Let's review...

Democrats in Congress KNOW about all this, but they aren't willing to spill the beans because it would prove that Bush's claims about WMDs were incorrect.

Two things wrong here:

1) Finding out there WERE WMDs would have gotten a lot of Dems in congress off the hook for giving authorization for war. Right? "We read the reports, realized there was trouble... and look -- Trouble!"

There would have been no reason -- none -- for Dems to hide this.

The only reason imaginable -- and it is an act of imagination, a paranoid imagination -- is that Dems are so crazy they'd be unhappy about finding proof for a war they helped start. And that's the craziness of the wingnutters.

2) If the weapons were lost before they could be "found" this wouldn't be a problems for the Dems. The Prez is the commander in chief (as he always tells us). They would just turn it around and say, "And this dolt LOST the WMDs after we invaded."

It's that simple. There's no reason for the Dems to lie about this: It would have been to their advantage to find the weapons, and it would have been to their advantage (cynically) to wap Bush with the loss of the weapons.

May I ask, of Shooter or anyone else, what the heck is anyone on the Right doing linking to this piece of claptrap other than to laugh at it?

Watching the right-wing in retreat with their half-baked theories and policies being blown to smithereens by reality is something to which I have long looked forward. However, unblinking fanaticism prevalent in their belief system that is being revealed during their decline is truly alarming, especially when you consider that these people still comprise about one-fourth to one-third of the voting public and the business end of our executive branch of government in the “world’s only remaining superpower, “ as Glenn puts it.

The point of Glenn’s fine article from this direction is not Phillips’ far-fetched fantasies; it’s the play they get in supposed “legitimate” right-wing blogs across the board. Unfortunately the right-wing doesn’t have a monopoly on such conspiracy theories, but I don’t see, for comparison, the 9/11 inside-job enthusiasts getting much traction in any venue. If anything, they generally are being reviled every bit as much as the Phillips’s of the world.

The right’s favorite rebuttal to the dismantling of their cherished ideologies - whether it’s on global warming, WMD (which, one should note, was also coined by the right with a purposefully moveable definition) or terrorism - is that “The jury is still out.” The right in retreat is now waiting for the additional information they know is out there or the passage of time to turn the tide back in their favor. John Bolton could not have voiced this view more perfectly in Glenn’s quote of him, nor could President Bush with his narcissistic certainty on how he’ll be viewed by historians.

This is where Phillips’ spew is valuable to the right: in order to maintain that iota or more of doubt that allows the RWA followers to still believe they are right and ultimately will be proven so. The “legitimate” right-wing blogs do not even have to wholeheartedly endorse these fictions to accomplish the objective of preserving doubt; just simply say that it needs to be checked out before coming to any conclusions. This is, again, in sharp contrast to the left’s general disavowal of 9/11 conspiracy theories as well as the right’s own evidentiary threshold concerning the views of political opponents.

They probably now consider George W. "too liberal" for their tastes and an "islamofacist sympathizer."

Actually, yes, that is exactly what the right-wing radio talk show hosts have been saying for a few months now. I am pretty sure I heard it on Michael Medved and almost certainly on Savage.

And they say it with certainty, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world that GWB is left of center.

I know. It's amazing.

Sunny Seattle:

Wow. My favorite part is how the Russians and the Chinese are in on the "Islamic bomb." The Russian invasion of Afghanistan, its vicious treatment of the Chechen minority, the horrific Chechen terrorism attacks within Russia, China's treatment of its own Muslim minority -- maybe this would make such partnerships a little, um, problematic?

The Birchers--and others of like mind--had the Communists and the international bankers (can you spell J-E-W?) conspiring together to destroy America, so this is perfectly expected.

Now, if you really want to get arcane about it, you'll go back to the early New England Puritans, as described in Robert Slotkin's Regeneration Through Violence. They had all sorts of enemies--from the crowned heads of Europe they just knew were gunning for them, to the Native Americans, whose land they'd just stolen, to the Quakers, who actually got along with the Native Americans, to the French settlers, who also seemed to get along, by trading more and stealing land less, to the folks back home in England of different faiths (who, truth be told, were actually glad to be rid of them).

Anyway, Slotkin describes how the Puritans imagined that all of their disparate enemies (most of whom had zero contact with each other) were in league with one another. How, you may ask? Well, it's simple. As unbelievers (in the one true faith) they were naturally in league with Satan, and thus, they were all part of one conspiracy. The first non-religious best-sellers in America were what was known as "captivity narratives," stories told by people who had been captured by Native Americans. And thus it was only natural that when witchcraft fears began circulating, one of the memes that cropped up was "captivity by demons" or spirits, or some such.

Bottom line: if you're constitutionally incapable of recognizing the real reasons why you might piss some folks off, you will automatically put yourself in play for thinking that everyone is just ganging up on you because you're so good and they're so evil.

It doesn't matter if the Yankees and the Red Socks have hated each others guts since the days of Warren Harding and Tea Pot Dome. The only reasons they exist is to conspire together to destroy your double-AA team.