I don't think the financial burden associated with developing nuclear weapons is an obstacle for Iran at this stage of the game. With oil at $60+ a barrel the country should be awash in obscene oil revenues. Unfortunately it doesn't sound like this money is reaching lower income tiers, but that doesn't mean it isn't there and that it can't/won't be funneled into nuclear weapons. Iran wouldn't be the first country to put weapons development ahead of the needs of their people. North Koreans don't have tomatoes, either, but they've got nukes! This isn't a phenomenon unique to dictatorships run by madmen, either. How many Americans want for food while we continue to maintain the world's largest nuclear arsenal?

Quick, warlovers! Password protect those stats!

It's always good news!

Take a look at Captain Ed Morrisey's posts over the years about reports of "red on red" (inter-insurgent) fighting signifying the end of the insurgency.

We can't lose!

Auto-refresh is great for Salon's front page because it consists only of headlines. Having a blog page auto-refresh while reading deep inside a post is annoying. People reading blogs regularly refresh manually. Please turn auto-refresh off.

Thanks for linking to the Rosie O'Donnell poem. My wife and I found it to be rather moving.

Good for you, Lindsay!

If I was poor and forced to live in the wreck of New Orleans, I'd probably be doing drugs, too.

There are many, many worse things to be involved with than Ecstasy and marijuana.

OK - we got Scooter Libby - probably the least evil among that band of criminals. Yawn.

What is important coming out of this is the FACT that JOSEPH WILSON WAS RIGHT about Saddam Hussein's WMD program and that THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WAS WRONG about Saddam Hussein's WMD program.

The Bush Administration marched the United States to war on the basis of deliberate lies and when challenged about this rather than concede that they were wrong they struck out at the people who were right.

Let us never forget the lies that brought us to the situation we're in today.

And Yay for Salon!

Great article - great interview! Congrats!

John Kerry's "swiftboating" was such a vile and disgusting act that spawned so much hatred in this country. Please, oh please, fellow Dems and liberals, don't use it as a model for conducting the next round of elections. Let the social conservatives ruin Giuliani with their own bible-thumping nonsense.

Thanks re: downloading Greasemonkey first. I knew it had to be something easy like that.

Joan:

I'm so happy that it appears that you are writing a blog now for Salon. I didn't see an announcement for it - I followed a link to this post from elsewhere.

You're one of the best writer's Salon's got, Joan (out of a stable of pretty goddamn excellent writers!) and we'd love to hear more from you. I hope that you find the blogging to be rewarding, save for the unfathomably mean comments that some people seem to come up with on here.

I've been "with" Salon all along and the site has played a role in my defining my moral compass and outlook on events for more than 10 years now. It is nice to see you saying "I told you so" about this war when so few have taken responsibility for the roles they played in the run-up. Our childrens' children will wonder where the dissent was during these painful times. A great deal of it was right here.

The "not in my backyard" misanthropes who live along the south of Cape Cod who so vehemently object to their precious ocean views being tarnished by these graceful, functional, wind sculptures bring great shame to the people of Massachusetts. In case you haven't noticed - TED KENNEDY - the world is being turned upside-down because of the energy trends we face. Wake up - and leave Hyannisport if you're worried that the windmills are going to make your yachting adventures and sailboat paintings less pretty.

P.S. Where were Ted Kennedy, et al when that oil-fired industrial abomination of an electrical plant was built along the canal in Sandwich? I'll take a hundred graceful windmills over a dirty concrete smokestack any day. You should, too.