Okay, so it isn’t morning—however, if you’re a Taki-con, like me—defined as someone who parties ‘til dawn, and then goes to morning confession—there is no morning. In any case, there’s plenty of news and views flying about like detritus in a strong wind:

By Their Enemies Shall Ye Know Them—that probably isn’t a Biblical injunction, but it ought to be—and speaking of enemies: The Lobby is busily setting up Obama for a bout of “he’s-the-black-David Duke.” The Wright-Farrakhan brouhaha was just the first wave: the second is coming in the form of a campaign to demonize Obama advisor on military affairs Merrill “Tony” McPeak, formerly chief of staff of the Air Force, as—what else?—an “anti-Semite.”

McPeak’s rendition of Mein Kampf and the Protocols supposedly was revealed in an interview in which he said what everyone knows: that a substantially powerful Israel lobby, in alliance with a bunch of whackjob dispensationalist “born again” Christians, puts Israeli interests over American interests every time:

“Let’s say that one of your abiding concerns is the security of Israel as opposed to a purely American self-interest, then it would make sense to build a dozen or so bases in Iraq. Let’s say you are a born-again Christian and you think that Armageddon and the rapture are about to happen any minute and what you want to do is retrace steps you think are laid out in Revelations, then it makes sense. So there are a number of scenarios here that could lead you in this direction. This is radical….The secret of the neoconservative movement is that it’s not conservative, it’s radical. Guys like me, who are conservatives, are upset about these neocons calling themselves conservative when they’re so radical.”

What does Robert Goldberg, of the American Spectator, conclude from this?  “Guys like McPeak are upset because they think Jews have too much influence.” These Johnnie-one-notes are getting increasingly tiresome with their constant theme of Jew-baiting: clearly McPeak is saying that the “born again”-pro-Israel alliance—an alliance made up, in its overhwhelming majority, of Christians—is a major problem in formulating a rational, pro-American foreign policy. Which is, as Goldberg points out, exactly what professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen said in their pathbreaking book on the Lobby and its pernicious effect on the policymaking process. Oh, but they’re “anti-Semites,” too! How could I have possibly forgotten?! By the Lobby’s standards, of course—equating anyone who opposes their narrow and dubious agenda with Senor Duke—the overwhelming majority of Americans are goose-stepping neo-Nazis.

I’m Sorry, But Not That Sorry—Our quote of the day comes from Glenn Greenwald, my favorite left-liberal pundit, on the subject of Iraq war mea culpas from the so-called liberal “hawks”:

“Some claim—like the job interviewee who cites “excess diligence” when asked to name their worst fault—that they were simply too starry-eyed in their Goodness and purity … But virtually every line of rationale is purely utilitarian in its reasoning. The most unadorned admissions of error amount to little more than a concession that they simply assessed the costs and benefits inaccurately. And even with that extremely narrow concession, none of them—either in Slate or elsewhere—even reference in passing the fact that the war they cheered on ended the lives of hundreds of thousands (at least) of innocent Iraqi citizens and caused the internal and external displacement of millions more.”

In Japan, leaders who are disgraced by the utter and abolute failure of their policies do everyone the favor of committing suicide. Oh well, I guess there’s no chance of that—otherwise people LIke Michael O’Hanlon and Richard Perle wouldn’t be able to talk to reporters about their latest puerile prognostications.

One more reason to root for Barack Obama—Christopher Hitchens, Trotskyiste-turned-chickenhawk, hates his guts. That’s good enough for me …

Speaking of evil, more evidence that the lesser evil is still not good—According to Spencer Ackerman, formerly of The New Republic, Obama’s foreign policy is going to be all about “dignity promotion.” Uh huh—sounds like a hard sell. Much harder than promoting “democracy.” It’s hard to tell, but I think that means buying the buggers off, rather than bombing them. Less evil, but equally futile.

Speaking of good—Looks like Bob Barr is running for President on the Libertarian ticket—and you heard about it on Antiwar.com Radio! Look out, McCain—Bob is gonna bomb bomb bomb your presidential prospects, such as they are….

Oh, and it looks like the Ron Paul Republicans are taking over the Missouri GOP. Of course, after the party implodes at the polls this November, taking it over might not be that hard.