Two explosions ripped through resorts in the Egyptian (Sinai) town of Taba, killing dozens, injuring hundreds, with dozens more missing. Hotels at the resort were packed with Israeli holiday-goers, and I suspect that when this is sorted out, this will prove to be one of the worst, if not the worst, terrorist attacks ever directed at Israelis. Think of Taba as an Israeli version of Tijuana: it’s a border town, conveniently located in a Third World country. The Egyptians maintained security in the area that ranged from lax to non-existent. Sadly, Israelis fleeing fortress Israel failed to account for this....

The good old House Ethics Committee issued a “stern rebuke” to the House Majority Leader and enemy of the Constitution Tom DeLay, over charges involving, among other things, using the FAA to attempt to track a private plane carrying Texas state senators out of the state to avoid a legislative quorum for Tom DeLay’s Congressional gerrymandering scheme, and for soliciting money for that scheme under some kind of improper pretense. Other “more serious” charges involving, oh, bribery and solicitation of bribes were… “tabled”. This was deLay’s second “rebuke” in a week, and his third overall. I understand he places these...

Picking up from David Kay, Chief American Weapons Inspector Charles Duelfer released his long awaited report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction today, with the report concluding what yours truly told you for the better part of a year before the war of aggression against the Iraqi people in 2003: Saddam had bubkes. In short, no stockpiles of nucular weapons, no bio-hazards, no chemical weapons: no nothing. A few balsa wood air-drones that the President’s minions tried to equate with ICBMs, some programs that stopped dead in the 1990’s, and otherwise: nothing. Oh wait– once sanctions were lifted, and international...

Last night’s bout in Cleveland between Pretty Boy Edwards and Dirty Dick Cheney was scored close enough by most people to be viewed as a draw, or at least, an indecisive win for one or the other. (The one thing everyone can agree on is that PBS personality Gwen Ifil was horrendous in her role as moderator, and hopefully, will never be permitted so important a job ever again.) This is interesting, in that while I scored Kid Kerry a 2-1 and 7-5 in rounds winner over the President, I scored Pretty Boy Edwards as a solid 3-0 winner, and...

Speaking to a group of insurers at a meeting in West Virginia, former American Pro-consul to Iraq L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer announced that American troop presence in Iraq was wildly insufficient, and as a result, Americans (and Iraqis) paid a heavy price from the resultant lawlessness. In this rather bizarre indictment of the President’s flawless execution of the war (coming within the “red zone” of exactly four weeks until the election) Bremer quickly added that toppling the Saddam Hussein statute was certainly worth the cost of $200 billion and over 1,000 American lives, and counting. Speaking from the Air France...

Because distributing the vaccine (in pill form, actually) would have “cost too much money”, our good old military decided to abandon a vaccination program in 1996, which allowed a virus to spread that has killed at least six military recruits, four this year. Let’s just say that there’s plenty of blame to go around on this one (while the decision was made during the CLinton Adminsitration, its not lke the Bush Administration reversed it, now is it?). As usual, it reflects the belief that the most expendible component of our military was, is, and sadly will likely always be, the...

In response to Senator John Kerry’s snub at last Thursday’s debate, contending that the “grand coalition” the President put together to commit war crimes and atrocities in Iraq was “only the United States, with Britain and Australia”, the President quickly added “You forgot Poland”. Proving that Senator Kerry’s words (and mean thawts) are, indeed, hurting our allies, a miffed Poland announced it will be withdrawing its 2,500 troops in Iraq by the end of next year. Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski made the announcement (apparently while holding back tears) and expressed his displeasure that Senator Kerry could overlook so important an...

From our visit to People’s Daily this week, we give you this account of 5 million children returning to school in Iraq. Parents are justifiably worried about the security situation, which delayed the opening of schools for a time, as did waiting for new text books that purged reference to the Saddam/Baathist regime to arrive from their printers in Jordan and the UAE. Well, this will be a huge test for the new interim government, and its American allies. I fear that we will see schools routinely targeted by Saudi nihilists… I mean, “Insurgents”, and many (more) children will become...

This week’s visit to our friends at Pravda gives us this from Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey on why a vote for George W. Bush is a vote for armageddon. The thesis is simple, and you can read it in this column several times a week. Out chicken-hawk led Faux Macho Schmuck government, by bringing death, destruction and horror the Middle East, does not make the world safer. No, they have revivified a moribund Al Qaeda and Islamist terrorist movement that was running out of steam, until its horrific plans came together unusually well on September 11th. Now, since the American reaction, it...

Your talking dog scored the bout for Kerry, maybe 7 rounds to 5, with a 2-1 aggregate judging score. Last night’s debate was surprisingly entertaining… the President was surprisingly well-prepared and articulate (for him), and his knowledge of world affairs (Sudanese leaders, the existence of Liberia) should hurt him among his base (“I wouldn’t want to have a beer with this wonk“). Kid Kerry was loose, rested, tannned… what was with that hair, though… and as expected, the far superior debater. While the polls of actual voters are all that will matter, we can assume that by Sunday morning, somehow...