John McCain enthuses about Mars exploration.

During a town hall campaign event in Lake Buena Vista, FL, John McCain said that Ray Bradbury's classic science-fiction story series The Martian Chronicles inspired him to consider a manned mission to Mars.

After warning that Russia and China are encroaching on America's waning dominance of "space business," McCain mentioned Bradbury.

"As a very young boy, I was intrigued by and read Ray Bradbury, and my favorite ... is The Martian Chronicles," said McCain. "I am intrigued by a man on Mars and I think it would excite the imagination of the American people."

A Short History of the Munich Analogy, Part 3:
"Appeasement" & the  Persian Gulf War

    "A Short History of the Munich Analogy, Part 1" discussed the story of Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler at Munich in 1938 as a prominent rhetorical and ideological feature of American Cold War political discourse. "The Munich Analogy, Part 2: The Neocons and the Appeasement Meme"extended the discussion to the the neo-conservative "defense intellectuals" who became influential in the Reagan administrations of the 1980s, and for whom the Munich narrative was the central organizing principle of Cold War and Middle Eastern analysis.

A Short History of the Munich Analogy, Part 2:

Neoconservatives and the "appeasement" meme

                                                   
.

In the diary A Short History of the Munich Analogy, Part 1, I addressed the long history of the Munich analogy in American political rhetoric and decision-making during the Cold War years up the time of Reagan. Part 2 continues the history of "Muniching" from 1980 to the fall of the Soviet Empire.

Its years of Cold War service as a master narrative and a political bludgeon have embedded the Munich analogy in American culture. The idea of Munich has become a tenet, or dogma, of the American civil religion, or at least a tenet of the Wilsonian interventionist denomination which has been shared at various times by both American liberals and conservatives.  As a moral syllogism applied to "parallel" foreign policy crises, it postulates a predetermined outcome, and dictates an imperative course of action.

A Short History of the Munich Analogy in American Political Rhetoric and Decisionmaking

Part 1: The Munich Analogy and the Cold War

  In October 1938, representatives of France, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy met at Munich in Bavaria to address German demands. Hitler had signaled his expansionist intent by re-arming Germany, by occupying the demilitarized Rhineland, and by engineering the Anschluss of Germany and Austria in March. Gripped by fear of military confrontation and politically inhibited by their pacifist populaces, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and France’s premier Daladier accepted Hitler's assurances that the Sudetenland was Germany's "last territorial demand in Europe," and signed away Czechoslovakia’s western defenses.

                                                             

CHICAGO (AFP) - Nearly two decades after veterans of the 1991 Gulf War came home complaining of odd illnesses, enough evidence has been gathered to determine that many of them were sickened by chemical exposure, a study published Monday concluded.

Nearly two decades ago, an American-led coalition of 700,000 troops drove the invading forces of Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait and returned the Kuwaiti oil oligarchy to power. The Persian Gulf War, fought in the early months of 1991, temporarily settled by main force a regional quarrel over oil resources. The war also generated a number of adverse short- and long-term consequences, some of them too well-known to need repeating here. The war was a disaster for the Iraqi military forces and also for the Iraqi civilian population, who suffered the political social and health hazards of living in a war zone and under a brutal dictatorship.

Among the many varieties of evil fruit born from this conflict was a mysterious syndrome afflicting about 250,000 American Persian Gulf War veterans with chronic, multi-symptom health problems.

Just saw this at TPM. I have been burned up for quite some time about former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman sitting in prison while Karl Rove and his stooges at Justice walk around free. New story at TPM  says that "60 Minutes" will air a segment Sunday about a former Republican campaign worker who now says Karl Rove urged her to provide him with photographic evidence that Siegelman was having an affair with an an aide.

A former Republican campaign worker claims that President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, asked her to find evidence that the Democratic governor of Alabama at the time was cheating on his wife, according to an upcoming broadcast of "60 Minutes."

How low can you go?

RETROSPECTIVE: THE GOP CANDIDATES

There's McCain, who's a maverick no more,
And "Mittney," a flip-flopping whore,
There's Rudy, the fascist,
Dunc Hunter, the racist,
And Thompson, a doddering old bore.

Huckabee's a fat wingnut, now thin,
Newt's out, though he never was "in"
Allen Keyes is a loon
Tancredo's a goon,
And Ron Paul, not likely to win.

Oops! I forgot Brownback of Kansas!
From the endless, vast, corn-filled expanses.
No surprise I forgot:
No one gave him a thought.
And no one gave ** snap ** for his chances.

Now Huckabee's duking it out
With Romney, who's got money clout
If one wins Ioway
The other can say,
"So what? I am far more devout."

Disclaimer: No Republican candidate is going to win the White House in 2008. I will support the Democratic nominee, whomever he/she is. I do not support any of the GOP candidates listed below. Nevertheless, just to cheer you on the bumpy road towards victory, I have reflected and come up with these "brighter side" aspects, if the impossible happened and Giuliani, Romney, Thompson or Huckabee became President. Think about these points, and be happy.

The Constitution has been suspended. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is about to perish from the earth.

The rule of law is is in abeyance, and the Constitution is suspended, as long as President George W. Bush is permitted to preside and violate his oath of office.

I teach U.S. history at our local Community College. I and untold thousands of teachers across this nation have spent lives helping America's youth to understand that presidents, whether they be Lincoln, FDR, Bill Clinton, or George W. Bush, are subject to the rule of law under the United States Constitution. This lawless President, and this Congress that REFUSES TO DO THEIR DUTY AND IMPEACH, are making a mockery of the efforts of our nation's teachers to enable our youth to be good citizens and to respect their country's Constitution and its laws.

Act I, Scene 1: The brave, brave Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee consider approving Bush's Attorney General appointee Michael Mukasey, who refuses to say whether water-boarding is torture or not.

To the Tune of "I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl) Who Married Dear Old Dad" by Harry von Tilzer

Senator Chuck Schumer:

"Last week my bestest buddy LieberBushman said to me, [in a bleating, flannelly  voice]
'Don't rock the boat, it's crazy:
Just rubber-stamp Mukasey.'"

You say goodbye, and I say hello,
Hello, hello!
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello
~ Paul McCartney

I have stopped reading every GBCW diary that makes the Rec list (and you'd be a fool to write one unless you had a pretty good chance of being Rec'd), even if it's by somebody I like.

Because usually it just means somebody is taking a few weeks or months off from posting because their lives have got busy, and he or she is worried that nobody will notice when they're not around.

Which, given the 130,000 members here and the volume of articles and diaries posted, is all too likely, even for a popular figure.

Then, the Good-Bye-Cruel-Worlders, since they're already on a roll, generally use their quasi-Farewell Address as a vehicle to launch a spirited denunciation of the horrors they've endured from the incivility of the Daily Kos membership. A Good-Bye-Cruel-Worlder's diary routinely becomes a diatribe about how "mean-spirited" and "uncivil" the tone of discussion has become here.  

George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, I curse you.

In the name of the one million slain Iraqis I curse you.

In the name of the 3,800 American soldiers who died because you lied I curse you.

In the name of the 30,000 Americans grievously wounded because you lied I curse you.

In the name of all who have died or suffered harm because of your crimes I curse you.

In the name of the rule of law I curse you.

In the name of Nature I curse you.

In the name of God I curse you.

+  +  +

"All Republican political figures are gay, especially the men." - James Wolcott

Jeff Gannon's new book, The Great Media War: A Battlefield Report is available on www.amazon.com! I have not read this book yet, but I look forward to receiving my remainder copy soon. Without reading it, one can still argue with perfect propriety that this book by Gannon [aka James Guckert] should be titled "The Great Media Wh@re."

The Ballad of Gonzo Gonzales Abu
(to the tune of "Abdul Abulbul Amir")

The thugs of our President seldom are hesitant
At doing things not straight and true,
But the dirtiest imp to do dirt for the Chimp,
Was Gonzo Gonzales (Abu)!

CHORUS:
He's a thug. He's a hood. He makes Ashcroft look good,
A fixer of John Mitchell hue.
He can outdo Ed Meese in the matter of sleaze,
He's our Gonzo Gonzales (Abu)!

'Way back when ol' Dub was called Governor Shrub
With a drunk driving record or two,
His old DUI rap disappeared in a snap,
By the hand of Gonzales (Abu)!
CHORUS:

Take a break from Karl Rove for just a minute.

Of course, we know that everything is militarized in BushGooperWorld Except for GOP leaders' offspring, of course. Why, just a few days ago,  presidential hopeful Mitt Romney equated his sons' van junket through the no-man's land of Iowa with GI service in war-torn Iraq. And any person, place or thing not wholly owned by the GOP is an enemy target.

But really now. There's a limit. Self-styled former Marine (his actual enlistment never substantiated) James Guckert aka "Jeff Gannon," still carrying on his lonely Army of One battle against the Liberal Media, now refers to his stint in the White House press corps in 2004-2005 as working "behind enemy lines"!

Imagine, the "Talon News" softball questioner whom nobody granted the special daily press pass he used for over a year was fighting behind enemy lines while enjoying unprecedented, unvetted access to the  Bush White House under an assumed name! No place is safe any more.

President Bush Supports, Then Dismisses Attorney General Gonzales
Pres. Bush has named own criminal lawyer Jim Stark as next Atty. General

MORE STORIES

• Ex-Mayor Giuliani withdaws, cites need to spend more time with his families.
• Jenna Bush engaged to Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez
• Other Bush twin to wed scholar Ward Churchill
• Ann Coulter says is pregnant by Ted Kennedy
• Senator Inhofe to retire, will devote energies to Greenpeace
• Katie Couric removed from anchor job; will host America's Funniest Videos
• Sen. Ted Stevens run over on bridge by big truck
• Sen. Lieberman arrested on windbaggery charge

My theory is that Carol Lam was originally the sole target. The Rove White House and the Dept. of Justice assembled  a list of seven other US Attorneys plus Lam, in order to create a plausible cover story for her dismissal. If a bundle of attorneys were replaced with a common rationale for dismissal, Lam's dismissal would stick out less like a sore thumb.*

While compiling this "smokescreen list," Rove and Miers detected other targets for dismissal for political reasons, and added their names.

After the election, firing the US Attys  became much more risky, but the WH-DOJ axis went ahead with it anyway. The risk of Lam continuing to investigate a chain of corruption that stretched all the way to DC outweighed the other risk.

*The Rove White House clearly misread the political landscape and the communications revolution. Lately this kind of Rovian faulty calculus and overreaching has become more and more apparent.

This is a frivolous diary. I can't sleep. I keep seeing Senator Inhofe's [R-OK] contorted features, saliva spraying from his mouth as he tried to bully and harry a garrulously wonky and imperturbable Al Gore in yesterday's Senate hearing. The horror, the horror.