In the study of history, the Cock-Up Theory argues that our collective past is the sum of important people's endless errors and many inadequacies. This idea is also called the Theory of Cleopatra's Nose, which argues that Cleopatra's prominent prow so enticed the Roman leader Marc Anthony that he lost track of business back home and let the Roman Empire collapse into chaos.Silly historiography, right?

Well, maybe.

His supporters believed that Ronald Reagan planned to hasten the collapse of the Soviet Union by goading it to invest in military technology to circumvent our "Star Wars" missile interception system, (the Strategic Defense Initiative that never worked) and by undermining the Soviet economy to damage the civilian infrastructure and weaken ideological support for communism.

It may be that such was the plan. By the late 1980s the Soviets were running out of money and having trouble maintaining their civilian infrastructure; they had lost most of their ideological credibility and popular support: the system simply couldn't keep operating and collapsed, though it's debatable whether U.S. action caused it.

Saturday was a special occasion for my daughter and me. The question was: what would she most like to do, even if it happened to be the very last thing I could stomach, root canals and Republican sycophancies included. Sadie's answer (no wizard-worthy mystery there): a trip to "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." It was an ashen experience all right. But nothing rising from it. As I told her when we were walking out of the theater, had there been a revolver handy, my brain splatters might not have made it out with the rest of me, and she and her mother would have gotten an expensive cleaning bill. The last time I was so mind-numbingly bored was sitting through the first installment of "Lord of the Rings."

The AP story on the Senate vote last night can be found at apnews.myway.com//article/20070804/D8QQ0T6G0.html.

I find this cave-in most discouraging.

Because the bill evidently allows the executive to invade the privacy of Americans WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL OF ANYONE OUTSIDE THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH, it raises this vital question:

Is this legislation even constitutional?

Evidently, the FISA court does to some sort of review, but not only is it four months after the fact but -according to Jonathan Turley on COUNTDOWN last night- it is not a case-by-case review but a more general look at the "process." I find no reassurance there.

The question makes for customary newspaper fodder July 4 and other national holidays, although to me it's a 365-day fixation more interesting than inquiries into the meaning of life or the existence of god: What does it mean to be an American? The most reassuring answer is that there'd better never be an answer: American identity is best left elusive, less sure of itself than of its endless possibilities. Which is what makes the certainty of recent answers-when the question was posed to local newspaper readers-the more disquieting.

The assumption is a perfect fit for the reactionary-conservative narrative of the last half century: Republicans know national security and foreign policy. Democrats don't. It's an outlandish myth. Democrats dating back to Woodrow Wilson have been the true party of warmongers and jingoes. Republicans only watched, and lately learned, and learned badly, as the experiences of the Reagan-Bush-Bush years amply show. But here go the Democrats now, playing understudy to Republicans' dismal foreign-policy act.

TWO CLEAR REASONS IMPEACHMENT SHOULD BE A BIG STORY

Polls show that roughly half the American people favor the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. There have never been opinion polls like these: half the country, and this is without the impeachment process having even begun.

Even if there were nothing but unprecedented opinion polls like these, that would be a big story. So, mainstream media, why aren't you telling it?

But of course there's more -much more!- than the opinion polls.

Never has there been such a lawless presidency. Nothing even close. Never one so dishonest. Never a presidency so contemptuous of the Constitution and so completely indifferent to its responsibilities to the country as a whole and to those profound values embedded in the oath of office.

Assuming the Iraqi soccer team doesn't get blown up between now and then, and assuming the Saudi Arabian team doesn't hijack itself and slam into one of Jakarta's 340 skyscrapers, the Iraq-Saudi final in the Asian Cup is on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern (3:30 p.m. Mecca time, 4:30 p.m. Baghdad time), but so far I've only found it broadcast live on Setanta Sports (which I recommend). Let's preview.

We've known about the Bush administration's Fortress of Folly for a while. It's one of Iraq's endless occupation-bred, American-made scandals: the $600 million American "embassy compound" redrawing Baghdad's skyline along the Tigris River-and American designs on the Middle East. But like every scandal with this administration-from sleeping at the wheel of 9/11 to nonexistent WMDs to Abu Ghraib to the most corrupt Justice Department in history thanks to torture-apologist Alberto Gonzales-the embassy folly continues to evade the din of accountability. A new Congressional Research Service report shows just what the major media are missing, and how illustrative of American imperiousness the compound is becoming.

Dick Cheney's resume: President's chief of staff. Congressman. Secretary of Defense. Vice President. This last one practically self-appointed- brought on to find a running mate for W, and lo and behold, "I'm the one."

This is a guy who has maneuvered his way his whole adult life to get close to the summit of power. A man on a career that encircles the central levers of power in the American system of government.

Something has drawn him toward it, mightily.

That in itself is not an indictment of the man. All those who get to those positions are, inevitably, people who are attracted to power, who want power.

The question is, what is it they want the power for?