Is Bin Laden still alive?

Transterrestrial Musings blog speculates that Bin Laden has been dead for years. He figures the reason we haven't seen a Bin Laden video for a long time, just audios, is that Bin Laden is actually pushing up daises and is thus unavailable for filming. Audio tapes are easier to fake than video so we just get audio. The piece ends wondering why our "intellegence" agencies won't call OBL dead.
Another real good question is why CIA issues a press release authenticating every OBL tape. Smarter, and of more benefit to the United States, would be to say nothing. As it is, the United States government, via CIA, confirms OBL is alive each time they authenticate one of his tapes. Let OBL's people do the selling of OBL's tapes as real, as opposed to fake.

Blind Man's Bluff by Sherry Sontag and Chris Drew

Great book of cold war submarine war stories. Decribes the underwater collisions, the tapping of Soviet underseas cables, the Glomar Explorer, the trailing of Soviet missile subs. Reads like "Hunt for Red October" but these stories are true. At least as true as sea stories told years afterward can be. Describes a political tug of war between the Navy and CIA for control of submarine secret operations. CIA finally won, and then had so much fun showing the "take" from submarine operations around Washington ("Look how clever we are") that secrecy was compromised. Seymour Hersh broke the story of salvaging a Soviet sub on the front page of the New York Times, largely based on CIA leaks. The book points out how big a PITA Seymour Hersh has been and for how long. Good old Seymour has been doing uncomplimentary stories about the United States since Viet Nam days. He is still at it, writing in the New Yorker Magazine (rather than the NYT), with down beat stories from Iraq.

No TV cameras at the 9/11 trial??

According to the Lehrer News Hour, the trial of KSM and the other 5 9/11 plotters will NOT be on TV. Big mistake. You put the trial on TV to let the whole world know how guilty the bastards are. Do the trial on a Quonset hut at Gitmo and nobody watches, nobody knows, and the effect is lost. In fact, our Islamist enemies will say the trial is rigged, a drumhead courtmartial, and KSM &Co are converted into martyrs.
Even the Iraqi's televised Saddam's trial. Could it be that in the rule of law United States a televised trial will come out like the OJ Simpson trial?

After seven years we are gonna try the 9/11 terrorists

Good idea. A good public televised trial will go far to convince folks worldwide that the United States has real enemies that have caused horrible injury to to nation. It should squelch the "truthers" who claim 9/11 was a put up job. Too bad it took the administration seven years to bring an indictment. Assume the ever efficient US courts or military commisions and appeals will take another seven years to play out. Justice delayed is justice denied. We should have executed the 9/11 bastards five years ago.

Why to keep the electoral college system

We should stick with the old electoral college system for just one reason; the citizens are used to it. It's been there since George Washington's time, we learned about it in school, and the bulk of the citizens think it is OK. It gives legitimacy to the newly elected president. In particular it transforms a tiny edge in the popular vote into a sizable majority in the electoral college, so a new president has his popular mandate strengthened. New presidents need all the help they can get, otherwise a fractious Congress will stymy all their initiatives.

Repulican VeepStakes

Lots of talk about a vice president for McCain. My views. McCain wants to wait until he is formally nominated at the Republican convention before he talks about or nominates a VP, lest he offend Republicans by appearing to claim the nomination early. Given McCain's age, a lot of voters will be reassured if the vice presidential candidate is in excellent health (unlike Dick Cheney), is ready to assume the duties of president should McCain die unexpectedly(unlike Dan Quale), and shares McCain's political views. Voters like McCain, but they would like an insurance policy just in case the grim reaper comes early. I think these considerations out weigh selection of a vice president just because he can bring in a couple of states worth of electoral college votes. Thoughtful voters want some continuity should bad things happen.

The Ann Colbert show comes to town

Just been watching C-Span's rerun of Ann Coulter's talk to Young Americans for Freedom (a conservative outfit). Why do we think Ann has any intellectual weight at all? She is amusing, with an endless store of zingers, but other than that, the Colbert Report has more substance. She started off trashing Obama, commenting upon his family background with a nasty edge to it. Nothing quite over the line, but managing to call him a black candidate for blacks which is mean spirited at best. Then she started in on McCain, raking up all the votes he made that upset conservatives. She called McCain less electable than Romney which no experienced adult believes. At no time did she say anything of real value or show real insight into political character, US politics, international relations or economics. She is an empty skirt.