The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 1 Apr.

WWCJD
It's the end of the world as we know it...

• CBS News reports an anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ infuriated Catholics and even led to threats, but the artist says offers to buy or exhibit the piece have been pouring in.
  
  Now, a new piece of art showing Senator Barack Obama as Jesus Christ is now on display at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MyFox Chicago reports.
  
  Well, I know it may not be politically correct, though I am not the one making all the fuss. I am, however, left wondering -- enough to ask out loud -- just what would chocolate Jesus do?

• If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops,"' Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday, reports the Guardian.
  
  In a statement that won't set well with the anti-war left, Obama said:
  
  

  "My expectation is that we will continue to try to ratchet up the pressure on the president to change course," the Democratic presidential candidate said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'I don't think that we will see a majority of the Senate vote to cut off funding at this stage."

• The Herald-Tribune reports, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, architect of the the U.S. failure in Vietnam, said Sunday the problems in Iraq are more complex than that conflict, and military victory is no longer possible.
  
  Of the war, more importantly, both prophetic and foreboding, Kissinger said:
  
  

  "The role of America in the world cannot be defined by our internal partisan quarrels."
  
  "All the leaders, both Republican and Democratic, have to remember that it will go on for several more years and find some basis for common action."

• As Al Qaeda rebuilds in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden to cement control over the network’s operations, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials, The New York Times reports.
  
  Experts also say they believe the fighting in Iraq will produce future Qaeda leaders.

• The Washington Post reports the standoff between Britain and Iran over 15 detained British sailors and marines sparked protests in Tehran and London on Sunday, as a poll in a British newspaper indicated that 7 percent of Britons believe their country should be readying for military action against Iran.

• With all the news of the Democrats' confrontation with President Bush over Iraq, the partisan assault for the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the conduct of the Iraq war and alleged abuses in government surveillance by the FBI, it may come as a surprise to many outside the beltway that congress is on spring break for two weeks.
  
  The Washington Post reports that some on both side of the conflict see Democrats' plans to widen their assault on the president as "risky."
  
  Though he has vetoed only one piece of legislation since taking office, Bush has vowed to veto 16 bills that have passed either the House or Senate in the three months since Democrats took control of Congress. So much for the Democrat's delusions of being in power. Democrats need to remember that they were voted into power on a slim margin provided by candidates running on a campaign platform more Republican that the Republicans who lost.
  
  In any case, with the signs of al Qaeda rebuilding, news reports that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are preparing for a possible military confrontation with the U.S. in the summer, the hostage standoff between Iran and Britain, and the hotbed of terrorism in Iraq, it may be "risky" to cut and run from the region.

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