BIN LADEN'S STATEMENT is here. As are all his statements, it's extraordinary.

I can also only imagine how the legions of bloggers and commenters who have kept consistently, endlessly, monomanaically, insisting that bin Laden is dead, based upon that vast stock of wishful thinking that kept issuing out of their rear ends, along with their mandatory conclusion: Osama, the bastard, is dead I tell you! He's dead! You must believe me because I tell you so, and my evidence is that I believe it!

It's a sort of evidence and reasoning we've been seen for years now from another source, a large, inspiring source, so it shouldn't be surprising.

I have no doubt that excuses are still being spun as to how this tape is a fake, blah, blah, blah. Wishful thinking can work wonders if you just use enough words.

But I think we need more than wishful thinking in this fight. And we need leadership that doesn't just wish that troops will be greated with flowers and sweets. Leadership that doesn't just believe we can do things with no pain, effort, or inconvenience, in a war. Leadership that doesn't value tax cuts over troop strength, leadership that isn't "just not that concerned about bin Laden," leadership that admits mistakes and fixes them.

We need to get these incompetents who have so endangered our lives out of office, for the sakes of our families, for the sakes of those being badly used in the military, and for the sakes of our children and loved ones, and for the sakes of everyone in the world, including those who need to be led away from their ignorant dreams of hatred and killing and into the light of reason and life.

I urge a vote for John Kerry and John Edwards; I urge a vote for Democratic national represenatatives. I urge a vote for America.

Vote your hopes, not your fears.