Well, looks like Bush is up to his old tricks again, doing his best to provoke an Iranian military response which would bypass the oversight of Congress and launch us into full-scale conflict with Iran before the election.

Now the details of this latest incident are particularly disturbing, as the shots were fired - not from a U.S. Navy boat - but from a "vessel contracted by the Navy".

Do we now employ proxy contractors now as surrogate war instigators?

All this talk of ABC's bias last night got me a little wondering, so I turned on KSFO 560 AM last night after the debate.  This is the Bay Area's local hate radio (right-wing) station.  It happens to be an ABC affiliate.

Now I've listened to this crap before - for humorous content.  But having been part of this community for a while now, it took on new significance.

But I still wasn't ready for what I heard this morning.

No, I'm not making this up.  This is extraordinary.

The ambassador's name is Dr. Hamid Al-Bayati.

He has a colorful history.

Back in 2003, he was the UK representative of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a Shiite political party.

Just got this news in, and I know all you fellow Kossacks are going to want to jump right on it and be there to report on it when it happens.

As you may know, the Sun is the star at the center of our solar system.

It is the primary source of heat and light for our planet.

If you look up now, you might even see it.  In the event that it's behind a cloud, you may have to wait a bit before it comes out from behind.

John McCain said this yesterday:

We need to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies.

Yep, we all know which "democratic allies" he's talking about.  In the middle east, that's Israel.  And what John is saying here is that he wants to follow in the Bush footsteps of conducting middle eastern policy per the wishes of the hard right Israel lobby.  The same lobby which pushed us to hit Iraq (a country primarily of concern to Israel) after 9/11 instead of countries who actually had something to do with Al Qaeda.

Back in 1999, in my younger, Republican years, I felt a certain affinity for a man from Arizona named John McCain.  He was a rebel.  He spoke of change in Washington D.C., of responsible spending, and of making us proud of our country.

The message resonated with me, and I made my first ever political donation.

Well, it turns out to be pretty damn difficult to get off of John McCain's mailing list.  And - God knows - I've tried.

For those who believe, today is the day that we remember when Jesus Christ died on the cross.  He did so to carry our sins that we not be burdened with them any more.

This was the climax of an amazing journey for a man who fulfilled prophecy and then proceeded to turn it on its head.

The Jews expected a Messiah, one who would reassume the throne of David, lead them out of physical slavery to the Romans, and once again guide them to military superiority.

What they got was a Messiah who preached about forgiving your enemies, about not casting the first stone, and that your greatest commandment was to love one another.

I've been intrigued at the Daily Kos tradition of rewarding truly bad diaries with postings of recipes.

Well, let's try something different here.

Let's put on our thinking caps and imagine some appropriate recipes to keep Hillary Clinton busy after she loses her bid for the presidential nomination.  After all, she's going to have lots of time off the campaign trail.

On September 26, 2001, The Onion returned to publication for the first time since 9/11.  Its feature point/counterpoint was entitled:

We Must Retaliate With Blind Rage
vs.
We Must Retaliate With Measured, Focused Rage

This is quite representative of the challenge we now face as we choose how to respond to Hillary Clinton's nuclear attack on Barack Obama and the Democratic party's 2008 presidential election campaign as a whole.

There's a new think tank on the loose, guys, and it's called the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.  They're on a veritable rampage, penning articles and missives to the editor on a set of issues we are all too familiar with.

It doesn't take long to see these clowns for what they are, another front for the neoconservative agenda: anti-U.N., pro-Iraq war, shills for Israel via proxy (in this case, Lebanon), and pro-Iran invasion.

But let's take a closer look at who is behind this.

You know, it's very confusing following John McCain's positions on torture.

After all, he's the most famous torture survivor in the country today.

And he's even been known to put up a principled stand again torture here and there in the past few years.

Ah, but that was before the 2008 presidential election campaign.

I realize that it's popular sport around here to lambast Libertarians.

I understand the sheer joy there is in poking at Ron Paul and some of his supporters on the fringe.

But let's return to the issue at hand: unseating the Republicans in November.  There are, among Libertarians, many like myself and others I've bumped into here at DailyKos who are inclined to attempt to unseat the Republicans should the alternative not be too unpalatable.

So I want to explore 10 specific ways to exploit the common interests of Libertarians and Democrats in the 2008 campaign to turn more of us Libertarians into political allies instead of enemies.

Well, I've never been a wallflower, and this is no exception.  Here goes, my first diary.

Not only is all this whining and ranting about JetBlue unproductive, it demonstrates a failure to have learned from the experience.

Let's look at what happened:

• Kos organized a conference
• JetBlue agreed to sponsor travel to it
• Kossacks claimed JetBlue was making a political statement by supporting your event
• JetBlue carefully distanced themselves from such an impression
• The right wing piled on
• Kossacks threw a hissy fit, with the party line that somehow the right wing was trying to pressure JetBlue, our new best friend in the whole corporate world, to pull its sponsorship
• JetBlue did the only obvious thing it could do to stop being a political football - it pulled out

Now, take a deep breath and think about this.