• CLONE ARMY? THE HOLOCAUST BUT WITH MUSLIMS? If you haven’t already, read this whole terrifying story about the NEWLY DISCOVERED CHENEY/CIA-ONLY SECRET PROGRAM, and enjoy reading Official Sources tease like mad jackals, along the lines of, “Can’t tell you what the program was, but man… that was… whew… holy fucking shit… just damn.” Leon Clinton Panetta only found out about this Other Program’s existence on June 23, and cancelled the dickens out of it one hour later! Oy. Just scan through the Seymour Hersh tag; it sounds like the Secret Band of Assassins thing. [NYT]

Ancient New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh is so insanely well-sourced in the realms of defense, state, and intelligence that it’s hard to tell how accurate his terrifying tales about Dick Cheney are, because no other journalist is capable of seconding him. But they sure make for great blog posts! Just find the key paragraph, blockquote it, add Star Wars photo and BLAM, everyone’s scared shitless of Dick Cheney all over again. He’s like the Final Boss on 24 — the one who shows up in the 18th hour or so and is revealed to be the true corporate puppetmaster behind previous fake Final Bosses, who were in fact just diversions, and expendable. Huh? Oh yes, Seymour Hersh says Dick Cheney is spying on Obama. MORE »

Seymour Hersh, the famous New Yorker reporter, surfaces once or twice a year to tell us about all the repulsive horrors the Bush administration authorized or perpetrated overseas. The latest: a special wing of the special operations community that used to report directly to Dick Cheney and now reports to no one is “an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths. Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving.” So! Everybody just go back to bed, put a pillow over your head, and weep quietly for a while. [MinnPost.com]

Want to freak yourself out? Watch this nice video with Uncle Sy Hersh, where he gives the condensed run-down on his latest terrifying New Yorker article. The best part is right at the end, where Hersh sort of smiles and shrugs and says, Yeah, if Obama’s elected Bush will bomb Iran before he’s out of office; if McCain’s elected Bush will let the new president bomb Iran whenever he feels like it. Jesus. [YouTube via Informed Comment]

Some bad news from the West Coast: MORE »

We admit, we’ve been big fans of indulging in complete flat-out panic these last couple days since the Hersh piece dropped. Mostly ’cause, you know, it’s just more interesting than the simmering nihilistic disgust that’s been our constant, monotonous companion lo these last few… years, really. A little Cuban Missile Crisis Last Night on Earth adrenaline spices up a midterm election cycle otherwise full of phone-jamming and lobbying and ethics violations. MORE »

Oh no! Rhetoric!
Condi, we know you’re trying to be tough and all, but we’re still pretty close to tagging this as “holy shit” — Sy Hersh just gets us a little skittish when he starts talking about “tactical nuclear weapons,” and, well, we already kinda know how your boss feels about “diplomacy.” So we urge you, Condi, to learn a little more about Iran before you take it to the Security Council — get to know them, you know? We think we have a lot in common, after all. Like, for example, they have crappy and incomprehensible kids websites too:

Yeah. That’s the Space Shuttle up top there. No, we don’t know why. It kinda freaks us out a little, but those stock photography kids at the top make us feel a little better. This was the only thing we could find in English. Any Persian speakers out there want to tell us what the hell is going on? With this site or with the forthcoming nuclear apocalypse, either one will do. MORE »

Looks like Iran finally got around to reading this week’s New Yorker (they really pile up!): MORE »

Oh, hi there, famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. What’s up? MORE »

In this week’s New Yorker, Seymour Hersh returns from his canvas of the Iraq War’s ring of power with the usual dismal news. President Bush and his advisers keep all bad news about the war at arm’s length, vow their steely determination to “stay the course” in spite of never defining what the course may be, hurl raw meat at Dick Cheney to calm his reflexive snarling, etc. Then, however, there’s this: MORE »