Late this afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed a cease fire proposal. The Israeli cabinet will vote on it Sunday.

The agreement calls for the deployment of 30,000 Lebanese and U.N. troops along the Israel-Lebanon border. It falls short of some of Israel's demands, including a strong mandate for the U.N. forces to take on Hezbollah guerrillas.

Lebanon has not officially responded, but word is they view it favorably.

The ACLU has lost its case challenging the constitutionality of the New York Subway searches.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected a challenge to the searches by the New York Civil Liberties Union, saying that a lower court judge properly concluded that the program put in place in July 2005 was "reasonably effective."....The appeals court said it was proper for Judge Richard M. Berman to conclude that preventing a terrorist attack on the subway was important enough to subject subway riders to random searches. The text of the opinion is here.

In its written ruling, the appeals court noted that New York's subway system is an "icon of the city's culture and history, an engine of its colossal economy, a subterranean repository of its art and music, and, most often, the place where millions of diverse New Yorkers and visitors stand elbow to elbow as they traverse the metropolis."

The court said that in light of how many people use the subway, it was "unsurprising and undisputed that terrorists view it as a prime target."

This doesn't mean we can't remind the searchers of the Fourth Amendment as they go through our bags.

I forgot to do an open thread earlier this week, so here it is. Jabber away. I'll be back late tonight.

Some news today, courtesy of Patriot Daily.

• Bush's rating drops on nearly every issue
• Road Home Program Requires Fingerprints
• Foiled Terror Plot Comparable to 9/11
• Richardson Calls on Lieberman to Step Aside

Does anyone besides me wonder what would have happened between March, 2003 and now, had Bush not made the decision to take out Saddam and instead focused solely on finding and taking out Osama?

Only the most incompetent of the incompetent could fail to find Osama in five years time. September 11, 2006, which is coming right up upon us, has our leaders in a tizzy. Doesn't it ever occur to them that they wasted three years playing neo-con games in Iraq when they could have invested the manpower and less money in finding Osama and breaking up al Qaeda?

Instead we have a neutered Saddam languishing in a courtroom, while violence in Baghdad has escalated past anyone's expectations.The U.S. repsonse: re-employ 3,700 more of our youth to Baghdad, not to fight our war, but to fight the crazy insurgents.

Bush has been an utter incompetent at dealing with terror threats. Condi Rice has been totally ineffectual at negotiations for a middle east peace plan.

Is there anything this adminstration can do competently and correctly? It sure doesn't seem that way.

Joe Lieberman, puppet of the Bush Administration.

"If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England," Mr. Lieberman said at a campaign event in Waterbury, Conn. "It will strengthen them, and they will strike again."

In 1994, Newt Gingrich's plan was to foist a Contract on America on us, instilling the fear of crime in the heart of every American. In 2006, Lieberman thinks he can propel himself to victory by cementing the fear of terrorism in the heart of every Amercian.

Newt's plan was unsuccessful when it came to crime issues. Lieberman won't fare any better.

[larger version]

U.S. officials say a dry run was planned in the British terror threats. No specific date was believed to have been planned. As to the method,

The F.B.I. and homeland security memo said the plotters expected to use peroxide-based explosives that are "sensitive to heat, shock and friction and can be initiated simply with fire or an electrical charge and can also be used to produce improvised detonators." Other officials in London said the plotters planned to smuggle the liquids in drink bottles.

Leave it to President Bush to treat the news as a political opportunity to push his warrantless surveillance progam.

Update: Crooks and Liars has the video of Bush speaking to the threat.

******
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today tied the British aircraft terror threats to al-Qaeda.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the plot appeared to have been engineered by al-Qaida, the terrorist group that hijacked two planes from Boston on Sept. 11, 2001, and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York.

Things are not progressing smoothly at U.S. airports, so if you are traveling, be forewarned.

Growing lines of irritated travelers snaked through U.S. airport terminals Thursday as people waited hours to reach security checkpoints, where they were ordered to dump their water bottles, suntan lotion and even toothpaste following the discovery of a terror plot in Britain.

The ABA yesterday at its annual meeting passed an important resolution on the death penalty. While not taking a position on whether there should be a death penalty, it's very strong on how the death penalty should not be applied. Here it is in its entirety.

RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association, without taking a position supporting or opposing the death penalty, urges each jurisdiction that imposes capital punishment to implement the following policies and procedures:

1. Defendants should not be executed or sentenced to death if, at the time of the offense, they had significant limitations in both their intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills, resulting from mental retardation, dementia, or a traumatic brain injury.

Newsweek reports the war between Israel and Lebanon could get much bigger in the next several months, paving the way for a military confrontation with Iran.

Over at Alternet, Larisa Alexandrovna, who has been writing about Iran for the past year, explains why Iran and Syria will be drawn into the conflict.

by TChris

With the primary season upon us and the November elections quickly approaching, it's time to raise the threat alert -- to red for flights originating in Britain. New travel restrictions are being implemented in response to the reported arrest of 21 terrorists who were plotting to blow up airplanes in flight from London to the United States.

In the United States, federal officials put in place new regulations barring passengers from carrying any liquids, gels or lotions onto planes, except for baby formula or prescription medicines.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the restrictions reflected the belief of investigators that the plotters planned to bring liquids on board, "each one of which would be benign, but mixed together could be used to create a bomb.''

Chertoff acknowledged the lack of evidence of any similar plots within the U.S.

by TChris

For awhile, Republicans speculated that the indicted Tom DeLay might campaign for his old seat, given court decisions that require his name, as the primary winner, to remain on the ballot. DeLay dashed the hopes of his supporters -- yes, they inexplicably exist -- by reaffirming his intent not to campaign. DeLay no doubt wants to spend his campaign money on his legal fees. What good is another term in Congress, after all, if he has to serve it from a jail cell?

A couple of potential Republican candidates are considering write-in campaigns, while other Republicans are searching for a way to manipulate DeLay's name off the ballot. One idea: appoint the indicted DeLay to a nice government job.

by TChris

The outcome of a democratic primary should be of no official concern to the Republican administration, but Dick Cheney used Ned Lamont's defeat of Joe Lieberman to argue that Democrats support al Qaeda.

Dick Cheney ... went so far as to suggest that the ouster of Mr. Lieberman might encourage "al Qaeda types." "It's an unfortunate development, I think, from the standpoint of the Democratic Party, to see a man like Lieberman pushed aside because of his willingness to support an aggressive posture in terms of our national security strategy,'' Mr. Cheney said in a telephone interview with news service reporters.

Playing the fear card worked for awhile, but the game has changed. The majority of Americans oppose the war. Tell us, Mr. VP, are all those folks giving aid and comfort to "al Qaeda types"?