DPW Scandal Hurts Bush -- That Figures

It could be that Bush is finally getting nailed (polls here), but of course its over the Dubai Ports World deal (more here), recognized by almost everyone who knows anything about the details of ports operations to be innocuous. How beautifully American this is, that after everything this man has done to hurt our country, this of all things might finally finish him. The straw that breaks the camel's back? Possibly. The irony, however, is somewhat delicious -- Bush has spent his entire time in office since 9/11 fearmongering, hyping terrorist threats, and making Americans deathly afraid to go outside, and finally the fear he has created might turn against him as Americans imagine a phantom threat from the harmless DPW. Although I think the entire thing is quite ridiculous, I might very well be wrong, and either way if this is what finally does the trick, I'll take it.

Hanson on Appeasement

Everyone's favorite historian/warmonger/maniac Victor Davis Hanson has a new article comparing attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the current situation with Iran with pre-war appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s (link here).

Hanson takes Ahmadinejad's lunatic rhetorical flourishes about "wiping Israel off the map", and translates this into a serious plan to massacre all Jews. Apparently Hanson isn't familiar with the Iranian system of government; Ahmadinejad, as the president, is not even in charge of the nation's armed forces. As such, he cannot order deployment of weapons, he cannot declare war, and he cannot engage in any sort of hostilities. Combined with the fact that many in the Iranian government (though admittedly opposed to Israel) scoffed at such a suicidal policy, the probability of Iran actually launching a nuclear attack on Israel is pretty slim.

Ahmadinejad's comments are not representative of Iran's policy stance, and any attempt to cast them as such (as Hanson has done) is disingenuous. Ahmadinejad's comments are nothing but extremist rhetoric coming from an extremist president that has been somewhat marginalized even in his own government. Ahmadinejad has been openly anti-Israel for a long time, and has stated his opposition to the existence of Israel before. Just because he says it again doesn't mean nuclear war is imminent.

Since, as I have been posting lately, the threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapons program is vastly over-estimated, Hanson's rhetoric amounts to little more than a replay of the same old warmongering blather we saw in the rush to war with Iraq. Looking for a diplomatic solution is not appeasement, but immediately jumping for a military "solution" is certain to have negative consequences we cannot even begin to imagine.

Iran's Nuclear Ambitions

Contrary to the recent outbreak of fear-mongering of the Bush administration which has threatened that Iran could have nuclear weapons capabilities within a few years, most experts agree that Iran will not come close to perfecting the necessary technology until at least 2012. Good story here outlining the reality of the "threat" from Iran.

Iran, the 'Obvious' Threat

Everyone knows that Iran has a nuclear weapons program and is a threat to world peace, right?

Culture, Not Religion

Steve Chapman has a good article over at RealClearPolitics.com dealing with something that few commentators have noticed regarding the Muhammad-cartoon imbroglio: Generally speaking, Muslims in relatively advanced, free countries have responded without violence to the cartoons, while Muslims in backwards totalitarian states have responded with violence. They're all Muslims, yet their differing cultures seem to determine, to a certain degree, whether their response to the cartoons are violent or not.

While of course the violence is linked to Islam (since the insult was against the prophet Muhammad), it is plainly wrong and prejudiced to say that there is something inherent in Islam which makes people violent. Just as Christianity can be violent or peaceful depending on the cultural values it co-exists with, Muslims react with violence not according to their faith, but according to their level of civilization and tolerance. Link to the story here.

Foiled Terrorist Plot?

There's a good piece on the foiled terrorist plot that Bush is touting as a justification for his illegal NSA eavesdropping program over at the Counterterrorism Blog. Check it out here.

Hate Cartoons

A Dutch Muslim has responded to the cartoons depicting Muhammad with his own version of the hate cartoon: an image of Hitler in bed with Anne Frank. More on this disgusting, hateful response here.

The Death of Freedom of Speech

Free speech is now officially dead. Or, for those who would assert that it has been dead for years, we can say its corpse is being defiled with gleeful abandon. Cindy Sheehan was ejected yesterday from the State of the Union Address and arrested, despite having a ticket to the event, for wearing a shirt that said "2245 Dead. How many more?"

Police later admitted that they had no legal grounds for removing or arresting her, but by then the damage had been done. Legality in a more broad sense, it seems, is going the way of constitutionality, which is to say the way of the dodo.

As I said in my article "Invoking the Dead Letter" (link here), the state does not hesitate to violate the law that supposedly binds it, whenever it has something to lose. Even if that "something to lose" is nothing but the embarassment of having your incompetence waved in front of you (as Sheehan's shirt did to Bush), there rarely so much as a pause before the thug-enforcers of the state go to work in direct violation of people's rights.

In this case, of course, a low-level security officer took the fall, charging her with "unlawful conduct" -- a completely absurd charge. The man will of course not lose anything for his obviously willful violation of Sheehan's rights, but that has come to be expected. The lesson of this whole ordeal? Just as Bush doesn't hesitate to violate the law in eavesdropping on American citizens, neither will he tolerate dissent even when it is protected by both Constitution and federal law.

Posting Problems

I've been unable to post here lately, and I am currently working on resolving a couple issues that have prevented me from posting. More to come once I fix things up.