Item! Does Shrub even listen to what he says? Re: Ukrainian elections:

"There's just a lot of allegations of vote fraud that placed the result of the election in doubt," he said as he entered a restaurant near his ranch.

"The international community is watching very carefully," the president said. "People are paying very close attention to this and, hopefully, it will be resolved in a way that brings credit and confidence to the Ukrainian government."

Do you think that anyone in his adminstration realizes the irony of *them* of all people challenging election results elsewhere because of allegations of voter fraud? That's like me doing a post on the blog about how too many people these days spend too much time online posting on their blogs.

Item! Does anyone seriously believe that elections will take place in Iraq on January 30, 2005? Short answer: No.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Leading Iraqi political parties, including the two main Kurdish groups closely allied to the United States, called on Friday for elections scheduled for Jan. 30 to be postponed because of Iraq's widening violence.

Following a meeting at the Baghdad home of Adnan Pachachi, an influential, moderate Sunni leader and former presidential candidate, 15 political parties and groups signed a petition calling for the election to be put off for up to six months.

If the election is delayed, Shrub will undoubtedly hail this as another sign of progress, declaring again that "freedom is on the march."

Item! Most importantly, is it over between Nick and Jessica?