I enjoyed playing in a recent game of diplomacy with several Forvm regulars. Truth be told, I enjoyed it a lot more than political discussions these days; if you're also tired of the vitriol, the hypocrisy, and the mindless chanting of talking points, you should consider giving diplomacy a try... at least there you can get something concrete for misrepresenting what occurred and lying about the intentions of your team =)

Anyway, I thought I'd take the liberty of pointing out a few things that I learned in the course of the game. I'll just identify players by country, so they can claim the credit or correct me as they desire. And my apologies for not including France in this exercise; he was unfortunately eliminated before we had any direct encounters. Since I'm only a beginner, I'm probably getting this all wrong, but here's some of what I took away from this game. I'm Russia, the white pieces.

between a precipitous withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq that would plunge the region into chaos and ignite a bloody civil war, and the successful completion of a mission to restore stability to Iraq and leave it a free and independent nation?

Obama's dangerous plan of surrendering to al Qaeda:

Because, you know, everyone else is talking about it.

I am beginning to dislike the McCain campaign, and here is an example of why. Over the weekend, Hillary supporter General Wesley Clark reiterated that McCain's service, while admirable, does not in and of itself convey the experience of being Commander in Chief. This is not a controversial position; in fact, I remember at Redstate whenever some lefty would trot out a survey or anecdote that showed troops disagreeing with Bush on something to do with Iraq, the standard response was that the troops on the ground were not in a position to judge the overall strategy, which is certainly accurate. It's also not in any way demeaning of McCain's service, anymore than the folks at Redstate were demeaning the troops when noting the limitations of their experiences. In fact, Clark went to some lengths to praise McCain's service: "I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces, as a prisoner of war."

The faithful would be arriving soon, and I wanted to be ready. I straightened the picture of Him from the recent rally; surely they would be impressed by how close I had been to hear His words. The holy text was prominently displayed on our bookshelf, perhaps a bit worn from being read and reread. The table was spread with fruits and cakes, but his followers were not seeking earthly food. We were gathering to proclaim our loyalty to the Bringer of Hope, the Creator of Change, and to help make ready his ascension in the winter months.

A truly moving, heartfelt, and gracious speech. Senator Clinton opened with stories of her supporters who have given so much to promote her campaign, then passionately called for support of Obama and laid out the reasons we need a Democrat in the White House: for boosting the economy, for reforming health care, for responsibly ending the war in Iraq. Finally, she looked back at how far women in US politics have come, and how her candidacy has helped make the path easier in the future for a woman to become President.

It's been a long and at times bitter primary, but it's also been a historic campaign and I'm proud to be a member of a party that has put forward such qualified and groundbreaking candidates for President.

The verdict in the Bell shooting case is in -- all NYPD detectives acquitted of all charges. I guess firing 50 shots at the unarmed occupants of a car, even stopping to reload, killing one and wounding the other two, doesn't rise to the level of manslaughter if you're a NYC cop and you claim one of the victims "made a sudden move."

One of the things that annoys Obama supporters is how some Clinton backers who previously showed a healthy skepticism for dubious right-wing sources and who previously showed an impressive capability to sniff out bias in a news article have suddenly turned to uncritically quoting sources with an obvious agenda against Obama.

Well, folks, it goes both ways. Time for the Obama backers to stop presenting Clinton bashing as if it were straight news. This extends to unfair criticism of Bill, of which there has been a lot recently.

I'm not going to rehash the dust-up over Obama's recent "bitter" comment; I think his responses (1, 2) speak for themselves. What I would like to do is note the characterization of his remarks by the Clinton campaign and supporters. I will leave it to readers to judge for themselves whether HRC et al are being honest, fair, or productive in how they present Obama's remarks. I've organized this so that it is easy to refer to and comment upon each individual statement.