brainrow

This worries me:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, a moderate conservative and often decisive vote, was hospitalized for a stent procedure after experiencing mild chest pains, a court spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Let’s pray for Justice Kennedy’s full and speedy recovery. He might be the final obstacle to George W. Bush’s vision of a monarchical presidency. We need him.

For two more years, George W. Bush gets to pick the judges who fill any vacancy on a federal court — including the Supreme Court. If the rubber-stamp Republicans retain control of the Senate, you can bet he’ll name extremists sympathetic to unlimited presidential power (so long as the president is a right-wing Republican).

So let’s back up our prayers with deeds. Here’s the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. This seems like a good time to give them money.

From the NewsHour last night, Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, discussed why Osama bin Laden wanted to attack the United States:

By provoking America, he hoped to get America to follow in the footsteps of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He imagined that America, like the other super-power, the Soviet Union, would blumder into Afghanistan and there be bled to death by Muslim holy warriors. So it was an escalation on his part to try to draw the U.S. into Afghanistan and then rally Muslims to attack us, thereby creating a unified Muslim umma — an army of Muslims who would then be able to spread their message throughout the world.

…

We don’t know the ending.

I can tell you this: in November or December of 2001, when American and coalition forces invaded Afghanistan and fought the battle of Tora Bora, although we didn’t capture or kill bin Laden or Zawahiri or some of the other top lieutenants, al Qaeda was essentially dead. Not only had most of the members been killed or captured, it was repudiated throughout the world. The internal documents show that they were in great despair.

Unfortunately, Iraq — the war in Iraq — has given them new life, and I fear the progeny of al Qaeda are going to be with us for a long time.