boom

just weeks ago Bush was speaking of a "holocaust" due to Iran's nuclear ambitions. but the day before he made that speech

The International Atomic Energy Agency...reported "significant" cooperation from Iran with its nuclear probe...
IAEA Deputy Director-General Olli Heinonen highlighted the importance of Tehran's increased readiness to answer questions about former nuclear activities...
"We have an important step for the first time," he said. "We have been able to agree ... on how to resolve the outstanding issues...This is not an open-ended timeline."
VIENNA, Austria (AP)

so, if the rationale for bombing Iran is fading, no worries, find another one: Iran is helping Iraq - lets bomb them anyway.

ITEM: "The Pentagon is preparing to build a military base near the Iraq-Iran border to try to curtail the flow of advanced Iranian weaponry to Shiite militants across Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday in its online edition."
Reuters.com

ITEM: U.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan-Fox News
"...according to a well-placed Bush administration source, "everyone in town" is now participating in a broad discussion about the costs and benefits of military action against Iran, with the likely timeframe for any such course of action being over the next eight to 10 months, after the presidential primaries have probably been decided, but well before the November 2008 elections."

ITEM: Lieberman to Petraeus yesterday: "Is it time to give you authority, in pursuit of your mission in Iraq, to pursue those Iranian Quds Force operations in Iranian territory, in order to protect Americas troops in Iraq?" Petraeus didn't exactly say no: "...any kinds of operations outside the borders of Iraq would rightly be overseen by the Central Command."

ITEM: the British troops that you heard were withdrawing from Basra - they're headed for the Iran border:
"British forces have been sent from Basra to the volatile border with Iran amid warnings from the senior US commander in Iraq that Tehran is fomenting a "proxy war".
In signs of a fast-developing confrontation, the Iranians have threatened military action in response to attacks launched from Iraqi territory while the Pentagon has announced the building of a US base and fortified checkpoints at the frontier." - The independent (UK)

ITEM: "Reports that the Bush Administration will put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list can be read in one of two ways: it's either more bluster or, ominously, a wind-up for a strike on Iran. Officials I talk to in Washington vote for a hit on the IRGC, maybe within the next six months. And they think that as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities." - Robert Baer, Time.com

the democrat majority in congress has pussied out on any real troop withdrawal in Iraq. they have been dazzled by the shiny objects on the general's coat and are merely racking up sound-bites for future use in primary ads. Bush will throw them a bone tomorrow night and announce a possible troop cut - but the most optimistic estimates put the number of troops in Iraq in January, 2009 at 135,000 - the same number that we started with. (estimates of the number of non-uniform mercenaries there add another 100,000.)
now, a third war is brewing, hawks like Lieberman and McCain are fanning the flames, and the dems are barely awake.
want more bad news?
"Dollar hits fresh 15-year low" - Financial Times
and this:

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported Tuesday...
The statement reflected the Kremlin's efforts to restore Russia's global clout and rebuild the nation's military might while the ties with Washington have been strained over U.S. criticism of Russia's backsliding on democracy, Moscow's vociferous protests of U.S. missile defense plans, and rifts over global crises.
The U.S. Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs, is a large-yield satellite-guided, air-delivered bomb described as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in history.
Booming oil prices have allowed Russia to steadily increase military spending in recent years, and the Kremlin has taken a more assertive posture in global affairs.
Last month, President Vladimir Putin said he ordered the resumption of regular patrols of strategic bombers, which were suspended after the 1991 Soviet breakup.

didn't i tell you that the dvtv astrologer is usually right?

oops? OOPS?!

when i first heard the reports of a B-52 Stratofortress that 'accidentally' carried five 150-kiloton nuclear-armed cruise missiles earlier today i was suspicious. now i'm concerned.

a post on Larry Johnson's blog sheds some light and offers some possible explanation.

Johnson is ex-CIA and has worked with U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism, and now heads an anti-terror consulting firm that "works with US military commands in scripting terrorism exercises", according to his bio.

his post contains some inside perspective on this unusual incident:

"(H)ow does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him...My buddy...reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can’t imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

various comments on this blog back up the notion that cruise missiles don't just get strapped on a B-52's wing by accident.

"There is no way the weapons would have moved without a top-level...directive to do so, because of treaty obligations dating to the Cold War, because of the potential for really big problems in the wrong hands or if there’s a crash during transport."

"Pilots (or anyone else) are not supposed to just fly off with nuclear bombs, and base commanders are not supposed to tell them to do so unless so ordered by higher command."

"...violates multiple layers of command and control systems and also four decades of policy. What are the odds?"

"‘no way, they know d*mned well those are armed."

"The controls on weapons and nuclear fuel is insanely tight.. This story just CAN’T happen."

therefore, if not an accident, two distinct possibilities emerge: preparation for use in Iran; or an attempt to intimidate Tehran.

oops my ass.

more good news

as a follow-up to last week's pessimistic post (see below: 'now it begins') i asked Pamela Gia, the official dvtv live astrologer, for some specifics.
with the permanent war dragging on, everyone from Rudy to French President Nicholas Sarkozy ("the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran") to the New York Post (carrying this article from the Sunday Times of London: ‘Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran’) dwelling on Tehran (whose claim of "3000 centrifuges" can't help) and with the sixth anniversary of a certain terror attack next week, there's plenty to fret over.
Ms. Gia reminds us that "Mars, the red Warrior planet, is closer to Earth than it has been in nearly two thousand years." sound ominous? how's this:
"Saturn, Planet of form, restriction, manifestation, time… has just moved from the constellation Leo into Virgo" and now aspects Neptune "in a transit that hasn’t been seen for hundreds of years."
as for that sixth anniversary?
a solar eclipse on - that's right - September 11th - will create "dynamic aspects that haven’t been seen at these exact degrees in many generations" and she speculates that "the turmoil, anxiety, high energy (or lack thereof) that everyone is feeling is due to these unusual events.
“The concern centers around the 9th of September through the 13th when the range of ecliptic energy meets with the T square aspects creating a battlefield in the sky.
“If there is terrorist activity during this time the occasions for OUR government, in particular, to make mistakes are high (because of United States’ aspects chart).
“If the U.S. doesn’t make quick, acute decisions around this time, we could find ourselves in a long, extremely destructive, fiery conflict."
what troubles me: she’s usually right.
you should know, however, that our dvtv live astrologer is a persistent optimist. i am duty-bound to pass on Ms. Gia’s personal advice to you for this potentially volatile period:
“This is an excellent time to use imagination for manifestation. Keep idealistic thoughts and visions in your minds. Deliberately create scenes in your minds eye that are bright, light, froth with laughter, Beauty, high spirits which invoke pictures that expand the heart feelings and rise above all things of lower nature.
"Do not dwell on fearful ideas but rather put that energy into fun activity or throwing things away, or dancing, singing even if it’s momentary - on the spot in your living room, car, or on the street. Cheer.”
if only I could add the above to Dick Cheney’s daily agenda.