Sunday, 26 September 2004 - 9:03 PM CDT

Mahajan at Empire Notes describes Allawi as "a dictatorial client whose strings have until now largely been pulled by the United States. Iyad Allawi, the new unelected prime minister, is a man with a long history of brutality in the service of power, first as an agent of Saddam's Mukhabarat, later as an instigator of terrorist attacks in Iraq while backed by the CIA and Britain's MI6. He has repeatedly talked about imposing 'martial law,' although the difference between the existing permanent military occupation with checkpoins, house raids, and bombing of civilian areas and martial law is unclear, to say the least."

First, you ought to read more outside of Fox News and Glenn Reynolds, the latter a bag of reactionary wind.

Next, let's say President Kerry brought a man of Allawi's pedigree into the Whitehouse. What would you guys on the right be doing then? Screaming about the unsavory murderers Kerry chums with? The Republicans would be holding a media circus to condemn the president.

I was actually kind of impressed that Kerry brushed off this obvious Bush puppet. Bush of course now brings to bear his powerful response. The voters are pretty split down the middle on whether they buy it or not. That should tell you something, given this "let freedom reign" propaganda environment -- not everybody is buying.