slammed today

Between a mountain of work, a recently noticed collection item on my credit report (for a credit card I cancelled four years ago) and mysterious medical bills that keep arriving, I was in no way able to focus my attention blogward today. My apologies to all my loyal readers.

The interesting stuff won't happen until tomorrow night's debate, anyway. So let's call today my "debate preparation."

What caught my eye today (yesterday) is the rumored $1 million dollar ransom the Italian government paid to terrorists holding two Italian nationals in exchange for their release. Thanks for making it impossible for everybody, Mr. Berlusconi.

This attempt at a denial in the WaPo is laughable:

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini attributed the release of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta to "all the good things Italy has done" in Iraq. But hours earlier, the head of Parliament's foreign affairs committee and a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party said flatly that money "was paid."

"It was right, because the life of the two girls was more important than money," Gustavo Selva, a legislator, told reporters. "In principle, we shouldn't give into blackmail, but this time we had to, although it's a dangerous path. I think it was paid by the intelligence services."

How many guns you think that money'll buy? Some coalition we have here.

Later in the article, it says the captors originally asked for $5 million but settled for the $1 million, because, get this, "A cleric mediated to get the amount of the ransom lowered." Doesn't say if the cleric was Sunni or Shi'a, and given that they're pretty much both allied against the occupation, it could be either.

So a cleric is representing terrorists in a hostage ransom negotiation. Boy, The New Iraq is swell!