Sanctions & Machine Guns

China remains concerned about the impact of the sanctions, as pressures could drive refugees across the border and into their country.

Fearful of what Karl Rove's 'October Surprise' might entail, liberal bloggers are wondering about the departure of the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group to the Middle East as indicative of a possible strike against Iran.

I'd like to think the Bush Administration isn't so demented that they're seriously considering a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Speaking of boys and their toys, the Coast Guard wants to mount and test M-240B machine guns on their cruisers patrolling the Great Lakes.

The problem, other than the potential of some drunks getting a safety inspection at gunpoint, is that there's a treaty limiting arms on the Great Lakes. It was signed with Canada after the War of 1812.

"Our treaty had always said the Great Lakes will not be militarized," said Mayor David Miller of Toronto. "And in effect, this remilitarizes them in the name of a threat from 9/11."

"I don't know when or if something might happen on the Great Lakes," said the Coast Guard admiral overseeing the Great Lakes region, "but I don't want to learn the hard way."

One businessman expressed concerns about our open border with Canada. Local fishermen and environmental advocates are concerned about the impact of bullets from test-firing exercises. (They're talking about lead; I hope the geniuses in charge of this program aren't thinking about using depleted uranium shells.)

23-year old Aishah Azmi is a teaching assistant in a school in Britain.

She is also a Muslim woman who observes her religion's rules and wears a full veil.

Prompting Phil Woolas, a local government official whose brief includes race relations, to remark that Ms. Azmi has put herself in a position where she can't do her job and should be sacked.

Aishah had been asked to remove her veil, apparently because the children had trouble understanding her in English lessons. She refused, and was suspended.

The council says the school's action has nothing to do with religion.

Paramount Pictures has hired Cyrus Nowresteh to pen the script for their film on the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Oliver Stone is the director.

Nowresteh was the writer who brought us ABC's, "The Path to 9/11," which was denounced for glaring factual errors.

The basis for the film is a book called, "Jawbreaker," which criticizes the Clinton Administration and praises President Bush, who, as we all know, was working hard on catching our favorite six-foot tall dialysis patient as soon as he got the memo.

Of course, the important thing to note about Bush and bin Laden is that Osama is still lounging about in his suite in the Pakistan Hilton hiding in the desolate mountains bordering Afghanistan.

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