Um... who wants to tell him?

“President” Bush issued a statement today that announced new sanctions against Zimbabwe.

Said Bush; “The regime has also continued its ban against NGO activities that would provide assistance to the suffering and vulnerable people of Zimbabwe. No regime should ignore the will of its own people and calls from the international community without consequences.”

That bang you heard was my head exploding due to the irony of this statement…

BRING IT ON

With the nomination all but official, the republicans are launching their attacks on Sen. Obama…

“President” Bush opened the salvo, saying; “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

Next came Obama’s opponent, Bush-II, aka McCain; “Asked if he thought Mr. Obama was an appeaser — the Democratic candidate has said he would be willing to meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran — Mr. McCain sidestepped and said, "I think that Barack Obama needs to explain why he wants to sit down and talk with a man who is the head of a government that is a state sponsor of terrorism, that is responsible for the killing of brave young Americans, that wants to wipe Israel off the map, who denies the Holocaust. That’s what I think Senator Obama ought to explain to the American people.”

Next came every Democrats favorite turncoat, Joe LIEberman, who remarked; “President Bush got it exactly right today when he warned about the threat of Iran and its terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. It is imperative that we reject the flawed and naïve thinking that denies or dismisses the words of extremists and terrorists when they shout "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," and that holds that — if only we were to sit down and negotiate with these killers — they would cease to threaten us. It is critical to our national security that our commander-in-chief is able to distinguish between America’s friends and America’s enemies, and not confuse the two.”

Big mistake.

Obama is already poised to defend, and defend he did, saying; “"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said in the statement his aides distributed. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.”

And then we have the just-as-strong, less PC rebuke from Sen. Joe Biden, who said; “This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset . . . and make this kind of ridiculous statement. […]He is the guy who has weakened us. […] He has increased the number of terrorists in the world. It is his policies that have produced this vulnerability that the U.S. has. It’s his [own] intelligence community [that] has pointed this out, not me.”

Want more? How about Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, also the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, who said; “The tradition has always been that when a U.S. President is overseas, partisan politics stops at the water’s edge. […] President Bush has now taken that principle and turned it on its head.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Bush’s comments were “beneath the dignity of the office.” (Not that there’s much left after Bush’s time in office)…

Sen. John Kerry said Bush is “still playing the disgusting and dangerous political game Karl Rove perfected, which is insulting to every American and disrespectful to our ally Israel. George Bush should be making Israel secure, not slandering Barack Obama from the Knesset.”

And have I mentioned that the Senator that Bush referred to atop was a republican Senator from Idaho named William Borah?

Funny how he forgot to mention that isn’t it?

The gop is running scared right now… so scared that they’re going to allow a president with disapproval ratings at a historical low speak for them.

That is an absolutely disastrous dynamic for the gop… the more Obama can frame this race as him vs. Bush (aka the most unpopular president in modern history), the easier it will be for Obama to lay the smackdown on McCain this November.

The Democrats are committed to winning it all in November, and will NOT be played for a patsy and allow the gop to scare people into voting for them.

And let’s keep something else in mind… the Soviet Union was our sworn enemy for over 50 years and, during that time, were painted just as ruthless, evil and despised as Iran and Syria are now, maybe even more.

Yet… there was always, at the least, a line of communication open… through many republican presidents.

What exactly do all these people speaking out against talking to Iran and Syria think the US would lose by just talking?

Just because you talk to somebody doesn't mean you have to give them anything… besides, isn’t that what diplomats, and to some extent politicians, are designed to do? Talk to foreign countries in order to maintain good relations… or build good relations…

The republican brand is badly damaged… and their desperation is showing.

Five years ago today...

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." - "President" George "Flightsuit" Bush - May 1, 2003 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln

and I see the world in a nice shade of rose...

Keep in mind:

• Days since Bush's speech under the 'Mission Accomplished' banner: 1,827
• Days 'til Bush leaves office: 263 and counting...
• Bush’s favorability rating: 29% according to Pollingreport.com
• U.S. combat deaths before 'Mission Accomplished': 139 according to icasualties.org
• U.S. combat deaths after 'Mission Accomplished': 3,924 according to icasualties.org. Meaning that more than 97% of total troop deaths occurred after ‘major combat operations ended’
• Percent of Americans who believe invading Iraq was a mistake: 63% according to Gallup
• Current cost of the war in Iraq: $516,000,000,000 according to National priorities project

Even more proof that he just doesn’t get it*

*as if we needed anymore…

Since the site IS named after him after all, how about a post dealing with everyone's favorite recovering alcoholic & drug addict/born-again/boy-president…

“President” Bush held a presser this morning on the South Lawn of the White House and announced that the economic stimulus checks will start being sent out this Monday… with approximately 130 million households in line for $600-per-individual, $1,200-per-couple and $300-per-eligible-child rebates

Said Bush; “If you've already filed your income tax return, your rebate is on the way. […] We want to make sure everyone who is eligible for a check gets one. […] This money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we are seeing at the gas pump and the grocery store... and will also give the economy a boost to help us out of this slowdown.”

Let's ignore 2 other things for a moment; the fact that all the economists that AREN'T joining the lemmings in going over the cliff say the checks will have only a modest impact on the economy (and that's only if people spend the money) and the fact that this president refuses to accept reality that the US is in a recession and would rather desperately (or idiotically?) cling to the concept that we're in a “slowdown” instead.

Instead, let's concentrate on what he said this morning; “This money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we are seeing at the gas pump and the grocery store...”

Um… correct me if I'm wrong, but when the economic stimulus package was first announced, Bush said that the rebate would be a 'shot in the arm' for the US economy… but now, weeks after the aforementioned statement, he's changing gears and is saying the money will help people pay their rising bills for gas and food.

Granted, he added “... and will also give the economy a boost to help us out of this slowdown”, but; will it? Can these checks actually do both things that Bush says they can?

If people use the rebates to buy groceries and gas, isn't that more akin to paying down debt than it is to buying items such as cars, high-price electronics and the like?

Bush's economic rebate does absolutely nothing but cover a smidge of the extra cost of record high fuel, food, & healthcare costs for this year alone… and likely won't stimulate anything (except Bush's ego).

The man just doesn't get it…

…and he never will.

(And a question from Scott; once this paltry amount is spent, what's next to help Americans pay for the rising costs of gas and food for the rest of this year AND the years to come? Nothing, we’ll be back to square one.)

Five years on

On March 19, 2003, “President” Bush announced; “My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.”

Each year on the anniversary of the US-led invasion, Bush has given a speech full of rhetoric and spin, this year was no exception (HT to Daily Kos):

Year One: “There are still violent thugs and murderers in Iraq, and we're dealing with them.” U.S. Fatalities: 583

Year Two: “Iraq's progress toward political freedom has opened a new phase of our work there.” U.S. Fatalities: 1,522

Year Three: “We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq.” U.S. Fatalities: 2,319

Year Four: “There's been good progress.” U.S. Fatalities: 3,224

Today, Year Five: “No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure ­ but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq .” U.S. Fatalities: 3,990 U.S. Casualties: 40,229

Over the course of five years, Bush has changed his goal of saving the world from (nonexistent) dangers of Iraqi WMD's to a desire to not losing...

Remember; when the war started, the administration predicted that it would cost $50 billion to $60 billion to oust Saddam Hussein, restore order and install a new government. Five years on, the cost of the war is “roughly $600 billion and counting” per the Pentagon, with economist Joseph Stiglitz putting the “long-term cost at more than $4 trillion” an estimate he says is “excessively conservative.”

And that’s not the only things that supporters of the war have gotten wrong… consider these disastrous quotes:

“Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof---the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.” - President Bush, 10/7/02 (hard to create mushroom clouds without WMD’s, isn’t it?)

“We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” - Vice President Dick Cheney, 3/16/03 (Yeah, not so much… and now we’re like the house guests that couldn’t get the hint to leave)

"The only people who think this wasn't a victory are Upper Westside liberals.” - Charles Krauthammer, 4/19/03 (or people that AREN’T lemmings and can use their own brains…)

“[Liberals] can't deny that President Bush has won his two wars, and won them resoundingly.” - Paul Mirengoff, Powerline, 4/26/03 (wanna bet we can’t deny it? The Taliban and al Qaeda are back in force in Afghanistan, and the insurgent violence in Iraq is increasing again…)

And the best ones come from ‘The Decider’’ himself; “I believe that the success will be fairly easy.” - 9/24/02 (I guess that depends on what your definition of ‘fairly easy’ is…)

“We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” 1/22/03 (I refuse to snark this as a means to honor all families that have lost loved ones in this misguided war)

And then there’s this March 24, 2003 quote from the man who vows to continue Bush’s wayward ways in Iraq; Sen. John McCain: “[T]here’s no doubt in my mind, once these people are gone, that we will be welcomed as liberators.”

If McCain gets elected, we probably will be in Iraq for 100 more years… if it’s Clinton or Obama, we will start pulling troops out within six months of them taking office… we all know that a complete pullout would do more harm than good, but it’s time to start reigning in the amount of troops we have over there.

Not only would that protect our soldiers, it would also force the Iraqi’s to act and move forward. I think, and this is merely my opinion, that the Iraqi government has been slow in making any progress because they know the US-led coalition is there to prop them up.

We shouldn’t be… not anymore.

Passed... but for how long?

The House passed an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA for you acronym-lovers out there) by a vote of 213-197... essentially along party lines.

The amended legislation “does not provide retroactive immunity" for telecom companies but does allow courts to determine whether a lawsuit should or should not proceed.

Naturally, "President" Bush, being the kind of person he is, has threatened a veto.

(So let me get something straight... he's going to veto the bill because the only thing he doesn't like is the portion about telecom immunity... but then he'll immediately start blaming Democrats for putting the US at risk of a terrorist attack...

Now... correct me if I’m wrong, but if he were so sure that its passage would ensure America’s safety, shouldn’t he be less worried about the telecoms and allow the bill to become law??? Or am I using too much common sense?)

He STILL doesn't get it...

Hours after a government report showed a decline in payrolls for the second straight month, and hours before stocks hit their lowest levels in over a year, “President” Bush said earlier today that while “it's clear our economy has slowed”, the long-term outlook is good… “I know this is a difficult time for our economy. […] But we recognized the problem early and we provided the economy with a booster shot.”

I’ve asked this (too) many times… what color is the sky in your world Mr. Bush?

I'm sorry, could you repeat that?

“President” Bush held a news conference this morning which covered a wide array of topics…

Fear-mongering (he said the country is in more danger now that a temporary surveillance law has expired)... recession (Bush says America is in a “slowdown” and not headed into a recession like every other economist on the planet has suggested)… and $4 gasoline.

It was $4 gas that prompted the best exchange of the presser when Bush was asked by a reporter what “advice” he would give to the “average American” who is “facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline.”

Bush’s reply was a curt; “That’s interesting, I hadn’t heard that.”

Minutes later, Bush was asked a question regarding donations for his presidential library which he refused to answer, saying; “I, frankly, have been focused elsewhere, like on gasoline prices.”

Um... okay?

It's a rose-colored hue, why do you ask?

As if you needed more proof that “President” Bush just doesn’t get it… here’s another example:

Speaking before the Republican Governors Association yesterday, Bush took a moment to predict the future, claiming Americans will ultimately be thankful for his foreign policy decisions, saying; “I believe 50 years from now, people will look back at this period of time, and say, thank God the United States of America did not lose its faith in the transformative power of liberty to bring the peace we want for our children and our grandchildren.”

And what color is the sky in your world Mr. Bush?

More inanity from the man who made it an art form

Just when you think the Bush(whacked) Administration has learned something from past mistakes and has taken intelligence at face value, you realize who you’re thinking about and you’re snapped so-hard back into reality that you almost get whiplash…

A few weeks ago, when the NIE concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program WAY BACK in 2003, White House Tool Press Secretary Dana Perino said that the President “accepted the results of the NIE”, even saying this week that Bush had never expressed “anything but support” for the NIE’s findings.

Yet in an interview with Fox “News” earlier this week, the President made it crystal clear that he doesn’t share the NIE’s conclusions…

Uh-huh…

Sure, he admitted that the intelligence officials were probably “sincere” in what they wrote, but he refuses to say whether he believed them or not…

And while on his latest legacy-saving trip®, Bush tried so hard to distance himself from the NIE, that he not only hurt himself, he probably got a burnt tongue his mouth was open so much… though that could also have been because he was kissing everyone’s ass on the trip…

For instance, while in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Bush “made it clear” that the intelligence services that created the NIE are an “independent agency” and “come to conclusions separate from what I may or may not want.” He also, per an article in Newsweek, told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the NIE’s “conclusions don’t reflect his own views.”

(Excuse me??? His own views?? He is not supposed to have his own views of these things… he’s supposed to rely on, wait for it, his intelligence agencies.

That’s the problem with this man… he ignores his counselors and thinks what HE thinks is the law… with these statements, Bush has positioned himself farther to the right than Vice President Cheney (and that ain’t easy) since Cheney told the Politico last month that he doesn’t have “any reason to question” the NIE.

Bush is indeed in a world of his own, and January 20, 2009 can NOT come soon enough…)

What color is the sky in your world George?

As if we needed more proof that “President” Bush is a little… off… I give you this.

Earlier this week former President Bill Clinton stated that in the Hillary Clinton administration, he and former President George H. W. Bush would travel around the world together to help improve the international reputation of the United States that had been destroyed by the current Bush.

During a presser today, President Bush said he already does that in his current job, saying; “It’s what I do during my presidency. I go around spreading good will, talking about the importance of spreading freedom and peace.”

Um… not really… what you do is go around spreading fear… spreading ignorance… spreading intolerance.

What you do is go around asking for the opinions of world leaders and promptly ignore those opinions and do whatever the hell you want to do… opinions of the rest of the world be damned.

The man just doesn’t get it…

We got Bushisms!

It’s December, which can mean only one thing, it’s time for a recap of “President” Bush’s “intellect” from this past year... yes, I use the term intellect very, very loosely...

Dan Kurtzman of About.com, is out with the Top 10 Bushisms of 2007, here are my personal favorites;

• “And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it.” - (Here’s a chance for Bush to actually mean it when he says “Mission Accomplished”)
• “One of my concerns is that the health care not be as good as it can possibly be.” (See above…)“Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit. […] As John Howard accurately noted when he went to thank the Austrian troops there last year...” (Um, first of all, I think that was supposed to be the APEC Summit. Second, I think that was supposed to be Australian troops as Mr. Howard is the PM for Australia…)
• “There are some similarities, of course (between Iraq and Vietnam). Death is terrible.” – (Wow, he has a great grasp of the obvious doesn’t he?)
• “As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured.” – (Sorry, this one doesn’t surprise me in the least…)

Remember, we have one more year of this.

...

God help us...

It continues...

As I’ve written twice already this week, “President” Bush said he was never informed by the intelligence community that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003… many people, myself included, thought that that was highly unlikely…

Turns out we were right…

From CNN;

“President Bush was told in August that Iran’s nuclear weapons program ‘may be suspended,’ the White House said Wednesday, which seemingly contradicts the account of the meeting given by Bush Tuesday.”

Sensing that the cat was out of the bag, the White House issued a statement that said McConnell told Bush “the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment of Iran’s covert nuclear program.”

Soooooo…. Bush knew that Iran “may have suspended” its nuclear weapons program and, because of that, the intelligence community was “changing its assessment” or Iran… but that didn’t stop Bush from spouting his war-drum chants of “World War III” or of “nuclear holocaust” because nobody told him specifically to stop…

Since when does a President need to be told to stop something???

He still doesn’t get it...

Yesterday I wrote about the incredible lack of logic displayed by Bush regarding the NIE report that says Iran stopped working on their nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Yesterday I hoped that someone, anyone, in his administration, his cabinet, his house, would tell him the facts.

Didn’t happen.

This morning “President” Bush was in Nebraska and said;

“It is clear from the latest NIE that the Iranian government has more to explain about its nuclear intentions and past actions.”

Huh?

No George, the latest NIE does NOT mean that the Iranian government has more to explain… it DOES mean that your administration has more to explain on who knew what, what they knew and when they knew it.

Less than two months ago, Bush famously elicited images of another World War when he said;

“… if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. And I take this very -- I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously.”

Of course that’s all fine and good… Iran having a nuclear weapon would be bad… but with the revelations about the NIE coming out… did Bush already know that Iran had suspended their nuclear weapons program in 2003 when he said that?And if he did, does saying what he said and banging the war-drums merit censuring or, at the most, impeachment?

And before you trolls jump up and down on me about a witch hunt, it’s not just Liberals and Democrats that are getting fed-up with Bush’s (choose one) logic and/or lack of intelligence.

Joe Scarborough had Pat Buchanan (via telephone) on MSNBC this morning to discuss the recent NIE revelations about Iran as well as Bush's sad and pathetic performance yesterday when he said he didn't find out about it until just now.

It’s safe to say that Joe and Pat are dubious about that concept, with Buchanan even suggesting that Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) needs to get back to DC and hold hearings about who knew what, and when. Buchanan also called on Biden to bring Condi Rice and Stephen Hadley before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and ask them if they knew about the NIE report, and if they had ever told Bush, and if either of those two knew about this report, and didn't tell Bush about it, they should be fired immediately…

And Buchanan wasn't the only one firing off at Bush as Scarborough said;

"We are left with only two options here. Either the President of the United States is lying to the American people about what happened during that meeting, or the President of the United States is stupid."

It seems that Joe Scarborough and Buchanan (who are no where close to Liberal about anything) has had it with this administration.

There seems to be a shift evolving with the release of the NIE… people who usually would support the president, no matter what, are realizing that he may be as off-the-chart as many of us have already said…

Stay tuned…

Here we go again...

“President” Bush held his first presser in seven weeks this morning in order to not only admonish Congress for not seeing things the way he does (few people who walk upright do).

But the press corps would have none of that nonsense and turned the conference into a chat about the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that says that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago in 2003.

Most people (clarifier: most people with a working brain) would look upon that news as severely undermining the Bush(whacked) Administration's argument that Iran poses an imminent peril to the world and that ignoring the threat could lead to World War III… remember, I said people with a working brain.

Mr. Bush begs to differ, saying this morning;

“Look, Iran was dangerous. Iran is dangerous. And Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Um… okay… by that logic, wouldn’t a physics grad student armed with the internet also be “dangerous”??

The Bush(whacked) Administration also claims that it has new, “secret” information about Iran's weapons program, and that that information differs from the public NIE that was just released, and… and… why does all of this sound familiar?

.....

Oh, right… Iraq… WMD’s… right… must have blocked that out of my mind. Speaking of blocking things out… one has to wonder when Bush became aware of the NIE’s contents. Well, according to the man himself, he was “made aware of the NIE last week. In August, I think it was Mike McConnell came in and said, we have some new information. He didn't tell me what the information was; he did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze...And it wasn't until last week that I was briefed on the NIE that is now public.”

Huh… so let me get this straight… a few months ago, someone said something about some new information about the number one threat to the world, and they didn't tell the leader of the free world what that information was…

Wow… that seems highly unlikely, doesn’t it?

Thankfully, there are apparently still some members of the press that use their brains, and one of them seemed as perplexed as I;

REPORTER: Mr. President, thank you. Just to follow, I understand what you're saying about when you were informed about the NIE. Are you saying at no point while the rhetoric was escalating, as "World War III" was making it into conversation, at no point nobody from your intelligence team or your administration was saying, maybe you want to back it down a little bit?
THE PRESIDENT: No, nobody ever told me that.

Wait a minute… let’s see what National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley had to say yesterday about the NIE;

“One, when the President was told that we had some additional information, he was basically told: stand down; needs to be evaluated; we'll come to you and tell you what we think it means. So this was basically -- as we said, this is information that came in the last few months, and the intelligence community spent a lot time to get on top of it.”

Now I’m confused… Hadley says Bush was told, Bush says he wasn’t told… but maybe he was, and he just forgot…

Honestly, how does this man walk upright?

Poll Positions

‘Tis the season for polling, so here’s some nice polling data to help you get through the rest of your Tuesday.

Did you know that we are a “nation of discontent”… at least that’s the findings of a recent USA Today/Gallup poll shows, with 72% of Americans saying they’re dissatisfied with how things are going in the US, as opposed to the slight 26% that say they’re satisfied with the direction the country is heading.

Splendid… though it still begs the question as to what the hell the 26% are smoking.

And lest you think it’s only one poll that shows discontent, a new Washington Post/ABC News poll says that 75% of Americans are “eager for a change in direction from the agenda and priorities of President Bush”, with a paltry 24% of those polled believing that the Bush(whacked) Administration is leading the nation on the right track, which is the “lowest public assessment of the direction of the country in more than a decade.”

Nice…

And to pile on Bush, another new Gallup poll shows that 64% of Americans disapprove of the job he’s doing, and, for the “first time” ever in Gallup poll history, 50% say they “strongly disapprove” of Bush.

The previous high? The 1974 version of Richard Nixon, who scored a 48% mere days before an impeachment inquiry was launched.

Nice company for Bush to have, isn’t it?

Have some more polling info:

• 69% of Americans favor withdrawing U.S. forces, compared to 9% favoring an increase in troop levels.
• A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released yesterday shows, with a year until election day, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) remains the person to beat
  Another new CNN poll shows that 69% of Americans believe that waterboarding is torture and an additional 58% say that the U.S. government should be barred from using the procedure.
• All these numbers have one constant running through them, George W. Bush… his years of pathetic governing are the cause of this… and we still have a little under one year before we head to the polling booths to select who the Supreme Court will instill as our next President (sorry, I need to learn to let that go), and a large majority of Americans are distraught about the direction our nation is heading…

Bush and his cronies aren’t doing anything...

Congress isn’t doing anything...

Where in God’s name is this country headed?

And the war-drums get louder...

One truly has to wonder how “President” Bush’s logic works at times…

During his presser yesterday, Bush was asked about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and he warned for the first time, or at the least he warned for the first time in public of the risk of “World War III” if Iran gets nuclear weapons. TPM has the video HERE.

Said Bush; “I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III… […] It seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Sure… whatever you say Mr. Bush.

What this does is make it clear that attacking Iran has replaced attacking Iraq as the official Presidential wet dream…

Like it was with Iraq, the rational from ‘diplomacy’ to ‘attack!’ shifts until something sticks or the White House confuses everybody by claiming that their shifting rationales were, in fact, serious diplomatic efforts.

The administration’s first rational was that Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons… but that has now been debunked by UN weapons inspectors.

The second rationale was that Iranians were arming Iraqi insurgents… this too has been debunked.

This brings us to the third rationale, “possessing the knowledge to build a nuclear weapon.”

This isn’t new technology, so Iran almost certainly possesses the technology to build a weapon. So we go from having weapons, to arming, to having technology to build nukes.

So in three simple steps, the bar to attack Iran has been lowered.

On we march to war...