While You Were Obsessing: The Rest of the World

Apparently there's a whole world out there somewhere
It's right there, right there
I just don't see it,
I just don't see it,

At street level
That's it that's it that's it
--The Streets

The House is going to stay the same for a bit. Great. Here's what the rest of the world has been up to:

1. The outlook for Iraq is mixed. The Iraqi army recruits are rapidly becoming a hardened battle tested force, but they lack logistics personnel because the initial recruitment and training was focused on soldiers. Right now, the logistics personnel is about less than 10% of the total military personnel, whereas the US has a ratio of about 50/50, soldiers to logistics personnel.

Iran and Syria have both reached border security agreements with Iraq. This is key, as most of the suicide bombers are foreign born Saudis, that enter from Damascus.

2. Ian Paisley is bigoted loser, and a force for evil.

3. US vs. NoKo: No Engagement, No Agreement. The US and SoKo are pushing their own bilateral meetings to resume the 6 party talks. Gambatte, mofos.

4. In France, the elite are pulling the electorate into ratifying the EU Constitution. If this thing fails, the **** is going to hit the fan.