The race for Mayor of New Orleans will be between current Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu. The runoff election is required since no candidate received fifty percent of the voter. This article explains the details. Whoever wins will face one of the most daunting tasks ever faced by the mayor of a major American city. How to rebuild a city that will face a threat of catastrophic flooding every hurricane season and that may not ever get back a significant portion of its population, as so many have found more economic opportunity elsewhere? Read this article in the New York Times about how that process is going. I predict that not only will New Orleans face the wrath of further immense hurricanes in the next couple of years, but that many of her displaced residents will never return.

The military has come up with a new plan to fight terrorism world-wide, generated by Special Operations Command at the behest of Secretary Rumsfeld, according to this article in the Washington Post. They envision a "long war". But will the plan remain in place even if the Democrats take back not only Congress, but the White House?

The Belmont Club has some good coverage and analysis of the Mary McCarthy fiasco at the CIA. I agree with his prediction that McCarthy will come to join the Liberal pantheon of heroes, even if the stuff she leaked has damaged national security. When I consider stories like this one it makes me wonder if, in the end, we will be unable to do the things necessary to win this war we are fighting, or the next one.