Mornin’, everyone. Thanks to Michelle for letting me hang out a bit. For a little lady, she has quite big shoes (really, that’s why they only show her from the waist up on TV, little-known fact), so bear with us while we try to fill them.

One of my first reads this morning was the Washington Post, and I came across the perfect headline:

Cease-Fire Takes Effect; More Fighting Expected

Well, don’t that just say it all? U.N. preens, furrows brow, accomplishes nothing, lives to blame Israel another day.

Here’s the story, which includes a paragraph that seems a bit suspect after the fauxtography revelations of the past couple weeks:

Most of the Dahiya area has been evacuated during more than a month of repeated bombings of Hezbollah-connected office and residential buildings. But an Associated Press photographer reported that he saw rescuers pull the body of a child out of the wreckage, and local television reported that two civilians were killed. The exact number of dead and wounded was not known, police said, because Hezbollah activists were in charge of the area.

Most of the area had been evacuated, but a photographer saw rescuers pull the body of a child from the rubble in an area controlled by Hezbollah activists? Just rings a bell is all I’m sayin’. I believe, as an editor, I would have required a quote from the photog or something to back this up after the week the photojournalism has had.

Allah was working late last night, and ran the likely outcomes of the cease-fire:

If I had to bet on an outcome here, I’d bet on another two or three days of fighting while Kofi Annan wrings his hands and makes facial expressions demonstrating Deep Concern, followed by one of two outcomes: (1) a compromise by which Hezbollah agrees to disarm, but only at some point in the future, or (2) if things are going badly, some sort of face-saving gesture by the Lebanese government that lets Nasrallah preserve his victory, e.g., an agreement that Hezbollah will disarm and then be incorporated into the Lebanese army. And then, in either case, a very quick deployment of peacekeepers.

He also hears the pitter-patter of little Nasrallahs. Niiice.

Hezbollah runs soup kitchens, feeds 8,000 a day! The Washington Post also offers eight minutes on the softer side of terrorism.

And, Dean Barnett offers answers to FAQ: The “Peace in Our Time” Edition.

Again, thanks for having me. I’m usually over at Townhall, so mosey over sometime.

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