impeach

Really, this shit is so beyond the beyond – everything in this post – along with the Canadian dude last night and Pach – must be SCREAMED 24/7!!!

oh well – Fitz!

Insanity – The procees of taking an action repeatedly and expecting a different result each time.

re the dems on this via Raw Story and if you read the article at least Jane Harman is showing some brains:

As the Bush Administration ups rhetoric and news reports signal the Pentagon has developed detailed plans for a possible military strike, the opposition party’s leading lights have remained silent. Democratic insiders say they don’t want to rush to judgment without getting the facts, but the issue has received scant attention from Democrats in Congress.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0418.html

Why the hell aren’t the Democrats all over this? It can’t just be general wimpiness/fear of Rove, can it?
Jesus! I knew it was bad during the run-up to Iraq when CIA was the fuckin good guys, but when you find yourself considering the advantages of a military coup ….

For the love of God, people, if this isn’t the time to remove this menace from power, then I don’t know what is.

Slightly OT:

A friend, former Marine, has given me his succinct assessment of Iraq’s future government:

Stable
Pro-American
Democracy

Choose two.

And two is a stretch.

Headline at CNN.com:

“Bush: ‘I’m the Decider’”

Yes, he’s dangerous, and probably a lunatic, too.

But he really, really is a fucking moron.

#6:

My theory as to why the Democrats have been wimps throughout this whole ordeal is that Bush has spied on them repeatedly via the NSA.

He has all of their private dirt and would go public if they dared speak out against him.

My sense is that he had nothing on Feingold and the six retired generals, at least nothing scandalous enough.

I can’t think of any other realistic explanation.

What is the plan for after we strike?

Way ahead of you, Taylor. My sources inside the WH have obtained a copy of the plan:

1. Hire some locals to sweep up all the flowers and confetti. (Note to self – call KBR).

2. Make sure to leave a place in the schedule to pick up that Nobel. (Note to self – have Laura send tux to cleaners).

That’s about right, cujo359.

So, are all the ex-military officers and national security freaks who play talking-head experts on TV and radio and in print also wrong to be voicing their concerns about strategy and tactics? Do Hiatt, Myers, Franks, et al, think the TV Pentagon Brigade are akin to traitors or coup plotters?

Of course not. Hiatt, et al, are still just trying to cover their behinds in hopes that someday they’ll be vindicated for supporting the fascistic and nasty imperial invasions and occupations of other countries for resources. They’re counting on average Americans – and official historians – to forget how stupid they were.

The sun never sets on the American Empire. Hopefuly somebody will sit on Hiatt, gently of course.

“I’m the deciderer”
“I’m the decisionalist”

(no, but you are speaking delusionalisteringishly)

I don’t know if Bush can handle any kind of emergency situation. The last couple of times I was treated to him live at one of his “sessions”, I get itchy and can’t watch without scrathcing myself all over.

Sorry for this feminista mantra but when are the MEN of this country going to get their acts together and save us?

I read Arkin’s article last night, and his whole point is that the war plans should be made public so Iran understands we’re serious and will negotiate. My big disagreement with him is that the Bush Administration has given no indication that they’re actually negotiating. Bush’s “all options are on the table” actually seems to mean “all options are on the table except the one that could work — direct talks.” So my reply to Arkin would be that sabre-rattling can be a useful negotiating tool, but sabre-rattling when your only negotiating position is demanding capitulation is disastrous.

OT

In the meantime, he is a man on a mission. Wherever he goes, he finds time and an audience to deliver his (free) lecture on global warming. It and the film leave no doubt of the peril we face and neither do they leave any doubt that Gore, at last, is a man at home in his role. He is master teacher, pedagogue, know-it-all, smarter than most of us, better informed and, having tried for and failed to gain the presidency, has raised his sights to save the world. We simply cannot afford for Al Gore to lose again.

I’ll say it until I am blue in the face;

the pnac does not want success in Iran, they didn’t want success in Iraq, they want unrest and instability

and the president wants to bring about the battle of armageddon, he is a dispensationalist that thinks armageddon is a good thing

I can’t remember where I read or heard it, but recently someone made a very good point — one point of absolute consistency is that Bush just refuses to talk to people he doesn’t like, domestically or internationally (or let his administration talk to them.) So no matter how disastrous it is not to talk to the Iranian president or North Korea, he’s only willing to talk to friends and syncophants.

What a spoiled brat. He’s never in his life had to do anything he didn’t want to.

The following isn’t meant to scare you. It’s meant to make you mad. The significance of calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation
is worth very close attention…not gospel but fairly informed speculation.

The retired generals are desperately trying to stop an
attack on Iran, and their links to the active generals
(with whom they still go out drinking) are direct. The
Code of Military Justice, otherwise known as the UCMJ,
makes it a crime for an active-duty officer to speak
out against politicians or government officials,
therefore it is the retired officers who must speak
for them. First they used Murtha. Now they’re
escalating.

The professional officer class is keenly aware that a
Rumsfeld resignation has the same effect as Cheney or
Bush resigning. Like Siamese Twins gone further wrong,
those 3 people are inextricably conjoined. An open
public attack on Rumsfeld means they’re actually
attacking the deepest root of the Presidency, chiefly
the warmongering brain of the operation, the Master of
Disaster, the Architect of Darkness himself, Dick
Cheney. The retired and active duty generals took this
step in spite of acknowledged, open-ended personal
risks.

The retired generals will first be counterattacked for
the “cover your ass” element to their coming forward
as retirees. The active-duty generals will be attacked
in secret. The only relevant point is that nothing
like what they’re doing has ever happened before in
this country, nor to my knowledge in any other. It is
unprecedented. When generals do this behind closed
doors, it’s called a coup. Our generals have chosen to
start a coup in the media, and though you will hear
much punditrification otherwise, this is the most
significant event in American history since
slaveholding states seceded from the Union.

Why, specifically, this grandstanding from the
gloryhounds? Why now? Active generals have told
Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration the following: if
Iran is attacked, our domestic economy will
immediately go into the shitter, our military faces
certain defeat in Iraq and elsewhere, and the fate our
country won’t be far behind. It’s been wargamed from
every angle, and that’s the way it keeps turning out.
These generals are now signalling the American public
that Rumsfeld has ignored them, and the Bush
Administration is going to attack Iran anyway. (Oh,
yes, and they’re going to use so-called “bunker
busting” nukes.) Therefore these generals are
conducting a revolt of omission and seek to force the
Bush Administration to stand down. As for coups, they
want to save our country, not run it.

Though I rejected it as a career, I’ve studied the
dynamics of war all my life. As a result I knew well
before Gulf War One that Iraq would be betrayed as a
US ally after its war with Iran was over, knew that
Saddam would be attacked and removed from power, and
knew as a matter of course that Arabs would succeed
Russia as the overarching enemy designate for the
convenience of a national security apparatus which had
become self-preserving and then gruesomely corrupt.
All the above was instinctively obvious by 1987 or so.
The following points are now obvious to the point of
guarantees:

1) if the arc of Dick Cheney’s clinical impulses are
not forcibly or meaningfully altered, he will order a
bombing campaign on Iran which includes the use of
tactical nukes within the coming weeks;

2) if such an attack is allowed to occur (with nuclear
weapons or without), Iran will invade Iraq and defeat
our ground presence there, triggering a number of
regional wars, causing energy and food rationing in
the US;

3) if nukes are used on Iran, a chain of events will
be unleashed eventually resulting in a massive nuclear
response against the US, one which will in all
likelihood kill many people whom we love;

4) the control of Mideast oil will pass to more
proximate rising powers regardless of the most
strenuous US military efforts against that outcome.

The American Way of Life as defined by Dick Cheney is
not only negotiable, it’s almost over, and it’s time
we shift our focus to building a sustainable,
prosperous future for our country. The age of Western
oil dominance is ending, it’s not recoverable, but
it’s far preferable to accept that destiny than
destroy the great temple of our world in a holocaust.

Those who have usurped this nation refuse to see it
that way. Despite all their amply demonstrated
delusions, and all their fatal fuck-ups, the drunkards
remain at the wheel. I’m saying here and now that
they’re doubling down, saying this means our children
are next in line. So they must be stopped, and the
generals are telling us they’ve just run out of
traditional options. To have a chance of stopping
them, we will have to march. Meantime, the best thing
I know of is to support the generals, since so much
rides on their successful forebearance.

Redshift–16, Republicans I talk to say Iran leaves us no choice, we’ve tried and tried (!) to negotiate with them and they refuse, so bomb away.
They are not amenable to facts. Their antifact force fields are up. Ain’t no gettin thru to them.
So now what do we do? Who has a louder microphone? They’re believing what Rush or FoxNews tells them, and disregarding the rest.

Ah, woke up this morning and thought where’s punaise been? #14, giggling like a child!

“I’m the decider” –

reminds me of before Iraq – “I’m the one who gets to decide” – a grownup would say “has to decide” – this is a totally disturbed child with gasoline and matches, it will be amazing if he’s allowed to simply destroy our nation simply because he’s a petulant little five-year-old fuck

Very well said, Taylor.

But I don’t know if there are enough sane and passionate people to accomplish what you ask.

And it takes both – sanity to see, and passion to act. It will take a lot of action, almost entirely grassroots, to effect a change of power.

The corporations (the President’s true constituency) are happy the way things are. The main stream media is controlled by corporations, and are most interesting in getting eyeballs through infotainment rather the stodgy and labor-intensive work of informing the public. Congress is the President’s lapdog and have been for 6 years.
The only remaining recourse is direct action by people.

I don’t think Mr. and Mrs. America can get worked up about these things. They are creatures of intertia, expecthing things to just keep going along with no impact on their day-to-day lives. Only a big crunch will wake them from their lethargy.

Things will have to get much, much worse, and even then it is difficult to imagine what it would take. A nuke set off in the U.S. will only solidify their power through fear. Only the pocketbook has a chance as I see it.

As I told my son this morning, $10 a gallon gas cannot come too soon (my son, to his credit, replied, “No, Dad, Bush will be kicked out long before $10″)

Gyro Gear Lose– Al Gore, a true American Patriot and citizen of the globe. How different would our world be if he had actually been allowed to claim his victory? Maybe this time in 2008…

from previous thread “John Casper says:
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.c….._two_inr_m em.html#more

What is really telling is the final conclusion of this article…

“But I will repeat an observation I made yesterday. Two of the five major things redacted in the declassification process (which had to have happened while Bolton was still at State) serve to hide Bolton’s department’s involvement in propagating the Niger claims, including accepting the Niger forgeries from SISMI.

This stinks. It stinks to high hell.”

Nothing groundbreaking, we already knew Bolton was a pig. My problem is that there is so much evidence out there that these swine are eating our pearls, and the democratic institutions that are supposed to respond to these crises are BROKEN!!!

It is beginning to feel like the Balkens/Rwanda all over again. Oil is at $72. Can we be sending our raw wealth out of the country any faster? The Chinese laugh at America as the Americans laugh at the French.

I hate to admit it, but gas prices probably do have a greater impact on the makeup of our next congress than anything else. If, over the Summer, our fellow Americans are forced to pay more than three bucks a gallon, I suspect a Republican or three in congress will be looking for a lobbying job.

I’ve received an email re: a petition opposing an attack of Iran. Here it is:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/iran

Sorry about the bad link. Here it is again

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.c……html#more

Thx Casper

coriolanus 22:

lurking, lurking…..

“No, Dad, Bush will be kicked out long before $10″

What if The Great Decider “decides” he doesn’t want to leave? How many divisions do we have?

We are seeing the set-up. If you sat down and added up all of the people who have been almost de-facto declared enemies of the state, Democrats, liberals, wishy-washy Republicans, Muslims, athiests, gays, immigrants, Latinos, Blacks, Hollywood, the press, Murtha, Kerry and anyone in the military who disagress with The Great Decider..you will find that the rump 27% batshit crazy base is all that Bush has left. Of course they are the chosen ones, God’s elite shock-corps, so why shouldn’t they call all the shots?

-GSD

me to me is right. There isn’t any plan on the table except for Bush and Cheney (not in that order) to hold power forever. Now that they’ve got a mirror image in Iran, they can do it more quickly. Mrtial law declared before the end of summer and we have voted for the last time. Even though my votes have been uncounted for the last two elections and so theree might not be much of a loss on that score…

great work Taylor, thanks…..

rcauthen #6

“And where are the Democrats?” That’s the refrain that echoes after almost discussion on this site. My theory is that like unicorns they don’t exist but are just a product of fevered imaginations and wishful thinking. There are a few frauds who claim to be Democrats but these are merely cynical manipulators of the gullible.

Iran will not be like Iraq.

Iran has 66 million people, mountanous terrain, and a land mass larger than Alaska. This is 2.7 times as many people, and 3.8 times the territory as Iraq.

More importantly, Iraq was held together by the iron fist of Saddam Hussein — Iran’s government has far more support from it’s citizens.

We’ve already lost the war in Iraq; we will be doomed to fail even quicker if we attack Iran. A military strike will not prevent Iran from getting the bomb, and will probably result in faster development.

This is the key point — a military strike will not achieve it’s objectives, and have the exact opposite effect.

Furthermore, an attack on Iran will strengthen the hard liners, and weaken the moderates — again, exactly the opposite of what we want to achieve.

Billmon’s latest, The Flight Forward Part 2, lays out the theory as to why the Iranian President is trying to provoke war. Short answer — it serves his interests.

http://billmon.org/archives/002392.html

“Quick footed military teams that are adaptive, is Rumsfeld’s idea of the modern U.S. fighting force.â€

Is that Rummy-speak for, “can run like hell when outnumbered?â€

The Silence of the Dems…if silent too long, could become Silence of the Damned…

Are they so transfixed by what they believe is the implosion of the GOP that they don’t think action is needed?

Bush is the poster boy for instant gratification, and the thrill-seeking he engaged in before Laura came on the scene has re-surfaced, only now that he doesn’t (?) drink to get his jollies, he gets both the thrill and the instant gratification by making decisions that have global consequences. The rush is in making the decisions – that’s why he keeps the focus on being “the decider.” He doesn’t care about what comes after he makes the decision, but the built-in bonus for Bush is that the decisions he makes are so bad that they inevitably lead to more edge-of-the-cliff decisions. His need to keep the rush going is escalating, and the PNAC boys are playing him like a fiddle to make the decisions that implement their whacko plans.

This poor excuse for a man – and a human being – is going to be in a world of hurt the day he leaves office, and finds that deciding whether to have regular or de-caf doesn’t do it. I see a major breakdown in this man’s future – assuming there is a future by the time he’s done with us.

rcauthen #6

If not blackmail or something similar, then I’m thinking the use of drugs or hypnosis to explain it. All three can be considered ‘enemy action’. Deer in the headlights, maybe.

OT again

The timing of that and other e-mail exchanges is potentially important because they came just days after Safavian returned from a $130,000 golfing outing to the famed St. Andrews Course in Scotland that was organized by Abramoff. The itinerary for the trip, disclosed for the first time, show that the Abramoff party—which also included Ohio Rep. Robert Ney and well-connected Republican Party strategist Ralph Reed—involved a non-stop whirl of golfing and expensive dinners that the Abramoff party was driven to by “luxury coach.â€

MarcLord #20 –

Active generals have told Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration the following: if Iran is attacked, our domestic economy will immediately go into the shitter, our military faces certain defeat in Iraq and elsewhere, and the fate our
country won’t be far behind. It’s been wargamed from every angle, and that’s the way it keeps turning out.

That is the Key Point: An Attack on Iran IS DOOMED TO FAIL. We cannot win this, and it will not prevent (or slow down) Iran’s nuclear program.

This is madness, aided and abetted by the lapdog media, and cowardly Democrats.

ck, billmon is one of the smartest analysts out there, anywhere, on this stuff. Have you read Paul Rogers’ report at the Oxford Group? I recall that you or someone else has posted it here before, but it’s worth doing so again:

http://www.oxfordresearchgroup…..uences.htm

Marclord says:

“The American Way of Life as defined by Dick Cheney is not only negotiable, it’s almost over, and it’s time we shift our focus to building a sustainable, prosperous future for our country.
“The age of Western oil dominance is ending, it’s not recoverable, but it’s far preferable to accept that destiny than destroy the great temple of our world in a holocaust.”

Clear logic, sobering…and a call to action to stop the escalation of Bush-Ahmed rhetoric.
How can we do this?

Is Ahmed aware of Bush’s anger problem?
Pushing him into another foolish move?

Bush and Cheney actually belive in Republican Mythology. From their perspective, Ronald Reagan intentionally ratcheted up the arms race with the soviet union because he knew(from his years as a B movie actor) that it would cripple their economy. Reagan did this, so the mythology goes, in the face of withering criticism from Liberal pussies. Bush thinks he’s doing something similar with regard to what he calls radical Islam. The more he’s questioned, the more he refers to the key lesson of Republican mythology, and the more stubborn he becomes.

Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, yesterday described Iran, alongside Syria and the Palestinian Authority’s Hamas government, as a new “axis of terror”. (Guardian)

http://tinyurl.com/gdsav

OT– but yay– too bad though he did not require Rummy to testify too.

WASHINGTON – A military judge Tuesday ordered an Army general who commanded the detention center at Guantanamo Bay to testify at the court martial of a dog handler in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/abu_ghraib_dog_handler

ck,

Kevin Phillips convinced me that Bush’s foreign policy decisions are literally going off the Left Behind series script, which features an Anti-Christ in New Babylon who needs to be nuked. Bush won’t admit to having read the series, but the author (a particularly batshit reverend) was a major reason Bush got elected:

http://www.rollingstone.com/po…..layer=true

Where are the passionate citizens who will stand up to Bush? Good question. The American public has been bought and sold. This has been a deliberate long waged campaign. We’re kept busy, like good little guinea pigs, spinning all day at our jobs, which we need to support our lives of consumption; and at the end of the day we’re tired and frankly, too damn comfortable to really get upset. Dinner’s in the oven and it’s Miller time. Not to mention all the favorite shows which have us riveted.

For those few who might feel some rumblings of unease over world events, and who might flip to a news channel, there is Fox “news” or at best CNN. There is no actual information available to anyone who doesn’t search.

We’re not hungry enough to take to the streets. Gas prices will cause a ripple of consciousness. A draft certainly will, but the American citizenry has been dumbed down and nuetralized. A vast overfed sleeping giant.

You know who’s pissed? Young people who have no hope college and scouted by recruiters. Check out the video of Eminem called “Mosh”- a dark fantasy of ghetto boys, saying no to enlistment, and instead banding together and marching angrily on Washington. There is energy to be tapped.

Where are the passionate citizens who will stand up to Bush?

We are like the passengers on Flight 93 — our country has been hijacked by GOP terrorists, bent on destroying the world. Between us and the cockpit, the MSM stands guard — protecting the BushCo terrorists at all costs.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave

Pace makes a nice Mireau to Rumsfield’s Broulard doesn’t he ?

Check out Congress Ron Paul at C&L:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..html#a7953

This guy is an “R” but does not even list his party on his House web site. He also is scared shitless by the Neo-Cons in Ira(q/n).

He should be applauded for his speech!

justintime,

I’ve wavered on Pach’s idea, admittedly a great one, to get FDL’ers together to go visit state reps. It’s a good thing to do, but Congress doesn’t seem to be connected in any meaningful way to the White House in terms of Iran. Maybe if this had been sustained for the past couple of years, but we don’t have years. We have weeks.

So the question is what means will be effective fast. Derailing an attack on Iran and getting rid of the Bush Administration are almost the same thing.

There are some really bright people here, and we need to figure out a line of approach that will yield results. Bearing in mind, it’s not like France or Europe here. If we gather in the streets now and windows are broken or something burns, people will be shot. Whereas the system we live in is so “just in time” oriented that it’s very susceptible to being jammed. A papier mache box on a freeway stops work for an hour.

Plans, they don’t need plans. They didn’t have post-war plans for Iraq, and that’s been working out quite well, in the BushCo alternate reality world view.

They are so stupid and so arrogant.

I guess it’s past time for me to start calling/writing/faxing our congresspeople (again), she said with a big Sigh…..

OT:

How ’bout Gore/Feingold?

http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..html#a7951

After Iraq, why should we trust Bush and his administration on Iran?

this should be the Dem message on Iran this fall:

Do you really trust them with Iran?

(them being Bush/GOP)

it neatly sidesteps the question of whether we should go to war there at all, thus making comfortable the Dems who are afraid of being perceived as ayatollah lovers.

here’s Richard Clarke and Steven Simon’s take on bombing Iran:

So how would bombing Iran serve American interests? In over a decade of looking at the question, no one has ever been able to provide a persuasive answer. The president assures us he will seek a diplomatic solution to the Iranian crisis. And there is a role for threats of force to back up diplomacy and help concentrate the minds of our allies. But the current level of activity in the Pentagon suggests more than just standard contingency planning or tactical saber-rattling.

The parallels to the run-up to to war with Iraq are all too striking: remember that in May 2002 President Bush declared that there was “no war plan on my desk” despite having actually spent months working on detailed plans for the Iraq invasion. Congress did not ask the hard questions then. It must not permit the administration to launch another war whose outcome cannot be known, or worse, known all too well.
http://www.informationclearing…..e12761.htm

renato 53: Bingo

ck – I love your comment. That day still makes me shudder because my bro could have been flying that plane, he’s a United pilot and at the time, #93 was his regular route. He just happened to have that day off.
He’s said that he would have fiercely fought anyone trying to take the controls away from him. Considering he’s 6′4″ and strong as a bull, I don’t think the hijakers would have survived.
I think the spirit runs in the family – because I’m up for the proverbial fight.

MarcLord:

papier mache boxes? papier mache boxes! hmmm…possibilities there, you think?

‘bush went into iraq with too few troops’

Taylor, you’re implying that everything would have gone swimmingly had he sent in enough troops — do you really think it was a matter of having the right number of troops, the right plan, the right exit strategy? — if so, then America’s lost because we have too many closet imperialists, including progressives, who feel they know how to deal with recalcitrant countries: namely, by military means

MarcLord adds some good stuff to Taylor’s post. Thanks for all of your good work.

I suggest that we initiate a Peace Process in the Middle East instead of expanding the War Process. We need to bring together the parties, Syria, Iran, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, as well as the Russians, and start having legitimate discussions. This idea that there can be any kind of diplomacy going on while we stand there with a loaded gun pointing at Iran’s face and don’t even actually talk directly with them is just absurd. We need real Peace Process, not a couple of all-nighters with Condi that stave off a complete breakdown between Israel and the Palestinians for a day or two!! What would be so bad about a solutions-based approach that could lead to a reasonable Israel/Palestine situation and normal relations with Iran that could even involve the US assisting them with their nuclear energy program. Imagine all those sweet construction contracts and reduced oil prices!

Unfortunately, all we are getting from the administration is more heated rhetoric. Don’t think for a second that the anti-Bush poll numbers don’t play a role in the “War Fever Rising” scenario. What do current trends appear to indicate for the mid-terms? I think that the indication is that there may be a Democratic landslide. What tools does the administration have to try to stop the bleeding? I’ll throw out a few possibilities:

1. Bold new domestic agenda that can go somewhere – Nope.
2. Solve the Iraq crisis – Not likely.
3. Start a new war with Iran that will make people scared to change the leadership in DC – Entirely plausible.
4. Use a variety of techniques to try to cheat in the mid-term elections – I think that we can count on this. bradblog.com is one of the best places to keep abreast of these issues.
5. Hope for another terrorist attack – I can’t see Karl leaving things up to chance like this.

So, where does that leave us? The republicans have two options for staving off a democratic landslide in the mid-terms; Starting a war with Iran and cheating in the election. They may feel that they need to use both of these tools. The timing on the Iran situation is tricky. They need to ramp up the War Fever now, before the summer. You don’t roll out new policies in the summer, you know. However, if they wait until fall for the invasion, will they be able to show enough success to make it a winner in the mid-terms? An alternative is just to keep the war fever at a high pitch until the elections and try and make supporting the president as he tries to save the US from Iran over the winter a big election issue. Risky, IMHO, particularly if the entire military leadership is screaming about the insanity of an Iran invasion. So, based on my analysis, the most likely scenario is that the administration will let folks enjoy their summer, then bring the Iran issue back to a full boil as September approaches, and then attack in late September or early October. Poll numbers may change the timing a little, but I don’t see how I could be very far off. The wild card, I guess, is the generals. If the generals step up to oppose this action, I sure hope that all of us will give them the support they deserve!!

peace,
jim

No matter what he does, or how he does it, or any objective evaluation of his performance, keeping Rummy in charge is a stand against terrorism! Remember that, you fifth columnists

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c…..008244.php

No matter how brutal, incompetent, dishonest and plain goofy he becomes, replacing him would be a victory for the terrorists.

–nothing will change as long as these miserable failures are in office. I just saw a Yahoo news item: Portman to become Budget Director. I thought “Yeah! Natalie Portman as budget director. She’s been in some real big hits, so she probably can handle money better than these guys, much better looking, and i bet more honest a press conferences, certainly as a big time movie star, would be less egotistical and tempermental. Maybe there is some hope.”

But NOOO, it was another one of their dweeb losers.

“Do you really trust them with Iran?” is a great tag-line, and it has the added attraction of capturing the likes of Lieberman, who looks like he’s already on board.

I see where Chuck Hagel is on the record now agreeing that Rumsfeld should go. Problem is that I don’t see Bush replacing Rumsfeld with anyone who hasn’t been vetted as being firmly and securely on the PNAC bandwagon. It’s a waste of time to cut out the metastasized growths as long as you leave the original cancer in place to continue to fester and spread.

Maybe we should organize 2K, 5K, 10K and marathons and tie the “Race for the Cure” (for cancer) to the “Race to Cure America” (of the cancer that is Bush/Cheney): both extremely worthwhile causes.

This is simply the latest rash decision by the Republican Party – the party of panic.

My friends….On another track entirely from the Weeeeooo Gallery, my astrologer friends have June 1 as a “difficult” time for Mr Bush, as Saturn conjuncts his ascendant (?) and it will be woman who brings him down!!! I’ve asked for clarification and will post it when it arrives. In any case, is there any reason we ought not to hope against hope that his stars are also against him?

Ecko tags Air Force One:

“Marc Ecko Enterprises does not condone illegal activity, acts of vandalism, or the destruction of other people’s property. We do, however, advocate freedom of expression, graffiti as a recognized art form and the protection of consumer rights regardless of age, race, religion or political affiliation.”

seems to me that painting Air Force One qualifies as all those. still cool to watch, though. Watch the video here:

http://www.stillfree.com

Just apply the logic of Hugh Hewitt to understand the Bush approach for dealing with Iran(http://hughhewitt.com/archives/2006/04/16-week/index.php#a001929):
“The significance of the WMDs is that the argument is being mounted, as recently as yesterday by Andrew Sullivan (”If US intelligence is as good in Iran as it was in Iraq, the chances of getting all of Iran’s nuclear capacity by aerial bombing must also be close to zero”) that pre-Iraq invasion intelligence mistakes disable the United States from relying on intelligence to take action against Iran.”

“Although that argument is meritless –taken to its logical conclusion, the United States could never again defend any of its actions based upon the conclusions of its intelligence community– it would be crippled in its crib by the defense of the pre-war intelligence which is becoming more and more urgent with the release and translation of these docs.”

Translated, I guess this says “intelligence?…we don’t need no stinkin’ intelligence…just let ‘em have it”. God, these guys love war, don’t they? Oh…with one caveat…as long as they don’t have to invest their blood or money.

“What is the plan for after we strike? Are we preparing in Iraq for what a potential strike against Iran will bring inside that country, already in civil war, not to mention around the world?”
Ms. Marsh, I fully agree. And, I think that’s the political angle to take by the Democrats. Start speaking out loudly with these questions, and demand answers from the WH. My bet is, the WH hasn’t even put pencil-to-paper on these queries.
Oh, some good folks here are worried about a reaction from Iran including some sort of invasion of Iraq. Well, personally, I doubt that one. Massing of Iranian troops, tanks, etc along the border takes many days, and will be seen by the eyes-in-the-sky. Iranian forces, if they launched against Iraq would be cut to pieces within 20 miles of the border.
I do oppose air strikes against Iran, but have little worry about some sort of Iranian invasion reaction. Hopefully, the democratic leaders will speak up on issues of post airstrike planning…I think that’s the weak spot in the WH plans.
Ghostman

surprised 64:
I hear that’s been debunked as a fake video. see AmericaBlog. (yes, broke my moratorium momentarily. whatever.)

“Look what has happened in Iraq. Why on earth should we trust George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld in Iran?” -Taylor

This is exactly the point. Why haven’t the congressional Dems been repeating this every hour, every day? Where are the Dems hiding? What are they so afraid of?

Gyro Gear Lose # 38

thanks for the link !

the e mails are pretty damning and yet they still want to make a deal with this puke my oh my

new thread — Al Gore 08!!!

if these guys really do believe in the whole rapture/left behind senario… do you think they haven’t thought about the date coming up in june?

June 6th, 2006…

or 6/6/6

i better stop now… all this discussion about how we could be only weeks away from an attack on iran has me not thinking straight…. i really hope for a 2007 plan that will give us more time to organize.

MarcLord says,

“So the question is what means will be effective fast. Derailing an attack on Iran and getting rid of the Bush Administration are almost the same thing.”

Obviously removing BushCo from power would derail IranWar.
But this is not likely to happen before IranWar goes ballistic, especially since Bush seems to be using IranWar as a fail forward tactic to stay in power.

Could IranWar be derailed by further damage to BushCo credibility?
It’s astonishing they’re still in power with credibility this low.

If a Congressional bipartisan – military coalition were to come together could they somehow neutralize Bush’s rhetoric, replace Bolton and take control of US foreign policy?

Could a global diplomatic appeal to both Ahmed and Bush to cease inflammatory statements work?
In combination with a coordinated American-Iranian grassroots movement working to isolate these two nutjobs from their respective citizenry?
Know any good Iranian-American websites?

The “decider” thing reminds me of an old Twilight Zone monologue:

“Portrait of a bush-league fuehrer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like some goose-stepping predecessors he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. That something he looks for and finds is in a sewer. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon he calls it faith, strength, truth. But in just a moment Peter Vollmer will ply his trade on another kind of corner, a strange intersection in a shadowland called the Twilight Zone.”

‘Soon to be a major motion picture’

;>)

So they must be stopped, and the
generals are telling us they’ve just run out of
traditional options. To have a chance of stopping
them, we will have to march. Meantime, the best thing
I know of is to support the generals, since so much
rides on their successful forebearance.

I agree with the above comments. Wonder if anyone is organizing a way to show such support. Seems like that would be tricky, given the implied mutiny. Also agree with the conclusion that using nukes first could result in all-out nuclear retaliation against us. Not immediately, but soon, and by a coalition of former allies. How would the world have any choice?

I find myself wondering if all this really IS about nuclear weapons … and not about oil. Does anyone remember that news story about the Iranian Oil Bourse? Iran has strong plans to begin its own oil marketing outfit — all based, not in US$, but in Euros. Quite obviously, with a shrinking dollar, the US doesn’t quite like this idea – same as they didn’t like it when Saddam threatened going Euro with Iraq’s oil back in 2000. We all know what happened to him.

More than anything, the US (i.e., Cheney and Bush, two oil guys) have strong interests in maintaining the supremacy of the petrodollar. Oil interests make them move faster shot through a goose.

From all accounts, Iran is YEARS away from producing a workable nuclear bomb … so this rush to knock out Iran right quick has to have other reasons. I think it’s oil. The Iranian Oil Bourse was supposed to have begun operating in March of this year, but has been postponed – for how long, who’s to say — still … read about it.

http://tinyurl.com/9kmqa

A quote from the above article:

“Synopsis”
“It is not yet clear if a US military expedition will occur in a desperate attempt to maintain petrodollar supremacy. Regardless of the recent National Intelligence Estimate that down-played Iran’s potential nuclear weapons program, it appears increasingly likely the Bush administration may use the specter of nuclear weapon proliferation as a pretext for an intervention, similar to the fears invoked in the previous WMD campaign regarding Iraq.

“If recent stories are correct regarding Cheney’s plan to possibly use a another 9/11 terrorist attack as the pretext or casus belli for a US aerial attack against Iran, this would confirm the Bush administration is prepared to undertake a desperate military strategy to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while simultaneously attempting to prevent the Iranian oil Bourse from initiating a euro-based system for oil trades.”

All this nuclear stuff – it’s just to mist over the real reason for taking out Iran. “Follow the money”, as they used to say, back in Watergate times.

justintime,

Dictators never know when they’re beaten. And speaking of France…if a similar situation existed there now with an unwanted war, the government workers (apparently half the country) would simply go on strike. It’d be bye-bye, IranWar, voila. That kind of general strike is crazy talk here, yet the Federal government is the #1 employer.

wondering,

papier mache…hehe, we could make a big Abrams M1 in desert camo out of cardboard.

Wesgpc

Thanks for making me LAUGH. I so want Natalie Portman as budget director. And for Attorney General…what’s Winona Ryder doing these days?

What is the plan for after we strike?

1. Victory
2. ???????
3. Democracy

I apologize if this has been asked before, but..

Short of “pre-emptive impeachment”, how can we possibly prevent this disaster from happening? How can our senators and reps truly prevent this attack when W has made it painfully clear that he doesn’t need any permission from them on anything?

SpaceCowboy @ 12:43 pm (#79) – Congress needs to pass a resolution saying that there is currently not enough of a threat from Iran to justify military strikes. Of course, this resolution would have to have some sort of time limit, but I’m thinking at least for one year. Then, congressional Republicans and Democrats need to make clear that if he violates that resolution, he’ll be in the dock in the Senate soon thereafter.

Whether that will happen is problematic, to say the least, but that’s about all that I think will stop him.

SpaceCowboy #79 asks:
“how can we possibly prevent this disaster from happening?”

My answer is:
Prepare yourselves. I don’t think we are quite on the verge of an Iran invasion, but we need to watch closely. It will be up to the people of the US to stop this war. Read up on the “Bonus March”.
peace,
jim

> “Then, congressional Republicans and Democrats need to make clear that if he violates that resolution…”

if he violates that resolution then they’ll, they’ll, they’ll do exactly the same thing they’ve always done when Bush violates the law. They’ll give him a free pass!

Sorry, but that poor ol’ dog just won’t hunt — once any attack occurs, the argument will be (as it has been with Iraq) “sure the decision to attack might have been wrong, but now we’re there. We’re committed. Stop trying to deal with yesterday’s facts. The reality is that we’re now involved. We MUST win. Withdrawing now would send a terrible message. You silly liberals, always obsessing with the past…”

This is sometimes referred to as the “easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission” ploy.

Heard it all before. So, long story short — it is either stopped before it happens — or it is not stopped at all.

Options are very limited — but letters and visits to our Senators are worth trying even if success is not assured. And if anyone happens to have a stash of that magic super-diplomatic pixie dust, now would be a good time to break it out.

Ed N Sted @ 1:23 pm (#80) – The question I was answering was “how can we possibly prevent this disaster from happening?” That’s the only way I can think of, and, if you’ll read what I wrote after, you’ll note I wasn’t at all optimistic this would come to pass.

Short of that, the only thing that will stop Bush from doing this is Bush. Since he seems impervious to all other outside input, I don’t see what we can do.

The game is totally out of control. The Dems have capitulated, or effectively capitulated due to being unable to emit coherently. Pelosi herself has stated that the “nuclear option” must be left on the table. Other Dems are “undecided” or already willing to go along (yet again). They are incapable of learning from experience or the past. They have completely forgotten that BushCo lied and lied and lied to get them to go along with illegally attacking Iraq…but that’s OK and they’re even ready to do it again!

I give up on them. They are irredeemable and beyond saving – from themselves. There is nothing to do but scream at the universe and try to personally distance yourself from the insanity (I mean it: insanity) that has a chokehold on the American people. We cannot get out of its grip and our “leaders” are more than willing to aid in holding the victim (the country) down.

I want every single one of them, reps whether GOP or Dem, flushed. Let chaos reign in their place – it cannot possibly be worse than the pure insanity we are stuck with now.

I wont be voting this fall for the first time in my life. There’s no point to it because both parties are eager for more illegal war that none of them will do any actually fighting in.

Jesus! I knew it was bad during the run-up to Iraq when CIA was the fuckin good guys, but when you find yourself considering the advantages of a military coup ….

Sadly (and absolutely insanely) I am of the same mind anymore. I begin to hope for a military coup, driven by those planners who threaten to resign unless nukes are taken off the table.

“So the question is what means will be effective fast. Derailing an attack on Iran and getting rid of the Bush Administration are almost the same thing.â€

Convincing the Russkies and/or Chinese to take up a modest presence in Iran, particularly around the targeted sites, perhaps as de facto inspectors, but also in the guise of technical advisors on the legal aspects of nuke power (the reactors are Russian-made, I believe) and for an “economic summit”. How likely is Bushie to attack Iran with a solid group of Russians and Chinese in the “best” sites?

We just need to convince the Russians and Chinese to do it. Queer the entire war deal for Bush.

I was just thinking… How much reconstruction money has “gone missing” in Iraq? I’ll have to look it up but what if that money isn’t “missing”, as in, lining some shitheal’s pocket, but was funneled instead into a secret bankroll to fund pre-Iran war operations? As Col Gardiner has said on CNN, the decision to go after Iran has already been made and operations already begun.

How? With what money? Sure, some could have been skimmed off the top of the constant piecemeal funding for Iraq Debacle (and by cutting corners on things like body armor, up-armored HumVees, etc) but probably not enough to fund preliminary moves against Iran. What about the “reconstruction” money? Lots of it went in and lots of it went missing.

If Congress isn’t funding Iran operations directly, where is BushCo getting the money?

“We want to solve this issue diplomatically and we’re working hard to do so,” Mr. Bush told reporters in the Rose Garden.

And how exactly do you do that without actually talking to the country you want to attack?

There was a secular Iranian gov’t. It wasn’t getting much traction due to cleric power but they existed.

Bush got this new guy elected.

Iran has been paid to pump oil to China. I don’t think Beijing is going to let Bush interfere with that transaction.

MarcLord says:
“Dictators never know when they’re beaten. And speaking of France…if a similar situation existed there now with an unwanted war, the government workers (apparently half the country) would simply go on strike. It’d be bye-bye, IranWar, voila. That kind of general strike is crazy talk here, yet the Federal government is the #1 employer.”

We’re just another banana republic.

Really, how close are we to a joint Congressional-military mutiny?

Could this be pushed forward?

GSD– #31
“What if The Great Decider decides he doesn’t want to leave?”

I think it’s an all too real possibility and made this point in an fdl thread yesterday. Everybody was talking about what the Dems have to do in the mid-term election. And I’m not convinced there’ll even be an election in November.

BushCheneyRummyRoveWolfie have an agenda. They want the f***ing oil — Iraq’s and Iran’s –and they’ve come too far to risk the Dems winning a majority in the House or Senate and hauling their asses before a Senate invesigation committee as Taylor discussed earlier.

I think Katrina threw a monkeywrench in their plans because it exposed, not just their incompetence and lies, but the fact that they don’t give a flip about America. Plus, Fitz continues to tighten the noose. The words censure and impeachment are showing up almost daily in the national dialogue. So my guess is they’ve decided to step up their nuke Iran schedule to do it sooner rather than later. And with a full scale disaster on their hands, they’ll suspend elections and God knows what else.

Favorite bumper sticker spotting this week: “The road to hell is paved with Republicans”

Praedor Atrebates says:

“Convincing the Russkies and/or Chinese to take up a modest presence in Iran, particularly around the targeted sites, perhaps as de facto inspectors, but also in the guise of technical advisors on the legal aspects of nuke power ably won(the reactors are Russian-made, I believe) and for an “economic summitâ€. How likely is Bushie to attack Iran with a solid group of Russians and Chinese in the “best†sites?”

I think this is worth considering.
And surely China and Russia could create a substantial deterrent to IranWar.
We definitely need their diplomatic efforts to derail this.
But if they did send in observers, Bush might just give them an ultimatum to get out before the bombing starts like he did Saddaam.
Russia and China may not want to get themselves into this type of standoff with the Texas barroom commando.

Perhaps Russia and China will hold back and watch America throw more lives and the last of our treasure on a wider war in the Middle East – as the Islamic world develops greater hatred of America.

This assumes Russian and Chinese leaders are more rational than Commander Clusterfuck.

I keep wondering what do average Iranians think about their Ahmed’s inflammatory statements?

Anyone know any good Iranian blogs in English?

A MUCH better question is this:

“Do you want AMERICA to look like Iraq?”

Good Post, but, frankly, the blowback to America will be FAR worse than anything that we could inflict on Iran.

That’s reality, and the question that NEEDS to be asked.

I PLAN on taking leave from work, when the rhetoric blossoms into reality, and going to D.C. with the pitchfork sharpened, and the torches oiled.

THIS MUST NOT COME TO PASS… PERIOD.

–mf

The smart person will plan for the following:

– Purchase a one-month supply of Potassium Iodide for everyone in your household.
– Buy a Geiger Counter.
– Update your Passport NOW.
– Get in touch with Canadian Immigration and get the paperwork together for dual-citizenship.
– Set money aside NOW, for the time will come with short notice.

The time to take to the streets is coming soon… We’ll need to make it on the scale of the French Labour Strikes, and shortly thereafter, as George views mass-protests as mere “focus groups,” to get the hell out of this country, and leave it to its own lot… sad as that is.

These bastards are out to kill us all, come hell or high-water… and we’ve already seen both during this imbecile’s watch…

It’s time to consider leaving.

–mf

It’s time to consider leaving… or fighting.

Most Liberals have no taste for big guns, so, my advice is to leave…

I have no illusions that very soon, if the Bushunta continues down this road, that members of the Left AND the Right, will bear arms against the BusHunta.

I’d rather be in Canada, documenting the atrocities of the BusHunta against my fellow Americans, and helping to get others out as efficiently as possible.

I’ve got a good Big Gun, but, I’m in a place where I’m not likely to have any support where I live. So… I’m planning on the big move.

Bush is insane, and he will NEVER back down… All he KNOWS is escalation.

We’re FUCT… Accept that, and plan accordingly.

–mf

One of the least discussed aspects of this issue is Iran and the NPT. Most of us here are probably relatively well educated but how many of us really understand the basic premise of the NPT? Boiling it down, the signatories give up pursuit of nuclear weapons in exchange for international help in putting together nuclear power plants for their country. Iran has signed on to the treaty and is looking to build reactors to free up its oil for sale to bring in badly needed currency. What the US is demanding is that the Iranians voluntarily abandon what is their due under this treaty, and this is *never* mentioned in any media reports about it.

Needless to say, this needs to become something that we talk about constantly, lest the issue continue to be framed in just the way that the Bushies have framed it: that Iran is being required to give up pursuit of “the bomb”. We also need to talk about the irony of the world’s largest nuclear power demanding this in the first place whilst concomitantly encouraging nations like India to increase their nuclear armory.

And most importantly, we need to shake off this “we can stop this if we beat them in the next election” dreamscape that some of us seem to be living in. WE DON’T HAVE UNTIL THE ELECTION TO NULLIFY THIS! This attack could, literally, happen at any time. These jokers are counting on the country “pulling together” and “standing behind their President” if they start another war, and will likely do it *before* the election as a part of their unbelievably cynical political planning. Action has to be taken now, without any delay, without waiting for someone to organize a giant peace march (I urge you to recall just how effective that strategy was before the Iraq war), meaning, if you want any sense of normalcy in the remainder of your life, you’d better pull out all of the stops right now, even if it means doing what I did last night, standing by my lonesome on the busiest corner in town, holding a “No war in Iran” sign until traffic grew too sparse to continue. I was stunned when people who stopped had heard nothing of this and went into near meltdown when the “nuclear option” was brought up.

Please, think about how nuclear war would effect you, your children and their children and stop waiting for someone to organize a protest for you to attend. Call every friend you have and compel them to hit the bricks with you. Make yourself seen. Others will join you (I’ve got at least a dozen meeting me tonight and I know it will grow exponentially). This is a goddamned NUCLEAR WAR we’re talking about folks! If that doesn’t get us off of our asses then….maybe we’re not worth saving.

This post is mistitled. It should read “Do You Want the WORLD to Look Like Iraq.”

Mmmm. Grubs ‘n twigs.

iran will not look like iraq
iran will be ready to resist en masse
iran will make us look like we “know what we are doing” in iraq.

andif Bush gets his nuke yah lar wetdream,
it’s katie bar the door.

no american will be safe.

does anybody besides me see
an eeerie parallel between
Ahmadinejad and Dumbya?

both are hyper-religious,
sure they are doing what the voices tell them.
not interested in dialogue…
ready to serve Gawd by killing people.

Arrest bush now. Do everything you can to support the Generals online.

http://civic.moveon.org/censure/

Please sign Censure petition.

“Really, how close are we to a joint Congressional-military mutiny?

Could this be pushed forward?”

Would Congress have the courage, there is Russ Feingold in the Senate and Rep. Hinchey and his 39 Democrats who had the courage to sign a letter last Oct asking Fitz to investigate the Niger forgeries and, I think, they asked Fitz to handle the Impeachment Investigation in the House and Fitz very recently sent a letter to Hinchey saying his mandate did not include the Niger forgeries. I still can’t figure out why a smart man like Fitz took SIX MONTHS to figure out his mandate did not include the Niger forgeries.

Keep commenting on all the blogs that a military coup is preferable to letting bushco go ahead with the destruction of Iraq, Iran, our military, our economy and there are always the detention centers spoken of by Oliver North in the Iran Contra hearings.

The first bomb that falls on Iranian soil is akin to an unsheathed dagger in the culture of the Middle East. It can not be sheeted again until blood is drawn; drawing blood from the Iranian point of view may not be tolerable for most Americans. And there may be no other way to prevent it from happening other than completely obliterating Iran as a country and interning all Iranians throughout the US and the world

Stop Iran!!
Wake Up – Listen to what Iran Pres. said.
Give Hitler Poland then he will stop – Give Iran Israel and some middle east countries then they will stop!?! Did not work then and it will not work now!