Odds and ends

While it seems things are spiralling downhill fast in "The Holy Land" I find it hard to get overly concerned, at least not yet. Perhaps it's a syndrome of those over 40 who've seen these escalations over and over to point of near boredom. The cry wolf syndrome, I reckon. Or just burnout.

If Israel goes into Syria it might get interesting, since Iran has promised to respond. We'll see how successful they are with several US divisions in their path. Besides, the UN just worked up a deal for them. I wonder, if someone just gave all the Arabs a nice tall Long Island Iced Tea and a backrub would it change anything?

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Things are really begining to fall in line for the congressional republicans come November. Everyday it seems another bullet is emptied from the democrat campaign gun, and today was no exception:

The agreement appeared to end, or at least cool, a bitter dispute over how far the government should go to gather information in a world changed since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and how much respect should be accorded individual privacy rights

There goes the NSA issue. Earlier we saw the adminstration grant temporary Geneva rights to WoT detainees, which will force the democrats to choose between limited rights for terrorists or de facto siding with AQ when it all gets ironed out in Congress. Right before the elections.

Add to that Valerie Plame Wilson's civil lawsuit against Cheney, Rove and Libby, and it could be the icing on the cake. They'll likely be thwarted in discovery by national security concerns, whereas Cheney and co should get plenty of access to some very interesting tidbits about this whole sordid affair.

Pretty soon all that'll remain in the democrat arsenal will be a few spit balls.

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Monday is the ten year anniversary of the TWA 800 bombing, er accident. CNN published a piece this afternoon that quoted Anthony Lake,

"I think our first thought when we got the news was that it was terrorism," President Clinton's national security adviser, Anthony Lake, told "CNN Presents" as part of an investigative documentary airing Saturday and Sunday.

"We especially wanted to look for an Iranian connection."

I can see the Iran angle, but there were other possibilities as well. The story says "no one took credit" for the attack, which isn't true, but even true it doesn't disprove a terrorist act, especially if a state were involved.

It's kinda funny there was no mention of Iraq. If you recall, Clinton had earlier bombed the Mukhabarat in 1993 and the CIA was knee-deep in a coup to take out Saddam. July 17th was a holiday in Iraq under Saddam. Sounds like at least some motive, us trying to kill him and all.

There's a lot here. Read with an open mind.

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Finally, and perhaps more importantly, Zidane apologized, 'The Who' is making a return, Astronauts are walking in space, bird flu has not become a pandemic, Red Buttons passed away (I thought that had already occurred?) and finally, A.C. will be leaving very soon for a much-sought after vacation just as oil prices spike back up. Darn wars. Such an event may tend to limit the blogging here, although some experimentation may be done with the WIFI here and there.

Thanks to all who occasionally drop by to suffer my dribblings, I do appreciate your patronage. Cheers...or perhaps I should say Mazel Tov.

UPDATE 7/13

Changed out the Rove pix. The first attempt was pretty lame.

UPDATE 7/14/06

CNN is apparently working a full court press in defense of the NTSB's spark in the fuel tank probable cause in the 800 crash. This morning's edition says, paraphrasing, that planes are "still flying with this problem". Let's get this straight--there IS NO PROBLEM. That's why nothing has been done 10 years later.

The FAA's estimate that 4 more exploding fuel tank events will happen in the next 50 years probably falls within the realm of normal probability. It does not say whether they're likely to happen on the ground or in the air, mainly because they KNOW that 99 percent will happen on the ground. I could be wrong, but I believe the 800 crash (if it wasn't terrorism or an accidental shoot-down) was the first such event while in-flight in the jet age. Add to that the NTSB's failure to find an ignition source and we have a continuing mystery on our hands.

Now, off to see the wizard...