Depressing signs that Cheney has won, to some degree. The system now works without him. A "bombing plot" appears at precisely the moment that Obama is trying to win favor for closing Guantanamo. Of course this plot, which would have been carried out by a bunch of destitute lunatics, would never have had the slightest chance of working without the sting operation that allowed it to exist in the first place. Cheney's system of neverending scares persists-- is anyone really buying it anymore? Unfortunately Obama is.

Obama is now stuck in a deeply disappointing bind. It is clear that he will never fully acknowledge the utter failure of Iraq and Bush doctrine, which is what he needs to do to make a clean break with all of these practices-- to change the language, which is essential. He feels he has to appear tough. He is afraid to take a hard stance on an issue like this, when one would be welcome. If he doesn't do it now, he never will.

Do you think the White House provides similar updates to our current president? I think speakingcorpse could select some properly apocalyptic passages to accompany images of grinning bankers and reports on the bailout...

IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.

The responding officers — eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 — face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots — BAM! BAM! — fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.

“United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!” screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.

...

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

One participant, Felix Arce, 16, said he liked “the discipline of the program,” which was something he said his life was lacking. “I want to be a lawyer, and this teaches you about how crimes are committed,” he said.

Cathy Noriego, also 16, said she was attracted by the guns. The group uses compressed-air guns — known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets — in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range.

“I like shooting them,” Cathy said. “I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”

via Arthur