OUR “FRIENDS,” THE SAUDIS: Not so much, really. As Dan Darling notes: “I mean, how else should we take their chief justice calling for jihad against US forces in Iraq as well donating cash towards said endeavors? And from the comfort of a government mosque, no less.”

I continue to regard the Bush Administration as insufficiently serious where the Saudis are concerned, though I’d love to turn out to be wrong about that.