What's sad is you are absolutely right about what people will care about.

(I say that with the caveat, that even if the other story was Kerry beating babies of 9/11 mom's America would still care more about that latter story)

- The Big dog sits there tall on his stead...muscles bulging....fire in his eyes....his lance fearsome....his gaze burning holes in you....He outweighs you and out ranks you in every regard....

- What do you do?......you do the only thing you can do.....you meet him head on attacking his greatest strength and hope for a lucky hit....

- Thats what we have here.....Medievil jousting rules...No holds barred....May the best, most cunning, and luckiest man win.....

- It would be nice if after all these centuries we had grown as a species to some semblance of civility...But the truth is that in Washington, as most enterprises in life, there is no second place.....

It amazes me to no end how these giants of journalism know that the missing explosives looted from El-Qaaqa are the very same explosives now killing American soldiers. What powers of intuitive ability these intellectual giants possess. Why do we leave military and police matters to mere mortals when everyone should know that it is the members of our news media who should run the US national security and homeland security programs. Their deductive abilities would astound the philistines who serve in the armed services.

By the way, there were thousands and thousands of tons of explosives, weapons, etc. in Iraq -- much of it destroyed by our military. And the news media are obsessed with a few tons? And Kerry makes such reckless statements based on those media reports? Even an idiot who spent four months in Vietnam should know better.

well, kevin, I'm afraid that the al Qaqaa story is still on---even on foxnews. (although fox does give greater prominence to the UNVERIFIED terrorist video...I have no idea if the tape is genuine or not, but it looks and sounds so much like something out of a a really bad made-for-TBS movie, I don't think it will have much impact.)

jim wrote:
By the way, there were thousands and thousands of tons of explosives, weapons, etc. in Iraq -- much of it destroyed by our military. And the news media are obsessed with a few tons? And Kerry makes such reckless statements based on those media reports? Even an idiot who spent four months in Vietnam should know better.

gosh Jim, I guess the fact that Kerry did TWO tours of duty in Vietnam escaped your notice....

But you are correct that there is a much larger story....the fact that the 380 tons of missing explosives is relatively minor, when compared to the 250,000-600,000 tons of munitions that remain unaccounted for.

But the HMX story is significant, because this was stuff that has specific use in the creation of nuclear weapons---and we SUPPOSEDLY went into Iraq to keep this kind of stuff out of the hands of terrorists.

(Personally, i think that most of the HMX wound up in Iran, along with all that equipment and machinery that could be used in nuclear weapons development that was expertly dismantled...the RDX and PETN, however, is probably in the hands of insurgents....)

oh, and Kerry's statements were not based on "media reports." They were based on what the Allawi government had to say about the missing explosives.

I wonder if Little Green Footballs and Wizbang will start questioning the authenticity of the "Azzam the American" tape, and screaming bloody murder that Fox is involved in a conspiracy on behalf of Bush.

After all, according to Fox

"We cannot verify the authenticity of this tape," one official said after the preliminary technical analysis presented inconclusive results. One source said the verification process had been complicated because the tape is a copy, not an original.

A COPY! NOT AN ORIGINAL! AND THEY ARE SHOWING IT WITHOUT FULLY VERIFYING ITS AUTHENTICITY! OH MY GOD!

(I wonder if I can get "http://www.humegate.com registered before anyone else does)

Lesley Stahl? Barf. Someone needs to tell her to quit dressing like a 25-year-old. Those short skirts are absolutely inappropriate and disgusting.

john kerry wants us to bow down to a global test and get permission from the u.n. to protect our country. The same u.n. that left hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives, some of which could be used to detonate nuclear weapons, in Iraq in the hands of saddam hussein. Oh wait...they were sealed in with twist-ties...nevermind...

Looking back to the late 1960's, maybe the local sherrif in L.A. should've stored any confiscated guns and knives out at the Charles Manson commune for "safe keeping".

Oh, Moseby, that was funny. Thanks for the good laugh. After a night of all this serious stuff, it caught me by surprise. Thanks again :)