A MUGABE DEPARTURE DEAL IN THE WORKS? That would be terrific news. Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

AN AVALANCHE OF asset writedowns?

A BOLD MOVE on the border fence from the Bush Administration. Are you sure it’s not an April Fool . . . ?

AN EMAIL FROM DAMIEN CAVE in defense of NYT Iraq correspondent Qais Mizher — click here to read it.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS on Hillary’s real Bosnia problem.

OKAY, SINCE I POSTED THIS a few weeks ago, I’ve been listening to Bitter:Sweet’s The Mating Game on my office computer and I have to say it’s grown on me. It’s not SBL, but I think it’s better than my prior post made it sound.

GAYS, OBAMA, and another hateful reverend: “The problem for Obama is that Rev. James Meeks, like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, preaches a message that appears to be directly at odds with the promise of hope, unity and bridging social, racial and political divisions upon which his campaign is built. . . . Perhaps of even more concern than race-baiting diatribes like these is Rev. Meeks disturbing history of antagonism towards the LGBT community. A spring 2007 newsletter from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) named Meeks one of the ’10 leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement . . . . On a more personal level, Meeks has reportedly blamed ‘Hollywood Jews for bringing us Brokeback Mountain’. “

MICHAEL TOTTEN POSTS another dispatch from Iraq. As always, it’s a must-read. “The story in Karmah should be familiar by now. Iraqis said no. We will work with the Americans and drive you out of our country. So many Stateside Americans still wonder aloud why mainstream Muslims refuse to stand up to terrorists, so apparently the story in Karmah – which is hardly unique to Karmah – isn’t familiar enough.”

THE HUFFINGTON POST AND PAJAMAS MEDIA: Guess which one has more traffic? You won’t find the answer in the New York Times.

IN THE MAIL: John Hammergren and Phil Harkins’ Skin in the Game: How Putting Yourself First Today Will Revolutionize Health Care Tomorrow. I hope that technology helps as much as they suggest — they appear to be very much in line with Andy Kessler’s belief that technology will start reducing healthcare costs and increasing capabilities in the not-too-distant future.

SOMEONE TELL JOHN MCCAIN:

The recent measles outbreak in San Diego—started by one child who imported the disease from Switzerland—reinforces the ongoing need to maintain high vaccination coverage, Dr. Jane Seward said at the winter meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The unvaccinated 7-year-old boy, who had rash onset 12 days after returning to the United States, infected at least 11 additional children ranging in age from 10 months to 9 years. Four were infected in the pediatrician’s office that the child had visited the day before he was taken to a hospital emergency department for high fever and generalized rash. Another two cases were the boy’s siblings, while five attended his school.

One infant was hospitalized for 2 days for dehydration, and another traveled by plane to Hawaii while infectious, necessitating “quite a response” by public health authorities in that state, Dr. Seward noted.

All cases were unvaccinated, including eight whose parents had claimed personal belief exemptions.

This really is a problem. Don’t get your health-policy advice from Don Imus. (Via Dr. George Milonas, who emails: “The truth is we were very lucky that the dam did not break into a full scale epidemic. There were just enough kids vaccinated in the area to prevent the worst case scenario.”)

THANKS FOR ALL THE traffic last month.

BILL QUICK: “For the first time I have developed some serious reservations about my long-held prediction that Obama will be the next US President.”

SHOULD A WOMAN BE MORE LIKE A MAN? The latest Ask Dr. Helen column is up.

“THE GANG:” “Democrats should now ask themselves how a party of supposed racial transcendence inevitably ended up with primaries predicated along hardening racial lines, and a unity, trans-racial candidate who for twenty years was intimate with a pastor and spiritual advisor who seems to have derided almost everyone and everything, from America, to Italians, to Jews and Israel, to whites and moderate blacks, with serial slurs worthy of a Don Imus or Michael Richards.”

FAIR AND BALANCED: “You hate both of our candidates.”

INSIDE THE BLACK BUDGET: Of course, all those patches could just be a clever disinformation campaign. If so, it’s one with a sense of humor.

BILL ROGGIO’S LONG WAR JOURNAL gets a surprisingly flattering profile in the Columbia Journalism Review. Roggio emails: “I would just like to make one clarification: the additional staff referred to in the article are volunteers. That said, it is heartening that more are noticing.” Indeed.

IN THE NEW YORK TIMES: “Iraq’s prime minister says the military operation to clear the southern city of Basra of Shiite militia violence has been a ‘success.’ Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a statement Tuesday that his office will recruit 10,000 more police and army forces and will move to enhance public services in Iraq’s second-largest city. His comments come after a peace deal between radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government has brought a tense calm following a week of clashes.”

UPDATE: More at The Belmont Club.

MORE ON ONLINE PHOTO SITES and what you may be signing away. And note that Adobe is backpedaling on its Photoshop Express Terms of Use.

FROM ANDY BOWERS, AMERICA’S STUPIDEST BIKE LANE:

OLYMPIC COMMITTEE TO CHINA: Don’t block the Internet.

China’s Great Firewall must be lifted during the Olympic Games to ensure free access to the rest of the world.

That was the message from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the Beijing organisers of the Games during meetings that will be the last official sessions between IOC inspectors and the Chinese hosts before the Games open on August 8.

More backbone than I’d expected.

APPARENTLY, I’M IN THE WRONG BUSINESS:

ALICE WALKER: Obama is our Mandela.

Well, yeah, except for the years of imprisonment, and the whole Apartheid thing. Jeez, people are really losing it. Plus, when did Alice Walker become white? “He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change it must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves.” Our?

MORE OBAMA-WRIGHT NEWS: No surprise, really.