Lebanon says, "We'll call up 30,000 reserves.  Ooops.  We don't have that many.  Make that 15,000 reserves."

And in the next breath (ummmmm -- noooo -- not to fight the IDF), but to patrol Southern Lebanon -- in lieu of a larg(er) U.N. peacekeeping force -- to monitor Hezbollah and secure the Israeli-Lebanonese border. 

And Israel (calling their bluff) says, "Great!  Come on down.  No matter that you're six years late.  But until you get here, we'll stay."

And back to the drafting table go France and the US. 

CONDI RICE:  "When this UN Security Council resolution is passed, we're going to know who really did want to stop the violence and who didn't."

Will the Lebanonese take charge of their country?  Unlikely.  Will Israeli forces leave S. Lebanon?  Only when a serious international peacekeeping force is in place.  Will such a force be sent to Southern Lebanon?  Likely.  Problem is:  Iran and Syria don't want a serious international force in place.  

No problem.   U.N. leadership is too busy garnering pay-offs and kick-backs to enact a serious peacekeeping effort.  

But NATO isn't.

From the Jerusalem Post .... comments by Condi Rice regarding acceptance of the first U.N. resolution for an Israeli-Hizbullah cease fire:

"We're trying to deal with a problem that has been festering and brewing in Lebanon now for years and years and years," Rice said. "And so it's not going to be solved by one resolution in the Security Council."

She said the resolution, by requiring Hizbullah to stop firing missiles, would be a kind of litmus test for the group. "I know Hizbullah has said all kinds of things. I've heard, 'We should have an immediate cease-fire,' I've heard, 'We'll keep fighting,' I've heard all of those things," she said.

"When this UN Security Council resolution is passed, we're going to know who really did want to stop the violence and who didn't."

What may be even more revealing will be the nations who abstain or vote no ....

Russia?  China? 

  to PowerLIne .... A draft of the Franco-American U.N. resolution calling for a cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah has been rejected by Lebanon.  While Israeli leaders hail the preliminary resolution, Lebanon officials state that the resolution favors Israel and fails to require that Israel leave Lebanon. 

Will Lebanon's knee-jerk response diminish world sympathy for their plight? 

Hopefully. 

The draft reads:

Expressing its utmost concern at the continuing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and in Israel since Hizbollah'€™s attack on Israel on 12 July 2006, which has already caused hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons,

Emphasizing the need for an end of violence, but at the same time emphasizing the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers,

Mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners and encouraging the efforts aimed at settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel,

1. Calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations;

2.  Reiterates its strong support for full respect for the Blue Line;

3.  Also reiterates its strong support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon within its internationally recognized borders, as contemplated by the Israeli-Lebanese General Armistice Agreement of 23 March 1949;

4.  Calls on the international community to take immediate steps to extend its financial and humanitarian assistance to the Lebanese people, including through facilitating the safe return of displaced persons and, under the authority of the Government of Lebanon, reopening airports and harbours for verifiably and purely civilian purposes, and calls on it also to consider further assistance in the future to contribute to the reconstruction and development of Lebanon;

5. Emphasizes the importance of the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1559 (2004) and resolution 1680 (2006), and of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, for it to exercise its full sovereignty and authority;

6.  Calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements:

• strict respect by all parties for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel and Lebanon;
• full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;
• delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including in the Shebaa farms area;
• security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Lebanese armed and security forces and of UN mandated international forces deployed in this area;
• full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006) that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state;
• deployment of an international force in Lebanon, consistent with paragraph 10 below;
• establishment of an international embargo on the sale or supply of arms and related material to Lebanon except as authorized by its government;
• elimination of foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government;
• provision to the United Nations of remaining maps of land mines in Lebanon in Israel's possession;

7.  Invites the Secretary General to support efforts to secure agreements in principle from the Government of Lebanon and the Government of Israel to the principles and elements for a long-term solution as set forth in paragraph 6 above;

8.  Requests the Secretary General to develop, in liaison with key international actors and the concerned parties, proposals to implement the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), including disarmament, and for delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including by dealing with the Shebaa farms, and to present those proposals to the Security Council within thirty days;

9.  Calls on all parties to cooperate during this period with the Security Council and to refrain from any action contrary to paragraph 1 above that might adversely affect the search for a long-term solution, humanitarian access to civilian populations, or the safe return of displaced persons, and requests the Secretary General to keep the Council informed in this regard;

10.  Expresses its intention, upon confirmation to the Security Council that the Government of Lebanon and the Government of Israel have agreed in principle to the principles and elements for a long-term solution as set forth in paragraph 6 above, and subject to their approval, to authorize in a further resolution under Chapter VII of the Charter the deployment of a UN mandated international force to support the Lebanese armed forces and government in providing a secure environment and contribute to the implementation of a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution;

11. Requests UNIFIL, upon cessation of hostilities, to monitor its implementation and to extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the safe return of displaced persons;

12. Calls upon the Government of Lebanon to ensure arms or related matériel are not imported into Lebanon without its consent and requests UNIFIL, conditions permitting, to assist the Government of Lebanon at its request;

13. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Council within one week on the implementation of this resolution and to provide any relevant information in light of the Council as intention to adopt, consistent with paragraph 10 above, a further resolution;

14. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.

The Security Council will consider the resolution on Monday or Tuesday.

By rejecting this resolution, Lebanon may have just Katyusha'ed some of their global sympathy.

 Reuters altering a photo???  (Now withdrawn -- with an apology) A photo taken by the photographer who was at the scene of the alleged Qana disaster????

Adnan Hajj, the photographer who sent the altered image, was also the Reuters photographer behind many of the images from Qana – which have also been the subject of suspicions for being staged.

Credit for identifying the altered photo came from Little Green Football's Charles Johnson.

In May 2006, Johnson, whose blog often comments on terrorist activities, also received a death threat from an Reuters IP address. 

A Reuters employee has been suspended after sending a death threat to an American blogger.

The message, sent from a Reuters internet account, read: "I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut."

In the threat, the Reuters staff member, who has not been named, left his email address as "zionistpig" at hotmail.com.

Reporting the message to his readers, Johnson wrote on his website: "This particular death threat is a bit different from the run of the mill hate mail we get around here, because an IP lookup on the sender reveals that he/she/it was using an account at none other than Reuters News."

Speaking to Ynetnews, Johnson said: "I was surprised to receive a threat from a Reuters IP, but only because it was so careless of this person to use a traceable work account to do it."

He added: "I think it's more than fair to say that Reuters has a big problem."       -- Ynet

Not just Reuters.  You would expect our MSM to have been "all over" these incidents.

Sunday Morning Hat-tip  to ....

Me.  I'm reorganizing a few life-choices this month.  Possibly inspired by my 45th high school reunion -- coupled with a blown power-steering gizmo that went out Thursday in the middle of a busy intersection with the temp hovering at 97 degrees -- I'm about to enter a self-preservation mode. 

I've realized my dawg eats better than I do.  And she drinks only water.  Fresh water.  My beverage of choice(s) range from two cups of coffe each morning to several cans/glasses of coke, dr. pepper or iced tea before bedtime .... my bad. 

My house is the cleanest it's been in a year.  I'm gonna keep it that way and pledge to take out the garbage and empty the ashtrays at least once a day. 

I'm going to clean closets.  Really clean them.  For years I've been repacking them as a pretense to cleaning.  No mas.  No mas.  I see a yard sale on the horizon ....

I pledge to watch less news and more "engrossing" TV such as the Discovery and History Channels -- interspersed with fewer Law and Order re-runs.  (I've seen them all, anyway.)

Once this blasted heat wave ends, I promise to begin a daily walking regime for me and muh dawg.  We both need it. 

And I promise to do all of this before September 30, so when the New Year rolls around, I won't have to make any of those meaningless resolutions.

eh.

 to Powerline for the head's up on this catchy little song.

How to annoy the Hezbollah and entice Nasrallah to crawl out of the hole he is hiding in:

The daily Ariga report:

The conventional wisdom now says that by the middle of next week, the U.S. and France will have worked out their differences over the timing of the announcement of the ceasefire and the establishment of a multinational force, meant to replace the Israeli forces who are pushing Hizbollah out of southern Lebanon, or at least out of the area close to the 70-km border.

The international force will apparently be led by France, which already has 2,000 tough troops in Lebanon, providing humanitarian relief. Germany is said to be prepared to position troops on the Lebanese-Syrian border, to watch out for arms smuggling attempts to reinforce Hizbollah, and there is talk about Indonesia and Malaysia, as Muslim states, sending troops as well. Ukraine has been mentioned, as has Poland. But so far, all the talk seems as speculative as it is narrative; nobody really knows what it going on behind the closed doors of the diplomatic efforts.

Condi Rice did not predict a cease fire "within days" on the basis of blind faith.  Those of little faith take false hope that a cease fire will never be achieved.

*  If this were only a war of words -- these idiots would lose. 

Hands down.  To a troop of Cub Scouts.

And why aren't you holding those signs with your left hand?

* In the misconstrued words of Ann Coulter (hey -- lefties do it all the time):

"If you guys didn't run around with protest signs every weekend, you might have time to install indoor plumbing in your homes."

* Question for MSM and bleeding heart liberals:  if you oppose war for humanitarian reasons --how can you convincingly "make your point" by photographing men who callously dangle the body of a dead child by the foot in front of cameras? 

Sensationalism demeans humanism.   Ooooops -- is that your BDS showing????

* To the Publisher of the Arab American Newsletter in Detroit:  You gotta be the Arabic stereotype of bigotry for attempting to justify a caricature of Condi Rice as pregnant with a monkey.  [Name and links deliberately withheld.] 

You sleezy racist scum-bag putz.  How dare you attach "American" to your ethnic identity. 

May the fleas from a thousand camels nestle amongst the hairs on your racist body. 

* T.G.I. F.  ..... thank G-d I'm friendly.

 -- I don't give a poop what Mel Gibson says when he's drunk.  H e does not speak for or to me.  He's an actor, for gosh sake.  He makes money memorizing dialogue and pretending to be someone else.  Why he has gotten all these headlines is beyond me.  And if The Passion is the best he can do -- no wonder he drinks.

-- John Kerry is something girls on the playground used to call a "needle dick."  He's mealy-mouthed, whiney and a pain in the arse.  Nobody wants to play with him, yanno?  He needs to shut up, resign, ask wifey-wench to build a Heinz factory on the shore of a distant windy lake, give him a new wind sail and let him manage it.  The factory, that is. 

-- Yeah to what Rhet posted about Ann Coulter.  She's cool beans in the cat's pajamas. 

-- I don't care too much for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally.  (Can't think of a reason -- maybe it's his hairstyle.)  There could have been/could be a better spokesperson for our nation's defense program.  The Pentagon calls the shots on national defense, anyway.  But I liked the way he trimmed back Sen. Clinton's pointed little ears today.  Give'er hell, Don!

-- I don't care who stars, or argues or gets more attention on that morning gossip gig called The View.  Never watched before.  Never will now.  Starr whats-her-name impressed me as a news commentator during the OJ trial.  Rosie needs to focus in film-work.  She's over-bearing at anything else, especially blogging.  Plus, anyone who obsesses over Tom (put it on) Cruise (will ya?) is suspect.

-- I wouldn't cross the street to watch Paris Hilton do anything.  She reminds me of a less-endowed Pamela Anderson with a big(ger) wallet.  She needs to build a bridge and get over it.  Wayyyy over it.

-- Another person's sexual preference doesn't pique my interest.  As long as  partners are consenting adults and the act(ion) is legal -- l don't care who or what they do or don't do. 

-- I respect my fellow-citizen's right to work.  But when I call customer service, be damned if I want to have to push a button to speak in English.  Buh bye.  And reaching a rep who speaks in broken Roman numerals ain't my idea of customer service.  The award for customer dis-service:  AOL.  By far. 

--  Thank you.  I feel much better, now.

Today's State Department daily brief (8-2-06) provides more details and developments from last evening's Fox News interview with Condi Rice. 

Don't be disheartened by the hype, slants and negative (above/under) tones  across today's MSM headlines, op eds, radical Arabic news and liberal blogs.  The diplomatic process is moving toward achieving a "sustainable peace." 

The United States and France are playing lead roles in negotiations.  Details on the selection and logistics for an International peace-keeping force have been underway since a late-July meeting in Rome.  France, Turkey and Sweden will likely send initial peace-keeping troops into Southern Lebanon.   

Condi Rice's prediction that a cease-fire and lasting settlement will come "within days, not weeks" is most likely a nearly-done deal ..... 

Don't let the stage lights blind you.  The cast of players is already set.  All that remains is a tweak of the script.

Washington – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says a cease-fire and lasting settlement in the three-week-old conflict between Israel and Hezbollah likely will come within "days not weeks."

"I still believe that if we really put our minds to it and work that this week is entirely possible. Certainly we're talking about days not weeks before we are able to get a cease-fire.  It's time to end the violence," she said in an August 1 interview with PBS television.

She said there should be a cease-fire as soon as it is clear that the U.N. Security Council has formulated a resolution that will support the extension of Lebanese government authority over the entire country.

After intensive discussions in the region with Israeli and Lebanese leaders, Rice sent the matter to the Security Council where U.S. and French diplomats are working on a resolution that would provide for a sustainable ceasefire, introduce a multinational force to support the Lebanese army in south Lebanon, and create a "sustainable and durable" peace that allows Lebanon's government to operate effectively throughout its territory.

In New York, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said August 2 that diplomats are working intensively to resolve their differences on the resolution.

"There is near complete agreement on the fundamental political framework that has to be put in place," Bolton said.

The differences are "in approaching a cessation of hostilities and how to make it permanent" the ambassador said.  "This is significant because it underlines the fundamental notion that we do not want to see a return to the status quo ante."

"I don't think that a cease-fire without more is sufficient to lead to a fundamental change to the situation in the region.  But the precise way that this will be done, how many resolutions are involved remains to be seen, in part, because things are changing on the ground as well," Bolton said.

Any Security Council action must lead to a substantial change in the region, he said.

Rice said she does not expect to see a complete change in the political and security situation in south Lebanon before a cease-fire is declared, "but you have to have expectations that that will be the case.  It has to be clear to everyone that that's the basis for a cease-fire or for a cessation of the hostilities.  It has to be clear to everyone that armed groups can't just be allowed to operate in the country in the way that they did."

Rice said Hezbollah has been operating as an armed state within a state.  "That fact has to be dealt with," she said.  "You can't have a state within the state, an armed state within the state.  The Lebanese government has to have full authority over its territory; it has to have full authority over all arms and armed people."

The secretary told Fox News in a separate interview that the Rome conference of the Lebanon Core Group resulted in a consensus that there must be an international stabilization force sent to Lebanon to help the government extend its authority to the south and "get rid of that vacuum into which Hezbollah has flown."

The council is discussing the nature of the multinational force, but a meeting of potential troop contributing countries set for August 3 has been postponed.

How a cessation of hostilities and cease-fire are worked out will determine the size, composition, and mandate of any peacekeeping mission, Bolton said.

Two different kinds of forces might be needed at different times, he noted, "because the situation at the outset when a force might go in might well be substantially different than one six months later and over the longer term."

Rice said the multinational force would not enter Lebanon until a cease-fire is in place.

The secretary expressed sorrow at the civilian casualties on both sides of the conflict.  She called Israel's July 30 bombing in Qana, Lebanon, which killed dozens of civilians, many of them children, a "terribly tragic circumstance," but added, "the fact is, unfortunately, these terrorist organizations are very much bred into these villages and it's very hard to root them out."  (See related article.)

"I do think that sometimes the very, very tragic pictures and the toll in human lives has an effect on people.  But I think we have to acknowledge that the important thing is to keep clear about what your strategic goals are," she said.

White House press secretary Snow defined that goal as a situation in which "Hezbollah ceases to operate as an independent militia in the southern part of Lebanon."

"In other words, what you want to do is comply with the conditions of U.N. Security Council resolution 1559," he said.  That resolution, adopted in September 2004, called for the disbanding and disarming of all independent militias in Lebanon.

"[U]ltimately, Hezbollah is going to be defeated through a combination of the desire to make sure that they don't have the military capabilities, but also they're going to be defeated politically," Rice said.  She added that she believes the Lebanese government is prepared to assume its responsibilities vis-à-vis Hezbollah and exert its authority over the entire country.

Security Council President Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng of Ghana said that the council is giving the United States and France time to work out their differences and is ready to meet at any time.

"We realize the urgency of the situation but have to face the realities on the ground," Effah-Apenteng said.

(Font changes are added for emphasis.)