Here's good news!

EU pays £1m to train Italian TV showgirls at 'school for bimbos':

A "school for soubrettes" that teaches young Italian women the not-so-subtle skills needed to become television game show hostesses and showgirls has opened near Naples backed by generous European Union funding.

The programme at the First Tel School has prompted a political storm over the EU's willingness to put £1 million into what critics say is a "course for bimbos".

There has been no shortage of interest from potential pupils, however, given that Italy's television networks are awash with programmes featuring scantily clad female assistants. About 1,200 women - and a handful of young men - applied for the 97 places on the eight-month course when it was advertised in the summer.

Under the terms of the EU grant, students must be at least 18, unemployed, and come from the Campania region - renowned throughout Italy for the beauty of its women. They will be taught diction, show presenting, make-up, singing, dancing, acting, and the history of cinema and theatre.

Dino Giordano, one of the school's founders, said it was aimed at equipping students for a wider career than that pursued by mere bimbos. "They are being thrown in the deep end but it will give them a head start in show business," he said last week. Some pupils, though, seem to have less ambitious objectives. "I want to be famous, rich and marry a footballer," declared Simona Toto, a diminuitive blonde.

I guess I'm just a lowbrow Yank that can't appreciate the intricacies of Euro culture and government support of the "arts".

All quiet on the Malibu front

There's been no word from Babs Streisand since Gray Davis got the boot. Maybe she's out hanging wash on the line? Hmm, I don't see a clothesline in the aerial photo!

Vote Democrat because they are better than the rest of us

Jonah Goldberg at The Corner:

I GUESS "HISPANIC" IS SPANISH FOR "POOR"

From the Hotline:

Making An Ass-umption? In answering a question from Spanish-speaking Ernestina Escobar, who was introduced as "someone in our audience who has experienced the American dream." Dean responded: "You would have prescription benefits if you moved to Vermont, because a third of all our people, especially at your income level, are eligible for prescription benefits without help from the federal government." She never mentioned her financial situation.

Imagine if a white, preppy Park Avenue Republican had made this gaffe?

Maybe Howard Dean will offer her a chocolate bar and a ride in his big car too?

Elevating Effects of Higher Education Alert!

(Via Gweilo Diaries) From Professor To Pornographer:

DAVIS, Calif. (Wireless Flash) -- Can porno movies change the world? One university professor thinks so.

Dr. Darrell Y. Hamamoto of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of California at Davis has just filmed what he believes is the first X-rated video with an all Asian-American cast.

Well there's a breakthrough for diversity!

The clip, titled "Skin On Skin," hasn't secured a distributor yet, but the professor says it's ground-breaking in its use of an Asian-American man as the male partner.

Hamamoto believes Asian men have been emasculated by American culture and this video is just what self-conscious Asian guys need to put the lead back into their pencils.

Time for a pity party! But don't tell the local feminists, Darrell!

And has the University complained?

In his words, "If anything, I'm helping the University because I could be a lightning rod for attacks against our civil liberties."

Sounds more like flypaper for stupidity.

The Daily Hijinks

Cross-dressing Wiccan official sparks Christian mission probe. We don't see too many of those around here, but the story is set in W. Virginia, a center of cosmopolitan life:

A Christian mission serving homeless people since 1939 is under investigation for discrimination because its walls are adorned with crosses and other religious imagery.

The probe was prompted by a city fair-housing investigator, who also happens to be a cross-dressing Wiccan openly contemptuous of mainstream religions, the Charleston, W. Va., Daily Mail reported.

Most religious shelters, including this one, do not require attendance at services and haven't for some time. But that's never good enough for the diverse. But wait, there's more:

Last year, the Charleston paper said, the mission provided a place to sleep for thousands of people and served more than 82,000 meals. It also provides spiritual guidance and holds daily worship services.

The commission voted last month to scrutinize the mission's policies, which include barring drugs and alcohol and not allowing unmarried couples to sleep in the same room.

As opposed to what, exactly?

And there's good news from just across the border - Mexican army deserters wage war for border city:

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Members of an elite Mexican army unit have deserted and formed a drug gang, using their military training to launch a violent battle for control of this border city, says Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor.

The war for Nuevo Laredo, right across the border from Laredo, Texas, is unlike other recent drug conflicts — it's a turf war involving most of Mexico's major cartels in broad alliances, it has the Mexican army fighting an organized unit of former comrades, and it has cost American lives.

Well if things get too hot, they can always move to California!

Which reminds me of Mark Steyn's latest:

I am not a resident of California, but, if I were, I would have voted for Arnold. Wait a minute, what am I on about? You don't need to be a resident to vote. If you're a British tourist on holiday in Mexico, all you have to do is make it across the border and, under one of Gray Davis's desperate last-minute pre-election ethnic panders, he'll give you one of his free driver's licences for illegal immigrants, no questions asked, with which piece of identification you'll be able to bluff your way into the voting booth.

It's easy Mark. Just yell "I'm being disenfranchised!" The Democrat poll "watcher" will handle the rest.

Bashar Assad: The evil moron who's running Syria. 'Nuff said.

Global Warming Litigation Heating Up:

Just-terminated California Gov. Gray Davis announced last weekend that the state will sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over global warming. Nine other states and several eco-activist groups, including the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, are expected to join the lawsuit.

Gray Davis? The name sounds familiar, but I can't place the face.

Smile and put on a happy face!

The Washington Prowler says there's some grumbling in the ranks about DNC Chairman Terry "I got rich as a political fundraiser" McAuliffe:

Gov. Gray Davis may not have been the biggest loser in the California recall. Some Democratic National Committee members are calling for DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe to explain his odd behavior in the days leading up to Tuesday's election debacle.

McAuliffe appeared on cable news channels and gave print interviews citing DNC internal polling data that showed the recall election too close to call. He also claimed that he had numbers indicating Democrats would emerge unscathed from the election. He also claimed that even if Arnold Schwarzenegger did win, he'd do so with fewer votes than Davis would receive from voters opposed to his recall in the first place. In fact, Schwarzenegger outpaced Davis by more than 100,000 votes.

"I don't know where the hell McAuliffe got his info, but he was treating it like sacred writ, and it was just trash," says a California Democratic Party official in Los Angeles. "I know he likes to blow a lot of sunshine up peoples' behinds, but this was just embarrassing for us."

Politicos always whistle past the graveyard - that doesn't seem too egregious.

"We're getting tired of his shtick," says a DNC donor in New York. "He's been telling us how we're doing great in raising money for the convention in Boston, but there are more than a few of us who don't believe it. On the ground, we're hearing that we aren't raising much of anything to pay for the convention."

Now that could be embarrassing. Maybe they could have it in the street and prove their caring natures by inviting the homeless to party down?

More in the article about Howie Dean's nervousness about releasing the records of his stint as governor in Vermont and the troubles in Weasley Clark's campaign organization - it seems they kicked out all the "Draft Clark" types in favor of Clinton political hacks and spinners. You can get a load of the angst over at the old Draft Clark web sites like this:

By the time you read these words, the bell will be tolling for Wesley Clark's candidacy. It will be clear across the country that the campaign of Wesley Clark is nothing more than the Gore campaign with a better candidate - this will mean that activists, the people who can create a field organization that can win Iowa and New Hampshire, will know that this campaign is nothing more than a media creation.

I wondered how long it would take before they noticed the emperor had no pants.

Nothing to see here - move along!

Charles Krauthammer weighs in on David Kay's report on Iraq's WMD programs:

He found infrastructure, but as yet no finished product.

As yet, mind you. "We are not yet at the point where we can say definitively either that such weapons stocks do not exist or that they existed before the war and our only task is to find where they have gone," Kay testified last week.

This is fact, not fudging. How do we know? Because Hussein's practice was to store his chemical weapons unmarked amid his conventional munitions, and we have just begun to understand the staggering scale of Hussein's stocks of conventional munitions. Hussein left behind 130 known ammunition caches, many of which are more than twice the size of Manhattan. Imagine looking through "600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordnance" -- rows and rows stretched over an area the size of even one Manhattan -- looking for barrels of unmarked chemical weapons.

And there are 130 of these depots. Kay's team has so far inspected only 10. The question of whether Hussein actually retained finished product is still open.

But the question of whether he was still in the WMD business is no longer open. "We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities," Kay testified, "and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002" -- concealed, that is, from the hapless Hans Blix.

"Twice the size of Manhattan." Howard Dean couldn't find his butt with a street map in Manhattan.

Hey, how come I didn't hear about this on the evening news?

What's next? Anatomy measurements?

(Via Dean Esmay) Bjorn Staerk has all the details on the income tax returns of everyone in Norway. No, he's not a super hacker. It's the way they do things over there. But not for long as it appears that they are coming to their senses. Or sort of - you still will be able to get printouts at the tax office.

Today's hoot!

And while I was reading Greg Pierce's column mentioned in the previous post:

Foggy Bottom fever

The State Department has lodged a vehement complaint with television evangelist Pat Robertson, accusing him of suggesting that the department should be blown up, but it was not clear yesterday whether the gang at Foggy Bottom had picked the right target.

Agence France-Presse reports that State Department spokesman Richard Boucher was livid yesterday about what the wire service said were comments by Mr. Robertson "suggesting that its Foggy Bottom headquarters should be destroyed with nuclear weapons."

However, a transcript indicated that the host of the nationally broadcast "700 Club" was quoting or perhaps loosely paraphrasing guest Joel Mowbray, author of "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens American Security."

Attempts by this column to reach a spokeswoman for the "700 Club" were unsuccessful yesterday.

"I read your book," Mr. Robertson said to Mr. Mowbray, according to a transcript of the interview posted on his Christian Broadcasting Network's Web site, www.cbn.com.

"When you get through, you say, 'If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that's the answer,' " he said.

"I mean, you get through this, and you say, 'We've got to blow that thing up.' I mean, is it as bad as you say?" Mr. Robertson asked.

Mr. Mowbray responded: "It is."

Mr. Boucher called the remarks, which he attributed to Mr. Robertson, "despicable" and a senior department official said a protest had been made "at the highest level."

It was not clear what "the highest level" might mean in reference to a preacher.

It would be even funnier if the State Department weren't so screwed up.

Ruh Oh!

From Greg Pierce's Inside Politics column in the Washington Times it looks like bad news in NH for Weasley:

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean maintains a double-digit lead over rival Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts in a New Hampshire poll of likely voters in the state's Democratic presidential primary.

The poll by American Research Group of Manchester, N.H., showed Mr. Dean leading Mr. Kerry, 29 percent to 19 percent. The remaining candidates, including newcomer Wesley Clark, were in the single digits, and 29 percent remained undecided.

Mr. Dean also held a 10-point lead over Mr. Kerry in the group's September poll.

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut each received 6 percent support, Mr. Clark 5 percent and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina 3 percent. Carol Moseley Braun and Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio were at 1 percent and the Rev. Al Sharpton zero percent.

What happened to the Clark boom?