From Eschaton

Indeed

What Big Media Matt says:

The right would like to set up the following argument: If there are no attacks between now and the election, then Bush has defended us from terror and deserves re-election; if there is an attack between now and the election, then voting for Kerry would be appeasement.

Spain is just the dry-run.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. This is already being said for Spain so you can guarantee that it will be used here. The problem is that the vote by the Spanish had little to do with appeasement and a lot to do with being misled by their government, something this Adminstraation is good at. However, I do not expect the press to be bright enough to recognize that here since they do not seem to have reasoned that out from Spain.  comment []5:07:08 PM    

Wow, an Interview. From Face the Nation:

SCHIEFFER: Well, let me just ask you this. If they did not have these weapons of mass destruction, though, granted all of that is true, why then did they pose an immediate threat to us, to this country?
Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, you're the--you and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase `immediate threat.' I didn't. The president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's--that's what's happened. The president went...

SCHIEFFER: You're saying that nobody in the administration said that.

Sec. RUMSFELD: I--I can't speak for nobody--everybody in the administration and say nobody said that.

SCHIEFFER: Vice president didn't say that? The...

Sec. RUMSFELD: Not--if--if you have any citations, I'd like to see 'em.

Mr. FRIEDMAN: We have one here. It says `some have argued that the nu'--this is you speaking--`that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent, that Saddam is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain.'

Sec. RUMSFELD: And--and...

Mr. FRIEDMAN: It was close to imminent.

Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, I've--I've tried to be precise, and I've tried to be accurate. I'm s--suppose I've...

Mr. FRIEDMAN: `No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world and the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.'

Sec. RUMSFELD: Mm-hmm. It--my view of--of the situation was that he--he had--we--we believe, the best intelligence that we had and other countries had and that--that we believed and we still do not know--we will know.

More immediate imminence at CAP.

(via David Sirota) [Eschaton]

Kinda makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.  comment []12:13:05 PM    

Al Qaeda Is The New Nader. With the elections yesterday giving control of the Spanish government to the Socialists, over the coalition of the willing's Popular... [stevenberlinjohnson.com]

A great post that succintly presents the anti-Iraq point of view. The comments are even better. This is the sort of discussion we should be having, not 'you are with me or against me.'  comment []10:02:29 AM    

"software wars" [Daypop Top 40]

A great map of the OS war now ongoing. My Mom will love this. I hooked her up with Macs close to 15 years ago and she has been a tiger ever since in the trenches. Back when Compaq was Compaq, she braced a VP's wife about how awful Windows was. I view her as one of the many skirmishers along the front.  comment []9:58:32 AM