Instahoglets 13th March 07

Some links, some snark, and thee..

Imagine there was a pro-Iranian PAC with large amounts of money to throw into campaigns, do you still imagine for one minute that the Dem leadership would have dropped an effort to constrain the Bush administration's ability to take the country into a war with Iran? Matt Yglesias gets his snark on: "history has, after all, shown that when granted broad military authority Bush usually uses it wisely as a subtle negotiating tool and with brilliant results. Or something."

Just last week, Bruce Reidel of the Saban Center for Middle East Studies at the Brookings Institution was writing that a war on Iran would be Al Qaeda's "fondest dream come true" because "two of their most deadly enemies would bleed each other". Reidel is a 30 year veteran of the CIA and advised the last three Presidents on Iran in the National Security Council. Maybe he knows what he's talking about.

Just to remind those Dem leaders who AIPAC loves the bestest, here's Dick Cheney telling the AIPAC crowd that he loves their wars too. He also says the Dems are "undermining" the war on terror by wanting a withdrawal from Iraq. Here's an expert panel assembled by Rolling Stone (H/t Kat) to tell Dick that his Iraqi misadventure is what is aiding the enemy. The panel includes Zbigniew Brzezinski, Richard Clarke, Paul Pillar, Michael Scheuer and Juan Cole.

A federal bench trial in Scranton, Pennsylvania, began yesterday that will test a municipality's authority to enact and enforce ordinances aimed at allegedly-illegal immigrants. It is a case of first impression in any jurisdiction, and its outcome will bear on rules in up to 80 localities. The trial will also focus attention on questions of racism and trends toward a surveillance-snitch society. PSM has the details and the links.

Just as I was beginning to like Gen. Peter Pace and wonder why the Bush administration ever made him CJCS, he goes and shows why...as a sop to the homophobe Right. Robert Farley hits the nail on the head: "Much better for Pace to simply make clear that he finds homosexuals icky...By making clear the real reason for the exclusion of gays, Pace is helping to sound the death knell of their exclusion."

The US Attorney PurgeGate story continues onwards. The latest White House spin is that we shouldn't worry about eight obviously political firings because they thought about firing all 93 - and they say this would have been "a logical way to start a new term"! Josh Marshall reports Bush himself got involved in firings of the disloyal attorneys.Fatcat says it all: "being stupid when you cover-up is the hallmark of the Bush Administration."

You have to catch this Time article about border guards on the Iran-Iraq border, if only for the admission by a senior US officer about their evidence for Iranian arms smuggling. Col. David Sutherland, the commander of U.S. forces in Diyala Province says "Intuitively and anecdotally, there are things coming in from Iran." That's OK then, who needs evidence? Start the war! AIPAC can foot the bill.

In time honored tradition, I'm leaving the quirky one for last. You think the NRA has some nutzos? Swedish authorities recently caught some bikers in possession of a freaking honest-to-goodness 264-pound tank gun! The news report says "unspecified amount of drugs were found" too. I bet! Can you imagine the conversation? "What we do, right...*pufft, pfft, pfft*...is we weld this humungous tank gun to a sidecar, right...?"