Bad Moon a' Ricin

Something about this whole ricin "attack" on Senator Frist's mailroom isn't adding up.

I'm not sure exactly what it is about the whole thing that seems like an itch in the back of my mind. And like everyone else, I'll just have to see how it all plays out. But something just isn't right.

There is no known antidote for the toxin, derived from castor beans in a relatively straightforward manner. It was initially thought that because the powder showed up in a mailroom that it had arrived, like anthrax before, in the mail. But postal inspectors are starting to doubt that (WSJ, subscription required).

Investigators assume the poison, in the form of a white powder, was sent through the mail. But U.S. Postal Inspectors, who police the mail system, reported no success finding suspect packages after spending Wednesday combing Senate buildings and letter-sorting facilities trying to find a letter or a trail that would link the ricin to the mail system.

"We normally would expect to find a bulging envelope with powder, but there isn't any yet and to be honest I am not optimistic we will find one," said Postal Inspector Daniel Mihalko.

So if it didn't arrive by mail how did it get there? Investigators can find no obvious trail. And the Department of Homeland Security has no plans to issue any alerts about ricin attacks.

Stories of an earlier letter with ricin in it from someone connected with the trucking industry now sound like a red herring; but from what are they distracting us? I'm treading dangerously close to tin foil hat territory here, so I'll go no further; I'm just raising some interesting points. We're not likely to hear anything remotely resembling the truth from BushCo., so watching the press and interpreting administration releases of information will have to suffice.

But something just doesn't add up in all of this.