It's a meme we've heard for so long...the weakness of our party on issues of defense. We're 'capitulators,' as our President would say. Weak-kneed. Soft Sallys. Roll over Beethoven. Go on, say it. You have some snarky two-word combo that perhaps rhymes to describe their behavior. Lofty softies? Elities with no wheaties? Pliable unreliables?

But....it's true.

We are weak on defense.

Fair and Balanced....the things I love today, the things I hate today, and the things that generally leave me ambivalent.

What pops into your head?

The big question on everyone's mind these days seems to be "when are we gonna go to war with Iran?"

It's kinda scary that we seem to be moving beyond the mere "will we go to war?" and breezing quickly past the "why should we go to war" to:

Who: Iran
What: Attack them
Where: In their country
Why: Islamofacism / WMD / because their former neighbor tried to kill my daddy / because historically we oppose Aryan nations / because Osama once visited Qom / because of Tehran’s scheduled opening of the Iran Oil Bourse on March 20, 2006 / because either Jesus or Frederick Kagan or my dog Barney told Dick and me to / classified, but trust me.  
How: With good ol' American gumption (translation: we don't have the resources, but don't tell the American people that)

So that leaves
When: UNDETERMINED

More below the fold.........

First and foremost, this site belongs to Kos. Let's all acknowledge that, and let's be grateful for the tremendous impact that is has had (at least, IMHO) over the last few years, and especially during the '06 season.

Looking forward to 2008, I was contemplating all of those things that made Kos great, as well as some ways I would like to see the site organized. And let's be honest....organization is going to be the keystone of success in 2008.

We won, almost. Virginia remains officially up in the air at the time I'm writing this, but whatever. This was a mandate for change, and the President's very obseqious press conference (a first!) clearly demonstrated that he got the message. But wait, you better start sobering up. Put down that bottle of 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, and get ready to start all over again.

Let me begin by laying out my bias for all to see: born in the U.S., immigrated to Israel where I lived for a number of years, served in the IDF, eventually returning to the U.S. where I currently reside.

Obviously I'm pro-Israel, as are many on dKos. And over the last week my unease has slowly yet inexorably grown.

More below the fold:

Ha'aretz is reporting that Israel has withdrawn from the international federation of journalists (IFJ). No more news than that, but it certainly is an interesting turn of events.

This likely does not deserve its own diary and could have been posted as a comment in another middle east diary (jesus, we have plenty of them, you know?), but I wanted to separate it from the vitriol that seems to fly back and forth at rates exceeding Katyusha rockets. I didn't see anything on dKos on this, but if this has already been diaried, I apologize.

Below the Fold...

UPDATES AT BOTTOM Just saw this on Yahoo News! and Ha-aretz:
Israel has arrested about thirty members of the Hamas-led Palestinian authority, according to various news sources.

Quotes below the flip:
 

Or so we thought. In a story from Reuters (linked through Yahoo below), we learn that a recent speech Cheney delivered in Vilnius is being compared to Churchill's 1946 speech defining the "iron curtain." Though I'm sure Cheney's speech did not possess one-tenth the gravitas of any of Churchill's utterings.

So, we (not me, but the collective 'we' of Americans) chose an incompetent president, VP and cabinet. That's old news, and is the source of about 10 million diaries a day throughout the blogosphere. But at the very least, we thought we were getting the benefit of a Condi Rice Sovietologist. Sure, we didn't need one...as Clinton departed and Yeltsin yielded to Putin, everything was hunky dory. Hell, Russia was practically a U.S. state, albeit one with lots of vodka and pretty rough winters (try to imagine Spring Break in Prudhoe Bay).  

Follow me below the fold

Last Saturday I posted a diary entitled Refusal Pharmacists - a National Registry? (See Diary: http://www.dailykos.com/...). There was a good deal of positive feedback, and I wanted to follow-up with my current thoughts surrounding this matter. First of all, I agree with those posters who said that the issue runs much deeper than just logging which pharmacists are refusing service for certain meds (specifically, birth control).

The intent with such a registry isn't to resolve the underlying issues that have allowed us to reach this impasse. Frankly, the primary intent isn't even to assist the market in redressing the issue, though that may (hopefully) happen. "Market redress" is a wonderful concept when contemplating the ease of use or ugly color of an MP3 player, but on social issues such as women's rights to contraception....change needs to occur through legislative means.

Follow me below the fold.

This is my first diary, so I would ask - right off the bat - that everyone forgive any formating or contextual issues. I have sat and watched (read) Kos for the last year or so, sucking at the teat of rationality like many others. And, like many others, I have perhaps viewed this as a spectator sport...posting a few comments here and there, and launching diatribes at my wife and family regarding many of the critical issues touched upon here. But something showed up in the mail a few days ago that got me thinking.It was from an organization called POPULATION CONNECTION, and the focus of the mailout was to request help for a "Petition Regarding Access to Birth Control."

More below the fold: