Strategypage notes (emphasis added):

The "war" in Iraq has come down to a competition between Sunni Arab and Shia death squads, to see who can rack up the highest body count. While most Iraqi Sunni Arabs fear for their lives, and continued ability to live in Iraq, the Shia radicals fear only Sunni suicide bombs. The bombing attacks increasingly target radical Shia militias, mainly those loyal to Muqtada al Sadr. Lacking the equipment and trained personnel to carry out an efficient counter-terror operations, Sadr has ordered his guys to just go out and kill lots of Sunni Arabs, any way they can, each time an Sunni bomb goes off in a Shia neighborhood. This has been going on for the last three months, leaving nearly 10,000 civilians dead. The Sunni terrorists and Shia death squads stay away from Iraqi and foreign troops and police. Even with al Qaeda crippled, there are still several Sunni Arab groups, mainly driven by a radical religious views ("Shia are heretical scum"), who believe that the Shia can still be terrorized into submission. Or, as some believe, a "civil war" can be triggered. This, so the myth goes, will arouse the Sunni Arab masses. Some radicals believe that the Sunni Arabs are actually the majority of Iraqis (actually, they are less than 20 percent, closer to 15 percent these days as more of them flee the country). Other radicals believe that, if Shia death squads kill enough Sunni Arabs, the Sunni Arab nations will be forced to invade and crush the upstart Shia once and for all. It's left rather vague exactly what the U.S. forces would do if Syrian, Jordanian, Kuwaiti and Saudi troops suddenly entered the country.

The government knows that there are only a few dozen, at most, gangs involved in all this killing. The current deal is for the Sunni Arab community to shut down their thugs, while the government takes out the Shia militias. The government has started carrying out their end of the deal, but the Sunni Arabs have moved more slowly. This is because the Sunni Arab thugs are paranoid, quick on the trigger, and willing to murder prominent Sunni Arabs. The Sunni Arabs fear trapped, caught between their own radicals, and the majority of Iraqis (Kurds and Shia Arabs), who would just as soon see Iraq free of Sunni Arabs. The hatreds go deep, Saddam's decades of brutality against Kurds and Shia Arabs saw to that. While pundits go on about Iranian desires to dominate Iraq, the reality is more about vengeance against Sunni Arabs for past sins. Nothing too complicated, but it's a fire that's very difficult to put out.

Tigerhawk, who is not an idiot:

Lebanon is, in fact, a catastrophe. So many people, particularly Westerners, so wanted last year's "Cedar Revolution" to be a harbinger of a new Lebanon, if not a new Arab Middle East. Even I -- a strong supporter of Israel and unreconstructed hawk on Islamist terror -- am extremely disappointed and saddened by the developments of the last week. The Lebanese who did not vote for Hezbollah last year deserve much better.

But then I remember not to be an idiot.

Here is the basic problem: Southern Lebanon is a "failed state," a place where the authority of the central government does not extend. Hezbollah has occupied that failed state and acquired much more deadly weapons than anybody ("anybody" meaning, in this case, the CIA, Israel's intelligence agencies, and anybody who would tell those people) imagined. It is using southern Lebanon as a base from which to wage a war against Israel. It has also built a global terrorist network that many observers believe has a greater capability for mass casualty attacks than al Qaeda.

Worldwide exclusive--must credit Medary.com.

United Nations diplomats and peacekeepers monitor Israel-Hezbollah fighting from an outpost in Southern Lebanon

I like meerkats. UN diplomats and peacekeepers--not so much.

Lefty alternative freebie Kansas City newspaper The Pitch (as opposed to lefty mainstream pay-for-it newspaper The Star) has their Best of Kansas City list out. The list includes "Best Local Blog." (Despite some lingering confusion on the part of The Pitch concerning what year it is, we'll press on, shall we? See, people, drugs are bad, m'kay?)

Hokay, anyway, with some trepidation, we clicked on the link for Death's Door on the Pitch page, and read on.

To our delight (and in keeping with the recent trend of scatalogical language in our posts), we're proud to link to this article on Death's Door, which made us smile exceedingly, and caused us to read the passage out loud (loudly and rapidly, which is how such things are supposed to be read) to Snookums:

But if you took your stupid ass into a country like Lebanon just because you felt like it, then you need to pay for being so *censored*suckin stupid. Cause c’mon, we’re Americans and we know a lot of us can’t think past the noses on our faces. It’s like some folks I knew who found out that mutha*censored*ers were giving tours in Iran and they thought it would be cool to go.

Did you even stop to think that it might not be cool or because you’re American, mutha*censored*ers might not like you? And when I say that by not liking you, I mean we’re number one with a bullet? Or that the state department puts out regular bulletins on places where Americans might not be welcome due to civil war or terrorism, or a general hatred of Americans? And if you think I’m shittin you go click this link and check out some of the warnings.

Interestingly, Rush Limbaugh said much the same thing on the radio today, but not nearly so, um, forcefully. And that's just farking weird.

From the Kansas City Star:

•Dixie Chicks update: Tickets to their KC show in August never went on sale, but presale tickets were sold, says Kemper spokesdude Ryan McCarthy. The Chicks reportedly canceled some U.S. dates due to poor ticket sales in the wake of their anti-war, anti-President Bush statements.

“If you have presale tickets you need to get your refund from Ticketmaster,” McCarthy says. “The service charge you’ll probably lose.”

Emphasis in the original.

You don't really need the Kansas City Star or the National Weather Service to tell you it's hot in Kansas City this week.

But what the heck, here's the Star:

Today likely will be the hottest day of the year thus far, with temperatures topping 100. It’ll feel like 110. It won’t cool down much at night either, with temperatures of about 80 degrees.

And here's the NWS:

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT
THURSDAY...

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT
THURSDAY.

THE EXCESSIVE HEAT AND HUMIDITY WILL CONTINUE ALONG AND SOUTH OF A
LINE FROM SAINT JOSEPH TO MACON TODAY. HIGH TEMPERATURES WILL RANGE
FROM THE UPPER 90S IN CENTRAL INTO EASTERN MISSOURI...TO AROUND 102
ALONG THE KANSAS-MISSOURI BORDER. AFTERNOON HEAT INDICES ARE
EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 108 TO 113 DEGREES.

THIS WILL MARK THE FOURTH CONSECUTIVE DAY WITH DAYTIME HEAT
INDICES AT OR ABOVE 105 DEGREES FOR A PROLONGED PERIOD...AND
NIGHT TIME HEAT INDICES HIGHER THAN 80 DEGREES. THE CUMULATIVE
EFFECTS OF THIS HEAT WAVE MAY BEGIN TO TAKE THEIR TOLL ON THOSE MOST
SUSCEPTIBLE TO THE HEAT...INCLUDING THE ELDERLY...CHILDREN AND THOSE
IN POOR HEALTH. IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW DOES NOT HAVE ACCESS TO
AIR CONDITIONING...CONTACT YOUR LOCAL OFFICIALS TO INQUIRE ABOUT THE
AVAILABILITY OF COOLING CENTERS IN YOUR AREA.

OVERNIGHT TEMPERATURES WILL ONCE AGAIN BRING LITTLE RELIEF FROM THE
HEAT AS LOWS ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 75 TO AROUND 80 DEGREES WITH
HEAT INDICES GREATER THAN 80. AFTERNOON TEMPERATURES ON THURSDAY ARE
EXPECTED TO AGAIN CLIMB INTO THE UPPER 90S TO AROUND 100 DEGREES. AS
THE HIGH HUMIDITY PERSISTS...SO DO THE HIGH HEAT INDICES. AFTERNOON
INDICES FROM 105 TO 113 ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE WARNING AREA ON
THURSDAY.

IF YOU PLAN TO BE OUTSIDE...AVOID PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO THE HEAT AND
ALSO AVOID STRENUOUS PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. YOUR BODY CAN LOSE UP TO A
GALLON OF WATER AN HOUR THROUGH PERSPIRATION. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER
TO AVOID DEHYDRATION. ALCOHOLIC AND CAFFEINATED BEVERAGES CAN
INCREASE THE RATE OF WATER LOSS IN YOUR BODY...INCREASING THE RISK OF
HEAT EXHAUSTION OR STROKE. WEAR LIGHTWEIGHT...LIGHT COLORED AND LOOSE
FITTING CLOTHING. WEAR A HAT TO SHIELD YOURSELF FROM THE SUN.

From Yahoo News:

"I think Condi (Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) is going to go (to the Middle East) pretty soon," Bush said.

Blair replied: "Right, that's all that matters, it will take some time to get that together." Rice said on Sunday she was thinking of going to the region if it would help.

Blair added: "See, if she goes out she's got to succeed as it were, where as I can just go out and talk."

Bush replied: "See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over."

1.  Hezbollah militia captures two Israeli solders, after months of sporadic shelling of Israeli cities and towns.
2.  Israel decides it's had enough of Hezbollah and invades Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah.
3.  Hezbollah retreats into Syria and continues its anti-Israel operations.
4.  Israel strikes Hezbollah in Syria.
5.  Syria declares war on Israel. 
6.  Iran joins the fight and starts lobbing missiles over Iraq into Israel.
7.  One of those Iranian missiles contains a nuclear warhead.
8.  Israel responds with a massive nuclear attack on Iran.

This isn't a "cycle of violence" any more, it's a slippery downward slope towards a cliff.

via News24:

"Hezbollah must redeploy north of the Litani River. It must surrender its rocket arsenal to the Lebanese army, which must take up positions along the border with Israel," Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Israeli television.

"If these conditions are met, Israel will agree to a ceasefire," the minister said.

North Korea rejects UN Security Council resolution:

North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Pak Gil Yon accused the U.N. Security Council of trying to isolate his country, known officially as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK.

"The delegation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea resolutely condemns the attempt of some countries to misuse the Security Council for the despicable political aim to isolate and put pressure on the DPRK and totally rejects the resolution which was adopted at the current meeting of the Security Council," he said.

The Korean People's Army "will go on with missile launch exercises as part of its efforts to bolster deterrent for self-defense in the future, too," he said.