Revival Act

Not much to say about the emergence of a new al-Qaeda video, featuring apparently spliced in old clips of OBL himself for about a minute.
Coming as it does on the heels of a new American Intelligence Estimate to the effect that al-Qaeda is stronger than it has been at any time since September 11th, and the Administration’s sudden determination to call “our enemy” in Iraq not “insurgents” or even “terrorists”… but all al Qaeda all the time… and of course Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s “hunch” that something bad was in the offing (replacing, I suppose, a chartreuse alert to the same effect)… I guess it’s time to just plain old ask… WTF?
With 556 days to go in this Administration, have these maniacs fiinally concluded that the only way out of their 28% approval ratings after the Scooter-pardon and the stonewalling of all legislation (and Congressional investigations into, well, everything)… and that Iraq thing… all seems to have impressed no one not in the Beltway Courtier ClassTM as anything other than, well, a widespread belief that we are now in the hands of the worst American Administration ever… but still… I mean, have we really reached the point, as Avedon and as Unqualified Offering suggest, where our so-called political leadership is giddily hoping for another terrorist strike against the United States?
I can draw no other conclusion. And amazingly, the only non-arch- conservatives and their apologists/cheerleaders (and right wing bloggers) who will likely rally ’round the vastly diminished and widely-believed-as-grossly-negligent-if-not-directly-culpable President, if, God forbid, such an event should befall us, would be none other than Democratic members of Congress, who, I remain convinced, behave as if they prefer being in the minority where they needn’t be accountable for trying to pass anything.
Who knows? This could all just be summer trial-ballooning by Karl… or it could be something more sinister… or it could just be me swooning on a warm summer evening. Still… I wouldn’t bet on the last one. Fear and misdirection have been the Bush Administration’s stock in trade for nearly six years; they don’t seem to be as effective as they once were. Let’s hope that the Administration decides to try something crazy, like good governance, for a change. Maybe that “swooning” thing isn’t such a bad bet, come to think of it…