Political Analysis as could only be Engaged in by an amateur It's time to put on the propeller beanie and drink the extra powerful espresso and analyze a possible political development. Atrios, blog for all things lefty, political and blue, is having an Ashcroft termination pool, thinking he'll be tossed for incompetence and embarrassment. Did Bush finally get around to hearing "Let the Eagle Soar?" Let us stop a minute and contemplate that notion for a minute, someone from the Chimperial Administration, fired for "incompetence" and "embarrassment"? If that's the standard November should be a bad month over there. But there is little doubt this is an embarassment. Ashcroft went out and announced the threat without it appears, credible intelligence, according to Lisa Myers (Lisa Myers?!!).

In warning Americans to brace for a possible attack, Ashcroft cited what he called “credible intelligence from multiple sources,” saying that “just after New Year's, al-Qaida announced openly that preparations for an attack on the United States were 70 percent complete.… After the March 11 attack in Madrid, Spain, an al-Qaida spokesman announced that 90 percent of the arrangements for an attack in the United States were complete.” But terrorism experts tell NBC News there's no evidence a credible al-Qaida spokesman ever said that, and the claims actually were made by a largely discredited group, Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, known for putting propaganda on the Internet. “This particular group is not really taken seriously by Western intelligence,” said terrorism expert M.J. Gohel of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, an international policy assessment group. “It does not appear to have any real field operational capability. But it is certainly part of the global jihad movement — part of its propaganda wing, if you like. It likes to weave a web of lies; it likes to put out disinformation so that the truth is deeply buried. So it is a dangerous group in that sense, but it is not taken seriously in terms of its operational capability.”

Nonetheless, in spite of his long record of stupidity and doofusness, the last time I looked Ashcroft is still in favor of tax cuts, so on that fact alone he'll stay. And why depress the Chimp's nutjob fundy base amongst whom the Snakehandler General is quite popular.