New York (RNS)–Yesterday, the Iraq Study Group (ISG) suggested the Bush Administration seriously consider holding a “series of international parties” in Iraq. ISG heads James Baker, a former secretary of state, and Lee Hamilton, a former chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, have proposed the unorthodox measure just as several Middle Eastern leaders have criticized the bipartisan group’s report, and President Bush has shown signs of hesitancy in accepting the bulk of its recommendations.

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Julia, the enormity of 9/11 has made people forget the first real sign that President Bush cared deeply about Jews and Israel - and that was his refusal to participate in the anti-Semitic Durban international hate-fest. Leading the opposition - and a disgraceful delegation to Durban - was your pal and mine, John Conyers.

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The birthplace of Jesus is facing one of the darkest chapters in its history, according to Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh’s just-delivered annual Christmas address, and of course it’s all the fault of the Jews.

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John Conyers and other Democrats have criticized Jimmy Carter’s latest anti-Semitic screed, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid. Conyers has gotten kudos for saying that the use of the word apartheid “does not serve the cause of peace, and the use of it against the Jewish people in particular, who have been victims of the worst kind of discrimination, discrimination resulting in death, is offensive and wrong.”

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In a largely Orthodox Jewish enclave south of Hollywood one home stands out on the block of 1920s Tudor and Spanish-style residences. It’s the one with a life-size Santa on the balcony, two giant inflatable snow globes on the roof, a huge polar bear in a Santa cap holding a present, and several illuminated angels and candy canes. The homeowner, like her neighbors, is Jewish.

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I have been covering the situation in Somalia since early June, when Mogadishu fell to the radical Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The ICU has steadily gained control of strategic cities throughout the country since then, confining its secular rival, the transitional federal government (TFG), to the south-central Somali city of Baidoa. This morning I have a major piece of breaking news over at Pajamas Media, where I reveal that the ICU has begun its final push to take Baidoa. An excerpt:

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(First published in the Vallejo Times-Herald) 

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The President of the United States is George W. Bush. His popularity rating with the American people is a shocking 29%. It is obvious he needs a public relations genius to bolster his poll numbers. He needs someone who can put him back on top and keep him there. He needs a man of miracles who understands what the voters in this country are looking for if he ever wants a chance to go down as one of the great leaders in history. In short, he needs to turn his image completely around and become really cool again to everyone outside of the White House.

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Immigration agents clear out undocumented workers at a Colorado meat-processing plant. Legal workers line up to fill the vacancies:

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The Italian government has partnered with the country’s fashion industry to devise a voluntary regulatory code that bans underweight, underage models from the catwalk in a common goal to discourage anorexia in young girls.

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MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD (EXCERPTED) : ISRAEL TO “VANISH LIKE THE PHARAOHS….” 

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When a client hesitated over paying his bill, Richard Ledingham threatened her with criminal prosecution for “theft of services.” He also warned that she might lose her business, her home and her professional license.

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In the new tape from al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri that was broadcast today by al-Jazeera, he references the Iraq Study Group report:

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A stewardess alleges that her employer, BMI (formerly known as British Midland Airways), forbade her from taking her bible with her on a flight to Saudi Arabia on the advice of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office:

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David Duke

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“I will leave the country if Hillary Clinton becomes president.” –Dick Morris on Hannity & Colmes

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The U.S. government approved a new airport shoe-scanner that can check shoes and boots for bombs – without passengers having to take them off. But there’s a catch, natch.

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Jimmy Carter has turned down an invitation by Brandeis University to debate professor Alan Dershowitz about Carter’s new book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid. Carter told the Boston Globe, “I don’t want to have a conversation even indirectly with Dershowitz.” That’s Carterese for: “What? I’m not going to some Jewish university to talk about Israel with some Jew lawyer!”

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YouTube - ZUCKER TAKES ON THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP

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In case you thought it was just a 70s rumor, Babs is on her way to get one last tryst in with her old flame, possibly in his deathbed. Only this time it’s going to be a threesome:

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Pat Buchanan (since he ran for President with a socialist on his ticket, I have little respect for his opinions, but this morning he provides a good jumping-off point) today suggests that Time blew it for their “Man of the Year.” Pat says that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad affected the world most this year–for his rallying of radical Islamists, for his pursuit of nuclear weapons, for his role in the ascendancy of Iran in the Middle East, for the difficulty America finds in Iraq–on and on it goes.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York granted a request from C-SPAN to televise oral arguments in a TV industry challenge to the FCC’s ruling in March that Fox’s broadcast of the Billboard Awards, in which Cher and Nicole Richie uttered the profanities “f**k” and “sh**,” were indecent by contemporary community standards.

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Wow — kudos to Claudia Rossett for reporting, in the New York Sun, about Kofi Annan and family’s occupation, for 18 years, of lodgings on Roosevelt Island that are meant for low-income families. Annan’s wife, a wealthy Swede, has often hectored Americans on their lack of help to the poor. His brother, the current tenant of the apartment, is apparently Ghana’s ambassador to Morocco. I guess the post requires a New York address….

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If a respected British medical school has its way, British doctors will be routinely killing babies born with serious disabilities. The Times of London reported…on the shocking proposal from Britain’s respected Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology.

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I am so over married men who don’t wear wedding rings.

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The Ohio Supreme Court unanimously rejected an appeal from death row inmate Phillip E. Elmore, whose lawyers argued that the jury was anxious to reach a verdict quickly because the judge disallowed cigarette breaks during deliberations.

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Check out this fancy little girl in line at a Carter book signing:

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Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that studies word usage, has chosen “macaca” as the most politically incorrect word of 2006, followed by “Global Warming Denier.” “There are now proposals that ‘global warming deniers’ be treated the same as ‘Holocaust deniers’: professional ostracism, belittlement, ridicule and, even, jail,” the group’s president, Paul JJ Payack, tells Reuters.

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Our “Cashin’ In” crew this week: Wayne Rogers, Wayne Rogers & Company; Jonathan Hoenig, Capitalistpig Asset Management; Jonas Max Ferris, MAXfunds.com; Dagen McDowell, FOX Business News, and Jerry Bowyer, National Review Online.

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As much of the Western world busies itself with merriment in preparation for the celebrations of Chanukah and Christmas, the light is fading rapidly in the scarred vastness of Darfur. In the latest indication of how bleak the situation is, the United Nations recently evacuated its staff from El Fasher, capital of northern Darfur, one of the two major centers for its relief operation to what the world body itself has termed “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”

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Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) has just announced that he won’t run for president in 2008.  His withdrawal, along with that of former governor Mark Warner (D-Virginia), means that Democrats lack a contender with a strong record of red-state appeal.  John Edwards did win a single Senate term from North Carolina, but failed to carry the state for the presidential ticket in 2004.  Bill Richardson has twice won the governorship of New Mexico, but Democrats have long been formidable in the state. 

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