This one slipped right by me.

Both the House and Senate are considering legislation that would put us in a state of war with Iran. Right now.

H. Con. Res 362 and S.Res.580 are identical bills (designed for expeditious passage) which have as their goal "preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, through all appropriate economic, political, and diplomatic means, is vital to the national security interests of the United States and must be dealt with urgently...." The bills introduction coincided with the AIPAC conference.

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I am so not upset by Obama's endorsement of the FISA "compromise." Nor was I upset by what he said to AIPAC, to Miami Cubans or whatever.

I want him to win not to go down in a blaze of glory like my all-time favorite Democratic nominee, George McGovern.

Back then I needed my nominee to be simon-pure and McGovern was. He also won 17 electoral votes.

In the years since, I have supported every Democratic party Presidential nominee and I have not regretted any statements any might have made that won them votes, only the ones that cost them votes. There have been three Democratic nominees in my time who said things that caused me to wince and think "sellout." They were Carter, Clinton, and Gore -- the same three who went on to win the election.

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The cease-fire is still in effect, which is something of a surprise.

After all, this is a cease-fire few like -- especially in Israel. Some of the same government officials who secured it wasted little time in saying that they did not expect it to last and that, when it did collapse, Israel would launch its long-deferred invasion of Gaza.

In essence, the critics are saying that all the cease-fire will accomplish is a delay in the deaths of, I don't know, dozens or hundreds of Israeli soldiers and hundreds or thousands of Palestinians. Rather than plunge hundreds or thousands of families into mourning this weekend, the cease-fire provides a delay of a week, a month or six months.

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I like Mayor Bloomberg. In fact, I told my New York homies to vote for him both times he ran and I'm glad I did. He's a fine mayor.

He's also a fair guy as evidenced by this. You cannot overestimate how influential Bloomberg is with those Jewish voters who care about endorsements from landsmen. Unlike Joe Lieberman and the Bush-D'Amato supporter, Ed Koch, he is not particularly controversial. (Not only the best mayor since LaGuardia but also one of the richest people in the world).

I don't know if Bloomberg is on the VP list. I would hope that an African-American would not put another minority on the ticket (if he did, I'd be for Carl Levin). But he deserves consideration. And thanks for doing this.

Doug Feith's feelings are hurt.

On Wednesday, he withdrew from a House hearing on interrogation methods used on detainees because he would not sit at the same witness table as Lawrence Wilkerson, who was Colin Powell's chief-of-staff.

According to Feith's lawyer, the former undersecretary of defense objected to certain things Wilkerson (and Powell, in fact) had said about him.

In 2006 Wilkerson accused Feith of being a "'card-carrying member of the Likud party' whose allegiance is to Israel rather than the United States." Also, Wilkerson said of Feith, "seldom have I met a dumber man."

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It's become obvious in the days since he sewed up the nomination. Barack Obama is playing to win.

Not surprisingly, I am delighted. I am especially delighted that he has decided to opt out of matching funds, allowing regular folks to underwrite his campaign.

Think about it. It is possible (more than possible) that Barack Obama will go to the White House because millions of new donors provided him with the largest campaign war chest history and because millions of previously disenfranchised voters came to the polls.

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Jon Stewart did a great bit the other day about how criticism of Israeli policies is considered beyond the pale in Washington. He concluded by saying "but you know where it's okay to criticize Israel. Israel." Then he showed a raucous (and typical) scream fest at the Knesset.

Of course, he's right. The only problem is that it is at least as important to freely examine Israeli policies (and American policies toward Israel) here as it is in Israel. And here, despite movement in the right direction, debate is constrained, to say the least.

Democrats are no better than Republicans.

Some of the loudest liberal Democratic critics of the Iraq war, uberdoves on US policy, are hawks when it comes to Israel. The House of Representatives, in particular, is full of people who see no inconsistency about being utterly skeptical about Bush/Cheney foreign policy but utterly credulous when it comes to Sharon/Olmert/Barak/Netanyahu or whoever. Not only that, these same legislators try to keep everybody else in line.

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I'm not predicting the November results. I think Obama will win (and even big) but, because of certain variables, I think McCain could win too. I won't believe the Democratic ticket will prevail until....after it's over.

But one thing is obvious already. Barack Obama has lucked out with John McCain as his opponent. Like Bob Dole in 1996, the guy has no appeal. He seems old, disconnected, charmless and not particularly well-versed on the issues. Say what you will about George W. Bush, the guy does have a certain appeal. Against the wooden Gore, he was almost, I don't know, cute. That is where the dumb "who would you rather have a beer with" mantra came from.

McCain has none of that. He comes across as mean and old. Have a beer with him? No way. He'd just yell at you.

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I don't get it.

I'm not going to lie. I felt terrible when I heard the news but only because he was someone I "knew" from television, because he seemed like a lovely man, and because I felt for his wife, son, and father. I still feel "shocked."

But that's it.

So tell me, why is thing being covered this way? How is it that the media barely notices 4,000 American (and 100,000 Iraqi) dead in the war but goes insane over this? Aren't thousands of dead and maimed kids (soldiers and children) infinitely worse, especially when the war is a fraud, engineered by lies and liars?

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