Welcome Chris Floyd, what an auspicious debut, you’ve summed up the sad situation masterfully. I really wish I could take issue with you, to point out where the Democrats have not capitulated or compromised our basic values, but I cannot.

There is, I think, only one area where the situation is not actually worse than it was before, and that is the views and opinions of the majority of the American people, and their growing awareness of just how they are being completely ignored.

We see that in unpopularity of Congress (although the right pretends that it has nothing to do with surrendering to Bush). It is also seen in the new poll cited yesterday where nearly 70% of Americans oppose military action in Iran.

Most surprising is that the all-out propaganda blitz of David Petraeus (fully supported by our “liberal” media) didn’t work - it failed miserably. The people still hate this war.

After this huge investment, and the best propaganda money can buy, Bush is less popular than ever. And so is this war.

The public at large is moving in the right direction. Tragically, our political system has not responded as it should. It has failed us.

The only way things could be worse would be if the propaganda had worked and the majority of the public actually supported what is happening. They don’t.

That’s not much to hang a small bit of hope on, but it’s all that I’ve got.

Your point about what Iran is not doing (and could be doing) is an important one, and one that I hope gets much more attention. They are, as you point out, acting in a perfectly rational manner.

It is Cheneyites who are acting irrationally. They don’t even care if their arguments are inconsistent – they’re just throwing as much dirt at Iran as they can, and they’ll take whatever sticks. If one charge doesn’t work they’ll just move on to the next one. That’s what they do.

They employ this same strategy with Democrats at home with some success, and they did it to Saddam and Iraq too. Inconsistencies have never bothered them before, and won’t now. It’s just “smear and fear” directed at a new target.

With apologies to the “good doctor”: Cheney and the neo-cons have found that inconsistency, insanity and hysteria work for them, and they’re advocating it for everyone.

So what is the end result of this Beauchamp brouhaha? Our soldiers have learned that unless they are going to say something about the war that Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, and The Weekly Standard will approve of, they must keep quiet and not say a word.

Donations to political candidates by the military show a substantial increase in support for anti-war and Democratic candidates. However, active military members have been effectively silenced from expressing those views on blogs or with “on the record” quotes to our media.

If they remain anonymous, like Beauchamp attempted to do, the right-wing noise machine will scream hysterically until that source is exposed and then silenced, or discredited completely by remaining anonymous. At the same time, numerous anonymous military sources advocating what The Weekly Standard wants to hear retain not only their credibility but the ability to speak.

In this way, “pro-war” advocates are allowed to retain their most potent weapon: calling their critics “anti-military” and “anti-American” while hurling the smear that those who don’t agree with them “don’t support the troops.”

If active troops were allowed to express their views and voice criticism of the war (a view many of them obviously share) the right-wing’s smear-propaganda would loose all effectiveness.

Thus the new alliance between the military and Malkin – they are desperate, aren’t they?

Here’s a couple links about military contributions to political candidates. Anti-war candidates Ron Paul and Barack Obama accounted for over 50% of the contributions.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5223477.html

http://thespinfactor.com/thetruth/2007/07/17/ron-paul-leads-all-08-candidates-with-one-third-of-military-contributions-for-q2/

And Steven Benen sees a beginning of a shift away from the GOP.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12874.html

You are not a journalist nor do you have any journalistic ethical standards

And Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt and the right-wing bloggers they meet with are journalists and do have ethical standards?

Wow.

He at least acknowledges that Glenn is a lawyer, and what lawyers say after submitting the irrefutable evidence of politicization exhibited in this e-mail is this:

Your Honor,

"I rest my case."