The spin on Iraq still isn’t working, another section of the Patriot Act gets rightly struck down as unconstitutional, and people are basically writing off Bush entirely.  Gee, look who shows up among all this:

Ending a nearly three-year absence from public view, a dark-bearded Osama bin Laden surfaced yesterday in a new video in which he repeatedly taunted the Bush administration but made no overt threats of renewed terrorist attacks.

The al-Qaeda leader appeared visibly older and spoke in somber tones as he delivered a rambling, 25-minute monologue that included a lengthy tirade against Western capitalism sprinkled with references to recent news events and cultural and political figures.

Addressing his message to “the people of America,” bin Laden predicted failure for U.S. forces in Iraq and warned against what he described as the continued oppression and humiliation of Muslims by the West. […]

In Sydney, President Bush told reporters: “The tape is a reminder about the dangerous world in which we live. And it is a reminder that we must work together to protect . . . against these extremists who murder the innocent in order to achieve their political objectives.”

“I found it interesting that on the tape Iraq was mentioned, which is a reminder that Iraq is a part of this war against extremists,” Bush continued. “If al-Qaeda bothers to mention Iraq, it is because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive us out and to develop a safe haven.”

Give it a few days and check those poll numbers.  By now, Bin Laden is really Bush’s only friend, ironic since him still being out there is glaring indication of failure to reasonable people.
What REALLY amuses me though is some of what was said…

He chides not only Bush — a leader who he says “harvests nothing but failure” — but also the Democratic leadership of Congress. “Why have the Democrats failed to stop this war, despite them being the majority?” he asks, according to the translation provided by the SITE group. Later, answering his own question, he argues that the failure of Americans to stop the Iraq war was attributable to the political dominance of large corporations that “benefit from this continuation.” (emphasis mine)

Rants about “capitalism”?  Criticism of Democrats for not ending the war in Iraq?   Pointing out how a few actually benefit from this clusterfuck?  Either “Adam the American” — who is already being talked about as having wrote part of this — knows jack squat about how politics works here (these kind of critiques coming from Bin Laden makes irrational stubbornness seem like strength), or the whole reason this was released at all was to attempt to discredit any argument that could be twisted to sound like this.  Next time you point out to one of the dead-enders how much of a total waste invading Iraq was and will continue to be, watch how much quicker they say “oh, so you agree with the terrorists?”.

If Osama didn’t exist, they’d create him.