Hey, Sleazy: is it my imagination, or is that Dominie's/Ramblas regular and frequent Ghost Runner supporter Fireman John with a huge spread in today's Daily News? Cuz if it isn't, he needs to pretend that it is, cuz it sure looks an awful lot like him.

Fireman John, per this article, engaged in great heroics:

When firefighter John Jacovina pulled her from the crumbled Sheetrock and shattered glass, he feared Duaa Al Ghaithi would not live to see her sixth birthday.

She had been burned over 60% of her body in a ferocious gas explosion that ripped through her Harlem apartment building, killing her mother.

Jacovina could barely believe his eyes on Wednesday as Duaa climbed in his lap, flashed him a big grin and gave her hero a tender and appreciative peck on the cheek.

"I always wanted to see her again - she's really cute," the 37-year-old firefighter gushed.

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Jacovina of Ladder 14 and Lt. Tom Keery of Ladder 26 teamed up and entered the wrecked apartment with little hope. Then they heard the cries of Duaa and Lina from beneath the rubble.

"She must have heard us, she let out a cry; then we knew exactly where she was," said Jacovina. "The Sheetrock had fallen and made kind of a teepee. We pulled it off of her, and there she was, standing up with her arms open."

Firefighter Jermaine Martin, 31, recalled Jacovina and Keery emerging from the apartment building with Duaa and Lina in their strong arms.

"I felt bad for them, they were so tiny," Martin said. "They were burned pretty bad. They definitely look good now."

Duaa's father, Rassas Al Ghaithi, embraced each of the firefighters who saved his children on their darkest day, hugging Jacovina the longest.

Tears filled the 29-year-old Yemenite immigrant's eyes, and his voice was choked with gratitude. "Oh, my God," he said. "Thank you so much. Thank you, brother."

This is totally rad. Again, I don't know if this is our Fireman John. But if it is, Dominie's Hoek has a board where you can put money up and anybody can buy a drink for anybody. Just sayin'.

And even if it isn't him, you might as well buy Fireman John a drink anyway, cuz he's hysterical.

Who knows exactly how accurate it is, but this is incredible news. Apparently those horrible assholes in the Bush administration finally got around to doing something sensible and, according to the Wall Street Journal, have set a timetable for leaving Iraq:

BAGHDAD -- U.S. and Iraqi negotiators reached agreement on a security deal that calls for American military forces to leave Iraq's cities by next summer as a prelude to a full withdrawal of combat troops from the country, according to senior American officials.

The draft agreement sets 2011 as the goal date by which U.S. combat troops will leave Iraq, according to Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Humood and other people familiar with the matter. In the meantime, American troops will be leaving cities, towns and other population centers by the summer of 2009, living in bases outside of those areas, according to the draft.

Teams of American and Iraqi negotiators spent months haggling over the deal, which represents a remarkable turnaround from just a few months ago, when talk of timetables and deadlines was routinely dismissed by the Bush administration and other Republicans in Washington.

I'm absolutely shocked. I don't know what to do with this. This is great news. Good, smart, practical. What is Bush thinking? He's always been against this. What happened?

Of course, the speculation turns immediately to the election. I'm honestly not as optimistic as Kevin Drum. He's right: this is a HUGE victory for Democrats and Obama, who have been calling for this forever, who had this plan endorsed publicly by Maliki during Obama's World Your, and who can claim total ownership in the vein of "finally George Bush has come around to the wisdom we already had."

But I wouldn't discount the sharp messaging of the GOP. They are going to scream, and all of their little minions are going to join in, over and over about how this is the result of The Surge and it was John McCain's Incredible Leadership that made this possible. Nevermind that they didn't endorse this plan, that they dismissed it outright, that McCain has been talking for months about how Obama's timetable plan is tantamount to defeat (which he's tied to Obama's cynical political ambitions). There will be no apology, there will be no corrections. They will claim this is what they wanted all along, because they are shameless. And the media will let them get away with it, I 100% guarantee you. I call it here: within two or three weeks, if this deal goes through, the question from the pundits will be, "Will Obama Acknowledge the Success of the Troop Surge now that the troops can come home?"

You want proof? Take the example of McCain taking credit for the Anbar Awakening. The surge hadn't even started yet, wasn't even talked about yet, when this internal revolution took place in Anbar province. McCain outright lied on national television. Got history wrong, and not even ancient history. It was an empirical, provable lie. When he was confronted with it, he just kept lying and smiling. And no one has spoken about it for a month, because it didn't have Paris Hilton.

Make no mistake, they will claim credit. And, no, Kevin Drum. It's not weak spin. Or, OK, it is. But that doesn't mean it won't work. They'll just keep saying, "And now, thanks to the judgment of John McCain, those troops are coming home!"

(Of course, that same judgment chose to enter this disastrous, pointless war in the first place. And that judgment shorted the actual important factors in the drop in violence, namely the turning of public opinion in Iraq against Al Queda and the cease fire by Sadr).

(And also, let us never forget, the sectarian violence, ethnic cleansing, a enforced segregation that put an end to civil war because, well, everybody either died or became refugees).

Anyhoo, politics aside this is great. There is actually an end to this in sight, and we didn't have to wait for a President Obama to bring it. Now we just have to hope that President Obama can refine this policy before President McCain has a chance to dismantle it and attack Russia.

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Also, this is dumb silly season kind of stuff, but I love that everyone's picking up on the fact that John McCain, the Man of the People, can't even remember how many houses he owns. But don't you forget that Obama's an elitist, because he grew up poor, raised by a single mother, and worked his way up to law school.

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Finally, this new study shows that late night comedians are laying off Obama and going after McCain and the Clintons (remember?). And, because Richard Cohen let me down this week, the comedy Gods gave me another edition of Humorless Conservatives Try Their Hand at Comedy. Prefaced, as per usual with statements like, "Why, the jokes practically write themselves. Here's a couple I came up with off the cuff:"

Obama should have been suspicious the first time he visited Bill Ayer's house. The Threat Level Sign outside his door was clearly set to Orange.

*****

Obama is having a conversation with Bill Ayers while visiting Ayer's office. Obama is reading the plaques on Ayers' wall.

"Bill, what's this plaque for?"

"Barry, I got that award for my program to assist elementary school children."

"How about that one over there?"

"Oh, that's my Terrorist of the Year award from Weather Underground."

*****

What no one seems to understand is it’s a good thing that Ayers is a major supporter of Obama. The thing about Ayers is, when he tells you someone is "the bomb, yo!" he speaks from experience.

*****

Obama and Ayers are having dinner together in a Chicago restaurant.

Ayers gets up to use the bathroom.

When he comes out of the bathroom, he rushes right past their table and out of the restaurant.

Seconds later a bomb explodes in the bathroom blowing debris into the dining room.

Barack stands up and shouts, "I have no idea who that man was."

I...OK, I have to go somewhere and cry. And, like, listen to something funnier, like cats dying.

Do you remember that one Bloom County, from Night of the Mary Kay Commandos, and they show the Bloom County Animal Testing Facility, and it's some guy from their syndicate showing potential comic strips to a room full of bunnies, and one joke is so bad that it stuns all the bunnies into a catatonic shock? Yeah. That.

So Darren (mojodragonfly) has been around these parts for years, having been an early supporter of In the Middle of the Ocean and somehow stumbling upon this journal years later. His LJ is friends only, but if you knock I'm sure he'll let you into his world of great poetry, stunning photographs, and tales of raising his precocious ten-year old son Connor. It's great stuff.

Darren's fallen on some hard luck recently, and if Fortuna has her way he'll wind up with seven less houses than John McCain (zero).

If you're in Austin, he's offering his services if, in his words you "have a crappy job, or some time consuming piece of crap something or other that you need to get done, and wish you had someone to do it for you".

That probably won't help most of you, but if I were you I'd take a look at his Flickr photostream and see if any of these prints interest you at all.

Here's my pitch: Hey, all you Austin ex-pats! Sitting around wishing you had at least one crystal clear perfect little breathtaking photo on your wall of your old stomping grounds, to remind you of that afternoon at Bull Creek or the time you were at Campbell's Hole and they dared you to jump off that really high rock and you jumped and you felt like The Man?? Or, perhaps, you're just in the market for a picture of Lynn Mikeska in pirate stockings.

It's all here. Personally, once I get paid tomorrow I'm going for the B&W ferris wheel, because we're like that. They're great photos, and $35 for an 8x10 would do a lot to help out a good guy in need. (darren.german@gmail.com)

(Oh and, hey Darren, since your LJ is locked I'll be sure and lock this up in a day or so if you'd prefer. Just wanted to get word out to friends who don't have LJ accounts. Thanks.)

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Meanwhile, tonight is the opening night for In the Middle of the Ocean: Starring Hakeem Olajuwon. So....WHOOPEEEE! I'm terrified for them, I can feel the 1st day jitters in my bones, and I just hope they have a blast. It's a fun little machine and I'm glad to share it.

We used to, as our warm-up, go into the back alley behind The Hideout and sing a song together, arm in arm, at the top of our idiot lungs. So, in honor of the guys at Melusine Theater Company:

Break a leg, guys.