It seems that members of a U.S. Christian delegation who had a meeting with Ahmadinejad, were quite impressed by the latter’s personality: they described him as reasonable and witty.

Yes, he sounded very witty to me when he advocated wiping Israel off the map. Same for when he prayed for the return of the hidden Imam.

Since the MSM is largely ignoring whatever is happening in Afghanistan, I thought it would be a good thing to link to The Blotter: U.S. and NATO forces have attacked a known al Qaeda hideout in Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan. It is believed that Osama Bin Laden himself or another senior al Qaeda leader is hiding there.

Senator John McCain, former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney have condemned Ann Coulter for the bigoted remark she made when she spoke at CPAC. As all of you will remember she referred to John Edwards as a “faggot”. Howard Dean and others called on Republicans to denounce Coulter(‘s remark)… and they did.

Good decision of all to do so: they need to distance themselves from Coulter and delikes.| MORE ›

Swaraaj Chauhan forwarded me the following, inspiring story.

STORY NUMBER ONE

Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. Capone wasn’t famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder.

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed “Easy Eddie.” He was his lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie’s skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.| MORE ›

John Podhoretz wrote an interesting article for The Corner. He explains why, in his opinion, it was a wise decision of McCain not to speak at CPAC:

If I were a McCain adviser, there’s no way I would recommend he attend CPAC. The stakes are simply too high. It’s a total sandbagging opportunity for people who want to derail him.| MORE ›

Some must read posts on CPAC:
Ed Morrissey: CPAC Interview: Bill Simon, Rudy, & The Judges. Important to know:

I asked Simon about the recent issue with judges. The Politico posted an article on Rudy’s track record on judicial nominations, and reported that Giuliani appointed more Democrats than Republicans to the bench as Mayor. Hower, Simon called this misleading. The mayor does not have a free hand in judicial appointments in New York City.| MORE ›

Washington Post‘s vice-president and former executive editor Ben Bradlee will discuss the historian’s life, work and influence at 2PM ET today.

Keep an eye on it.

CNN: Whites say yes, blacks say no. The network has an interesting video up at its website (“Whites say U.S. ready for Obama, blacks don’t”.

The good news for Obama? African-Americans are – gradually – seeing him in a more favorable light.

It seems that John McCain is dedicated to lose. First he pissed off the more moderate part of the Republican party and of the American population as a whole by trying to appeal to the right wing of the Republican party a bit too obviously, and now he has decided not to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is working hard to “regain the early buzz that won him support from the right.” I actually have this hunch that Romney will be quite a contender – he will rise in the polls significantly.| MORE ›

I published part 2 of the interview with Harm de Blij.

Just to give you a taste:
Mvdg: What must people know about Iran, when they’re thinking about whether or not to use force against it?

HdB: Some Geography, obviously. Use your mental map to draw what you know of the Geography of Iran on a blank piece of paper.| MORE ›