Ready to do it right now - Iran can basically be leveled in a matter of a few hours.  That’s in the Executive Summary of an 80 page report prepared by arms experts Dr. Dan Plesch who is the Director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, and Martin Butcher who was a former Director of the British American Security Information Council and was a former adviser to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.  It’s linked at Raw Story.  Plesch and  Butcher said this kind of analysis had not yet been done on a coming war with Iran.
 
Ten thousand targets? Sure Shock and Awe II will work.  In Raw Story the authors:

conclude that based on open source analysis and their own assessments, the US has prepared its military for a "massive" attack against Iran, requiring little contingency planning and without a ground invasion.

Or with little though by Bush!  

Because according to authors the U.S. prepatory actions are not trying to prevent a war:

And it’s 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for?  

Bush was too fucked up on drugs to learn that lesson from Viet Nam.  Hah!

My headline is on on a good story focusing on Rep. Jan Schakowsky in tomorrow's WaPo.  

The Deputy PM quote:

At times that proved a challenge, as when Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told her congressional delegation, "There's not going to be political reconciliation by this September; there's not going to be political reconciliation by next September."

The other key fact was what she heard from Gen. Petraeus:

That is my sig line, "Events are in the saddle and ride mankind."

As it happen in Viet Nam ‘events’ in Iraq have now spun so far out of control that there is nothing we can do.  Iraq is a quagmire far worse then Viet Nam and we can’t control the events in Iraq – Bush has lost this war and it is time to leave.   That is the message the Democrats should be saying.
 
Unfortunately Democratic Senators like Levin and Durbin don’t seem to get it or are at least incapable of coming to terms with ending the Iraq War.  
 
Levin in the WaPo:

Anonymous Liberal has been doing outstanding working ripping the putrid flesh off this police state enabling act to reveal fascist monster that lies beneath the placid, cynical surface of the ‘Protect America Act’.  Most kossacks ranted about it when the Dems caved, but as AL has pointed out this nifty little piece of fascism is a lot worse than everyone first got worked up about!

The thrust of AL’s most recent blog is the 'Protect America Act' may gut not only the requirements to comply with FISA, but it could (with this administration might as well say ‘it will’) allow this administration to get around many other laws that require the government to get warrants before conducting searches and surveillance activities.

AL writes:

Why the new FISA bill is even worse than you think

This is the headline of an important article by Anonymous Liberal over at Crooks and Liars.  AL has dug into the guts of the legislation and he/she (hey the Anonymous Liberal is anonymous to me but probably not the NSA) has concluded:

Most of the debate in Congress and coverage of the bill in the media has focused on whether these procedures and oversight requirements are sufficiently rigorous to protect Americans’ civil liberties. They’re not. But that’s more or less beside the point because–and this is what I think many people do not yet appreciate–given the way FISA is structured, the President is under no obligation to follow even these watered-down oversight requirements. They are merely optional.

Optional to Bush means NONE, and that the Cheney/Bush Junta has the absolute power of a dictator when it comes to surveillance.  

Unfortunately this law is not limited to just national security monitoring.  Aziz Huq in The Nation noted:

Forget that Beacon of Democracy shit!  Some things I read and I just shake my head in sorrow as to how far we have fallen from our ideals.  

Glenn Greenwald’s got a post up that says Zimbabwe passd a warrantless eavesdropping law and justified it by citing the new U.S. Gestapo surveillance law.  'Hey if the great Mista Bush is doing it, why not me little ol tyrant Robert Mugabe!'

From the VOA:

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday signed into law the controversial Interception of Communications Bill, which gives his government the authority to eavesdrop on phone and Internet communications and read physical mail.

And the justification used by Zimbabwe for this:

Grrrrrrrrrrr!  I’m on vacation and Bush World keeps intruding into my time off!

This proposed signing statement is from the Democratic leadership/members of Congress to Bush and it says –

You want to call us back in special session to pass another constitutional abomination FISA law?  WELL FUCK OFF!  We are not coming back!

We might talk about this after you criminal administration obeys all our subpoenas.  

You agree to a timeline to get out of Iraq.

You fire Gozno and you nominate a good Republican like oh.......Patrick Fitzgerald as the new AG!  

And that’s off the top of my head for starters!

Hmmmmmm......Why would they need to do that?  

The source is from the military-industrial complex horse's mouth - a press release from Northrop Grumman:

Northrop Grumman Begins Work to Equip B-2 Bomber with Massive Penetrator Weapon

PALMDALE, Calif., July 19, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber would be able to attack and destroy an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon that Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has begun integrating on the aircraft.

The company is doing the work under a seven-month, $2.5 million contract awarded June 1 by the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio.

That’s kind of a stealthy announcement – the contract was awarded on June 1, but the news is published just a few days ago.  Anyone familiar with military contracting?  Could the work have begun before the awarding of the contract?  From what the PR says, we can assume the refitting would be done in about five months – just in time for the holidays!

The weapon that might be used with the B-2:

From Monday’s Guardian with the headline, Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran:

The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.

snip

Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo."

Still in limbo - WTF!

Like I headlined earlier in the week, Never give a Sociopath (Bush) 3 Aircraft Carriers in the Persian Gulf.  The carriers are ready to strike.
 
I think we’ll have war with Iran sometime in the next two months.

You Commie, pinko snobs sitting at your keyboards tapping out your kossack comments drinking your $50 bottles of wine.........

Let’s go to the headlines:

The Charles Shaw 2005 California chardonnay (yes, the $1.99 "Two Buck Chuck" made by Bronco Wine Company sold at Trader Joe’s)  was judged Best Chardonnay from California at California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition.

The chardonnay received 98 points, a double gold, with accolades of Best of California and Best of Class.

I’m positively feeling like a tycoon swilling down my $4 merlot.

Better stock up folks, because with the laws of supply and demand this will soon be $3 Chuck.

More from the story:

That’s 3 Aircraft Carries to make war with...

Especially a cornered, rabid weasel sociopath like George Wanker Bush.  If you accept or at least can contemplate the notion Bush has an Antisocial Personality Disorder so that he is either a sociopath or psychopath, then we could be at a very perilous moment in our history.  

Sociopaths don’t like to be denied.  As Congress ratchets up the pressure to end the war, Bush could lash out at Iran.   The News:

MANAMA, 7-10-2007 (Thomson Financial) - Another US Navy aircraft carrier is heading towards the Middle East, boosting the number of the giant warships in the region to three, the navy said in a statement.

The nuclear-powered USS Enterprise and its strike group will join the USS John C. Stennis and USS Nimitz in the navy's Fifth Fleet area of operation, which includes Gulf waters off Iran.

Congress stopping the war might damage Bush’s egomaniacal delusions about winning in Iraq.  Would his pathology let that happen?  

The likely behavior of a cornered sociopath:

This was reported on the CBS News tonight by chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.  

Here’s what’s coming down according to CBS NEWS:

....the situation has gotten worse and their government is now in crisis.

That has led senior Iraqi leaders to demand drastic change. CBS News has learned that on July 15, they plan to ask for a no-confidence vote in the Iraqi parliament as the first step to bringing down the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Even those closest to the Iraqi prime minister, from his own party, admit the political situation is desperate.

By at least 4 Democratic Senators – Thank you very much Senators Salazar, Pryor, Casey, and Lincoln.  These Senators look like they are cosponsors of the notorious "Iraq Study Group (ISG) Recommendations Implementation Act of 2007."
John Aravosis reports in his blog:

A bipartisan group of Senators (including the 4 Democrats) has prepared legislation that they want to offer in the next few weeks that would keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely.

Probably the most offensive thing about the legislation is that it outright calls for the continuation of the status quo policy of keeping US troops in Iraq until the day that Iraq is 100% ready to stand on its own - namely, never.

Senators it is way past Humpty Dumpty time in Iraq.  There is nothing you can do to change the outcome.  Events are in the saddle.  The particulars of this legislation are terrible:

The right thing is to call for the Impeachment of Bush and Cheney right now.  

I’m making this suggestion to you because if I were voting today I’d vote for you.  Calling for impeachment of these two cretins is the right thing to do. For your candidacy it would be a winning political gambit.  You’re not going to win the nomination by being a ‘me too’ candidate where you say the right things, but duck the impeachment issue.    

On impeachment Senator Edwards you are acting like a DC Don’t.  

This is in an article by David Swanson, and he writes that Adrienne Kinne, a former member of U.S. Military Intelligence, has decided to speak out about what she knows about illegal, warrantless spying on Americans.  

Kinne was based at Ft. Gordon, which is just outside of Augusta, GA. and is HQ of the Army Signal Corps.  Let’s get the Army spying on Americans.  ‘Far Out Man’ that’s what the good old Army did in the 60’s!  

The money paragraphs from the article:

Those guys would be the rabid troglodytes Bush, Cheney and the rest of their mutant, warmongering acolytes.  There’s a transcript up at Think Progress where Hersh makes that comment.  Of course Hersh said this because he fears, as he has for more than a year, that the Cheney, err Bush Administration will bomb Iran.  

Cheney’s vampire crypt has finally been pried open for all to see this week by the series in the Washington Post and that has merged with Cheney’s absurd claims on absolute power.   It is urgent to revisit an important story that came out less than a month ago, now that Cheney’s evil nature has once again been revealed.    

The headline in the May 24, The Washington Note:

That is the defacto result of this ruling.  Looks like the RATS strike again on a technicality.  Those wanting the ban on grounds of separation of church and state did not have standing to sue.  Alito wrote the majority.  

From A.P.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday barred ordinary taxpayers from challenging a White House initiative helping religious charities get a share of federal money.

The 5-4 decision dealt with a suit by a group of atheists and agnostics against eight Bush administration officials including the head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

You jest can’t trust them Iraqi’s to govern themselves!

Here’s one great cosmic buttfuck to Darth Cheney that was reported a couple of days ago in the Wall Street Journal.

Just a little story buried on an inside page that was headlined:  

Iraq to Seek Chinese Help to Reinvigorate Oil Industry

BEIJING — Iraq's president today is set to begin a week-long trip to China to address his country's urgent need for help to fix its ailing oil-production system. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is coming to Beijing with a delegation that includes his oil minister, is expected to ask Beijing to revive a $1.2 billion oil exploration deal it established with Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule.

This is too much – our buddy Talabani is double dealing behind the back of Cheney’s big oil buddies.  I guess the Iraqi’s aren’t so keen on pushing through that oil sharing law written by big oil primarily for the benefit of big oil.