Headmaster, I too find it difficult to believe this mere coincidence.

There are all sorts of conspiracy stories floating around about the terrorism plot in London and the plan to bomb planes bouncing around. The story looks legit so far and I've seen nothing that would make me doubt it hasn't gone down the way the British government claims.

Having said that I don't doubt for a second that Dick Cheney and Tony Snow's comments yesterday were in anticipation of today's announcement and an effort to capitalize on the attention it brings.

I was thinking this morning that the Republican "Oh my God Dems are soft on terror!" political attacks may actually be good for the country. Should the Democrats take the House and/ or Senate it seems to me that one of the first things they're going to want to do is insulate themselves from that line of attack by moving to pass legislation to actually improve U.S. security. That means inspecting the cargo holds of all U.S. flights, adding back Air Marshalls that the Bush administration had cut, inspecting cargo ships that enter the U.S. and accounting for nuclear weapons in the former Soviet republics.

All the things the Bush administration doesn't think as important to our security as taking out a petty dictator half a world away.