What Is Flig?

CNN NewsFlash:

President Bush to name Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz as his choice to head World Bank, senior administration official tells CNN.

Well, everyone knows those Neocons are good with money.

Captain Ed has what may be a terrorist memo regarding strategy to disrupt the Iraqi elections. Look for attacks on voting equipment to begin within the next couple of days...

This may be a first. 1st Lieutenant Neil Prakash, who blogs at Armor Geddon has been awarded the Silver Star for conduct under fire.

Lt. Prakash has written some amazing accounts of the Battle of Fallujah, and I highly recommend his site for anyone interested in getting a taste of what modern warfare is really like.

I've been very impressed by a lot of the Milbloggers I've read in the last couple of years, and I think a lot of them will do some great things and be great people to work with when they enter civillian life.

Some portraits of N. Korea's Kim said removed

BEIJING - Portraits of Kim Jong-il have been removed from some public meeting halls in North Korea, a Pyongyang-based diplomat said on Tuesday, but others said the leader's picture remained prominently displayed.

In Moscow, a North Korean diplomat denied the reports.

"This is false information, lies. Can the sun be removed from the sky? It is not possible," the unidentified diplomat at the North Korean embassy was quoted by the Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, as saying.

Portraits of Kim were ubiquitous in homes, offices and public buildings across North Korea, where they have hung prominently for years beside a picture of his late father, the reclusive communist state's founder Kim Il-sung.

"In some meeting places where they used to be placed side by side the one portrait has been removed," the diplomat told Reuters by telephone from Pyongyang.

When was the last time the Dear Leader was seen in public? There's a report on the DPRK website of a troop inspection yesterday, but no photos.

Let's start a scurillous rumor that Kim Jong-Il is dying of AIDS, just like Arafat. While he may not share the same appetites, the Son of Heaven's predilection for Actresses and prostitues is certainly well documented. It's easy to imagine that some percentage of those concubines were junkies, is it not? And who would have the temerity to ask the dear leader to wear protection?

For some queasy comedy, the DPRK website can't be beat. The articles and press releases truly read like a parody of Communist propaganda, but the intentions behind them are all to real.

Here's an example:

GNP Condemned for Backing U.S Anti-north Moves

Pyongyang, November 16 (KCNA) — The Reunification Solidarity of south Korea on November 11 made public a statement titled "The Grand National Party (GNP) should promptly stop acting a stooge of the U.S. in its moves to destroy the north," according to a press report. The statement recalled that an "Assemblyman from the GNP" zealously backed the adoption of the "North Korean Human Rights Act" by the United States at an interview on November 10, saying that his party is "planning to promote again a hearing on the human rights in the north." The "North Korean Human Rights Act", a brainchild of the U.S. to invent a pretext to attack the north, is aimed at a war on the Korean Peninsula and destruction of the north, it noted, lashing out at the GNP for rolling up its sleeves in cooperating with the U.S. in the moves to invade the north, far from opposing the act. It demanded that the GNP immediately stop serving the U.S. as its henchman.

Update:

Right?

TEHRAN, Iran - To shouts of "Death to America," Iran's parliament unanimously approved the outline of a bill Sunday that would require the government to resume uranium enrichment, legislation likely to deepen an international dispute over Iran's nuclear activities.

Still, it doesn't really mean anything. "Death to America" is really just the Iranian version of "We Will Rock You."

The Red Skull and Art Speigleman.

Thought experiment: On November 2nd, Kerry wins, and by a sizable enough margin that lawsuits and recounts don't drag on for a month or more.

What does the Bush administration do before the inauguration to advance the War on Terror, consolidate the emerging democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq, and deal with Iran and North Korea, given the belief that the Kerry administration will likely return to a policy of appeasement?

I'm not suggesting some kind of "Last Days of the Nixon Whitehouse" scenario, where there are secret military orders to ignore any unusual requests from the White House. This is more about what could be done that Kerry can't reverse. I'm particularly interested in what could be done regarding Iran. Bush could actually order an Anmerican assault on Iranian nuke sites, rather than outsourcing it to Israel.

I'm sure that there's a long-standing tradition that lame-duck presidents don't do anything drastic during the end of their terms, especially on foreign policy. I'm also pretty sure that if he felt it to be necessary, Bush would say "to hell with tradition" and decide to "settle all family business."

Now, normally, I stay out of politics. Politics involves a lot of thinking and talking, and things that aren't either Good or Evil, and don't respond well to a Mighty Application of Physical Force. But this year is different.

Ya see, back about three years ago, America's alarm clock went off, and told us it was Time to Fight Evil. Now, this wasn't the first time it had rung, but before, America hit the Snooze Bar of Ignorance, or we stuck our heads under the Pillow of Apathy. But President Bush jumped in the shower, and ran out to fight Evil without even making a pot of coffee.

He knew that when Evil knocks on your door, you don't invite it in for tea. That'll just get your apartment all messy and probably smelling like feet. No, you slam the door in its face, then you follow it home and try to knock some sense into it, and let its apartment smell like feet. It probably did before you got there, anyway.

And while you're pummeling Evil, you keep pummeling, until it gives up and decides that it has better things to do than Be Evil. Because it knows where you live, and it could come knocking any day now. And you just cleaned your living room and you don't even like tea.

So vote for President Bush, and keep the Rug of Freedom vaccumed, and the knick-knack shelves of Liberty well-dusted.

Update:

N.Z. Bear has posted the Heroes for Bush Blogburst roundup.

From Al-Guardian via Stephen Green:

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran is unlikely to accept European incentives aimed at getting it to suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said Thursday, raising the prospect of a showdown next month between Tehran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

Envoys from Britain, France and Germany offered civilian nuclear technology and a trade deal to the Iranians in a private meeting at the French mission to international organizations in Vienna. But Western diplomats said they doubt Iran will back down easily.

Iran did not immediately respond to the incentives, which included the promise of lucrative trade, a light-water nuclear research reactor and the chance to buy nuclear fuel from the West.

Which gives me an idea so crazy It Just Might Work!

1. First! We raise 2 Billion Dollars - One for me, One for you.

2. Second! We hire the worst nuclear physicists in the hemisphere! (I'd start by looking at the French.)

3. Third! We open our nuclear reactor - The EU gives us billions to stop.

4. Fourth! We close our nuclear reactor, and retire to RIO!

Whaddayasay? Are you in?

Update:

Roger L. Simon has more.

One of the reasons I haven't done the promised PSM roundup is because the Conference and its aftermath were depressingly predictable:

• The conference refused to condemn terrorism or suicide bombing.

• Protests were mostly peaceful, although a bomb threat was called in on the Bryan Center (the Student Union.)

• Israeli policy was equated with apartheid.

I doubt many minds were changed on either side or in the middle.

A few other links: Offical Duke site.

JPost Article

And finally, Isreallycool has owned the story of the most notable thing to come out of the conference, a nasty, anti-semitic, and annoyingly whiny) op-ed in the Chronicle. Scroll up for his back-and-forth with the author.