Quick thoughts, immediate concerns

SO today, Obama met with Bush in the White House. Apparently to measure the drapes. We have 70 days before they can be installed and I am a bit concerned about what Georgie might do before he goes. And there's still plenty, none of it likely useful.

There's that $700 billion to be disbursed and I wonder how much will get flushed out before the grown-ups and responsible citizens can get control. All sorts of paramilitary incursions seem to be escalating in countries we aren't already directly occupying and at some point I would guess the lovely people who run those countries will start to take offense at that activity.

But my fave is that the Russkies, rather than congratulating Obama on his victory like every other nation's leaders, civilized and otherwise, instead pulled out a dusty old tactic from 1960 and announced they were moving missiles towards the Polish border. What could the Russians possibly gain by that move? They don't have to defend an ideological border anymore; there are no separatist movements in that region; the Poles are too busy building up their own country to worry about the Russians building theirs. I'm sure declining petrodollars has something to do with it. But politically -- and that is always how I think of Russians when they do anything except drink -- is that maybe, since the missile defense system (aka Star Wars) was mentioned as a reason, it's a means to goad George into some last rash act, or to put the screws to Obama to get the system removed while he's still a rookie. I suspect it's equal parts both because if they can't get Obama to back the system out early, they'll have to negotiate with him. And then they may have to actually work since I have a feeling Obama knows nearly as much about Russian political negotiating style as KGB trained Putin, and as he did in the campaign, will have all the patience in the world to stare him down no matter how deep into Putin's soul he has to look to see anything.

And of course, there's Osama in his Pakistani villa. Reports are coming out that al Qaeda has something big planned. On the one i suspect those creatures always have something planned but on the other, I wonder what is the point? I never really subscribed to the notion that the destruction of the US was al Qaeda's goal, only as a response to continued US incursion into Muslim sacred areas. If that's correct, the infinitely patient radicals should wait to see if we really do start to withdraw from Iraq and the rest of the region to see if they get what they want. On the other hand, there's little chance of any change in Afghanistan and escalation in Pakistan seems likely no matter who is in the White House, soooooooooo,,,,,,,,,,