SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET: 

THE RUSSIAN AIRLINER – From CBS News:   CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports a U.S. infrared satellite detected a heat flash over the Sinai at the time the Russian plane went down. The data is still being analyzed in an effort to determine what caused the flash. One possibility is a bomb, but an explosion in a fuel tank or engine as the result of a mechanical failure is also possible.  Some aviation experts raised the possibility that a bomb on board the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 brought it down, while others cited an incident in 2001 when the aircraft grazed the runway with its tail while landing.  James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said that while there is no direct evidence of any terrorist involvement yet, it couldn't be excluded that the plane was brought down by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremists in the Sinai Peninsula.  There is much intrigue surrounding this sad incident, but the two black boxes have been recovered, and should tell much of the story.

JEB FADING – From The Hill:   Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor who has been relegated to the undercard debate throughout the GOP presidential race, has edged out former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a new poll of Iowa.  Jindal scored 6 percent support in the survey from Public Policy Polling (PPP), one percentage point ahead of Bush, though within the poll’s 3.9 percent margin of error.  Still, the uptick for Jindal is broadly indicative of just how far Bush has fallen — something that has been exacerbated by his poor showing in last week’s Republican debate.  Bush’s team has repeatedly brushed aside concerns about the candidate’s poll numbers, noting that there are still three months to go until the Iowa caucuses.   There's no joy in this.  Jeb Bush was a fine, respected governor.  But his campaign has been lackluster, and he sometimes seems out of touch and out of practice.  I think he's deserved better from the GOP electorate, and the conservative press.  But this is a year filled with acrimony and revenge.  Not his turf.

BE FOREWARNED – Let's not forget the people who gave us 9/11.  They're still around, and they have ambitions.  From vocativ.com:   In a new audio message released late Sunday night, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri urged 9/11-style attacks against the U.S. and praised a recent spate of stabbing attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.  The 16-minute message, discovered by Vocativ’s deep web technology as the recording was initially distributed on social media platforms, features al-Zawahiri calling for attacks against “the West,” especially against the U.S. for its support of Israel. “Those who support Israel should pay in their blood and economy the price for supporting the crimes of Israel against Islam and Muslims,” al-Zawahiri says on the recording, titled “We Shall Unite To Liberate Jerusalem.”  He also called on fighters to follow in the path of those who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks, “and the attacks in Madrid, Bali, London and Paris.”  It is amazing that, after seven years as president, Obama has made things much worse in the world, and cannot claim a single foreign-policy victory that has actually helped the United States.

November 2, 2015