Midday Open Thread

• More sobering news from Iraq: gunmen drag passengers off a mini-bus and execute them, according to AP. Among the dead are high school students who were commuting to take exams.

• Iran threatens "disruption" to oil supply, and North Korea reproaches the U.S. over killing refugees during the Korean War.
• Efforts to repeal the estate tax have hit a stall, according to the Los Angeles Times. Apparently even out-of-touch Republican politicians can tumble to the fact that arguing tax repeal on the super-rich while a city drowns and a war spirals out of control might not play well right now. Timing is everything.
• Gore reiterates this morning that he has no plans for a 2008 presidential run, according to AP:
  

  "I haven't made a Sherman statement, but that's not an effort to hold the door open. It's more the internal shifting of gears," said Gore, referring to Civil War-era general William Tecumseh Sherman. "I can't imagine any circumstances in which I would become a candidate again. I've found other ways to serve. I'm enjoying them."

• Colbert gives a commencement speech. Some gems:
  

  Colbert left them with a piece of advise: Get your own TV show. "It pays well," he observed, "the hours are great and you have fans. Eventually, some nice people will give you an honorary degree for doing jack squat."

  ... His suggestions for securing the U.S.-Mexico border went beyond walls to include moats, fiery moats and fiery moats with fire-proof crocodiles.