See the forest for the...

Blair won another majority in his fresh, new third term in office. No sooner had he finished giving his thanks that members of the Labour party began calling for his resignation. Labour won a majority, but far less of a majority than it previously held, indicative of a loss of confidence in the Labour leadership. The loss was picked up mostly by the Liberal Democrat party and the Conservative party as well. The majority Labour had was about cut in half to some 67 seats (in the British House of Commons with 646 seats).

The insurgence in Iraq has taken a turn for the worse in the past few weeks. In spite of the many claims of the US occupation force, the elected members of government taking control has not broken the backs of the insurgents. Neither did any of the other things that the Bush administration claimed would break the insurgency; like the capture of Saddam, the raid on Fallujah, the handover of power, etc. ad nauseam. Bush has also taken a noticeable plunge in the polls since winning the election. The nominations the Republicans have been trying to make aren't terribly popular. Bush just selected David Wilkins, a South Carolina lawmaker and evangelical, as the new Ambassador to Canada. The appointment still requires Senate confirmation. Wilkins has only been to Canada once, some 3 decades ago, and apparently knows very little about us, including where maple syrup comes from...