Bits and Pieces

" the inaugural speech reflected a worldview dramatically at odds with that in many parts of Europe and the Middle East, where it has only confirmed the image of Bush as an American unilateralist pursuing his own agenda with messianic fervor." -- Washington Post

An oh my! from the Washington Post: (the Strategic Support Branch! Um, haven't we already experienced an "SS" unit under the direction of a despot in world history?)

The Pentagon, expanding into the CIA's historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad, according to interviews with participants and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld's written order to end his "near total dependence on CIA" for what is known as human intelligence. Designed to operate without detection and under the defense secretary's direct control, the Strategic Support Branch deploys small teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists alongside newly empowered special operations forces.

Quotation of the day from the New York Times:
"Let me tell you something important. As long as my country is under occupation, I feel that my vote means nothing."WALID MUHAMMAD, the imam of a major Sunni mosque in Iraq.

"Ghost Units" in the Alabama Boy Scout Organization? What is this world coming to?????

Finally, sadly, from Yahoo News, long-time host of the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, has passed away at 79, from the effects of emphysema.