Friday: "We're Putting on S#it!"

• Not Putting on S#it!: Michael Yon continues to bring the world the best combat reporting from inside Iraq: "The combat in Baqubah should soon reach a peak. Al Qaeda seems to have been effectively isolated. The initial attack on 19 June achieved enough surprise that al Qaeda was caught off guard and trapped. They have been beaten back mostly into pockets and are surrounded and will be dealt with. Part of this is actually due to the capability of Strykers. We were able to "attack from the march." In other words, a huge force drove in from places like Baghdad and quickly locked down Baqubah." (Surrender or Die) This man's work is beyond admirable. [For following the story of this major battle, A.J. Strata's Strata-Sphere is your continuing destination.]
  
• Important stuff today: First picture of Indiana Jones 4.
  
  
  
  Looking good, Harrison!
  
• Unimportant stuff today: "Is Dick Cheney creating a 4th branch of government?" Zzzzzzzz.... Wha? Put a sock in it, blogosphere. There already is a 4th branch of government in case you hadn't noticed.
  
• Time to fit Pelosi with a drool cup?: "Take a look at the pic on Pelosi's website (it's a flash thing, so wait till it comes around but there is a screen cap below) where she touts how "the House is providing the largest increase in veterans' funding in history". The picture? That of a Canadian officer." (QandO has the screen capture)
  
• "We'll Always Have Paris:" Gratitude for her hoosegow time-out from Muffy: "'I'm much more grateful for everything that I have, even just to have a pillow to bite or food,' Hilton said."
  
• Pinch Going Down on Grey Lady: (Or is it "with"?) The invaluable Thomas Lifson @ The American Thinker details how "the strategic plan of Pinch Sulzberger [at the New York Times] is failing." His plan? Give less news for more money. On paper. Way to go, eternal boy wonder.
• Mickey Kaus fights deportation from Blogistan: After aeons going bananas over immigration reform, the once fair and balanced blogger yields to a mob of readers with torches and pitchforks chanting "Bring out your dead!" with a small concession: "As a reader aid, items that do not concern 'comprehensive' immigration reform will be specially marked in color. You may choose to skip these items." (Kausfiles)
  
• LIBERAL: I hate the sun! It's so cold! (IMAO)
  
• On a Popular Delusion: "Thinking that radical Islam will soften itself or evolve is analogous to a victorious Confederacy voluntarily ending slavery about 1870, a kinder, gentler Soviet Union without the gulags, Hitler in his dotage dismantling Auschwitz, or Tojo in the 1950s turning his old zeal to flooding the Co-Prosperity Sphere with cars and radios." (Victor Davis Hanson)
  
• Mark Green on the $2 Billion Bloomberg: "The chance he runs for president, high; his chance of winning, still infinitesimal because of Electoral College math; his chance of affecting the fall campaign, significant." (Green was beaten by Bloomberg in the 2001 NYC Mayoral campaign.)
  
• Andrew Sullivan Right. World Stops: "Petraeus's assessment of Iraq is strikingly at odds with much of the coverage." [The possibility of "much of the coverage" being "strikingly at odds" with the reality on the ground doesn't enter the Sullivan brain-pan.] He makes no mention of sectarian warfare, no mention of Shiite death squads, no mention of a civil war, and puts the entire blame for the conflict on al Qaeda and Iran. In fact, you get the sense that, in Petraeus' mind, only al Qaeda and Iran are preventing total success in Iraq, and that he is almost preparing for war against Iran as a result." Well, we certainly hope so. Being prepared is half the battle, isn't it. Sulllivan goes on to say, "Maybe I'm misreading him, but my impression from Petraeus's rhetoric is that those people who believe this war is coming to a close are deluding themselves." Bada-bing! Right again Andrew. But don't let it go to your head.