[Mavdog]

I do have to mention that this was a good day in the Bush camp, they seem to have stopped the descent with some good news from Iraq and from the other side of the aisle.

The best news came from Iraq, where Al-Sistani ended his seemingly internal exile and issued an approval of the Interim government. This one man seems to be critical to that country's (and the ability to be leaving sooner) succcess.

A UN resolution appears to be close as well, which is the first step in untangling the US occupation. No matter who is elected this fall the look and composition of the forces in Iraq will change, and the sooner this is done the better for all involved.

Domestically, the Bush campaign got the fall guy for the security/intelligence failures. Not saying that Tenet was forced out or even that he is the person responsible, just that his stepping down makes him an easy role player. Nothing wrong with being opportunistic during a campaign. Now they can make the point that there are changes that will take place in our spook area, appearing to confront the intelligence failures.

Ralph Nader came out and criticized Kerry's position on energy, and gave the look of a man who is going to keep on running. That was good enough last time, it may be enough this time too. Kerry will pull 4% less with Nader in the race.

Even OPEC joined in with some positive energy and agreed to boost production. I've read that this is really a fascade, they already pump about the amount they agreed today to raise their levels to, yet the move signals that they feel the price of oil has gone too high for anybody's good.

Yep, there's smiling going on over there today. There's still a lot of time left though...