Remember George W. Bush's Axis of Evil speech? Remember how the libs all wrung their hands because the Texas Redneck Idiot had the audacity to call out our enemies a la Ronald Reagan and his Evil Empire speech.

Well guess what? President Bush was exactly right when he lumped Iraq, Iran and North Korea in the same sentence...he only left out Syria:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 - The Sept. 6 attack by Israeli warplanes inside Syria struck what Israeli intelligence believes was a nuclear-related facility that North Korea was helping to equip, according to current and former American and Israeli officials.

Details about the Israeli assessment emerged as China abruptly canceled planned diplomatic talks in Beijing that were to set a schedule to disband nuclear facilities in North Korea. The Bush administration has declined to comment on the Israeli raid, but American officials were expected to confront the North Koreans about their suspected nuclear support for Syria during those talks.

But wait, isn't this the same Syria that Rep. Dennis Kucinich just visited and disrespected the president? Is that country led by Boy Assad, the second hand despot that Speaker Nancy Pelosi acted like she could do business with? The same Pelosi that said of Assad "We were very pleased with the assurances we received from the president that he was ready to resume the peace process. He's ready to engage in negotiations for peace with Israel..." The Israelis are in a desperate position should Assad get nukes and they know it so they took action, apparently with U.S. knowledge.

Fresh back from Syria, where he served as a media pawn for President Assad, Democrat presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich took a proud stand today, voting against the September 11th Commemoration Resolution in the House. In fact, he was the only one who voted against it. Here's the title of the resolution, introduced by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.):

Recognizing September 11 as a day of rememberance, extending sympathies to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and their families, honoring the heroic actions of our nation's first responders and Armed Forces, and reaffirming the commitment to defending the people of the United States against any and all future challenges.

Yea, I can see how that's a pretty inflammatory resolution. Kucinich expounded on his reasons for spitting in the eyes of the families of those killed by al-Qaida on 9/11/01, of course:

It is important that Congress wake up to the truth and exercise its obligation under the Constitution to save our nation from being destroyed from the lies that took us into Iraq, the lies that keep us there, the lies that are being used to set the stage for war against Iran and the lies that have undermined our basic civil liberties here at home," Kucinich said in a statement. "The September 11 resolution that Congress considers today should have made reference to those matters. It does not, so I cannot support it," Kucinich said, also calling for a halt for further war funding and the troops to be brought home.

Whatever you say, President-to-Be Dennis. No need to create an international incident over it...

An interesting portrait of GOP Congressman Walter Jones in today's Politico. A staunch Christian conservative, until recently Jones was best known nationally as the man who championed the name change in the House cafeteria of French fries to "Freedom fries." But that was then.

For the past two years, Jones has been sounding downright liberal. Along with Denis Kucinich, he sponsored a measure to set a certain date for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. But that's not all:

Jones' politics have become increasingly at odds with a Republican party that he believes has lost its moorings. Although he voted to authorize the war, he has since become one of its most vociferous opponents. He was one of only two House Republicans to vote against expanding the scope of the administration's anti-terrorist surveillance program. And he thinks Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is downright incompetent, and believes vice-presidential aide Scooter Libby should have served some jail time -- "at least a day or two."

Jeez. What's next? A formal apology to the French? Of course, while I agree with just about every one of Mr. Jones' new-found views, it all spells potential trouble in terms of re-election. His district, home to the suspiciously-French-sounding Camp Lejeune, is, to put it mildly, "military friendly." In fact, it was in a small local diner called Cubbies where Freedom Fries made their debut. Here live many of the 28-percenters, the die-hard supporters of GWB. So we may be witnessing the final few months of Mr. Jones' congressional career. Alas.

I'll bet that not many readers of this blog, nor many people nationwide, know that there is a movement afoot to create a Cabinet level "Department of Peace." I certainly did not realize that there were concrete plans for it. I only remember having heard Dennis Kucinich mutter about it in several interviews I've heard over the years. But today it's a real possibility, with real money and organization behind it. Believe it or not, there's currently a resolution in the Democratic-led House of Representatives aimed at establishing such a department.

If you're not involved in the movement, you probably have little chance of finding out about it, up until now. The plan is either intentionally or accidentally not being reported on in the media. Even if you look for it at the Library of Congress via THOMAS you can't find it under the reported resolution number, HR 808. I just found out about it when I visited the site of the political magazine City Journal. There's an article (The Peace Racket) posted on the site about this proposal and the ideology behind it, that should frighten any rational human being.

We need to make two points about this movement at the outset. First, it's opposed to every value that the West stands for-liberty, free markets, individualism-and it despises America, the supreme symbol and defender of those values. Second, we're talking not about a bunch of naive Quakers but about a movement of savvy, ambitious professionals that is already comfortably ensconced at the United Nations, in the European Union, and in many nongovernmental organizations.

Whenever dealing with movements like this (liberal or conservative), I try to connect the dots -- find out who is ultimately pulling the strings. As the anti-Vietnam War movement can be ultimately traced back to the Communists, so these new peace groups can be tracked back not to our friends, but our enemies. And why not? It's worked to our enemies' benefit in the past - might as well use the same formula again. To anyone who doubts this, I suggest they read Propaganda Redux by Ion Mihai Pacepa in the Wall Street Journal. The author helped run the Western anti-Vietnam War movement from Communist Romania before he defected. Then Google his name -- he's written quite a bit on his previous exploits, not that you'd find any of it published in the New York Times.

I get very nervous about resolutions creating new Cabinet positions, with more than 60 co-sponsors, that don't get media attention. You should as well.

A friend was back from Ohio yesterday, and I've been thinking about what role the Buckeye State barometer will mean for national politics these days.

So far, the most notable Ohioan out there in the presidential race is anti-war Democratic gadfly Dennis Kucinich. He shows us that the Midwest maligned by Easterners like myself actually has a liberal side. I guess the 2004 presidential election proved this: Even though Dubya won the state, John Kerry did well in urban areas. So, if even the Midwest is trending left, that's a good sign for Democrats.

Yet while liberal Ohioans like Kucinich, new Sen. Sherrod Brown, and new Gov. Ted Strickland are enjoying rising fortunes, though, don't expect the religious right in the state to roll over. After all, powerful Pentecostal pastor Rod Parsley, of the World Harvest Church outside Columbus, has come out with a new book, "Culturally Incorrect," which is on the best-seller list of the newspaper he loves to hate, the New York Times.

Hey, why not?

The Ohio Democrat and the Texas Republican have a significant bond: They're antiwar activists detested by their party establishment who, on a bipartisan or third-party ticket, could command significant grass-roots support.

During Monday's debate among the Democratic presidential hopefuls, Dennis Kucinich used his time extensively and expertly, detailing his anti-war credentials. His finest moment came in response to a questioner who cited the flags that "covered the coffins of my grandfather, my father, and my oldest son," and asked, "By what date after January 21st, 2009, will all U.S. troops be out of Iraq?" Kucinich replied, "The underlying assumption here is that we're going to be in Iraq until the next president takes office, and I reject that totally. People can send a message to Congress right now -- and this is in a convention of this appearance -- they can text peace, and text 73223, text peace. Send a message to Congress right now, you want out."

If Kucinich really wants the U.S. out of Iraq, he should transcend party politics and connect with Republican candidate Ron Paul.

Uh-oh, Someone left an microphone open and now Dennis "Department of Peace" Kucinich is mad:

"This is a serious matter and I'm calling him on it," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in a telephone interview Friday. "Whispering, trying to rig an election, then denying what's going on and making excuses. It all reflects a consistent lack of integrity."

Kucinich's comments came after Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton were overheard Thursday discussing the possibility of limiting the number of participants in future presidential forums.

Now usually the top dog wants to include the extras to keep the opposition from coalescing around any one single candidate. Hillary's either completely comfortable in her position as the very top dog, or she too is bothered by the time and energy wasted by the one percenters, or she was just being diplomatic.

Either way, I'm torn. I like the idea of having the second and third tier candidates getting a chance to break out, and debates are a part of that, but when you have up to 11 or 12 on the Republican side, it's definitely getting too unwieldy. Is fund-raising ability a good separator? Polling? Either are fraught with problems. Or can we just use common sense and say that those candidates who don't have a snowball's chance in h*** of becoming president don't get to play. I'm looking at you, Kucinich and Gravel.

Democrat Dennis Kucinich of Ohio is making another run at the White House, once again focusing on the issue of Iraq. We've invited all of the candidates to deliver a tailored video appeal to all of you, our AOL users, and he is the first to do so. So, take a watch:

Almost all of the candidates are uploading video of their speeches, issue positions and campaign ads to our "Watch the Candidates" feature. Check it out here.

Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Mars) is preparing to offer articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. While it remains the responsibilty of Congress to introduce such measures, it seems highly unlikely that Kucinich will get anywhere with this considering his own party is laughing at him:

But Kucinich shouldn't hold his breath on getting anywhere with his impeachment plan. "We'll see a Kucinich Administration before we'll see a Cheney impeachment," quipped one Democratic aide.

Kucininch is just continuing the Democrat plan: introduce a resolution that either has no chance of passing or is non-binding, then go back to the far-left base and tell them you tried. It's win-win and amounts to nothing, just like the first one hundred days of the Democrat-controlled Congress.

You may or may not remember that Kucinich is the same candidate who last election said that he would develop a U.S. Department of Peace in his administration. That agency would oversee a "Peace Academy" built on the same principle as the U.S, Naval Academy or West Point...with different curricula of course.

As an exit question, what degrees could be attained at a college that teaches peace? A bachelor of arts in advanced papier mache puppet construction with a minor in creative Bush/Hitler analogies? Perhaps a BS in uses of pachouli oil for fuel with a minor in Phish Philosophy.

Hilarious. Of all the people demanding to have a debate on Fox, Dennis Kucinich is probably the last guy you'd think of. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer political blog:

Cleveland congressman/Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is crying foul over cancellation of a Nevada presidential candidates debate that was scheduled in August, and the postponement of an April candidates' forum in New Hampshire.

...

This did not sit well with Kucinich, who called it "an insult to the voters, and the height of cynicism for candidates to refuse to take the public stage and subject themselves to public scrutiny." He speculated in a press release that the true reason behind their decision was "having to take the stage to defend their votes to fund the war."

"If you want to be the president of the United States, you can't be afraid to deal with the people with whom you disagree politically," Kucinich said of the Fox News debate. "No one is further removed from Fox's political philosophy than I am, but fear should not dictate decisions that affect hundreds of millions of Americans and billions of others around the world who are starving for real leadership."

Any venue where Dennis is put on the same level as every other candidate is a great venue for Dennis and terribly bad for every other candidate.

One unintended consequence of the Democrats taking over in November is people like Dennis Kucinich get WAAYYY more power than they can responsibly handle.

Dennis is now the chairman of a government oversight committee. What's he going to do? Investigate everything!

Kucinich says he will probe everything from electric utilities, including the safety of nuclear power plants, to election integrity.

Federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communications Commission and the Labor Department should expect calls from his office. Internet access, water quality, health care, media concentration and government treatment of American Indians are other areas Kucinich plans to scrutinize.

You can't tell because we're on the internet and everything, but I'm rolling my eyes.

Another fun quote. Kos on Kucinich when rating the Democratic contenders:

Ugh. Is he really running again?

Yeah, I think that's how we all feel.