But he still won't budge

Let's see now. How many days ago was it that Bush The Decider was talking about Iranian nukes and World War III?

Even before that Rove-style drama, millions of Iranians and Americans--and countless other people around the world--feared that Bush & Cheney were going to do their Iraq thing to Iran's 70 million people. Namely, Shock and Awe Two.

But today we learned about the National Intelligence Estimate report which claims that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Talk about shredding the Bush hype. Nevertheless, the hype-meister undauntedly unloaded more of the same in his news conference today. (I saw a re-run of it tonight and would describe it as a worse-than-usual package of Fumble, Dissemble and Sneer.) For Bush, Cheney and the neo-con co-conspirators who still have not abandoned ship--if there are any of those left--it is full steam ahead.

Fortunately, their steam will not be enough. Most likely an attack on Iran is now effectively blocked, and we can only hope that we can keep the lid on for 13 more months. Then whoever moves into the White House can start to clean up the mess. And the rest of the world might start regaining their respect for this country.