Meanwhile ....

Losing most of the value of a 401K is bad enough but our current universe of threats continues to feature various terrorists, rogues, and evil-doers, including at least one sawed-off asshat who stood in America and proclaimed our demise to our very faces (then was treated to happy talk on Larry King Live). Some of these distinguished world citizens would no doubt love to exploit our present precarious financial position and impending power transition [Ed- pre-emptive liberal comment insertion-- "all thanks to Bush, the real terrorist"].

The Former Spook points to an interesting column in Long War Journal about a mysterious Iranian flagged ship seized by Somali pirates:

After taking control of the ship, the MV Iran Deyanat was taken to Eyl, a small fishing village in northeastern Somalia, where it was secured by up to 100 pirates; 50 ashore and the rest on the ship. But, the hijacking then took a strange turn, as described by the LWJ:

Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair. Independent sources tell The Long War Journal that a number of pirates have also died. "Yes, some of them have died.

According to the captain's manifest the ship was hauling "minerals". As a commenter pointed out at Spook's place, Yellowcake sorta falls in that category.

But if so, to whom? Why would anyone be shipping YC into Africa? Iran has a history of cooperating with extremists in East Africa such as Hassan al-Turabi and Somalia is currently a chaotic state. And it's no secret Iran has a strategic interest in seeing American influence reduced in this area due to international oil tanker transits.

Perhaps most telling is that Russian ships are steaming in that direction (as others head to Venezuela) while the U.S. offered millions to buy the cargo booty from the pirates. Most interesting, if just a pile of minerals. My question is whether this type of event (or other threats we don't know about) are having any influence on the deliberation of the bailout bill. It's hardly likely America could launch an assault on Iran's nukes in this condition--unless it's all part of the ruse.