Although nobody outside of Bush’s inner circle is truly sure of their plan, it is believed that Cheney favors a gradual escalation of hostilities to be followed by massive air strikes using tactical nuclear weapons.

Their only problem may be getting Congress to go along with the plan. Even if they don’t, expect it to be set in motion unless funding is completely cut off.

Republicans suffering from any of these symptoms should consider seeking medical attention:

-You find yourself saying more frequently, “Dan Quayle, now there was one heck of a vice-president!”

-You support Second Amendment rights, but do not have the slightest interest in shooting your hunting partner.

-Just once, you would love to hear Dick Cheney say, “It is classified information, but I’ll shout it to the world: My ATM pin code is Q-U-I-N-T-U-P-L-E-B-Y-P-A-S-S!”

-You hope the next time America recklessly enters into war using faulty intelligence, it will be completely President Bush’s idea.

-You are having second thoughts about awarding Halliburton a no-bid contract to remodel your bathroom.

-You are starting to question the logic that Dick Cheney is not part of the executive branch because he belongs to Sam’s Club.

-You are getting tired of receiving holiday cards from an undisclosed location.

-You question whether being confined indefinately in Guantanamo prison is excessive punishment for failing to yield at a rotary.

-You are not willing to pay Scooter Libby to mow your lawn until his presidential pardon comes through.

-The FBI agent tapping your phone without a warrant keeps changing your order from mushroom to pepperoni pizza.

-You feel it would be improper for Dick Cheney to testify before a congressional oversight committee but would not mind seeing him raked over the coals by Judge Maria Lopez.

Libby Pays The Man

The only thing left for a real pardon to accomplish is the restoration of Libby’s law license.

Cheney has refused to comply with the Oversight Office since 2003.

“This is a little bit of a nonissue,” (White House spokeswoman Dana) Perino said at a briefing dominated by the issue. Cheney Is not subject to the executive order, she said, “because the president gets to decide whether or not he should be treated separately, and he’s decided that he should.”

So now the White House is deciding who must obey the law?

Cheney, 66, has already suffered four heart attacks, required quadruple bypass surgery, two angioplasties, aneurysm surgery on his legs, and the original pacemaker implantation operation.

How long can it be until the administration admits that its number 2 man is actually a member of The Borg?

“Al-Qaida’s leadership has said they have the right to kill 4 million Americans, 2 million of them children, and to exile twice as many and to wound and cripple thousands.

“America is fighting this enemy in Iraq.”

Just the day before, President Bush had warned reporters that the terrorist organization was a danger to their children.

What gives here? Has the al-Qaida leadership suddenly developed a plan to suck the lifeblood out of our country by murdering our kids? Has the Bush administration discovered previously unknown intelligence of this particularly horrific scheme? Or is Dick just raving about the worst scenery he can imagine? One calculated to strike fear into the hearts and minds of those who might waffle on the war?

When do the terrorists begin to feed us our own hearts?

A Pentagon spokesperson said Friday that it was in the US’s interests to help strengthen Israel’s defenses, and that the sale was in line with the US policy of working to achieve peace in the Middle East, help Israel reach an agreement with its neighbors, and “anchor the stability of the entire region.”

I fail to see how strengthening the greatest power in a volatile region helps to anchor stability or achieve peace. It is somewhat like giving your buddy an AK-47 to protect himself against the neighbor he suspects of having an illegal handgun.

Israel has recently protested against US plans to sell these same bombs to Saudi Arabia.

The entire scheme sounds like nothing more than a plan to maintain the status quo, while using Israel as a pawn with which to pressure Iran and Syria.

There will never be peace in the Middle East so long as Bush and Cheney have their warmongering, moneymaking iron in the fire.

Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales opposed closing the infamous prison, on the grounds that those suspected of terrorism should not have the same rights afforded traditional prisoners, but should instead be regarded as prisoners of war subject to military justice.

The argument was ended when President Bush sided with Cheney and Gonzales.

Due to the recent controversy over Gonzales’ possible dismissal, some officials believe that the issue could be reopened if such a circumstance were to occur.

The US has so far brought charges against only one of 385 foreign captives at Guantanamo.

The reason, of course, is that the United States has no valid reason to want peace in the Mid-East. Current conditions keep oil prices high, which satisfies American business. When business is happy, politicians are happy; it means money for the campaign trail. It also keeps AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby happy, for unlike the average Israeli citizen, these activists are against peace. Instead, they are all about expansion, much like the Israeli leadership.

Last week’s AIPAC policy summit illustrates why America will never be the agent of peace in this unsettled dispute.

The conference was attended by nearly every US senator and almost half of the members of the House of Representatives, both Republican and Democrat. Current and would-be leaders were there, including Dick Cheney–who got a rousing ovation, Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other presidential contenders.

Evangelical Christians also made an impressive showing at the mostly Jewish conference, with pastor John Hagee as their keynote speaker. He received a zealous welcome.

Announcing that, “the sleeping giant of Christian Zionism has awoken!” and calling the United Nations a “political brothel,” Hagee went on to proclaim that “Israel must never give up land.” The crowd pounded on tables and shouted in support.

With the support of both political parties, virtually all presidential contenders, the current leadership, and the American people, not to mention the largest and most powerful political action committee in the country, Israel is guaranteed of going into any peace talks with the Palestinians holding the whip hand so long as the United States is behind the litigation.

Any attempt to help bring a lasting settlement to this conflict is doomed to failure because of the hypocrisy involved. Israel is America’s Mid-East proxy, and will therefore get every advantage. The Palestinians are a fringe group, Muslims to be hated and feared. Possibly a part of the “Axis of Evil.” They will get crapped on at every turn. That is the political reality. The reality of Palestinian suffering is unimportant, and will continue to be distorted by the lens of pro-Israeli American news organizations.

The whole insincere process is both hopeless and useless, and it sickens me that we continue to play along as though we gave a damn.

Christian Zionism?

“Other actions by the Chinese government (other than the North Korea deal) send a different message. Last month’s anti-satellite test, China’s continued fast-paced military buildup are less constructive and are not consistent with China’s stated goal of a peaceful rise,” he stated.

Pretty ironic, coming from a principal architect and chief proponent of American military imperialism. But he is hardly alone in his saber-rattling.

Arizona Sen. John Kyle has said “The best way to protect our satellites…is to ensure that the [enemy] missiles never leave the atmosphere.”

California Rep. Duncan Hunter called for a system that would demolish enemy missiles launched toward U.S. military or commercial assets in space.

Why all the paranoia? Is this all just a response to one nation defying George Bush’s recent claim that America, and nobody else, has the right to dominate space? Hardly.

The Pentagon has been flexing it’s space muscles for the past six years. Their vision is not defense of the country, but rather one of offensive capability that could be used to strike anytime, anywhere. And our current leaders are creatures of military force. They see threats everywhere, and war in space is seen as inevitable. Attack first, ask questions later. Therefore, the sharing of space is seen as a weakness, and the probable beginning of a new arms race.

China and Russia, however, have repeatedly stated their desire for an arms control agreement in space. Other countries in the U.N. have agreed with this position. Only the United States has been completely resistant to the idea. Why?

At the current rate of military increase, the U.S. will be ready to attack the Islamic Republic by springtime, but more than likely will wait until next year.

Vice-president Dick Cheney, Josh Muravchik, a Middle-East specialist at the neoconservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute, and Meyrav Wurmser, director of the conservative Hudson Institute, are all urging the president to attack Iran as soon as possible. For these individuals, diplomacy is seen as futile, and direct military action is the only answer.

Muravchik is an advocate of using air strikes–including bunker-busting nuclear weapons–to settle the issue. “The Bush administration have said they would not allow Iran nuclear weapons,” he said. “That is either bullshit or they mean it as a clear code: we will do it if we have to. I would rather believe it is not hot air.”

Others, including Wurmser, favor support for Iranian opposition groups–even those that have been declared terrorist organizations, if necessary. “There is not enough political will for a strike. There seems to be various notions of what policy should be,” she commented.

Bush has ordered the carrier USS John Stennis, along with a second battle group, to the Gulf in support of the USS Eisenhower. His decision on Iran is not yet known.

The directors of American foreign policy are people who grew up and came to power during the Cold War. They have always had an enemy to grapple with. Despite the fact that it has been more than a quarter of a century since the Iranian hostage crisis, they cannot, and never will forgive that country for the outrage they felt then. Just as they cannot completely forgive the Russians. Peace is not in their nature. An enemy is always going to be needed, and one is always going to be found.

In defiance of Congress, and despite the desires of the American public, this war is going to happen. Better get used to it now.

About: Senate Control Hands in Balance as Sen. Tim Johnson Remains in Critical Condition

I’d bet the Christmas fund that VP Dick Cheney isn’t losing any sleep over the Senator’s health.

After Dewey lost to the underdog, though, things changed. Top Republicans, out of power since 1932 began to think that they would never overcome the specter of the dead FDR. It would be hardball from here on out. Witch hunts became common practice in the years leading up to the next election, most notably in Hollywood, and in 1950 Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy accused 205 governmental employees of being Communists, although he did not name these people. Few, if any, of these accusations were ever proved, but many lives were destroyed just by the accusation alone.

In the 1952 Presidential election, the default Democratic candidate was Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, selected after President Truman declined to seek another term. He was defeated in a landslide by war hero Dwight Eisenhower, one of whose major planks was rooting out Communism. The Republicans had used–and increased–American fear of the Reds to take back political power.

New Enemy: In the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush, son of the previous Republican to hold the post, squeaked out a disputed victory over Senator Al Gore of Tennessee in a battle of unappetizing choices. For nine months Bush meandered through his presidency; then came 9/11, and he and his associates–the so-called Neocons–saw an opportunity to institute a secret plan. This plan, authored in 1997 by members of Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a conservative think-tank, advocates an enormous buildup of the American military, in conjunction with economic control of the world’s markets, backed up by menacing unilateral threat and action. The supposed outcome of all of this is U.S. global dominance in which dissenters from around the globe are either persuaded to allow America to control their ultimate destinies, or else eradicated.

This plan, co-authored by (among others) Jeb Bush, Lewis Libby, Richard Pearle, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dick Cheney, would eventually run into trouble. The American people couldn’t be persuaded to back an elitist proposal that would be ultimately detrimental to them without having a tangible enemy to defeat. The September 11, 2001 attacks provided the trigger–and the needed evil opponent.

After 9/11, Afghanistan was invaded, with great public support, in order to seek out and capture the architect of those attacks, Osama bin Laden. Soon following, President Bush declared that there was an “axis of evil” that had to be stamped out in order to end global terrorism; Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. In 2003, America invaded Iraq, and the War on Terrorism was begun. Since that time, “terrorism” has increased dramatically–according to governmental and media accounts–as have U.S. threats of interventionism.

Conclusion: In retrospect, it has been proven that the “Red Scare” was more political power-seeking than anything else. Although the Cold War was real enough, the fear-mongering on both sides allowed it to drag on for a much longer time than it should have, and destroyed many lives and careers here at home for purely political reasons.

How will history judge the “Terrorist Scare?” I suspect, given the benefit of hindsight, that it will be assessed in somewhat the same way: as politicians, wealthy economists, and bored military commanders making a push for complete global dominance in their respective areas, while the rights of the common people are ignored. Even as they are convinced out of fear that all of this is being done for their own good.