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After seven years of Emperor C-Plus Augustus and his Avignon Presidency (to use Charles Pierce's exquisitely apposite terminology), the international community has apparently decided that America, so long as Bush and the John Bolton neocons remain in positions of power, cannot be trusted to play nice, particularly when it comes to Iran.
-- The IAEA's El-Baradei has said that there is no evidence that Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons. They are working on nuclear technology to supply power and electricity, which they are allowed to do under treaty. (In fact, Iran was given its first taste of nuclear energy back in the 1950s by American oil companies, who didn't want the Iranians to waste all that lovely oil on themselves when they could be letting Americans take it from them.) Furthermore, he's said flat-out that attacking Iran "would absolutely lead to disaster" -- something our wonderful US corporate media doesn't want to emphasize.
-- Russia's Vladimir Putin has come out and told the US to shut the bleep up with regard to Iran. In case you're wondering why Bush might want to listen to Putin, it seems that Russia (unlike Iran) has these things called nukes. You may have heard of them. Bush won't respond to morality, but he responds to force.
-- Previous Bush efforts to isolate Iran economically have failed badly, so of course Bush is now ramping up the pressure. Europe, so far, seems to be yawning -- that is, when guys like Putin aren't telling Bush to STFU. Of course, Dick Cheney's Halliburton has operated in Iran for decades, despite President Bill Clinton's 1995 Executive Order forbidding American oil companies from doing business in Iran, and Cheney himself opposed sanctions while he was officially running Halliburton, so it could be that the Europeans are sick of the Bush-Cheney hypocrisy on this.
-- Meanwhile, the Iranians get to look above the fray as they counsel the Turks, Kurds and Iraqis to stop attacking each other, even as Bush orders our troops to help Turkey hunt down Kurdish separatists in Iraq.
Whatever you're hoping to accomplish, George -- besides high oil prices -- I don't think you're getting it.
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lolo and PW!
Well, he did say that he wanted to be a war president, so he could so whatever he wanted. Or something like that.
Valley Girl @ 2
well, he is a warped resident of the White House
Great Post!!! Go get ‘em!!!
I still pray that someone is laying the really, really, really, really, really big karma ratrap for these people…
Let’s not forget that this is the guy who grew up happily blowing up frogs.
No consequences. Ever. For anything. Anywhere.
Hey..he’s been on total immunity for 60 years.
P.W. - Advanced lunacy. Is your sense that the MSM is turning this around a bit?
Something’s gotta give.
Richmond @ 6
Not as long as they continue to give folks like Little Billy Kristol and Norm Podheretz a forum to spout their gibberish, no matter how many times they’ve been proven to be idiots.
Hi PW. Great post.
Time to move on and leave this criminal to the tender mercies of Waxman, Conyers and The Hague.
Unless you want ‘more of the same’ you’d better get busy and start to work on this man’s campaign.
He just told you what he intends to do…and it’s basically what everyone here and in the rest of Free Left Blogistan sez they want.
So….are you gonna ‘put your money where your mouth is’….or what?
Heard a name for him the other night I hadn’t heard before.
Mike Malloy calls him “raison brain.”
Seems fitting.
Didn’t you love it when Putin lectured Condi at the photo op in Russia a week or so ago?
The Congress may be acting like door mats, but we see more and more international leaders and other countries standing up to bush and his ilk.
Seems like Laura is the only one left that they can push out front to try and give themselves a break. Won’t be long before they start lecturing her too, I’ll bet!
I keep thinking there must be a lot of secret pacts against US aggression, just waiting to take effect. Horrible thought. But other countries may feel they need to band together against these bullies.
Maybe Laura is in charge
A.Citizen @ 10
As for Waxman, WTF is up with him and his committee regarding Sibel Edmonds?
punaise @ 3
Punaise- that he is.
Went to google and couldn’t immediately find the link to an interview w/ Bush saying he wanted to be a war president (prior to “election”) but FDLers have posted that interview link here.
However, I did find this:
“I’m a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign-policy matters with war on my mind.”
Press the Meat Transcript for Feb. 8th 2004
When Bush dementia gets out of control and he throws out a line like WWIII, people tend to take notice. I don’t think Putin was joking about “An attack on Iran would be an attack on Russia”. The current generation may get re-familiarized with “duck and cover”, “fall-out shelters”, “Def-Con” and “throw-weight”.
Junya, high on oil, and never coming down.
snowbird42 @ 13
I wonder if Laura Bush was in favor of invading two countries and voting down S-Chip?
American broadcast journalism…. UNWATCHABLE cept for OLBERMEN
punaise @ 3
That one tops the list!
The Bush Failure.
-GSD
Valley Girl @ 15
Prolly uses one o’ them Whee-Gee boards to talk to the Big Guy.
Steve-AR @ 16
I don’t think those kinds of hidies would do much good with nuclear weapons. Atomic, maaaybee.
Things are going swimmingly in Diyala Province in light of the successful “handover” today…I guess BushCo have it all under control:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4255389a12.html
George W. Bush is a mess. From the looks of things he always has been. The troubling thing is what kinds of things can this little boy get us into in the next 15 months? This is worrisome. Seriously.
I also liked the French President’s response of WTF to 60 minute questions about his personal family matters. In essence he was suggesting that there is a world out there that is burning, get real. Not that I like the guy, but I wish some of our politicians would tell Kitty Couric et al were to get off.
sadly yes @ 19
Half of Olbermann.
Does anybody else of a certain age feel the way we did during the Cuban Missile Crisis? Not sure in the morning if we were going to see the afternoon?
dakine01 @ 8
Podhoretz was on the NewsHour this evening debating Fareed Zakaria. I know the NewsHour has gone downhill but next they will be having flat earthers on.
LS @ 24
Damn, and Rummie’s too busy hiding from the French to give us a “boys will be boys” speech.
And, speaking of MSM did Fox ever screw up the world series. Not only did they keep the whole thing going close to 4 1/2 hours for the ad revenues (and this in a 9 inning game), but they also missed pitches and outs to squeeze a few more ads in between innings. They should be banned from future series reporting.
Loo Hoo. @ 23
Oh, cripe! Did Putin actually say that??? I figured he was just communicating in sign language and that no one believed that he could mean — well, what he said.
LS @ 24
Hard to beat this one though:
The horrors of Iraq.
CNN’s Nic Robertson: “One international official told me of reports among his staff that a 15-year-old girl had been beheaded and a dog’s head sewn on her body in its place; and of a young child who had had his hands drilled and bolted together before being killed.” More at The Plank. July 10, 2006 2:02 pm
In light of Putin’s recent statements, if Bush attacks Iran it will be the beginning of world nuclear war. We are on the precipice.
Hugh @ 29
you mean they haven’t already?
Since the repigs took over the CPB, NPR and PBS have both jumped the shark. I knew we were in trouble when Scott Simon became a cheerleader in the run up to the war. Have rarely listened to NPR since.
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.....1114268176
~~Bush on “His War” and Being a War President
Pres. Bush answers questions after giving an interim report on Iraq (12 July 2007) and answers Helen Thomas on “his war”. He went on to describe what it’s like being a war president and making descisions based on principle, not politics.~~~
Who can get Bush (Cheney) to step back on Iran?
TexBetsy @ 37
Maybe a lightening bolt from the heavens.
TexBetsy @ 37
Sounds like a job for Jeff Gannon.
-GSD
TexBetsy @ 37
Good question. Colin Powell couldn’t pull them from Iraq. Perhaps had he threatened to resign, but no.
TexBetsy @ 37
Obviously, Laura. *g*
high-status non-troll Seymour Hersh says:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....67229.html
H. Clinton could make nuking Tehran part of her campaign speech, and she would still be the Least Worst, and therefore deserving of support from the (D) captured section of the netroots.
no way.
beyond the pale, unsupportable by anyone sincerely anti-war, and therefore very, very defeatable.
Me and my sweetness are going to visit some of our fave rad blogs. And then to bed. We bid you all well.
Richmond @ 31
I was fascinated by the fact that all during the ALCS pennant and the WS, the announcers could never ever bring themselves to compliment Boston as a team (individual players, yes, but it was always the Indians or the Rockies who were amazing).
Also, the crew made liars out of the announcers more than once. Slo-mo does that, sometimes.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 34
Sure, but I feel so safe knowing the President is resolute.
Jeebus, we are in a rabbit-hole that turned into a wormhole.
-GSD
Night OKK.
TexBetsy @ 37
Chalibi? No, on second thought, he was to be president of Iran after the smoke clears. They wouldn’t give him Iraq to govern so he is going next door.
Bye lahoma and OKK.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 43
Ciao. Sonny Bono once read that word off of a cue-card and said “Ki-ay-yo”.
-GSD
Wonderful piece PW. 4 long years that
El Baradei has been saying “no solid evidence” to back up the warmongers nukes in Iran claims. Yet Bush predict there could be a “nuclear holocaust” and “WWIII”
Cheney warns Iran that there will be “serious consequences” if Iran does not comply with heir demands.
For years El Baradei has been consistently saying that there is no “hard evidedence” to back up the “nukes in Iran” claims and this is in direct conflict with what Valerie Plame Wilson claimed when asked about Iran by Keith Olberman. VPW said that there was “no doubt” that Iran had a nuclear weapons program
Would sure like to see Plame and El Baradei duke it out on this one.While Plame supports diplomacy and negotiations with Iran, her claims about Iran line up with the WMD zealots. I think El Baradei would win with the majority of American people and the rest of the world. Talk
How about on the front of USA Today stricter sanctions on “Iran’s Nukes”. No “groupthink” there. It is amazing how many times these claims have been repeated in the MSM. And tonight after Lou Dobbs yammered on and on about tough immigration standards and then
rolls over to Professor Fouad Ajami’s claims that El Baradei is a “congenital anti- American man”
If only Dobbs could be consistent in his application of tough standards.
behindthefall @ 32
It’s kinda interesting…Bobby Kennedy and JFK threw down the gauntlet at the Soviet Union…now Putin is throwing down the gauntlet that may save us.
The whole world is watching. They want us to get through this as much as we do - we are not alone on this planet. I must make my”sef” clear on this…I do not support human rights violations anywhere in the world, but if there is no world, that will be a moot point. Mind poison is mind poison. We’ve got to get together for world peace.
GordonM @ 44
Plus, the announcers were simply ignorant about a lot that was going on. I am a Sox fan anyways but (and don’t get me wrong) but since the Rockies billed themselves as the Coors Christobloods -even going so far as to put a CR[short for Christ?] on their caps, I was happy that their non-secular approach to sports and the Texas size US flag unfurled on the field didn’t end up really working.
TheraP @ 12
Seems to have already started. Olbermann had a story about Laura being criticized for wearing a scarf as a courtesy to her Muslim hosts. Apparently “some think” she should not deign to kowtow to other people’s customs.
Someone should tell them the old platitude: When in Rome, do as the Romans.
Loo Hoo. @ 33
Horror is horror.
Loo Hoo. @ 23
It was a joke in the 50’s when we “ducked and covered” under our school desks..”keep your eyes closed” so you aren’t blinded by the nuclear flash..yea right.
LS @51. As George Carlin has said “the earth is not going anywhere, humans may be extinguished” The earth will survive
Bush is going to send out Pickles as an emissary to Russia.
-GSD
J @ 50
I heard Valerie Wilson say “there’s no doubt Iran wants nukes”. That’s not really in conflict with what El Baradei is saying. There’s a huge difference between 3% enrichment (what Iran has, in a very small batch, demonstrated) and the 90% enrichment necessary for a bomb.
Steve-AR @ 55
I can remember that like it was yesterday, Steve.
Anyone make any sense of Michael Gordon’s piece on front page NYT today? He seems more than most to always have an agenda. In this case he was noting that Shiites aren’t willing to name/support Sunni police officials, thus jeopardizing US interests in developing community policing. I think what he is pushing this new idea of a tri-apartheid Iraq. That seems to be the new fall back position. And then you have the Saudi’s clobbering the British for not moving more against ME terrorism (sounds as if they are doing the US bidding, either that or they have developed a wicked case of amnesia about the fact that the bulk of the 9/11 bombers were Saudis. (In short, to act more aggressively against ME terrorists, doesn’t the world ]really need regime change and fundamental reform in Saudi Arabia?)
LS @ 51
JFK threw down the gauntlet when he said “We will stop them in Viet-naaam.” That didn’t work out so good. The “Cuban missile crisis” was defused when they secretly agreed to remove the Jupiter IRBMs from Turkey.
ccmask @ 59
Ah yes. “Bend over and kiss your ass good-bye”.
So, I finally found the interview info:
In 1999, Bush Craved Opportunity to Attack Iraq
~~~”One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade—if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”~~~
Bush Wanted To Invade Iraq If Elected in 2000
~~~Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father’s shadow.~~~
Valerie’s book is #46 at Amazon.
More clashes between the Turkish troops and Kurds. The world really is on a tripwire.
Dickweed Bush and Bumslap Cheney have screwed the pooch in every possible way.
-GSD
Steve-AR @ 55
I think what has stuck with me the most is the “fear” of being “vaporized”…that was really scary, but…if you are dead, you are dead…so being vaporized is.. well…being vaporized…Interesting that the language “vaporized” reappeared during 9/11….the Pentagon victims were “vaporized” and could not be identified or found…the passengers on the airplanes in the WTC…were “vaporized” and could not be identified or found…Oh, yeah…the “terrorist passport” found within hours on the streets of NYC that survived the “attack”…was not “vaporized”…the woman standing in the “window” of the wreckage exactly where the plane hit..was not “vaporized”.
With what you know now, go figure.
I think the reason why candidates are campaigning so early is because it allows mericans to think that the election is right around the corner, and thus making impeachment look like a dumb option. Nothing can be further from the truth.
ccmask @ 59
Adult always think kids are clueless. We were watching nuclear tests on B&W Tv’s where they were blowing up islands, fleets of ships and “fake” towns but our school desk was going to protect us.
LS @ 66
In the mind of a child ….. I always pictured being “vaporized” as coming out of the little steam machine my mom put in my room when I had a cold. Didn’t picture myself as steam, just as me, coming out of the machine like a genie from a bottle.
I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”~~~
He was 50/50 for these predictions.
Typical loser son with an inferiority complex and a washed-out brain who was destined to fail and fail and fail.
The Bush Failure.
-GSD
LS: You left out good will being vaporized.
Valley Girl @ 63
Actually, I think the 2 most likely scenarios in which we do not attack Iran are:
2) The military says “no way”
1) Daddy puts something in Junior’s coffee one morning.
p.s. PW says: Whatever you’re hoping to accomplish, George — besides high oil prices — I don’t think you’re getting it.
However, based on links above, I think Dubya accomplished his fondest wishes and dreams, sociopathic tho they may be.
Steve-AR @ 61
new and improved! Vlad’s Vapor Rub
GordonM @ 72
and Darth? ? ? ?
GordonM @ 72
Must leave the the microwave on in Cheney’s office at the same time.
Valley Girl @ 73
So, GSD, I just saw your comment, and agree on the 50/50.
so, um, would the stern counsel from the IAEC and Vladimir Putin also apply to a Democratic candidate or president who utters they very same talking points as Darth Cheney?
if Bush is rolling the dice on a world war with belligerent rhetoric against Iran, and this is a bad thing, can you make a connection to (D) rhetoric against Iran, and how this might also be a bad thing?
RevDeb @ 76
wooden stake?
J @ 56
Or as a college prof of mine put it: when Mother Earth gets tired of us, she’ll shake us off like a dog shakes off fleas.
Richmond @ 60
Yah, I saw that article and what came to mind was the Saudis talkin’ about being aggressive against terrorism is like Junya talkin’ about using diplomacy.
Both have an unusual sense of humor.
GSD @ 65
Anyone remember watching this movie back in the early eighties when it came out?
When people talk about the environment they should stipulate an environment that sustains human life.
-GSD
Toby Wollin @ 5
At least he didn’t figure out to do an amonia watergun, as mentioned on p 75 of It Can’t Happen Here.
GSD @ 71
France basically decided they had had enough with the Bonapartes and forbade future Bonapartes from going into politics (one of them in turn became an anthropologist). Maybe it is time that we do that with the Bush family (not that I would like future shrub generations lecturing about cultural relativism).
Bush is trying to turn Pickles into Eva Peron.
-GSD
Ann in AZ @ 81
Interestingly, one of the best books on counterinsurgency is titled War of the Fleas. It turns out, it’s not so easy to shake them off.
Mad Dogs @ 82
*g*
Ann in AZ @ 81
That’s pretty much what I think could happen.
“besides high oil prices”
good summary of shrub’s policy motivations… armageddon and oil prices, oil prices and armageddon. What else is there?
Maybe this is why they granted all of the Blackwater mass murderers immunity for a mass murder in which they were the only ones culpable.. they have “proof” Iran has nukes :).. yeah, that muoooost be it…
Richmond @ 60
The Iraqis think they are in a civil war so naturally Shi’ites don’t want to arm and support a bunch of Sunnis. Petraeus and Gordon cling to the view that it is all just a sectarian conflict. The result is an inevitable collision. Petraeus and Gordon think that the Iraqis don’t understand the situation but in fact it is they who do not.
What’s this, LS?
…the woman standing in the “window” of the wreckage exactly where the plane hit..was not “vaporized”.
RevDeb @ 76
Darth’s power comes from controlling who talks to Junior. Junior takes Darth’s favored position (Junior’s a “last guy in” type), and a whole bunch of people fall in line. But it’s Junior that manages to get personal loyalty out of people. Darth, only a handful.
GSD @ 84
…or at least sustains the lives of the members of our ruling kleptocrat class… ‘course they’d still need people to steal from….
Benito Giuliani looking forward to seeing the trains come in on time.
“This is the world we live in. It’s not this happy, romantic-like world where we’ll negotiate with this one, or we’ll negotiate with that one and there will be no preconditions, and we’ll invite (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad to the White House, we’ll invite Osama (bin Laden) to the White House. Hillary and Obama are kind of debating whether to invite them to the inauguration or the inaugural ball.”
-GSD