The New York Post:

Osama bin Laden’s newest tape may have thrust him to the forefront of the presidential election, but what was not seen was the cave-dwelling terror lord talking about the setbacks al Qaeda has faced in recent months. Officials said that in the 18-minute long tape — of which only six minutes were aired on the al-Jazeera Arab television network in the Middle East on Friday — bin Laden bemoans the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan and the lack of violence involved with it.

On the tape, bin Laden also says his terror organization has been hurt by the U.S. military’s unrelenting manhunt for him and his cohorts on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

A portion of the left-out footage includes a tirade aimed at President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, claiming the war in Iraq is purely over oil.

What really astounds me is that there are unhinged lefties out there who actually find themselves grudgingly admitting that a) OBL is much more articulate than our president, or b) that OBL agrees with them, or the other way around.

It’s not really that hard to reexamine oneself once America’s most wanted terrorist is spouting off your party’s talking points. Unless, of course, you want to award him honorary membership into your equine party. I mean, he does have a taste for sodomizing quadripeds…

(Provenance: Wizbang » Volokh » NYPost)

Wretchard has the definitive transcript of OBL’s “I envy the girl in My Pet Goat because she has a goat and I don’t have one” video. He offers the following analysis:

It is important to notice what he has stopped saying in this speech. He has stopped talking about the restoration of the Global Caliphate. There is no more mention of the return of Andalusia. There is no more anticipation that Islam will sweep the world. He is no longer boasting that Americans run at the slightest wounds; that they are more cowardly than the Russians. He is not talking about future operations to swathe the world in fire but dwelling on past glories. He is basically saying if you leave us alone we will leave you alone. Though it is couched in his customary orbicular phraseology he is basically asking for time out.

This is hudna, dear friends. It’s an armistice that allows the army of Osama’s goat admirers to regroup, recoup losses, and plot moves while they lull the enemy to complacency. Usually, the ones who ask for hudna are the ones who break it first, once they are ready to strike again. We have grown quite familiar with this, and we have learned to break the hudna first.

Should we accept OBL’s offer, when they do decide to break the silence we may see one of our cities erased by the bright light on the horizon, or our entire nation consumed by the silent wildfire. Maybe Professor Ann Althouse’s advice is best: My advice to Americans: Vote for whoever you would have voted for anyway! Not that I don’t wish that the better of the choices (you-know-who) is supported by more people. Let us ply forward to victory.

Apropos of this photo courtesy of the AP on Yahoo:

ES (11:59:31 PM): [link].
ES (11:59:39 PM): despite what I think of Kerry, that’s a very nice shot
OFJ (12:00:08 AM): that it is
OFJ (12:00:14 AM): in fact it captures his essence quite well
OFJ (12:00:21 AM): “defined by his surroundings.”
ES (12:00:28 AM): hehe
ES (12:00:29 AM): ouch
OFJ (12:00:40 AM): i should blog that
OFJ (12:00:46 AM): including our conversation.
ES (12:00:55 AM): go ahead

Osama bin Laden has a new tape wherein he expresses envy over the fact that the President of the United States was being read a story about a little girl and her pet goat.

Before Bush and his administration would pay attention and we never thought that the high commander of the US armies would leave 50 thousand of his citizens in both towers to face the horrors by themselves when they most needed him because it seemed to distract his attention from listening to the girl telling him about her goat butting was more important than paying attention to airplanes butting the towers which gave us three times the time to execute the operation thank god.

A good goat is just so hard to find.

Megan McArdles gives libertarian Randbots a reason to faint in her presidential endorsement.