A studio audience. His routine needs to feed off the energy of a crowd, and the monkey just wasn't cutting it.

U.S. Lifts 23 Year Old Ban on Travel to Libya

There are rewards to engaging the international community, accepting responsibility for the past and giving up the pursuit of terrorism and WMD development. Are you listening Kim?

It seems that the 1st Marine Division learned some successful counter-insurgency tactics.

Pretty cool.

The perils of a welfare state. The Sun features "Britain's laziest woman."

The pair are surviving on the £51-a-week Jobseeker’s Allowance paid to Jennifer, who stopped working in 1969 when Susan was born. They also receive housing benefit worth around £45 a week.

Susan, who spends much of her day listening to CDs and watching videos, said: “It’s awful trying to survive now. We only have one wage — my mum’s benefit. The Jobcentre won’t let us have a thing. It’s disgusting.”

PS - Don't get sucked into clicking on the extremely hot Page 3 gals on the left if you are at work.

(Via Dave Barry)

I'm just going to straight-up lift this excerpt from Instapundit (who lifted it from Vodkapundit), because it is such a powerful argument:

Something about this war is eating Bush's detractors alive, something unquantifiable with conventional weights and measures. I think that it is because if George W. Bush really did lie (and thus surprising both the Right and Left), the anti-war crowd would still have to face a disheartening Spectacle of Freedom For An Entire People, instead of the more satisfactory Humiliation Of Bush At The United Nations And Mass Graves Nobody Knows About.

That simple.

Nothing is more irritating than watching your enemies fail to live up to your worst expectations. If George W. was hawking stolen museum art, or John Ashcroft was forcing Shiites to convert, or Dick Cheney was sucking the oil from Iraqi teenager's skin, the Left would have far lower blood pressure. They would be relieved, vindicated, because the war would be delightfully immoral.

The anti-war crowd long ago started measuring themselves as culturally, intellectually, and morally superior to the pro-war crowd, instead of measuring whether their policies were superior. Thus, the incredible success in Afghanistan and Iraq is not a blow to their policy, it is a blow to their ego and sense of self.

Yes, yes, yes.

Kerry vs. the chicken hawks
John Kerry's band of Vietnam War brothers has the Bush army running for their lives

As a former subscriber to Salon, I used to get pissed at their leftward lurch and subsequent descent into foaming, eyes-crossing, babbling left-wing madness ... MADNESS! Madness? Now however, I just love it. It's almost beyond parody.

By the way, Heather Havrilesky and Charles Taylor are still consistently excellent writers featured on Salon.

Kim Jong Il's former cook writes a tell-all book:

One day in 1992, as I was riding behind Kim Jong Il at a right-turning path, I noticed that his horse was standing by itself. Kim had fallen off the horse. It had apparently slipped on a bed of pebbles laid over some asphalt being repaired. Kim Jong Il had hit his head and shoulder quite hard and had fallen unconscious. A doctor was called immediately.

...

From that day, every evening at 10:00 P.M. for the next month, five or six of his administrative staff members and I would be injected with the same painkiller that Kim Jong Il was taking. He was afraid he would become addicted to it, and didn't want to be the only one.

And this:

During a banquet one night a group of five dancers in the entertainment entourage were performing a disco dance. Suddenly Kim Jong Il ordered, "Take off your clothes!" The girls took off their clothes, but then Kim told them to take it all off. They seemed surprised and could not hide their bewilderment, but they could not object to their Dear Leader's orders. In awkward embarrassment they stripped down and continued their performance in the nude.

After a while he turned to his cabinet staff members and instructed them, "You guys dance with them too." And soon enough I, too, was ordered to dance. However, he cautioned us, "You'll dance, but you won't touch. If you touch, you're thieves." In other words, I think Kim Jong Il felt these girls were like his own daughters.

Man, oh man. It's like E True Hollywood Story, except the self-absorbed, insane nut in question has nukes under his control. Imagine Rick James in the old days with a nuclear hot button.

And you thought Dick Cheney was a liability ...

The kung-fu fighting styles of Rumsfeld.

(Hat Tip: Frank @ IMAO)

UPDATE: More fighting pictures of Rummy.

When will the multiple rounds of news stories highlighting how Saddam paid off many very vocal "peace activists" and Western politicians finally sink into the public consciousness and cause outrage? When will these people be tried and imprisoned for state treason?

These people aren't mere spies; they are elected politicians fulfilling the political will of a hostile foreign power. For money.

This new media environment has a lot of pluses and minuses. Pluses include the widespread and unbelievably quick dissemination of information. A big minus is the fact that some stories that ought to have legs don't; they become overtaken by the waves and are lost in a fractious media environment. This story is a big deal. Read it. Really.

An Iraqi creates a touching memorial.

It pains me beyond belief to think that so many "pacifists" and isolationists fail to grasp the meaning behind this statue.

(Hat Tip: Dean's World)

Anyone who can piss off this many Canadians with a few well-aimed barbs qualifies as a true American hero. Even humorless politicians are in on the outrage.

Félicitations, Triomphe! You have now joined President Bush as zee most hated Ameri-ken!

In regard to a recent moonbat opus, a letter-writer to Salon advises Michelle Goldberg to come back to terra-firma:

Salon is sacrificing any hard-earned credibility by misrepresenting the content of the article about infiltrators into antiwar groups and reporting mere innuendo as fact.

First, to imply that individual police forces spying on antiwar groups is due to the current president is simply irresponsible and false. As long as there is a group that presents itself as outside the mainstream, there will be people in positions of authority who will perceive them as threats to that authority. Right-wing militias were watched after Oklahoma City, communist groups during the Cold War, and anarchists during WWI. Tone down the spastic rhetoric against Bush as evil puppeteer and attack him on what you believe is truly wrong in his philosophy and actions.

There was absolutely no connection between the content of the article and the image of the "nameless" female protester that led the story. Where is your journalistic integrity? Of course, a beaten and bruised woman is an arresting image. To display her as an example of Bush's policies is inflammatory and baseless.

-- Matthew Grygor

Exactly. But that's what makes Salon so very fun to read! I mean, it's entertainment! No one seriously writes into the WWE and tells them that the wrestling moves look fake, do they?

Would you vote for a man who has a clown fetish? Well, would you?!

The "Shit Bitch You is Fine" Bear.

Blair links Lileks for a great treatise on left-right conversion and spiritual awakening. I'm so ahead of the curve, I shudder to think what I will politically morph into as I get a few more years under my belt. A bomb-throwing anarchist?

Steyn is mentioned in the post as well. That's an unholy trinity of the best in wonderfully snarky conservative humor, in my estimation.

Speaking of alarmism, some recent crazy-fun headlines from Zzzzalon, all by Michelle Goldberg:

Outlawing dissent
Spying on peace meetings, cracking down on protesters, keeping secret files on innocent people -- how Bush's war on terror has become a war on freedom.

A thousand J. Edgar Hoovers
State and local police are taking it upon themselves to investigate antiwar activists -- and in the computer age, the threat to our civil liberties is even greater than it was in Hoover's day.

The partisan "mastermind" in charge of Bush's intel probe
Whenever there's a vast right-wing conspiracy, Judge Laurence Silberman keeps turning up.

Um, am I detecting a predictable narrative here? Ms. Goldberg, scarf your meds now.

That Colin Powell got angry.

Powell was recalling for the panel his review of the prewar intelligence. "I went and lived at the CIA for about four days to make sure that nothing was," he began, when he paused and glared at a staffer seated behind the members of Congress.

"Are you shaking your head for something, young man, back there?" Powell asked. "Are you part of these proceedings?"

Powell's unusual remarks threatened to derail the hearing. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a 12-year veteran of the House, objected, "Mr. Chairman, I've never heard a witness reprimand a staff person in the middle of a question."

Powell shot back, "I seldom come to a meeting where I am talking to a congressman and I have people aligned behind you giving editorial comment by head shakes."

His typical calm dignity is among his greatest assets, which is exactly why such an uncharacteristic outburst carries great weight. But I can't help but yearn for such an eloquent and highly respected figure to more aggressively stand up and defend his administration from the more scurrilous charges being bandied about in the name of politics. The political dialogue about Iraq has become shameful and is undermining an entirely justifiable course of action. Considering the fact that Powell was an integral part of the considered decision to go to war, it's past-due for him to take a stand. Hopefully, this is a good start.

The always-brilliant Fareed Zakaria does what no Democratic strategist could accomplish: he makes a great case against Bush's fiscal policy by effectively tying it to National Security.

If I were President, I would have this man on my staff, in a heartbeat.

Mr. Spock sings a paen to Bilbo Baggins.

(via Jonah Goldberg in the Corner)

Frankly, I'm a bit shocked at some of the negative opinions regarding Bush's performance on Meet the Press, especially from conservative commentators. What, have you had your eyes closed through the last 10 Bush interviews? Did you begin mistaking his improvement in prepared speeches for an improvement in his improvisational political scat skillz? This is George W. Bush. Not Jack Straw, not Dick Cheney and certainly not Tony Blair. So, judging based on that scale (reality), Bush did a-ok. He took some hits on the economy, but he expanded his defense of action in Iraq beyond "Saddam is evil," and sounded relatively confident and thoughtful. Much, much better than his pants-down spanking and self-immolation with Dianne Sawyer. And the sound-bites, probably the most politically important product of the show, came out pretty well.

Howard Kurtz put it best:

But he made no single mistake that could be replayed again and again with Janet Jackson-like fervor. In that sense, Bush survived the encounter with one of the top interrogators on television. Russert asked hard questions but didn't break much new ground.

I thought Bush was going to be dog food against Russert. Instead, he held his ground, interrupted Russert rather than vice versa and spoke with conviction. B+.

UPDATE:
It seems that I practice the "the soft bigotry of low expectations."

From the "What the F**k?" file ...

"It is perfect!! Saying thank you doesn't seem like
enough,so I'm sending you a hug too!! I can't wait
to hang this lovely piece of artwork in my home."

(Hat Tip: Achewood)

New York Times:
Fewer Jobs Than Expected Created in January Report Says
The U.S. economy created just 112,000 new jobs in January, far fewer than the 150,000 new jobs expected, government data showed today.

Drudge:
Jobless Rate Drops; 112,000 Jobs Added

Reuters:
Job Growth in January Disappoints

Wall Street Journal:
US Payrolls Grew
in January by 112,000 jobs, the fastest clip in three years but short of the 160,000 economists had been expecting. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.6%

Washington Post:
Jobless Rate Falls to 5.6%
January figures at lowest level in more than two years; 112,00 jobs added, fewer than analysts expected.

From this tiny sample, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal deliver the most appropriate and informative headlines. (And people ask me why I prefer the WashPo over the NYT ...)

Frank from IMAO solidifies my belief that Karl Rove is really the evil mastermind behind the Democratic Underground web site:

I don't think there is a single blog out there I read that hasn't at least once linked to Democratic Underground's Forum. The place is like a train wreck of human thought; you just can't help but gawk at their twisted logic and wild-eyed conspiracy theories. I've even ended up becoming addicted to the site; anytime there is breaking news, I think, "I wonder what the nuts are saying about this," and head straight for DU. It’s like a daily freak show.

Change is brewing in Iran. I like it:

More than one-third of Iran's Parliament resigned Sunday to protest a sweeping ban on candidates running in the parliamentary election later this month.

These people have guts. The students who recently protested and received a violent beat-down by government-backed thugs have guts. Iranian bloggers have guts. I wish them all luck.