iran: what next?

* emptywheel has another wonderful post up - this time asking some 'what ifs?' about the apparently imminent attack on iran - and she mocks the folly of wargaming. she doesn't mention it, but remember the wargames before the iraq invasion, and they went horribly wrong so the military simply said 'nah - that's not in the rules - you aren't allowed to do that'

* i left a comment over there: "i'm reminded of the ex-poste rationalization for the fuck-up in iraq that the pundits now wisely spout - that 'no military plan survives first contact with the enemy' - i guess that's why they dont even bother having one."

* and in the comments, EW asks the eternal question: "we've got to start asking why we went to war in Iraq and why we're threatening to do so in Iran."

* "When Claude Allen, President Bush's longtime domestic-policy adviser, resigned suddenly on Feb. 9, it baffled administration critics and fans... Known as Rove’s enforcer, Allen wielded a heavy, censorious and punitive hand at HHS... Allen was the driving force to replace science-based sex ed with the failed policy of teaching that only abstinence prevents AIDS. A black conservative and religious primitive, Allen helped bludgeon the Centers for Disease Control, which reports to HHS, into purging safe-sex materials from its Web sites and into adopting mandatory new rules requiring AIDS-fighting groups to teach that condoms don’t work in preventing the spread of AIDS...
Allen was arrested yesterday and charged in a felony theft and a felony theft scheme. According to a department press release, Allen conducted approximately 25 fraudulent "refunds" in Target and Hecht's stores" (link)

* pessimism at TLC has a wrap-up of the impeachment movement. (i'm told that ADS will have more news this week)

* sandra day oconnor: "Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and formerly Communist countries, where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship," she said, "but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.""
which is all well and good, except she got the ball rolling.