The Peace bridge at Aqaba was too narrow for the President, his buddy Abbas (Rum has Chalabi), Sharon and King Abdullah to cross shoulder to shoulder for the campaign clips and the world media.

 

So, on the instructions of the White House advance party, the bridge was rebuilt and all four were seen crossing together and the frame was complete. They might have been better employed building a catafalque.

 

Abdullah, who looked like he’d rather be swatting mosquitoes, will regale courtiers for years on how the loony advance team was more concerned with symbolic width than subject depth. Any wonder Rovian photo-ops have an unnerving knack of backfiring. A Hollywood landing on the repositioned Lincoln and dates on the Red Sea have been quickly followed by ambush, slaughter and defiance.

 

Bush the Honest Broker is challenged frontally to demonstrate his bona fides. In camera investigation of the alleged manipulation of information to justify pre-emptive war is pointless. Allowing Abbas, who has minimal support on the Street, to be further undercut is fatuous while Sharon has taken to pre-emption like an evangelical to a red heifer.

 

And all the while Arafat sits and waits, looking and sounding Presidential in a newly decked-out office. Two can play the image game. 

 

Manor Farm redux. The animal world is cock-a-hoop. Madcow, Sars, HIV, West Nile, Monkeypox…..….aniterrorism! The Center for Disease Control  has decided to release smallpox vaccine. Maybe animals are sentient after all. They know a rogue class when they see one.

 

So does patriot John Ashcroft 11. Afraid to admit some mistakes were made in the treatment of suspect terrorists, the AG is beginning to rattle the White House the way he rattled senators at his confirmation hearing. Terrorpox has to be confronted: astutely.

 

Newspox also has to be confronted. One hundred dead in Iraq in the last few days and that’s all we know.

 

No embeds. No questions. No insight. No follow-up. Poxnews. 

Bush pre-emption has scared the living daylights out of Castro. Not particularly known for his sang-froid, the Cuban dictator is on the edge-of-his-seat.

Provocative American diplomats, converging values and interests, gave the green light to disaffected activists who were promptly rounded-up and jailed. Subversion and salsa don’t mix in the Caribbean Communist nirvana.

Then the old Europeans decided to strike another blow at the Western hemisphere. Teed off by the jailings and the speedy firing-squad execution of (US bound) hijackers, the EU has placed its relations with Havana on review.

Castro is beside himself and smells conspiracy. The Iranian Mullahs know how he feels.

If only the Syrians would get the message. They joined the Germans and French in abstaining on a successful (12-0) UN vote to extend US exemption from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Yokels!     

11:04:32 AM