Wanted: Leader

Last throes, indeed.

Gunmen in police uniforms abducted up to 50 employees of Baghdad transport companies in broad daylight on Monday, Interior Ministry sources said, as a crisis over filling key security posts deepened.

They carried out what appeared to be a coordinated operation along a street that is home to several firms offering transport to Syria and Jordan, police said.

"It took them about five minutes to take people away. One, two, three, four -- one after another," said witness Hamza Ali, recalling the men with rifles and strapped with grenades who suddenly showed up in 10 pickup trucks.

While that was happening, the person who started the war in Iraq was doing this:

President Bush rallied support Monday for a ban on gay marriage as the Senate opened a volatile, election-year debate on a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex weddings.

"Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them. And changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure," said Bush, who raised the issue's profile with an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Pathetic.