THE TENSION: The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 10 Oct.

Heads up folks, this news rolls downhill.

Reuters reports an animal rights group called on Tuesday for a North American theme park operator to cancel a competition in which people will try to break the world cockroach-eating record. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it had been flooded with calls from children, adults and even anonymous employees of Six Flags opposing the record-breaking contest and the overall promotion.
"Insects do not deserve to be eaten alive especially for a gratuitous marketing gimmick," PETA spokeswoman Jackie Vergerio told Reuters.

Mexico's foreign secretary said Monday the country may take a dispute over U.S. plans to build a fence on the Mexican border to the United Nations, reports the Washington Post. The U.S. Senate approved the border fence bill last month and President Bush has said he will sign it into law, despite last-minute pleas from the Mexican government for a veto.

"What should be constructed is a bridge in relations between the two countries," Mexico's foreign secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said.

Croatia fans make human swastika

Denmark said on Tuesday a new cartoon crisis with the Muslim world could erupt after Danish television stations broadcast footage last week deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammad, according to Reuters. In Tehran, dozens of Iranian protesters pelted the Danish embassy with stones and petrol bombs, witnesses said. Riot police guarded the embassy.

"(The latest cartoon issue is) smoldering around in the Muslim world. We hope it will die out but we don't know if it will pass," Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller told the Danish national broadcaster DR.

A Harper reporter claims he sat on the Foley story for five months. Ken Silverstein says a Democrat brought him the now infamous e-mail Foley sent to a congressional page. Months after the fact, and only when Foley is news, does Silverstein bother to say anything. If only Republicans would just shut up about Foley....

Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday accused former President Clinton, the husband of his potential 2008 White House rival, of failing to act in the 1990s to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, reports AP.
"I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other Democrats critical of the Bush administration's policies that the framework agreement her husband's administration negotiated was a failure," McCain said at a news conference after a campaign appearance for Republican Senate candidate Mike Bouchard.
Perhaps the point is made better in this video.