Mark Steyn describes the Dems’ Iraqi quagmire:

The Iraq election’s over, the media did their best to ignore it, and, judging from the rippling torsos I saw every time I switched on the TV, the press seem to reckon that that gay cowboy movie was the big geopolitical event of the last week, if not of all time. Yes, yes, I know: They’re not, technically, cowboys, they’re gay shepherds, but even Hollywood isn’t crazy enough to think it can sell gay shepherds to the world. And the point is, even if I was in the mood for a story about two rugged insecure men who find themselves strangely attracted to each other in a dark transgressive relationship that breaks all the rules, who needs Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger when you’ve got Howard Dean and Abu Musad al-Zarqawi? Yee-haw! And, if that sounds unfair, pick almost any recent statement by a big-time Dem cowboy and tell me how exactly it would differ from the pep talks Zarqawi gives his dwindling band of head-hackers — Dean arguing that America can’t win in Iraq, Barbara Boxer demanding the troops begin withdrawing on Dec. 15, John Kerry accusing American soldiers of terrorizing Iraqi women and children, Jack Murtha declaring that the U.S. Army is utterly broken. Pepper ’em with a handful of “Praise be to Allahs” and any one of those statements could have been uttered by Zarqawi.

The Democratic Party have contrived to get themselves into a situation where bad news from Iraq is good for them and good news from Iraq is bad for them. And as there’s a lot more good news than bad these days, that puts them, politically, in a tough spot — even with a fawning media that, faced with Kerry and Murtha talking what in any objective sense is drivel, decline to call for the men with white coats but instead nod solemnly and wonder whether Bush is living “in a bubble.”

RTWT

I agree with Glenn–it’s hard for me to get very upset about the failure to extend the so-called Patriot Act. And as with the idiotic “assault weapons” ban, it demonstrates the value of having sunset clauses in legislation. I still think that there would be few constitutional amendments as powerful, and beneficial, as this one.

It seems to be a bi-partisan effort.

The level of my disgust with politicians in Washington continues to plumb new depths.

Former Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire, long-time nemesis of NASA, and budget hawk (something that we could use a lot more of, these days, though he always made an exception for dairy price supports), has apparently died.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here’s the story. I hadn’t realized that he suffered from Alzheimers. At least his suffering is over.

In China?

Lileks has the must-read low-down on 2005. Warning: some snark, irony and sarcasm involved.

Does anyone else see the irony inherent in a woman who married a closeted gay man calling someone–anyone–a “deluded cockeyed optimist“?

One of the dozen or so people to protest Tookie Williams’ execution in Denver was Ward Churchill. Which reminds me–what’s the status of the investigation into the plagiarism and other charges against him?

Hmmmm…according to Wikipedia (for whatever that’s worth), the investigation is still ongoing.

And on the subject of the late Mr. Williams, how is that the Hollywood types are so consistent at being on the wrong side of almost every issue?

[Update a few minutes later]

Ahhh…we must have done the right thing–we’ve upset the Europeans…

[Update after noon]

Iowahawk has discovered one of Tookie’s unpublished children’s stories.

That’s become Nancy Pelosi’s latest catch phrase about the administration and the Republicans, but Rich Lowry says it’s true.

Of course, I don’t think that it’s any worse than it was when the Dems were running the Hill. But we’ve come to (or at least we used to) expect better of Republicans. He’s right–they need to clean up their act before someone does it for them.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject, for those who nonsensically persist in thinking that I’m a conservative, or a Republican, or even a great fan of George Bush, just because I don’t believe that he’s a retarded Chimpy McHalliburton, I agree with Andrew Roth, who has a list of grievances.

The problem is, as it was in last year’s election, that as unhappy as I am with this administration and Congress, there’s no reason to think that putting Democrats in charge would improve any of the things that I’m unhappy about, and most of their rhetoric and policy statements lead me to think that it would make most of them even worse.

Of course, by the standards described by Nick Schulz, so are many of our own government policies (such as sugar subsidies), despite platitudes to the contrary.