Time to string 'em up, boys...

I suppose that in retrospect I should have known that it would only take so long before the Bush administration decided to promote the idea of executing Saddam Hussein. I had a conversation with Brad about it already, but I sort of assumed that it would be a while before this was brought up. Of course, we have to remember that according to President Bush it would ultimately be up to 'Iraqi justice,' whatever that might mean in a country that isn't exactly known for its free and independent judicerary. But it's a good thing that the president isn't biasing the case, right? Then there's the PR -- most of the international community opposes the death penalty, so this isn't exactly going to foster a new spirit of multilateralism.

Speaking of Saddam, it seems that the IDF isn't all that pleased with the news coverage of their 1992 plot to assassinate Saddam Hussein, saying that it 'caused serious harm to national security.' In other Israel news, the CIA is predicting that there will be no peace between Israel and Palestine until at least 2020. I tend to agree that the major factor in putting together a peace deal will be the death of Yasser Arafat, who seems to be the major stumbling block on a macro level. However, it doesn't seem to take into account the presence of hardline militant groups, which are very likely going to exist into the future and do their best at disrupting any peace process.

And finally, it looks like the NDP is back up to where it was in the 1980 -- almost literally. A story in the Globe details how Ed Broadbent is considering running in the next Federal election. Given that this was the NDP leader that came closest to being the first Prime Minister from that party, perhaps it provides a foreshadowing of the NDPs electoral success in the upcoming election? Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves...