Pardon Me, Boy. Is That The Stockholm Choo Choo?

A very large rat caused a major electric outage in the central train station of Stockholm. The power was out for three hours as a result of the vaporized rodent.

The early morning outage led to some delays in train traffic, said Jesper Ekenlund, a spokesman for power company Fortum. Nearby hotels and shops also were affected, he said.

"The rat had sneaked into a secondary substation and came into contact with some parts that caused it to short circuit," he said.

Of course, the parts the rat provided a path between were rather far apart, proving that gigantic rats are found not just in New York City. But the report misses the really important point altogether. Obviously the ginormous rodent was at the train station looking for a job.

As a conductor. 

“In The Real Dark Night Of The Soul Campaign….

…It is always three o' clock in the morning, day after day.” Mark Steyn invokes F. Scott Fitzgerald as he reviews the real dark night of the Clinton campaign and 3am.

So Sen. Clinton has now released another electrifyingly vivid three-in-the-morning scenario:

"It's 3 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone ringing in the White House and this time the crisis is economic. Home foreclosures mounting, markets teetering.

"John McCain just said the government shouldn't take any real action on the housing crisis; he'd let the phone keep ringing. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a plan to protect our homes, create jobs.

"It's 3 a.m., time for a president who's ready."

Jeepers, will all business during this Clinton administration be transacted at 3 a.m.? Is it some union-negotiated flex-time deal? "Home foreclosures mounting"? We'd better wake the president. There are now so many foreclosures the banks can no longer foreclose on everyone they need to foreclose on during normal banking hours. "The First National Bank of Dead Skunk, Maine, has begun issuing midnight foreclosure notices, Madam President."

"OK, nuke 'em."

"Er, well, maybe this can wait till the regular afternoon meeting."

It's 3 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone ringing in the White House. And ringing and ringing and ringing. Kim Jong-il No Dong missiles are heading for every major West Coast city, but the president's not picking up because at 2:57 a.m. the Secretary for Soccer Moms called to alert her to the growing crisis caused by the lack of federally mandated children's bicycling helmets. When the powder keg goes up, who do you want in the White House? Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose customized MCI Friends & Family & European Foreign Ministers & Overseas Dictators plan allows her to receive unlimited incoming calls between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.? Or John McCain, who'd bawl out the White House operator for waking him up to take a call from the Director of the Federal Bike Path Agency?

As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, in the real dark night of the soul, it's always three o'clock in the morning, day after day. And so it goes in the real dark night of the Clinton campaign, day after day. When Hillary got into her wee spot of bother over her concoction of the corkscrew landing under enemy fire in Tuzla, she wiggled out of it by putting it down to sleep deprivation. Is she spending too many nights up at three in the morning?……

As always with Steyn, this one is a must read. Only a truly massive stumble by Obama that the press could not gloss over - as they have the Wright controversy - would give even a chance of winning the nomination. All the tires on the Clinton campaign juggernaut are flat at this point and only sheer will - or willful disregard of the truth - is keeping Clinton in the race. Her money is drying up and early supporters are leaving her in increasing numbers and in increasingly high profile ways. Steyn left out one bit of 3am that seems to apply here:

Shes got a little bit of something, God its better than nothing
And in her color portrait world she believes that shes got it all
She swears the moon don't hang quite as high as it used to
And she only sleeps when its raining
And she screams and her voice is straining

Is Hillary screaming at 3am yet? Quite probably.

HMAS Sydney Located

Searchers have finally located the wreck of the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney that sunk after a battle with a German commerce raider during World War Two. The Sydney sank with all hands after the fierce battle. The German Kormoran was heavily damaged and later scuttled. The discovery of the wreck has still not answered why the Sydney sank so rapidly.

Searchers last month found the wreck of the HMAS Sydney, which sank with the loss of all 645 crew in November 1941 after a 30-minute battle with the German merchant raider HSK Kormoran, but details of why the ship sank so quickly remain a mystery.

The Australian government has set up an inquiry to try to find out why no sailors survived, but images of the wreck reinforce suggestions the Sydney was heavily damaged by German shelling during the first salvos of their battle.

"The incredible photos of the underwater wreckage bring home how fierce the battle must have been," Australia's Defence Science and Personnel Minister Warren Snowdon said in a statement.

The Australian reports that the Sydney's lifeboats appear to be missing, deepening the mystery of what happened. 

They show all Sydney's lifeboats missing, suggesting sailors may have escaped the sinking warship to an unknown fate.

Coloured a deep shade of blue by the Indian Ocean, photos taken 2.5kms down by a remotely-operated submersible vehicle (ROV), and released today by the Finding Sydney Foundation, clearly show the damage inflicted on the Sydney.

The foundation says both funnels and masts are gone, shell holes have punched neatly through gun turrets, the bow is completely missing and there is “severe punishment” to the bridge and superstructure, which were known to have been targeted by the Kormoran's guns.

The peeling back of the ship's side in one area could have been the result of a torpedo strike from the Kormoran, says observer and naval historian John Perryman.

More from the Finding Sydney Foundation website.  645 Australian sailors were lost as a result of the sinking of the Sydney. More than 300 Germans from the Kormoran survived the battle.