In light of the "no Jews allowed" global anti-terror conference that kicked off today in Riyadh -- attended by Iran, the Muslim World Council, and the United States -- I had intended to send out an APB for The Diplomad to weigh in this morning. What is the Diplomad?

The Diplomad debuted in August 2004 and made an immediate impact. It sounded too good to be true: "A Blog by career US Foreign Service officers. They are Republican (most of the time) in an institution (State Department) in which being a Republican can be bad for your career -- even with a Republican President."

Republicans in the State Department? I would have thought that it was easier to find a unicorn. Yet in post after post, The Diplomad provided a proudly pro-American insider's perspective on breaking events around the world.

Today The Diplomad announces "Hello! Hello! I really must be going!" and signs off. Eloquently summarizing the site's brief life, the Chief Diplomad writes:

We delighted in the victory of George W. Bush over the incomparably lame and dishonest John "Xmas in Cambodia" Kerry. We've laid into the UN and their pomposity and corruption, and chortled as the ignorant lefties sought to defend the indefensible. We've said some things we thought (you might not agree) needed saying about the USA, the EU, the State Department, Cuba, and the Marines; some things that we shouldn't have had to say about the scourge of political correctness that threatens liberty in our homeland by trying to restrict ever more the parameters of debate and discussion. We even laid out our Saber-toothed Tiger Law of Life, and expressed our appreciation for the 1911 Government Model Colt 45.

We've ridiculed the ridiculously easy to ridicule Global Warmists, and lamented the disappearance of the once great Democratic Party. The world's oldest political party has wandered off into the fevered swamps of dellusional leftism and anti-Americanism following the yaps not of bloodhounds on the trail of some evil beast, or the dogs of war hunting the enemies of the USA, but the little girlie-man yips of the chihuahas of Gore chasing ghosts of political debates and ideologies past. We've likewise bemoaned the destruction of the once-valiant nation of Red Ensign Canada (no Maple Leaf at this house!) by those who seem ashamed of their country's honorable and courageous role in defending the West and freedom, and now want it to be an anti-American sharia-besotted Botswana with snow.

It's been fun; the postings from the readers have been great (except for the idiot trolls -- the same ones who collapsed our hotmail account and made it useless.) But for a variety of personal and professional reasons it's time to stop (we might blog again under a different name; might not.) Lest any of you think so, we have not been threatened or shut down; the State Department goons are not knocking at the door. It's just time to do something else...

Say it ain't so! The Chief Diplomad urges readers to follow the trail to brother sites at Daily Demarche and New Sisyphus.

UPDATE: Austin Bay joins my lament and appeals for the Diplomad to reconsider in "Say it ain't so -- Diplomad disappears."