This isn't much of a diary, but I'm puzzled as to why the "Warmonger" meme hasn't yet appeared in an attack ad against McCain.

With all the recent handwringing over Obama's falling poll numbers, I still have confidence that we will prevail in November.  I have to admit, though, that I am relieved by the "Seven" ad and the ad linking McCain to Abramhof.  It demonstrates Obama's willingness to hit back hard with the truth.

In an interview to be published in The New York Times this Sunday, Rep. Dennis Kusinich continues to  make the case for impeachment – especially amid the Russia/Georgia crisis – as well as arguing for Democrats to come together to back Obama.

Asked why he continues calling for impeachment, Kucinich responds, "This president is capable of taking us into war, in October, on the eve of an election, to try to change the outcome of the election...

"The events in Georgia are a premonition...of an attack on Iran.  When Georgia moved against South Ossetia as the Olympics are starting, the Bush administration begins its own Olympics – the war Olympics."

Was gonna send this letter to Indiana newspapers. Already had one published last month. Suggestion? Comments?

Well, actually it's a Republic (so is America).  Here is a quick definition for those who use democracy in place of republic often.  

Democracy: Democracy is a system of government by which political sovereignty is retained by the people and exercised directly by citizens.

Republic: A republic is a state or country that is not led by a hereditary monarch, but in which the people (or at least a part of its people)[3] have impact on its government. The word originates from the Latin term res publica, which translates as "public thing" or "public matter".

Image: Blank Black Screen for 3 seconds
Audio:Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick (Old alarm clock/bomb style ticking sound twice per second. Ticking continues thru ad.


Announcer(soft non-attack voice): "Which John McCain are you going to vote for?"


Image on screen for 15 seconds: Boots/Helmet/Rifle fallen soldier image.
Text overly: 4144 american heroes dead
Audio: only the audio clips of John McCain: "Bomb bomb bomb Iran" "Iraq" "Russia" "War" "War" "War" "That's not too important. What's important is the casualties" "Q:Troops in Iraq for 50 yrs? A:Make it a hundred...that would be fine by me." "...cold war. This is an act of aggession"


Image on screen for 9 seconds: Distraught 50yr old couple at kitchen table with bills image.
Text overlay: # Jobs lost
Audio: only the audio clips of John McCain: "The issue of economics is not something I've understood" "Q: At what point do you move from middle class to rich A:How about $5 million"


Image on screen for 3 seconds, split screen: One side McCain hugging Bush, other side McCain and Bush holding birthday cake.
Text overlay: Large ? mark in middle of screen.
Audio: Old alarm clock goes off ringing loudly.

There are apparently some liberals, and some Democrats, and some independents out there, who claim that the media is not only not "liberally biased," but that it in general slants its coverage in order to make the facts come across as less biased to the right and far right. (Most often accomplished, so this claim goes, by largely ignoring or glossing over them, but other times, by miscontruing them or simply parroting misleading arguments with little objective context.)

The National Security Archive has just released a Load of Files Electronic Briefing Book No. 253 Posted - August 20, 2008 under the title: 1998 Missile Strikes on Bin Laden May Have Backfired with a subtitle: Extensive 1999 Report on Al-Qaeda Threat Released by U.S. Dept of Energy, Taliban Told U.S. They Wanted to Bomb Washington

With backlinks to the PDF's and more links in the sidebar on the left.

I don't think John McCain really understands that the United States was founded primarily on the ideals and principles of the Enlightenment, rather than simply "Judeo-Christian values.”  Sure, such religious values played an indirect role in the founding of the country, but the fact remains that our founders were convinced that an official state religion should be avoided at all costs.  Indeed, several of our founding fathers - including Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin - were actually deists rather than traditional Christians.  More importantly, the First Amendment guarantees “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  

John McNicotine is now for the tobacco lobby after years of working against it.  He not only opposes the cigarette taxes he used to support but also opposes FDA regulation of the tobacco industry after years of supporting it.  McNicotine is an ex-smoker and should understand just how addictive nicotine is, and he even acknowledged the exceptionally high death rate for tobacco users when he joked that cigarette exports to Iran were part of his plot to kill Iranian citizens.  For McNicotine to cave in to the tobacco cartel is the ultimate flip-flop:
http://www.boston.com/...

Why has McNicotine caved in to the interests of the tobacco drug cartel?  It couldn't possibly have anything to do with hiring tobacco lobbyist Charlie Black as his senior adviser.  Move along folks.  There's nothing to see here:
http://firedoglake.com/...

Now let's use the traditional Rethug "moral values" and "sanctity of life" frames against McNicotine!  There's more in the flip.

On Friday August 15 the Bush administration sent Condoleezza Rice to meet with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili as a "show of U.S. support."  Yikes.  They sent Condi?  Talk about giving somebody the goodbye look.  If this were a Marty Scorsese movie, Saakashvili would have been sleeping with the fishes come Saturday morning.  You'd think Keystone Kondi would have lent sufficient slapstick to the Georgian situation, but no.  Adding to the antics, John McCain announced on Friday August 15 that he would send along as his personal representatives Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, the Bea Arthur and Betty White of neoconservatism.  Then, to cap things off, McCain himself dropped the atomic punchline: "In the twenty-first century, nations don't invade other nations."

You could hear irony clawing at its coffin lid.  

ARGH!!!

Last night I met a couple of friends (one was a former student) for dinner. We hadn't planned the dinner, but I was in town after meetings and just hangin out anyway.  Relaxed and usually fun, the discussion turned suddenly very sour.  

Note, the former student is planning to vote Obama, so we'd been talking about possible VP picks as we led into this very heated argument.  

BBC story on purported satellite launch

Iran claims to have launched a satellite, no word on whether this is real, or whether the satellite made orbit. However, if there is an Iranian satellite in orbit, there will be a lot of yelling and screaming tonight from the Wingnuts, so some careful analysis is in order.

From Asia Times, Kaveh L Afrasiabi writes:

Iran gambles over Georgia's crisis

Representing a serious new rift in US-Russia relations, the conflict in the Caucasus, paralyzing the UN Security Council and igniting Cold War-type rhetoric between the two military superpowers, is simultaneously a major distraction from the Iran nuclear crisis and may even spell doom for the multilateralist "Iran Six" diplomacy. This involves the US, Britain, Russia, France, China and Germany in negotiations over Iran's uranium-enrichment program, which some believed is aimed at making nuclear weapons.

Much depends on the scope and duration of the Georgia crisis and, yet, there is also the obverse possibility that Moscow, intent on polishing its tarnished image - as a rogue power coercing its smaller neighbors and violating their territorial sovereignty - may even double its efforts on other fronts to compensate for the damage to its international standing, given the US's threat of kicking Russia out of the Group of Eight.

As far as Iran is concerned, the Georgia crisis is not confined to South Caucasus and has broader implications for region, including Central Asia and the Caspian area, that are both positive and negative. That is, it is a mixed blessing, one that is both an ominous development signaling a new level of Russian militarism as well as a crisis of opportunity, to forge closer ties with Russia and enhance its chance of membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the grouping dominated by Russia and China.

Yet, the immediate gains for Iran may not exceed the net losses in the long run and Tehran may have blundered by not forcefully criticizing Moscow's violation of Georgia's sovereignty. Iran and Georgia have strong historical connections: Iran was in possession of Georgia for some 400 years until the humiliating defeats at the hands of tsarist Russia in the early 19th century, culminating in the Russia-Iran Treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmanchai in 1828. Under these, about a third of Iranian territory was ceded to Russia, including Georgia and Armenia.

Then and now, Iran remains weary of Russia's imperial intentions and, more recently, this was evident seven years ago when in the aftermath of a failed summit on the division of Caspian Sea, the then-president Vladimir Putin ordered a massive naval maneuver in the Caspian Sea as a stern message to Iran.

Should Putin, now premier, succeed with his "splendid little war" in South Caucasus, Russia's neighbors to the east must expect to see more samples of Russian power projection, again a prospect that simultaneously entices and yet terrifies Iran and is bound to have contradictory policy ramifications for Tehran's decision-makers.

Thus, on the one hand, no matter how cordial present Iran-Russia relations may be, the big neighbor's power and increasing militarism impacts Iran's national security calculus and may strengthen the arguments of those who are in favor of a nuclear defense strategy.

+ + +

The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes the story, Court says ok for jurors to consult Bible passages during death sentencing deliberations, and extensive environmental news.

The only thing to do during times like this is to pop some popcorn and watch and things flail.

Some people complain that the fact Georgia attacked South Ossettia prompting the escalation doesn't make it into the US news narrative.

To this, I say: So?. The following is a lot of background crap that doesn't make it into our news. First, as usual, is energy:

Can Georgia become a kind of a regional hub for transportation of large volumes of gas and oil through the Black Sea to Europe, in particular to Ukraine?
That is our plan. And all prerequisites are available for that. Today we transport gas and electric power from north to south and from east to west, with all the flows going through Georgia so this is a hub. As you know, the oil and gas corporation of Georgia, together with (Azeri state oil company) SOCAR, Ukrainian, Polish and Lithuanian colleagues, have created a company called Sarmatia to develop a route from Odessa to Brody and then further to Gdansk. This is another alternative direction that can be filled with Kazakh oil.

link

Wonder why Poland and Ukraine are so pissed?

I know it is much now in US because of the presidential election. And it is much about it here in Sweden too. The result is important for the whole world. But: still: there is to much silence about the loss of human rights in Iran. I got an urgent message about this today and want to forward it to the rest of the progressive world.

Sometimes the best solution to a vexing problem is right in front of your face.

In this situation, at least two major world and US problems can be solved, today (or at least by next weekend), if only the leaders of the US take grown up actions that are consistent with the values that the United States was founded on.

By speaking about and with Iran fairly and honestly, and by opening up US markets to an increase supply of Iranian oil, the US can ameliorate high gas prices far more rapidly than the proposed off-shore drilling fixes can provide.

The facts are sobering. About 5,000 Americans have been killed, including military personnel, contractors, and aid workers. Another 30,000 or more are wounded, and estimates of those with post-traumatic stress disorder are as high as 300,000. The financial costs are estimated to reach $3 trillion eventually.

Those are just a few of things that give the lie to the notion that Iraq is a success.  And lest someone, say McCain or a supporter, argue that having expended that much in blood and treasure, we are required to "stay the course" we need to ask, as does the article from which I took those words, What counts as 'success' in Iraq?. John Tirman of MIT writes in the Boston Globe that we need to frame this with two questions, (1) is there a favorable and sustainable outcome due to the "surge," and (2) if there is, can we justify the cost.  The paragraph quoted is only part of the costs. I will explore the article, and more broadly, the situation in which we now find ourselves, which also means exploring Bush - and McCain.

Someone emailed me a link to an Alex Jones piece about a buildup of naval forces in the Persian Gulf.  

From the original article (8/12/08)  Kuwait activates emergency war plan as three U.S. warships steam towards Iran :

The largest naval deployment since 1991 is unfolding as no less than three U.S. warships make their way towards the Persian Gulf in what observers are calling an "unprecedented" build-up, while Kuwait has activated its highest war alert in anticipation of a potential attack on Iran.

According to reports, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan, and the USS Iwo Jima are steaming towards Middle East waters to reinforce the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Peleliu which are already in the region.

They will be joined by a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine.