WWIII, made to order for McCain.

"Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards." -- Dick Cheney

Dicky-boy and the Israelis will be doing their level best to keep the White House in the GOP's hands, you can be sure.

McCain's War:

McCain advisor Charlie Black told Fortune Magazine that a terrorist attack on the US before the election would "be a big advantage" to the McCain campaign. Naturally, he immediatly recanted when McCain distanced himself from Black's comment (only distanced, not fired) but we all know what he says is true.

The AP reports today respondants to a new poll say "McCain would do a better job in Iraq than Obama by a margin of 39 percent to 33 percent. . . More than twice as many believe McCain can better handle terrorism than Obama."

The only thing missing in all this good news translating into McCain actually having a chance of winning in November - - is a good war.

Barring the towel-heads deciding to play ball in time to help McCain win (which they probably would prefer) there's always Iran!

CBS reports today:

"The Israelis are mounting a full court press to get the Bush administration to strike Iran's nuclear complex. . . Israel's message is simple: If you don't, we will." [see above]

Surely, they're bluffing, right? Our good friends the Israelis would never drag us into WWIII, would they?

The Independent reports:

"Israel has mounted a major long-range military air exercise – involving more than 100 F15 and F16 fighters – as a rehearsal for a potential strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, American officials have indicated. . ."

And to put a finer point on the threat, two weeks ago, Shaul Mofaz, Israeli Transport Minister and a former military chief of staff and defence minister, said: "If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons we will attack. . . Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable." [Haaretz]

[The price of a barrel of oil jumped $11 after his comments. The drivers of America thank you Israel!]

John McCain says he doesn't foresee a draft any time soon. Unless, that is, "we were in an all-out World War III." [Reuters]

Parents, grab your kids and pack them off to Canada while you still can!!!!

P.S.

Has any American politician ever thought of telling Israel to cut the crap and stop blackmailing us? I'm thinking the threat of cutting off the money would focus their attention pretty quickly. Israel is the one country in the Middle East that doesn't have us under a barrel. They've got no oil, so frack 'em!

Supreme Court ruling like drunken sailors

News item:

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the nation's worst tanker spill.

By a 5-3 vote, the high court ruled that the punitive damages award should be slashed -- limited by the circumstances of the case to an amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages of $507.5 million."

What a freakin' travesty! What a joke!

So, in effect, Exxon has just gamed the justice system for the past 20 or so years waiting for a friendly court packed by a fellow oil man to get out of having to pay for destroying the livelihoods of some 33,000 Alaskans. They went from having to fork out $5 billion, which would take them about four days to make, to paying a paltry $500 million which will take them about 24 hours to recoup. I think I heard somewhere that works out to about $15,000 for each victim of Exxon's drunken sailor.

Don't spend it all in one place folks!

Now, that's real non-activist justice for you.

Of course, the ruling was 5-3 because Justice Alito has money wrapped up in Exxon. Many of the Justices, in fact, have the same recusal problem Alito has. Makes inquiring minds think that any corporation with a sob story coming before the Court is going to get a more than favorable hearing.

But not to worry, any hint of impropriety is being taken care of as we speak! As the WaPo pointed out earlier this month, the Justices have been selling off a lot of their stock lately in order to maintain the bare minimum of Justices required to hear cases. All of them have such a pressing financial interest in many of the cases they're hearing, you understand, it makes them look . . . well, not so impartial.

The WaPo:

"It was not clear whether the justices took advantage of a recent change in federal law that allows them to defer paying taxes on capital gains by reinvesting the proceeds in mutual funds, government bonds or other assets. " [They're so naive at the WaPo, aren't they?]

Making some token sales of stock to make it look like they're impartial? $500 million. Making even more money while doing it? Priceless!

And coming along soon is the big decision on DC's gun ban and the individual's right to bare arms, a concept not recognized by the courts in decades, but coming to a gun show near you soon.

Anyone know how much stock Alito has in the gun industry, btw?