Salam was at the blast site in Baghdad yesterday about an hour after they blew up UN headquarters. I also just found out that Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head UN guy whom I'd last heard was trapped alive under some rubble, is dead. That just sucks.

there is a friggin' Iraqi idiot now on Jazeera saying that the security responsibility should be given over to the Iraqi Governing Council. Fuck off, this is not about American presence in Iraq. these attacks have nothing to do with the so called resistance. These are fucking idiots who destroying all the efforts to help this country get back on it's feet.

It looks like Al Qaeda, both in the method of attack and in the wanton targeting of innocents. But wait, let me guess. It's actually good news that the UN headquarters has been blown up. It's the "flypaper" strategy -- after all if it hadn't been the UN in Baghdad, the bombers surely would have targetted someplace else. Thankfully we've engaged the bastards on our own terms.... Right. And we have always been at war with Eurasia. Speaking of which...

I've been reading CalPundit lately. Pretty good stuff. Fair and balanced, as they say. He links to this Washington Post article summarizing Bush's changing statements on troop strength in Iraq and Afghanistan. Actually, I agree with Kevin Drum of CalPundit that it's a cheap shot to mock Bush's switch from "major combat operations" to "major military operations," as The American Propsect's blog, among others, recently did. If you look at the context of the phrase, it seems he's clearly correcting the interviewer's assertion that he stated "combat operations" have ended simply by inserting the word "major." Fair enough. Combat, military.... I'm not being sarcastic when I say they do basically mean the same thing in this context.

But the piece buries the more shocking mistatement in the ninth paragraph. Bush says about troop strength in Afghanistan:

"We've got about 10,000 troops there, which is down from, obviously, major combat operations," he said.....

Um, obviously. Except the Post gently reminds the reader:

In fact, the 10,000 troops in Afghanistan represent the highest number of U.S. soldiers in the country since the war there began. By the time the Taliban government had been vanquished in December 2001, U.S. troops numbered fewer than 3,000 in Afghanistan.

This is truly unbelievable, even for Bush. OK, so he's not a "nuance" kind of guy. But you should expect to the president to at least know whether troops levels are up or down in Afghanistan since the war began. And what's more outrageous is that nobody's going to call him on this.

Also, I found out via CalPundit that Leon Trotsky's great-granddaughter is now running the National Institute on Drug Abuse (posted by Mark A. R. Kleiman).

And if you're still thinking that "flypaper" strategy sounds like a good idea, watch the CBS video of the inside of the building when it was hit (instructions also posted here by Calpundit). As the bloodspattered victims make their way outside, stepping over those that can't even move, some of whom likely won't move again, just keep thinking: Wow, it's working! Look at all them flies sticking to the flypaper! Bring 'em on!