a whole bunch of bumper stickers

What Congressman Kucinich whispered to the president

Today, a slightly different take on the word "winners." Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Oh., is one of the most passionate anti-war members of Congress, who just lost his own hard-fought battle for re-election. As he prepares to leave the House of Representatives, Kucinch reflected on his legacy, his accomplishments, and the struggles presidents face.

Romney Wins Northern Marianas Caucus

Source: Boston Globe and Saipan Tribune


Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's son, Matt, and wife Laurie, pose with traditional warrior dance group members at a luncheon hosted yesterday by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial at his private residence in Gualo Rai on the eve of today's Republican caucus in the CNMI. (Haidee V. Eugenio)

http://www.saipantribune.com/default.aspx

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Romney wins in Northern Marianas caucus

March 10, 2012|Associated PressAnother victory for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. He’s won the Republican caucus in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, picking up nine delegates from the U.S. territory.

Romney won 87 percent of the 848 votes cast Saturday on the main islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota.

Rick Santorum got 6 percent. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich got 3 percent each on the main island of Saipan.

Romney was considered the favorite. His son Matt and wife Laurie visited Saipan, and he was endorsed by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, chairman of the island’s Republican Party.

http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-10/news/31143480_1_mitt-romney-paul-and-newt-gingrich-caucus

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Read more: http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-10/news/31143480_1_mitt-romney-paul-and-newt-gingrich-caucus

Dennis Kucinich and “wackiness” By Glenn Greenwald

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Credit: AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File)

The Prospect article also praises as “great” a snide, derisive Washington Post piece which purports to “highlight some of the particularly bizarre facts about” Kucinich. Among those is the fact that “he introduced impeachment articles against former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Cheney for their roles in the Iraq war” and “proposed a Cabinet-level agency devoted to peace.” What a weirdo and a loser. Even more predictably, a team of four interns at The New Republic – the magazine that spent years crusading for the attack on Iraq, smearing Israel critics as anti-Semites, and defining its editorial mission as re-making the Democratic Party in the image of Joe Lieberman – denounced the anti-war Kucinich as “ludicrous,” citing most of the same accusations as the Prospect and the Post.

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So let’s recap the state of mental health in establishment Democratic circles: the President who claims (and exercises) the power to target American citizens for execution-by-CIA in total secrecy and with no charges — as well as those who dutifully follow him — are sane, sober and Serious, meriting great respect. By contrast, one of the very few members of Congress who stands up and vehemently objects to this most radical power — “The idea that the United States has the ability to summarily execute a US citizen ought to send chills racing up and down the spines of every person of conscience” — is a total wackjob, meriting patronizing mockery.


Meanwhile, the crazy wacko, Dennis Kucinich, has been an outspoken opponent of all of that. In a rational world, that would make him sane and those he opposed crazy. But in the world of Washington’s political and media class, it’s Kucinich who is the crazy one and those who did all of that are sane and Serious. Put another way, the chickenhawk warmongers at The New Republic are normal, while the anti-war Kucinich is “among the wackiest.”

One criticism of Kucinich that is not unreasonable per se is that he has no real legislative accomplishments to show for his 9 terms in Congress. Citing that criticism, Andrew Sullivan this week branded him “A Forgettable Ideologue”and quoted from an anti-Kucinich post in The New Yorker (yet another Serious, Sane magazine that played a key role in fueling the flames of war against Iraq). The New Yorker post is entitled “Why Kucinich Won’t be Missed,” in which Alex Koppelman argues:

I find this unpersuasive on multiple levels. For one, enacting legislation is not the only way to have an important impact on our political culture. Shining light on otherwise-ignored issues, advocating rarely-heard political positions, using one’s platform to highlight the corruption of those in power and to challenge their warped belief systems are all vitally important functions. Advocacy of that sort may not produce immediate, tangible successes, but it is a prerequisite for changing prevailing political mores and persuading citizens to think differently. “Talking a lot” is a synonym for persuasion, advocacy and debate. It’s far from “doing very little.” Those are all critical steps in changing a political system. It’s true that Kucinich cannot point to any law he passed that, say, guts the National Security State or corporate-lobbyist control over Washington, but that hardly means his work was inconsequential. Those types of changes often take years, even decades, of advocacy, and urgently need those with public platforms to amplify the underlying views to change how citizens think.

read full article:

http://www.salon.com/2012/03/10/dennis_kucinich_and_wackiness/singleton/

No Labels commands you to thank Joe Lieberman

Friday, Mar 9, 2012 8:52 AM 04:38:14 UTC+1000

No Labels, the 501(c)(4) founded and run by longtime political operatives dedicated to nonpartisan political “problem-solving” through endless moralist posturing and symbolic nonsense, sent an email to its subscribers today with the subject line “thank you.” They were not thanking me (or you), though, but Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent from Connecticut.



http://www.salon.com/2012/03/08/no_labels_commands_you_to_thank_joe_lieberman/singleton/

WaPo: An Israeli attack against Iran would backfire — just like Israel's 1981 strike on Iraq

Before attacking Iran, Israel should learn from its 1981 strike on Iraq

by Colin H. Kahl for Washington Post

By demonstrating Iraq’s vulnerability, the attack on Osirak actually increased Hussein’s determination to develop a nuclear deterrent and provided Iraq’s scientists an opportunity to better organize the program. The Iraqi leader devoted significantly more resources toward pursuing nuclear weapons after the Israeli assault. As Reiter notes, “the Iraqi nuclear program increased from a program of 400 scientists and $400 million to one of 7,000 scientists and $10 billion.”

Ultimately, Israel’s 1981 raid didn’t end Iraq’s drive to develop nuclear weapons. It took the destruction of the Gulf War, followed by more than a decade of sanctions, containment, inspections, no-fly zones and periodic bombing — not to mention the 2003 U.S. invasion — to eliminate the program. The international community got lucky: Had Hussein not been dumb enough to invade Kuwait in 1990, he probably would have gotten the bomb sometime by the mid-1990s.

Iran’s nuclear program is more advanced than Hussein’s was in 1981. But the Islamic republic is still not on the cusp of entering the nuclear club. As the IAEA has documented, Iran is putting all the pieces in place to have the option to develop nuclear weapons at some point. Were Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to decide tomorrow to go for a bomb, Iran probably has the technical capability to produce a testable nuclear device in about a year and a missile-capable device in several years. But as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Arms Services Committee on Feb. 16, it does not appear that Khamenei has made this decision.

Moreover, Khamenei is unlikely to dash for a bomb in the near future because IAEA inspectors would probably detect Iranian efforts to divert low-enriched uranium and enrich it to weapons-grade level at declared facilities. Such brazen acts would trigger a draconian international response. Until Iran can pursue such efforts more quickly or in secret — which could be years from now — Khamenei is unlikely to act.

Such an attack would probably require dozens of aircraft to travel at least 1,000 miles over Arab airspace to reach their targets, stretching the limits of Israeli refueling capabilities. Israeli jets would then have to circumvent Iranian air defenses and drop hundreds of precision-guided munitions on the hardened Natanz enrichment facility, the Fordow enrichment site deep in a mountain near Qom, the Isfahan uranium-conversion facility, the heavy-water production plant and plutonium reactor under construction at Arak, and multiple centrifuge production facilities in and around populated areas of Tehran and Natanz.

full article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-israeli-attack-against-iran-would-backfire--just-like-israels-1981-strike-on-iraq/2012/02/28/gIQATOMFnR_story.html


Colin H. Kahl is an associate professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. From 2009 to 2011, he was the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.


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