This story best represents the intersection of several seemingly disparate threads that intertwine the last American decade. It appears that an NSA wiretap ensnared Democratic Representative Jane Harman of California discussing a quid pro quo arrangement with a “suspected Israeli agent”.
Eisenhower warned us about this so many years ago. Politicians of all stripes, but particularly Republicans, love them some war. The more the better, in fact.
The public’s is losing patience with the Great War on Terror. The national as a whole is experiencing a gradual extinction of the fear response (being replaced with looming financial uncertainty). Conservatives are clearly anticipating the diminishing financial rewards of the Long War, but as a funder of campaign coffers as well as new plunder for profit. Iran is not panning out to be the great threat they had hoped. Simply put, they are running out of war-porn.
I have a hard time defending former Bush press secretary Scotty ‘Flounder’ McClellan, especially given his prior performances:
That said, he appears to be the latest of the loyal Bushies troubled by their consciences after leaving the administration. So far, the book has delivered observations on wartime propaganda, an apology to Richard Clarke, the revelation Bush outed CIA-operative Valerie Plame via Scooter Libby, the non-suprise that the Administration has allies within FOXNEWS, that Bush similarly declassified National Secrets to advance a political agenda, warnings to be serious and skeptical regarding administration claims on Iran, and (of course) that propaganda and a media operating somewhere between lazy, incompetent, and compliant directly enabled the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
That debate last night.
Wow.
As of right now, there are over 12,000 comments lambasting the debate and moderators at ABCNEWS.
First, to get this out of the way, Hillary clearly ‘won’ (please note that I am an Obama supporter) the Philadelphia Democratic debate which took place at the National Constitution Center last night (Wednesday, 4/17/2008) .
As soon as I had heard that a second fiber-optic undersea internet cable (map and story here and here – the number of broken cables now stands at four) had been broken in the Middle East, I automatically thought of the United States, the Bush Administrations desire to hit Iran, and the USS Jimmy Carter.
In the US Navy, tradition is that Presidents names are placed on aircraft carriers. But things would be different for Jimmy Carter, a former Nuclear Submariner. The Seawolf class submarine that would eventually bare his name would also be different than her class-mates.
Way back here, I wondered which Republican Chancellor Palpatine Joe Lieberman would support in the 2008 GOP Presidential Primary. Now we know – it’s John McCain.
