Who remembers the Iraqi Information Minister? He issued some wonderful statements:

"We have destroyed 2 tanks, fighter planes, 2 helicopters and their shovels - We have driven them back."

"They are not in Baghdad. They are not in control of any airport. I tell you this. It is all a lie. They lie. It is a hollywood movie. You do not believe them."

"It has been rumored that we have fired scud missiles into Kuwait. I am here now to tell you, we do not have any scud missiles and I don't know why they were fired into Kuwait."

for more brilliance, see [We Love the Iraqi Information Minister]. Anyway, I was vaguely reminded of this by, as Jesus likes to say, the "grey lady."

A Bin Laden deputy was seen on tape as saying

``The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has become a matter of time, with God's help,''

and

``The Americans in both countries are between two fires, if they continue they bleed to death and if they withdraw they lose everything.''

I'm still waiting for bin Laden to be captured days before the election.