Break out the french fries, brie and croissants!

An important new poll is out. I'll jump right to it:

Public Agenda and its partner Foreign Affairs today made public the fourth edition of the Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index (CFPI)...

The Spring 2007 Anxiety Indicator stands at 137, well above the neutral
mid-point of 100 and a seven point increase since September 2006. "The
Anxiety Indicator is moving closer to the 150 mark, the 'red zone' that to
me would signal a full blown crisis of public confidence," said Public
Agenda Chairman Daniel Yankelovich. Full report at: publicagenda.org/CFPI4

-- Public support for military solutions in many scenarios is virtually
off the table for most of the public. In dealing with Iran, support
for possible military action is in the single digits (8 percent)

-- 70 percent say that criticism that the United States has been too
quick to resort to war is at least partly justified (31 percent say
it's "totally justified"). On what the government must do to fight
terrorism, 67 percent say we should put more emphasis on diplomatic
and economic methods, while 27 percent say more emphasis on military
efforts

-- 84 percent say "initiating military force only when we have the
support of our allies" should be important to our foreign policy (51
percent say "very important")

Great news, Francophiles! Break out the Croque Monsieur, Perrier with a twist, and a nice bottle of Burgundy for lunch. Yes, in honor of the French, go and take a three-hour lunch.

Bill "Nostradumbass" Kristol may want to join you. He needs a three hour lunch. And he needs to get drunk. Just be ready lots of tears and self-pity.

Here are links to the full report, and analysis by the authors.

Morphing Dubya and Jimmy Carter = Tony Blair

Poor Tony Blair. First, he has the war monger/Dubya's poodle legacy. Now, shades of Jimmy Carter, Blair is embroiled in an Iranian Hostage Crisis.

This man gets no breaks; and deserves none, either.

Thursday political potpourri

Glenn Greenwald on why Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater couldn't survive in today's conservative scene. Greenwald's money shot:

[T]he right-wing movement in this country is now -- an authoritarian movement animated by the Orwellian slogan that "security leads to freedom" which embraces and seeks ever-expanding government power based on the claimed need to protect people from all the scary, lurking dangers in the world -- dangers which are constantly stoked and inflammed in order to maximize the craving for "security," derived by vesting more and more power in the hands of our strong, protective Leaders.

Meanwhile, the Politico reports republicans are fearful of a 2008 meltdown. Hmmm, I couldn't possibly guess why.


Former British ambassador Craig Murray charges the Brits have produced a fake map of the Iran-Iraq border to explain away the hostage crisis.
Murray writes:

A) The Iran/Iraq maritime boundary shown on the British government map does not exist. It has been drawn up by the British Government. Only Iraq and Iran can agree their bilateral boundary, and they never have done this in the Gulf, only inside the Shatt because there it is the land border too. This published boundary is a fake with no legal force.

B) Accepting the British coordinates for the position of both HMS Cornwall and the incident, both were closer to Iranian land than Iraqi land. Go on, print out the map and measure it. Which underlines the point that the British produced border is not a reliable one.

Murray goes on to note that none of this excuses the Iranians not giving back the Brits. Barry Lando picks up the story, too.


The New York Times reports a widening income gap between the rich and poor in this country to a level not seen since before the depression. Cue a Bush administration mouthpiece saying with a straight face that everyone has benefited from the tax cuts. Ahh yes, here's Brookly McLaughlin, the chief Treasury Department spokeswoman.

[T]he share of income taxes paid by lower-income taxpayers will be lower than it would have been without the tax relief, while the share of income taxes for higher-income taxpayers will be higher.

The administration can get away with this because they are without shame. Meanwhile, reep POTUS candidates are all vying for more tax cuts (WSJ).

Yesterday was the annual broadcasters dinner with hosts Dubya and Flava Rove. This little affair is quite informative about the incestuous little affair between big media and the political elites. The American public is ever the loser when Karl Rove can rap to the correspondents who give your nightly news.

The Saudi King isn't holding Dubya's hand anymore, at least when it comes to the Iraq war. Street cred at the Arab Summit apparently trumps American interests. Wow. I am so surprised.


On a positive note, the Tuskegee Airmen are finally going to be honored with the richly deserved Congressional Gold Medal. My only complaint - they aren't taking George Tenent's.