Is There an Echo in Here? Echo in Here? Echo in Here?

No links, not even any patties, but anyone who's been paying attention the last couple of days, since the Iranians test-launched (with the help of Photoshop) some missiles, knows the drill. There's been a universal rush to denounce the tests, and an equally universal rush to refer to "iran's nuclear weapons ambitions." That was the quote from a couple of NPR hourly newscasts, and, of course, that's the line from the Bush administration and the McCain campaign.

It's almost as if there wasn't a National Intelligence Estimate -- the consensus view of the nation's 16 intelligence agencies -- issued just last December on the issue of Iran's nuclear program. The NIE said that said the judgment of the agencies was that Iran's nuclear weapons program was stopped four years ago.

It's understandable that the administration and its anointed would-be successor would find it convenient to forget that conclusion. But the fact that no national news media "journalist" questioning any surrogates about this latest dustup can bother to remember that NIE conclusion would be disappointing -- if we hadn't already lived through this charade once before.