'Proof through the night'

“ … gave proof through the night that our flag was still there."

The bodies of 18 Americans arrived at Dover Air Force Base during the night, the first to be honored by their commander-in-chief since the inception of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama left the White House at midnight on Marine One for Dover, where he met with the families of the fallen and participated in the transport ceremony from plane to mortuary.

Fifteen soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Agency agents were killed Monday in Afghanistan in separate helicopter crashes and in a roadside bombing. The Associated Press reports this has been the deadliest month of the war with 55 American deaths.

The president who took this country into two wars explained his refusal to attend a Dover ceremony by saying he believed the best way to honor the dead was to meet with victims’ families.

President Obama was expected to be back at the White House by dawn. I woke at 3 a.m. to find this breaking news and have had my own private thoughts about it all. Certainly, this is a reminder that we are still engaged in two deadly wars.

Finally, after thousands of American war dead have returned to our shores, an American president has given proof through the night that our flag is still there for them.

READ THE AP ARTICLE.

'Whore'

There are certain words which when aimed at certain individuals can be very volatile. Ask Don Imus.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) became the darling of the Democratic Party when he aimed a volley of very fitting words at Republicans attempting to stop passage of healthcare reform.

But now, Grayson is on the hot seat and so he should be. In a radio interview last month, just now coming to light, Grayson called Linda Robertson, an aide to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, “a K Street whore.”

A spokesman for Grayson came to his defense with lots of reasons for the remark, and you can read them in a CNN report HERE.

He can enumerate reasons to his heart’s content, there is no excuse for calling this woman a “whore.”

Public figures within a mile of a microphone need to learn to measure their words. Ask Virginian George Allen who mouthed the racial slur “macaca.”

Congressman Grayson has not only hurt himself with his remarks about Ms. Robertson; he has hurt his party.

Sir: take a big safety pin and attach this little saying to your lips:

“Lord, fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff and nudge me when I’ve said enough.”

Canvas

Jenny has become a good friend in every sense of the word since she volunteered to help me with my grocery trips several months ago.

After days abed with not a praying-to-die case of the flu, but close, with weakened vision and no appetite, I called Jenny to tell her I was feeling a little better. “I don’t want anything I have here to eat,” I told her. “All I can think of is a big, real-beef burger with lettuce and tomato.” (Fast food is an obsession with those who cannot see to drive.) Two hours later, Jenny was at my door with two burgers. By nightfall, I felt like myself for the first time in days.

Jenny, whose late husband was visually impaired, spends most days of her month making life better for those with vision problems.

On Friday she will drive a group up into the mountains to a camp owned by the National Federation of the Blind. She really wants me to tag along. “It’s peak time for the fall foliage,” she said. “I can’t see it now,” I replied. “That’s why I’m going to describe it to you,” she said.

I do not want to go. I told Jenny I don’t want to go. I cannot explain to her why. But the why of it has been on my mind.

As a child I was never satisfiled with Crayola’s box of eight and can still name every coolor in the box of 64.

I have been on mountain drives hundreds of times. I’ve seen the foliage at Clingman’s Dome and Newfound Gap in the Smokies and across the peaks along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have stood at the highest point east of the Mississippi River, at the center of a 360-degree palette of every imaginable hue and shade.

In those moments, through the years, I felt closest to God. Now, the canvas will be white. He will trust me to fill in the colors. If I am to fill it in from memory, I need to be alone.

Only then can some who were blessed with sight for most of their lives become true artists.

The imagination is full not just with colors, but with experiences which have colored one's life. The present can be intrusive.

Perhaps I can better explain my reluctance to return to the mountains this way. Have you stopped at a passage in a book and realized the author has touched a thought or a memory inside you? That the words are more meaningful because you’ve experienced them, and you need a quiet moment to reflect?

Because I had lived it with a husband and five cats I loved, I closed my eyes and felt the following scene from James Lee Burke’s “Crusader’s Cross.” In it, his fictional character, New Iberia Parish sheriff’s detective Dave Robicheaux, his three-legged raccoon Tripod, his cat Snugs and his new wife Molly share a backyard breakfast.

“Tripod climbed down from his perch in the live oak, and Snugs appeared out of the bamboo, his tail pointed straight up as stiff as a broomstick. The four of us commenced to share breakfast at the redwood table.

“When the world presents itself in the form of a green-gold playground, blessed with water and flowers and wind and cenuuries-old oak trees, and when you are allowed to share all these things on a fine Sunday morning with people and animals you love, why take on the burden of the spirituality afflicted?”

***

The week of illness turned out to be a respite from the news, the blogs, the daily reminders of the “spiritually afflicted” who put fault-finding and self-seeking before the greater good.
There is a world of difference between being lonely and being alone. Sometimes we just need the quiet moments, however they might come.

1-800-CATCH-22

For years when there has been good, ground-soaking rain, my phone line develops static and an annoying squiggly sound which prevents conversation and access to the Internet.

Although I would rather eat a green snake than to make such a call, on Wednesday, 14 October, I called the toll-free number for “AT&T Home Repair.” There was no need to explain the problem as the representative could hear it quite well for herself. I was adamant that the problem is not inside my home, that I am not going to pay for repair and that the problem only occurs after much rain.

“We will send a tech out by the 21st,” she said .

Today.

The static problem finally clearen up around noon yesterday. At 3 p.m. a very nice lady from AT&T called. Briefly, here’s how the conversation went:

AT&T: Good afternoon, Ms. Trotter. I’ve just checked your phone line, and it is clear. The tech has a ticket to come out and check your phone line, but he cannot do so if the line is now clear.

Me: Well, if he had come any time in the last week, he could have check my line. The static has just cleared up.

AT&T: He has an instrument which can pinpoint the area on the cable where the problem exists, but it has to be causing the static when he does it. I’ll have to pull his work ticket for today.

Me: So, you are saying I will have to wait until another good rain, call then and hope the repairman pulls the work ticket before the problem clears up?

AT&T: Why don’t you do this: keep up with the weather report, and if rain is predicted, go ahead and call and set up a work ticket. You can always cancel it if you have to.

Me: I’m not playing that game of caling, then calling again to cancel.

AT&T: I’m sorry. I guess it’s a “Catch-22” situation.

Me. I guess it is.

***

At 5 p.m., I was typing a rather long email to friend Frodo – a discussion about immigrants who settled in the Mississippi Delta – and got kicked offline.

Static.

Rain check

Noah’s Ark (AP) After 40 days and 40 nights of rain, the blogger known as DemWit cannot access the Internet due to static on her dial-up connection. Author BJ says she will send an olive leaf when AT&T corrects the problem. Check back, please!

In the catbird seat

FROM GALLUP TODAY

Hillary Clinton Now More Popular than Barack Obama

President Barack Obama’s favorable rating is down 22 points since January, to 56 percent. Meanwhile, his chief rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination (and current Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton has a favorable rating of 62 percent, little changed over the same time span.

Read the Gallup Poll.

BOTH POPULAR

Let me hurriedly point out that 56 percent of Americans view President Obama favorably. That rating still can be viewed positively given the blatant hatred of Obama coming from the right.

Hillary Clinton’s popularity has always been consistent. Maybe those who don’t like her are very vocal, but she always ranks high in such polls.

OLD DEMWIT

Here is one of DemWit’s earliest posts:

12.28.2007

A love-hate thing

In the annual USA Today-Gallup poll released 26 December, the following were named as the men and women most admired by Americans:

MOST ADMIRED MAN

President George W. Bush – 10 percent
Former President Bill Clinton – 8 percent
Former Vice President Al Gore – 6 percent
Senator Barack Obama – 5 percent

MOST ADMIRED WOMAN

Senator Hillary Clinton – 18 percent
TV host Oprah Winfrey – 16 percent
First lady Laura Bush – 3 percent
Actress Angelina Jolie – 3 percent

So, let’s get this straight: the most-hated man in America, presumably, President Bush, making his 7th appearance atop the list, and the most hated woman in the country, former first lady and New York State Senator Clinton, topping the list for the 12th time, are also the most admired.

Tell me this is not a “house divided.”

Posted by B.J. at 4:49 AM

THREE CONCLUSIONS

Some of my readers came over to DemWit from my archived blog, “I See My Dreams.” They know I’ve been unwavering in my support of Hillary.

They also know that when Barack Obama became the Democratic Party nominee, I voted for him and have supported him.

In my opinion, today’s Gallup figures reflect three conclusions:

President Barack Obama is in the catbird seat in the Oval Office. Perhaps the 40 percent who view him unfavorably is reactionary: he and our country inherited difficult issues which require difficult solutions.

Sadly, it is my belief that some in that 40 percent are racists – plain and simple. This is reflected across the right-wing blogosphere and in remarks by conservative politicians and pundits.

Finally, and possibly primarily, the 22 percent drop in Obama’s popularity might indicate the powerful influence of a well-oiled propaganda machine headed by Fox News and right-wing radio. And, never underestimate the impact of those anonymous and false emails continually circulated via the Internet.

Bolstering this last point is this fact: there are an awful lot of people in America who don’t keep up with the day-to-day minutiae of politics. I talked with four persons this week who had no idea who had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I’m not even certain they know what the Nobel Peace Prize is!

This Gallup poll was conducted October 1-4, before the Nobel jury honored Obama. Given the caustic reacton from the right - and Gallup points this out – it is unclear whether that honor will affect Obama’s upcoming ratings.

A SIMPLE QUESTION

I have been struck by the vitriolic hatred of America which bleeds through many right-wing blog comments. These people not only belittle Obama, they frolic in his failure.

Granted the same could be said for the eight years of the Bush administration. But, that was eight years, and Bush’s record speaks for itself.

The attacks which are dragging Barack Obama’s numbers down began before he took the oath of office.

We all – conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats alike - know that our country’s future depends largely on the success of our president.

Can’t we give him that?

OMST: She's all that!

My dear DemWit:

WTG on putting in a word for education, particularly “proper English grammar.” Our lackluster school systems are evidenced across the American blogosphere.

And, what sort of simpletons would make light of the Nobel Peace Prize? I tell you, honey, a couple of those wingnuts, as you call them, made me get out my smelling salts!

Right now, I’m pretty upset about that.

The word “that,” that is. So, today I’d like to mention both the unnecessary and the incorrect uses of the word, which abound on blogs!

UNNECESSARY use of the word “that:”

Rule: If the sentence reads the same without the word “that,” leave it out. Example:

Incorrect: The boy knew THAT he was in trouble.
Correct: The boy knew he was in trouble.

INCORRECT use of the word “that:”

Rule: Never use “that” when referring to a person. Examples:

Incorrect: He is a man THAT gets things done.
Correct: He is a man WHO gets things done.

Incorrect: The president is a leader THAT gets things done.
Correct: The president is a leader WHO gets things done.

Correct: I am listening to a book THAT is boring me to tears. (Very correct, it’s “The Wings of the Dove” by Henry James!)

The first cold nights of autumn put me in a romantic mood, and I’m into English novels about unrequited love.

And, that, my dear, is that!

Respectfully,

OMST

'A very good place to start'

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

“Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

“For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that ‘Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.’ ”

- Oslo, October 9, 2009

***

Call it nationalism, boosterism, jingoism, the kick-ass, it’s-cool-to-be-dumb attitude which has characterized America over the last decade is both shameful and embarrassing.

This era of failure to exist within the framework of a world community is symbolized for me by that straddle-legged, codpiece strut across the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Remember? Under the banner “Mission Accomplished.”

That mission is not yet accomplished. Our men and women in uniform are still engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq, and they are still coming home in body bags.

These and other challenges Baract Obama willingly took on. Only with the backing of a united America can they be overcome.

Republicans are very angry that the Nobel Committee never honored George W. Bush with a Peace Prize. This anger raged when Jimmy Carter won for The Carter Center’s humanitarian efforts around the world and when Al Gore won for his devotion to abating climate change which will, if unchecked, destroy our planet.

That anger has reached a fever pitch. Right-wing guru Rush Limbaugh told his Dittoheads that Obama hasn’t done “diddly squat,” that the awarding of the Peace Prize to our president is “laughable,” and that Obama is “the laughing-stock of the world.”

In whose eyes?

When a Republican can make this statement – “The Nobel Peace Prize has always been a joke” - a message reverberates around the world that in America ignorance continues to exist.

The right-wing dog-and-pony shows of Fox News and talk radio know their audiences. For years they have hammered their propaganda into the very brain cells of an uneducated and unsuspecting following. For profit. Their worst nightmare is an educated citizenry.

Mr. President, let’s begin our better world with the little children playing on the street corners and sandlots of this country. Let’s don’t stop until they once more have a love of math, science, history, music, art, classic literature and proper English grammar. Then, and only then, will there be an America united to help you and future visionaries build a better world.

When I face a formidable problem or task, I find myself singing, “You start at the very beginning, a very good place to start …”

UPDATE:

Serendipity! I have just read “The Uneducated American” by Paul Krugman, an examination of the state of education in America today – and a perfect addendum to this post. Mr. Krugman writes:

“(W)e need to wake up and realize that one of the keys to our nation’s historic success is now a wasting asset. Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process.”

Read his column HERE.

A surprising Muslim world

I am a daughter of the Deep South, and I can attest that not all white Southerners are members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Sometimes the concentrated focus on the worst in any group leads to the belief that the entire group is bad. Isn’t this the basis of prejudice?

In my opinion, one in every four persons in the world is getting a bad rap. Not all Muslims are fanatical, America-hating killers.

With this in mind, a survery caught my attention early this morning as I scanned CNN headlines.

An intensive study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life concludes there are 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, and approximately 9 out of 10 are Sunni.

By contast there are 2.2 billion Christians in the world population of 6.8 billion. It’s pretty apparent to me and should be to you that the future of this planet depends on these two groups learning to coexist peacefully.

What makes the Pew study results so fascinating is the location of the world's Muslims.

CNN reporter Richard Allen Greene writes:

“India, a majority-Hindu country, has more Muslims than any country except for Indonesia and Pakistan, and more than twice as many as Egypt.

“China has more Muslims than Syria.

“Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon.

“And Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya put together.

“Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

“The Middle East and north Africa, which together are home to about one in five of the world's Muslims, trail a very distant second.”

The Pew research team analyzed data from 232 countries and territories over a three-year period.

The CNN article addresses the implications on U.S. policy in light of the surprising population distribution. A brief article highly recommended: LINK

'The Conservative Bible Project'

DemWit’s readership, that I know of, is made up mostly of Christians, a few Jews, at least four atheists. I am certain that among my Middle East visitors there are Muslims. I do not personally know a Rastafarian, but everyone is welcome here.

All, I believe, will find this post of interest. Oh, I thought about being really clever and writing a conservative version of The Beatitudes – “Wretched are the peacemakers, for they shall not be called neocons” - and The Ten Commandments – “Thou shalt not commit adultery unless you are a televangelist or a holder of public office” – but the “Conservative Bible Project” is far too serious to make light of.

The Project is headed by attorney and teacher Andy Schlafly, son of conservative standard-bearer Phyllis Schlafly. Its goal is to expunge “liberal bias” from the Holy Bible. So help me, God!

There are a lot of articles via Google, and I might be one of the last persons on the planet to hear of this project, but I pass this article from The Huffington Post along to you, dear reader. Although I will have a few words to say following it, I cannot improve on this “just when you thought you’d heard it all” story:

Conservative Bible Project Cuts Out Liberal Passages

The Huffington Post Rachel Weiner
October 5, 2009

Lo and behold, the Bible has gotten too liberal, according to a group of conservatives. And it needs a little editing.
That's the inspiration behind the Conservative Bible Project, which seeks to take the text back to its supposed right-wing roots.

Yes, even scripture is not orthodox enough for the modern conservative. Not that it's the fault of the author(s), exactly. The group cites a few reasons why the Bible is too progressive: "Lack of precision in the original language ... lack of precision in modern language" and "translation bias in converting the original language to the modern one."

So how can the Bible be conservatized? The group has proposed a Wikipedia-like group editing project. Some of the ideas would only bring the translation closer to the original. But others would fundamentally change the text.

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level[3]
4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;[4] defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".
5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots";[5] using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census
6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
8. Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."

Among the words to be eliminated: "government." A conservative columnist at Beliefnet described the effort as "just crazy ... like what you'd get if you crossed the Jesus Seminar with the College Republican chapter at a rural institution of Bible learnin'."

***

In a post titled “Conservative Bible Project Draws Predictable Liberal Scorn,” the conservative media site NewsBusters warns:

“But whether the Conservative Bible Project is inspired or misguided, liberals should exercise some circumspection before piling on. Even Weiner explained that, ‘Some of the ideas would only bring the translation closer to the original.’ "

NewsBusters omits the rest of her quote: “But others would fundamentally change the text.”

I have had my own problems with the King James Version (KJV) translation, but it’s the version I grew up with and since I am not fluent in Greek or Hebrew, it suffices.

In instances where the original talks about “agape” (the love of God), “philial” (brotherly love) and “erotica” (sexual love), the KJV uses only the word “love.”

Churches base foreign mission work on “The Great Commission,” which in the KJV begins, “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. …” But, the original version means “As you go into the world. …” The latter challenges persons to witness by their daily lives. Two good concepts, two different meanings.

But, I’ve got a little news for NewsBusters: conservatives all over this country grew up with the King James Version of the Holy Bible, and they are not going to cotton to the removal of words like “Jehovah,” “Yahweh” and “Lord God.”

What these new translators really want is an American theocracy, while at the same time – in their zealotry – condemning theocracies like Iran.. Do we really want persons of such reasoning ability to interpret scriptures for us?

I would challenge any members of this project to read Matthew 5: 1-48 – The Sermon on the Mount – and tell me how they would improve this essence of Christianity, this passionate passage of great literature.

A week for Greeks

My friend Jenny and I had planned to have lunch at Applebee’s Sunday before she helped with my grocery outing.

It’s been a week for Greeks, as I’ve thought about the athletes of ancient Olympia, their current counterparts and the right-wing pea-brains of our own fairly new civilization – and I use the term loosely – who don’t have a clue about their significance.

These are the intellectual heavyweights who thought America’s loss of the 2016 Olympics was really funny and might know Homer is a character on “The Simpsons” and Athens is a town in Georgia.

I also had followed the story this week of Grrece’s upcoming Sunday election with the Socialist party challenging the ruling center-right New Democracy party.

Socialist leader George Papandreou had campaigned on the promise of open and honest government and a proposed massive stimulus to jump start Greece’s weak economy

So, when Jenny arrived yesterday and wondered if there was any chance I might prefer the Greek Festival at our local Farmer’s Market to Applebee’s, I had one thing to say:

“Moussaka!”

Moussaka is a Greek meatloaf made with lamb and sweet spices and layered with sliced eggplant. It’s the single most difficult – and delicious - recipe I’ve ever prepared, so I welcomed the chance to sample the efforts of Greek chefs.

Apparently the local Greeks find the recipe a tad formidable, too, so we settled for gyros and baklava as we ate al fresco and enjoyed a live band and dancers from Atlanta. I couldn’t see the entertainers so I visualized Zorba’s happy dance and wondered whatever happened to my old Internet buddy, Greek warrior Ted Neros..

We had joined a group of Jenny’s friends, and I was surprised to hear these seventy-something steel magnolias turn the conversation to criticism of George W. Bush. All I could say was, “Don’t get me started.”

There was a time when, unhampered by needing someone to assist me, I would have grabbed a reporter’s notebook and granted our Greek hosts first-person opinions about the day’s events in their mother country. Their insight would have made this post far more informative.

On Sunday, the Socialist party won and will now control 160 seats in the 300-seat Greek parliament (LINK).

I’m not promoting socialism over capitalism here as my acumen of economics is pretty scant. I am just trying to say to the yahoos who are lambasting Obama’s stimulus spending that some folks get it.

Especially the Greeks.

He Brooks no BS

Hats off to David Brooks, conservative op-ed columnist for the New York Times, who wrote on October 2 about ineffectual right-wing “talk jocks.”

Microphone huggers like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly are caught up in “the myth of their own power,” Brooks writes, as he points out their negative effect on the Republican Party.

Of course, the blowhards are blowing back, calling Brooks “irrelevant” and “incoherent.” Limbaugh called him “jealous.” (Of what? Dittoheads vs. intelligent readers?) And, they all just love one more opportunity to blast the New York Times.

But, Brooks makes his case – that “the rise of Beck, Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest has correlated almost perfectly with the decline of the G.O.P.” – with indisputable facts from recent election history.

Hey, this column has ticked off the big boys of right-wing talk, so why wouldn’t you want to read it?

"The Wizard of Beck," David Brooks, New York Times, October 2, 2009.

'Bloody battle'

I have been telling my Democratic friends – liberals and progressives: “We’re not the ones collecting guns and stockpiling ammo.”

Over the top? What is happening in this country is moving beyond partisan bickering. If loving this country makes me a patriot, then I am a patriot of the first order. i am neither blind to its warts nor its worth. As a patriot, I am both heartbroken about and scared to death of what lies ahead.

Some DemWit readers might already be aware of what transpired in St. Louis, Mo., last weekend. The following post from ThinkProgress, in case you missed it, reveals what should be a source of angst and alarm for any American:

Right-Wing Conference Tells Activists To Get Their Guns Ready For ‘Bloody Battle’ With Obama The Nazi

By Lee Fang
ThinkProgress, September 28, 2009

At the How To Take Back America Conference last weekend, conservative speaker Kitty Werthmann led a workshop called “How to recognize living under Nazis & Communists.”

Announcing the panel in a column preceding the conference, talk show host Janet Porter gushed how Werthmann’s description of Austria in the 1930s is a “mirror to America” today — noting “They had Joseph Goebbels; we have Mark Lloyd, the diversity czar.” The room was packed over capacity to hear Werthmann, who grew up as a Christian in Austria and serves as Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum South Dakota president.

During her session, Werthmann went through a litany of examples of how President Obama is like Adolf Hitler. She noted that Hitler, who acted “like an American politician,” was “elected in a 100 percent Christian nation.” Although she failed to once mention anti-Semitism or militarism, Werthmann explained how universal healthcare, an Equal Rights Amendment, and increased taxes were telltale signs of Nazism.

Werthmann also warned the audience:

“If we had our guns, we would have fought a bloody battle. So, keep your guns, and buy more guns, and buy ammunition. [...] Take back America. Don’t let them take the country into Socialism. And I refer again, Hitler’s party was National Socialism. [...] And that’s what we are having here right now, which is bordering on Marxism.”

Werthmann noted that her Nazism speech is gaining popularity. She not only has delivered it to several tea parties, but has been asked by “a group of bankers” to address them this month.

Before the event, ThinkProgress asked Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), one of several Republican members of Congress also speaking at the conference, to autograph Werthmann’s DVD about National Socialism. She happily obliged:

See photo of Bachmann’s autograph and watch video of Werthmann’s remarks HERE.

***

For the record, the number one argument against Social Security: it was a program begun by Adolph Hitler.

How To Take Back America? I would say that is the foremost problem facing our country today. How to take back America from a lunatic fringe preying on the fears of poor ignorant souls.

Frightening.

***

UPDATE – A friend just emailed me the following column, and I urge you to read it.

“Somethng very dangerous is happening …”

- “Where Did ‘We’ Go?” Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 29 September 2009

Play it again, Pete

Moments that stir our senses never leave our memories. One such memory for me was a moment many years ago.

As the song from “Phantom of the Opera,” appropriately “The Music of the Night,” describes it, it was a moment when “silently the senses abandon their defenses.”

I was sitting at the bar in the Bateau Lounge on Bourbon Street. A man with a goatee sat in a chair atop the bar. From his clarinet came one of the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard, and it had nothing to do with Teacher’s on the rocks.

“Just a closer walk with thee ...”

I share with you the following poignant passage as I listen to Douglas Brinkley’s “The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.”

“Saventy-five-year-old Pete Fountain, the legendary clarinetist, tried to stay positive. He was safe, but his $1.5 million Bay St. Louis (Miss.) house was gutted, and his most treasured possessions, which documented his illustrious jazz career, were lost forever.

“Correspondence with Frank Sinatra, gold albums, signed pictures of himself with presidents, Louis Armstrong memorabilia. Losing the gold record of his signature song, ‘Just a Closer Walk with Thee,’ was a truly personal blow. Fountain’s vintage gun collection was also gone. After Katrina, it all came under the heading of one word: debris.

“Fortunately, Fountain had evacuated with his family to Hammond, Louisiana, 75 miles west. ‘Katrina really got me,’ he told the Associated Press, ‘but I have two of my best clarinets, so I’m OK.’

“That’s what Fountain told the press after Katrina. He had that Mississippi Gulf Coast male mentality that no matter what your age you don’t complain. His post-Katrina sadness, though, was acute. For 46 years Fountain had participated in New Orleans’ Mardi Gras parades. His krewe was called ‘Half-Fast Marching Club’ and was a huge tourist draw, parading down St. Charles Avenue while Fountain played his clarinet, a modern-day Pied Piper.

“When February 2006 rolled around, however, Fountain stayed at his rented home in Hammond, Louisiana, refusing to participate in Mardi Gras. His heart wasn’t in it. ‘I think maybe it was just depression about all the stuff that happened,’ he said, ‘all the things we lost, all the disruption. And then you look around and see all the stuff messed up. It just sort of grinds you down.’ ”

***

Upstairs, somewhere in a box, I have Mardi Gras doubloons from the Half-Fast Marching Club. (If you haven’t caught on, it’s pronounced “half-assed.”) I have Fountain’s original album. These are little treasures I myself hoard.

Smile, Pete. When you take that closer walk, I – and the world – will have your music.

No winds, however menacing, can take away the music.

'Vast right-wing conspiracy'

Remember when Hillary uttered the words “vast right-wing conspiracy,” and the media and public opinion pooh-poohed her?

Now that Bill Clinton has called this vast right-wing conspiracy as “virulent” as ever, bear in mind that he didn’t bring it up, but was asked specifically about Hillary’s remark Sunday morning by “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory (LINK).

Is there a vast right-wing conspiracy? You betcha!

The Cliintons, Bill and Hillary, like President Obama now, have been the brutal brunt of it.

The Clintons were accused of murder. President Obama is being accused of wanting to murder old folks with “death panels.” The right-wing continues to strip itself of its self-proclaimed monopoly on moral values.

For this reason, the former president says there’s “no way” Republicans will retake Congress in 2010.

For an eye-popping look at the right-wing’s vulnerable underbelly, read David Brock’s “political and journalistic mea culpa,” Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservtive.” (There are multiple paperback copies for 75 cents on half.com.)

This is a no-holds-barred, nonfiction roman à clef which names names and exposes how they dished the dirt.

As one of a bright and talented army of young conservatives recruited to destroy the Clintons, Brock was the dirtiest of the dirty tricksters. As he personally struggled with his homosexuality, he experienced a road-to-Damascus revelation about the puppetmaster pulling his strings.

The word “conspiracy” turns me off, but it did exist when Hillary talked about it, and it exists now that Bill acknowledges it. Brock’s book is a good jumping-off place to fully understand both its impact and the money and power behind it.

Brock continues to expose and fight this conspiracy today on the Web site he founded, Media Matters for America, described thusly:

“A non-profit progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation.”

As to whether the efforts of the right-wing are as effective today, Clinton told MTP’s audience, "The country is more diverse and more interested in positive action." The people saw Republican control of Congress under George W. Bush, he said, and “they know the results were bad.”

Inexplicably, there remains a fringe out there hellbent on bringing Obama and his positive agenda down, and we must hold complicit media and members of Congress accountable. They are, after all, doing the bidding of the puppetmasters with the power and the money.

Decade's totally bad flicks

Headed out to your favorite movie rental spot? This one’s for movie buffs and lovers of lists!

In my home film library I have a collection of movies labeled “Totally Bad Sci-Fi.” I also have 17 of the old black-and-white Godzilla films, which might be viewed in a different light when you realize Godzilla represents the atomic bomb. (Bought a movie ticket for the latest Godzilla, and it sucked.)

These are movies which the publication VideoHound Golden Movie Retriever would call “a waste of film and studio vehicles.”

Sometimes they’re just so bad they’re good.

Rotten Tomatoes has compiled a list of the 100 Worst Movies of the Decade (2000-2009).

To help you decide what you might want to avoid for your movie weekend – or check out depending on how warped and campy you are – DemWit has complied the list and put it in The Reading Room, so you won't have to wade through all those pesky screens. This is a LONG list, so feel free to scroll and scan - or zero in on one that was a waste of your ticket money!

Fire up the popcorn and get a taste of totally rotten HERE. To comment, please hit "backspace" and return to this post. Thanks!

KISS

My college photography instructor Ed Wheeler was fond of saying “KISS – keep it simple, stupid!” Henry David Thoreau’s repetitious admonition works as well as Wheeler’s.

Theirs would have been good advice to anyone hoping to ensure passage of legitimate healthcare reform.

DemWit has featured a number of posts aimed at dispelling the unending myths surrounding a seemingly unattainable dream of quality healthcare for every man, woman and child in America. It is incomprehensible to me that such lies can waylay the goals of a legitimate president and a citizenry majority.

After reading reams of information on the issue, it dawned on me (I’m slow) that the whole campaign is misnamed. Although polls show Americans are primarily concerned about costs imposed by the medical community, this is not healthcare reform, it’s health insurance reform. OK, whatever works, I told myself.

Back during the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary’s plan was highly criticized for imposing a penalty on persons failing to purchase health insurance. Now that Obama has endorsed the same penalty, where is the outrage? I understood all along the reason for such a penalty. I understand about cost shifts. The question is: does Congress understand there are middle-class families out here who cannot spare another dime from their already impossible household budgets?

Let’s keep it simple: you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip.

I’m reading on my better informed friends’ blogs that the Senate bill produced in committee by Max Baucus (D-MT) is “the plan from hell.” Then Tuesday, the headline on my Progress Report read, “Obama defends Baucus bill” - which he apparently did on a round of Sunday morning talk shows.

Then, there are the cutesy catchphrases guaranteed to confuse even the most astute observer; phrases like “trigger” (one silly report referred to it as “Roy Rogers’ horse”) and “Cadillac healthcare plans.” All these dollops of doublespeak seem contrived to complicate and confuse and send you searching for a glossary of terms!

Frankly, I am limited visually in reading all the lengthy articles promoting or panning this proposed legislation. I have better things to do with my life than spend six, seven, eight hours a day online fighting battles for people who are too ignorant to give a damn about their own welfare.

From the blogosphere to talk shows, this issue has eclipsed every other. The G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. A friend writes that the “Fair Elections Now Act” – calling for public financing of congressional campaigns - has been introduced in the House (H.R.1826) and Senate (S.752) and needs our support. The top general is making dire predictions about Afghanistan. Live Earth emailed me that I have three more days to enter the “Love, the Climate” giveaway!

I recently asked a friend who emails me daily articles on healthcare reform, “Aren’t you tired of all this?”

I am.

To “keep it simple, stupid:” I recall the old adage, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

Advise me if I’m wrong, but I believe Obama made a mistake in throwing the issue over to Congress in hopes of a bipartisan solution. What we are ending up with, at this point, is a watered-down broth of a bill which seems to benefit the insurance industry by bringing millions of new policyholders to its rolls.

“Ranch Chimp” had a blog post not too long ago asserting these newly insured persons will get minimal coverage. Will the final legislation prevent insurers from stiffing policyholders? Who knows? I don’t have time to read these neverending, ever-changing versions. Do you?

Once more Thomas Jefferson’s words are going through my mind. Obama should have produced a bill and presented it to the American people thusly:

“To place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent.”

In other words, KISS.

And bipartisanship - along with Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and all their ilk - be damned!

In every argument I’ve read, in every discussion I’ve had with others on healthcare reform, the line is drawn, the gauntlet thrown down. Clearly, the case before us is Individual Greed vs. Altrusim. If a certain political party falls on one side of this line, it is misanthropy of its own making.

With one side perpetuating lies and the other claiming racism (with Obama himself denying it’s a factor), there is a cancer growing in this nation that can hardly be, well, healthy.

Let me know how all this turns out, will ya?

A changeful page

“To make this Earth, our hermitage,
A cheerful and a changeful page,
God’s bright and intricate device
Of days and seasons doth suffice.”

- The House Beautiful, Robert Louis Stevenson

***

Turning the leaves of my life, the most cheerful and changeful pages have come in autumn.

My favorite season arrives today at 5:18 p.m. ET when the autumnal equinox begins in the Northern Hemisphere.

How thankful I am, looking back into the earliest chapters of my life, to have lived in a time so simple a little girl could cherish poster paints, crayons, pencils, tablets and crisp new workbooks as she readied her new booksack for the first day of school. (That was when school actually started in the fall.)

Fall was Halloween and homemade costumes and gathering sacks of candy in a three-mile radius from home. For little kids with little money for candy, it was dumping our bounty on the living room floor and divvying up favorites with my brother Isaac. No one spoiled the moment by telling us sweets were bad for us.

A highlight of the fall social season came on the first really cold day, when neighbors and relatives arrived at my grandparents’ farm for the hog-killing.

I recall no character-altering trauma as I watched my Poppa Timmons shoot the animals in the head, then hang them in the trees to be gutted. Farmhands dipped them in drums of boiling water to loosen stiff hairs before scraping away the only thing on the hogs that would not be eaten.

All the grandkids pitched in, making souse, cooking cracklings and slinging chitlins as men hung hams and roasts and slabs of bacon in the smokehouse ceiling. Aside from the purchase of flour, sugar, coffee, spices and vanilla flovoring, most of what would sustain the family (and company) through winter was preserved that day.

The falls of my teen years brought high school and Ole Miss football and Malone’s taffy, candy apples and corn dogs at the Mississippi State Fair.

In 1985, when I moved to South Carolina, fall’s big event was the opening of the county fair, just a stone’s throw out my front door – all the sights and sounds and smells and the free nightly concerts and fireworks from my porch’s front-row seat.

How sad it was for me when a few years back Anderson University bought the fairgrounds, and those special September moments came no more.

Having grown up among pine trees, fall took on more meaning as I walked beneath the brilliant canopies of broadleaf trees on one of the country’s most beautiful campuses at Southern Illinois University- Carbondale.

Later, drives along the Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville, N.C., to the top of Mount Mitchell brought palettes of fall colors in breathtaking vistas across mountainsides.

Despite all that piques the senses, anyone who has lived their life in the Southeast knows the main reason fall is my favorite season of the year – that first brisk snap in the air and saying so long to summer’s energy-sapping humidity.

It’s a time for sharpened pencils and carved pumpkins and turkeys, not Christmas decorations in stores. And, if there’s a fair near you, please send me a candy apple.

What the Beck's going on?

Glenn Beck, as DemWit readers know, has become the schlockmeister of the Radical Right. As one headline suggests, he’s lunatic fringe meets comedy. Horror writer Stephen King has called Beck “Satan’s mentally challenged younger brother.”

I have placed in my Reading Room an article which is seven pages long in Microsoft Word. Reading time for the article: 15 - 20 minutes. I tell you this so you can schedule an opportunity to read an expose of Beck Fever by a writer of immense talent:

“Mad Man: Is Gleen Beck Bad for America?” by David von Drehle, Time, 17 September 2009.

Here’s a sample of von Drehle’s way with words:

“Our hot summer of political combat is turning toward an autumn of showdowns over some of the biggest public-policy initiatives in decades. The creamy notions of postpartisan cooperation — poured abundantly over Obama's presidential campaign a year ago — have curdled into suspicion and feelings of helplessness. Trust is a toxic asset, sitting valueless on the national books. Good faith is trading at pennies on the dollar. The old American mind-set that Richard Hofstadter famously called "the paranoid style" — the sense that Masons or the railroads or the Pope or the guys in black helicopters are in league to destroy the country — is aflame again, fanned from both right and left. Between the liberal fantasies about Brownshirts at town halls and the conservative concoctions of brainwashed children goose-stepping to school, you'd think the Palm in Washington had been replaced with a Munich beer hall.”

So, why is it important to take the few minutes to read this TIME article?

1) Beck’s techniques are fully exposed.
2) The Beck Effect on the masses is fully examined.
3) Von Drehle is one of the best writers I’ve run across online!

“No one,” von Drehle tells us, “has a better feeling for this mood, and no one exploits it as well, as Beck.”

Beck, like on-air populist predecessors, has put up grassroots roadblocks aimed at both stopping the American dream of progress which put Obama in the White House and, not insignificantly, lining his own pockets with profits.

Take the few minutes to read this one: it’s excellent! When you're finished, please hit "backspace" and leave your comments about the article on this post. Thanks! ENTER THE READING ROOM

Self-examination

Former President Jimmy Carter in an address to Emory University students Wednesday:

“When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the president of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds,

“I think people who are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be president because he happens to be African-American.

“It’s a racist attitude, and my hope is and my expectation is that in the future both Democratic leaders and Republican leaders will take the initiative in condemning that kind of unprecedented attack on the president of the United States.”

Yes, these attacks are unprecedented because Obama’s presidency is unprecedented. As our former president reminds us, these attacks are from “a radical fringe element” in our society. Or, are they?

So many times over the last few days I have thought about the following quote from President Theodore Roosevelt:

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

So, are we on the left hypocritical in condemning the right, having so arduously criticized George W. Bush?.

Yes, we spoofed his slaughter of the King’s English. He did so himself.

But, we also criticized his policies, most notably an unnecessary war for which we are still paying the price in blood and treasure.

We fought against his efforts, in tandem with a Republican-heavy legislative branch, to overturn all that had been accomplished in this country for decades.

We exposed the many scandals at every level of his administration.

Throughout Bush’s tenure as president, I – and many bloggers I count as friends - struggled to …

Well, Thomas Jefferson in stating his aim when writing the Declaration of Independence said it best: “To place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent.”

That’s pretty lofty, but it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans if folks turn a deaf ear to facts.

To be honest, we on the left also have our “radical fringe element,” and, yes, I recall seeing references in blog comments comparing Bush to Hitler.

Here’s the difference:

President Carter got it wrong. The truly egregious comments about President Obama are not limited to a radical fringe element. The most damning lies are coming from a former GOP candidate, Republican governors and Republican members of the U.S. Congress.

To construe every criticism of President Obama as “racist” would be a mistake and, in my opinion, unfair to him.

But, how does one explain personal attacks so devoid of facts they border on the absurd?

Are the racists out there only on the right’s fringe, or are they front and center in the Party which once claimed Abraham Lincoln?

I would like to believe the answer to the latter question is “no,” but, as Carter challenged, leaders of both parties must take the initiative to condemn racism against our president, however subtle or disguised it might be.

There are currently 178 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Earlier this week, 179 House members failed to censure Joe Wilson (R-SC) for wrongly calling the president of the United States a liar.

Not much in the way of condemnation of a man who voted to keep the Confederate battle flag flying over South Carolina's statehouse.

The election of President Obama was a positive statement about race relations in this country. Failure to reinforce this will not bode well for the Republican Party or America.

Patrick Swayze, 1952-2009

I’ve had the time of my life, and I owe it all to you.

Patrick Swayze is eye candy in “Dirty Dancing.”

Patrick Swayze is sexy, gracing one of the sexiest scenes ever filmed - at a pottery wheel in “Ghost.”

Patrick Swayze is Pretty Woman in “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.”

Patrick Swayze is the bad guy trying to catch the big one in “Point Break.”

Patick Swayze is an altruistic physician finding joy among lepers in “City of Joy.”

Patrick Swayze is tough in my favorite of his movies, “Road House.” I suppose I like this one for the same reasons I like Kurt Russell as “Snake Plissken.”

Reuters’ report of his death summed up Patrick Swayze’s on-screen persona: “masculine grace.”

Patrick Swayze will remain forever in the present tense through his filmography.

If you see a penny floating in air, take it and hold it to your heart.

Middlemarch revisited

“He had also taken too much in the shape of muddy political talk, a stimulant dangerously disturbing to his faming conservatism, which consisted in holding that whatever is is bad, and any change is likely to be worse.”
- Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life by George Eliot

***

Middlemarch is a fictional 19th Century English town created by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans. There exists among the provincial, narrow-minded gossips of the town a few persons who see beyond the smallness of their environment.

A much-disliked businessman takes it upon himself to build a new hospital for both the treatment of and research into fevers. He engages a progressive young London doctor who gains the trust of some townspeople when his treatments prove more effective than those of his medical peers.

The young doctor, devoted to research, has dreams of medical breakthroughs which will benefit his profession and his fellow man.

Most of the townspeople abhor change, and the rumor mill is set in motion to destroy the new doctor’s credibility. The purpose of the new hospital, one persistent rumor claims, is to allow the doctor to kill people so that he might cut up their bodies.

Later, when railways are being built across the countryside, we find that “In the absence of any precise idea as to what railways were, public opinion was against them, for the human mind in that grassy corner had not the proverbial tendancy to admire the unknown, holding rather that it was likely to be against the poor man, and that suspicion was the only wise attitude with regard to it.”

2009: Absent the pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of progress will always be impeded by such stagnant, fearing minds.

Take a quiet moment

What a week! Right-wing idiocy out the ying-yang!

Two solid and meaningful addresses by our president – from kindergarten to Congress – and in “quiet desperation” all the right-wing can do is criticize. I’m a tender-hearted person, and all I can feel is pity for they are being used.

All complaints, no solutions.

But, hey, it’s Friday, so let’s lighten up.

***

That was how I began the TGIF fluff piece I had written for today. Then, I remembered the date.

Perhaps that date – September 11, 2001 – was the last day we all pulled together as Americans.

Suddenly, like some long ago Movietone newsreel, images began to move through my mind.

That second plane hitting the second tower and our collective realization at that moment that something was unfolding – something many of us had not experienced in our lifetime.

More images. Captives sitting in chairs while masked heathens threatened to behead them. Carnage from car bombs.

Nancy Reagan touching her husband’s coffin.

Post-apocalyptic images in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A black worker describing how he had to rake bodies away from one of New Orleans’ pumps so it could remove water from the city’s flooded streets. CNN’s Anderson Cooper telling Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu to can the crap as she praised officials, because he had just seen rats eating the body of an old lady on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Horror drawn along the lines of race and poverty.

Disgusting photos from a place called Abu Ghraib.

Still, the images stream by. The chilling video of the poor sick mind behind the massacre at Virginia Tech.

Soon thereafter I could no longer distinguish images on TV, but nothing can block these from my mind's eye.

We didn’t lose our collective heart on 9/11, that was already taking place. We had moments that day and in the days that followed when we still felt its beat. But, somewhere along the way, during the last eight years, America has contracted a social disease, which, if left unchecked, will rot this nation from within.

So, take a quiet moment today to take measure.

***

MARY STEWART’S “COLLECT (1904)”

Keep us, oh God, from pettiness;
Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.
Let us be done with fault-finding
And leave off self-seeking.
May we put away all pretense
And meet each other face to face,
Without self-pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgment
And always be generous.
Let us take time for all things;
Make us to grow calm, serene, gentle.
Teach us to put into action our better impulses,
Straight-forward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realize
It is the little things that create differences;
That in the big things of life we are at one.
And, may we strive to touch and to know
The great, common human heart of us all.
And, oh, Lord God,
Let us forget not to be kind.

What is a nation profited?

Paraphrasing Matthew 16:26 in The Holy Bible (KJV): “For what is a nation profited, if it shall gain money and oil, and lose its own soul, its own security?”

From time to time, DemWit moves beyond screaming headlines and partisan brouhaha to bring readers stories which might otherwise escape their attention.

One such story, in the 6 September 2009 edition of The New York Times, grabbed my attention.

But first, I offer a little historical background:

EXHIBIT 1:

During the Iran-Iraq War, the United States, deciding an Iranian victory was not in its national interest, began to provide Iraq’s Saddam Hussein with support. While claiming neutrality in the war, this U.S. aid included military arms.

Background on the above photo:

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan, concerned over Iran’s threat to the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf region, issued a national security directive, which, according to the National Archives (LINK), called for “heightened regional military cooperation to defend oil facilities and measures to improve U.S. military capabilities in the Persian Gulf.” The document further directed “the secretaries of state and defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to take appropriate measures to respond to tensions in the area. It states, “Because of the real and psychological impact of a curtailment in the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf on the international economic system, we must assure our readiness to deal promptly with actions aimed at disrupting that traffic.” The directive does not mention chemical weapons.

The National Archives report continues:

“Soon thereafter, Donald Rumsfeld (who had served in various positions in the Nixon and Ford administrations, including as President Ford's defense secretary, and at the time headed the multinational pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle & Co.) was dispatched to the Middle East as a presidential envoy. His December 1983 tour of regional capitals included Baghdad, where he was to establish ‘direct contact between an envoy of President Reagan and President Saddam Hussein,’ while emphasizing ‘his close relationship’ with the president. Rumsfeld met with Saddam, and the two discussed regional issues of mutual interest, a shared enmity toward Iran and Syria, and the U.S.'s efforts to find alternative routes to transport Iraq's oil, Its facilities in the Persian Gulf had been shut down by Iran, and Iran's ally, Syria, had cut off a pipeline that transported Iraqi oil through its territory. Rumsfeld made no reference to chemical weapons, according to detailed notes on the meeting.”

EXHIBIT 2

We all know how the Iran-Contra scandal turned out.

EXHIBIT 3

In George Crile’s masterful book, Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History, we learn the United States funneled more than $500 million in arms and aid (matching Saudi funds brought the figure to more than $1 billion) through Pakistan and into Afghanistan. This aid to the “Freedom Fighters” assured the Mujahideen’s defeat of the Soviet Union.

In one of history’s “unintended consequences,” these arms would later fall into the hands of al Qaeda and the Taliban.

THE ARTICLE

Having presented a little historical perspective, I now call your attention to The New York Times article’s headline and lede paragraphs:

Despite Slump, U.S. Role as Top Arms Supplier Grows

WASHINGTON — Despite a recession that knocked down global arms sales last year, the United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new Congressional study.

The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before.

And those, dear reader, are the “unclassified” sales, the ones we know about. These sales are not only for profit, but for “political influence.”

Read the article HERE. Don’t make me continue quoting Walt Kelly’s possum, “Pogo.”

Will we never learn?

***

IRADICATE IDIOCY! Please read the very brief post which follows and share it with parents on your mailing list.

A happy ending

Once upon a time there was a Democratic president, who, for the benefit of his country, pushed some rather radical new programs.

In one program, he directly appealed to America’s school children, asking them for their involvement and support.

Years later when I was in elementary school, children were still marching to his beat. Every American school child.

That man was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a polio victim, and his “radical” program was the March of Dimes,
the first organization to directly engage citizen volunteers to achieve social change.

Every school in this country passed out little cards with slots to be filled with dimes. Every kid worked untiringly to fill the slots.

We did it because we were afraid to play in water puddles. We saw other children encased in metal leg braces, cumbersome wheelchairs or iron lungs.

By the time I reached junior high school some of my schoolmates still wore the metal braces on their legs as children lined up for “cures” by Sabin and Salk.

So effective was this presidential program involving school kids, its focus eventually became the eradication of birth defects.

Imagine an American president asking school children to apply themselves for the betterment of their country.