Checkin' out Interpol Well, it's like a return to the Mersey bands of the late '50s' early '60s, that's what Interpol sounds like to me. Not bad, really. They've got a strong rhythm section and a quirky vocal arrangement on one song "She's Back." I haven't a clue what the hell the girl dancing in the waterlogged room is all about – I'm sure it's an obscure, inside joke among the band members.

Whatever. Worth checking out!

It's Sunday and it's 11 a.m. which means it's time to check out George Stephanopoulos' interviews. It strikes me as odd that former presidential advisers left and right are showing up as hosts on news feature programs. But that's the nature of power, I suppose. Once you're in the Beltway you've got pretty much carte blanche access to nearly any job in media, both visible and otherwise.

Right now Ambassador Paul Bremer is dancing around the question "Doesn't the United States NEED more troops from other countries to legitimize its imperialistic colonization of Iraq?" Bremer seems uncomfortable with the question, or perhaps it's the premise of the question that's got him wriggling on the spit, so to speak.

It appears to me that many predictions made before we entered into this adventure in Iraq are coming true. Tribal factions are fighting one another and U.S. and British troops are caught in the middle; government restructuring seems to be confusing our representatives (the administration's front folks) and the apparent truth is, we launched this venture without really thinking it through and covering the bases.

An image of Uncle Sam laboring under the weight of the land mass that is Iraq springs to mind. It seems more and more transparent to me that Bush and his oil-hungry crew were shortsighted in their planning to meet the stated goals for Iraq, and now, when the whole premise for the war is the subject of jokes around many a water cooler and the ineptitude of our administration's efforts to "democratize" Iraq is is beginning to look like a sad fiasco to even the president's supporters, that we've bitten off more than we can chew. The infiltration by terrorists into Iraq is a certainty, yet our troops are unable to even begin to stop it. Why? Because we didn't plan for that little possibility and, therefore, we don't have the manpower on the ground to cover the vast borders of that desert nation.

The answer, Bush seems to think, is to get the electricity flowing and all will be well. What an idiotic rationale! The Iraqis, it seems to me, have made it clear that they want the Americans to stop shooting willy-nilly anyone who uses a cell phone after dark, or drives toward a checkpoint as curfew nears.

We are faced with a serious dilemma in Iraq but no one seems to be making an effort to solve it. Our troops are, more and more, feeling threatened and unwanted and our Iraqi lackeys don't seem to be providing much help. The latest report I've heard stated that the interim government the U.S. convened feels like a fifth wheel. Members of the Iraqi government – albeit the U.S. controlled Iraqi government – have complained that they are ignored by both military and political leaders, and that for Bush to blame them for a failure of intelligence on terrorist activities is unfounded based on that fact (if fact it be).

And here in the states we have the ridiculous California recall campaign (oh no, another bad actor is running for high office), and Ashcroft, the nation's jack-booted lawman, traveling through key states trying to convince doubters that the Homeland Security Act is a good thing. That the administration is using it ONLY to protect law-abiding citizens and attack terrorists. But how do we know if that's true? Ashcroft answers to no one, not even the Congress. So we're left to simply trust his word; yea, right.

Well, it's another day in the life and life goes on. So I'm out.

Have yourself a merry little ... oops, too early for that. Just have a good day, OK.

Ciao.