I can't get enough of these neocons.

Martin Peretz is a favorite. Who is he? He's former owner of the New Republic (his wife purchased it for him in the 1960's). He took the best liberal magazine in the country and turned it into a vanity rag dedicated solely to promoting the Likud line on Israel. The magazine lost much of its circulation (the readership switched to The Nation) and eventually Peretz was bought out but kept on as TNR blogger. His day job as teaching assistant at Harvard also ended after many decades.

Since Peretz left, TNR has gotten much better. It is no longer only about defending the occupation. But Peretz still is. Every column he writes is about his passion. His good guys (even artists, scientists, and movie stars) are invariably advocates of the Mideast status quo. His bad guys are always "anti-semites" like Jimmy Carter, critics of Israel, or, the worst, self-hating Jews!

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I have to hand it to Hillary Clinton. She just gave a great Democratic speech in Unity, New Hampshire.

It was strong, hard-hitting and generous. It was also softer than her previous speeches. She seems to have been transformed by her campaign. While she was running, it was all about winning. But not in retrospect.

She seems to have become a vessel, embodying the hurt of her most hurting supporters. She conveyed that her support for Obama is not about him or about her. It's about them.

It was a masterful performance and, in many ways, a beautiful one.

I'm impressed.

Joe Klein at TIME not only is discussing the neocons' critical role in inflicting the Iraq war on this country but also warning that the same crowd is ginning up for war with Iran.

The reason I say I'm impressed is because it takes serious chutzpah to discuss this issue. As Klein has discovered, talking about the neocons wins one the title of anti-Semite (if one is not Jewish) or self-hating Jew (if one is).

I guess Klein is a self hater although I'm sure that he would join Larry David or Woody Allen (and me) in his response to that charge. "I'm not a self-hating Jew. I like myself. It's you I can't stand."

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Various media outlets report that the Obama-Clinton unity talks are not going so well.

She wants him to pay her campaign debt. He'd rather use the money he raised for his own campaign.

There are also reports that while Hillary is now down with Barack, Bill is still mad. That makes sense. She's still a senator and he's....retired.

Anyway, it will all be fine in the end although Rick posits other possibilities.

Check out this CBS report (and video) about supposed Israeli plans to attack Iran. I think there is a very good chance it will happen soon. The Israelis will start by attacking but the US will jump in to help Israel finish the job. As was the case with the UK and France in the Sinai campaign of 1956, the US intervention will be pre-arranged. Or Israel will attack, Iran will respond by hitting our forces in Iraq, and Bush will use that as casus belli.

I hear the one major obstacle to this is the presence of Bob Gates as Secretary of Defense.

He is flatout against any attack by us or by Israel.

Will that be enough to stop the next war? Hopefully it will be because we sure cannot count on Congress -- neither Republicans nor most of our favorite liberal Democrats -- to oppose war with Iran. SEE: See this on Congress and Iran.
This resolution will be on the House floor any day now. Expect overwhelming vote FOR.

And this for some horrific humor. (The humor is unintended).

Hasn't the Times had enough of Bill Kristol? His op-ed columns are awful, just Republican talking points without wit or intelligence.

Unlike David Brooks, another Times conservative, Kristol gives the reader nothing to chew over. Brooks is smart -- and usually wrong. But he makes me think and sometimes he gets it just right much as George Will does.

One of Kristol's problems is that he clearly doesn't believe half the things he writes. He is not a conservative but a neocon. I suspect that he's a Republican only because of Israel (like Krauthammer). So his views on other issues are forced. He has to pretend he cares about choice and low taxes because he is playing at being a conservative. All that pretending produces seriously bad columns, inept columns. Krauthammer's columns are crazy but his writing is fine because all the hate energizes him. He loves hating and it shows! Kristol isn't even a good hater.

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My apologies for posting so much on Iran this weekend. If I could, I'd merge my posts into one so as not to crowd the page. But this is worth seeing. I promise it's my last post of the weekend.

This has to be seen to be believed.

The head of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organization addresses the people of Iran.

It's hilarious and utterly weird. Probably 2% of American Jews have heard of this guy who is addressing the Iranian people in our name. (He keeps saying "we." Who exactly is his "we?" When did we American Jews get our own President?) Like him or not, we have a President and this guy ain't him. There is also the State of Israel which does not speak for American Jews but which has a Prime Minister who speaks for 6,000,000 Israeli Jews and, to an extent, for all Jews who identify with Israel.

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