Odds and Ends

Some quick news briefings while I continue to recover from my trip-

Tropical storm (hurricane?) Ernesto heads toward Florida, bringing Katrina-fueled worries.

The head of Hezbollah continues to win the PR war... claims he totally regrets that war broke out after the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers. "We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not," Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview.

Meanwhile, the European Union pledges thousands of peacekeepers to Lebanon.

And Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invites President Bush to join him in a televised debate.

Former Vice President Al Gore warns that "democracy is under attack" and places blame on media entities who facilitate the dumbing-down of political dialogue. "That same phenomenon [of over-packaging and marketing] has now happened to democracy," he said.

On a related note, voters agree that the political system in the U.S. is "badly broken."

Finally, many remainings pieces in the Plame leak mystery may be falling into place as new revelations finger former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as the one who may have leaked Plame's identity to Robert Novak. However, there are many questions as to the level of Armitage's involvement in the larger story, particularly whether he knew what he was doing or whether he was just passing along 'gossip'. Many see what Armitage did as having been separate from the Cheney/Libby/Rove actions taken in retaliation against Joe Wilson.

And thus the saga continues...