How nice of North Korean leader Kim Jung Il to celebrate the Fourth of July with a fireworks display:

North Korea launched six missiles on Wednesday, including a long-range Taepodong 2 that apparently failed 40 seconds into its flight, U.S. officials said.

The United States said it was urgently consulting other U.N. Security Council members after the launches, which occurred despite repeated warnings against such a move from the reclusive Stalinist country’s neighbors and Washington.

Fortunately, it was the one that built to fly nearly 3,000 miles that failed:

Experts say the Taepodong 2 is a multi-stage missile with a possible range of 3,500-4,300 km (2,190-2,690 miles).

A State Department official in Washington told Reuters a long-range missile, believed to be a Taepodong 2, failed 40 seconds after it was launched.

Even if President Bush had the smarts and the competence to deal with this threat, he doesn’t have the trust of most of his own citizens, much less the confidence of our allies. He’s a walking, talking, one-man security threat.

National Journal:

President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president’s statement…

Bush also said during his interview with prosecutors that he had never directed anyone to disclose the identity of then-covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, Wilson’s wife. Bush said he had no information that Cheney had disclosed Plame’s identity or directed anyone else to do so.

Hunt for Bin Laden Officially Abandoned

The CIA has closed down a secret unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials said Monday…

The realignment reflects a view that al-Qaida is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, as well as growing concern about al-Qaida-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

CIA officials said that tracking bin Laden and his deputies remains a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit is not a sign that the effort has slackened.

What Global Warming?

Caribbean sea temperatures have reached their annual high two months ahead of schedule — a sign that coral reefs, including those in the Florida Keys, may suffer the same widespread damage as last year, scientists said Monday.

Sea temperatures around Puerto Rico and the Florida Keys reached 83.48 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday — a high not normally expected until September…

Bush Inflicts Himself on Ft. Bragg Soldiers Yet Again for Annual 4th of July Lie Fest

Bush [told an estimated 3,500 U.S. troops at an outdoor speech at Fort Bragg] that since the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq, coalition and U.S. Iraqi forces have launched more than 190 raids on targets throughout the country, captured more than 700 enemy operatives and killed some 60 more…”

The outlook was less optimistic in Baghdad.

Gunmen in camouflaged uniforms kidnapped Iraq’s deputy electricity minister, Raed al-Hares, and 11 of his bodyguards in eastern Baghdad. The kidnapping occurred three days after gunmen seized a Sunni female legislator in east Baghdad; she and seven bodyguards are still missing.