The WAWG Blog

American’s have had a fascination with liberty for over 200 years and many of us have expressed how important it is to our way of life and warned us about protecting it:

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression. — Thomas Paine

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. — James Madison

The history of liberty is a history of the limitations of government power, not the increase of it. — Woodrow Wilson

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts. — Edmund Burke

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. — Edmund Burke

All government, of course, is against liberty. — H. L. Mencken

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. — Benjamin Franklin

I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. — Patrick Henry

I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. — H. L. Mencken

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. — Thomas Jefferson

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. — C.S. Lewis

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. — George Orwell

Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves the necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

More liberty quotes …

Until recent years, our liberty has been protected by the rule of law through our Constitution and Bill of Rights. However, with:

• “Noble Lies” used to coerce Congress and the people into a battle,
• condoning the use of torture,
• hundreds of signing statements that take exception to laws passed by our Congress,
• spying without court authorization on our citizens,
• trying to replace judges that comply with the law with judges that will comply with the latest public opinion polls,
• restricting the use of habeas corpus,
• threatening lawyers who do pro bono work with Guantanamo detainees, and
• restructuring our Congress to avoid compromise,

our liberty is under attack.

Who is responsible for trying to take her from us?

According to Dr. Shadia Drury it started with Leo Strauss, a refugee from Nazi Germany who arrived in the United States in 1937, and has continued with his neocon disciples. Dr. Drury has written two books on Leo Strauss and two of her articles, titled Noble lies and perpetual war: Leo Strauss, the neocons, and Iraq and Saving America – Leo Strauss and the neoconservatives, are used here to explain how the Straussians (neocons) view liberty and why they need to control, minimize or eliminate it.

To be clear, Strauss was not as hostile to democracy as he was to liberalism. This is because he recognizes that the vulgar masses have numbers on their side, and the sheer power of numbers cannot be completely ignored. Whatever can be done to bring the masses along is legitimate. If you can use democracy to turn the masses against their own liberty, this is a great triumph. It is the sort of tactic that neo-conservatives use consistently, and in some cases very successfully.

He [Strauss] is the enemy of liberty in general. It was for love of America that he wished to save her from her disastrous love affair with liberty ….

The wise ancients [Plato] thought that the unwashed masses were not fit for either truth or liberty; and giving them these sublime treasures was like throwing pearls before swine.

In contrast to the ancients, the moderns [us] were the foolish lovers of truth and liberty; they believed in the natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They believed that human beings were born free and could be legitimately ruled only by their own consent.

The ancients denied that there is any natural right to liberty. Human beings are born neither free nor equal. The natural human condition is not one of freedom, but of subordination. And in Strauss’s estimation, they were right in thinking that there is only one natural right – the right of the superior to rule over the inferior – the master over the slave, the husband over the wife, and the wise few over the vulgar many. As to the pursuit of happiness – what could the vulgar do with happiness except drink, gamble, and fornicate?

Instead of personal happiness, they would live their lives in perpetual sacrifice to God and the nation.

The trouble is that neoconservatives have zero tolerance for human vices or follies, and as a result, they are unwilling to give liberty a chance.

So, what is to be done? How can America be saved from her dangerous fascination with liberty? Irving Kristol came up with the solution that has become the cornerstone of neoconservative policies: use democracy to defeat liberty. Turn the people against their own liberty. Convince them that liberty is licentiousness – that liberty undermines piety, leads to crime, drugs, rampant homosexuality, children out of wedlock, and family breakdown. And worse of all, liberalism is soft on communism or terrorism – whatever happens to be the enemy of the moment. And if you can convince the people that liberty undermines their security, then, you will not have to take away their liberty; they will gladly renounce it.

In an essay entitled “Populism Not to Worry,” Irving Kristol argued that Americans should embrace populism, or the rule of the majority, despite the reservations of the Founding Fathers. The latter feared the tyranny of the majority, and institutionalised safeguards to protect the liberty of individuals and minorities. But Kristol and the neoconservatives want to dismantle these very safeguards against majority rule. Kristol tells us not to worry. Why not? Apparently because the neoconservatives believe that America has been ruled by an unwise liberal elite for over two hundred years, and they are willing to gamble that the people will be wiser, which is to say, more likely to endorse conservative policies.

With the neoconservatives in power in the US, it will be difficult to conceal the real nature of neoconservative policies. The “stealth campaigns” are not likely to be as effective. The policies are by now very clear: no gay rights, no liberated women, no uppity blacks, lots of prayer in the schools, a strong commitment to the death penalty, and the re-criminalisation of abortion. The latter is particularly important. Of course it will keep the women at home and out of the way so that the world can be ruled by men in the proper manly fashion; but that’s not all. More importantly, it will keep women busy having babies – lots of babies. In this way, women will become useful once again; they will return to their vocation as factories for soldiers – and we need lots of soldiers, for we will have plenty of wars to fight, if the neoconservatives have their way. And it seems they have.

The neoconservative goal is reactionary in the classic sense of the term. It is nothing short of turning the clock back on the liberal revolution. And it will use democracy to accomplish its task. After all, Strauss had no objections to democracy as long as a wise elite, inspired by the profound truths of the ancients, was able to shape, invent, or create the will of the people. In his interpretation of Plato’s myth of the cave, Strauss maintained that the philosophers who return to the cave should not bring in truth; instead, the philosophers should seek to manipulate the images in the cave, so that the people will remain in the stupor to which they are supremely fit.

It is ironic that American neoconservatives have decided to conquer the world in the name of liberty and democracy, when they have so little regard for either.

So, beware of neo-conservatives, their think tanks and their publications. Here are some links on the disciples of Leo Strauss or “Leo-cons”:

Irving Kristol, devoted follower of Leo Strauss, godfather of neoconservatives, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 by The Decider.

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz, former Bush Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, considered to be one of the most prominent and “hawkish” of the neo-conservatives, is the principal author of the “Wolfowitz Doctrine“, also known as the Bush doctrine, received his doctorates under Strauss in 1972.

Abram N. Shulsky, has worked in the Office of Special Plans, a secretive intelligence outfit in the Pentagon that was charged with digging up information on Iraq that would support the administration’s arguments for going to war, received his doctorates under Strauss in 1972.

William Kristol, son of Irving Kristol and Vice President Dan Quayle’s chief of staff and chairman of The Project for the New American Century – inactive since late 2005, is the neo-conservative editor of the Weekly Standard and now a Time magazine columnist.

White House Snubbed Iran Offer in 2003 – Iran offered the White House a package of concessions in 2003, including an end to Iran’s support for Lebanese and Palestinian militants, assistance in stabilizing Iraq, and increased transparency to its nuclear energy program – but was rejected by Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, according to former Bush official Lawrence Wilkerson. Many of the offers are virtually identical to what the White House has been demanding of Tehran for the past few years, and were contingent on an end to U.S. hostility. In return for its concessions, Tehran asked Washington to end its hostility, to end sanctions, and to disband the Iranian rebel group the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and repatriate its members. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had allowed the rebel group to base itself in Iraq, and it came under US power after the Iraq invasion.

Republicans Stall Senate Ethics Bill – Senate Republicans scuttled broad legislation last night to curtail lobbyists’ influence and tighten congressional ethics rules, refusing to let the bill pass without a vote on an unrelated measure that would give President Bush virtual line-item-veto power. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned the GOP that if it doesn’t change course, it may have to spend the next two years explaining to American voters why it opposed lobby reform.

Pentagon Manual Says Terror Suspects Can Be “Imprisoned, Convicted And Executed” Using “Hearsay Evidence Or Coerced Testimony”

Rick Santorum Says That It’s Good That Bush Doesn’t Listen to Congress or the People, and We’re Already at War with Iran – Today on Fox News, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) said President Bush’s approach to the war in Iraq, particularly his recent speech, was “Lincolnesque.” Fox Host Martha MacCallum asked Santorum what he thought of the criticism that President Bush “is just going his own way, not listening to the people, not listening to Congress.” Santorum responded, “Good for him.” Santorum also added that Bush understands, but most people aren’t aware, that we are already at war with Iran.

And now for the funny (not bad) line of the day : – Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, made this contribution late last week during a quick interview in the Speaker’s Lobby, just off the House floor. “I’ve been losing arguments to a good-looking brunette for 22 years, so I’m used to this,” Mr. Pence said, referring to his wife, Karen, and now presumably, to Nancy Pelosi, the new speaker. “Now I’m in a powerless minority in two houses,” he added, grinning.

Regards,

Jim

White House Purging Ranks of US Attorneys; Replacements to Skip Confirmation – The Bush administration is quietly replacing as many as ten Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys. Some of the attorneys which are being replaced are involved in ongoing corruption investigations into officials in the White House and the Republican party. The Bush administration will take advantage of a Patriot Act provision that allows their replacements to circumvent congressional approval. One such replacement, J. Timothy Griffin, who was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas last month, served as Karl Rove’s opposition researcher until late last year.

• Talking Points Memo
• White House Goes After Prosecutors
• WH Moved Swiftly to Replace US Attorneys

The USA Patriot Act allows the president to appoint new U.S. attorneys without confirmation hearings when a vacancy arises. Some former U.S. attorneys say the flexibility puts pressure on prosecutors to pursue Washington’s agenda instead of using their own judgment.

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Says Federal Judges Aren’t Qualified To Rule On National Security Policy…Should Defer To President

Immigrants Mistreated by US Customs, Says Report – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement mistreated suspected illegal immigrants at five prisons and jails nationwide, violating federal standards meant to ensure safe and humane custody, according to a report released yesterday by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general. Immigration rights advocates claim that the report ignored the most serious allegations of abuse collected since June 2004, which they said included physical beatings, medical neglect, food shortages and mixing of illegal immigrants in administrative custody with criminals.

Defense Department database contains information on protesters – A Defense Department database devoted to gathering information on potential threats to military facilities and personnel, known as Talon, had 13,000 entries as of a year ago — including 2,821 reports involving American citizens, according to an internal Pentagon memo to be released today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Pentagon memo says an examination of the system led to the deletion of 1,131 reports involving Americans, 186 of which dealt with “anti-military protests or demonstrations in the U.S.”

Virginia Legislator Says Black People “Should Get Over” Slavery

Fox News Concentrates On $160,000 Missing In UN Oil For Food Scandal But Doesn’t Talk About 9 Billion Missing In Iraq – Tuesday on Studio B with Shepard Smith, the focus was again on the UN Oil for Food Scandal. Sevan is accused of embezzling $160,000 in the UN Oil for Food Scandal. With all the focus that Fox has put on this scandal, I can’t help but wonder why Fox has no concern for the 9 billion dollars that went missing from Iraq that the U.S. can’t account for.

Quotes From the Fair and Balanced Fox News
“Dan, you talk about a hostile enemy obviously being Iraq, but hostile enemies right here on the home front.” – Gretchen Carlson referring to Senator Ted Kennedy as a “hostile enemy”, “Fox & Friends“, 1/10/07

“Exactly, Sean! Look. He committed the crimes in Iraq. Let the Iraqis try him, not some international court. I want you to go into the street, Sean, and show people a picture of Barbra Streisand and, ah, ask them if they, ah, if you should put that on TV. See what their reaction’s about.” – Neil Boortz comparing the picture of Saddam Hussein after his execution to Barbara Streisand, “Hannity’s America“, 1/14/07

Regards,

Jim

As I said in Failed Single Party Nations of the Past – Where Are We Going Now?, when I was summarizing what contributed to WWII, “Anxieties over social and economic issues are broadcast, exploited and focused on an enemy and its friends.” Well here’s a current example of an authoritarian trying to identify all the enemies of their preferred single-party state.

Cully Stimson, a deputy assistant secretary of defense and Bush appointee, wants corporations to pressure law firms that also represent terrorist detainees to stop this liberal activity. Stimson suggested that CEOs “are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms.”

Stephen Gillers of New York University says in an NPR story that, “He [Stimson] should be sent back to basic civics classes on the American adversary system …”

Professor Ronald Rotunda of George Mason University was reported by WSJ.com to say, “Lawyers have a long tradition of coming up to the plate and representing unpopular clients, including war criminals in World War II.” WSJ.com also included this from Professor Rotunda:

“Lawyers have a long tradition of coming up to the plate and representing unpopular clients, including war criminals in World War II,” said Ronald Rotunda, a George Mason University law professor who worked on Guantanamo issues as a legal adviser to the Bush Pentagon. Rotunda said that senior military officials told him they were pleased to see top-notch legal talent, both uniformed and civilian, representing the prisoners, so that any convictions will have credibility. “It’s not in their interest for anybody to pull punches,” he said.

Rotunda said few CEOs would likely heed Stimson’s suggestion to pressure their law firms to drop Guantanamo clients. “I don’t think this guy knows much about business because it’s simply a fact that lawyers are more liberal than many of their business clients,” he said. “But businesses pick their lawyers not because of their politics or because they’re good drinking buddies, but because they give good representation.”

According to Nina Totenberg’s NPR story, Thomas Wilner of Shearman and Sterling, who successful represented twelve Kuwaitee detainees at Guantanamo, said, “They’re really trying to make anyone who opposes them the enemy or an aider of the enemy. It’s really incredibly. They don’t understand what America is about. All we fought for all this time is that people should have a fair hearing, and now they are trying to say that lawyers that are standing up for that and standing up for the rule of law, are enemies.”

Will President Bush respond to Senator Patrick Leahy’s urging to “take appropriate action?” So far, there is only this from a spokesperson at The Department of Defense, “Mr. Cully Stimson’s comments in a recent media interview about law firms representing Guantanamo detainees do not represent the views of the Defense Department or the thinking of its leadership.”

Now that we have the President’s latest ideas for victory in Iraq and fighting the terrorists overseas so we don’t have to fight them here, it’s time to look at their plan for protecting us at home. Are we open to attack from the rear while we’re distracted by the Iraq civil conflict that surrounds our troops? Are we so focused on Iraq that we won’t see the next direct hit like we didn’t the see the last one? Even though we are fighting them over there, does that mean there can’t be a few terrorists that are getting ready to implement another strike on our home?

Please note, I’m not trying to spread fear. I’m attempting a little practicality. If I’m distracted by a loud commotion at my front door, isn’t it possible that someone else is entering my back door with an unpleasant surprise? This is not very likely, but it is possible. So, how do I protect my home from this remotely possible situation?

Do I take a practical approach or do I come up with some expensive, illegal, mini war. Do I implement a balanced asset protection plan and make sure my home is secure against those that are looking for an easy mark? Or do I hock my home and other assets to pay for weapons to blow up another part of town where the criminals are known to hang out while leaving the back door unlocked? Besides not being legal the latter doesn’t make sense. (Even if a bunch of those criminals tried to kill my father….) How about I try to do both, like our government is doing? How much more impractical can this be and how well are they balancing the costs?

As you can see on the left side of this blog, there is a running cost for our efforts in Iraq. This I.O.U grows by over $3,000 per second and will be getting close to $400,000,000,000.00 by the 4th anniversary of our unprecedented preemptive invasion back on March 20, 2003.

Now, what has been spent on protecting our ports, other national assets and our back door. As shown in the table below, just over $1,500,000,000.00 for the past five years. On an annualized basis, our government is spending 333 times more on the Iraq criminals than on making our back door secure from another homeland hit.

Refer to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Fiscal Year 2006 Infrastructure Protection Program for details.

Relative to all this government spending on keeping us safe, here is a quote that needs restating, “So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy,” Osama bin Laden, November 2, 2004.

Maybe we would be much safer and maybe we could sadden Osama a little if our government moved funds from the illegal effort in Iraq to protecting the assets in the table above? If we took what we spend on Iraq in a year, we could spend 67 times more on protecting homeland assets than we have for the last 5 years.

(As an aside, there is one thing practical that has happened. There is actually a documented plan for protecting our back door. Too bad there wasn’t a similar plan prior to the start of for our efforts in Iraq.)

What a difference two years (and an election) makes!
Some Republicans are complaining about the way the new Congress has started. Ask them if they remember this news story from two years ago:

(01-05-2005) 04:00 PST Washington — The 109th Congress opened with a partisan fight Tuesday, as Republicans pushed through a rule change that will make it much more difficult for the House to investigate potential ethical violations of its members. Republicans said the change was essential to provide due process rights to all members, but minority Democrats angrily said it was a transparent attempt to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas from more ethics investigations.

Conservative bloggers blow hot air in strange chain of events – In late November, 2006, an Iraqi police captain tells the Associated Press about the burning and shooting of six people during a sectarian attack at a Sunni mosque.

In recent weeks, conservative bloggers, some Iraqi officials and the U.S. military hotly dispute the existence of the Iraqi police captain. Conservative bloggers charge that the police captain was fabricated in order to spread false stories.

Conservative blogger claims that the Associated Press is in a major scandal for making up the story.
As recently as January 4, 2007, Michelle Malkin, the best-known blog critic of the police captain’s existence, stated flatly “the fact that there is no police captain named ‘Jamil Hussein’ working now or ever in either Yarmouk or al Khadra, according to on-the-ground sources in Baghdad.

On January 4, 2007, the Iraqi Interior Ministry acknowledges that the Iraqi police officer does exist and is an active member of the force.

The Iraqi police officer now faces arrest for speaking to the media.

Bush’s line used to be, “I’ll listen to my military leaders on the ground.” Bush’s new line is, “When my military leaders on the ground tell me what I don’t want to hear, I’ll get new military leaders.” – Bush is replacing Gen. John P. Abizaid as the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East.

FOX News Banner On Nancy Pelosi says, “100 Hours To Turn America Into San Francisco” – Sean Hannity was full of predictably peevish partisanship last night (1/4/07) on Hannity & Colmes as he made the ludicrous claim that the Democratic agenda of raising the minimum wage and combating global warming “because they have spent way too much time watching Al Gore’s new DVD” was out of step with America. But a FOX News banner across the bottom of the screen as Pelosi took the gavel was even more biased, stating, “100 Hours To Turn America Into San Francisco”.

Bush pushes the envelope on spying on your mail – President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans’ mail without a judge’s warrant. The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a “signing statement” that declared his right to open people’s mail under emergency conditions. That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

General Motors blasts proposed increase in U.S. fuel economy – Bob Lutz, vice chairman and the head of global product development for General Motors, says that raising fuel economy standards would unfairly burden Detroit and alleges that Americans don’t care — they just want their big, powerful trucks and SUVs. Really Bob? Then why do the latest polls indicate that Americans are prioritizing fuel economy and safety more and more – something GM’s giant SUVs don’t provide? Why has Toyota just surpassed GM as the number one auto seller in the world?

Excessive’ 2006 e-voting failures

Lab that tests voting machines barred by US – The company was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests. It is reported to be a Big Republican Donor. The CEO Dumped Shares of Stock Just Before Year’s End.

Winter Cancelled – Crocuses are pushing out of the ground in New Jersey. Ice fishing tournaments in Minnesota are being canceled for lack of ice. And golfers are hitting the links in Chicago in January. Much of the Midwest and the East Coast are experiencing remarkably warm winter, with temperatures running 10 and 20 degrees higher than normal in many places. New York City saw a November and December without snow for the first time since 1877. And New Jersey had its warmest December since records started being kept 111 years ago.

Regards,

Jim

Right-wing authoritarian (RWA) followers are still supporting their favorite party just as their social dominator leaders, or the neocons, are.

The following was compiled for a review by Pew Research to show a trend toward Democrats in the last three Congressional elections. More importantly, it further confirms that the authoritarian system is still in place.

Click on image to see larger version.

From this table and as summarized below, white Christians showed a nearly two to one preference for Republicans over non-whites and non-Christians. By the same margin, they also showed their dislike of Democrats. This preference was even greater for white evangelicals – three to one. Only 27 percent voted Democrat while 72 percent voted Republican. White evangelical protestants, RWAs, made up 22 percent of the voters.

The preference is even more prominent when frequency of attendance at church is taken into account. As shown below, the delta for party preference increases by another 8 points for RWAs that attend church at least weekly. Note also the similarity in support for Republicans between the weekly mainline protestants and the less than weekly evangelicals.

Click on image to see larger version.

Regardless of the trend toward Democrats that the Pew Research tried to emphasize, there is a more important fact shown by their data. The white evangelical protestants, RWAs, are still strongly of one mind.

Together, the neocons and RWAs are still pursuing their agenda. They would love to see Newt Gingrich get the Republican presidential nomination for 2008 so they can have their “values issues” resolved.

Click on image for detailed report from Pew Research

More About Republican Congressman Virgil Goode’s Anti-Muslim Remarks – Republican congressman Virgil Goode recently claimed that incoming Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison’s decision to be sworn in with a Koran amounted to an assault on American values, and called Ellison’s election a consequence of unchecked immigration. But here is Ellison’s answer to Goode’s bad deeds. Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, will take the oath of office using what was once Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy of the Koran. And concerning Goode’s remark about immigration, Ellison’s family has been in America for more than 250 years.

FBI Agents Witnessed Guantanamo Detainee Abuse – Documents released yesterday by the FBI cite more than two dozen instances in which agents reported possible mistreatment at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, including mock baptizing, dangerously hot and unventilated cells, and one detainee whose head was wrapped in duct tape for chanting the Quran. Some military officials and contractors told FBI agents that techniques in use had been approved at the highest levels of the Defense Department.

John McCain calls the New York Times ‘a Communist paper’

Conservative Radio Host Announces “Assassination” Schedule For Members Of Congress – A radio talk-show entertainer whose earlier statements that he “may” have to assassinate members of Congress if the wrong people were elected Nov. 7 now has set a timetable for those killings. In a statement on his website, Hal Turner noted that a newspaper has reported that a bill granting amnesty to illegal aliens is expected to be enacted in January, when the Democratic Party takes control of the U.S. Senate and House. “ANY MEMBER OF CONGRESS WHO INTRODUCES, CO-SPONSORS OR VOTES IN FAVOR OF ANY SUCH AMNESTY WILL BE DECLARED A DOMESTIC ENEMY AND WILL BE CONSIDERED A LEGITIMATE TARGET FOR ASSASSINATION,” Turner posted on his website.

Ancient ice shelf breaks free from Canadian Arctic – A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada’s Arctic. The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometers (155 miles) away picked up tremors from it. The Ayles Ice Shelf, roughly 66 square kilometers (41 square miles) in area, was one of six major ice shelves remaining in Canada’s Arctic.

Regards,

Jim

Right-Wing Blogs Make Up Lies about John Kerry – Several Right-Wing Blogs posted a photo of John Kerry, apparently sitting alone at a mess hall in Iraq a couple of weeks ago. The picture, as the story went, proves that Kerry’s “botched joke” has caused lingering resentment among men and women in uniform. However, the picture’s embedded data, just a away, shows the picture was taken on January 9, 2006 – several months before Kerry botched his joke. News accounts at the time put Kerry in England around that time – which might explain the giant hanging on the far wall.

FBI Thought the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, Was Communist Propaganda – I love the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, because it teaches us that family, friendship, and virtue are the true definitions of wealth. In 1947, however, the FBI considered this anti-cosumerist message as subversive Communist propaganda (read original FBI memo). According to Professor of Franklin and Marshall College, the FBI thought Life smeared American values such as wealth and free enterprise while glorifying anti-American values such as the triumph of the common man.

Ice mass snaps free from Canada’s Arctic – A giant ice shelf has snapped free from an island south of the North Pole, scientists said Thursday, citing climate change as a “major” reason for the event.

Another Former Bush Administration Official Joins Big Oil – Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton has accepted a position with Shell Oil as general counsel for exploration, production and unconventional resources. No wonder we have not been protecting our resources or taking action against global warming.

American Households in Worst Financial Shape Since WWII

Regards,

Jim