The military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy which forces gay, lesbian and trans-gender members to hide their personal lives or face expulsion from the service "is working," according to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.

The Pentagon is expected to release a survey Tuesday that will say most of those serving don't have strong objections to repealing the policy.

In mid-November, McCain said he rejected that study because it didn't ask service members whether the policy should be repealed.

"[T]his study was directed at how to implement the repeal, not whether the repeal should take place or not," McCain said.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates disagrees that there should be a new survey that amounts to a "referendum."

"I do not believe that military policy decisions -- on this or any other subject -- should be made through a referendum of Servicemembers," Gates wrote to McCain in October.

"I think he certainly has a point," McCain told CNN's Candy Crowley Sunday.

The Arizona senator belives that by repealing "don't ask, don't tell," the Obama administration is trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

"I would also certainly say that we should remember where this all started. There was no uprising in the military, no problems in the military with 'don't ask, don't tell,'" McCain noted.

"It's called 'don't ask, don't tell.' If you don't ask somebody, and they don't tell," he said.

"The fact is this was a political promise made by an inexperienced president or candidate for presidency of the United States. The military is at its highest point in recruitment and retention and professionalism and capability, so to somehow allege that this policy has been damaging the military is simply false," McCain continued.

"So the fact is that this system is working," he added.

The utter falsity of a statement is no barrier to Republican leaders repeating it. And so it was Sunday, as South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham offered his version of the GOP's Uber Lie that tax cuts pay for themselves.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Graham defended the Republicans' demand for another $700 billion windfall for the wealthy by announcing the fiscal equivalent of the sun rising in the west and setting in the east:

"When you look historically, when we raise taxes, the economy slows and we don't get any more revenue. When we cut taxes, the economy grows and we maintain the same amount of revenue."

Not on this planet.

In his version of the Republican myth that "tax cuts pay for themselves," President Bush confidently proclaimed, "You cut taxes and the tax revenues increase." In 2007, Graham's puppet master John McCain explained, "Tax cuts, starting with Kennedy, as we all know, increase revenues." As it turned out, not so much. After Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt with his supply-side tax cuts, George W. Bush doubled it again with his own. And in between, the Clinton years saw robust economic growth, balanced budgets along with higher taxes (which, by the way, every single Republican in the House and Senate voted against.)

In fact, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that the Bush tax cuts accounted for almost half of the mushrooming deficits during his tenure. As another CBPP analysis forecast, over the next 10 years, the Bush tax cuts if made permanent will contribute more to the U.S. budget deficit than the Obama stimulus, the TARP program, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and revenue lost to the recession put together. Predictably, the Bush tax cuts didn't come anywhere close to paying for themselves. And as Congressional Budget Office projections revealed in June, making them permanent is the very worst thing the so-called deficit hawks could do to reduce the U.S. debt.

Sadly, Lindsey Graham's fraud is now orthodoxy in Republican circles. Despite the inescapable conclusion of history, theory and empirical evidence to the contrary, Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl, John Boehner, Tom Coburn, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison and other Republican alchemists continue to insist that cutting taxes increases government revenue and thereby reduces the deficit. Of course, even though the tax cut claim is laughably false, conservative ideology requires that it must true. Otherwise, the Republicans have just been giving money to rich people.

For more background, charts and data, see "10 Epic Failure of the Bush Tax Cuts."

And the fur will start flying. Wikileaks has released some 250,000 documents from US Embassy cables (thus dubbing this latest scandals "Cablegate") and what they reveal isn't pretty for this country. Huffington Post:

WikiLeaks published the first set of more than 250,000 secret State Department documents Sunday, in one of the largest leaks of classified information in history. Earlier in the day, The New York Times and The Guardian published a selection of the documents. The WikiLeaks website was inaccessible for part of the day, and WikiLeaks said in its Twitter feed that it was experiencing a denial of service attack. WikiLeaks also provided the documents to Spain's El Pais, France's Le Monde, and Germany's Der Spiegel. The website says it will publish the full set of 250,000 documents in stages over the next few months.

According to The New York Times, the cables reveal how foreign leaders, including Israel's defense minister Ehud Barak and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, urged the U.S. to confront Iran over its nuclear program.

"The cables also contain a fresh American intelligence assessment of Iran's missile program," The Times reports. "They reveal for the first time that the United States believes that Iran has obtained advanced missiles from North Korea that could let it strike at Western European capitals and Moscow and help it develop more formidable long-range ballistic missiles."

Haaretz reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to pressure the U.S. into military action against Iran by exaggerating its nuclear capabilities:

Meanwhile, another cable shows that a 2009 claim by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran was months away from achieving military nuclear capability was dismissed by the Americans as a ploy.

According to German weekly Der Spiegel, which also received advance information from WIkiLeaks, a State Department official says in a classified cable that Netanyahu informed the United States of Iran's nuclear advancement in November 2009, but that the prime minister's estimate was likely unfounded and intended to pressure Washington into action against the Islamic Republic.

Perhaps more embarrassing to U.S. officials is the revelation, according to The Guardian that U.S. diplomats spied on UN officials, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

A classified directive which appears to blur the line between diplomacy and spying was issued to US diplomats under Hillary Clinton's name in July 2009, demanding forensic technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications. Story continues below

It called for detailed biometric information "on key UN officials, to include undersecretaries, heads of specialised agencies and their chief advisers, top SYG [secretary general] aides, heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders" as well as intelligence on Ban's "management and decision-making style and his influence on the secretariat".

The cables also provide frank assessments of foreign leaders:

Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev "plays Robin to Putin's Batman."

French president Nicholas Sarkozy displayed a "thin-skinned and authoritarian personal style."

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is described as "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader."

Hamid Karzai, is "an extremely weak man who did not listen to facts but was instead easily swayed by anyone who came to report even the most bizarre stories or plots against him."

At least one progressive blogger, while generally supportive of Wikileak's actions, sees some long term damage from this. However, I'm of the belief that if this is the price we must pay to show the government that acting as if no one has a right to privacy is a double-edged sword that can hurt them as well, we might as well pay it now. If the government thinks it will damage their interests to have their corrupt actions known, perhaps they might not want to participate in them.

UPDATE: UK Guardian has a searchable database. And Fox News was wondering aloud today whether wikileaks should be classified as a foreign terrorist organization, which would implicate Sweden as a harboring terrorists.

This Week with Christiane Amanpour marks the passings of Lawrencia 'Bambi' Bembenek, David Nolan and Norris Church Mailer. In addition, the Pentagon has released the names of eight service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US Marines Sgt Jason T Smith, 28, Colorado Springs, CO
US Army SSG Loleni W Gandy, 36, Pago Pago, AS
US Army SGT David J Luff Jr, 29, Hamilton, OH
US Army SPC David S Robinson, 25, Fort Smith, AR
US Army SSG Sean M Flannery, 29, Wyomissing, PA
US Army SPC William K Middleton, 26, Norfolk, VA
US Marines LCpl Arden Joseph A Buenagua, 19, San Jose, CA
US Marines 1LT William J Donnelly IV, 27, Picayune, MS

According to iCasualties, the total number of allied service members killed in Iraq is 4,747; in Afghanistan, 2,232 of which, 153 are Canadian. During this same period, Iraq Body Count lists 52 Iraqi civilians killed.

French band Phoenix tends to make consistently solid albums, and their last two have been in constant rotation in my house for a long while now. Here's a favorite off of their latest, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Dig it.

If you'll remember, the citizens of Iceland stood up and said no to bailing out bankers, and their economy got better much faster because of it. Now they're helping to write the country's new constitution. They sound more American than our country does:

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland's getting a new constitution - and it's really going to be the voice of the people.

The sparsely-populated volcanic island is holding an unusual election Saturday to select ordinary citizens to cobble together a new charter, an exercise in direct democracy born out of the outrage and soul-searching that followed the nation's economic meltdown.

Hundreds of people are vying for the chance to be among up to 31 people who will form the Constitutional Assembly slated to convene early next year - a source of huge pride for Icelanders who have seen their egos take a beating in recent years.

"This is the first time in the history of the world that a nation's constitution is reviewed in such a way, by direct democratic process," says Berghildur Erla Bergthorsdottir, spokeswoman for the committee entrusted with organizing the Constitutional Assembly.

Iceland has never written its own constitution. After gaining independence from Denmark in 1944, it took the Danish constitution, amended a few clauses to state that it was now an independent republic, and substituted the word 'president' for 'king.' A comprehensive review of the constitution has been on the agenda ever since.

Pressure mounted for action after the nation's economic collapse in 2008, an event punctuated by ordinary citizens gathering outside the Althingi, the parliament, banging pots, pans and barrels - a loud, clanging expression of fury. The meltdown was seen not only as a failure of the economy but of the system of government and regulatory agencies. Many came to believe a tighter constitutional framework - including a clearer division of powers - might have been able to minimize that damage, or even prevent it.

"It is very important for ordinary citizens, who have no direct interest in maintaining the status quo, to take part in a constitutional review," said Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir. "We are hoping this new constitution will be a new social covenant leading to reconstruction and reconciliation, and for that to happen, the entire nation needs to be involved."

As William Cohen noted, David Stockman continues to make the rounds after bucking with the Republicans on tax cuts for the rich last summer.

A Republican for Higher Taxes:

David Stockman has never been one to shy away from a roaring economic-policy debate. The former boy-wonder budget director in the first Reagan administration and the architect of Reagan’s supply-side economic policies, Stockman has been very busy lately rejecting the tax-cutting recommendations of Republicans in Washington and arguing that we must get our fiscal house in order or watch our way of life continue its decline. As an “imperialist power,” he says, America is in danger of being at “sundown.” Stockman, who turned 64 on Wednesday, has always been ahead of the curve on tax and fiscal issues, and it appears that he is ahead of it again this time, too. Read on...

Stockman continued his media appearances with CNN's Fareed Zakaria and went after the GOP for their single minded devotion to tax cuts.

Reagan Budget Director: GOP Has Abandoned Fiscal Responsibility By Adopting ‘Theology’ Of Tax Cuts:

As Congress prepares to take up extension of the Bush tax cuts during its lame duck session, Republican lawmakers have been unanimous in demanding that the cuts for the richest two percent of Americans be extended, claiming they are necessary for economic growth and that tax cuts (miraculously) pay for themselves.

While independent economists have shown these arguments to be false, today on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, President Reagan’s former budget director took on his own party for pushing this faulty logic. David Stockman, who led the all-important Office of Management and Budget under Reagan and was a chief architect of his fiscal policy, criticized today’s GOP for misreading Reagan’s legacy by adopting a “theology” of tax cuts. Stockman has spoken out before, but took perhaps his strongest stance yet against his own party today, saying “I’ll never forgive the Bush administration” for “destroying the last vestige of fiscal responsibility that we had in the Republican Party.”

Transcript below the fold.

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I come from a fairly privileged family. I'm not talking Rockefeller wealth, but we did okay. Even with all the perks, one thing that was always drummed into me and the rest of my generation was the responsibility we had to give back for all that we had been given. Certainly, that teaching has informed my liberalism and I hope that I am passing down that same attitude to my children now.

Sadly, there are not enough people enjoying the good fortune of their lives who understand that life is not a zero-sum game and that helping others makes things better for all of us as well. But billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer shares my feelings of obligation and actually teared up talking about the need to give back:

"You said that you would be willing to have your taxes higher. Many Americans, particularly those who are successful say, hang on, I did this work, this is a capitalist society, this is my just reward. You disagree with that notion," anchor Christiane Amanpour asked Steyer.

"I certainly do," he said.

"Because?" Amanpour asked.

"I think anyone who doesn't give credit to the system that they are born into is taking an awful lot onto themselves. I mean, I really think that people have sacrificed a lot more than a little tax money to make that system available for all of us. And I would be ashamed of myself if I didn't give some credit to them," Steyer said, choking up and pausing to regain his composure.

It's easy to take a cynical view of the weepy billionaire, but Steyer actually does put his money where his mouth is. A signatory to The Giving Pledge, Steyer has promised to donate half of his fortune to charity and has already given money to various philanthropic sources, including the successful defeat of Prop 23 here in California.

With the recent release from a 14 year sentence of house arrest, Pro-democracy dissident, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and movement spokesperson Aung Sang Suu Kyi, ABC Radio National in Australia ran a 1996 interview with Suu Kyi just after her brief first release from house arrest in 1996 and just prior to her second arrest and second stint under house arrest which lasted until the 13th of this month.

Aung San Suu Kyi: “I hope that there will be no more uprisings of the kind that happened in 1988 because it is the people who suffered as a result. But of course I am not an astrologer, I do not believe that I can foretell the future. So I cannot say for sure what will happen and what will not happen. But it is true that people are suffering a lot from forced labor. And the people of a country where there is no rule of law suffer from all kinds of frustrations and resentments.”

Hopefully, her freedom will be permanent this time.

Peggy Noonan wants the viewers of Meet the Press to believe that if George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush just spoke up in favor of ratifying the START Treaty, that the Republicans in the Senate would quit playing political games and ratify it.

Sure Peggy. Even though Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, James Baker, and Brent Scowcroft have all spoken out on the treaty, if those Bushies would just come join them, Republicans will quit obstructing everything and finally vote to pass it. Yeah... that's the ticket.

Noonan knows full well it wouldn't make an ounce of difference if they did speak out. She also knows that there's no way either of them would. George W. Bush had an opportunity to speak out and might have actually made a difference when right wingers were going crazy over the ginned up "Ground Zero Mosque" malarkey and he remained silent. He's not going to do the Democrats any political favors on this issue either.

GREGORY: But it’s also leadership, Peggy Noonan. Where are his leadership moments? Where has he connected with the American public? Where did they maintain faith in him? It’s worth pointing out when he meets with Republican Leaders, he will be the most popular political figure in the room, which still stands for something. But he faces a lot of challenges.

NOONAN: He does. I-- I think the way to get beyond the trouble he is in now, the way to show responsiveness, to show he is in touch with the feeling of the American People is to act as if the 2010 election happened. Do you know what I mean? A big message was sent in that big wave. Don’t make believe it didn’t happen. Say, "I’m hearing you. I know it’s happening."

Start sort of-- a bipartisan moderation to the extent that you can. I think he can move forward with the Republicans on taxes in a way that makes the public say, "Wow, that’s pretty good." Extend it. He could do the same thing it seems to me on START if he brings in the past Republican leaders who have supported START in the past. George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush. Be bipartisan. Be big. Receive the message of 2010 and transcend it as a bipartisan figure.