The Short List - May 16, 2011

Don't call it a comeback, we've been here for....months...

• The space shuttle Endeavor is set to launch at press time, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will be in attendance to watch her husband command the missions.  This is the second to last space shuttle mission.


• The Arab Spring has arrived at Israel's doorstep as thousands of Palestinians living in Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank descended on Israeli border outposts hurling rocks.  Israeli forces opened fire killing 12 and injuring many more.


• Several conservative economists believe the United States should sell all the gold in Fort Knox and sell interstate highways to private concerns.  In a bizarre quote, Kevin Hastett of the American Enterprise Institute declared, "If it can work for the River Styx, why not the Beltway."  I'm not sure if he's announcing his faith in paganism or that we're all sailing to our deaths when on the U.S. interstate system.  We report, you decide.


• Blackwater founder, Erik Prince, has been hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to create a 800 member battalion of foreign fights for the emirate's use.  One of their writs will be to suppress dissent.


• IMF Chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested over the weekend in New York City on charges that he sexual assaulted a chambermaid at a Manhattan hotel.  This news has rocked the French political system(NYT) and the IMF.