Ambassador Defends Suicide Murderers

And now the most fascinating two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

Knows More Than Iambic Pentameter
Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Great Britain, who gained notoriety back in April when he wrote a poem praising a Palestinian suicide murderer, is back in the news again. Ambassador Ghazi Algosaibi has now told a university audience in London that the Israeli military action in the West Bank is  “a war of occupation, far more severe than anything the Germans did when they occupied Europe in World War II." The ambassador again defended suicide murderers saying, according to the London Telegraph, that they were driven to extremes by the Israeli occupation.

Controversial Cowboy
A country-and-western singer who said during a holiday concert that immigrants to this country should learn to speak English is now up to his boots in controversy. Singer Chad Brock interspersed his songs at a Friday concert in Greeley, Colo., with some political observations, including the following, "You are coming to our country. We don't speak Russian. We don't speak Spanish. We speak English here." Many Hispanics reportedly walked out, while non-Hispanics cheered. Hispanic leaders are demanding an apology. Roberto Cordova, a local professor, said the comments were "bigoted, inflammatory and hateful."

Fanning the Flames?
Environmental groups have denied that their legal actions made the current round of western forest fires worse by block needing brush clearing and forest thinning. But a new report from the Forest Service obtained by the Denver Post says that environmental lawsuits have delayed nearly half of the services attempts to cut the underbrush that feeds the fires. The report said that of 326 forest thinning  and cutting projects nationwide over the past year and a half, 155 were delayed by appeals filed by environmental activists.

With Friends Like These...
Republican Sen. John McCain has joined with Senate Democratic leaders in calling for the ouster of Bush SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt. He is also now supporting Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy's proposals to crack down on corporate cheaters. Meanwhile, public records place McCain among the Senate's top recipients of campaign money from WorldCom Inc., whose executives took the fifth before Congress this week in the face of a multibillion dollar accounting fraud. Records show that McCain ranked third behind, Democrats Ernest Hollings and Byron Dorgan, with $23,900 in WorldCom Inc. donations since 1989.