Nobrainer’s Think Tank

“We won’t hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family,” Olmert declared.*

I’m watching my lone cable news network–and a quality one at that: MSNBC–in hopes of seeing live coverage of Israel’s offensive against the Palestinians.

The Israelis have bombed bridges and power plants. They had their air force buzz the summer home of the Syrian president:

The flyover was the second time Israel has buzzed Assad’s summer palace. In August 2003, warplanes reportedly flew so low that windows in the palace shattered. At the time, Israel said the flyover was aimed at pressuring Assad to dismantle Palestinian militant groups based in his country.

They have made incursions into southern Gaza, and are poised to do the same in northern Gaza if they have not done so already.

And the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades say they’ve fired a chemical weapon at Israel.

My short-term reaction is this: I hope the Israelis open a major can of kosher whoop-ass in the Middle East, and I’d like to see it live on television if possible.

But instead of some good old-fashioned ass-kicking, MSNBC has plenty of coverage of floods, Star Jones, and Jon Benet Ramsey. And they have Rita Cosby. Yippee. I’d be better off reading Harry Potter.