This is a joke, right?

U.S. to restore relations with Libya

"We are taking these actions in recognition of Libya's continued commitment to its renunciation of terrorism and the excellent cooperation Libya has provided to the United States and other members of the international community in response to common global threats faced by the civilized world since September 11, 2001," said a statement from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In related news, Pan Am Flight 103 has not managed to get back into the air, and there are still 270 murders unaccounted for.

Between immigration, the negative publicity of the G.W.O.T. (I'm not arguing success/failure, just where-do-we-go-from-here), looking like schmucks on domestic policy, soaring budget deficits and runaway government spending, and now, CODDLING DICTATORS LIKE MOAMMAR QADDAFI, I don't think the party of W has any strengths left to fall back on.

I now have to agree with other commenters to this site - both houses of Congress will flip to the Democrats in November.

And yes, typing that last sentence made me throw up in my mouth. But it's true, because it's the default situation.

The days of serious third- and fourth-party movements can't come soon enough. If there is no other force to push the two major parties to real, meaningful, positive action their activists want to see, then alternative options are needed on both the right AND the left.

Or, for that matter, something to arise from in between the two parties to push them both out towards their party base.

Isn't inertia fun?

UPDATE 2:30 PM: One other note - there are much better ways that I would like to see the U.S. address energy problems that wrapping its arms around a heavy oil-producing nation who just happens to kill a bunch of people, many of which are/were American citizens.