Something has been puzzling me for a while now:

Why has the Israeli bombing strike on Syria's covert nuclear project gotten so little press? It now seems very likely that the Syrians were indeed trying to put together a Yongbyong type of facility that would allow them to manufacture bomb material. The fact that they have said next to nothing about it and have rapidly erased the site without allowing the IAEA to look at it seems to seal the guilty verdict on this incident.

So, why hasn't the Bush administration trumpeted this loudly? The answer just came to me today.

The reason they are downplaying this is because it exposes how easy it is for the US to find, identify, and destroy potential nuclear weapons facilities before they ever become operational. The Israelis don't have the spy satellites; we do. It exposes just how fraudulent the case leading to the invasion of Iraq was. The US claimed to have good information about Iraq's nuclear facilities, but the UN inspection teams never found anything at the sites that the US claimed. Nuclear facilities are hard to hide. Nuclear facilities under construction are even harder to hide.

Iraq didn't have a nuclear program, and the US, and the Bush team, knew it without the shadow of a doubt. This is why the Bush administration is avoiding this story. Now, we are seeing the same sort of misinformation in the matter of Iran. There is little doubt that Iran has already made the political decision to build a nuclear weapon. Their protestations to the contrary hold about as much water these days as anything that comes out of the White House.

The trillion dollar question is, how long will it take them to do this? How long does the world community have to try to negotiate a framework that will keep Iran and its' nuclear program---and the US/EU/Israeli response to it---from setting the entire middle east aflame? The Bush administration wants the American people to believe that bombing is necessary before the end of 2008. Most impartial nuclear experts agree that accumulating enough highly enriched uranium to build a weapon that quickly would require a lot more centrifuges of better design than Iran is currently operating.

The Bush administration knows this. The Syrian incident proves it. They want a war. Fast. And they will lie in order to get it, just as they did in Iraq.

In a triumph of astonishingly bad timing, the wingnut Heartland Institute released this congratulatory article about Pawlenty, just three hours before the bridge fell into the river:

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId...

My favorite part is near the end:

"...The transportation bill veto is the only one the DFL tried to override. The attempt came with less than 20 minutes remaining in the session and was defeated by House Republicans, led by Minority Leader Marty Seifert (R-Marshall).

"Democrats made too many campaign promises to win their seats and are now learning they can't pay for them," Marshall said after the failed override attempt.

Ultimately, it was the DFL's inability to override any of Pawlenty's vetoes--particularly of the transportation bill--that resulted in a comparatively small $3 billion increase in state spending with no new taxes.

Said Krinkie of the 2007 session, "Minnesotans really need to thank Gov. Pawlenty and Rep. Seifert's House Republicans. These guys stood strong in the face of overwhelming pressure and came through for taxpayers when they really needed them."..."

I think that all Minnesotans should read this article so that they know who to thank, and for what.

Tim Pawlenty is a Republican hypocrite who has held Minnesota hostage to his "no tax increases" lie for years. Pawlenty has raised plenty of taxes by reducing state taxes on business, thereby forcing local governments to raise property taxes on homeowners---a lot.

In 2005, Pawlenty vetoed a gas tax increase for Minnesota road maintenance and construction:

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/feat... /

As a result, a cash-strapped Mndot tried to get Contractors to self-finance road projects; predictably, the Contractors said "F@#* off":

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/49744...

Pawlenty vetoed a gas tax increase again in 2007:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/w... /

Mndot is still woefully underfunded. I'm sure the plan was to do nothing with this "structurally deficient" bridge until Pawlenty was safely on his way to Washington as a hero of Republican tax policy.

I think his political career went into the river along with all of those poor people.