Sad to say, but I believe the only way this is going to get any traction is for someone to quickly make a 30 or 60 min docudrama and get it on HBO or some such - this is isn't very far from the Sopranos, is it? And how much more "organized" can organized crime be, then to have the the president's henchmen pushing the Attorney-General to sign off on an illegal program, while he's gravely ill?

And how much closer are we to Germany 1932?

Do what is right?

Even if that means torture? Of people who might well be innocent? Throw away habeus corpus? Invade a country that you KNOW has no WMD? Is no threat to your own country? Has no connection to Al Queda? And hundreds of thousands of Iraqis die? And 4 million are now refugees? And 1 trillion dollars is wasted? And thousands of your own youth are dead or maimed or emotionally crippled?

Stand shoulder to shoulder with the USA? Even though you know "that the evidence is being fixed around the policy"??? Throw away 50 years of progressive policy concerning legitimate reasons to go to war? So that any tin-pot dictator can claim "pre-emption" or "preventative" reasons to invade his neighbor? Return to a pre-World War I world? (you know - the one where millions of your youth died - for absolutely nothing)

All because you "believe" what you did was right?? Against all evidence? And so ANYONE can do what they "believe" is necessary?

Thank you Mr Blair, the one person who could have prevented all of this, because you had the education, you knew the history, you had the power to do what was right and just, your capable ministers advised you correctly - thank you Mr Blair, for dragging us one step closer to the abyss.

Yes, we've allowed Mr Bush to do a lot in our name to exact revenge on someone, anyone, for 9/11.

But Katrina showed, day after day, the incompetence at the rotten core of this White House. Americans are not incompetent. But day after day, it certainly seemed like we were, and it was live, and in color. How dare he allow this to be shown to the world!

And now we're about to lose a war. Of course, it was lost the first day of looting, when Rumsfeld explained that "this is democracy and it's a little messy" or some such. Eisenhower and Marshall were surely rolling in their graves.

Or maybe it was lost the day the 380,000 TONS of high explosives went missing from a munitions depot, left unguarded by an undermanned army. Those explosives are now blowing us up, day after day.

Or maybe it was lost when Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and Perle and Cheney decided that 200,000 troops was just fine, when all the experts said that 500,000 was probably more appropriate.

It certainly was lost if Iraq were truly "the central front in the war on terror", "an existential war." Show up with 200,000 troops to an existential war?? Eisenhower and Marshall turn one more time in their graves.

So, it's lost. It's lost because it was based on a lie. It's lost because strategically it was a very stupid thing to do, with very little upside and a whole lot of potential downside. It's lost because Bush decided to get Iraq in January 2001, whatever the reason and whatever the cost. "Bring 'em on!"

But Americans don't like to lose. And we don't like to be shown as incompetent. So the mob will turn on this chickenshit coward some day and rend him to pieces.

At the time, no one but senior Admin officials and CIA directors could have known what Plame's status was. To be safe, if you were really concerned about national security and the good people that work undercover for us, you would decide not to divulge her identity.

You just wouldn't go there.

Of course, if you had some other agenda, and Mr Cheney was urging you on...

It may get the point across more easily, Glenn, if you could include a chart or timeline of O'Hanlon's statements.

It is hard to believe that such lying throwaway comments can be so easily spoken by these people.

Yes, 9/11 cost us $1 trillion. Probably more. So we should solve that problem: eliminate the Taliban, reduce the irritation that Muslims feel due to our meddling in their affairs so that their youth doesn't direct their anger at us, stop supporting authoritarian regimes.

But instead this ideological cabal spends $1 trillion but allows bin Laden to escape due to inadequate resources, doesn't eliminate the Taliban due to inadequate resources, continues to irritate Muslims around the world, and attacks Iraq so that Bush can feel good and demonstrate American power - which has the perverse effect of showing how limited that power is. And does nothing to solve the Israel-Palestinian problem. With surging problems in Gaza, Iraq and Pakistan. Their solution? Attack Iran.

When will someone ask Tony Snow, "Tony, you only have a few years left. Why do you want to spend them lying and prevaricating for an immoral, incompetent, misdirected cause?"

Newt has some integrity. But only 10% of Republicans can be this honest with themselves nowadays. 90% will follow Coulter and Limbaugh's spewing. Not a pretty picture.

The Republicans may succeed in turning this country into a one-party state in 2008. Unfortunately, I'm sure the victorious Democrats will then follow their own worst inclinations - we're only human after all.