SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:20 P.M. ET: 

GOOD NIGHT, IRENE – As you all know from the endless TV coverage, we have a bit of bother here in the East regarding a hurricane named Irene.  Now, I've made it plain in this space that I look upon all this with some skepticism, having been through endless episodes of dire weather forecasts followed by one snowflake or a raindrop.  So I will await our fate, armed with batteries and appropriately unhealthy snacks.  We in New York are not expected to be visited until Sunday, and we therefore have some time before the world ends.  If it does, I'll let you know.

DENNIS THE MENACE – We now learn that Dennis Kucinich, whose flakiness is unsurpassed in Congress, was invited to Libya by the Gaddafi folks in order to mediate the conflict.  But, apparently, peaceful Dennis was worried about his security...and so visited Syria instead.  Here's a man who'd turn down a visit to the lion's den in order to make common cause with rattlesnakes.  At last report Dennis hadn't been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, so we aren't sure exactly what he's done.

ARE REPUBLICANS NUTS? – There is a story circulating that Republican leaders in Congress have signed off to a plan that will allow the temporary easing of the payroll tax (the Social Security tax) to expire next year.  These are the same people who fought for an extension of the Bush tax breaks, which do indeed benefit the wealthiest Americans, claiming that not to extend them would amount to a tax increase.  But they now want to let the payroll tax break expire, impacting the middle class and below almost exclusively?  Are they mad?  Do they realize the backlash this would cause?  Or are they falling into some rhetorical trap.  I can just see the Democratic ads.  I hope this idea is a trial balloon, and not something more.  If it's a trial balloon, shoot it down, for it's political suicide, something at which Republicans are expert.

ALIVE? – In 1986 President Reagan ordered an air strike on Gaddafi's compound in Libya in retaliation for the killing of American servicemen in a cafe bombing in Germany.  After the strike the Libyan government announced that Gaddafi's adopted daughter had been killed in the raid.  However, it now turns out that she may well be very much alive and a physician, according to the Irish Times, which says it discovered documents yesterday in Gaddafi's now liberated headquarters in Tripoli that point to the daughter's life as an adult.  At the time, the left and the "third world" had a field day criticizing Reagan over the U.S. raid, pointing to the death of this innocent little girl.  Among the items the newspaper discovered was her passport photo, taken as an adult. 

August 26, 2011