Clear eye observers, Sidney Blumenthal Israel's debacle, courtesy of Bush and William S. Lind Beat! both stated the obvious that corporate media has ignored; Hezbollah won the Lebanon War. No wonder the French are getting cold feet in heading the UN peacekeepers. What nation can realistic believe that they can disarm the forces that defeated IDF without getting their asses kicked too. There may be a Lebanese political settlement without a repeat of sectarian violence but the one thing for sure is that Hezbollah will be dictating terms as the victor.

The second observation is that the Commander in Chief is delusional.  He will "Double Down" and open the 4th and 5th Middle East fronts; no matter that Lebanon proved Air Power won't turn Muslims against their government or that 130,000 US troops in Iraq are hostages to millions of Shiite Revolutionary Guards. The only possible outcome is nuclear Armageddon.

Bob Graham, former Florida Senator said the Senate intelligence briefings were about new technology. I think we are looking at the NY Times revelations with our old fashion impressions from the 70's movie "The Conversation".  A human being bugging the bad guys [or good guys] and not getting warrants to continue the eavesdropping.

Instead, Huge super computers and storage banks all over the world are hooked up to ALL electronic spectrums digital and analogue.  Called Echelon; the complex programs decrypt and sort out messages by associations and key words.  The computers cannot distinguish American origins or destination until after the fact.  Since the computer programs associate messages together, 72 hours could easily pass before decrypted flagged signals are eyeballed by real human beings.  There aren't any warrants because all the old messages are all ready in the system and any future associated messages are just routed directly to whomever is interested.  All electronic messages are being bugged.

The Iraq war continues to be fought on the cheap.  No sacrifice for the wealthy. Just more and more tax cuts. Tax monies and supplies needed to maintain USA's infrastructure were transferred to Iraq. This policy directly resulted in the destruction of most of New Orleans, a thousand deaths and increased costs for gasoline.

Iraq's Civil War is starting. Continued occupation by "shot first and ask questions later" Western Christian soldiers will only accelerate the collapse of Iraq. The only question is when will full civil war explode and bring in the neighboring countries on opposing sides. A shut off of Iranian and Saudi oil supplies will make the Gulf Coast oil shut down feel like small change.

The incompetence and mendacity of the Bush Administration after five years is known fact. The real question is why has the Democratic Party completely failed to provide alternative plans to rally Americans to a reality based solution in the Middle East. Instead only Blogs like this one or Juan Coles' Informed Comment discuss half hearted solutions.  Can the US Military Presence Avert Civil War?

The fact is if the USA continues on its current path it faces defeat and collapse of its economy from an Middle East oil shutdown in a few short years. Immediate US withdrawal will not stop the Sunni's insurrection nor their drive to regain power. Instead it will accelerate the collapse to civil war. The only alternative is a fixed time table for US withdrawal and replacement with a regional/UN peacekeeper forces, defacto partition and a political settlement. A bloody alternative but it may prevent the destruction of the Iranian and Saudi oil fields.  Yet, not one politician or media pundit is proposing a realistic solution to the USA's sandy quagmire.

The New Orleans catastrophe was predictable. The GOP mindset is that the federal government is evil. All their actions follow this belief. There was no thought of prepositioning supplies or diverting the 101st Airborne to New Orleans because States can handle natural disasters. Gland-handers and suave idiots are appointed to high federal positions since the GOP's purpose in life is to cut taxes and gut government regulations.  

Grover Nordquist is victorious. The federal government was flushed down the toilet in New Orleans along with thousands of its citizens.