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Today's New York Times report on the imminent release of deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega from the federal prison in Miami where has has been stewing since 1990, in addition to making me nostalgic for the kinder gentler elder Bush and his less apocalyptic era* (and the killer PSYOP that punctuated his 1989 invasion), causes me to wonder what mischief El Piña might get up to if he really is freed. Maybe a campaign of payback against the son, a perfect karmic bookend to Bushito's own inter-familial revenge mission against Saddam? A back-to-the-future sideshow involving official voodoo, cocaine, Central American politics, and maybe even some Styx. Maybe throw in a Libyan hit squad for good measure. That would freaking rock, better than a Miami Vice marathon directed by Jean-Luc Godard from a script by John Milius.

* (See, e.g., the quote on background from "an official in the current Bush administration who was involved in American policy in Panama before the invasion ordered by the first President Bush in December 1989": "As military regimes go, Noriega's was a relatively benign one. They didn't kill that many people. They didn't torture that many people.")

**Hey, kids! Bookmark your own Noriega release watch here, courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Prisons' searchable database.