By Michael Totten. Parts I and II:

Hitchens: It’s not “the regime” or “the theocracy.” It’s now very clear that the Revolutionary Guards have committed a coup in all but name–well, I name it, but it hasn’t yet been named generally. They didn’t rig an election. They didn’t even hold one.

MJT: They never counted the votes. There’s no “recount” to be done.

Hitchens: The seizure of power by a paramilitary gang that just so happens to be the guardian and the guarantor and the incubator of the internationally illegal weapons program. If that doesn’t concentrate one’s mind, I don’t know what will.

MJT: If the Obama Administration calls you up and says, “Christopher, we need you to come in here, we need your advice.” What would you tell them?

Hitchens: I would say, as I did with Saddam Hussein–albeit belatedly, I tried to avoid this conclusion–that any fight you’re going to have eventually, have now. Don’t wait until they’re more equally matched. It doesn’t make any sense at all.

The existence of theocratic regimes that have illegally acquired weapons of mass destruction, that are war with their own people, that are exporting their violence to neighboring countries, sending death squads as far away as Argentina to kill other people as well as dissident members of their own nationality–the existence of such regimes is incompatible with us. If there is going to be a confrontation, we should pick the time, not them.

We’re saying, “Let’s give them time to get ready. Then we’ll be more justified in hitting them.” That’s honestly what they’re saying. When we have total proof, when we can see them coming for us, we’ll feel okay about resisting.

Read all, and hit Michael’s tip jar.

…for a non-lunatic Massachusetts Senator. Send whatever you can afford to break the back of the wreckers in DC.

Incidentally, I would note that Jack Kennedy would probably feel a lot more political affinity to the Republican than the Democrat in that race. I doubt if he’d even recognize his party today.

[Update a few minutes later]

Even in Massachusetts, support is weak for health-care deform.

…just 43 percent of Massachusetts voters support the Democratic national health care plan now making its way through Congress, versus 36 percent who oppose. In one of the bluest states in the country — and one with up-close experience with a state health care regime that resembles the plan under consideration for the nation as a whole — that is strikingly weak support. And that support is pretty much limited to Democrats; independents and Republicans are opposed.

And there are a lot of independents in MA.

If Brown pulls this off, it will be the sweetest political victory for the American people in a long time. It might break the back of the so-called “progressives.”

The White House told the chief of counterterrorism to not interrupt his skiing vacation for a terrorism attack.

So, no problem. He was just following orders…

…that a Napolitano replacement would be an improvement? Not much, at least from this administration. Of course, I don’t think that the department should have been created in the first place. Whoever runs it has a pretty impossible job.

The administration is no longer spouting the nonsense that Flameypants was a lone wolf. The president made a speech today admitting that it was part of an Al Qaeda plot hatched in Yemen. But he continues to promulgate the nonsense that this kind of thing is caused by poverty. Andy McCarthy attempts (once again, and probably in futility) to straighten him out:

As Dan recounts, the president also asserted: “We know that [Abdulmutallab] travelled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies.” A few things about that. First, to the extent Obama is suggesting that the terrorism is caused by the crushing poverty, it is worth remembering that Abdul Mutallab — like many jihadist terrorists, bin Laden himself included — is a person of means. The principal challenge in Yemen, like everyplace else, is Islamist ideology, not poverty. Perhaps the president could stop worrying so much about poverty and rethink things like cozying up to the Muslim Brotherhood (and its tentacles in the U.S., like the Islamic Society of North America) and bowing to Brotherhood’s banker, Saudi King Abdullah. Just a thought.

And on the continuing nuttiness of treating this as a criminal matter, rather than an act of war:

The Mutallab case is an unnecessary, insignificant distraction from the real business of protecting the United States. And it is all so unnecessary. It will be forever until we can have a trial of Mutallab, anyway: From here on out, everytime something happens in Yemen, Mutallab’s lawyers will try to use it to their litigation advantage, repeating that the president has so tied Mutallab to terrorism in Yemen that there is no prospect of a fair trial. So why not transfer him to military custody as an enemy combatant, detain and interrogate him for as long as it is useful to do so, and then, in a year or three, either charge him with war crimes in a military tribunal or, if you insist, indict him the criminal justice system? There is no reason to have a criminal case pending right now — it will only tie the president’s hands and be grist for judicial criticism of Obama while he has a war to fight.

I think he continues to look for excuses not to fight the war, and to pretend that this isn’t part of it.

The Obama option, or the Cheney option?

According to Rasmussen, 58 percent of those polls want Umar Abdulmutallab, also known as the “Panty Bomber”, to be shipped off to Gitmo and have aggressive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, be done to him in order to ascertain what Rasmussen: Most Want Umar Abdulmutallab Waterboarded he knows about terrorist operations. Only 30 percent oppose.

Sounds like a useful campaign issue this fall…

Of course, the real issue is not the interrogation techniques, even if some commenters here want to divert it to that. It’s whether or not he should be interrogated at all. The administration has effectively preempted that by granting him Miranda rights. That will be the campaign issue.

It’s his day of reckoning:

It’s showtime, folks! Today’s the deadline President Obama imposed on Iran’s leaders to give up their nuclear ambitions and be nice.

Not sure if the deadline expires at midnight in Tehran or on Washington time, but the mullahs and President Mahmoud “Mighty Mouse” Ahmadinejad aren’t scrambling to give Obama a New Year’s Eve smooch.

…Obama’s primary threat against the Tehran thugs has been sanctions. OK, let’s see if he can get internationally recognized sanctions that actually bite. I’m offering 100-to-1 odds in Tehran’s favor.

I won’t take the bet.