Cut to the videotape...

Well, the latest buzz is over the new Bin Laden tape.

To be honest, I was surprised that it came out, because I was pretty sure he was dead and all. I think other people did too, so I wonder what the reaction will be in the elections. The Kerry Spot at NRO seems to see it as likely to turn the election to Bush. I hope so, but i'm not so sure. It does remind people that terrorism still exists and that AQ would like to kill us all. The fact that OBL says he hit the towers should quash all but the most crazy of the "why did Bush knock down the towers" conspiracy nuts.

What worries me is that some people may find comfort in OBL's claims that his attacks was brought on by US action, and that the US following a Swedish-type policy will let them off the hook. It seems that some on the left seem to be acting like OBL is just a rational guy with a different and legitimate point of view. The headline of the early edition of the Sunday Baltimore Sun is "Bin Laden urges US policy shift" -as if OBL was the leader of a legitimate country and not a madman who orders planes full of vacationers to crash into towers full of of secretaries and bond traders. OBL isn't "urging policy shifts" - he's using violence against innocent US citizens to try change the US from the world's only superpower into an Islamic theocracy.