Are the political leaders of Iran ‘nice people’? Not likely.
Do I ‘trust’ them? No.
But so what? The world is chock-full of assholes.

When the weapon you inflict on someone else ends up creating mutations in your own tissues, then congrats on your Mutant Phyrric Victory. What does the BushCheney administration think they’re going to ‘win’? How many kinds of cancer do we need to inflict on ourselves before we get sane leaders who recognize that it’s the age of molecular biology, and that weapons like nuclear warheads should go the way of the Mercury Capri, the Toni Perm, and Velvetta?

Don’t more national leaders — besides Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel — have the conceptual ability to see larger patterns? Are these the only two ‘national leaders’ who seem to have a f*cking clue that what we breath, eat, and drink becomes part our own tissues?

One can only assume that neither Bush, nor Cheney (nor Putin, Akmeniadjaid (sp??), nor Bin Laden) have even a basic understanding of cell biology — a subject commonly taught in most US high schools. If they had the slightest grasp of the reactions involved in genetic damage from chemical and nuclear toxins, they could not possibly speak or act as they do.

I don’t believe that I’m alone in being furious, appalled, and deeply alarmed.

At this point, I don’t give a damn whether someone is ‘Democrat’ or ‘Republican’. I’m fed up with the superficial, distracting labels. I do care whether they’re sane, whether they can connect dots, and whether they can consider very complex information without being sucked into egotistical lunacy.

Webb and Hagel should not have to do so much Congressional heavy lifting. Where the f*ck are the other 98 so-called ‘leaders’ in the United States Senate?! How can 98 United States Senators have less collective knowledge than a classfull of teens at my local public high school? Appalling.

Apologies for the rant, but I appreciate the opportunity. Like many Americans, part of my life was spent ‘downwind’ of nuclear technologies in the American West. I’m not alone in knowing the bitter, tragic cost of technologies that promised power, but instead delivered years of suffering. If anyone understands the risks of nuclear weapons, it should be the Japanese, those affected by Chernobyl, and some of us (pissed off, indignant rowdies) from the ‘Libertarian West’.

Bush, Cheney, and their corrupt administration are full of sh*t, but it’s inexcusable that there are only two United States Senators speaking out — firmly — against this madness. That is absolutely, unacceptably inexcusable on the part of Congress. Shameful.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aatrvash/Iran02/photo?authkey=WHfBV-cDZ2E#s5096647238259937938

A bit long, with too much architecture, in my view. But many beautiful photos.

A nuclear bomb can only reliably accomplish one thing, incinerate a large above ground infrastructure, such as a city or a military inastallation. The sometimes reported use as a bunker buster is over-rated. No matter how deep a bomb can penetrate (which for a nuclear bomb is not very deep), it’s always possible for the enemy to dig deeper. Even then, the above ground damage is still widespread. To increase underground destruction range by ten times means having to increase explosive power a thousand times, which pretty much guarantees vast widespread above ground destruction. Energy discharge follows the path of least resistance.

So a critic of nuking Iran would point out the huge indiscriminate damage to life and widespread surrounding environment. Then an advocate would claim destruction of Iran’s nuclear weapons aspirations; except that they have not been proven to exist.

If the under ground targets are deep enough, which we could reasonably expect is possible, then they can be isolated and effectively neutralized by destroying the tunnel entrances leading to them with regular explosives, just about as well as with nukes.

So what do we gain by deploying a nuke? An asshole like Cheney might imagine he gets superficially bigger balls. The reality is that what the country gets is a bad reputation.

Here is Valerie on Countdown
http://greenleegazette.blogspot.com/2007/10/valerie-plame-on-countdown-with-keith.html

Meanwhile B-52 pilot (retired) offers something more realistic and useful:

They were used as “saber rattling” or a prelude to their actual use.

A slim possibility would be if the whole thing was a test to see if safeguards worked. The only problem with that is, you would run the test with simulations of real nukes, not actual real nukes; and if that were the case, it would have been quickly pointed out, which it wasn’t.

Back to saber rattling vs real use. Either one is an over-blown threat, and what do we gain? Everyone in the world already knows we have the most devastating nuclear armament. To me it sounds like chest-beating. so, the sooner we get the monkeys out of the tool shed, the better.

Think Progress has more
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/06/cheney-impeachment-measure-advances/

Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney advanced in the House today due largely to the backing of House Republicans. Kucinich’s measure “failed to win the backing of the House leadership,” and when a vote came to table the impeachment resolution, conservatives voted against it before they voted for it:

Midway through the vote, with instructions from the GOP leadership, Republicans one by one changed their votes from yes — to kill the resolution — to no, trying to force the chamber into a debate and an up-or-down vote on the proposal.

At one point there were 290 votes to table. After the turnaround, the final vote was 251-162 against tabling, with 165 Republicans voting against it.

“We’re going to help them out, to explain themselves,” said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas. “We’re going to give them their day in court.”

UPDATE: The House just voted 218-194 to send Kucinich’s impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee, thus killing the bill and preventing a debate on impeachment.

UPDATE II: CapNewsNet has video of the activity on the House floor today. November 6, 2007 4:34 pm | Comment (101)