Recent Comments:

   We better act like we intend to pay some bills or the dollar is going to tank a lot more. Its a real shame this administration ran up massive deficits to win elections, pay for illegal wars and line the pockets of the richest of us. We could really use that money now for stimulus. I think any more rebates at this point will kill the dollar which will bring on more inflation.
  If your working right now your tax dollars are better spent on our infrastructure which will create jobs. I'm working and do not want another rebate check that is borrowed from the nations future. We need stimulus that will benefit us. If your working helping those that are not is priority #1 and not tax rebates for more Chinese toys.
  Sometimes I think Pelosi's vacant stare isn't a ploy to foil the Repugs.

There's a good article in today's Detroit Free Press titled "Exclusion Looks Even Dumber Now" about how idiotic it was of Michigan voters to ban same-sex unions.  

Agreed. I'm more worried about the "Diebold effect."

We've been living in the woods in south central Indiana for 29 years and I don't think I could ever leave -- we love hiking in the mountains and deserts but we love coming home even more.

My sympathies to your wife and her twin. That must be very hard and very sad. I'm sure she must miss home very much.

I haven't spent any time in Tacoma but the Olympic Peninsula was so wonderful, a place that seemed to offer infinite solace -- sunset at Rialto beach is one of the most peace-giving places I've ever been.

Agency finds veterans getting bad information

The mystery caller dialed the Department of Veterans Affairs help line 1,089 times in 2002. And it created quite a problem.

first vegas in august, then chicago in august, then austin in july...

who plans this shit?

what about minneapolis-st. paul in august?  or san francisco?  or aspen, colorado?  or mt. washington, nh?  

I was called the other night by a poll - it felt good to be able to diss Bush & McCain while cheering for Obama!

"I don't have access to any intelligence reports..."

Yes you do. Just as we all do, you have access to the latest NIE produced just a few months ago that concluded that Iran has not had any nuclear-weapons-related activity since 2003. You also have available to you, as we all do, information on the various monitoring and inspections that have taken place regularly with Iran's full cooperation.

"...so I can't know whether Iran has a nuclear weapons program."

There is exactly zero evidence that Iran has EVER had a nuclear weapons program, and considerable evidence that it does not. All you have on the other side is self-serving speculation.

"It is, however, known that Iran has a nuclear program, and the uranium enrichment technologies for building bombs and building power plants aren't so different."

So, Iran is very sensibly working on a nuclear energy program - something that makes perfect sense both in terms of their short term and long-term energy needs, and could stand them in very good stead in the region. Using nuclear energy now will reduce domestic use of oil leaving them more to sell - which is good for everyone - and eventually when the oil supply runs out, they could be in a good position to sell energy regionally. Looks like good planning to me.

"And you have to wonder why a nation that has one of the largest oil reserves in the world is devoting so much capital to a nuclear power program that it doesn't need and that is causing it so much international grief."

See the paragraph just above. In fact, not only does developing nuclear energy make perfect sense how and in the future, there is a further irony to all this furor. You see, previously the very same neocons who are screaming the loudest were actually pushing Iran to develop nuclear energy.

"It matters less whether Iran is, in fact, pursuing a nuclear weapons program as whether the Israelis believe that they are."

That's a crazy argument.

"If the Israelis believe that Iran is manufacturing nuclear weapons, and if they believe that Iran is doing so not for deterrence but for a first strike against Israel, it's hard to imagine Israel not conducting a pre-emptive strike."

I repeat that a so-called "preemptive strike" in the absence of a clearly imminent threat is called a war of aggression, and is considered the supreme war crime. Further, I do not believe for one moment that Israel's government or any other government actually believes that Iran is manufacturing nuclear weapons for any purpose. Further, the politicians in Israel know there is no external existential threat to Israel (the real threat to Israel's existence comes from within and always has). This is not about Israel's existence, it is about Israel insisting upon being the only 250 pound bully on the beach.

This is a pretext to threaten Iran just as the rubbish about Iraq's supposed WMD's and close ties with Al Qa`eda were a pretext to commit a war of aggression against Iraq. This is nothing new for the Israelis. They've been doing this "poor little me" crap since before statehood.

Iran is not a threat to either Israel or the United States, and never will be. On the contrary, it is Iran that is under threat from Israel and the United States, and Iran has every right to defend itself against such a threat.

Hurria: "War with Iran is only inevitable if Israel makes it so. Iran has a continuous 300 year history of non-aggression, and has shown no signs of changing that."

JLG: "I don't know, it seems to me like taking Americans hostage at the Embassy is pretty aggressive."

You are going to equate hostage-taking by an overwrought mob during the chaos of a revolution with a full-blown state attacking and invading a country?!

"It seems to me that arming Hizballah to attack Israel is pretty aggressive also."

Unfortunately, your knowledge and understanding of Hezballah appears to be limited to the standard propaganda, and there is not time or space here to correct that, which means it is not possible to have an informed discussion with you about it. Further, you appear unaware of Israel's multiple daily violations of Lebanese sovereign territory (as observed and recorded by the U.N.).

Having said that, are you really equating assisting a resistance group with attacking and invading a country?

Oh yes - and if you want to point the finger at Iran for helping a Lebanese resistance group, shall we talk about the U.S. and Israel's operations, violent and otherwise, inside Iran,  including their sponsorship of groups on the official terrorist list? Shall we talk about a very filthy pot calling the kettle black here?

Hurria: "Ahmadinajad has never once "vowed" or even threatened to destroy Israel, or even suggested that Israel should be destroyed."

JLG: "Oh, now I understand."

No, you clearly do not understand at all.

"When he said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map..."

He never said anything like that. As a matter of fact even the maliciously inaccurate MEMRI mistranslation did not have him saying quite that. First, he did not say he wanted to do anything at all, nor did he call for anyone else to do anything. Second, what he said did not come from him, but was a repetition of something Khomeni used to say. In other words, he was quoting Khomeni, not making a statement of his own. Third, he said nothing about wiping anything off the map. What he said was that the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem would be erased from the pages of time. Khomeni in that statement was specifically referring to the occupation of Jerusalem, not to Israel as a whole, and what he said was not a call to any kind of action, but a statement that the Israeli occupation of Jeruslam - one of Islam's holiest cities would end.

Hurria: "Furthermore, Ahmadinajad is not the ruler of Iran..."

JLG: "If Ahmadinejad was speaking out of turn, the rest of the leadership could have disavowed his remarks.  I don't recall that happening.  At least not in public."

You have missed the point. Ahmadinajad can say anything he likes, but he is not in a position to do anything about it. Therefore, he is not the one people listen to who really want to know the position of Iran's government on matters pertaining to military and foreign policy. The one people listen to is Khamenei, the Supreme Ruler of Iran, but even he cannot act alone. As I tried to explain before, there are a lot of checks and balances built into Iran's system, and there is no one person who can make a decision and take action about anything. Everything is done by consensus.

"I was really not trying to address the question of whether Iran intends to attack Israel.  What I was trying to do was to understand the sorts of perceptions that Israel might have about Iran's intentions."

OK, I understand. However, I do not believe for moment that Israel's government and military leaders believe Iran is a threat to Israel's security or existence any more than they believed Egypt was a threat to Israel's security or existence in 1956 or 1967, or that they believed Saddam was a threat to Israel's existence. They know Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program, just as Georgie and the neocons knew that Iraq did not have WMD's or any kind of relationship with Al Qa`eda. As I said before, what Iran threatens (and what Saddam threatened) is not Israel's existence. What they are protecting is their status as the only real power in the region. They will fight to keep that for the same reason that the neocons have put the world through so much hell for the last 8 years, not for security but because they have a lust for power.

"There are interpretations of those intentions that move into "existential threat" category and make a pre-emptive strike an arguable and even likely option for Israel."

There are no intentions to interpret. Iran is doing what it has every legal and moral right and reason to do - developing nuclear energy capabilities. As long as Iran remains in compliance with its agreement under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (to which it is a signatory, and which Israel has, quite in its character as a rogue nation, refused to sign) no one has any legitimate reason to complain, let alone threaten or attack or - heaven forbid! - nuke Iran. Iran's enrichment facilities are under an international monitoring and inspection regime, and Iran is cooperating. The Israeli government knows this, and the Bush regime knows this.

"You may deny or downplay Tehran's menacing rhetoric..."

You are going to have to do much better than that one maliciously translated quote of Khomeni by Ahmandinajad to convince me or anyone else who is knowledgeable about these matters that the rhetoric from Iran has been "menacing". In fact, the ones who are engaging in truly menacing rhetoric AND actions are the U.S. and Israel. Last I heard Iran has not threatened to attack anyone, nor are they undertaking any actions to affect regime change in any country.

"but the Israelis take such things seriously, and, if for no other reason, we must as well."

I think you have the cart pulling the donkey here. What you must take seriously is not any threat, real or perceived, from Iran, but the very real and very serious threat from Israel and the U.S. that they will start WW III. Israel and the U.S., not Iran, is the problem here, so focus on the problem.

Not much does make our press, actually.

Thanks for the link above. It's amazing how many geopolitical games are going on, over my head, with very big stakes. Too bad our team captain is the one who traded away the young Sammy Sosa.

My gut feeling is that they have to create tension. I'd guess their internal polls are showing a much bigger lead.

The algorithms for these polls are all wrong; the number of people with land lines is decreasing, and the percentage of young people who will show up to vote is much higher with Obama.

But corporates don't want him, and they absolutely don't want four months of "no news."

I agree with all those who have pointed out that Benny Morris is by no means coming from the Left or anywhere near it. In other words, Steven, your basic premise is wrong. What this really is is a particularly vicious spin piece foisted on and catapulted by the NY Times (we all know how available the Times is for this sort of thing) by the War Party, in an attempt to counter the obvious fact that things are really not going their way. Obviously Morris would like to believe that Israel will attack Iran. But really you should read Uri Avnery's piece (already linked above):
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery07142008.html
My own reaction to this effort of the Likudniks can be expressed in two words -- and they ain't "happy birthday."

I didn't see the Ford/Moulitsas thing, but it seems to me that what he was really saying was this:
"You guys got them elected, but me and my guys got them to fall in line. What are you gonna do about it?"
    I've heard a lot of justified grumbles about our Netroots candidates jumping ship now and then, but no consideration of WHY they do this. Just for the hell of it? Because they like biting the hand that fed them, just to prove they can? I doubt it. It seems to me the most likely explanation is that these greenhorns walk in and fimmediately find themselves in the middle of an ongoing shitstorm where they are suddenly subjected to all kinds of powerful and sometimes inescapable pressures from people they don't particularly like (kind of like an initiation).
    To tell you the truth, I think that's what just happened to Obama on this FISA thing. Existing power blocs bring their power to bear... to show "who's boss" and to "teach a lesson".
    In other words, getting people elected is only step one. And of course, step two is that their supporters quickly lose interest in supporting them, because they made a bad vote. Now that we put them in, take them out? That takes too long, is very denoralizeing to all concerned, and it misses the point. It willprobably  just keep happening. Maybe we should look a little deeper and be a little more realistic. I don't mean being happy when our people cave, but we need to learn how to parlay our support into real power.
    Not that I am by any means an expert in this, but I suspect that many of us are babes in the woods when it comes to how things actually work in Congress... we have to learn to martial support and help these guys buck the pressures on difficult votes. Hopefully it will be somewhat easier when there are more Democrats, but let's face it, our party still has a strong bloc of powerful quislings.

who to believe when you read this?

ABC News/Wash. Post withheld results of poll favorable to Obama

ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases of the results of their latest poll, withholding from their first release results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama, including the finding that 50 percent of registered voters would vote for Obama for president versus 42 percent for Sen. John McCain. The next day, the Post ran an article headlined "Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates' Iraq-Pullout Positions," which did not mention Obama's 8-point lead over McCain. Later that day, ABC News and the Post issued a second release with additional poll results that stated: "Obama continues to hold most of the advantages in the presidential race."

Is there any good reason?  

Howdy to you, Boo, in Austin. I'm just back from painting DC pink and green.

But speaking of green...Harold "has his orders" as I like to say, but really, he's jealous; just green with envy.

Remember, he was supposed to be the new pink poodle in 1996--he was the wave of the future, etc., etc. He was riding hard on Gore's coattails...and hasn't awakened to the fact that the world has moved on from the warmed over DLC pablum that was supposed to make him a national star.

yeah, I'll conceded that that's annoying as all hell.

You get the feeling what Harold Ford needs is a good belt in the chops.  Maybe more than one.

I agree where was the bradley effect during the primary election? I think its a ruse and those days are behind us for 98% percent of the population.

-----"There is no evidence that Iran intends to "go nuclear" and ample evidence that at the very least it is not working on a nuclear weapon at present. In fact, there is not a scintilla of evidence that Iran has ever had a nuclear weapons program."

I don't have access to any intelligence reports, so I can't know whether Iran has a nuclear weapons program.  It is, however, known that Iran has a nuclear program, and the uranium enrichment technologies for building bombs and building power plants aren't so different.  And you have to wonder why a nation that has one of the largest oil reserves in the world is devoting so much capital to a nuclear power program that it doesn't need and that is causing it so much international grief.

It matters less whether Iran is, in fact, pursuing a nuclear weapons program as whether the Israelis believe that they are.  If the Israelis believe that Iran is manufacturing nuclear weapons, and if they believe that Iran is doing so not for deterrence but for a first strike against Israel, it's hard to imagine Israel not conducting a pre-emptive strike.  It all depends on what the Mossad is telling the Israeli leadership, and of course that's something I don't know.

 -------"War with Iran is only inevitable if Israel makes it so. Iran has a continuous 300 year history of non-aggression, and has shown no signs of changing that."

I don't know, it seems to me like taking Americans hostage at the Embassy is pretty aggressive.  It seems to me that arming Hizballah to attack Israel is pretty aggressive also.

----- "Ahmadinajad has never once "vowed" or even threatened to destroy Israel, or even suggested that Israel should be destroyed."

Oh, now I understand.  When he said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map, he meant he wanted to take a bottle of wipe-out and paint over the letters "I-S-R-A-E-L".  Of course, how could a nonaggressive soul mean anything else?

------ "Furthermore, Ahmadinajad is not the ruler of Iran, and has absolutely nothing to say about military matters or matters pertaining to international relations. And on top of that Iran's government has a very strong system of checks and balances that prevents any one person or group in the government from being able to make a decision or take action without consensus from the others."

If Ahmadinejad was speaking out of turn, the rest of the leadership could have disavowed his remarks.  I don't recall that happening.  At least not in public.  

------- "Israel's back is not to the wall, Israel is being its usual neighborhood bully self, threatening yet another war of aggression against a country that has never attacked it and never will."

I was really not trying to address the question of whether Iran intends to attack Israel.  What I was trying to do was to understand the sorts of perceptions that Israel might have about Iran's intentions.  There are interpretations of those intentions that move into "existential threat" category and make a pre-emptive strike an arguable and even likely option for Israel.  You may deny or downplay Tehran's menacing rhetoric, but the Israelis take such things seriously, and, if for no other reason, we must as well.

"here we have a prominent member of the Israeli Left"

Steve, do not make the error of assuming that Benny Morris is a member of the Israeli left merely because he created the seminal work that exploded big parts of Israel's creation mythology. Benny Morris lacks the most fundamental characteristics of the Israeli left. He not only has zero remorse for what Israel has done to the Palestinians over the last century or so, his only regret is that they did not do a thorough enough job. Furthermore, as anyone knows who has studied his work, he has refused completely to come to the only realistic conclusion about what happened in 1948 and after - that Israel's founders, and later each of its governments - have engaged in deliberate, planned, systematic ethnic cleansing.

As Israeli historian - and real member of the left - Ilan Pappe shows in his recent book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, the real purpose behind the 1948 war was precisely to cleanse the land of its indigenous non-Jewish majority.

Benny Morris is a racist who does not acknowledge or accept that Palestinians are full human beings with human rights equal to Jews.

We should always be grateful to someone who tells us ugly and painful truths.  Ford is a tough guy, has to be.  His family has had power in and around Memphis a long time.  He knows the mind of the people.  He has had the race card blatantly played against him.  Until we can get enough progressives in the House and Senate to get things done without conservative Democrats, I, for one, will prefer to have them with us rather than against us.

An enemy would have suggested that we were right and should go after all who betrayed us.  That would play into the hands of the Republicans.  We are tougher than that.  If not we need to be.