Brian

National - Last night the Senate confirmed Bush’s appointment Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, replacing Alberto Gonzalez who resigned because of a scandal in the Justice Department. However, the Senate was held up because Mukasey refused to say how he stood on the waterboarding interrogation technique. This technique is banned by international law and treaties, but Mukasey says he refused to comment on it, because he did not know enough about it to know if he could define it as torture, and he did not want to make federal employees who have used this technique vulnerable to lawsuits.

Opinion – This guy is a retired judge, so I have no doubt he has the experience to do the job. On the waterboarding issue, I probably would have done the same thing. The Democrats in the Senate were most likely just using this as an excuse to not confirm this guy if they didn’t like him.

National - In Virginia a cruise ship with 66 people on board ran aground. Passengers ate breakfast waiting to be rescued. It wasn’t clear why the ship was taking on water.

Opinion – I went on a cruise over the summer and I could see that if something bad happened, people would just keep eating. That’s what I would do. I’d pick up some ice-cream on the way to the lifeboats.

International - Beijing has denied allegations of the European media that Bibles (and other religious texts) will be banned during next summer’s Olympic Games. The only exceptions to this are the texts of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. Visitors to Beijing will only be allowed to bring one Bible with them though. The Beijing government thinks that the allegations were meant to try to keep the city from hosting the Olympics. The Chinese government controls the printing of Bibles in the country in general, and religious texts must have government approval.

Opinion – It’s too bad we can’t really do anything about China’s religious intolerance, or at least their control over all the churches in that country. But at least they are letting Bibles in for the Games.

International - So I don’t have a lot of time to write, but there’s gonna be a big storm in Europe. Or at least a lot of bad ones. They’re supposed to be the worst since 1976. Oh my!

Opinion – I like the rain, but I guess they get enough there…