except to note that the Iranians pushed our noses in and kicked us out in 1979. Which should surprise no one who is familiar with previous American interference in Iran.

I note with interest that in the intervening 30 years Iran has attacked no one although they were attacked with American assistance. I also note that in those same 30 years you would need more than one hand to count the number of countries that the US has attacked. It would seem that the world has more to fear from the US than from the Iranians. As with most things emanating from the current regime, the claims against the Iranians are basis free, or at least none (credible or otherwise) have been offered.

I fear, however, that we will not lose our enchantment with military adventure until it really costs us in the short term at which point the much larger long term costs will really make us sorry for our behavior.

The housing bust could easily lead to a recession, business cycles do happen (although you can usually pinpoint what caused the business cycle to change), and a recession isn't the end of the world.

I also think that if the government stopped jacking around with the economy on a routine basis, it would be better for everybody and the subprime meltdown was not caused by governmental fiscal policy but rather by some company's willingness to engage in fraud (deceptive advertising) which should be punished by both bankruptcy and criminal charges.

And, yes, I hope that a recession will evict the lemming like fascists that have been running the country since 2000 (yes, I know they lost the '06 elections but they didn't become a minority so much as a not quite majority).

I only give us a 50% chance of having an election in '08. With that idiot provision in the patriot act that allows the president to suspend elections, we stand a really good chance of having our own dictatorship.

But then it would be the kids that would get hurt. They could also do the same thing for war funding and nobody would get hurt.

Two Comments:

1. While you sutlelly dis Mr. Gravel's ideas about legislative referenda (as exists in most states) to get control of the Federal government whose laws now have a much greater impact on our everyday lives than they did when I was a kid back in the '50s & '60s among others, they are real issues that we need to address.

2. If you're going to give Mr. Gravel the space cadet awards, you should be giving them to Mr. Brownback as well. If anybody's a space cadet he is.

It's called the Libertarians. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are morally bankrupt and have eviscerated any meaning the word opposition might have once had. Indeed, the words left and right as applied to political parties now have no meaning.

We will not effectuate change with either of the two major parties who have been in power for centuries and who keep it that way with restrictive rules regarding who can be on the ballot.

I, on the other hand, am no holding my breath in the hopes that the electorate will actually vote for a third party to "throw the bums out". I suspect that they will only go far enough to throw one bum out while putting another bum in that is largely indistinguishable from the one they threw out.

And I've lived in Iran. I strongly suspect that the people who are labeling the Persians as irrational simply don't understand their culture. I'm not going to claim that my years in Iran gave me a complete understanding of their culture but I can say that the only thing that struck me as irrational were their government's policies and procedures for various things. I thought those exceptional until I became exposed to the policies and procedures that the current bozos in Washington have come up with of late. They make the Iranians a paragon of rationality by comparison.

The only thing that I've hear said that supports the claim of Iranian duplicity with respect to Nukes is that they conducted a bunch of their research in secret. Ja, und? How much research do we conduct in secret?

So we have xenophobia married to paranoia. Excellent.

There is one bit you left off, however. In the 30 years since I left Iran, they have attacked no one but have been attacked themselves by Iraq with the support and probably the active encouragement of the US. The United States on the other hand has invaded

Genada

Panama

Kosovo

Afghanistan

Iraq

and attacked

Sudan and Afghanistan.

If you were to look at things from a past behavior as a predicter of future behavior, and if you're a fairly small and harmless third world country who could really defend themselves, I'd say you had a pretty good chance of being invaded by the US.

I am forcefully reminded of a Sean Connery movie, and the little people. It's the end of the movie and Mr. Connery is bemoaning his poor choices for his three wishes. One of his pals says Shamus, why didn't you wish for happiness? To which Mr. Connery replies Oh, no. I've seen the village idiot.

You will also note that dogs, especially puppies, tend to be dumb as a board (like mine) and also perennially happy.

And it will be used as an excuse to postpone the 2008 election in accordance with the provisions of the patriot act.

In a single stroke, the last remnents of the old republic will be swept away and, in time, the postponement will become permanent.

Wait for it, it will be coming to a formerly free country near you.