Score One for Irony

While Dick Cheney plays Pollyanna by announcing that he's FINALLY figured out how to prevent terrorist attacks from happening on US soil--namely, reelect elect him and his evil stepchild (funny, but it didn't seem to work in 2001), we have the following items:

Vlad Putin, when asked about the possibility of negotiating with Chechen rebels, suggests that Bush do the same with bin Laden. Great--notwithstanding the fact that the Chechen rebels engaged in what can only be described as ugly, wanton behavior that will set their cause back by years, now we've got the specter of every would be Dubya branding their enemies as "bin Ladens." Talk about making the world safer...

Bush of course will snort, no pun intended, at the suggestion, but Bob Graham suggests something even more sinister--that Bush has been playing footsie with Saudi Arabia when there's evidence suggesting that the Saudi government was playing footsie with the 9/11 hijackers. Aside: a Democratic president would already have been impeached, convicted, and likely indicted under regular US Criminal and Civil Code had they engaged in similar actions.

Speaking of Bush: more records have suddenly appeared in regards to his, um, service in the National Guard, or lack thereof. Seems as if the Dauphin walked away from flying just as his TANG unit was assigned a genuine task. As Swopa over at Needlenose noted, Bush set the bar early on.

Patrick Cockburn has a few words about the two front war being fought in Iraq--on one side, the US faces the Sunni Triangle (which keeps getting larger and larger, now encompassing most of the western part of the country), on the other side, there's the Mahdi Army of Moqtada Al-Sadr. You know, Germany fought two two-front wars last century, and, if my memory is correct, didn't come out all that well in either.

Then, via Atrios, there's the New York Review of Books piece on the 9/11 Commission's Report. I've got a .pdf copy of the whole thing, but I'll admit to being a little slow on getting to it--sort of like how Blogger has been slooooow to the post today. Also, hey, it's not like I haven't been reading anything this summer.

Finally, at least Kerry is trying to land a blow or two against the pathetic little man who is nominally running the country. No, not Dick Cheney--the other guy. You know, $200 billion dollars could get a lot more than an occupation and snipe hunt for non-existent WMD--and some of the things it could buy would actually make the country safer. I mean, can anyone tell me, for instance, just what Saddam Hussein was going to do--and I want REAL EVIDENCE, not Chicken Little handwringing--just what he was going to do to us. The aforementioned Atrios is offering to donate $100 dollars to the RNC if anyone can prove that Cliff May--or anyone--agressively made the point that Bill Clinton should have invaded Afghanistan. Well, I'm willing to match that offer if anyone can PROVE--with REAL EVIDENCE--that Saddam Hussein was threatening the United States. Real evidence means that we have documented proof that Hussein was either threatening an invasion of the US, or otherwise arming and equipping people who were.

I think my money's safe.