Well folks, yesterday was my birthday, but this weekend is the celebration so expect light blogging. It is too beautiful a spring day here in DC to hang around the keyboard. Hopefully everyone get’s a chance to get out, get some fresh air, and put politics away for a few hours (if not days). So a quick Fly By on interesting stories.

The Grim Reaper has taken one of his own today as we wake up to find former Yugoslavian Leader Slobodan Milosevic has died in his cell, apparently of natural causes. Justice was not served as the World Court dawdled for four years with this case. A reminder of why Europe is in no position to explain to us how to fix areas of conflict. The Balkans have not been able to accomplish many of the things the Iraqi’s have been able to do in terms of standing up a government and security. In a fraction of the time.

Don’t get me wrong, Iraq has serious problems. The sad news today is the only American hostage who had been taken among the Christian Peace activists has been found dead in Baghdad. This is just another senseless killing on the part of the Islamists (not Iraqi’s, not Sunni’s, not Muslims) to try and spark their war of civilizations. I have always thought the peace activists were naive about the pure evil of the Islamists. I had hoped maybe, given the fact these people are against our presence in Iraq, the Islamists would show a modicum of humanity. But there is none to show. These were non believers. They are not human, they are treated as animals. That is the difference between Al Qaeda and The UAE. More on Americna Tom Fox at American Thinker.
Hillary Clinton needs to decide what she wants to do in 2008. She is losing support in New York and now California. Without one of these states a Democrat win would be a miracle. Not sure what word you would use to describe a Democrat win without both of them (other than a fantasy).

The acid test for the UN is Iran, and it seems the usual split between the West and East is emerging as Russia and China are resisting calls for swift and strict sanctions on Iran. Of course the plan has been to talk Iran into nuclear capability, so why is anyone surprised the plan is still on track.

The liberal conspiracy theorists keep reporting case after case of possible NSA spying in the courts – never once mentioning that some leads did get passed to FISA and ended up with warrants for surveillance. Read this story with that obvious possibility in mind and wonder how is it the NY Times forgets its own reporting on how NSA ‘tainted’ the FISA process.

Real Clear Politics has a new look – I am sorry to say I liked the older look. The old look focused on the meat of RCP – top stories, opinions, polls and blog posts on politics. I like the feature of topics, that is something that is good if you see RCP as a resource for research. The loss of the Blog Round Up and their Blog Roll is a disaster. They apparently have replaced the blog round up with a technorati ‘most read’ Buzztracker. I would watch the Blog Roll to find hidden gems, not obvious stories I can see all over the place. Oh well, it will probably just take getting used to but it looks so darn commercial. Update: found the blog round up! I said it would take some getting used to.
Let’s end on a really cool note. Michelle has a link to an incredible set of sidewalk chalk art that everyone must check out. (better link here)
Hope everyone enjoys their day!

Update: News from Iraq worth reading. And Junkyard Blog points out the idiocy of the immigration march in Chicago – why are they anti-Bush when his policies are the moderate policies?

And more on the events ongoing in Pakistan which I discussed yesterday:

Army spokesman Gen. Shaulat Sultan would not reveal the identities or nationalities of those killed late Friday near the town of Miran Shah, the scene of repeated clashes between security forces and militants in the past week.

He told The Associated Press the attack was launched using “authentic intelligence, and according to our information about 30 miscreants, who included foreigners, were killed.”

No security forces were hurt and all those present at the hideout were killed, he said, adding the raid blew up a large cache of weapons.

An intelligence official in the region said the targeted compound belonged to a pro-Taliban cleric, Maulvi Sadiq Noor, although it was not clear whether he was there at the time. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Also note this story of a potential bomber in Kashmir being nabbed has he got of a train. Seems the tip off came from the CIA. The bomber was trained inMuzaffarabad in Pakistan. Then there is news of all these arrests in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. Coindicence? I think not.