Sanity, For Now

I’ve been trying to digest everything involved with the latest National Intelligence Estimate stating that Iran is not the nuclear threat it was purported to be by our ruling cabal (here), with President George W. Milhous Bush threatening of World War III with that country only last month (here).

To me, this whole matter absolutely screams for an investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, currently chaired by Dem Jay Rockefeller. However, based on this exchange (in which Rockefeller pled to reporter Charles Davis that, regarding intelligence, “I only get, and my committee only gets, what they want to give me,” with that being an apparently good enough standard for the committee chairman), I’m not holding out much confidence that Congress will be able to get to the bottom of the Bushco propaganda (I mean, we all know Cheney is ultimately behind this, but proving it is another matter).

And by the way, regarding Rockefeller’s predecessor in that job from the 109th (Pat Roberts of Kansas by name), he deserves another dishonorable mention for doing nothing but fronting for this regime’s overseas misadventures, as Think Progress noted so thoroughly here.

Is Iran still a threat? Of course, but given this most recent report, the time will never be better for negotiations (Biden and Jim Webb are both right that we should at least talk with Ahmadinejad here), and on that score, I agree with the assessment from Atrios on Our Gal Condi Rice here, but the problem is that 1) Everyone is dirty in this administration, and if you’re not going to choose her, then Negroponte is probably the only other alternative, and 2) This type of high-level negotiation is something requiring involvement of a head of state, but Dubya will involve himself in something like this the day that Britney Spears sings opera at The Met.

And speaking of Iran, it turns out here that Rudy “Sex On The City” Giuliani just released a TV ad…

…using Iran to how (sic) punch home his message on how to handle today's terrorism challenges. Invoking Ronald Reagan, Giuliani warns voters that a certain mindset is needed defeat those who threaten the United States and that he has it.

Entitled "One Hour," the former New York City Mayor and Reagan justice official steals a page from his stump speech and uses the Iranian hostage crisis of the late 70's and early 80's to illustrate how he would approach dealing with "tyrants and terrorists."

Using black and white stock footage of those Americans that were held by the Iranians for 444 days, Giuliani reminds viewers that they were released within one hour, the hour in which Ronald Reagan took the oath of office.

It would actually be funny were it not so pathetic. As noted here…

…On October 18, 1980, George H. W. Bush, Republican candidate for vice president of the United States, flew to Paris to negotiate with representatives of Iran over the release of 52 hostages held by that country.

By doing so, Bush and his co-conspirators were in potential violation of the International Commerce Acts of 1798 which prohibit any American citizen or party from negotiating with a foreign power in matters of national policy or military action.

Although numerous Republican activists and two Congressional committees claimed that no such effort or trip was attempted, more than a dozen credible sources told of their knowledge of the trip and its results.

Bush, representing Ronald Reagan and himself, told representatives of the Iranian government, including cleric Mehdi Karrubi, that a Reagan administration would provide arms and other assistance to Iran in response to its release of the 52 remaining hostages.

According to reports by Robert Parry, ". . . Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe . . . said he saw Bush attend a final round of meetings with Iranians in Paris."

"Ben-Menashe said he was in Paris as part of a six-member Israeli delegation that was coordinating the arms deliveries to Iran. He said the key meeting had occurred at the Ritz Hotel in Paris."

"Ben-Menashe said the Paris meetings served to finalize a previously outlined agreement calling for release of the 52 hostages in exchange for $52 million, guarantees of arms sales to Iran, and unfreezing of Iranian moneys in U.S. banks. The timing, however, was changed, he said, to coincide with Reagan's expected Inauguration on Jan. 20, 1981."

Gee, Rudy, what a shame that you’ve sunk so low in the polls that you now feel it’s necessary to unofficially team up with Mike Huckabee so both of you can go after Willard Mitt Romney (here). Guess that Pat Robertson endorsement isn’t worth as much as you thought, huh?

And by the way, I'll admit that I've been wrong to snub Huckabeee - mea maxima culpa - but who knew the other Repug presidential candidates would turn out to be so incompetent that Huckabee would actually stand a chance (including this latest Romney misadventure)?

And Atrios, once more, reminds us that Huckabee has to face the fire on this also, among other issues.

Update 1 12/5/07: Speaking of Pat Roberts, this is good news.

Update 2 12/6/07: This is probably the best summary of everything going on here that I've read over the last few days.