Thursday, August 04, 2005

Raven is reading the Jordan Times--hard copy version.

"Well, they buried King Fahd. Seems he went from being a live root vegetable to a dead one--and life goes on. For the rest of us."

Speak for yourself, Rave. Three months of traveling has pretty well done me in.

Raven looks up from the paper.

"Well, it sure could be worse. We could still be in Quito waiting for your new passport."

True. Three months of waiting for that would definitely be worse. Still, it's been wearying: Mexico, Seattle, Mexico again, Amman--and next week, Bahrain.

"The hops are getting shorter, anyway. We birds are pretty used to flying around all the time, you know."

So. Any news besides the royal funeral?

Raven leaves the paper on the coffee table and parks himself in front of the computer screen.

"A coup in Mauritania. The president is in Niger--cashing in on deliveries by the World Food Organization, I suppose. Hijinks from W--who defends an Oriole baseballer's use of steroids. Well, who insists he didn't use them. That was the two of the one-two punch of his appointing John Big Mouth Bully Bolton Ambassador to the UN over the objections of the Senate. Maybe it should be the three as John Rogers gets ready to mow down abortionists from the bench of the Supreme Court."

How would Bush know if the guy used steroids?

"Moving past rhetorical questions...bombs exploding in Iraq and Turkey, police in London waiting for bombs to explode. Iran has a new president. Sudan has a new vice-president after John Garang died in a helicopter accident in bad weather."

Sounds like a Latin American tradition of rigged helicopter assassinations has moved to Africa.

"Probably. Torrijos has not been forgotten. The CIA has to keep the civil war in Sudan going somehow. Nothing gums up the US agenda faster than peace."

Apparently. Any news on when Dick Mad Dog Cheney is planning to parachute into Tehran with the Special Forces and take on Iran's nuclear program?

"No. But it shouldn't be too long now. Watch this space."

No comments: