Arianna Huffington recently wrote about the administration's efforts to line coffers of defense contractors vis-a-vis the Missile Shield by greenlighting China's nuclear buildup. She writes: "The time has come to ask: If launching a moon-shot scale defense project with less than a moon-shot likelihood of success means living in a world that's much more heavily armed with nuclear weapons, why are we doing it?"

The following is a first stab at answering that generic question on what appears to be this administration's illogical and insane modus operandi:

Why are they doing this? Why are they embracing greater danger under the auspices of their claim to be reducing it? Because this is a no-talent administration with no conscience and no moral principles undergirding its actions, which appear to be no more than making (and stealing) money for a select few. For them, trouble is an opportunity for exploitation, so manipulating that trouble is merely the first step, just as it appears that "trouble" was manufactured in California's energy crisis.

Two corporations are going bankrupt here in Oregon, but the First Idiot says it is a good thing we have a weak economy depriving us of a surplus. This is the first time I have ever heard a president revel in economic misfortune that hits real people and real companies. One supposes that it pays to be one of the "pioneer" corporations, and it's a hearty "who cares what you think?" for the others. This man others call "President" has zero morals and no intellectual insight.

Observe the continuing tragedy of the Middle East. In one stupid, astonishing visit by Sharon to the Temple Mount, seven years of work was wiped out. At the time I could not think of anything more calculated to drive every Palestinian on earth into an emotional rage of epic proportions. Sharon is like a minor Hitler to these people. Who gave him permission to wipe out seven years of work? It is clear that there truly IS nothing we can do about the terrorist, the one willing to destroy all progress in one quick blow, and it is now also clear that the right-wingers of Israel will NEVER allow the sacrifices necessary to forge a "real politick" peace in this region where East meets West. (The Jewish-Palestinian thing - IMO, that's just a sub-plot).

As someone who feels the weight of the Christian West and its blood guilt, God forgive us for what we have done, in this and the last century, to Jews and Palestinians. One group of politicians will never resolve this because mere politics is never enough with such an enormous existential matter and crisis, and the other group will benefit from destroying any attempts at peace made in the interim. Only the truthtellers, prepared to recognize the crushing burden of Real East-West Politicks, and at the same time prepared to make an historical plea for 100-year forgiveness for what our culture has wrought, have ANY shot at making any inroads here. And that means we need to look at current events and ask the first question: Who in HELL gave Sharon permission to lord it over Palestinians at the Temple Mount? Whoever that person(s) is, is the enemy of humanity.

An old right-wing, highly religious conservative friend of mine, very well-traveled and who lived in the Middle East, once said to me, when it comes to the U.S., the name of the game is to stir up trouble.

That's the problem with the Republican party -- in the absence of a genuine cold war, it has no raison d'etre, so it is now rationalizing its evil actions and strategies to maintain the shell of itself in power, up to and including stealing an election, neutering our representatives, and torpedoing peace in a region that, newly offended and freshly polarized, will justify its life blood - the corporate-militarist taxpayer-funded feeding frenzies - as distinguished from supplying the grunt, who had to get in and out fast in the Gulf War before those supplies ran out.