Medary.com

Joint US-Iraqi operation begins in northwestern Iraq.

About 800 U.S. Marines and 180 Iraqi soldiers moved into Haqlaniyah, one of a cluster of western towns in Anbar province around the Haditha Dam that is thought to be a stronghold of Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters.

Rescuers look at using explosives to free Russian sub.

The vessel is caught up in an underwater antenna that's part of an electronic coastal surveillance system, Interfax said, citing Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, commander of Russia's Pacific Fleet. The antenna is attached to an anchor weighing 60 metric tons, which rescuers are preparing to blow up, Interfax said.

"A decision has been made to blow the anchors up," Fyodorov said, according to Interfax. An operation taking one to four hours would then begin later today to lift the sub from a depth of about 625 feet (190 meters), said Interfax, citing Deputy Navy Chief of Staff Vladimir Pepelyayev.

Blogger Chrenkoff takes a new job which will curtail his most excellent blog.

A few days ago, I accepted a new job. Unfortunately, one of the conditions is that I will not be allowed to blog, or indeed write much on my own. As you can imagine, it has not been an easy decision. Oh, what the hell - it has been a damned difficult one. I have enjoyed blogging immensly, and I have enjoyed meeting all of you - virtually - over that time. I will, of course, write a bit more on this topic in due course, but in advance of that, a big thank you to all my readers and my fellow bloggers who have made the last eighteen months of my life so fantastic and so rewarding.

He'll be around for a few weeks yet, but he'll be missed.

Whizbang is all over the revelation that the publication Who's Who in America listed Valerie Plame as Joe Wilson's wife -- beginning in 1999!

So, let's briefly review the Plame Game - Rovegate edition:

1. It was public record that Plame was married to Wilson, as shown above.

2. Plame's covert status ended in the mid-1990's when she was outed by Aldrich Ames to the Russians. This according to Bill Gertz, and referenced in Footnote 7, page 8 of This legal filing of the Amicus brief filed by "36 major news organizations" in the detention case of Judith Miller.

3. Retaining Plame in a covert status beyond this time would be breathtakingly irresponsible of the CIA and the Administration currently in power at that time (now who could that have been?).

Still unanswered is who thought it was a good idea to have a covert CIA agent married to an active U.S. Ambassador. Hint: Once again, who was the President prior to G.W. Bush?

Even if Plame was "covert" at the time Rove didn't give her name to reporters, she shouldn't have been. Numerous reports indicate it was common knowledge in Washington that Plame worked in the CIA prior to Rove going on background to Time reporter Matthew Cooper.

Further efforts by partisans to acquire Rove's scalp can therefore be dismissed without additional consideration. Game, set, match.

I still want to know who thinks it's a good idea for a U.S. Ambassador to be married to a freakin' CIA officer in the first place, for cryin' out loud!

Now with links that work!

#10: Shuttle to come back on Monday
#9: Red Sox 8, Royals 5
#8: Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball schedule released
#7: Rehnquist hospitalized again
#6: Judge rules against pedophilia sting
#5: Russian submarine in trouble
#4: One blog created every second
#3: Syria, Iran get warnings from U.S.
#2: Kelo backlash: Missouri mulls eminent domain
#1: Iran smuggling roadside bombs into Iraq

Despite insulation problems beneath the Commander's *censored*pit window, the Shuttle will return to Earth on Monday.

After plenty of wind-tunnel tests on the ground, the consensus among NASA personnel now is that the return flight will be as safe as possible, although shuttle deputy programme manager Wayne Hale offered no guarantees: the tunnel-tests revealed that tiny pieces of the insulating blanket could tear off during reentry, and that there was a 1.5 per cent chance that the whole section would come loose.

Royals go 0-for-the-road-trip, Royals need to go 43-11 to finish .500, 25-29 to avoid 100 losses, 1-53 to avoid losing all of their remaining games.

KUsports.com has the goods:

KU will play Arizona in the Maui opener, then meet UConn or Arkansas in Round Two, with Gonzaga, Maryland, Michigan State and Chaminade on the other side of the bracket.

"Start with Maui and add teams like Kentucky, St. Joe's, Nevada, California, Pepperdine ... no question it will be very challenging to say the least. We probably play more high-profile teams this year than last year," Self said.

The Jayhawks return just one starter from last year's 23-7 team, which wound up playing what was rated the most difficult schedule in the country.

The full schedule:
Nov. 9 Fort Hays State (exhibition)
Nov. 14 Pittsburg State (exhibition)
Nov. 18 Idaho State
Nov. 21 Arizona at Maui Invitational
Nov. 22 TBD at Maui Invitational
Nov. 23 TBD at Maui Invitational
Dec. 1 Nevada
Dec. 3 Western Illinois
Dec. 6 St. Joseph's in Madison Square Garden
Dec. 10 California in Kemper Arena
Dec. 19 Pepperdine
Dec. 22 No. Colorado
Dec. 31 No. Arizona
Jan. 7 Kentucky
Jan. 11 @ Colorado
Jan. 14 Kansas State
Jan. 16 @ Missouri
Jan. 21 Nebraska
Jan. 25 @ Texas A&M
Jan. 28 @ Iowa State
Jan. 30 Texas Tech
Feb. 5 Oklahoma
Feb. 8 @ Nebraska
Feb. 11 Iowa State
Feb. 13 @ Okla. State
Feb. 18 Missouri
Feb. 21 Baylor
Feb. 25 @ Texas
March 1 Colorado
March 4 @ Kansas State
March 9-12 Big 12 Tournament in Dallas

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist was briefly hospitalized last night for a fever.

Supreme Court spokesman Ed Turner said Rehnquist was evaluated and allowed to go home. The chief justice has thyroid cancer, and his latest health problems will almost certainly renew questions about whether he is well enough to remain on the court.

Is it time for Justice Rehnquist to retire?

Judge acquits accused pedophile caught in Kansas City metro county Internet porn sting.

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple acquitted Jan Helder yesterday of using the Internet to try to entice a child into sex. Helder’s attorney, J.R. Hobbs, had argued that his client didn’t break federal law because the person his client was accused of enticing wasn’t a minor but a Platte County deputy pretending to be a minor. The ruling came just minutes after a jury returned a guilty verdict. Helder, 42, of Mission Hills, Kan., had faced a sentence of five to 30 years.

The real news is that a judge actually read and enforced the law as written. He seems to have this curious idea that in order to commit a crime, you actually have to do something that's against the law, not just intend to do so. Since I consider the concept of a "thought crime" to be abhorrent, I side with the judge here. And no, that doesn't mean I think that pedophilia is OK, quite the reverse. Discuss amongst yourselves . . .