Gene Lyons: Are We Sleepwalking Into a Nightmare?

Another voice of sanity warning that a military attack on Iran would be an unmitigated catastrophe. Key quotes:

A pre-emptive strike on Iran, because it might hypothetically develop nuclear weapons five or 10 years hence, would be a naked act of aggression. Not to mention an offense against the U. S. Constitution. On what authority would Bush make war on a nation that played no role in 9 / 11, bears enmity toward al-Qa’ida and has never seriously threatened to attack the United States ? His own God’s ?...

More recently, the eminent Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld has cautioned that hysterical warnings about this or that country—Russia, China, Pakistan, India—developing nuclear weapons have occurred regularly since Hiroshima. Yet the taboo against their actual use has held, partly because rational actors know that even the “tactical” weapons which Bush administration toughs fantasize about are upward of 10 times more powerful than the A-bombs dropped on Japan. Also because, van Creveld makes clear, deterrence works. Israel, he writes, “can quickly turn Tehran into a radioactive desert—a fact of which Iranians are fully aware.” To violate that taboo would justifiably turn the U. S. into a pariah state. It would all but guarantee eventual retaliation in kind. Even a conventional bombing campaign against Iran would, at minimum, send world oil prices skyrocketing, with disastrous economic consequences. Real patriots must prevent this madness from happening. The generals are speaking out. Where are the Democrats and the sane Republicans ?

Yes, indeed, where are they?

Look, it's simple: deterrence works. Iran's government is led by an obnoxious, low-life bastard called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He's truly human debris--anti-Semitic, anti-American, anti-democracy. But he's not insane and I'm willing to bet he doesn't want Iran vaporized. We survived decades of having thousands of Soviet weapons pointed at us. We can survive Iranian nukes, too--if we make the consequences of any Iranian attack on American forces or American territory absolutely clear.

As clear as this.

God Bless Stephen Colbert!

Editor and Publisher has the story.

It's called cutting close to the bone--and I love it.

Sunday Fun With David Letterman

This stuff is priceless. Har!

A Wonderfully Vicious Commentary on Limbaugh

I found this wonderfully brutal essay on Rush (ironic name, don't you think?) Limbaugh's recent legal difficulties by Davis Sweet. It has a delightfully contemptuous tone to it. My fave section:

Do I, like many of my leftie friends, gloat over Trenchmouth's legal woes? A little, sure. But, being a liberal, I have to feel for the guy, too. Just because he's made a career of cruelty and bad education doesn't mean he's a heartless fool. Probably. Though there's no way for a listener to discern humanity in the Talent on Loan from God, the drug thing proves that there's at least a nervous system in there somewhere.

And that nervous system, despite being weighed down by a brain that revels in "self abuse," as he told an e-girlfriend years ago, expresses pain. Screaming buttloads of pain, apparently, given the number of pills he was hoarding. That or he was planning to host the Bush family for the weekend.

Which brings us to Florida (shudder), and the legal system there (for sale). If you're wealthy enough or dressed like a cartoon, you can always beat the law in Florida. In fact, the law itself in Florida is specifically skewed to favor the wealthy and mice, "protecting" wealthy people from having to pay judgments, even in famous, not-even-remotely-racially-charged-no-matter-what-certain-people-say wrongful death suits. Every felon or potential felon in The Sunshine State should change their name to "O.J. Limbaugh Bush," guaranteeing themselves years of unhindered lawlessness.

Har! Great stuff. Go check it out!

A Movie You Need to See: United 93

Yes, the new movie about 9/11 is every bit as extraordinary as you've heard. It is told in (roughly) real time, present tense fashion. It has no big stars in it. It does not make the hijackers into cardboard caricatures. It makes no political statements and promotes no conspiracy theories. It has no "Hollywood" touches, no false notes, no contrived situations. It depicts fully the terror, horror, and heroism of what happened on the day that a group of Americans decided to take action to defend their country even at the cost of their own lives.

Looking again at the horrible images of Twin Towers ablaze, I wanted to shake the terrorist bastards furiously and shout, "You actually think this is right? You actually think God wants you to do this??" It is the terrifying sincerity of the terrorists depicted in this movie, the conviction with which their prayers are said, that horrifies me the most. Out of the most deeply felt certainty the most obscene actions can arise. Such people cannot be reasoned with. They can only be fought.

Upon the film's shattering conclusion, the audience filed out. I have never heard a quieter group leaving a theater in all my life. Everyone was stunned and shaken. The film's impact was that overwhelming. I urge you to go an see it and judge for yourself. You will leave with a renewed appreciation for those who so selflessly sacrificed themselves on that darkest of all sunlit days.

Hookers for the GOP

Well, it looks like a good old-fashioned Republican SEX SCANDAL may be brewing, this time one involving prostitutes. The disgraced "Duke" Cunnigham was involved, and as many as six other Congressmen (all Republican? I don't know) are under investigation. Ha ha ha!

I really don't care if people degrade themselves by visiting prostitutes. It's their business. But I love it when these self-righteous MARRIED pseudo-Christians (as opposed to the genuine kind) get caught in these kinds of stings. Yet another example of "Republican values".

Also, check out this interesting list for more info on the GOP's real nature.

Yes! Limbaugh Arrested

Ah, what a headline, one I've waited to write. Rush Limbaugh, also known as the "fat assed drug addict" (thank you, Paul Hackett!) was arrested this afternoon after turning himself in. Limbaugh is accused of prescription shopping for oxycontin. According to NBC news tonight, he was doing this to the tune of TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS A WEEK. (WTF??) Now, normally I feel sympathy for people who need these meds, but it's damn tough in this case. (The Pigman was released on $3,000 bail.)

Limbaugh is a lying, draft dodging, slandering coward who refuses to engage in open debate, instead hiding behind his microphone and feeding the masturbatory fantasies of his troglodyte audience. It's about damn time he was busted. Powerful conservatives seem to think they have the right to violate the law with impunity. I'm glad this bastard knows he can't.

UPDATE: Now it looks like he'll only have to pay a nominal fine and be given "supervision". Oh well. It's Republican America. What did you expect?

Wednesday Night Propositions

The world according to Miller:

• Homosexuality is primarily genetic, although other factors may influence its ultimate manifestation. Homosexuals do not "choose" to be gay and therefore castigating them for it is absurd and wrong. But even if homosexuals had simply chosen it and there were no genetic factors involved at all, there would still be no basis for denying them freedom from discrimination. You may consider certain private and personal sexual conduct to be wrong, but if everyone involved is an adult and everyone says yes, you have no say over it--period.
• It's time for medical marijuana to be legalized. As a matter of fact, it would probably be a good idea to legalize ALL marijuana, recreational or medical, and tax it. If whiskey--brutal, destructive, addicting--is legal, how can mairijuana not be? Of course, drinking and smoking anything are bad ideas, but what's right for me isn't necessarily right for other adults.
• Liberals and progressives need to get over their misgivings about guns. They need to obtain them, learn how to use them, and keep them in safe (kid-proof) but handy locations. The time is coming when it may be very necessary to have one or two guns, and I say that with regret.
• Try to pay down your debts as fast as possible. The time is coming when doing that will be very necessary, too.
• Start investing in the safest, most sensible things you can find.
• Batten down the hatches. There's rough water ahead.

Little Ricky Despises and Disrespects Women, and It's Just That Simple

Soon to be ex-Senator Rick Santorum is convinced that only white male fundamentalist rightwing radical Republican neanderthals like himself deserve to run America. In his view women should just keep their mouths shut, stay home, raise kids, and not follow the "radical feminists" and seek employment outside the house. He is clearly afraid of strong, independent women, just like so many other of these overgrown conservative boys who wrongly call themselves men. Evidently, even some Republican women in Pennsylvania are getting sick of Little Ricky's bullshit. Key sections:

Santorum was host to a "Professional Women's Conference on the Hill" and invited 3,000 community leaders, university officials, and other women from Pennsylvania. About 90 women attended. [90 attended out of 3,000 invited?? Whooeee.)

Some women had copies of Santorum's book, but few of those interviewed had read it. Published last year, It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good criticized working mothers and two-income families.

In it, Santorum wrote: "For some parents, the purported need to provide things for their children simply provides a convenient rationalization for pursuing a gratifying career outside the home. Many women... find it easier, more 'professionally' gratifying, and certainly more socially affirming, to work outside the home... . Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism."

Donna Wright, a Republican township supervisor from Lower Milford, Lehigh County, said she was familiar with those comments and was displeased with them.

"Women are entitled to their choice, whether they become professionals or stay home," she said after the forum. "I don't appreciate anyone, public figure or not, telling anyone what they can and cannot do."

Why, what are you talking about, lady? How dare you seek any kind of affirmation other than being a Mommy.

Who the hell does this asshole Santorum think he is?

If it were up to conservatives, women would never have even won the right to vote or been anything but the property of their husbands. If rightwingers get their way now even women who have been raped and impregnated by their own fathers will be forced to bear children and birth control will be outlawed.

IT IS THE CONSERVATIVES WHO ARE THE RADICALS. Santorum is among the very worst of them. Santorum views women as children who have to have their lives dictated to them. It's time the women--and the real men--of Pennsylvania kicked his smug, self-righteous ass right out the door.

Brzezinski: An Attack on Iran Would Be a Disaster

In a hard-hitting new article in the International Herald Tribune, hardline Democratic foreign policy expert Zbigniew Brzezinski has laid out in sobering and lucid detail the negative consequences that would ensue from an attack on Iran by the United States, an attack Bush, Cheney, and the other NeoCon lunatics are considering. His four key arguments:

1. In the absence of an imminent threat (with the Iranians at least several years away from having a nuclear arsenal), the attack would be a unilateral act of war. If undertaken without formal Congressional declaration, it would be unconstitutional and merit the impeachment of the president. Similarly, if undertaken without the sanction of the UN Security Council either alone by the United States or in complicity with Israel, it would stamp the perpetrator(s) as an international outlaw(s).

2. Likely Iranian reactions would significantly compound ongoing U.S. difficulties in Iraq and in Afghanistan, perhaps precipitate new violence by Hezbollah in Lebanon, and in all probability cause the United States to become bogged down in regional violence for a decade or more to come. Iran is a country of some 70 million people and a conflict with it would make the misadventure in Iraq look trivial.

3. Oil prices would climb steeply, especially if the Iranians cut their production and seek to disrupt the flow of oil from the nearby Saudi oil fields. The world economy would be severely impacted, with America blamed for it. Note that oil prices have already shot above $70 per barrel, in part because of fears of a U.S./Iran clash.

4. America would become an even more likely target of terrorism, with much of the world concluding that America's support for Israel is itself a major cause of the rise in terrorism. America would become more isolated and thus more vulnerable while prospects for an eventual regional accommodation between Israel and its neighbors would be ever more remote.

This is the voice of reason speaking here. Brzezinski has never been accused of being weak or hesistant when it came to the exercise of U.S. power. Brzezinski's arguments need to be taken seriously and his warnings need to be heeded. We've got to stop this catastrophe from happening before it's too late.

If it isn't already.

Iran May Already Be On

A colleague of mine who has a relative in the military says the preparations are already going forward. His relative is in a position to know.

A former student of mine, a young Marine, tells me their training is now aimed toward Iran.

A correspondent writing to Bartcop from Germany says that the military air traffic there is of the same nature as before the Iraq invasion.

All anecdotal, of course. Who knows what will happen?

Is catastrophe around the corner?

My sense of dread is growing.

They Didn't Give a Damn What the Facts Were, They Just Wanted War

A disgusted former intelligence officer, Tyler Drumheller, a veteran of more than 25 years in the CIA in Europe, is speaking out, and his message is loud and clear: Bush and Cheney were determined to distort intelligence information to justify the Iraq war. Check this out:

"It just sticks in my craw every time I hear them say it’s an intelligence failure. It’s an intelligence failure. This was a policy failure," Drumheller tells [CBS's Ed] Bradley.

Drumheller was the CIA's top man in Europe, the head of covert operations there, until he retired a year ago. He says he saw firsthand how the White House promoted intelligence it liked and ignored intelligence it didn’t: "The idea of going after Iraq was U.S. policy. It was going to happen one way or the other," says Drumheller.

Drumheller says he doesn't think it mattered very much to the administration what the intelligence community had to say. "I think it mattered it if verified. This basic belief that had taken hold in the U.S. government that now is the time, we had the means, all we needed was the will," he says.

Bush, Cheney, Powell, and Rumsfeld flat out lied us into a disastrous war that they had no idea how to end. Read the whole item. And then tell me that Bush doesn't deserve removal from office.

CNN: The Boy King is Down 32-60

Bush continues his slow and steady descent toward Nixon Watergate era disapproval numbers. Only 32% approval in the latest polls? Clinton never got ANYWHERE NEAR THAT and yet the insane Right, aided and abetted by our corporate run media dragged the country through a preposterous impeachment farce for two years.

Bush is the most unpopular President (at this point in his term) in all of American history. I say WRECK HIM AND RUN HIM OUT.

See the South Park Scientology Episode

It's here, courtesy of Operation Clambake.

It's so fun to see a rich idiot like Tom Cruise getting the scalding ridicule he so RICHLY deserves. He's nothing more than a pathetic sucker, a mark, and a gullible fool trying to suck other gullible fools into the utter fraud that is the "Church" of Scientology. Enjoy!

Is There Any Lie These Bastards WON'T Tell? Part 7,129

Tony Snow, a right wing "journalist" who has been considered for the White House press secretary's job, has an astonishing record of lies and distortions to his credit. Media Matters has the scoop here. Among the "highlights" of Snow's record:

Falsely accused Clinton of rejecting bin Laden offer: Snow advanced the discredited claim that Sudan had offered to "hand over" Osama bin Laden to the United States in the 1990s, but that the Clinton administration responded, "Nah, don't want to do it." But this claim is derived from an August 11, 2002, article on right-wing news website NewsMax that distorted a speech Clinton made in 2002. Indeed, the bipartisan 9-11 Commission found (page 3) "no reliable evidence to support" the claim that Sudan offered bin Laden to the United States and determined that, based on Clinton's testimony, in "wrongly recounting a number of press stories he had read," Clinton had "misspoken" in his 2002 speech. [Fox News' Weekend Live, 2/25/06]

Claimed botched CIA attack on Ayman Al-Zawahiri "was a success": Snow claimed the January 13 CIA drone attack in western Pakistan targeting top Al Qaeda official al-Zawahiri "was a success." Further, Snow and guest Richard Miniter both claimed the attack "knocked off four to five key Al Qaeda" figures. In fact, the strike reportedly killed at least 18 civilians, sparking widespread Pakistani condemnation and protests. Initially, U.S. officials claimed that, at minimum, some high level Al Qaeda officials were among those killed in the attacks, but this claim was never officially confirmed. A January 20 Financial Times report (subscription required) noted: "Pakistani intelligence official confirmed the identities [of alleged Al Qaeda officals] were made on the basis of intelligence information and not 'facts gathered through DNA tests or any other means.' " [Fox News' Weekend Live, 1/21/06]

Actually, Snow would fit right in at the White House. Pathological liars always feel at ease with each other.

The Far Right's Amazing Determination to Run Your Life

Now there's a Republican idiot in South Carolina who wants to ban--wait for it--sex toys.

I've been telling you over and over again: the lunatic right is a collection of authoritarian assholes who think they've got the right to regulate the most intimate parts of human life if those parts offend their "values". This is just another example.

These idiots need to be told MIND YOUR OWN F---ING BUSINESS. Loud and clear.

Billion Dollar Cheney

This is pretty freaking hilarious--and scary at the same time.

The People Who Are Actually Responsible for the Disaster

Digby puts it beautifully:

Once again, I am stunned that the Republicans had the gall to foist this manchild on the United States of America --- and that so many Americans accepted it for so long. There's a lot of talk in the wingnutsphere about "Bush Derangement Syndrome" which says that we are all suffering from irrational hatred of Dear Leader. But it's not accurate. Bush is just a spoiled, deluded little boy, pushed into a job that was obvious to any sentient being would be too much for him. My righteous anger is for the big money pooh bahs like Dick Cheney who would gamble with this country's future by choosing a brand name in an empty suit for president. They proved that they can sell anything, I'll give them that. But as with their other colossal marketing success and business failure, Enron, the sales job couldn't cover the corruption and poor planning forever. Therefore, I blame the Republican Party more than little Junior. He's just a pathetic loser who believed his own hype --- responsible for his actions, of course, but not the mastermind. (Emphasis added.)

Amen to that. It is the Republican Party's leadership that has steered this country toward catastrophe. It is they who must be made to suffer the political consequences. Where can we strike the Republicans the hardest so as to do the maximum damage to them?

In the Senate:

Republican seats are potentially (if not yet) vulnerable in the following states: Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Tennessee, Montana, Virginia, Arizona, and Nevada. If we win six of those eight while defending our seats, we control the Senate--and the confirmation process.

In the House, Republicans in Blue states are particularly vulnerable. We can flush significant numbers of Republicans from states like Connecticut, New York, California, and Illinois. And with the Democrats having a HUGE lead in the generic House polls, A LOT OF REPUBLICAN DISTRICTS ARE IN PLAY.

In the states, we will grab New York's governorship. We have an excellent chance to get rid of Schwarzenegger in California. We can win the governorship in Ohio against dangerous right wing fanatic/criminal/vote stealer/lunatic Ken Blackwell. And there are many others we can take.

The Republicans must be punished. The election must be NATIONALIZED as a referendum on Bush and Cheney in particular and the Republican Party in general. Our message must be simple and powerful:

The Mess in Iraq

Corruption in Washington

Trying to destroy Social Security

The Medicare Fiasco

Katrina

The Schiavo farce

Deficits out of control

Incompetence everywhere

HAD ENOUGH? VOTE DEMOCRATIC.

Worst. President. EVER.

Courtesy of Rolling Stone and historian Sean Wilentz, a scathing indictment of the Boy King's potential place in history. There are a lot of good arguments here.

In regard to how Bush has conducted the anti-terrorism war:

No other president -- Lincoln in the Civil War, FDR in World War II, John F. Kennedy at critical moments of the Cold War -- faced with such a monumental set of military and political circumstances failed to embrace the opposing political party to help wage a truly national struggle. But Bush shut out and even demonized the Democrats. Top military advisers and even members of the president's own Cabinet who expressed any reservations or criticisms of his policies -- including retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni and former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill -- suffered either dismissal, smear attacks from the president's supporters or investigations into their alleged breaches of national security. The wise men who counseled Bush's father, including James Baker and Brent Scowcroft, found their entreaties brusquely ignored by his son. When asked if he ever sought advice from the elder Bush, the president responded, "There is a higher Father that I appeal to."

On Bush's financial "management":

The monster deficits, caused by increased federal spending combined with the reduction of revenue resulting from the tax cuts, have also placed Bush's administration in a historic class of its own with respect to government borrowing. According to the Treasury Department, the forty-two presidents who held office between 1789 and 2000 borrowed a combined total of $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions. But between 2001 and 2005 alone, the Bush White House borrowed $1.05 trillion, more than all of the previous presidencies combined. Having inherited the largest federal surplus in American history in 2001, he has turned it into the largest deficit ever -- with an even higher deficit, $423 billion, forecast for fiscal year 2006. Yet Bush -- sounding much like Herbert Hoover in 1930 predicting that "prosperity is just around the corner" -- insists that he will cut federal deficits in half by 2009, and that the best way to guarantee this would be to make permanent his tax cuts, which helped cause the deficit in the first place!

On Bush relationship with science:

Bush's faith-based conception of his mission, which stands above and beyond reasoned inquiry, jibes well with his administration's pro-business dogma on global warming and other urgent environmental issues. While forcing federally funded agencies to remove from their Web sites scientific information about reproductive health and the effectiveness of condoms in combating HIV/AIDS, and while peremptorily overruling staff scientists at the Food and Drug Administration on making emergency contraception available over the counter, Bush officials have censored and suppressed research findings they don't like by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Agriculture. Far from being the conservative he said he was, Bush has blazed a radical new path as the first American president in history who is outwardly hostile to science -- dedicated, as a distinguished, bipartisan panel of educators and scientists (including forty-nine Nobel laureates) has declared, to "the distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends."

This is no hatchet job by Wilentz. It is a systematically detailed summary of the disaster that is the Bush presidency. It is both sober--and damning.

A Democratic victory this year is IMPERATIVE, if only to neutralize Bush in the last two miserable years of his term. If our country is to have any future, this is something we MUST work for.

The Lowest Order of Life

Slime molds, the Ebola virus, and Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church.

In that order.

The Most Important Book of the Year: American Theocracy

I stayed up far too late last night reading Kevin Phillips's brilliant new book American Theocracy. Although I'm not done yet, I'm convinced already that it is the most vitally important book you should read this year. The thesis is disturbing: America is in decline, perhaps irreversibly so. The causes of this decline are over dependence on oil (and the perversions of our foreign policy caused by this over dependence), fundamentalist religious fanaticism and its rejection of modern science, and the dominance of a financial sector built around pushing indebtedness as a way of life. The tie that binds these three things together? The Republican Party, which is run by oilmen, subservient to right wing religious groups, and tied up intimately with the big money boys.

Few authors I have ever read have the depth of historical knowledge Phillips possesses, and he marshals an astonishing range of evidence in support of his arguments. He warns us that Imperial Rome, Habsburg Spain, the Dutch Republic, and Britain all viewed themselves as missionary powers chosen and favored by God, and explains that all four overextended themselves financially and militarily. Phillips sees the religious right as a deadly threat to America's future--which it is--because it rejects the very basis of reality examination itself, empiricism, embracing instead a preposterous Biblical literalism that has now been given official approval by the governing Republicans. The Republicans, in fact, are now, according to Phillips, America's first religious party. It is the Republican cleverness in keeping a strange coalition of interests together that is leading to disaster. And at the very epicenter of all of this? The Bush family, of course.

I urge you in the strongest terms to buy and read this book. It may be too late to do anything to stop this demented juggernaut that is carrying America toward destruction, but we've got to do something. You can order the book here.

The Raving Insanity of Sun Myung Moon

The radical right that now runs this country is determined to dictate every detail of human conduct, however intimate. Nowhere is this more evident than in the sex advice (commandments?) given by the the genuinely evil, psychotic Sun Myung Moon, one of the major bankrollers of the Republican Party. His recommendations for marital sex, which can be found here are so perverse, so sick, and so downright bizarre that they border on terrifying. A small sample if you don't have the stomach for the whole thing:

"The women are the problem in history," he said in 2004. "Women who don't want to have children should cut away their breasts, bottoms and love organ because the purpose for those was first for the children. If they don't fulfill that purpose, then they are not needed."

"Woman's sexual organ is like the open mouth of a snake filled with poison," he said in 1996. Men don't get off any easier. Keep pliers in your pocket, he says, "and when you go to the bathroom, once a day, pinch your love organ. Cut the skin a little bit as a warning."

"After the act of love," read the instructions from the Rev. Moon's conservative Family Federation, "both spouses should wipe their sexual areas with the Holy Handkerchief. Hang the handkerchief[s] to dry naturally and keep them eternally. They must be kept individually labeled and should never be laundered and mixed up."

This is the same "Reverend" Moon who runs Bush's favorite newspaper, The Washington Times. This is the same Moon who has given TWO BILLION dollars to conservative causes over the past two decades. This is the same Moon who helped bankroll Bush's campaign in 2004.

This is the lunacy we are up against. Sometimes, I get desperate thinking about how much money and power the right wing psychotics really have. It is they who are the true threat to human freedom, and it is they who are pushing America to the brink of social and economic disaster.

Are We Already at War With Iran?

This post is from Digby. Because you might not hit the link, I've copied the item in full. I don't normally do that, but this is too important for you not to read.

You need to read this. Process this. Roll it around in your head.

The U.S. may already be at war with Iran.

But don't take my word for it.

Bush's Secret War

by digby

Colonel Sam Gardiner is the retired colonel who taught at the National War College, the Air War College and the Naval Warfare College and who found more than 50 instances of demonstrably false stories planted in the press in the run up to the war, back in 2003. He was just on CNN:

CLANCY: Well, Colonel Gardiner, from what you're saying, it would seem like military men, then, might be cautioning, don't go ahead with this. But what are the signs that are out there right now? Is there any evidence of any movement in that direction?

GARDINER: Sure. Actually, Jim, I would say -- and this may shock some -- I think the decision has been made and military operations are under way.

CLANCY: Why?

GARDINER: And let me say this -- I'm saying this carefully. First of all, Sy Hersh said in that article which was...

CLANCY: Yes, but that's one unnamed source.

GARDINER: Let me check that. Not unnamed source as not being valid.The way "The New Yorker" does it, if somebody tells Sy Hersh something, somebody else in the magazine calls them and says, "Did you tell Sy Hersh that?" That's one point.The secretary[sic] point is, the Iranians have been saying American military troops are in there, have been saying it for almost a year. I was in Berlin two weeks ago, sat next to the ambassador, the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA. And I said, "Hey, I hear you're accusing Americans of being in there operating with some of the units that have shot up revolution guard units."He said, quite frankly, "Yes, we know they are. We've captured some of the units, and they've confessed to working with the Americans."The evidence is mounting that that decision has already been made, and I don't know that the other part of that has been completed, that there has been any congressional approval to do this.My view of the plan is, there is this period in which some kinds of ground troops will operate inside Iran, and then what we're talking about is the second part, which is this air strike.

CLANCY: All right. You lay this whole scenario, but there are still a lot of caution flags that one would see out here.

GARDINER: Sure. True.

CLANCY: If they do decide on a military option...

GARDINER: Right?

CLANCY: ... what's the realistic chance of success? What's your -- your prognosis for that kind of reaction here?

GARDINER: Yes. Let me give you two answers to that. First of all, the chance of getting the facilities and setting back the program, I think the chances go from maybe two years to actually accelerating the program. You know, we could cause them to redouble their efforts. That's on one side.The other side is this sort of horizontal escalation by the Iranians.My assessment is -- and it's because of regime problems at home -- that if we strike, they're likely to want to blame Israel. Now that's -- because that sells well at home.Blaming Israel means that there's a chance that we could see Hezbollah, Hamas targeting Israel. We could very easily see this thing escalate into a broader Middle East war, particularly when you add Muslim rage. You know, if you take the cartoon problem and multiply it times a hundred -- you know, the Danish cartoons, you could see how we could end up very quickly with a very serious problem in the Middle East.

CLANCY: Former U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner. Not a very rosy outlook here. A man who thinks the decision may have already been made.Thank you for being with us.

GARDINER: Certainly.

My tin foil hat is beeping and honking like crazy right now. These generals coming forward is huge. I really think it's possible that Bush and Rummy have already got a secret war going on, one that has not been revealed to congress in any form. It's designed that way. Bush is not going to fire Rummy --- he can't. He's already committed himself to this thing. This could be the ultimate action of the unitary executive.

Update: Crooks and Liars has the video, here.

Ominous, isn't it? Has the decision already been made? Are won inexorably on the path to a world war with a terrible religious dimension to it?

ACTION! Contact your Senators and your Representatives. Say NO to a war with Iran! This is a priority. Please--before it's too late.

If it isn't already.

It's Just My Paranoia Acting Up

That's gotta be what's wrong. I'm not a JFK assassination freak and I'm not pushing any conspiracy theories. It's just weird how certain names just seem to pop out at you, like the name in the third line of the third paragraph of this article. (Read the article and the accompanying documents, by the way. They're both genuinely disquieting.)

Is There Any Lie These Bastards WON'T Tell?

I don't think so. Now the Republicans are pushing the damned lie that the Democrats want to make illegal immigration a felony when in fact IT IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE. The Republicans were pushing through such a law themselves, and the Democrats wanted to modify the bill's harsh provisions. The Republican claim is pure out and out bullshit. The infuriating details are here.

Powell: The Iraq "Nuclear Threat" Was a Fraud

If this article by Robert Scheer doesn't wake people up, I'm not sure what will. Colin Powell admits that he knew the so-called Iraq "nuclear threat" was a load of garbage, but he kept quiet about it. Key section:

I queried Powell at a reception following a talk he gave in Los Angeles on Monday. Pointing out that the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate showed that his State Department had gotten it right on the nonexistent Iraq nuclear threat, I asked why did the president ignore that wisdom in his stated case for the invasion?

“The CIA was pushing the aluminum tube argument heavily and Cheney went with that instead of what our guys wrote,” Powell said. And the Niger reference in Bush’s State of the Union speech? “That was a big mistake,” he said. “It should never have been in the speech. I didn’t need Wilson to tell me that there wasn’t a Niger connection. He didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. I never believed it.”

When I pressed further as to why the president played up the Iraq nuclear threat, Powell said it wasn’t the president: “That was all Cheney.” (Emphasis added.)

Your country is in the hands of a fanatic--Cheney--who is manipulating a lazy, detached, weak-minded fool. Colin Powell willingly cooperated with this fanatic and this fool, and in so doing has disgraced himself and perhaps irreparably harmed our country. If Powell had called out Cheney BEFORE the 2004 election, think of the disasters that could have been averted. Now, it's too late.

In a lot of ways.

Here's Your Tax Cut, Middle America

The Potential Human Toll of An Attack on Iran

Courtesy of The Progressive, this estimate is genuinely horrifying. If Bush and his controllers are insane enough to use nuclear weapons to attack Iran, the human losses could be staggering. For me, the salient passage was this:

“The number of deaths could exceed a million, and the number of people with increased cancer risks could exceed 10 million,” according to a backgrounder by the Union of Concerned Scientists from May 2005.

The National Academy of Sciences studied these earth-penetrating nuclear weapons last year. They could “kill up to a million people or more if used in heavily populated areas,” concluded the report, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Physicians for Social Responsibility examined the risks of a more advanced buster-bunker weapon, and it eerily tabulated the toll from an attack on the underground nuclear facility in Esfahan, Iran. “Three million people would be killed by radiation within two weeks of the explosion, and 35 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, would be exposed to increased levels of cancer-causing radiation,” according to a summary of that study in the backgrounder by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

It's time to rise up, folks. There must be NO PRE-EMPTIVE ATTACK ON IRAN, especially one that uses nuclear weapons. Iran can be controlled by deterrence, in exactly the same way the United States controlled the USSR for forty years. Bush and his thugs are talking about nothing less than starting a Third World War. Even a conventional air attack could trigger this. We must stop the Bush Administration NOW. The stakes are enormous.

Think Iraq is Bad? What Until You See Iran

Cenk Uygur has a terrific piece over at Huffington about what we can all expect (when? if?) Junior decides to bomb Iran. His message: however irrational and ill-advised such a decision might be, don't put it past the Boy King. My favorite passage:

Bush is the amalgamation of all the hideous and sad parts of the Republican Party. He is a Republican Frankenstein. He has the temperament of Barry Goldwater, the integrity of Richard Nixon, and the brains of Dan Quayle.

And we trust this guy with his finger on the button?

God help us all if he bombs Iran. And if you think he's not that stupid, you haven't been paying attention.

The Republican Frankenstein. I love it. Go check out the comments to the article, too. They're great.

America's Matrix--The Right Wing Noise Machine

This wonderful article by Robert Parry in Consortium News will help you sort out the way in which the Right has taken the dominant position in American politics. They've done by ceaseless, tireless, 24/7 lying propaganda financed by terrifying fanatics like Sun Myung Moon and aided and abetted by gutless "reporters" in the mainstream media. The introduction:

On June 1, 2003, I wrote an article entitled “America's Matrix,” questioning claims by the Bush administration that the discovery of two specially equipped train cars was proof that Iraq was secretly manufacturing biological warfare agents.

At the time, more than two months after the Iraq invasion, George W. Bush was getting edgy because the promised stockpiles of banned weapons hadn't materialized. So, on May 29, 2003, he hailed the discovery of the supposed mobile “biological laboratories” as conclusive proof that “we have found the weapons of mass destruction,” a claim that would be repeated by administration officials for the next several months.

But any careful reading of the published intelligence reports about the train cars would have shown Bush's assertion to be just the latest exaggeration of WMD evidence about Iraq. Even the evidence marshaled in a “white paper” by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency fit much better with the explanation that the train cars were designed to produce hydrogen for battlefield weather balloons.

Now, nearly three years later, the Washington Post has published an article revealing that Bush made his flat assertion about the train cars two days after a Pentagon-sponsored mission informed Washington that the trailers had nothing to do with producing biological weapons. Those findings from a nine-member team of U.S. and British scientists and engineers were in a three-page field report -- followed three weeks later by a 122-page final report -- but the contrary information was stamped “secret” and shelved.

As senior administration officials, including the President and Secretary of State Colin Powell, continued to make false claims about the “biological laboratories,” the nine-member team disbanded. “I went home and fully expected that our findings would be publicly stated,” one team member told the Post. “It never happened. And I just had to live with it.” [Washington Post, April 12, 2006]

Back in spring 2003, however, the readiness of the Bush administration to mislead the American people and the readiness of the U.S. news media -- and many citizens -- to go along led me to compare what was happening in the United States to the false reality of the Matrix movies.

Go read the rest, and double your resolve to throw these lying bastards out of power as soon as humanly possible.

Big News: Decisive New Evidence of Human Evolution

It comes from Ethiopia, as you might expect if you follow these things. It is unambiguous proof of the continuing evolution of early pre-human primates.

Four-million-year-old remains in Ethiopia have provided the first hard proof of a link between two key stages of human evolution by bridging the gap between pre-human species, paleontologists said.

"For the first time, we found fossils that allow us to connect the first phase of human evolution and the second phase," Dr Berhane Asfaw, anthropologist and co-research director of the project that found the remains, told a news conference Wednesday in Addis Ababa.

"The fossils represent unambiguous evidence for human evolution," he said.

Indeed they do. It won't make any difference to the hard core creationists, but for the reality based community it is yet another victory for rationality.

(Thanks to Lance at Slowcurl.)

Paul Krugman Tells the Truth About Bush's Iran Plans

The invaluable Paul Krugman (via Common Dreams) explains here why Bush cannot be trusted to do the right thing with Iran, any more than he could be trusted in Iraq. Key quote:

Why might Mr. Bush want another war? For one thing, Mr. Bush, whose presidency is increasingly defined by the quagmire in Iraq, may believe that he can redeem himself with a new Mission Accomplished moment.

And it's not just Mr. Bush's legacy that's at risk. Current polls suggest that the Democrats could take one or both houses of Congress this November, acquiring the ability to launch investigations backed by subpoena power. This could blow the lid off multiple Bush administration scandals. Political analysts openly suggest that an attack on Iran offers Mr. Bush a way to head off this danger, that an appropriately timed military strike could change the domestic political dynamics.

Does this sound far-fetched? It shouldn't. Given the combination of recklessness and dishonesty Mr. Bush displayed in launching the Iraq war, why should we assume that he wouldn't do it again?

Yes, Bush would launch a war timed to help Republican election prospects. There is no level of political venality to which he will not sink. Krugman warns us that we've got to get over the idea that Bush "wouldn't do such a thing". On the contrary, he has shown himself capable of anything. That's what makes him the most dangerous president in American history.

Wow!

And from the same poll:

Bush's job approval rating has remained below 50 percent for nearly a year. Perhaps more ominous for the president, 47 percent in the latest poll say they "strongly" disapprove of Bush's handling of the presidency -- more than double the 20 percent who strongly approve. It marked the second straight month that the proportion of Americans intensely critical of the president was larger than his overall job approval rating. In comparison, the percentage who strongly disapproved of President Bill Clinton on that measure never exceeded 33 percent in Post-ABC News polls. (Emphasis Added.)

The (London) Times: Yes, Bush is Gunning for Iran

Read the whole article here. The end is particularly disturbing:

Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, believes Bush is compounding the mistakes he made in the run-up to the war in Iraq. “If you get to the point where you have to use your military, you’ll want everybody on board with you and we haven’t even tried,” he said.

Such considerations have failed to sway Bush and Cheney before. If their approval ratings remain in the doldrums, there may be an upside to a strike on Iran. “Regardless of how bad Bush’s poll numbers are, Americans love a display of firepower,” said [defense analyst John] Pike. (Emphasis added)

Yes, these bastards would risk a world war to save their hides in an election. It doesn't surprise me, but that doesn't make it any less terrifying of a prospect.

(Hat tip:Sully)

The Republicans: Party of Financial Disaster

Lt. Gen. Newbold: Iraq Was a Mistake

This article in Time shows us yet another military leader critical of the Bush Administration and its reckless invasion of Iraq: Lt. General Gregory Newbold (Ret.) of the United States Marine Corps. This is no radical peacenik talking--this is a dedicated, loyal, patriotic Marine. He's sick and tired of the arrogance, lying, double-talk, and evasion of responsibility coming out of Bush and his people. Key graphs:

I will admit my own prejudice: my deep affection and respect are for those who volunteer to serve our nation and therefore shoulder, in those thin ranks, the nation's most sacred obligation of citizenship. To those of you who don't know, our country has never been served by a more competent and professional military. For that reason, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent statement that "we" made the "right strategic decisions" but made thousands of "tactical errors" is an outrage. It reflects an effort to obscure gross errors in strategy by shifting the blame for failure to those who have been resolute in fighting. The truth is, our forces are successful in spite of the strategic guidance they receive, not because of it.

What we are living with now is the consequences of successive policy failures. Some of the missteps include: the distortion of intelligence in the buildup to the war, McNamara-like micromanagement that kept our forces from having enough resources to do the job, the failure to retain and reconstitute the Iraqi military in time to help quell civil disorder, the initial denial that an insurgency was the heart of the opposition to occupation, alienation of allies who could have helped in a more robust way to rebuild Iraq, and the continuing failure of the other agencies of our government to commit assets to the same degree as the Defense Department. My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions--or bury the results.

Whew! Did you catch that last line? General Newbold NAILED it. This war and its tragically bungled management were the product of men who've never had to face combat. (And, who by the way, don't hesitate to impugn the patriotism of any combat veteran who dares to oppose them.) General Newbold's article is a scathing indictment. Read all of it and tell me what you think.

IS AMERICA HEADING FOR CATASTROPHE IN IRAN?

I thought it appropriate to put the headline in caps because I am convinced a preemptive strike against Iran may be in the works. Foreign Policy magazine carries this piece by Joseph Cirincione that argues senior officials are considering just such an option. Further, James Fallows argues in the new Atlantic Monthly that an airstrike on Iran would be, in the opinion of sober minded military experts, the worst possible option we could exercise. And then, of course, there's the new article by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker, claiming that the Bush Administration is determined to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons capacity by direct attack--including the use of nuclear weapons, if necessary.

This borders on madness, in my opinion. A nuclear attack on a Muslim country that produces 4,000,000 barrels of oil a day to eliminate a threat that is at least five, maybe ten years away from emerging while we are bogged down in another preposterous war, is as close to insane as anything I've heard a U.S. government propose or threaten. In the face of this, I say:

The American people have got to say NO.

The leaders of the military have got to say NO.

The leaders of Congress have got to say NO. (They won't--the Republicans are too crazy and the Democrats are too afraid of looking "weak".)

Why is Bush contemplating doing this? I found this comment by a poster (nandrews) on the Washington Monthly blog today to be insightful:

I'm afraid we're up against something that hasn't changed -- this man's insecurities, and how he copes with them. For all his people skills and political talents, he's always been over his head since he left Texas and he's always known it.

Why him? What had he ever really done to prepare for this job, to gain the stature for it? He surrounds himself with sycophants because he doesn't like what he sees in other people's eyes when they look at him.

He justifies his holding the office by doing bold and brash things that he knows other presidents wouldn't do. He's not himself that much of an ideologue, but under these circumstances, radical ideology gives him what he needs. Perversely, being criticized, to the degree he already expects it, merely reinforces his wall against self-doubt. The more people object, the more they try to clue him in about the real-world consequences of the course he has set, the more it vindicates his own sense of himself.

I'm afraid this explain a lot of what he's done -- reckless tax cuts, the "war on terror," going for broke on Iraq, going for broke on Social Security. I'm afraid it explains how he goes about it, never admitting error, never having an honest give-and-take exchange in public, always grasping for unconstrained power, always waging war on people who stand in his way or don't follow the party line. He's persuaded himself and his flacks that he's the one man who can save the country in its hour of peril -- because he needs to think that. That's how he is.

If it were some other president, I wouldn't worry too much about Seymour Hersh's third-hand mind readings. But I'm afraid this one rings true. What to do? It's useless to try to persuade him he's wrong about something, and even if it's possible to win Congress back, he seems set on acting unilaterally. He seems ever more like a hijacker, rather than a leader -- he won't give up the wheel, and he's not going to change course. Because he's trapped in his own mind, we're all trapped on board.

Spread the word, folks. We've got to stop this madness before it destroys us.

DeLay Uses Typical Gestapo Tactics to Attack Democratic Contender

This is typical of the way the King of the White Trash Thugs, Tom DeLay, deals with Democrats: by violence. (DeLay claims he knew nothing about this attempt to break up Nick Lampson's speech, but that's just more lying bullshit.) DeLay used exactly the same Storm Trooper methods to stop the recount in Florida during the Republican coup in 2000.

I demand the fullest possible prosecution of this filthy little pimp for the various crimes associated with his financial corruption in Washington and I further demand that upon his conviction he be made to serve prison time. Period.

(The Onion weighs in as well.)

Evolution News, Evolution Resources

• Check out Scientific American's brief article on the fossil that represents the transition from fish to land living animals.
• Read this eloquent defense of evolution by David Barash in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
• Check out this excellent site about how evolution works.
• And check out this story about how scientists are figuring out the evolution of hormones, smashing yet another "intelligent design" myth about "irreducible complexity".

None of it will convince the hardcore creationist lunatics, but it sure is convincing to me.

Al Franken ANNIHILATES Ann (The Psychotic) Coulter

It's a thing of beauty to read. Al rips Coulter to shreds so thoroughly that I almost feel sorry for her.

On second thought, I don't feel sorry for her at all. Screw her. She deserves every syllable of it.

Cockroach Man: A Coward Hiding Behind Jesus

The fall of Tom DeLay has been noted in these parts with great satisfaction. DeLay was and is a crook, pure and simple. The Republican money machine he built by threatening and milking lobbyists is still alive and well. (It must be the objective of good Democrats, Independents, and fed-up Republicans everywhere to smash this corrupt entity to pieces as soon as possible.) DeLay's ties not only to Jack Abramoff but to shady characters inside of the Russian government are both shocking and a national disgrace.

What makes all this particularly repulsive to me is the way DeLay and his followers regularly compare DeLay to Jesus, claiming martyrdom for the fallen majority leader. DeLay also says he was driven out because of his "Christian" faith. I reply, "No you weren't, you vicious little son of a bitch. You were driven out because you were corrupt down to your toenails. How DARE you hide behind Jesus. You wouldn't know genuine Christian charity, love, compassion for the poor, or decency if they walked up and bit you on the ass." By attempting to link himself to Jesus and invoking the Nazarene's name for the sake of political cover DeLay simply proves once again what a despicable, low-life bastard he really is.

UPDATE: Lance has sent this to help illuminate the matter.

Kevin Phillips: The Republicans Are Pushing America Toward a Theocracy

Few observers of American politics have been or are as shrewd and insightful as Kevin Phillips, who predicted and helped engineer the Republican seizure of the South and the Sunbelt (his term) in general. Now, he sees the coalition of religious fundamentalists and debt-driven financial interests pushing America to the brink of disaster. Key excerpts:

The political corollary -- fascinating but appalling -- is the recent transformation of the Republican presidential coalition. Since the election of 2000 and especially that of 2004, three pillars have become central: the oil-national security complex, with its pervasive interests; the religious right, with its doctrinal imperatives and massive electorate; and the debt-driven financial sector, which extends far beyond the old symbolism of Wall Street.

Over a quarter-century of Bush presidencies and vice presidencies, the Republican Party has slowly become the vehicle of all three interests -- a fusion of petroleum-defined national security; a crusading, simplistic Christianity; and a reckless credit-feeding financial complex. The three are increasingly allied in commitment to Republican politics. On the most important front, I am beginning to think that the Southern-dominated, biblically driven Washington GOP represents a rogue coalition, like the Southern, proslavery politics that controlled Washington until Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860.

And further:

Besides providing critical support for invading Iraq -- widely anathematized by preachers as a second Babylon -- the Republican coalition has also seeded half a dozen controversies in the realm of science. These include Bible-based disbelief in Darwinian theories of evolution, dismissal of global warming, disagreement with geological explanations of fossil-fuel depletion, religious rejection of global population planning, derogation of women's rights and opposition to stem cell research. This suggests that U.S. society and politics may again be heading for a defining controversy such as the Scopes trial of 1925. That embarrassment chastened fundamentalism for a generation, but the outcome of the eventual 21st century test is hardly assured.

These developments have warped the Republican Party and its electoral coalition, muted Democratic voices and become a gathering threat to America's future. No leading world power in modern memory has become a captive of the sort of biblical inerrancy that dismisses modern knowledge and science. The last parallel was in the early 17th century, when the papacy, with the agreement of inquisitional Spain, disciplined the astronomer Galileo for saying that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of our solar system.

Folks, this man knows whereof he speaks. He is a trenchant, deeply informed critic of the organized crime cartel known as the Bush Family and its ties to Armageddon-desiring right wing religious fanatics. I'm going to get his new book and I think you might be interested, too.

Our nation is in mortal danger. The Republican Party is responsible for this mortal danger. Stopping them from destroying our beloved country must be job one for every true patriot.

A Fun Guide to Who's Who in the Abramoff Scandal.

It's here. You'll notice, by the way, that 16 of the 17 people listed are REPUBLICANS, and that the Democrat, Byron Dorgan, is only indirectly and peripherally involved.

Bi-partisan scandal my freakin' ass. This practically reads like a directory of the right wing power brokers in Washington. DeLay, Ralph Reed, Norquist, all of the major bastards are here.

The modern Republicans: the most corrupt political party in U.S. history.

Yes, Bush Was Determined to Have His War

And it didn't matter what the facts on WMDs were. Bush and Tony Blair casually discussed the ways in which a war was going to happen, regardless of any outside circumstances. From the original New York Times article:

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second [UN] resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times. (Emphasis added.)

If this isn't shocking enough, check out this assessment by our master strategist, the Boy Emperor:

The memo indicates the two leaders envisioned a quick victory and a transition to a new Iraqi government that would be complicated, but manageable. Mr. Bush predicted that it was "unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups." Mr. Blair agreed with that assessment. (Empasis added.)

A blind, ignorant man, determined to have a war, being enabled by someone (Blair) I used to trust. It did not matter whether the ostensible reason for the war was true; it was going to happen no matter what. In any other democratic country on earth, this would be grounds for removal from office.

But not here. After all, it wasn't as serious a matter as having an affair with your intern.

Heh Heh.

Eric Haney, True Patriot

Eric Haney is a consultant on a TV show called The Unit. The show is based on Haney's experiences in the Delta Force counterterrorism unit. You'd think he'd be a Bush guy, right? Wrong. Take a sample from this piece:

Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?

A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.

We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

This is a powerful interview. I urge you to read the whole thing. It will give you hope for America.

Wes Clark Lays It Out Straight

This statement by former General Wesley Clark says it succinctly: The Bush Administration is a flat-out failure and is unable to resolve the terrorist threat. Money quote:

The administration "has shown tragic incompetence in everything from nation building in Iraq to disaster relief in Louisiana," he said. "Let's face it: We're not going to win the war on terror unless we start making more friends and fewer enemies in the world, and we're not going to be able to protect the American people without a new strategy."

Bush has managed to alienate our friends, give comfort to our enemies, and generally bungle every single assignment given him, both domestic and foreign. Bush will be remembered for his unique mixture of viciousness, malice, incompetence, and dishonesty. I sense Clark shares my view.

General Clark would make a fine president, don't you think?