Alberto Gonzales Gone But Not - um... er - uh

No fanfare from Turner/Phelps for Alberto Gonzales. If he had been first to go, we would have done something big and flashy. If he had been the second or third rat to jump ship, we would have made some effort to make light of his leaving, poked fun, and had a good laugh at his expense.

But after so many bananas have fallen from the monkey's tree, Gonzales is just another bruised, over ripe, plantain destined for little more than a footnote in the archives of hangers-on gone bad. He's a sad little crony who's not even worth the effort of double-clicking the Photoshop icon on my desktop and will be forgotten the same way he conveniently forgot all of his own trespasses.

One question: how do you pass the bar exam, sit as a state supreme court judge, rise to the position of the U.S. attorney general, land the role of Texas secretary state, make partner at a major Houston law firm, and teach law at the University of Houston Law Center without having an excellent, if not infallible, memory?

Beware of Low Flying Propaganda

The war dance has begun, with language creeping into daily reporting that prepares the American masses for another war. This time the target is Iran. It's subtle and it's been building for almost a year, but now we're experiencing the actual priming of the pump. Now, the Bush Administration is informally building its case with the American public and most folks will fall right into lock-step behind the marching orders when they come.

I saw a headline today denoting the missile used in an attack earlier this week on a US military base in Iraq was of Iranian origin. How many weapons used by insurgents in Iraq are manufactured in Iraq? None! We destroyed the Iraqi industrial complex (what little complex there was) when we invaded in 2003. Of course they get their weapons from someone else. How many of the weapons the insurgents use, do you think, are American made? Probably a large percentage, considering we routinely misplace about 1 of 25 weapons. Sure, there's a big difference between an insurgent stealing an American rifle and it being sold to him by Iran.

Let's look at it this way:

• When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, we supplied the Taliban with weapons and military training to resist them. Did the Soviets attack us for doing that? No.
• When Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, did Iran attack us directly for supplying him with ordinance and the weapons of mass destruction he used against them? No.
• Did we attack mainland China during the Korean War or during the Vietnam War? No.

We need to face the facts. Not everyone is our friend. That doesn't mean we need to attack everyone who aids our enemies. We should NOT invade Iran. We talked about this way back in 2005 when Rummy was casting his spell of doubt on why we couldn't slug our way out of the quagmire.

Keep your eyes open for this type of propaganda and when they start saying they have "actionable intelligence," just remember that they've used that line before.

Photo Question of the Week

Bikers don't typically make me nervous. I find them to be down-to-earth, lovable, and sometimes even huggable.



What was it, then, about this guy that made the hair on my arms stand up? He passed me doing about 85 mph as we climbed Monument Hill Pass yesterday, tail-gating the guy in front of him, and hugging the center line more than shown in this shot.



Maybe it was the gun he was packing.

Bin Laden Calls for Caravan of Martyrs

But since he urges his followers to live in the 16th century, it's going to be a slow road to annihilation.

I know where to place the blame on not being able to catch and kill Osama. Saudi Arabia. Through their inaction, they are aiding and abetting a known international terrorist; harboring a mass murderer.

Imagine that a member of a wealthy American family became a terrorist, orchestrated the deaths of thousands of English citizens, and then hid in a third world country, where he continued to foment hate against the UK. Let's say it was the grandson of Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, and that his hiding place was in the mountains of Costa Rica.

If the American government stood by it's ally, England, and claimed that it wanted to find and prosecute him, do you think it would be difficult? Would it take years, months, or weeks? Weeks, or less.

This kills me. If the Saudis were actually our allies and as vehemently opposed to Al Qaeda as they claim to be, they would give us credible, up-to-the-minute intelligence on Bin Laden's location, and maybe even have spies among his troops.

We should be focusing more attention on our real enemies.