Nice piece, Digby! Biogirl wrote...

What's with referring to the US as "the Homeland"? Does that sound vaguely sinister, or is just me?

I have the same reaction to it -- it IS creepy. Way too close to "The Fatherland" -- I always want to say "The Homeland" with a German accent, to get the right vibe and spirit behind it.

And speaking of vibes, what's up with the NIE and the Bush League's handling of it, anyway? They're trying to have it all ways. Let's see if I can sum it up:

The War in Iraq (and, by extension, the War on Terror at large) is keeping the Homeland safe from an enemy that is, unfortunately, a lot stronger and seemingly unaffected by our War on Terror, to the extent that they are apparently able to threaten the Homeland despite the War in Iraq, which must continue to be waged without hesitation, even as the effort fails to meet the majority of benchmarks, so that we can keep the Enemy(tm) from coming back home to attack us, which...err...they are apparently already able to do...and...uhhh...are supposedly imminently preparing to...do, despite our best efforts. In that holy spirit, we must be unwavering in our commitment to embrace the politics of failure, so we may then not experience the...uh...failure of politics to deliver us from evil, for Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, Amen.

What next, are they going to assault our precious bodily fluids? We really need Dr. Strangelove to roll on in, sieg heiling, to properly capture the absurdity of this rogue administration's stance on, well, everything. I'm shocked and awed.

Looks like the non-Republican nays were...

"Shoeless" Joe Lieberman (of course; he's Bush's sock puppet, thanks once again, Connecticut)

Harry Reid (who shifted to "nay" for procedural reasons, it appears)

And...

Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) -- didn't vote

Hmmph.

But hey, John McCain showed up and voted for once, just to be a dick.

Re: Johnson. Yeah, I know that. I was only responding to somebody who wondered which Democrats voted against it, so I looked up the votes, and tallied them, but there wasn't much to tally, really.

The "hmph" was in general, versus levied at poor Johnson; I'd actually thought more Democrats (real or otherwise) might've defected on this one, but looks like only Reid and Lieberman voted against it.

What bugs me more is how the four Republicans who crossed the aisle, the so-called "moderates" -- all apparently in embattled districts, still classify themselves as Republicans, despite all of what their party has done to the country (and the world). Not even as Independents, but as Republicans, they are. That says a lot, despite them trudging across the aisle on this one. I hope that they all get voted out, ending their anguish of being marginalized in their Grand Old Party -- and I hope they're replaced by actual Democrats with some teeth.

I'm hoping far more of the Republicans get swept out in 2008, that voters see this GOP stonewalling tactic (the McConnell-referenced "let's keep the Democrats from getting anything done this session, so it'll cost them on Election Day" strategy) -- and they do the math and realize the way to overcome GOP stonewalling is to throw out as many GOP Congresspeople as they can.

Nicely put, Digby, as ever! It's frustrating, like the gorilla in the room we're not permitted to acknowledge -- the blurb about reaching a resolution on Iraqi oil revenues stood out in sharp relief. But Occam's Razor is so rarely applied to American politics, unfortunately.

I've written and commented on this before, but given the pathological secrecy surrounding it, I think it's likely that Dick Cheney's super-secret energy industry conference at some level outlined this administration's strategic goals for the region, far in advance of 9/11 (which is probably why they so adamantly keep that conference secret, for fear of looking imperialistic, cynical, and, well, evil -- mission accomplished? Hah!)

The invasion of Iraq begins to look like just an opportunistic land grab, an excuse to get us in the region, up close and personal, for good -- or for as long as the oil lasts, anyway. The palatial embassy makes it look like Iraq is the new Iran -- you remember, the "good" Iran, the one we liked, under the dictatorship of the Shah, our Man in Persia. I think that's what the Bush League would like it to be, what they hoped they could bludgeon it into being.

The workshopping of excuses reflected the buffet-style thinking of the Bush League -- the false linking of Hussein to Al Qaeda and 9/11, WMDs, then bringing democracy to the region, then defeating global terrorism, then stabilizing the region, then destabilizing the region if we left, then losing credibility and risking attacks on the Homeland(tm) if we left, etc. They threw everything out but the real reason we're there, hoping some of it would stick, because the whole blood for oil kind of argument, well, that's so 1991, right?

Maybe I'm wrong, but if so, let's see the details and attendees of that energy conference, Dick, what do you say? If you've got nothing to hide, then why are you hiding it? C'mon, Oil Slick Dick, come clean to the country, if you can.