Did you know that the Mars rovers continue to rove about the red planet? And that they have lasted more than twice the length of their life expectancy? Odder yet, the Opportunity rover has experienced power boosts thanks to two or three mysterious “cleaning events” to its solar panels.

I’m flipping through the TV channels and see that–surprise!–Larry King Live has a panel offering another hour of speculation on the Scott Peterson case.
Today’s headline, in case you were asleep all day, is that a juror was dismissed. Among the captions rotating at the bottom of the screen, where space is at a premium, the program notes that the alternate juror is a “tattooed mother of four.”
So what does this mean? Does the fact that this juror has tatoos make her more predisposed to side with the prosecution, or with the defense? America needs to know.
Will this trial ever end?

Outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft:

I take great personal satisfaction in the record which has been developed. The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved. The rule of law has been strengthened and upheld in the courts.

Hey, only one week after the election and the Bush administration has already secured us from crime and terror! I wonder what the TSA and all these security companies are going to do now, not to mention the U.S. troops fighting a now-moot war in Iraq.
Kind of interesting that the letter is dated November 2. Here I thought that Bush had been burning the midnight oil the past few days making agonizing decisions about who he was going to retain in the Cabinet. Guess not.
It’s also interesting that Ashcroft’s letter has been reported as being a five-page handwritten letter. There must either be more than one letter or Ashcorft writes really, really big.

I don’t have any embedded reporters or intelligence on the ground in Iraq, but I’m guessing that despite the media’s breathless coverage of Operation Phantom Fury Dawn al-Fajr the attack on Fallujah, we’re not going to see a culminating Alamo-type stand where U.S forces crush the evildoers. At least not if the insurgents have any sense. Most of them will simply melt into the general population and continue their bombings and shootings somewhere else.
And all the while we’ll continue to hear about the “brilliance” of the Iraqi invasion, and how we’re about to turn the corner on the violence there. Even as the death toll continues to climb.
What a mess.
Even after a year and a half of this turmoil, there are still plenty of Iraqis who apparently still prefer their home-grown violence over our imported version:

In a key political development, the Iraqi Islamic Party withdrew from the 100-person interim National Council in protest of the offensive.
“Military action against any city is the wrong answer and will not solve anything,” said Mohsen Abdul Hamid, head of the group.

As long as people continue to resent American forces in Iraq, there’s going to be violence. And there doesn’t appear to be an end to that in sight.

Heh.

I added a few pictures taken at Cades Cove this summer to the photo gallery.
How long until it’s summertime again?