In a retrospective the Consortium details how Powell was caught in the middle during Desert Storm between Bush I and the military. The military didn't want to unnecessarily risk casualities on both sides as long as a non-violent resolution was possible. A likely option was rejected by Bush in favor of the war he wanted in order to purge the ghosts of Vietnam. The price was 127 killed in combat and 236 from other causes. Light casualties for an operation of that size but were the ghosts of Vietnam worth it?

It must seem like deja vu all over again for Colin.

DeLong comments and links to Paul Krugman on how the Bushies continue to lie with their statistics.

Maybe all we need to do to improve the fleet gas mileage is to install MPG gauges on cars and let good old American one-ups-man-ship have a free reign. That's certainly proven to be the case for some Honda Insight drivers.

Environmentalists have been stymied in getting real changes through Washington. Just last spring, pressured by both carmakers and auto unions, the Congress rejected a plan that would have increased average fuel efficiency to 36 mpg by 2016. (Thirty-six mpg! Ha!) But maybe for a year or two we should ask for something much simpler: that every vehicle on the road come equipped with a gauge like the one in my Honda. One that shows exactly what kind of mileage you're getting. I'm almost certain that without changing anything else in our cars, fuel efficiency would jump ten percent.

DeLong's graphic say's it all concerning Bushie budgeting.

Update: The one thing needed to make the case complete would be to add a line showing what the deficit would be without any tax cuts.

I was impressed by Powell's presentation. Unlike the other voices in the Bush regime, Powell has protected his integrity by refusing lie even when his telling of the truth caused problems for the rest of them. No one could have made that presentation and have been the least bit believable. Powell was. He did not overstate his case and the conclusions he drew from the evidence were within the bounds of reasonability. It's just too bad his superiors lack that kind of integrity.

It would have been far, far better if the regime had approach the question something like this,
"Yes, we have a war underway against the 9/11 terrorists and their accomplices. But we also have some unfinished business with Iraq. At this time they are not connected. However, now that the terrorists have shown that they have no compunction about inflicting mass casualties we must do all that we can to deprive them of the means to do so. As long as Iraq remains a rogue state, it is more and more likely that the two will eventually get together with disastrous results. Therefore it makes sense that now is the time to finish our business with Iraq and thereby deprive the remaining terrorists of the opportunity to use Iraq's prohibited weapons against us. This appears to be the best way to keep the effectiveness of the terrorists at bay until such time as we can dispose of them directly."

Unfortunately, the regime has few that can be that articulate. Thankfully Powell is one.

Buried in the small print, Timothy Noah finds where a Bushie admits Tax Cut Caused Deficit. A smoking gun of another color.

Richard Dawkins takes those opposing transgenic splicing to task. All DNA is software written to work on a universal operating system. Just because you borrow a useful subroutine from one program (species) doesn't mean that it won't work fine in another.

From Tapped:
Kevin Drum puts creationism in its place. Entrie also has a link to a good one at CSICOP.

From Counterspin:
Gun Industry Ex-Official Describes Bond of Silence
Dennis A. Henigan, legal director for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said of Mr. Ricker's affidavit, "The consummate insider has now exposed the dirty little secret of the gun industry — that is, the underground market is supplied by corrupt gun dealers, and the industry punishes anyone who tries to stop it."

The gun manufacturers may have just put holes in their own feet.

As tempting as it may be for the Democrats to pile more pork onto the Bush regime's egregious budget, they must...resist...resist...resist. They must be very careful and find ways to show restraint amid the Bush profligacy. All Democrat recommended spending must be coupled with recommended revenue streams, tough as that may be. If they hope to turn the ship of state away from the iceberg they must be able hang the Republicans in 2004 with their own fiscal ropes. Furthermore they must forthrightly attack line items that are clearly Republican pork. They will not win on those points but they must have a demonstrable record of fiscal restraint in 2004.

Democrats must make the case over and over again that in the Republican party, ideology and campaign paybacks are more important than sound economics. And they must also subsume cherished Democratic ideology to sound economics. Clinton dismayed the party faithful at times by stealing worthwhile ideas from the Republicans. But it worked and worked well. In these times we don't have the luxury of ideological experiments. What we need is hard-nosed pragmatism. If a sitting Democrat can not reconcile him- or herself to this, they are dragging on the party rather than lifting.

An interesting concept on putting your money where you mouth is on the death penalty. Suppose we make the prosecutors and jurors pay the ultimate price when they make a mistaken conviction. How willing would you be to pronounce a death sentence if your life was on the line if you were wrong?

Leonard Burman on a better to tax capital income only once. Forget dividend. Tax capital gains at the full rate when those gains have not been taxed at the corporate level.

Moreover, the most compelling argument for lower capital gains tax rates on corporate stocks is as an offset to double taxation.4 If double taxation were eliminated, as under the administration's proposal, there would be no good reason to retain a tax preference for capital gains. Thus, a natural alternative would be to combine relief from double taxation with full taxation of capital gains that have not been taxed at the corporate level. This note considers te effect of modifying the Administration's proposal to also eliminate the preferential tax rates on capital gains.5 In contrast to the Administration's proposal, this option would be fiscally responsible, broadly progressive, and would improve the odds that capital income is taxed once.

via Mark Kleiman via DeLong.

Jimmy Carter on Iraq.

The cost of an on-site inspection team would be minuscule compared to war, Saddam would have no choice except to comply, the results would be certain, military and civilian casualties would be avoided, there would be almost unanimous worldwide support, and the United States could regain its leadership in combating the real threat of international terrorism.

(Hat tip to Ben Spinoza)

James Capozzola over at Rittenhouse posts a more in-depth analysis of the problem with the Estrada nomination. In more obfuscation Linda Chavez gives Estrada her whole-hearted support but no good reason why.
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."

Watch out for the coming ultimate tax shelters known as Roth 401K's. Can this be right? Will wealthy people be able to put post-tax money into investment instruments whose future appreciation will never be taxed? And will these shelters be able to be inherited? Will one be able to spend the proceeds of these investments tax-free?

Talk about class warfare! Let's leave this Trojan horse outside. Maybe even put a torch to it.

The beauty of measuring the performance of the Bush regime against its self-expressed goals is that the regime will not be able to scapegoat its failure onto an obstructive Congress. By 2004 there is a high probability they will have hung themselves several times over.

Tapped demonstrates once again that this regime intentionally ignores the lack of evidence of an Iraq/Al Qaeda link.

The horse doesn't do permalinks that I can tell. But they do good job of putting Ann Coulter and Miguel Estrada in the same box.

-- Coulter's clam-up confirms that the right-wing strategy is to say NOTHING about what Estrada thinks, and on that basis to ram him through as a stealth candidate.

-- Coulter final bit of bravado, just as she goes to pieces, confirms that she knows exactly what his views on the law and the judiciary are -- and that they are just as extremist as hers are. Of that she, at least, is absolutely confident.

It's past time for the press to follow up on both of these points. The United States Senate and the American people deserve to know all they can about Estrada's views on important legal issues, like the status of Roe v. Wade. And it's the sworn duty of the press to find out that kind of information, even (or even especially) when faced with official stonewalling.

Space travel is a dangerous endeavor, even when things appear to be routine. There is little margin for error and no technology is immune from failure. It will always be so. Those who venture there walk a high-wire without a net. Let's not forget.

Hesiod points to a Iraqi defector who calls some of Hamza's testimony into question. This guy was in the Iraq nuke program 4 years after Hamza left. His story is internally consistent and is consistent with the IAEA reports. Basically he says that the Iraqi nuke program never recovered from Desert Storm.