After our Lenten bible study at church we took candles and had a brief candlelight vigil on the hillside in front of the church. I will be curious to see if the newspapers even notice thousands of people across the country participating in these services. Of course, Bush will deliberately ignore it, just as he has ignored every protest for peace for the last year. If he deigns to comment at all I expect he will condemn it as supporting Saddam.

The latest news reports I've seen indicate that Bush intends to go to war with Iraq with or without UN approval.

He claims that Monday is the last day to see "whether or not diplomacy can work." This distorted view of the current stand off in the UN demonstrates how out of touch with reality Bush is. I think that most of the world would view a diplomatic solution to the current crisis as one which would allow us to accomplish the objective of disarming Iraq, either with or without "regime change," without having to go to war. However, it is clear that what Bush would consider "diplomacy working" is that he would get approval to go to war, otherwise he will go to war without appoval. This is right in line with his views on bipartisan politics. It is bipartisan if he gets what he wants. It is partisan politics if anyone opposes what he wants.

What a maroon. (With apologies to Bugs.)