I'm working late on a project.

I'm probably going to be working late all month.

But at least I'm working late at home with the window wide open, lots of fresh spring scents drifting in, and thunder rumbling in the distance.

I've decided that I need to become multi-millionaire immediately and all this leftie stuff will just slow me down ...

From the Whitehouse:

We Know Iraqis Can Live Together Peacefully. Iraq is a nation with many ethnic, religious, sectarian, regional, and tribal divisions - and before Saddam, Iraqis from different communities managed to live together. Even today, many Iraqi tribes have both Sunni and Shia branches, and in many small towns with mixed populations, there is often only one mosque, where Sunnis and Shia worship together. Intermarriage is common, with mixed families that include Arabs, Kurds, Sunnis, Shia, Turkmen, Assyrians, and Caldeans.

Article from Times

The fragile state of the sectarian divide in Iraqi politics was exposed today when a fight broke out in parliament after a mobile phone ringtone played a Shia Muslim chant.
A procedural session of the Iraqi parliament was suspended as Shia and Sunni leaders stormed out to protest the ringtone and the subsequent scuffle, which erupted between the armed bodyguards of the Sunni speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani and the hardline Shia politician, Gufran al-Saidi.

A roughly similar French version on my blog.

Everywhere were the shells of the great beetles which men had made and worshipped. They were automobiles. They had killed everything.
— Kurt Vonnegut

Napolitano was certainly the best all around choice. The opposition missed an occasion to appear responsible. In all of this B is the big loser.

On another note there are very important developments in the Abu Omar kidnapping case. A carabinieri, ROS Marshall Luciano Pironi, has confessed to having been an off-hours CIA irregular who participated in the actual kidnapping. His confession unveils probable collusion of the Italian government and the Sismi in the case- something both have always denied. The scoop will be published tomorrow, Friday, in the Espresso weekly.

It´s fitting that the care-taker Berlusconi government in its last throws can only release official notes of denial that aren´t worth the water they´re written on.

You can view the responses (and ballot) here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/11/185735/663

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

President Bush's job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an "excellent or pretty good" job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January.

Second:

Monkeys drink more alcohol when housed alone, and some like to end a long day in the lab with a boozy cocktail, according to a new analysis of alcohol consumption among members of a rhesus macaque social group.

US military, intelligence officials raise concern about possible preparations for Iran strike

Strike could come earlier than thought

Other military and intelligence sources are expressing concern both privately and publicly that air strikes on Iran could come earlier than believed.

Retired Air Force Colonel and former faculty member at the National War College Sam Gardiner has heard some military suggestions of a possible air campaign in the near future, and although he has no intimate knowledge of such plans, he says recent aircraft carrier activity and current operations on the ground in Iran have raised red flags.

Gardiner says his concerns have kept him busy attempting to create the most likely scenario should such an attack occur.

"I would expect two or three aircraft carriers would be moved into the area," Gardner said, describing what he thinks is the best way air strikes could be carried out without disengaging assets from US fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Two air-craft carriers are already en route to the region, RAW STORY has found. The USS Abraham Lincoln, which recently made a port call in Singapore, and the USS Enterprise which left Norfolk, Virginia earlier this month, are headed for the Western Pacific and Middle East. The USS Ronald Reagan is already operating in the Gulf....

Steven Aftergood, senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, says that the B-2 bomber is capable of such long range activity.

"The B2 bomber was designed, with the Soviet Union in mind, for intercontinental operations," Aftergood said. "With aerial refueling, it has a range of up to 10,000 miles."

Like Gardiner, Aftergood has heard similar claims with regard to a June strike, but has not been able to confirm them independently.

Intelligence sources confirm hearing the allegations of a June attack, but have been unable to fully confirm that such an attack is in the works. Both the New Yorker and the Washington Post have previously reported that the Pentagon is studying military options on Iran.

Question for Jerome and other experts:

Is there a move in the financial and energy markets that will signal that a significant portion of the participants expect an attack in the near future?