Although this subject is not relevant to the purpose of this blog, I'd like to interject my opinion WRT Terri Schiavo. Here is where I stand on the issue, I am for the right to die. But who determins that is the issue here. I believe that a parent, mother in particular, should be responsible for their children unless some action was taken to sever the blood link between the two.

Back to politics... Why in the hell is Washington getting involved in this?

Why is it involved in baseball?

There is a deficit, wars, a propagandistic claim of a crisis in Social Security, serious voting problems throughout the union, a pending environmental disaster, and the list goes on...

Yet Washington meddles in sports and local family matters... This is cover!

Please visit my new site, created for Wake Up & Act

Juan Cole has an excelent article here at Salon.com.

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi says Italian Troops out of Iraq soon:

ROME (Reuters) - Italy will start to withdraw its troops from Iraq this September, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday.

"We will begin to reduce our contingent even before the end of the year, starting in September, in agreement with our allies," he said in an interview on state television RAI.

Italy has 3,000 troops in Iraq, the fourth largest foreign contingent after the United States, Britain and South Korea.

Enerst T Bass went into the dark void at freerepublic (no link, conservative rag) and pulled this:

To: MadIvan

If we still have troops in Kosovo, we should pullout. Let the EU-ro-peons deal with it.

I'm fed up with these wussies dumping everything in our lap.

Ernest followed with:

"Dumping everything in our lap."

That is comical.

Bush dumped it in the world's lap. Bush created the mess. The Italians have reasonably concluded their participation in Bush's mess is not tenable, and they have made a decision to pull out.

"Dumping everything in our lap," indeed. Check your diapers, freepers. Looks like it is you who have soiled yourselves.

I believe Ernest hit a HR...

Links:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5293904.html

BBC

Pentagon targeted:

Sensors at two military mail facilities in the Washington area detected signs of anthrax on two pieces of mail Monday, but Pentagon officials said the mail had already been irradiated, rendering any anthrax inert.

Officials weren't sure if this was an attack. Additional tests and other sensors at the two facilities, one of them at the Pentagon and the other nearby, found no presence of the bacteria, which can be used as a biological weapon. There were no initial reports of illness.

bla,bla