The Dish

Interpretive dance was never funnier. Really. And I tend to hate interpretive dance.

It’s the major question of our time – and we don’t know the answer. After the Iraq intelligence debacle, it isn’t clear that anyone will believe the Bush administration’s info. But that doesn’t mean, of course, that it isn’t a real threat. Here’s a helpful analysis of what we know and don’t know.

Somewhat retro, but clearly determined, and operating out of Iraq. Money quote from one of the leaders in Michael Totten’s latest report from Iraqi Kurdistan:

"Our party did not want to see people under torture and persecution, so we started struggling against the government. We bear our arms in order to defend ourselves, our human rights and other rights in Iran. We don’t want to kill people. We just want to defend ourselves. The Iranian regime waged a campaign against the Kurdish people, including arresting us and burning the villages and houses of our people and bringing our people under torture. There are many internally displaced people in Iran, people who were involved in political parties, opposition. The Iranian government sent them into exile. They became internally displaced people in Iran. …

"There are many many sectors of the government that persecute people in Iran, like the intelligence agents. They spy on people. There is no freedom of speech or freedom of the press. Many of the newspapers have been closed. If you go to Iran now, they will not take you to the places where people are persecuted. They will show you their own parties and their own places. Would you like some tea?"

If it ends up as a battle between those two, Nick Gillespie believes Clinton will win – despite the fact that almost 46 percent of voters (and 18 percent of Democrats) say they would never vote for her.

Curt Schilling bypasses the mainstream media in communicating with fans. And the MSM, of course, takes a swipe. They never learn, do they?

The latest head-to-head polls in the presidential race shows that Obama does better than either Clinton or Edwards against Giuliani and McCain.

The blogosphere is abuzz. C and L has a shorter video excerpt. John Cole calls it "the greatest web video EVER." Orcinus offers a transcript. Lawyers, Guns & Money chips in. Here’s Firedoglake’s take on the original flap. Feministing responds, as do Shakespeare’s Sister and Unfogged. Matt thinks that "finally, BloggingHeadsTV has arrived as a medium." Drezner keeps his cool. It’s amazing what two boobs, Bill Clinton, and a blog can foment, isn’t it?

What else can these sentences mean? Money quote:

Israel was placed in this dilemma last summer, when Iranian agents — the Hezbollah of Lebanon — crossed the border, killed some soldiers, and took two others hostage. Israel treated this aggression as a declaration of war, and its repeat in the Gulf waters has to be met with the same firmness. The making of any sort of deal whereby personnel legally arrested are exchanged for personnel illegally snatched — never mind anything that might compromise sanctions — would mean unconditional victory for Iran, and the admission of impotence and humiliation for Britain, and therefore the West.

A new report on the Bush administration’s attitude toward climate change argues that there has been a systematically negative response to any government scientists favoring the idea that humans play a key role in global warming. Not a conspiracy, no top-down coordination – but widespread contempt for evidence that contradicts ideology. Knock me down with a feather.

Another public figure is facing mortality with grace. David Kuo, who was also in the Bush administration and has survived a life-changing brain tumor, responds to the news with raw emotion.