Palestinian strongman Yasir Arafat is in serious medical condition, described cryptically by different sources as “critical”, “life-threatening”, “serious”, or “stable”, and ranging from “a bad case of the flu” to “stomach cancer”. Both Israeli security forces and Palestinian Authority security apparatuses are on a heightened state of alert (where do you go from already high alert?) in anticipation of violence in the event Arafat’s health deteriorates, or if, in fact, what ails him is terminal. With six days until American elections, this is just part of the complete wild card that the Middle East is; Sharon’s Gaza pullout plans are...

Even your somewhat partisan talking dog was somewhat taken aback during one of the presidential debates when the moderator asked the President and Senator Kerry about the looming shortage of flu vaccine. I didn’t really think an unfortunate contamination was a political issue; until you realize that, as Mark A.R. Kleiman tells us, ONLY the United States will suffer a vaccine shortage, because our government dithered while others arranged alternative supplies (and thanks to the on-fire veep for the heads-up). Surprise, surprise. Another catastrophic cock-up from the Bush Administration that will unquestionably result in thousands of additional American deaths. As...

In honor of Hillary Clinton’s birthday (the Empire State’s junior senator and America’s former first lady turns 56 today) and my own birth 42 years ago today (smack during the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis), we’ll give you a triple play from peripatetic former talking dog running mate Bruce Moomaw: (1) Andrew Sullivan — who endorsed Bush enthusiatically last time and has been on the fence all year this time, before finally deciding to endorse Kerry today: “QUOTE OF THE DAY: ‘The commander of the first unit into the area told CBS he did not search it for explosives...

What’s most surprising about this story of Bush incompetence in not guarding weapons in Iraq, summarized here by dog run member Josh Marshall (via Julia writing in The American Street where you can read some of my own musings about our legal system on Mondays, along with a nice smattering of some of the best damned writers in blogdom…) is not that it took so long to come out at all, but that the Bushmen couldn’t suppress it completely with just over a week to go until the election. The story, of course, is of over just how 350 tons...

Another day, another tale of human carnage coming out of Iraq, in this case, the gruesome discovery of 49 bodies of graduates of Iraqi army military training, shot at close range, discovered east of Baghdad. Insurgents have targeted men in the new Iraqi army in an attempt to deter others from joining. Of course, in many cases (by no means not all), as in the United States, it is a weak economy and non-existent prospects that lead many to take the risks associated with military service and sign up. Adding to the tragedy, of course, as these men were often...

This week’s visit to our friends at Pravda gives us this somewhat disjointed piece (I have no idea who does Pravda’s Russian to English translations… but I LIKE them!) about various nasty effects from global climate change, including a lengthy discussion about shifting magnetic poles that borders on the stuff of the National Examiner, culminating in a discussion of the well understood global changes (all, to this day, still denied by the Bush Administration). This being Pravda (part of why you get your weekly dose) the payoff comes in the form of a punchline: global warming will doubtless be good...

We got trouble right here in Tigris River City. Margaret Hassan, the director of CARE International in Iraq, kidnapped by militants believed to be associated with Al Zarqawi’s terrorist movement, was seen on a videotape shown on Al Jazeera television, pleading for, among other things, her life, and for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq (and certainly not moved into the Baghdad area, which PM Blair has just agreed to do). The stakes of our adventure, which is no longer being managed for military or strategic or even geo-political advantage but entirely for domestic political reasons is that more...

Kudos to the Boston Red Sox, who overcome their reputation as the worst chokers in the history of sport and ably handed that mantle over to the former home of Mickey Mantle (on the late slugger’s birthday no less) in an inconceivable 10-3 win capping the only comeback from being down 3 games to none in a playoff series. We’ll let Sox fans themselves (such as our own Unseen Editor) decide if this lifts– finally– over 80 years after the “Babe Ruth curse”… the curse. Some say the BoSox must win the World Series. After the Inconceivable Comeback against the...

Oy gevalt. There’s nothing else to say in light of the revelations that a Bush-affiliated “independent 527 group” is disseminating a t.v. commercial for use in swing states of course showing the President hugging “and consoling” one Ashley Faulkner, whose mother died on 9-11 because of the President’s own incompetence and spending over a month on vacation and demagoguing about nonsense like missile defense instead of working to defend this nation from terrorism. Wowzers. We have an established Republican family– supposedly the late Wendy Faulkner of Mason, Ohio took her daughter Ashley to a Bush rally in Ohio four years...

Florida joins a number of states today in opening up “early” in person voting some 15 days ahead of Election Day. Note that besides solid red Texas, and leaning red Colorado and Arkansas, the other key states this year have already begun in-person voting, include battlegrounds Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Oregon has begun mail in ballotting. That doesn’t leave too many swing states following the usual tradition (like good old New York) of having people actually vote ON Election Day (off the top of my head, I think that pretty much leaves New Hampshire; West...