My last post mentioned Eric Alterman making fun of Senator Coburn for quoting studies that indicate that women with silicon breast implants tend to be slightly healthier than women without. He repeated this in Alternet where it got picked up by the Democratic Underground. There are now 1000+ comments, almost all of them going on about how stupid Coburn is. Every now and then someone says something like "Don't know why, BUT MAY ACTUALLY BE TRUE." These posts are immediately shouted down.

It doesn't take a lot of time with Google to find that Coburn was quoting actual studies by reputable organizations - places like Harvard. That's what I did last night before committing myself publicly. Too bad these idiots are so busy calling names that they don't bother to check their facts.

The Democrats are falling over themselves these days in their rush to be negative. Don't take my word for it, Joe Klein thinks so too. (The quote is from Time's pay site but Wizbang has it for free)

The day after the President's speech, the party's congressional leaders gathered at the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial to carp. How 70 years ago! "Progressive" Dems - and I use the term advisedly, since liberals seem more interested in preserving the past than in discovering the future - are right to admire Roosevelt. But the Roosevelt they worship is a bronze sculpture, frozen in time. The real F.D.R. was a gutsy innovator. The current Democrats resemble nothing so much as the Republicans during the 25 years after Roosevelt's death—negative, defensive, intellectually feeble, a permanent minority. There are reasons to oppose this President - arrogance abroad, crony capitalism at home - but undifferentiated opposition is obtuse and most likely counterproductive. The Democrats' current crudeness is a function of their desperation, and the imminent ratification of Howard Dean, the least charming presidential candidate in recent memory, as their party chairman only serves to punctuate the problem.

Are we going to invade Iran? This is another lie that the Democrats and the Progressives are telling - that we are about to invade and that Bush will reinstate the draft because of it.

Let's look at the issue more closely.

Reasons to invade:

1. Building nukes
2. Sponsor of terrorism
3. Charter member of the Axis of Evil
4. Islamic theocracy
5. Oil money

The first two are legitimate reasons but not very good ones. The others are sometimes given by Bush-haters.

Reasons not to invade:

1. No UN sanctions or history of hostilities with the US
2. Has not invaded any neighbors or tried to assassinate any Presidents
3. The government has wider support by the general population than Iraq
4. Reform seems to be happening on its own as a slow pace
5. No commitment to regime change in Iraq under the Clinton administration
6. Our military is too small and overcommitted
7. Iran is #3 in the Axis of Evil after Iraq and North Korea

Between the Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq we were in an uneasy truce punctuated by daily missile exchanges. There was a long list of UN resolutions that Iraq had broken. None of this is true in Iran. We would not be invading a country that we had been fighting for more than a decade.

The big point of contention is #6. Iran has a bigger population than Iraq. We do not have enough troops to invade and occupy it. A draft will not help. We would have to train and equip the troops. We don't have enough armored vehicles for Iraq to say nothing of Iran. We would have to build them as well as establishing the draft. That pushes any possible invasion years into the future. Bush would have to be laying the foundations now for an invasion in 2007. He isn't. No groundwork, no invasion. It's a simple equation.

The Democrats must know this, at least the smart ones (there are still Democrats who can think for themselves, aren't there?). So this is just another lie about the President.

At least the Democrats are tackling one of society's biggest problem - low-rider jeans with boxers hanging out above. The principal sponsor is a black Democrat in the Virginia House. So far it has not made it to the Senate and presumably it will not pass there.

If it does, I wonder if Eric Alterman will make fun of it or does he only do this to Republicans?