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HOW MANY PRESIDENTS MUST GET DISSED: For a lesson in how diplomats deliver a severe verbal shanking, check out yesterday's New York Times story about the U.N.'s newly central role in Iraq:
"There is a mixture of vindication on the one hand and great apprehension on the other," said Edward Mortimer, a senior aide to Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Mr. Mortimer contrasted the recent calls for assistance from President Bush with the disparagement he said the United Nations had become used to from the administration. "It's quite nice when you've been generally dissed about your irrelevancy and then suddenly have people coming on bended knee and saying, 'We need you to come back,' " he said. "On the other hand, it's quite unnerving to feel you're being projected into a very violent and volatile situation where you might be regarded as an agent or faithful servant of a power that has incurred great hostility." Playing on Mortimer's iPod during his interview was Ice-T's classic 1988 track, "Personal":
You diss, I diss, this is creates an equal/ You reply to my diss, this is called a sequel/ I reply to your diss, this is called a battle/ Not intelligent, not very adult/ So I don't battle, I just put heads out/ A straight line is always the direct route/ I write lyrics clear, to leave no doubt/ Don't even have to say who I'm speakin' about | 
