Certain things tempt bloggers. Each day, we face dilemmas - you can Google “Republican”, “hooker”, and “diaper” or “pastor”, “dildo”, and “wetsuit” and come up with an easy post. Or, you can blog on what’s rapidly becoming a forgotten war:

Iraqi soldiers found the mass grave in Mahmoudiya on Thursday, and military authorities believe the bodies have been there for more than a year.

Troops — who initially found 33 bodies — have been excavating the site since it was discovered.

Oh pish, you say, that’s so last year … isn’t The Surge™ working?

Shiite militias fought U.S. and Iraqi forces in Sadr City, Baghdad, for a seventh day Saturday and a vehicle ban continued to frustrate residents, driven indoors for a week by the battles.

Rocket or mortar fire also struck the Green Zone, the heavily secured neighborhood that is the U.S. seat of power, but no casualities were reported, the U.S. Embassy said.

More success after the jump,

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Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is a vile little shitbag. He’s a self-hating closeted gay man who regularly appears on the House floor to simper and scream about how teh gayz are the worst thing ever (video) yet owns a house with another man. And he even managed to get himselves entangled in a gay murder-suicide scandal.

There’s a great video of Barney Frank bitch-slapping McHenry on the House floor here. The often clueless Wolf Blitzer takes him apart here.

You can read about McHenry’s latest bit of wankery after the jump.

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I have a question I’d love to ask the Joe Kleins, Tom Friedmans, and Paul Bermans of the world:

You have made lots of money spouting your pro-Iraq-War wankery. Have you given any cash to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families whose relatives you helped kill and whose lives you helped destroy?

I wonder what the answer would be? More wankery after the jump.

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I watched Stop-Loss last weekend, which is heart-wrenching movie about a beautiful boy soldier named Ryan Phillipe who returns to his home town in Texas, gets stop-lossed after several years fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is forced to choose between living his life as a fugitive , or succumbing to the backdoor draft and going back to the war that might kill him. It’s like if you had given your whole career to a company, and were looking forward to your depressing retirement party and your gold watch, you’re all ready to spend some quality time with your 401k, right? Then, the day after you retire, some VP comes up to you and tells you you’re going to have to work for thirty more years, and this time you’re going to need a bulletproof briefcase.

Anyway, the war has already done some damage to the bodies and psyches of Ryan Phillipe and his friends before the titular stop-loss order. They’re drinking too much, digging foxholes in the yard, and showing many traits of post-traumatic stress disorder. Sounds pretty depressing, right? Especially since it was written and directed by the woman who made Boys Don’t Cry. So. . .

The caption on this read, “The Bravest Place to Stand is On Each Others Side”

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Don’t you hate it when this happens?

It appears that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s ultimatum to Shiite Muslim militiamen to surrender to the Iraqi government might not be working precisely as he had intended.

When nobody had turned up by Friday, Maliki gave members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia 10 more days to turn in their weapons and renounce violence.

Instead, about 40 members of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army and National Police offered to surrender their AK-47s and other weapons this morning to Sadr’s representatives in the cleric’s east Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.

Nobody could have predicted ….

Babylon and Beyond [LA Times Blogs]

Yes Cynica, it’s another depressing Iraq post.  Deal.

Iraq’s government has extended by 10 days a deadline for Shia militiamen fighting troops in Basra to hand over their weapons in return for money.

More than 130 people have been killed and 350 injured since a clampdown on militias began in Basra on Tuesday.

US-led forces joined the battle for the first time overnight, bombing Shia positions, the UK military said.

Aid agencies say the violence upsurge had made Iraq’s already poor humanitarian situation “critical”.

We’re going to pay them for their guns?  Even if the insurgents fell for it, what prevents them from going out and buying … more guns with the money!?  

Can you tell these idiots were installed by the Bush administration?

Iraq Extends Shia Arms Deadline [BBC News]

BBC Radio said this morning that the heavy fighting in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq has people cowering in their homes with no food and sporadic water.  Looks like the insurgents declined al-Maliki’s generous offer to relieve them of their weapons:

Heavy fighting has continued for a third day between Shia militias and the Iraqi security forces in southern Iraq.  

There are reports of extensive exchanges of fire between the Iraqi army and militiamen in Basra and in the town of Hilla, just south of Baghdad.

More than 70 people have died and hundreds have been injured in days of violence sparked by an Iraqi crackdown on Shia militias in Basra.

More signs that freedom is on the march after the jump.

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This should work:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Clashes between Iraqi security forces and militia fighters spread across southern Iraq’s Shiite heartland Wednesday, with the death toll rising past 100 after two days of fighting.

Fighting spread from the key oil city of Basra and parts of Baghdad to other predominantly Shiite cities.

Iraq’s prime minister Wednesday gave Shiite militants battling security forces in Basra a 72-hour deadline to surrender their weapons as the fighting threatened to unravel a delicate cease-fire.

And after that he’ll send them to their rooms with no supper? Please.

Iraqi Forces Battle Militia Fighters [CNN]

You heard all that nonsense about the surge working, right?  Well, even if there have been security gains, they’re about to go into the shitter:

BASRA, Iraq - Iraqi security forces fought fierce gunbattles with powerful Shiite militias in the southern oil hub of Basra on Tuesday in a major operation aimed at bringing the southern oil city under government control.

Gunmen also patrolled several Baghdad neighborhoods as followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered a nationwide civil disobedience campaign to demand an end to the crackdown on their Mahdi Army movement.

More evidence of freedom on the march after the jump.

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Can’t you just smell the freedom in the air?  All those newly-freed Iraqis, freely enjoying their newfound freedom:

BAGHDAD - Rockets and mortars pounded Baghdad’s U.S.-protected Green Zone yesterday and a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army post in the northern city of Mosul amid attacks that killed at least 57 people nationwide.

Wow.  The insurgents must hate them for their freedom.