THE NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE OF DISTRICT ATTORNEYS is demanding that Nifong step aside in the Duke (non) rape case.

Plus, Maimon Schwarzschild looks at the Duke faculty’s role in promoting this injustice.

2006 CASUALTIES IN IRAQ LOWER THAN 2005: But note the headline.

A SADDAM HUSSEIN EXECUTION ROUNDUP from Pajamas Media. Plus more, from Gateway Pundit.

UPDATE: A news media dilemma.

And more comparative coverage here.

What does it mean? Not as much as it would have a couple of years ago — the Saddam era is over in Iraq anyway. But this will certainly put an end to fantasies — entertained by some Baathist holdouts and even by some American war critics — of Saddam returning to power. As long as he remained alive, he remained a risk via further scheming on his part and that of his followers. It also indicates that despite all the noisemaking and theater, nothing he did made any difference in the end.

ROTATING BILLS: Blogger Bill Roggio is home from Iraq. Blogger Bill Ardolino will be there tomorrow.

MICHAEL TOTTEN REPORTS on Hezbollah’s Christian allies.

PATRICK HYNES HAS VIDEO of John Edwards in New Hampshire.

IS CHINA COLONIZING AFRICA?

A DIFFERENT APPROACH for Iraq. It would work, but it’s not our style. “The Mongols also immediately executed the caliph and his sons on charges that they spent too much money on their palaces and not enough defending their nation. They killed most members of the court and administration. The Mongols took no prisoners and allowed no torture, but they executed swiftly and efficiently, including the soldiers of the defeated army who, they believed, would be a constant source of future problems if allowed to live. The first several months of a Mongol invasion were bloody, but once the takeover ended, the bloodshed ended. . . . By the time of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the political achievements of the Mongols had been forgotten, and only the destructive fury of their wars was remembered. Yet under the Mongols — and the legacy of Genghis Khan — Iraq enjoyed a century of peace and a renaissance that brought the region to a level of prosperity and cultural sophistication higher than it enjoyed before or after.”

Plus, you can yell, “KHANNN!”: Of course, “Jenghis” didn’t have to deal with modern media.

IT’S OFFICIAL: Saddam will be executed tonight.

Brendan Loy is pleased.

UPDATE: Iraqi-Americans pray for Saddam’s death at a mosque in Dearborn.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Saddam has been hanged, according to reports from Iraqi TV. Good riddance.

SOME HDTV-BLOGGING at Knoxviews.

Earlier InstaPundit posts can be found here and here.

WAITING FOR SADDAM’S EXECUTION, at Iraq the Model.

MARY KATHARINE HAM offers a guided tour of things that didn’t happen in Durham.

CALLING OUT the Brady Campaign.

UPDATE: More on the Brady Campaign’s bizarre calculus here.

JOE LIEBERMAN:

I’ve just spent 10 days traveling in the Middle East and speaking to leaders there, all of which has made one thing clearer to me than ever: While we are naturally focused on Iraq, a larger war is emerging. On one side are extremists and terrorists led and sponsored by Iran, on the other moderates and democrats supported by the United States. Iraq is the most deadly battlefield on which that conflict is being fought. How we end the struggle there will affect not only the region but the worldwide war against the extremists who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001.

Because of the bravery of many Iraqi and coalition military personnel and the recent coming together of moderate political forces in Baghdad, the war is winnable. We and our Iraqi allies must do what is necessary to win it.

I agree, even though our winning will disappoint some people. Lieberman also notes: “As the hostile regimes in Iran and Syria appreciate — at times, it seems, more keenly than we do — failure in Iraq would be a strategic and moral catastrophe for the United States and its allies.” Yes.

HUGH HEWITT interviews Joseph Rago.

I FINISHED VARIABLE STAR last night. Not bad. In the one real spot of political discussion, it becomes clear that Robinson’s politics aren’t Heinlein’s, but that’s okay. The story wasn’t bad, the characterization was decent. Not really up to classic Heinlein standards, but still pretty good and certainly worth reading for Heinlein fans.

K.C. JOHNSON is all over the Nifong ethics charges. And a former prosecutor comments: “To classify this as a ‘stunning rebuke’ would be an understatement. I am not familiar with North Carolina law or procedure, but in Pennsylvania not once have I ever a seen a prosecutor or assistant prosecutor actually brought up on an ethics complaint for their official duties. . . . What burns me is that Nifong is giving prosecutors everywhere a horrible reputation. Every prosecutor I ever worked with, and those that I have dealt with since going into private practice have been straight as an arrow in ensuring that there was a fair trial. I may not have liked some of them for their unwillingness to compromise, but it was never done out of malice to the process or my client, but rather because of what they felt was right given the circumstances.”

WE GAVE THE BALL OF WHACKS to my 7-year-old nephew as a stocking-stuffer and it’s been pretty popular — not just with him, but with pretty much everyone.

UPDATE: Despite what the Amazon reviews say, it hasn’t made anyone’s hair grow back in our family. On the other hand, none of us is bald, so maybe its mystical powers are working backward in time!

WANT TO SUPPORT NANOTECHNOLOGY? The Foresight Nanotech Institute could use your help and a challenge grant will match your contributions.

AUSTIN BAY AND JIM DUNNIGAN are podcasting at StrategyPage now.

IS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION flip-flopping on the Second Amendment?

UPDATE: Here’s the original source, which I really should have linked here earlier. Sorry!

STRATEGYPAGE ON ISLAMIC TERROR IN THAILAND: “Two months after the coup that brought in a government that offered a kinder and gentler approach to solving the Islamic terrorism in the south, that terrorism has gotten worse. . . . The terrorists continue to concentrate on suspected pro-government Moslems, non-Moslems and government workers. Most of the mountainous back country villages have been terrorized, and ‘cleansed’ of infidels (non-Moslems) to such an extent, that the terrorists can move about openly in daytime. The terrorists are also getting nastier, as in today’s attack, where two teachers were shot, then burned to death on a road.”

DAN RIEHL CHARGES A.P. AND EDITOR & PUBLISHER with misrepresenting their own reporting.

A “RUSH” to execute Saddam? I don’t think so.

DAVE KOPEL WRITES ON THE OTHER WAR IN ETHIOPIA:

The Anuak people of Ethiopia, a black minority tribe, have historically been enslaved by other Ethiopians. The slavery persisted into the late twentieth century. Today, the Anuak are being exterminated, while the central government of Ethiopia tells the world to ignore the violence, claiming that it is merely an inter-tribal conflict.

Gambella is in southwestern Ethiopia, bordering Sudan. It is been the home of five ethnic groups: the Anuak, Nuer, Majangir, Opo and Komo. The Anuaks and the Nuer are the largest groups and have long feuded over the land and its resources. The Anuaks, who live atop gold and oil reserves, number approximately 150,000.

A mainly agricultural people, the majority of Anuak inhabit Gambella, although some live in eastern Sudan, and some have recently been displaced to Kenya and the US. Gambella also hosts UN refugee camps, for people who have fled the decades-long genocide in south Sudan.

The central government, in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, has disarmed most of the Anuak, and even disarmed Anuak police officers. Ethiopia is among the East African nations which have promised to conduct campaigns against civilian gun ownership, as part of the United Nations-sponsored Nairobi Protocol. Like several other signers of the Nairobi Protocol (Rwanda, Uganda, Congo, Sudan), Ethiopia already had a well-established record of genocide against disarmed victims.

Nobody has cared, but now that Ethiopia is opposing the Islamists in Somalia with U.S. assistance, we’ll no doubt see a sudden surge of “human rights” advocacy on the subject, though the whole disarmament thing might make it politically tricky . . . .