How bad is it?

Damn bad, I think.

I also think this has been happening under the media's radar so far, which means that many people in the US have no idea what's about to hit them.

It's no exaggeration to call the Capitulation Vote cowardly and even traitorous. The 'support our troops' lie has been debunked ably on the front page so I'm not going to repeat those arguments here. Instead I'm going to look forward to the likely consequences, and back at the opportunity that's being lost here.

This morning 15 diaries about Iranians rounding up 15 UK soldiers at gun point were rounded up at gun point.

soK, a blogistan spokespersona, was quoted saying "This could be the start of the war we've been waiting for."

The diaries, which apparently were unaware of each other, initially appeared to be congregating suspiciously on the New Diary list. A plot to take over the Recommended Diaries list was suspected, but so far no evidence has been found to suggest that this was ever likely.

It's not yet clear if the diaries will be released. Crisis talks have failed to reach international agreement about their precise legal and diplomatic status.

A White House spokespersona (no relation) said no options would be taken off the table. He added "We want the American people to know how proud we are that we have a table big enough to hold all of these options without any of them rolling off and - you know - getting lost on the floor, or something."

He says clearly we should "get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems." "We are in a Muslim country and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear." As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren't invited certainly by those in Iraq at the time. "The military campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in. Whatever consent we may have had in the first place, may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance."

"The government has decided to enforce a curfew on vehicles and individuals starting from Friday evening until 0600 on Sunday morning (0200 GMT)," the message said.

An unidentified official at the interior ministry told the Associated Press news agency that "intelligence information on the security situation" had made the announcement necessary.

From The Register:

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the arguments in the case of Massachusetts vs the Environmental Protection Agency.

The suit, brought by Massachusetts and eleven other states, along with a few cities and environmental lobby groups, accuses the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of failing to regulate CO2 emissions from motor vehicles.

The legal action was brought after the EPA denied a petition asking it to intervene and set limits on vehicle emissions in 2002. It argued that it had no obligation to regulate CO2 emissions. It must oversee gases that represent an "endangerment to public health and the environment", but said that CO2 did not necessarily fall into this category.

People get really upset about the offensive. Upset is good. But I'm not seeing so much understanding of how the game is being played.

Reality based debating tactics are a weakness in the current climate. To know your enemy you have to understand the MO. And while the GOP is a hollow shell, morally, ethically, and in every other way that matters, it still has a persuasive media presence that plays by its own unique rules.

While it's true that the wheels are coming off the wagon now, with poll numbers tanking, increasing frustration and disbelief, and the beginnings of a tidal shift, the talking points are going to keep on coming for as long as there's a playbook sock-puppet preznit to make the speeches.

So here's a list of what those rules seem to be.

You can read them as snark with added shiny essence-of-cynicism goodness if you want.

Or not. Your call.

Details here:

http://www.dallasnews.com/...

http://www.azdailysun.com/...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/...

Unless anyone knows different, it's the BBC that's breaking the story.

[More...]

Libby is pleading not guilty. Which is certainly surprising me, and probably a lot of other people too. Because it means the case moves towards a full trial. And that means a lot of very publc hard questions for Libby, and the real likelihood that Rove, Cheney and the other conspirators will be cross-examined.

So Iran really is going to be the bad guy after all. Assuming this isn't just a random outburst - and if it is, you'd think after three and a half years in Iraq someone in authority would have noticed those Iranians doing war-pretext evil things a little sooner than than this - this could plausibly be a hint about how this one is going to be played. (More below.)

Do freedom and public free speech exist in the USA today?

How far are the gangsters willing to go to protect their turf and their profits?

Are we nearing the end of the nightmare, or is the rape of the people of the US just beginning?