The Dish

It stands for entertaiment, apparently, in this quite fantastic training video for being a walkabout cartoon character.

Conservative shadow foreign secretary William Hague addresses delegates at the 124th annual Conservative Party Conference at the Winter Gardens on September 30, 2007 in Blackpool, England. Party Leader David Cameron today called for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to call a snap election and added that the Conservatives can win. By Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.

William’s rhetorical defenestration of Brown is reported here. His riposte with respect to Thatcher is related to Brown’s gambit in inviting the Iron Lady to Number 10. The cheek.

Tight, tight, tight:

Among all Iowa Democratic voters, Clinton draws 31 percent, followed by Obama (25 percent) and Edwards (21 percent). But among likely caucus-goers, Obama enjoys a slim lead, polling 28 percent to best Clinton (24 percent) and Edwards (22 percent). Bill Richardson is the only other Democratic candidate to score in the double digits (10 percent).

Still, the poll suggests that Clinton’s supporters may be the strongest of the pack. A majority of her boosters (55 percent) say their support is “strong,” edging Obama (41 percent) and Edwards (37 percent). Neither Clinton’s gender nor Obama’s race seem to be a sticking point for Iowa Democrats; 94 percent of voters say they would be willing to vote for either a female candidate or a black candidate. But only two thirds think the country is ready to elect a woman (63 percent) or African-American (66 percent) president.

If Clinton loses Iowa to Obama, everything changes. Matt comments on the poll here.

I have deleted a post I put up a little while ago because I misread a post of Michael Ledeen’s. My specific point, such as it was, became moot once I re-read and thought about it. My apologies.

What’s the conservative blogosphere for? Dean Barnett says ideas. Patrick Ruffini counters:

"the view that ‘it’s all about punditry’ is just as short sighted as Kos’s whining, thought-free winnerism."

Barnett budges an inch. Personally, I’ve always thought the great advantage of the blogosphere is that you don’t have to be conservative or liberal. You can just be yourself, which turns out to require a little more cojones than many seem interested in.

Misadventures in heterosexuality. Not Safe For Work.

San Francisco, California, 10 am.

He one-ups Cass Sunstein. On the List:

Donna Summer’s version of MacArthur Park: Why can’t she ever have that recipe again? It’s probably in Joy of Cooking, after all.

1980s Hair Bands.

Jackie Collins novels.

Bainbridge is way gayer than me. Mine, off the top of my head: skittles; ginger snaps and coffee; the Corner; Shep Smith; Top Chef; George Michael. Okay: so not waay gayer than me. (And his chops for Velveeta puts him in uber-hetero territory.)

Bob Kaplan offers a qualified defense of private military contractors in Iraq and elsewhere:

Rather than mercenaries who will fight for the highest bidder, private contractors like KBR and Blackwater are composed mainly of retired American noncommissioned officers (NCOs), working alongside the same military to which they used to belong. Just as other professions tap the wisdom and expertise of retirees, so does the American military. Indeed, some contractors, like Triple Canopy, are known to hire veterans of the most elite Special Operations units in the U.S. military. “I’m hiring the elder statesmen of the combat arms community,” one Army colonel told me, referring to some private contractors he was taking on to supplant his uniformed troops in a noncombat capacity. “They won’t have to go through any sniff test when they arrive in the field as consultants. They’ll be instantly looked up to.”

It’s difficult to know what to do to help. Online visibility is one small way: sign this petition of support. A quarter of a million people already have.