Barring a deliberate provocation by Cheney or Israel. That's a big caveat.

For those who still believe that there is a functioning democracy in America, and I am not one of them, Bush/cheney have to know that any functioning democratic government would have to indict them for their failures on 911, war crimes and their crimes against humanity that followed the putative "terrorist" attack on America.

Starting a war with Iran and declaring a "national emergency" followed by martial law is the only way that bush/cheney can avoid the gallows and the vengeance of an awakened America.

Or he may have been approximately 8 rows back in a well lit auditorium. He was screaming his bloody head off. 6 cops were throwing him to the ground, the electric blue arc or the 50,000 volt taser clearly visible, and you want us to believe Kerry was clueless?

Okay, so he's he's clueless, but aint't no way he way he did not see everything. He is a coward - not a leader.

http://video.nbc6.net/player/?id=157250 Look at this, it shows the entire encounter from beginning to end.

PNAC infamously said that their wondrous vision of American global hegemony would probably not come to pass without a "new Pearl Harbor". 911 was that, and it gave them all the cover they needed to go into the Afghan and then to Iraq. But as the neocans say, "real men go to Tehran".

Ed Furey's brilliant analysis of what can go "wrong" in the Gulf is correct except that if you are a neocon, or a fundamentalist evangelical, or both like bush, what's wrong is right.

Ed mentioned Exocets. The bad news for us, is the good news for the insane demons running the show in Washington. The Iranians now have something much better than Exocets, they have the new hypersonic ship killer cruise missiles like the "mosquit" and the "Silkworm" from Russia and China. These things are so fast, at mach 2.9, they don't even need warheads! Their kinetic energy alone is enough to take out a large warship. But of course, they do have warheads. Lots of them. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=31412011af

These missiles, and Iran has dozens, perhaps hundreds, cannot be detected in time, let alone destroyed, especially in a small area like the Persian Gulf. If there is a war, and they are launched, America will lose a nuclear carrier, and thousands of lives - and that is just for the first day of the wars.

So why does cheney have 3 battle groups led by nuclear carriers in the gulf, a relative lake? Here's a news flash, carriers are obsolete! Useless. In the future, attacks on terrorist/rebel/enemy countries, (read countries with oil or who threaten Israel) will be conducted with robot planes like the "Reaper" flown from bases in America by sociopathic kids weaned on HALO. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=769_1187846096

The carriers are there to be killed. This will give cheney all the excuse he needs. It will be a new new Pearl Harbor, the "people" will reliably rally around the flag as they did for the Maine, and the Gulf of Tonkin, the calls for mass death in the middle east will go out, critics will be swept away, you will have the oil, and bush can have his "3rd term". By hook or by crook he will.

Am I ranting? Yeah, I guess so. In my tinfoil protected world a rant is sometimes the best response to an outrage. How perspicacious of you to notice my "america" in the lower case. I am impressed. And thank-you very much for the genuinely witty response; complete with a grammar lesson! I shall aspire to reach your heady level of compositional excellence in the future.

Nonetheless, you still ridicule me sans a proper or compelling refutation of my argument. That's okay, ridicule is after all the last resort of the man who has run out of arguments.

America (sorry had to capitalise that, as it is at the beginining of a sentence) is sadly no longer a functioning democracy. Have you not read the PATRIOT Act? Did you miss the creation of a "unitary" executive through the mechanism of bush's signing statements? The list of anti-democratic measures just goes on and on, Salon readers know the rest of the list. The continuing occupation of Iraq, against the clearly expressed wishes of the majority is an excellent example.

As for the man who dared to ask 3 whole questions... Do you deny that convicted felons in most states lose their voting rights? Are you telling us that as a convicted felon this fellow (and never mind your characterization of his motivations) will not suffer greatly as a result of his asking questions (albeit somewhat obnoxiously) and then having the gumption to actually resist what the majority of americans seem to agree is disproportionate force and an uncalled for arrest?

Maybe anon, just maybe, you can give us a brilliant exposition on why democracy in America has not ended. I'd be happy if you could justify the police tasing this guy? There were 6 police personnel there, one of them was the size of a pro wrestler. In my crazy world I don't care if he was suspected child molester (key word: "suspected") the use of this kind of truly excessive force is unnecessary and yes, not the kind of thing that should happen in a "free" country. Use small simple words please.

grammatically yours,

"crazy" Bill Owen