Drubbing--a word you don't hear used nearly often enough

I hope everyone enjoyed the 7th day of Reagahannakuh.

Local elections in Britain. The press are divided on the results, with the Guardian saying that Labour was given a beating, the Times saying it was given a kicking, the Indy that Blair was given a bloody nose, the Guardian that he was badly mauled, and UP that he was given a drubbing. Much of the backlash is attributed to a dislike of violence...in Iraq anyway. Labour came in third in total votes.

The Dutch government also did badly in European elections because of Iraq.

Kerry really is as stupid as I thought. He evidently asked McCain to be his veep and was turned down. So now he looks desperate, uncommitted to his own alleged principles, and a loser. I’m sure Ross Perot is available.

The Israeli government, which seems to subscribe to certain stereotypes about the Jews, is offering Gaza settlers $300,000 per family to get out.

Ashcroft refused, as I’ve said, to invoke executive privilege or anything else to justify his stonewalling (not even “writ of douchebaggery”? asked Jon Stewart). American Prospect has turned up this quote from a Senator Ashcroft in May 1998: “Part and parcel of the President's abuse of executive privilege is his unwillingness to acknowledge the mere fact that he has asserted the privilege.”

Afghan elections are being postponed by at least a month. In addition to the violence now escalating against foreigners, there’s the fact that none of the countries which pledged money to pay for the elections, including the US, have paid up a single cent. Almost as if our objective there wasn’t democracy after all.