KA-BOOM!

BOOM BUGS BAN–U.N. BOSS DUCKS IN IRAQ You gotta love NY Post headlines… “Maliki hardly flinched and told his security guards, ‘Nothing’s wrong.'”

Slipperier Than A Greased Pig…

(WashPost) Rove Will Not Be Charged In CIA Leak Case, Lawyer Says

(WashPost/AP) AP Blog: Bush Visit Shocks Iraq Reporters

(WashPost/Reuters) Clashes, car bomb as Iraq launches Baghdad sweep

Well, there you have it…another Karl Rove engineered leak. This article: (Truthout) Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators was the talk of the blogosphere a month ago. Everyone kept waiting and waiting for Rove to finally get a comuppance, but as more and more time went by, the less likely it looked that it would happen. Now it’s official. Whenever there’s a leak regarding Karl Rove, the safest assumption is that the source of the leak is Karl himself and the question always is, what strategem is he playing? This time, I think he was trying to force the issue of indictment or non-indictment. If indictment, then he could operate without the THREAT of indictment over his head. If non-indictment, he could spin it so he would appear truthful. In fact, that’s exactly how Pete Yost (AP Analysis: Telling FBI the Truth Saved Rove) is reporting it. We here at HAIL DUBYUS! were dubious about the indictment story to start with. In the meantime, El Presidente zipped into Baghdad, told the puppet al-Maliki we were standing behind him, took a few photos and zipped out again. If you blinked, you missed it.

Another Day, Another Corner, Another Turning Point, Another Bombing…

(AP WashPost) Bush Praises Political Progress in Iraq

(AP WashPost) Iraqi Vows ‘Maximum Force’ to End Attacks

And on a more personal note, as my regulars have noted, I’ve had a drastic loss of traffic in the last few months. I’ve been tearing my hair out trying to figure out what I’ve been doing wrong, when Fred’n’Bert suggested I look at Google image search with SafeSearch ON to see how many of my cartoons show up. Imagine my surprise to discover that 89% of my cartoons are ELIMINATED by the SafeSearch engine. Now, I’ll be the first to admit I don’t target my work at children. I assume a mature readership, mature adolescents interested in politics and adults of voting age. There are a handful of cartoons that are what I would call “edgy” but which are in no way pornographic, no more than 20, and I’ve occasionally indulged in “ahem” profane language. Yet even with the SafeSearch “moderate” setting, the default setting, 88% of my cartoons are still CENSORED. Obviously, it has crossed my mind that perhaps some rightwing individuals have complained to Google about my content, using my edgier ‘toons to mischaracterize my political commentary. I’ve written Google and am hoping for a reply this week…more to follow…

Oh, yes, and congratulations to Barry Bonds, I guess, for tying Babe Ruth’s record … we’d have liked it better if you’d done it on hot dogs and beer…

And Bush finally said it: (AP) Bush: Iraq Slowly Reaching Turning Point