Tea leaf reading is clearly not an exacting science’¦but if I were asked to interpret the announced resignation of longtime Bush crony Karen Hughes, I would conclude that it signals the likelihood that stealth president Dick Cheney has succeeded in convincing his presidential placeholder, George W. Bush, to launch a strike on Iran prior to packing up the U-Hauls in January of 2009. I’™ll explain my rationale following some excerpts from the Associated Press article.

WASHINGTON – Karen Hughes, who led efforts to improve the U.S. image abroad and was one of President Bush’™s last remaining advisers from the close circle of Texas aides, will leave the government at the end of the year.

Hughes told The Associated Press that she plans to quit her job as undersecretary of state and return to Texas, although improving the world’™s view of the United States is a ‘œlong-term challenge’ that will outlast her.

‘œThis will take a number of years,’ Hughes said in an interview Tuesday.

Bush and Rice had picked Hughes two years ago to retool the way the United States sells its policies, ideals and views overseas. A former television reporter and media adviser, Hughes’™ focus has been to change the way the United States engages and responds to criticism or misinformation in the Muslim world.

‘œNegative events never help,’ Hughes said when asked how events like last month’™s shooting of Iraqi civilians by private U.S. security guards in Iraq affects the way the world sees the United States.

Polls show no improvement in the world’™s view of the U.S. since Hughes took over. A Pew Research Center survey earlier said the unpopular Iraq war is a persistent drag on the U.S. image and has helped push favorable opinion of the United States in Muslim Indonesia, for instance, from 75 percent in 2000 to 30 percent last year.

Hughes said the Iraq war was usually the second issue that Muslims and Arabs raised with her, after the long-standing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Hughes said she advised Bush and Rice two years ago that U.S. help in ending the six-decade old fight over Israel would probably do more than anything else to improve the U.S. standing worldwide.

Hughes is serving her second stint in the Bush administration’¦this time assigned a task that she concedes will not be achieved in short order and that will undoubtedly remain a challenge for the President’™s successor.

More telling is Hughes assessment of the prevailing obstacle to improving the U.S. image’¦especially in the Middle East region and the Muslim world. As noted in the above excerpt, Hughes has told the administration that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict serves as the primary impediment to reversing the slipping view of America.

I took note of the fact that Hughes made this remark to the President and his current Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, two years ago. I interpret the statement to suggest there was a meeting of the minds at the time she offered this assessment and agreed to take the job.

Today, I believe her resignation may well indicate a shift in the thinking of the President’¦one that would make Hughes’™ task virtually impossible and therefore lead her to conclude it better to leave now rather than later. I suspect the event which would lead Hughes to an abrupt departure is knowledge of the administration’™s plan to strike Iran.

Let me explain my reasoning. Given the anti-Israeli rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a strike upon Iran would be seen as a defense of Israel and a affirmation of the assertions that Israel and the United States have no real intentions of establishing an independent Palestinian state. Such a strike would further fuel the anger at Israel and the United States and make it virtually impossible for Hughes to maintain the credibility necessary to pursue the mending of the American image.

As such, rather than wait for the terse and inevitable repudiations, Hughes has chosen to jump ship prior to a strike which would almost certainly unravel any progress she has been able to achieve. I also don’™t believe Hughes would have returned to the Bush administration with any intention of leaving prior to the end of the President’™s second term.

Adding support to my speculation is the fact that Josh Bolton advised White House senior aides that if they were to stay past Labor Day they would be obliged to serve till the end of the President’™s second term. The fact that Hughes is leaving regardless of that directive must indicate changing circumstances have created an untenable situation. Lastly, the fact that Hughes has long been regarded as one the George Bush’™s most loyal supporters makes the resignation all the more suspect.

Obviously my hypothesis is little more than anecdotal. Notwithstanding, this resignation raises a red flag which cannot be ignored. I hope I’™m wrong but I’™ve learned not to bet against the Bush administration when it comes to cowboy diplomacy. The fact that Hughes is walking away from her hospitality assignment leads me to believe George Bush is once again running around the White House sporting a half-cocked handgun in his spanking new holster’¦you know’¦the one Dick Cheney told him to strap on.

Cross-posted at Thought Theater

There are a lot of scary things in the world.

There’™s the ‘œfun-scary’’”kids who dress up as clowns, monsters, or fairy princesses once a year to get a month’™s supply of candy, which they’™ll finish off by morning.

There’™s scary movies, from ‘œJaws’ to ‘œFriday the 13th’œ to’”well’”’œScary Movie.’

The murder mystery genre’”in books, TV, and film’”can scare even the least gullible. What’™s even scarier is that there were about 1.4 million violent crimes last year; about 17,000 of them were murders, about 89 percent from firearms, according to the FBI.

Poverty, the deterioration of the environment, and Dick Cheney are all scary. But the scariest of all is ignorance, hatred, and bigotry, wrapped within the cloak of fear.

This past week, along with a mini-mail list of about 60, I received an e-mail from a friend. She’™s a nice lady, relatively bright, and active in community affairs. The e-mail has been around for several years, but is refreshed every year between Halloween and Christmas. As is custom, thousands who receive it forward it to thousands of others who are asked to boycott stamps that honor Muslim holidays. The first lines of the e-mail are bold. ‘œHow ironic is this??!!’ it screams at us. ‘œThey don’™t even believe in Christ and they’™re getting their own Christmas stamp . . .’ The graphics-laden e-mail displays a 37-cent postage stamp. The rest of the e-mail, all in bold type and colors, tells us that we are supposed to remember the ‘œMUSLIM bombing of Pan Am Flight 103,’ the ‘œMUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993,’ and the ‘œMUSLIM’ bombings of the military barracks in Saudi Arabia and American embassies in Africa, the U.S.S. Cole, and 9/11.

We are told not only to ‘œremember to adamantly and vocally boycott this stamp,’ but that buying this stamp ‘œwould be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.’ We are urged to forward the e-mail to ‘œevery patriotic American you know.’

The stamp, according to the U.S. Postal Service, was issued to commemorate Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, considered by Muslims as the two most important festivals in their calendar year. The calligraphy in the center of the stamp translates literally as ‘œblessed festival,’ or more loosely as, ‘œMay your religious holiday be blessed.’ The stamp was first issued on Sept. 1, 2001, and then reissued in 2002, 2006, and in September this year to reflect postage increases.

Although the Post Office each year issues a stamp to honor Christmas, it also issues a non-denominational holiday stamp. It also issues stamps to honor Chanukah and Kwanzaa.

Those who write and forward the e-mails of intolerance don’™t understand, and probably never will, that while some Muslim extremists were at the heart of some terrorist plots, they don’™t represent Islam or any other religion. If we believe that the few Muslim terrorists represent the entire religion, we must then go to the absurdity of believing that we should boycott all Christmas stamps because some Christian extremists destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City and murdered 178 and wounded more than 800. We would have to boycott the Christmas stamp because God-fearing Christians lynched as many as 10,000 Americans’”most of them Black but many of whom were Jews, Italians, and Irish’”in the century after the Civil War. We would condemn Christianity because of the Inquisitions of the 15th and 16th centuries. We would blame the Protestants and the Catholics for a religious civil war in Northern Ireland that led to the deaths of more than 3,700 in a four decade period. We would never speak favorably of any German or millions of other Europeans because the Nazis and their collaborators, good Christians all, launched the holocaust that led to the murders of 12 million and a war that claimed more than 50 million lives, most of them civilian.

On Halloween, we see pre-teen girls cutely dressed as witches, happily going door to door for candy, and we readily help them get the sugar-kick they expect every Oct. 31. We don’™t condemn these pretend-witches, unlike Christians of the 17th century America who burned and drowned women because they were ‘œwitches.’

Every religion has its militant extremists who violate laws and commandments against murder, but every religion has people of peace who believe in love and tolerance. Indeed, by condemning all Muslims, we also condemn ourselves to ignorance, hatred, bigotry, and fear.

[Dr. Brasch is professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, an occasional contributor to ASZ, a former newspaper reporter and editor, and author of 17 books. His latest book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush, available through Amazon. You may contact Brasch through www.walterbrasch.com.]

As Atrios notes today, it’™s almost amazing how everything that happened in (or to) America between Sept. 11, 2001 and March, 2003, seems to have fallen down the legacy media memory hole.

When I read the following AP story, I nearly choked:

KABUL, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai offered Saturday to meet personally with Taliban leader Mullah Omar for peace talks and give the militants a high position in a government ministry as a way to end the rising insurgency in Afghanistan.

Reiterating a call for negotiations he has made with increasing frequency over the last several weeks, Karzai also said he was willing to meet with factional warlord leader and former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’¦

Now, wait a second. Isn’™t Mullah Omar the guy who was harboring Osama bin-Laden prior to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan?

Why yes, yes he was.

And hasn’™t the Taliban (according to press reports, anyway) been the organization behind acts such as blowing up a bus today in Kabul, killing around 30 people?

Why yes, yes it has been.

And haven’™t the NATO forces [read: U.S. military] in Afghanistan been slaughtering Taliban supporters and fighters at a pretty healthy clip?

Why yes, yes they have been.

For a couple of years now, I’™ve been saying that the Taliban and warlords control the country. Karzi is, in effect, little more than the mayor of Kabul. His government controls a few square blocks of Kabul, and the NATO / U.S. military forces control 50 feet to either side of any road that an armed convoy happens to be traveling. The Taliban and warlords pretty much have the run of the rest of the country. And there are no lack of recruits for Mullah Omar’™s special brand of fundamentalism.

Winter is approaching quickly around the Khyber Pass, and with the change of season, any opportunity to mount an offensive on the Afghan front of the Bush regime’™s endless war on whatever. Speaking of which, I’™m wondering how the U.S. government is going to respond to the mayor of Kabul’™s offer.

How is the mess that Bush created ever going to be cleaned up?

Sometimes, I don’™t know if editors simply don’™t understand the importance of particular stories, and that’™s why some of the important stuff gets buried, or if it’™s intentional. Today’™s Washington Post buries what is arguably the most important story of today on page A-19: in a middle eastern diplomatic snub of epic proportions, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia will not receive Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss common issues between the Saudis and Iraqis.

Unsaid in this diplomatic dustup is that Saudi Arabia has been using backchannels to finance the Sunni side of the insurgency in Iraq since, well, the war started. Abdullah also recently declared the U.S. invasion as ‘œillegal’.

So why isn’™t this story getting more play in the press? Is it too difficult for most ‘murkins to understand, or what? This is a big deal on a whole lot of levels. But to Joe Heartland, it’™s Saudis, Iraqis, Iranians, Shiites, Sunnis’¦hell, they’™re all just a bunch of dark skinned guys running around with turbans on their head anyway. (OK, so I’™ve gotta quit channeling Joe Heartland.)

In any case, watch this story as the summer progresses, and oil prices rise – remember – George Bush and the GOP have made us less safe. America is no longer viewed as an honest broker in the middle east. And we’™re going to be paying for this crap for years and years to come.

Well, the good news is, Dick Cheney didn’™t shoot anyone in the face today. There is no word on whether or not he was looking for his shotgun when a bomb went off near the camp he was visiting in Afghanistan prior to his meeting with the mayor of Kabul, Hamid Karzai.

The military was quick to trot out the PR flacks and say that no, Cheney was not being targeted in the bombing. Of course, the Taliban came right back, issued their own press release and said, ‘œBullshit. We were after the Dickster.’

It’™s hard to believe that the bombing this morning was coincidental to Cheney’™s visit. And while I’™m no fan of the dark lord, it would be pretty damn convenient for the Bush regime if Cheney were to, well, get blown up while on the Afghanistan leg of his world tour. It gets rid of the regime’™s ‘œCheney problem’, and builds 9/11-style sympathy for McFlightsuit and the rest of the 1600 Crew.

So, maybe the Taliban did light off the car bomb in an attempt to get the VP, as they claim. But if so, it begs the question: how did Mullah Omar’™s boys know that the Dickster was going to be visiting, or his location at a specific point in time? Was there some insider information being passed to the rogue elements in Afghanistan?

That’™s the primary reason the military was fast out of the gate stating that Cheney wasn’™t a target. He just happened to be in the area. By the military’™s logic, the bomb would have been blown up outside the military compound even if Cheney was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And maybe that’™s in fact true (but color me highly doubtful).

I try to avoid conspiracy theories, yet it all just seems too damn convenient’¦

Ever wonder how the largest scandals of the last 6 years fit together? Everything from the Niger forgeries to Larry Franklin are small parts of a much larger game that’s been afoot for the last decade or more. RawStory has put together a timeline, and a lenghty article connecting the dots.

It should come as no surprise that the prominent players in this game from the beginning have been Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith and that the country of most interest to them has been Iran.

And a writer of romance novels. Yes, the rumors have it that this famous author, Saddam Hussein, is going to be executed this weekend. Yeah, I figure they are just rumors, but the world will likely lose the services of poet and romance novelist Saddam later in the New Year, that’™s for sure.

As speculation rose that the execution is near, the condemned former president met at Camp Cropper with his half brothers Sabawi and Watban Ibrahim Hassan, both of whom are also in U.S. custody, said one of his attorneys, Bushra Khalil.

‘œHe met with them and he gave them some things. I’™m not sure what,’ said Khalil, speaking by phone from Amman, Jordan, where she plans to meet today with Hussein’™s eldest daughter, Raghad.

Hussein’™s lawyers said they had not been notified of the execution date.

Hussein, 69, seemed in high spirits Thursday as he shared untitled poems he wrote recently and well wishes for the Iraqi people with his visitors over lunch, said attorney Wadood Fawzi, one of those who met with Hussein.

The Nobel Committee is watching closely.

Richard’™s Update, 12:28PM: Just in from the AP, Saddam will ‘œbe executed by Saturday’. Apparently, the Bush regime has transferred custody of Saddam to the Iraq government, and his execution could be imminent.

I want to stress again: no one believes that Saddam is a good guy. But he was George H.W. Bush’™s man in the middle east for a long time – and there is a long list of U.S. government entanglements with Saddam. While no one will mourn his death, you have to wonder, what’™s the ‘œrush to execution’ all about? He was in U.S. custody. There was no apparent reason to rush to hand him over for hanging to the Bush regime’™s puppets in Iraq.

I think I understand the gambit – the Bush regime is hopeful that Saddam’™s execution will either (ultimately) quell the violence, or give them a reason to escalate the conflict. It’™s hard to say, but perhaps they want to see how it works out before the new congress is sworn in.

Still, there are serious questions about both Saddam’™s trial, the involvement of the U.S. government, and Bush’™s reason for going after him in the first place. The bottom line is that dead men tell no tales.