Not just high on death

CBS aired photographs of Princess Diana dying, so it’s hard to get much sense out of the British papers this week about anything else. In defending them, CBS used the word “tasteful.”

The US has hired a bunch of Saddam’s generals. OK, disbanding the army was arguably stupid, but the fucking generals? Presumably the idea is that generals put aside their politics, their opinions, their backbone, and their integrity and will just do whatever they’re told--the Colin Powell model--but do Iraqi generals behave the same way? Teachers, doctors and civil servants who were members of the Baath party will be rehired as well.

Israel uses a 12-year old Palestinian as a human shield (13, says Reuters). There’s a picture!

Evidently the insurgents in Fallujah are all on drugs. Sez Dan Senor, “It is part of what they're using to keep them up to engage in this violence at all hours.” Dude, if you want to pull an all-nighter, get some Jolt Soda.

Congress is working on a plan for near immediate elections if 100 or more Reps are killed (did you know that, according to the Constitution, replacement senators can be appointed, but reps have to be elected? Me neither). While you can make arguments about whether 45 days is too short for an election, but too long for a state to be unrepresented during a crisis, etc., I don’t think they considered a scenario in which 100 Reps of one party were killed (say by a terrorist attack on a party convention).