GREG GUTFELD further embroils the fray by which he rules.

READER BRIAN HALL EMAILS:

The Gulf News here in the UAE has an interesting story about Palestinians being told by Shias to leave Iraq or “prepare to die,” yet the supposedly Jewish controlled American media (not CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NYT, Wash Post) doesn’t report on it. I posted about it here.

Interesting. I don’t know why it hasn’t gotten more attention here.

TURNAROUND IN BAGHDAD? Nibras Kazimi writes in The New York Sun:

The wider Sunni insurgency — the groups beyond Al Qaeda — is being slowly, and surely, defeated. The average insurgent today feels demoralized, disillusioned, and hunted. Those who have not been captured yet are opting for a quieter life outside of Iraq. Al Qaeda continues to grow for the time being as it cannibalizes the other insurgent groups and absorbs their most radical and hardcore fringes into its fold. The Baathists, who had been critical in spurring the initial insurgency, are becoming less and less relevant, and are drifting without a clear purpose following the hanging of their idol, Saddam Hussein. Rounding out this changing landscape is that Al Qaeda itself is getting a serious beating as the Americans improve in intelligence gathering and partner with more reliable Iraqi forces.

In other words, battling the insurgency now essentially means battling Al Qaeda. This is a major accomplishment.

Read the whole thing. I certainly hope this is right.

A LOOK AT KOREA as a source of historical analogy.

I’VE MENTIONED J.D. JOHANNES’ INDEPENDENT IRAQ DOCUMENTARY, OUTSIDE THE WIRE, before, but now he emails that it’s available through Amazon. He writes: “Pretty cool…for me at least.” It’s pretty cool for anyone.

You can see an online trailer here.

A LOOK AT HILLARY’S BLOGAD BUY, from William Beutler.

IN THE MAIL: William Easterly’s The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics. I ordered it on Megan McArdle’s recommendation.

A POLITICAL BLOGGING SCHOLARSHIP: I wish they’d had these when I was in school. Of course, we would have had to have had blogs first. And the Web.

IS THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN WORRIED ABOUT ROMNEY? Well, if they’re smart they are. Plus, Dan Riehl looks at Romney.

CANCELLING THE YEAR OF THE PIG IN CHINA, so as not to offend Muslims.

OBAMA QUESTIONS:

The question of how Obama chooses to define and approach race looms large as he moves closer to formally launching his campaign next month. Although he rides a wave of enthusiasm among Democrats who like his vision of a different kind of politics and see him as an alternative to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), it is not clear that his multiracial message can excite black voters hungry for affirmation of their top concerns. . . .

Complicating matters is that Obama appears certain to encounter fierce competition for the black vote from the other leading Democratic presidential contenders. Black Democrats prefer Clinton 3 to 1 over Obama, and four out of five of black Democrats view her favorably, much higher than the 54 percent who have a favorable view of Obama, according to combined findings from two Washington Post-ABC polls taken in December and January. Clinton also enjoys close ties to top black elected officials, and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, remains extremely popular among African Americans.

Indeed. Plus, Howard Kurtz on Kerry’s long goodbye:

Kerry began to talk. And talk.

He talked about Mesopotamia in the year 685, the tribal warfare, how people were beheaded. He trod a long, winding path to today’s Iraq, then detoured to talk about Syria.

As he continued to speechify, CNN cut away, then MSNBC.

Kerry kept talking. He turned to Vietnam, then back to Iraq. MSNBC checked in again, then CNN. Would he now get to the point?

The on-screen headlines said that Kerry would announce his withdrawal, but he did not.

Finally, half an hour later, the Massachusetts senator, his voice breaking, disclosed that he would, in fact, not be a candidate for president in the next election.

A flashback to the often droning, ponderous Kerry of 2004 was impossible to avoid.

I still don’t understand why people thought he was the guy to nominate. And — as I noted back then — it’s a measure of Bush’s own weakness as a candidate that he beat Kerry by such a comparatively narrow margin.

WHY I’M CONSIDERING VOTING FOR HILLARY: Jay Nordlinger says it all:

I have a friend who, in a phone conversation last weekend, said the unsayable. Come to think of it, this friend makes a specialty of saying the unsayable. That is one reason he is invaluable.

He said, “The Democrats have to win in 2008 — I mean, the whole enchilada: House, Senate, and presidency.” You ought to know that my friend is a staunch conservative Republican. “Why?” I said. “Why do they have to win?” He answered, “Because that’s the only way they will be fully onboard the War on Terror. They won’t fully support it otherwise, because they will always be trying to trip up the Republicans. If you want the Democrats onboard the War on Terror, they have to be in charge. Period.”

It’s getting harder to argue with that. And hey, maybe Hillary really will turn out to be “the most uncompromising wartime President in the history of the United States.” Plus, Markos doesn’t like her.

MESSAGE TO SAFETY NAZIS: Life is inherently distracting.

DIEBOLD PUTS PHOTO OF VOTING MACHINE KEY ON WEBSITE: Key made from photo opens machine.

THE SECRET WAR AGAINST IRAN:

With the Shia majority in Iraq now running the country, the Arabs now have to confront Iran directly. And that they are doing. Saudi Arabia is supporting the Palestinian Fatah organization against the Iranian supported Hamas. Saudi Arabia is also using its money to support Sunni Arab, and Christian, factions in Lebanon, against Hizbollah, the Shia minority and its Iranian backers. Saudi Arabia is also giving support to the Sunni Arab majority in Syria. For decades, the Saudis tolerated the Shia minority that ran Syria. No more. The situation has changed, especially with Iran gaining speed in its effort to build nuclear weapons.

The Saudis are even, secretly, cooperating with the Israelis. Iran has always been seen as a greater danger to Israel than the surrounding Sunni Arab nations. Hizbollah, which is a Lebanese Shia organization, made a name for itself during its disastrous attack on Israel last Summer. Although Hizbollah lost by every measure, they won in the arena of public opinion. Both the Israelis and Saudi Arabs (and Sunni Arabs in general) hated that. . . . The Saudis are committing over $100 billion to this battle, and doing it out of the purest of motives; self interest.

Interesting.

K.C. JOHNSON has more on the Nifong debacle.

MICKEY KAUS: “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” is just like the Iraq war.

NANOTECHNOLOGY and misleading symbolism.

SOME DATA ON DIVERSITY, from Tom W. Bell.

POLLING WITH THEIR FEET: Frank Martin observes:

I’ve never understood how on one hand people overseas will tell the pollsters how much they hate America – and Americans, and yet our streets seem to be increasingly filled with people from all around the world who have risked life and limb and broken the law of their country and ours to get here.

I mean, if I dont like a restaurant, I dont stand in line for 4 hours to get in, I just go somewhere else. I sure dont stand in line for four hours and then say how much I hate the place.

I wonder if theres a sort of ‘natural reflex’ to just tell the pollsters what they want to hear, rather than tell them what you actually think.

Think about it, when the western United States was being settled, I dont think there were people saying how much they hated Oregon and California when they were selling everything they had and walking away from Ohio and other parts of the east. ” I hate Oregon, so lets take our life in our hands and try to go there”, followed by headlines that said ” Oregon more unpopular than ever says poll of former residents of Ohio”.

face it, if there is a line of people stretching across to continent walking to oregon, then any poll saying “oregon unpopular…” is clearly based on faulty data, right?

You’d think.

UPDATE: Various readers suggest that the world is made up of two kinds of people: Those who “get” America and those who don’t. The former immigrate; the latter stay home and are polled.

THE STATE OF THE UNION, in three presidencies.

JIMMY CARTER APOLOGIZES.

CENSORING FOR JIMMY CARTER at Brandeis.

I’VE LINKED TO AUDRA AND THE ANTIDOTE on numerous occasions. You might be interested to know that Audra Coldiron has brain cancer, and is now blogging about it. She’s a terrific person, and I wish her the best. Send her your prayers and good thoughts.

Our podcast interview with Audra is here.

FRONT-LINE WARRIORS against Islamic fundamentalism. (LATER: A reader cautions that these photos might be NSFW some places. I’m beginning to wonder if the Taliban fled to corporate HR departments, instead of Waziristan.)