By Hanlon, on October 6th, 2006 at 07:39 PM
 Now and again it’s a good idea to remind ourselves that North Korea still exists and Kim Jong-Il is still crazy. Currently they’re planning on testing some nukes, which just might result in some sanctions of some sort.
Many of the sanctions have been considered before, as part of a long-running argument within the Bush administration over the best way to deal with North Korea. After a series of emergency meetings, including one on Tuesday at the White House, officials on each side of that debate said a nuclear test would end the argument about whether the United States should emphasize rewards or penalties.
“If the test happens, all the arguments are over,” said one senior official in the midst of the debate. “We’ll end up going to full-scale sanctions; the only debate is what ‘full-scale’ means.”
That last bit amuses me. It’s kinda like saying “We’re gonna kick his ass, we just aren’t sure what we mean by ‘kick’ and ‘ass’.”
What gets to me is still the complete ass-backwards nature of our dealings with the Axis of Evil. The weaponless, programless, resourceless Iraq gets a war. The weaponless, program-maybe-having, resourced Iran gets harsh threats of tough sanctions and war. The weapon-equipped, program-having, resourced North Korea is gonna get a FIRM TALKING TO, MISTER.
What are our priorities again?
By Hanlon, on October 6th, 2006 at 06:30 PM
 The republicans are just dropping like flies these days. After the list of 485 contacts between the White House and Jack Abramoff got released, Karl Rove’s administrative assistant Susan Ralston has resigned.
The report said Ralston received tickets to nine events from 2001 to 2004: four Capitals hockey games, one Baltimore Orioles baseball game, two Wizards basketball games, and Bruce Springsteen and Andrea Bocelli concerts.The report did not make it clear whether Ralston or other White House officials paid for any of the tickets. In one case, Ralston wrote to Abramoff saying Rove “has to pay” for the tickets he received to an NCAA basketball playoff game.
In another instance, Ralston wrote an e-mail saying she was “willing to pay” for Capitals tickets, but Abramoff replied: “No problem, and you don’t have to pay.”
Three resignations in the past week, with a chance that more are coming. Not one single Democrat has been implicated in any of these scandals outside of William Jefferson. We are witnessing a hell of an event: the destruction of a party.
I will say this, if the Democrats don’t manage to take over the House and Senate after all of this, I think I’m just going to give up and abandon both major parties.
By Hanlon, on October 6th, 2006 at 01:43 PM
 In the discussion of Iraq, there are a few “old standbys” you can count on. The Friedman Unit, as Atrios has described, is the six month period that Iraq always has to decide its fate. Personally, I’m more impressed by just how many damn critical moments we’ve had in the past few years. Consider:
April 2002 – It’s time for Iran to focus on meeting its own people’s aspirations for freedom and for Syria to decide which side of the war against terror it is on. The world finds itself at a critical moment. This is a conflict that can widen or an opportunity we can seize.
March 2003 – “The moment we find ourselves in now is a critical moment where we are being tested and where the Security Council of the United Nations and the international community is being tested,” said Powell.
September 2003 – The [$87 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan] “is about the safety and security of the American people,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Monday. He said the situation is “at a critical moment.”
May 2004 – Iraq now faces a critical moment. As the Iraqi people move closer to governing themselves, the terrorists are likely to become more active and more brutal.
June 2005 – “Today we’re at a critical moment in the history of this proud nation,” Bush said during a White House press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari after the two had a closed-door meeting.
June 2006 – Bush said General Hayden is “supremely qualified” and is “the right man” to head the CIA “at this critical moment in our nation’s history.”
Man, it’s a good thing we’re alive at all with all of these damn critical moments facing us. I can only wait for the day when Bush lets us know we’re facing “the criticalest of critical moments!”
By Hanlon, on October 6th, 2006 at 12:57 AM
 Did the media pick this up at all? A US embassy was attacked by a group of Syrians, who apparently planned it in Saudi Arabia, and it seems to have been swept away.
Last month’s attack on the U.S. embassy in Damascus was planned in Saudi Arabia and the four Syrians who carried it out had no links to al Qaeda, a government investigation said on Thursday.
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“An investigation into the attack has been concluded. The group planned to blow an embassy door, storm the compound and kill whoever was inside. It had no links with extremist organisations outside Syria,” the report said.
So, to use a quote from A Clockwork Orange, what’s it gonna be then? Are we going to move into yet another country? Syria and Saudi Arabia? If we’re to believe that “fight them there before we fight them here” is actually a rallying cry, then we don’t have a choice. Our War on Terror, the way it’s been staged, could lead us into every country in the world.
Or we can admit that waging war in nations that have terrorists in them is a flawed premise, and save that next hundred billion dollars or so for securing the nation from attack.
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