Right Wing Nut House

MARVIN IS IN THE HOUSE!

It’s been quite a while since my racist, homophobic, ultra-fascist, Bush-loving neighbor asked me to give you a little truth and wisdom from the pen of someone from the Reality Based Community. The fact that I was out of the country in the Amazon jungle with no access to a phone, the internet or flush toilets for that matter should have nothing to do with it. I got a lot of information via carrier pigeon, courtesy of some of my friends at the Democratic Underground. And let me tell you, I’m glad to be back in Amerika at this moment in time because comrades, the revolution is about to spontaneously combust and the conflagration will consume all who dare stand in the way of truth, justice, and the American dream…at least our definition of what those concepts mean.

First, Chloe is fine and thanks for asking. We spent 6 months following graduation with some of the indigenous tribes in the Amazon rain forest trying to keep them from being exploited by rapacious businessmen and other low life capitalist running dogs. It was a struggle, let me tell you. Not fighting the businessmen but trying to keep the indians in line. For instance, when they should have been teaching their kids how to survive in the rain forest by showing them where the best grubs and insects were hiding in rotten logs, those indian mothers had the gall to send their kids to schools just so they could learn how to read and write. Chloe had a devil of a time patiently explaining to the mothers that their children were better off being ignorant and eating grubs.

I don’t think she ever quite got through to them.

The time spent in the jungle wasn’t a total loss. The natives have this drink they call boogoola. I’m not sure if that’s really the name of the drink or whether the indians were just pulling my leg. They’re kind of funny like that. You should see the crap they were selling to tourists as “authentic” rain forest souvenirs. The trinkets were all made in Kuala Lumpur. I know, I watched them unpacking the crates. And it surprised me that they only wore their native costumes when tourists were around. All the rest of the time, they sorta looked like…well, regular 21st century third world people. You know the look. They wear cast-off NBA and NFL tee shirts and throw away jeans. First time I saw “Property of the New York Jets” on a tee shirt 500 miles from the nearest telephone, I nearly freaked.

Anyway, I don’t know what was in this boogoola and didn’t want to know. I have no clue what they fermented to get the rather strange taste either. All I know is that it packed quite a wallop. And if you drink it when smoking some of the local ditch weed, the effect is positively grand - sort of a cross between XTC and blotter. Once, I woke up 50 feet off the ground in a tree looking right in the face of a monkey. I don’t remember how I got up there or what I was doing with the monkey but I think I had a good time. I wonder if she did?

Anyway, we’re home now and ready to rock and roll. I’m glad they didn’t start the revolution without me. I would have been pissed if I missed the opportunity to put my body on the line for democracy. Like this fella Cary Tennis from Salon says, it’s time to overthrow the oligarchy and practice a little regime change here at home:

I do think this regime’s removal is the most urgent matter before the country today. And I do think that at a certain point the achievement of that goal might take precedence over our personal predilections for writing, teaching and the like. We might be called upon to go on general strike, for instance. We might be called upon to set up camp in the streets for weeks or months, to gather and remain in large public squares as the students in Tiananmen [sic] Square did, and dare government forces to remove us or to slaughter us in the streets.

This is all terrible and rather fantastic to contemplate. But what assurances have we that it is not all quite plausible? Having discarded the principles that Jefferson & Co. espoused, the current regime seems capable of anything. I know that my imagination is a feverish instrument. But are we not living in feverish times, in times of the unthinkable?

This guy rocks. He speaks my language. When I was in school and belonged to an anarchist cell, this is exactly the kind of stuff we were talking about doing. We even tried it once.

It was my junior year and the war in Iraq was really heating up and the Presidential campaign was in full swing when Chloe suggested we follow the example of the Ukrainians and hold a continuous rally until we brought down Bushitler and his evil brain Karl Rove. So we got our anarchist cell involved. We printed up 500 flyers calling on the students at SIU to rally in front of the Administration building for democracy. We thought that if we could get a few thousand people to stand around all day chanting slogans and denouncing Bushco, we could get the press to publicize it. And once it was on TV, we were absolutely convinced that the movement would sweep the country, ending up with millions of us marching to Washington to demand the resignation of everyone in government.

Things didn’t quite work out the way we planned. In fact, it mostly sucked.

First, don’t try something like this in the middle of winter. In the midwest. With a blizzard howling all around you. I mean, I don’t care how committed you are, most people just aren’t willing to freeze to death for democracy. And don’t talk to me about Valley Forge. Those poor deluded fools didn’t know they were fighting to keep the rich Boston merchants and slave-owning Virginia planters in power. And Valley Forge couldn’t have been that bad. I hear they were eating pine needles and tree bark. Sh*t, Chloe makes me eat that crap all the time. How bad could it have been?

Anyway, what with the blizzard and the cold and the fact that the band we hired canceled because they were worried about being electrocuted by playing in the snow, our grand rally for democracy never quite got off the ground. Chloe caught a cold and I nearly got pneumonia.

But this guy Tennis has the right idea about a lot of things. Read what he says about how we on the left have been changing the Constitution right under everyone’s noses for years:

If portions of the Constitution stand in the way of desired policies, rather than trying to change the Constitution, instead find someone with academic credentials to say that the Constitution doesn’t say what it says, to make a halfway plausible, somewhat believable but basically pretend argument that it actually says something entirely different from what it appears to say and what we always thought it said. If the argument is weak, just sing it loud and stick to it! It is, in form at least, an argument! It was written by a law professor!

Actually, he is making the point that this is the way the Bushcos justify torture. But he really reveals how the right has stolen our ideas on how to avoid inconvenient parts of the Constitution, especially when talking about stupid things like freedom of religion or protection of property rights, or even scholarly stuff like enumerated powers. You know, it comes down to this; the Constitution means whatever we on the left say it means and if you don’t like it, eat my shorts. This is the way its been for a long time and I see no reason to change. And if you disagree, we just call you a racist or a bigot, or anti-woman and poof! You’re slimed and you lose whatever moral authority you thought you may have had.

Pretty neat, huh?

Anyway, whenever we’re called on to fill the streets with our bodies, Chloe and I will be there. Of course, if there’s a call for a “General Strike” we don’t have jobs so we couldn’t participate fully. But I’m sure a lot of people would. After all, who wouldn’t want a day off (or two) from work? It would be fun! I guess my only question would be who would call for a General Strike? And do you think people would give the idea the seriousness it so richly deserves or would they laugh whoever proposed it out of the country? I’m really not sure.

Well, I’ve got to run. Chloe likes to go to the public library on Mondays so she can read her Tantric magazines. There’s The American Tantric, Gaia and You, and my favorite, The Single Tantric which always has great pictures that gives Chloe fantastic ideas of what to do the next time we play “slap and tickle.”

Keep the faith, baby!

RIGHT WING FANATIC BLOGGERS MARCHING IN LOCKSTEP DURING THEIR ANNUAL “RUSH-ROVE PARADE”

Would someone please tell me where I went wrong?

I mean, I know I called former FEMA Director Michael Brown that “horse show impresario.” And I may have gotten Karl mad at me when I called for Rummy’s resignation and criticized George for not coming out and speaking about the war earlier than he did. And as far as the Christian fundamentalist agenda…well, let’s just say that I respectfully agree to disagree. But is that any reason to purge my name from the email list?

After all, like this guy Crowley says, we right wing whack jobs are uncaring, unthinking tools of Karl Rove and his allies in the massive right wing media infrastructure:

But Democrats say there’s a key difference between liberals and conservatives online. Liberals use the Web to air ideas and vent grievances with one another, often ripping into Democratic leaders. (Hillary Clinton, for instance, is routinely vilified on liberal Web sites for supporting the Iraq war.) Conservatives, by contrast, skillfully use the Web to provide maximum benefit for their issues and candidates. They are generally less interested in examining every side of every issue and more focused on eliciting strong emotional responses from their supporters.

But what really makes conservatives effective is their pre-existing media infrastructure, composed of local and national talk-radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, the Fox News Channel and sensationalist say-anything outlets like the Drudge Report - all of which are quick to pass on the latest tidbit from the blogosphere. “One blogger on the Republican side can have a real impact on a race because he can just plug right into the right-wing infrastructure that the Republicans have built,” Stoller says.

First, would someone please send me today’s password so I can “plug right into the right wing infrastructure?” I mean how the hell am I supposed to “emotionally connect” with my readers unless I have the damn password? The password, damn it! Give it to me.

You don’t realize how unplugged you really are until you wake up one morning and find yourself “out of the loop.” No more cozy email exchanges with Karl. No more instant messaging with Rush. And Drudge? The bastard won’t even take my calls anymore. And after all those “tidbits from the blogosphere” I’ve dutifully passed on to my readers too! Ungrateful wretch. Maybe I could start an internet rumor that the reason he wears that stupid hat is to hide his baldness. Or maybe to hide his pointy head?

Anyway, I’m lost without you guys so would someone send me some instructions here? I’m so bollixed up that I can’t for the life of me figure out whether I’m coming or going.

It’s getting darker now. My screen is dissolving to black. Have I been purged? Have I been drummed out of the League of Extraordinary White Right Wing Wackos? Look, this isn’t fair! I’ve done everything asked of me.

It isn’t fair. It just isn’t fair.

Welcome to the Silver Anniversary Celebration of The Carnival of the Clueless. The buffet table is on the right as you walk in. Sorry Beth and Raven, no open bar but I’m sure Jay, Cao, Kender and The Maryhunter will be happy to know there are plenty of sammiches.

Oh, and uh…please keep the elephants out of the salad. And would somebody please see to it that Pamela and Jack are at separate tables? There’s going to be enough blood on the floor what with Van Helsing on a rampage and Giacomo jousting away.

Uh-oh…looks like Mr. Right and Jimmie K are at it again - the Series is over guys, Sox won.

Hey! Is that Tom hitting on the DHM? I’m sure he’s interested in her mind only. Now Fred and Rachel - that’s water from a Different River. Pure. Animal. Passion.

I see Orac holding forth. Come to think of it, that’s a pretty damn smart table what with Kaote, the two Adams and that wrestler fella.

Say! Look who the cat drug in! AJ arm in arm with Wonder Woman. AJ always was a sucker for superheroes. And I’m surprised to see XYBA given that he doesn’t like to Fly at Night.

Now, I’m sure there’s been a World of Speculation about who will be the Silver Anniversary Cluebat of the Week. No Speed Bumps here. So without further adieu, I will go Once More Into the Breach and say that the winner hands down and with no second and third place awarded since they absolutely swept the voting, is the United Nations.

The reason? Only the United Nations could, in the manner of a two year old child who covers his ears when wanting to shut out something he doesn’t want to hear, pretend that the State of Israel (a UN member state) does not exist by failing to include it on a map of the Middle East posted at a “celebration” of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Think about how clueless this action really is. In 1947, the UN itself partitioned the former British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. In short, the United Nations created the State of Israel! Even more ironic is the fact that the “celebration” of solidarity with the Palestinians occurred on the anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s creation of the Jewish state. Of that date, cluebat Kofi Annan has said it is “a day of mourning and a day of grief.”

And we look forward to a day filled with rejoicing and celebration; the day you take your arrogant ass and your corrupt family and friends back to where you came from never to show your criminal face in public again.

There’s plenty more where that kind of cluelessness came from. Click till it hurts.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

And to all the friends and supporters of this site and the COTC, thanks for letting me be stupid every once and while.
(Me)
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The Sophistpundit commits the unpardonable sin of throwing the Democrats own words back in their faces. He should be ashamed of himself, taking all those quotes out of context. Come to think of it…by putting them in context, they sound worse.

Jack Cluth has a rant against clueless Republicans who have lowered the quality of debate on the Iraq war thanks to their “white flag” ad campaign. C’mon Jack! Tell us what you really think.

Van Helsing pounds the wooden stake deep into the heart of John Kerry for his clueless comments about American soldiers in Iraq. Deja vu anyone?

TMH is blogging the Global Warming Conference in Canada among other things. He gives a rather baleful look toward the “enviro-whackos” and other clueless greens whose stupidity knows no bounds.

AJ at the Strata-Sphere takes the EU to task for their latest outrage; an exhibition and activities book about sex and relationships that targets children of preschool and primary school age. AJ’s advice is spot on.

Giacomo lances Jonathan Alter for his clueless article on the Pentagon’s media program in Iraq. Alter should know that straw-men are only used by hay brains.

Our Official Carnival Pin-up Girl, Pamela at Atlas Shrugs, has a real head scratcher of a post regarding an Islamic “professor” who says that Einstien’s theory of special relativity - among other “scientific” information” can be found in (wait for it) The Koran! Watch the excellent MEMRI video and be stunned.

Fred Fry skewers the clueless ones at CodePink who wanted to party down with Fidel in Cuba on New Years eve. Fred suggests they go to North Korea and keep Kim Jong Il company instead. Heh.

In a very important and informative post, Orac highlights the dangerous cluelessness of Mel Gibson who wants to make a movie on the Holocaust. Given Mr. Gibson’s feelings about the subject, I would hope he abandons the project and spends some time reading a little history.

In what has to be considered a Tour de Force of cluebat fisking, Tom Bowler chews on the Washington Post “Special Section” regarding our withdrawal from Iraq and spits it out, article by article, into little tiny pieces showing how nonsensical the cluebats are. Great job.

Rachel has a pithy and straight up answer to the question posed to Peter Watson about what is the worst “big idea” in history. Watson’s jaw dropping answer is laughably shallow for such a “deep” thinker.

Raven gives some “Profiles in Cowardice” of some of our current crop of American traitors. Raven on Kerry: “He and Osama are about the same size aren’t they? Yes…and isn’t it strange they tend to say the same things about American soldiers?

Jimmie K has some thoughts on the cluelessness of John McCain and the torture bill he’s trying to push through Congress. Wrong place, wrong bill, but IMHO, the right idea.

Never tiring of getting into trouble, Beth is looking for “The First Annual Weblog Awards Asshat” given to the person who whines the most about The Weblog Awards. Then again, Beth is the kind of woman who actually looks for trouble - which is why I want her in any blogging foxhole that I might ever find myself.

Ferdy the Cat has an interesting take on a C-Span show with Brent Bozell and Mary Mapes. Being a superior life form, I’m surprised Ferdy was able to maintain his interest whenever cluebat Mapes opened her mouth. Evidently, Ferdy amused himself by agreeing with the witch - up to a point.

A Different River shows why the PC maniacs who want to call a Christmas tree a “holiday” tree so as not to offend Jews is so off-base. ADR: “Hannukah has as much to do with trees as Christmas has to do with yarmulkes – or for that matter, with shoelaces.” Uh-huh.

Wonder Woman has the “oppressed people of the world unite” post of the day with the tragic tale of Inuits in Canada and the US whose habitat is being ruined by…what? They say global warming which is why they want the US to follow the Kyoto limits on CO2 emissions. And…oh. Did I mention they also want gobs of money from American taxpayers to help them “adapt” to climate change. Their long dead ancestors who “adapted” by coming here in the first place - without government assistance - are turning over in their graves.

Those definitely un-pusillanimous pachyderms at Elephants in Academia are having a gay old time with the cluelessness of Tom DeFrank of the NY Daily News and his anti-Rumsfeld articles.

The Deputy Headmistress uses her pointer to rap the knuckles of Saddam Hussein who is complaining about being tortured while in prison. She should make him write on the blackboard 500 times “I must not hide like a coward in spider holes.”

Adam Graham has the skinny on the UK professor who was beat up ostensibly because he was going to teach a class bashing intelligent design. Adam highlights the stupidity of the left’s response to the crime, in that they assumed no one on the right would decry the beating.

More excellent information on the Jack Idema case from Cao (still pronounced “key”). The cluelessness here extends from the media to our State Department. You simply must familiarize yourself with this case, especially if you think you know everything about it. Not all is at it appears and an American patriot is suffering because of our ignorance.

Mr. Right (one of our Carnival Satirical Artists in Residence) has an article about the ACLU’s continuing war on Christmas. The cluebats are about to go nuclear by demanding the removal of all Christmas songs from radio as well as Christmas programming from TV! No comment from Santa - he’s too busy.

More satirical gold from The Nose on Your Face: “Are you there God? It’s me, Tookie.”

Matt Johnson has a fascinating post about an undeclared war on blogs by high school administrators. A cheerleader kicked off the squad for “vulgar” language on her website? No wonder our kids can’t read.

No Speed Bumps targets Canadian liberals and pulls the trigger. The northern chapter of anti-gun moonbats wants to take away the handguns of law abiding Canadian citizens based on the same faulty logic used by their cluebat cousins to the south; that it will reduce crime. Um…how many murders in Washington, D.C. last year, a city with the strictest gun control in the US?

Jay at Stop the ACLU has some typical obfuscation of the facts by the so-called rights group. This time it involves cooking the books on prisoner abuse in Afghanistan. Not only can’t the numbskulls count, they also apparently can’t read very well either.

Here’s something I’d love to see more of in Blogland. Fly by Night blogs a very important local issue - how a small California County (Sutter County) responded to Citizen input and how clueless some politicians can truly be.

Kender has a story of PC run amok in Denmark and the clueless response to the UN to some Danish measures at self-defense against the Islamic tide sweeping Europe. Says Kender: “Moral Relativism and Situational Ethics seem to be the New World Order, where everything is opposite to reality and common sense.” Read the whole thing.

Once more into the Breach blog has the jawdropping story of the day. Apparently the authorities told a stalked student to move rather than giving her protection from someone who eventually killer her. All I can say is - WTF?

A World of Speculation criticizes Stephen Schwartz of the Daily Standard for a clueless article on Kosovo.

Here’s your Tookie post of the day. It comes from Kaote and the title says it all: “Tookie Supporters Are Clueless Morons.” That just about covers it all.

Finally, here’s my take on the Iraqi answer to the defeatists: “IRAQIS PREPARING TO GIVE THE FINGER TO DEAN AND THE DEMS.”

Regular readers of The House have probably noticed that I have absolutely no paid ads of any kind on the sidebars of this site. Part of the reason is that I detest clutter of any kind, anywhere including my blog. And while I don’t avoid sites that plaster ads, buttons, logos, polls, and other colorful accoutrement’s, that look just wasn’t for me. I even had my blog designer remove a calendar I had at one time in the upper left hand corner of the site. I wanted nothing to distract from my writing.

Another reason that I don’t have any ads is that I’m notoriously lazy and ignorant when it comes to that techie kind of stuff. I tried putting my Paypal “Donate” button in the blog template and it appeared 5 times bigger than normal, overlapping the margins of the sidebar and looking ridiculous. I don’t have a clue on how to do it correctly so I simply went without one, telling myself I’ll get around to fixing it sooner or later.

Well, I guess “later” has finally arrived because I just signed a contract with Pajamas Media to have ads appear on this site. So as long as I’m going to be fiddling around with the template, I may as well go ahead and try and figure out how to put the Paypal button on the site too.

I may be the last blogger in Christendom to do a post on Pajamas Media. I haven’t seen too much positive on the company. In fact, I’ve seen some pretty viscous stuff as well as some hilarious takes on their well publicized foibles. But there is very little out there in the way of support - something that I shall try and remedy here.

What hath Charles and Roger wrought? An advertising facilitator for blogs? A multi-faceted E-Zine? Is it a bridge between legacy media and new media? Is it any of these things or all of them?

What is actually kind of exciting to me is that we’re all going to find out together. I daresay that whatever we think the company is today will be invalid within a couple of years - if they last that long. The reason is the changing nature of both the technology and the medium itself. Jeff Jarvis, God bless him, has been thrashing about for as long as I’ve read him trying to define this very thing. Whither the internet? Whither blogs? Jeff has started to crystallize his thoughts toward the idea that content is not very important at all. When you have so many bloggers spewing out content, its value as a commodity quite rightly drops:

Distribution is not king.

Content is not king.

Conversation is the kingdom.

The war is over and the army that wasn’t even fighting — the army of all of us, the ones who weren’t in charge, the ones without the arms — won. The big guys who owned the big guns still don’t know it. But they lost.

In our media 2.0, web 2.0, post-media, post-scarcity, small-is-the-new-big, open-source, gift-economy world of the empowered and connected individual, the value is no longer in maintaining an exclusive hold on things. The value is no longer in owning content or distribution.

The value is in relationships. The value is in trust.

Mr. Jarvis has been tough on PJM. In my opinion, he has had cause. But it is a kind of “tough love” given by someone who I believe genuinely wants PJM to succeed. The question is as what?

6. Consider hiring a manager who’d distant and disaffected, who’ll look at this business coldly to try to find a business. Yeah, I know I just told you not to spend money. But sometimes, managers are worth it. Sometimes.

I don’ t know whether you’ll have a product or a business as the end of the day. But right now, you have the little engine that could crash. So I’d slam on the breaks. Just my advice.

And this is what has me scratching my head about the rabid opposition of some well known bloggers to this enterprise. How can you criticize a business that no one has any idea of what it’s about? It would be like some passing Florentine looking at the gigantic block of marble that Michelangelo was going to sculpt his Davidfrom and saying “That sucks!”

I can understand the investors having such an attitude. After all, in Michelangelo’s case, no other artist would touch the massive stone block. Its size was an obstacle that even the best sculptors at the time couldn’t see themselves overcoming. If the Medici had told the artist “You’re nuts for taking this project on” that would have made sense. It was the Duke’s coin after all.

So here we have this massive stone block of an internet and PJM wants to chip away and carve out a niche that heretofore has not been seen. Ambitious? Certainly. Crazy? Not hardly. Is it any crazier than believing that a computer should be in everyone’s home like a household appliance? Steve Jobs certainly didn’t think so. But who would have guessed that Apple would have gone from a garage to the IPod in less than half a century?

PJM could fold in 6 months. Or it could succeed. The point is, I for one am willing to be patient and see where this idea is going. Will it spawn imitators? Will it morph into something totally different than what is envisioned today? Will it be able to adapt to the rapid changes inherent in Blogland and the internet itself?

As long as I’m treated honestly and fairly, I will have no complaints. The company hasn’t said a word about content. And if they ever did, I can assure you I would ignore it. So as long as they deliver what they promise, I will continue my association - one that I hope will prove to be on the cusp of something new and dramatic in the way we get our information.

UPDATE

Well I’ll be jiggered.

Some unbalanced blogger has “de-linked” me because of my affiliation with Pajamas Media. I can’t quite figure the reason. Or, more accurately, I can’t deduce what the fellow is so hot under the collar about. He accuses PJM of “killing” me I think because now that I’m affiliated, my content will change:

Many bloggers of recent past, made the speculative argument how the commerce of PJM might change/influence content. Serious respectable bloggers of unimpeachable integrity. It wasn’t an argument that interested me. I’m not much into emotionless abstract thinking. Well true to form, right on cue, their words spring to life. A living example of clear reasoned thought.

I took Rightwing Nuthouse off my blogroll yesterday. Man I liked those cats, a whole bunch. But reading them give an empty, lame defense of Pajamas Media. Because they are now a recipient of their advertising dollars, was more than I could bear. The change in writing quality was instantaneous and complete.

If anyone is curious, the reason I did that post yesterday was because I was bereft of ideas of what to write about. That, and the concept intrigues and interests me as it should anyone with even a passing interest in the future of blogs. Anybody who thinks I would write what someone else tells me is a loon. I’d give up blogging first.

The amount of money I’m receiving over the next 15 months from PJM is less than the amount I could make by putting Blogads on this site. Is the loonbat who delinked me thinking that Blogads tells bloggers what to write? If not, then why PJM?

I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.

UPDATE II

Dan at Riehl World View must think that my ultra-left alter ego Marvin Moonbat is a real person. He used some of Marvin’s more outrageous statements as examples of why corporate advertisers would object to content on my site:

The issue some have with PJM is its putting advertising and content in the same box. You can’t do that without censorship. Below are just a few items from RWNH with which I doubt a corporate sponsor would be comfortable.

He then lists some of the more un-pc things I’ve said when either being satiricle as with Marvin or caustic as I am generally.

Again, the point I’ll make is this - someone that wants to tell me what to write or how to write or what I can write about and what I can’t is more than welcome to do so.

But the idea that anyone would think that it would influence me is puzzling. Why ascribe less independence to me for taking PJM ads as someone who takes Blogads? The “content” PJM is looking for is on its website - a place I could care less about.

Sheesh…the things you can get in trouble for on the internets…

I’m never quite sure what to make of political cartoonist Ted Rall. Is he being serious? Or, like some demented 2 year old who combines the grotesquely comical of Chucky with the casual malevolence of Damien, does he throw his anti-American fits just to get attention?

Certainly his artistic ability is indicative of someone who has not reached the age of reason. In some respects, his caricatures are little better than stick figures, formless blotches with no artistic depth which bear little resemblance to the targets of his satires His crude, Crumb-like pictographs add little to the thoughts expressed and ideas behind the cartoons, which sets him apart from all good cartoon satirists. Thomas Nast he isn’t.

If Mr. Rall can’t draw very well, he at least has a point of view to share with his readers. Again, it is hard for me to believe that Mr. Rall isn’t pulling our leg just a little bit when he writes things like this:

Congress never declared war against Iraq. As an unelected imposter [sic], George W. Bush did not enjoy authority under the War Powers Act to commit American forces abroad. Concentration camps at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere violate the Geneva Conventions, which as treaty obligations are binding under U.S. law. Iraq did not threaten the United States. Iraq is not the subject of a U.N.-led international police action. Thus, by several measures, the war is illegal. Every order to deploy a soldier, aviator or sailor to fight in Iraq is by definition an unlawful order, one that he or she is legally and morally bound to refuse.

How can we take someone like this seriously? Someone who can’t even spell “impostor?” And how about “unelected impostor?” Is Mr. Rall trying to tell us that the man who garnered 51% of the vote last November is not George Bush but someone else who looks like George Bush and is pretending to be the President of the United States?

Obviously, George Bush is neither unelected nor is he an impostor. This would lead one to believe that either Mr. Rall is trying to be amusing or is a blithering idiot.

As for “violating the Geneva Convention,” it is very hard to violate something when its strictures are not applicable. In the case of the terrorists being held at various locations, while they are entitled to some basic rights (that to our shame have not been defined well enough to prevent the kind of abuse we’ve seen at Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and elsewhere) their captivity does not technically fall under any codices or code contained in the Conventions.

And Mr. Rall’s contention that “Iraq is not the subject of a U.N.-led international police action” is demonstrably false. On On May 22, 2003, the UN Security Council voted 14–0 to give the United States and Britain the power to govern Iraq and use its oil resources to rebuild the country. That would indicate to all but the most willfully self deluded that the UN is sanctioning the occupation. And the invasion itself was justified under 14 different UN resolutions relating to Iraq as well as the right of self-defense also guaranteed under the UN Charter.

All of this is well known to even casual observers of the war. But for Mr. Rall and the traitorous bunch of far-left galoots, these facts don’t fit the narrative and therefore, can safely be ignored. And it may be just me but the closer the Iraq War gets to success, it seems that the rhetoric of these lickspittles gets wilder and more out of control:

What are members of the military to do? They should certainly refuse to applaud when Bush uses them as backdrops to his logo-ridden pro-death pep rallies. Moreover, just as Muslim leaders were pressured to speak out against Islamist extremists after 9/11, soldiers ought to step forward to condemn the atrocities at Bagram, Fallujah and Guantánamo in letters to newspapers and other public venues.

The military used to be an honorable calling. Not under Bush. Ethical Americans considering a military career should seek a civilian job until a lawful, elected government has been restored in Washington and we have withdrawn our forces from occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. Those who are already enlisted should refuse to reenlist. Soldiers trapped by “stop loss” orders should apply for conscientious objector status (which is difficult to obtain) or refuse deployment based on the unlawful order principle. And if all else fails, there’s always desertion.

Mr. Rall writes as if he is under some kind of occupation himself. The fact that there is zero chance that he will be arrested and tossed in jail for advocating sedition in the armed forces should give the lie to the statement about a “lawful, elected government” being “restored. Perhaps Mr. Rall would like to speak to a few Democratic legislators who might resent the idea that they also are unelected.

The rest of Rall’s ridiculous rant raises some interesting questions about loyalty during a time of war. Obviously, Mr. Rall could care less about loyalty. And I’m not talking about loyalty to Bush, or Republicans, but to the Constitution and the law of the land which have pretty specific language about not actively engaging in treasonous activity. For that is what we are talking about here - rank treason. In another age, another time, Ted Rall would be in the dock, on trial for his life. But in 21st century America, he is lionized, invited to all the important cocktail parties, and paid vast sums of money to continue to utter his treasonous thoughts.

This brings me back to my original point. Is Ted Rall serious or is he someone exhibiting a kind of post-pubescent anti-authoritarian tantrum? Is he real or is he a caricature of himself?

Given his track record of traitorous and nauseating anti-American rants, in the end, it really doesn’t matter does it?

The results are in from last week’s Watchers Vote and the winner in the Council category is…me! My article on idiot Professor Jensen’s Thanksgiving Day diatribe “Guns, Germs, and Moonbats” finished first. Finishing second was “Discussing Withdrawal From Iraq” by The Glittering Eye.

In the non-Council category, American Future came home the winner with “The New York Times on Iraq, 1993-2005.” Varifrank was the runner-up with “From the Law Offices of Dewey, Cheatam and Howe.”

If you’d like to participate in the weekly Watcher’s Council, go here and follow instructions.

Oh that ubiquitous purple finger! How Howard Dean and the defeatist party he leads must absolutely loathe it. When raised high in the air by smiling Iraqis following the exercise of their democratic rights as citizens, it must give the Chairman of the Democratic party and his groveling cohorts purple nightmares, a sea of fingers pointing directly at them while laughing at their timidity and faithlessness.

Be still my heart, but the Washington Post is even amazed at how quickly the Iraqis are picking up on this politics thing:

As Iraqis nationwide prepare to go to the polls for the third time this year on Dec. 15 — this time for a new parliament — candidates and political parties of all stripes are embracing politics, Iraqi style, as never before and showing increasing sophistication about the electoral process, according to campaign specialists, party officials and candidates here.

“It is like night and day from 10 months ago in terms of level of participation and political awareness,” said a Canadian election specialist with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, a group affiliated with the U.S. Democratic Party that is working to ease Iraq’s transition to democracy. The institute, which has provided free campaign training to more than 100 Iraqi parties and describes its programs as nonpartisan, granted a reporter access to its employees and training sessions on the condition that no one on its staff be named.

I would say that the Iraqis are getting the hang of this election thing quite nicely. Of course, some of them have got to learn to put down the guns first:

In several cities in the Kurdish-populated north on Tuesday, demonstrators believed to be loyal to the Kurdistan Democratic Party burned down several local headquarters of a rival party, the Kurdistan Islamic Union, whose members recently withdrew from a KDP-led election coalition. Four party workers were reportedly killed in the incidents.

Because of this, several candidates and party workers said, they cannot apply much of the advice they get from foreign election workers. At one recent session, candidates were encouraged to knock on doors or approach people in restaurants or cafes to talk about issues. They were told to write letters and send them to everyone they know, outlining their platforms.

“You could get killed . . . and we don’t have mail there,” said Khalid Madhia, a Free Iraqi Gathering candidate from Fallujah. “But it is much easier this time. Before, we were running while we were hiding. We don’t have to hide anymore.”

And some of them seem to be taking things just a little too seriously:

Across town, hundreds of black-clad followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr — who decried balloting 10 months ago as something imposed under American occupation — beat their backs with chains and stomped across a large poster of former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi. Sadr’s political wing has joined forces with the alliance of Shiite religious parties that leads Iraq’s current government and opposes Allawi’s secular movement.

It appears that even the holier than thou al Sadr knows a good photo op when he sees it. Somehow though, I can’t see too many moonbats marching in the streets of San Francisco practicing self-flagellation for Howard and his Merry Band of Surrender Monkeys.

As the President said, progress is being made. And the remarkable way in which the Iraqi people have enthusiastically embraced not only the concept of democracy but the practice of it as well is truly inspiring. It demonstrates to all but the most willfully self deluded that there exists in the human heart - all human hearts - an overwhelming desire to live as free people. Their concept of what freedom is may be radically different than ours. But the realization that the highest and most noble aspirations in their culture and society cannot be obtained without political freedom is the first step toward justice and peace.

This is the answer to the naysayers who view the sectarian, regional, tribal, and clan differences in Iraq as an insurmountable obstacle to the democratization of that country. Yes there are enormous, almost disheartening problems that need to be overcome. But just think of where these people started.

Just three short years ago, the kind of political back and forth going on right now in Iraq was unheard of. Such contrariness would more than likely have given you a free pass to one of Saddam’s torture chambers. But to see Iraqis of all religious, political, and economic stripes carrying on a political campaign with a gusto that appears to be a combination of American style slick and Iraqi style down home country is both hugely entertaining and wonderfully inspiring. The al Sadr gambit of marching his militiamen down the street, whipping themselves with chains may strike us as ludicrous. But I’m sure that many Iraqis don’t look it like that. Whatever political message al Sadr is trying to impart is coming through loud and clear and you can be sure he wouldn’t be doing it unless he believed it would garner him a few thousand votes.

Votes, not bullets. A little more than a year ago, this same Moqtada al Sadr was shooting at our boys in Najaf. Today, Najaf is a bustling city, bursting at the seams with economic activity. President Bush yesterday:

As soon as the fighting in Najaf ended, targeted reconstruction moved forward. The Iraqi government played an active role, and so did our military commanders and diplomats and workers from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Together, they worked with Najaf’s governor and other local officials to rebuild the local police force, repair residents’ homes, refurbish schools, restore water and other essential services, reopen a soccer stadium, complete with new lights and fresh sod. Fifteen months later, new businesses and markets have opened in some of Najaf’s poorest areas, religious pilgrims are visiting the city again, construction jobs are putting local residents back to work. One of the largest projects was the rebuilding of the Najaf Teaching Hospital, which had been looted and turned into a military fortress by the militia. Thanks to the efforts by Iraqi doctors and local leaders, and with the help of American personnel, the hospital is now open and capable of serving hundreds of patients each day.

Najaf is now in the hands of elected government officials. An elected provincial council is at work — drafting plans to bring more tourism and commerce to the city. Political life has returned, and campaigns for the upcoming elections have begun, with different parties competing for the vote. The Iraqi police are now responsible for day-to-day security in Najaf. An Iraqi battalion has consumed [sic] control of the former American military base, and our forces are now about 40 minutes outside the city.

A U.S. Army sergeant explains our role this way: “We go down there if they call us. And that doesn’t happen very often. Usually, we just stay out of their way.” Residents of Najaf are also seeing visible progress — and they have no intention of returning to the days of tyranny and terror. One man from Najaf put it this way: “Three years ago we were in ruins. One year ago we were fighting in the streets … [Now] look at the people shopping and eating and not in fear.”

The President’s critics rightly demand specifics regarding progress in Iraq. This would seem to fall under the category “pretty damned specific.”

Of course, progress in Iraq will not be measured in weeks or months but years. And unfortunately for the President and the Republican party, it is unlikely that major progress will follow our American cycle of bi-annual elections which will allow the Democrats to continue to scream “quagmire” while gleefully planning to undercut any Administration claims of progress by pointing to the violence that al Zarqawi seems to be able to ratchet up and down in order to manipulate the dim-witted Dems.

Thankfully, the President seems determined to see this through regardless of the electoral consequences to his party. While there’s no doubt that he cares what happens to Republicans at the polls and will continue to do his utmost (finally) to bring home to the American people what is really going on in Iraq, he apparently is not going to bend on the larger issues of artificial timetables and drawing down our forces before the situation on the ground warrants it.

This coming election in Iraq will be one more large step down a very long road toward a peaceful and just society. The fact that all factions in Iraq seem to be participating with an enthusiasm lacking in most western countries should underscore just how precious a commodity democracy is and why it is important to embrace those who are willing to die in order to enjoy its benefits.

The Iraqis are going to give an answer to Howard Dean and the Democrats who believe the war is unwinnable next week. And it will be one great big purple finger raised in triumph - the triumph of hope over despair. They could give another finger to the Dems but, from what I’ve heard, the Iraqis are much too polite to participate in such a vulgar display.

UPDATE

John Cole has the picture and caption of the day comparing Howard Dean with al Sadr’s fanatics.

The Democratic party is nothing if not consistent. And their Chairman is a living, breathing representation of everything that is tragically wrong about a once great party that at one time, led the fight for freedom and democracy around the world.

The fact that Howard Dean has come out and said that the Iraq War is “unwinnable” should not surprise anyone. It has been the unspoken position of the Democratic Party that preventing the United States from winning in Iraq is the number one political goal of the party. Allowing for victory would cement Republican majorities in the House and Senate for the foreseeable future, something that the party cannot tolerate. It is a party currently constructed for the sole purpose of exercising the power of the federal government to benefit its confusing alphabet soup of interest groups, organizations, NGO’s, and hangers’ on. Wielding power for power’s sake is the reason for its existence. And being out of power threatens to destroy it. This is the party that stood up to communist aggression in the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s while Republicans wanted to bury their heads in the sand and pretend the threats to freedom in the world were none of our business.

They are well beyond that now, of course. For more than a quarter of a century, they have been driving loyal Americans away from the fold until all that is left are the remnants of the anti-Viet Nam coalition; media, academia, and the social misfits and anti-American galoots who continue to play the same tired, electoral hand of race baiting, class warfare, and suicidal isolationism that appeals to a narrower and narrower band of the American electorate.

Unfazed by this losing combination, the Democratic leadership has been reduced to political hackery of the worst sort - a pandering for votes and money at the expense of the national security of the United States. The problem isn’t that they want to win elections. The problem is that in their current delusional state, they believe that by turning their backs on history that they can somehow click the tumblers into place and unlock the secret of victory at the ballot box. By convincing themselves of the absolute rightness of their moral posturing on Iraq, they believe that they can convince a majority of their countrymen that cutting and running in the middle east is a policy without consequence, that retreat in the face of aggression will not be seen by the world - our enemies most especially - as a monumental defeat for the US and our position in the world.

I always liked that line from Gladiator where Caesar asks Maximus “What is Rome?” Maximus answers “Rome is the light. The rest of the world is darkness.” While it may be politically incorrect to think so, the idea of American exceptionalism is one of the major reasons the world is as livable as it is. As bad as things are, how much worse would the world be without an America as a beacon in the night for freedom loving peoples everywhere? How much more trouble would the earth be in if, as the Democrats so fervently desire, America were to take a secondary role in world affairs and allow the corrupt, freedom hating bureaucrats at the UN to take the lead in trying to tamp down the scourge of terrorism that threatens to extinguish the light of human tolerance and understanding?

America is the light. And while the entire rest of the world may not be the darkness, we certainly outshine those countries who should be standing with us shoulder to shoulder in our fight to protect the best of western civilization. The Democratic party has joined the chorus of those who believe that America is a force for evil in the world. They are convinced that any setback we endure in Iraq would be a good thing because it would teach us humility or would bring us down a peg or two in the international pecking order. This is stupid and suicidal. Masking their defeatist and yes, unpatriotic positions in the rhetoric of feel-good, new age hokum, Democrats will attempt to hide their real feelings on the War and America’s place in the world because they know that a majority of Americans - barely - disagree with them.

By turning their back on the Iraqi people, the Democrats are turning their backs on one of the most powerful forces for good the world has ever seen; the simple, compelling need of human beings to decide their own destiny free from terror, free from coercion, and free from the strife that has afflicted mankind since we crawled out of caves and began to live with the hope that things could be better. Perhaps it is the concept of good and evil that confuses them. Perhaps it is the idea that in this conflict one side is right and the other side is wrong. Such stark moral choices don’t go over well in the salons where liberals shake their heads and click their tongues in disapproval over American actions.

But I’ve got news for the Democrats and their far left allies who are seeking to deal the United States a political defeat in this war on terror; our enemies have no such daintiness when it comes to deciding who is right and who is wrong. They clearly delineate between factions. They don’t toss and turn at night worrying about moral quandaries. They are simply prepared to do whatever is necessary to win.

The hard fact is the United States needs the left, we need the Democratic party to engage in this fight. Without them, we are going into the battle with one hand tied behind our back. And Howard Dean and the rest of the defeatists in Congress and the hinterlands of America must be roundly and soundly disabused of the notion that they have any support outside of a few isolated ivory towers in academia, the media, and some of the darker places in American politics.

The real Democrats - the Democrats of my father who fought for freedom in WW II and here at home - have got to stand up and once and for all eliminate this disease from their ranks. Otherwise, America will keep limping along only half engaged in this battle for survival. And that would be a recipe for disaster.

Wishing only to avoid the ignominy of finishing last, I would ask that you take pity on me and throw a vote my way for Best Conservative Blog in Wizbang’s Weblog Awards.

Can you find it in your heart this holiday season to feel sorry for a fat old man and vote for The House? I mean, I only have so many family members and they’re all liberals anyway.

Can you find it in your heart this Christmas to “Click for Rick?”

Pity a poor man whose dreams fade as the setting sun and ragged head bows against the ravages of time and circumstance…

Make a miracle. Just think of me as Tiny Tim.

With apologies to the Kingston Trio:

Come a lands man, a pins man, a tinker or a tailor;
doctor, a lawyer, soldier, or sailor.
A rich man, a poor man, a fool or a witty,
don’t let me finish last so vote for me out of pity.

UPDATE

The Anchoress also tries the pity approach as she too wishes to avoid last place (sh*t - she’s beating me by 100 votes and worried about finishing last? Crimminy!):

I have a picture of my paternal grandmother; she has a mustache, thick ankles and she’s wearing men’s shoes. She sits on a parkbench and somehow manages to have her hands on her hips, as she sits. This is not a happy-looking woman…

My mother wore army boots and chewed tobacco but I don’t advertise it very often.

I have a picture of my maternal grandmother, holding a cigarette and a martini. She’s leaning forward and looking at something that is highly amusing. Or she’s just in her cups.

Both of them sport boobs down to their kneecaps! Genetics strikes again!

No fair bringing one’s sex into blegging for votes.

I have a picture of one of my brothers sporting a black eye, where I’d kicked him as he’d bent down to do something. I believe he had pissed me off. This was just days before my sister’s wedding, and yes, the kid has a shiner in all the pics. I was the flower girl, and very sweet.

This could be considered a veiled threat of some kind - that is, if I were a Democrat and saw Karl Rove behind every tree. But dearest readers I ask you - would you vote for someone who kicked their brother in the face? Even though I’m sure he deserved it?

Okay…okay…I’ll admit it. I voted for The Anchoress too. She’s a hell of a writer.

UPDATE II

You want pictures? I’ve got your pictures right here.

Here I am as a wee lad. Pay no attention to the bonnet. For the first 5 years of my life, I was raised as a girl.

BUT DON’T LET THAT SAD, TRAGIC FACT INFLUENCE YOUR VOTE.

How can you not vote for that face?

The attack would probably come without warning of any kind.

You could be in your car driving to work one morning when, in a blink of an eye, American civilization would be destroyed. The first inkling you would have that something was amiss is when your car suddenly died. You turn the key to start it again and…nothing. The engine doesn’t even turn over. The next thing you would notice is that the exact same thing has happened to everyone else on the road. You reach into your pocket and grab your phone to call your boss to tell her you’ll be late and find to your horror that the phone is completely dead - not only no signal but the phone itself is gone.

If you’re driving in a city you would see that all the stoplights are out as well. The fountain in front of the building across the street has stopped pumping water. You see a child is crying because his battery operated toy has stopped working. You try to access your laptop to see if you can catch some news and can’t even turn it on.

Perhaps you run into the bank to try and get some cash. The bank employees are frantic. The back-up generators that were supposed to supply electricity in the case of a power outage aren’t working. Later, you find out that your account records have been wiped along with trillions of gigabytes of data stored in millions of other computers around the country.

This is just the beginning. When you finally make it home you realize that you have no electricity, no water, no refrigeration - nothing. Your battery operated radio doesn’t work. In short, you have been propelled back more than 100 years in time and, for the foreseeable future, must live as your great grandparents lived.

Except you can’t live that way. Our entire industrialized civilization has become dependent on electricity and micro-electronics. The interconnectedness of systems - all of which have failed - have made our society possible. Without them, we can’t get food to grocery stores or water to faucets or electricity or natural gas or heating oil or any of the other absolutely vital services and materials that life itself depends on.

And to top it off, everyone else in the United States is in the same boat as you are. Dozens of commercial aircraft have dropped out of the sky killing thousands. Trains carrying freight and people have run off the rails killing many more as well as causing toxic spills in dozens of communities across the country. Communications, transportation, and most economic activity suddenly and completely ceases.

This nightmare is the result of a relatively small (10 kiloton) nuclear device exploded approximately 300 miles above Kansas. The 2 million degree heat generated by the nuclear chain reaction lasts for only a millionth of a second or so. But then as it cools, that thermal radiation becomes gamma rays which interact with the atmosphere and the earth’s magnetic field and generates an electrical field a million times more powerful than anything on earth.

Called Electromagnetic Pulse or EMP, this kind of an attack is more than a possibility. The military has known since the 1960’s about EMP and what could happen to electronics in the event of a nuclear attack. At that time, since any nuclear device that went off on American soil would be relatively close to the earth - probably not more than 10,000 feet above the target - the EMP effects would be highly localized. This is because EMP effect is line of sight or horizon to horizon. The higher the blast, the wider the effect so that when detonated at approximately 300 miles above the center of the country, the effect is total.

There was a half-hearted effort back in the 1980’s to “harden” both military and commercial systems that would be vulnerable to the EMP effect. The military did a pretty good job of hardening much of their equipment although of late they have come to depend on commercial systems here at home for communications. But the private sector did precious little. In the event of such an attack, banking, insurance, and many other kinds of corporate records would be irretrievably lost. Some of the larger banks have made an effort to back-up data and store it below ground in vaults. Larger insurance companies have done the same. And the regional Federal Reserve Banking centers has also taken some steps to protect their records. But it is doubtful whether your local First National has gone to the trouble of building a Farraday Cage to protect your account.

A recent study of the threat posed by an EMP attack was published last summer. The fact that it came out the same day as the 9/11 report guaranteed its anonymity. Called the “Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack”, it was chaired by the esteemed scientist Dr. William R. Graham and included a short but highly impressive list of top American scientists, engineers, and military specialists. What they discovered should chill your blood:

The alarming answer is that delivery of an EMP weapon requires less than state-of-the-art technology. A rocket simply has to carry a nuclear payload to altitude and detonate it. Aiming can be very general, unlike targeting an installation or even a city. Alarmingly, such missiles exist, engineered by North Korea and sold to countries like Iran, Syria, and – we fear – soon to Venezuela.

The missiles do not have to be launched from land. They could, with rather conventional engineering modifications, be launched from the deck of a freighter off-shore from the American coastline. Terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda already possess a modest fleet of merchant ships. Both Iran and North Korea are furiously working to develop deliverable nuclear weapons. In the opinion of many, it is not a matter of if we are attacked by EMP but when. America has a surfeit of capable enemies – communists, dictators, and terrorists – and they form a deadly connection committed to our demise.

North Korea has not only sold Taep’o-dong-1 missiles to Syria but has apparently sold the plans for the more advanced Taep’o-dong-2 to Iran. That version, many experts believe, is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. And Iran is already testing an even more advanced missile, the Shahab 3 which some analysts think they have deliberately detonated in the atmosphere it test its capability as an EMP weapon:

The radical Shiite regime has conducted successful tests to determine if its Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, can be detonated by a remote-control device while still in high-altitude flight.

Scientists, including President Reagan’s top science adviser, William R. Graham, say there is no other explanation for such tests than preparation for the deployment of electromagnetic pulse weapons – even one of which could knock out America’s critical electrical and technological infrastructure, effectively sending the continental U.S. back to the 19th century with a recovery time of months or years.

And the truly frightening thing about the threat is that there is nothing we can do about it at the present time.

One thing we do have is a little time. One doesn’t just plop a nuclear warhead on top of a rocket and send it on its way. The technical complexities involved in designing a nuclear warhead are quite daunting. So even if Iran will soon have a nuclear device (and even if North Korea already has one) many analysts believe they are a few years away from being able to place them on top of rockets.

Needless to say, this should give a little more urgency in our efforts to disarm the mad mullahs in Iran. One way or another, the Iranians must not be allowed to construct a nuclear device. If they do, the possibility that the weapon would end up in the hands of a group that could destroy our civilization while keeping Iranian hands clean so as to preclude a retaliatory response is just too great.

UPDATE: 12/8

A couple of things.

First, Doc in the comments gives a scientific basis for why the kind of EMP attack I’ve outlined above is impossible. This is extremely puzzling to me because the link I provide in the article details the findings of a commission to study this threat that has concluded not only is it possible, but likely.

Here’s a story (via Drudge) that also outlines the threat.

Frankly, I am at a loss as to how to to reconcile the science that Doc bases his conclusions on with the arguments made by the Commission.

Secondly, there seems to be a general feeling that al Qaeda would be unable to carry out such an attack. I agree. And I hope that I made clear in the article that Iran and North Korea are years away from having the capability of doing so. That said, because of the devastating nature of the threat, it would seem prudent to continue our efforts to prevent both Iran and the NoKo’s from getting their hands on the bomb as well as preventing them from buying technology that would assist them in their development of ICBMs.

It would seem to be the least we can do.