Saturday Morning Grab Bag

1) A French newspaper has printed a French Intelligence report of a Saudi security services claim that Osama bin Laden died last month of typhoid in Pakistan. Could this be the "October surprise" that Karl Rove has been telling GOPers about? This outcome, if true, is a mixed bag. On the one hand, is it good that he's dead? Of course. The two most positive aspects of this are that: 1) he died a slow, horrible death (not very Christian of me, I know) and 2) that he didn't go out in a blaze of glory that could be spun as being grandly martyred. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. Ever since we let him go in Tora Bora in favor of invading Iraq, this was probably the best outcome we could hope for short of taking him alive. Let's hope it's true. (Interesting political question: If this was the "October surprise", could the French have deliberately leaked this report to diffuse its impact on the fall elections to hurt Bush? I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.) 2) There has been a lot of noise about RK reporting Wadham's demotion at Allen HQ (the actual Allen HQ, not the crappy propaganda "blog" that doesn't allow dissent - I mean comments). If it is, in fact, untrue that he's been demoted, I think we should all breathe a sigh of relief that the same ineffective, self-destructing campaign we've seen will continue unabated. Looks like we dodged a bullet. 3) 3 great posts from across the VA blogosphere this morning: The trivia king at Southwest Distress detailing the hypocrisy of the Bush administration's so-called "culture of life" when contrasted with the damage to life their lax, pro-corporation environmental policies have caused. March to a Different Drummer has a post about the ridiculousness of the Republican plan to eliminate the so-called "death tax" in favor of system that promotes the creation of what Warren Buffet derides as "dynastic wealth" in the US. Bearing Drift has an aptly timed call for civility and an end to demonization of our political opponents (the first commenter clearly does not understand the meaning of the word "irony"). 4) Huskers 19, Troy 18