Time is running-out for Al Gore to throw his hat into the ring. My guess is that he won't.

There is a rumor that Fidel Castro is dead. We'll see if that has legs. I had a feeling he was in trouble when it was reported that he has nearly made a full-recovery.

The August job report is in the red (-4000 jobs). Plus the June and July job reports have been revised down. An analyst at Oppenheimer calls the drop "dreadful" (when do analysts use those strong words?) and says, "it seems almost inevitable we are heading for recession." If the FED does not cut short-term interest rates by at least a quarter on September 18th, expect the Marks to throw the biggest tantrum ever.

With Boston's nail-biting, painful victory last night, the Baltimore Orioles are officially eliminated from playoff contention.

And the NY Post this morning ran this front page:

Yes, it seems that Osama bin laden has dyed his beard. Now we would expect a tabloid to make comments about the appearance of celebrities. The color of Osama's beard can be discussed in Page Six along with what so-in-so was wearing at a movie premiere (or look, it's Maggie on the front page as well). But the headline "die [dye] already" is a stark contrast to the "Wanted" poster both NY tabloids ran nearly 6 years ago. Despite his rumored diseased kidneys, Osama isn't going to die easily on his own. Wishing him to die is just sad for a newspaper that pretty much declared that Rudy and W were going to personally get him in the wake of 9/11.

Listen, Jerusalem Post, you can wish all you want. But we need action, not wishes. We have a 'decider' in Washington who either forgot about bin Laden or decided to drop the pursuit. We need a new president who can act as 'the avenger.'

Unfortunately, it seems that aside from Obama and Kucinich, not a single Democratic candidate, seems committed to the goal to capturing or killing bin Laden in their first term in office. That is even more sad. And Kucinich is the only one who has committed to the goal of a complete US withdrawal from Iraq. Even Obama fails when it comes to fully reversing the biggest disaster in US foreign policy.

So today I have arrived at a primary decision. I am for Kucinich.

UPDATE, 15:49 EDT: In bin Laden's new video message, he apparently asks US citizens to convert to Islam as a way of ending our occupation of Iraq. Silly as that is, he didn't demand it. Being the gentleman that he is, he asked us politely, saying, "I invite you to embrace Islam."

I think I said in an early post that bin Laden really is a gentle guy. You can picture him surrounded by sheep and children. He's a really nice guy...who finances massive acts of terrorism. He might be the most curious enemy this nation has ever had.