kind of October surprise, but it will be interesting to see how this all turns out.