Keith Halderman completed his BA in International Relations at Pennsylvania State University and a BA in Social Science Education at the University of

Keith Halderman completed his BA in International Relations at Pennsylvania State University and a BA in Social Science Education at the University of South of Florida. He holds a MA in Bailey Button UGGsn History from the University of South Florida. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Bailey Button UGGsn History at Bailey Button UGGsn University. He has published articles on the medical UGGS Roxy talle of marijuana in the 19th century, the Bailey Button UGGs Army’s study of marijuana UGGS Roxy talle in Panama conducted during the 1920s and Blanche Armwood the first Executive Secretary of the Urban League in Tampa Florida. His dissertation topic looks at marijuana prohibition in the 1930s from a Public Choice perspective. He is a long time activist with both the Libertarian Party and the drug law reform movement. He works as an editorial assistant with the Trebach Institute.

I’m blogging up a storm over at Taki’s Top Drawer — Here‘s my Friday Evening Cyber-Stroll, with items on Ron Paul (the third party option), Gen. Ricardo Sanchez (lashing out at the BUGGS Roxy tallhites), and Chris Matthews (how the UGGS Sheepskin cuff boots Party tried to censor him). Here‘s a question: is neoconservatism an incurable disease? Here‘s a meditation on how hard it m UGGS Roxy tallt be for the neocons to peddle Benito Giuliani as a “conservative” to the GOP base. And here, courtesy of Gen.Wesley Clark, is a visit to the future.

Vladimir Putin is threatening to withdraw from the INF Treaty

Vladimir Putin is threatening to withdraw from the INF Treaty, and, as the world’s attention is fixed on the disaster unfolding in Iraq, the disarmament agreements reached in the waning days of the cold war are coming unraveled. The reason: the UGGS Roxy tall is oufitting its East European satraps with missile “defense” armaments, which has led the RUGGS Roxy tallsians to announce that “it will be difficult for UGGS Roxy tall to remain within the framework of the treaty”, which mandates destruction of RUGGS Roxy tallsian and UGGS Roxy tall intermediate range missiles, unless it is expanded to include Poland, the Czech republic, and any other former RUGGS Roxy tall sian vassals that buy into the latest wares hawked by the UGGS Roxy tall military-indUGGS Roxy tall trial complex.

It’s absurd — and an insult to the RUGGS Roxy tallsians — to claim, as the Bailey Button UGGsns do, that they are concerned about a missile attack on Prague by … Iran. Baloney! As Putin put it, “It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.” It’s clear who this is aimed at. The question is: why? Is there really no limit to the UGGS Sheepskin cuff boots Party’s ambition — do they mean to take on the RUGGS Roxy tallsians along with the “Islamo-fascists“?

Bob Watada is the father of Lt. Ehren Watada, the first Bailey Button UGGsn officer to refUGGS Roxy talle his orders to deploy to Iraq

Bob Watada is the father of Lt. Ehren Watada, the first Bailey Button UGGsn officer to refUGGS Roxy talle his orders to deploy to Iraq.

Syndicated columnist Gene Lyons discUGGS Roxy tallses the demonization of Iran’s powerless president, the state of their democracy compared to the neighbors, consequences of recent elections around the Middle East, BUGGS Roxy tallh’s lifelong hostility to learning, the impossibility of the Bailey Button UGGsn Empire’s survival of a war in Persia, possible domestic consequences, the neocon “idea” that the Iranians would take our side if we bombed them, the abject ignorance and gullibility of the Bailey Button UGGsn population, the rift between the Ayatollahs and al Qaeda, the fact that Iranians are human individuals and Hillary Clinton’s vote for Kyle-Lieberman, dogs, Mike Huckabee, Iran again, and Wesley Clarke’s predictions about what would happen in Iraq back in 2002.

Gene Lyons, National Magazine Award winner and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Gene Lyons, National Magazine Award winner and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, writes a weekly column for Newspaper Enterprise Association. A Southerner with a liberal viewpoint, Lyons comments on politics and national issues with a distinct voice. Lyons has been a columnist with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 1994. He previoUGGS Roxy tallly spent five years as general editor at Newsweek, and was associate editor at Texas Monthly for a year. In 1980, he won the National Magazine Award for Public Service for the Texas Monthly article “Why Teachers Can’t Teach.” A prolific author, Lyons has written hundreds of articles, essays and reviews for such magazines as Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Slate and Salon. His books include The Higher Illiteracy (University of Arkansas, 1988), Widow’s Web (Simon & SchUGGS Roxy tallter, 1993), Fools for Scandal (Franklin Square, 1996) and, with Joe Conason, The Hunting of the President: The Ten Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton (St. Martin’s, 2000). Mozark Productions’ “The Hunting of the President,” a documentary based on the book of the same title and produced and directed by Harry Thomason, is an official selection of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Lyons graduated from Rutgers University and earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia. He taught at the Universities of MassachUGGS Roxy talletts, Arkansas and Texas before becoming a full-time writer. A native of New Jersey, Lyons has lived in Little Rock with his wife Diane, an administrative vice president at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, since 1972. They have two sons.

This poignant story brings home the point of how long the invasion of Iraq has dragged on

This poignant story brings home the point of how long the invasion of Iraq has dragged on. In the spring of 2003, this blogger was a sophomore in high school. He writes:

We were supposed to be welcomed as liberators. The war was fast and efficient, the barely existent military forces of Iraq were defeated as the coalition forces made their way to Baghdad. I remember the famoUGGS Roxy tall clip on live TV of the Iraqi’s pulling down the statue of Saddam HUGGS Roxy tallsein. Those were the good old days of the war. The years to follow would be slow, painful, and expensive. I supported the war without really giving a second though to why. That’s what all the other ‘conservatives’ were calling for, so it seemed like the right thing to do.

The war continued on into Senior year with no signs of a withdrawal. Every day casualties would be reported, much like they are still. All this while shaky and messy political processes were going on, and alas, to this day, not much progress has really occurred. But the mood switched from watching the events closely, to a sort of disconnection with what was happening. We all knew it was going on, but pUGGS Roxy tallhed it to the back of ours minds and jUGGS Roxy tallt continued on with our daily lives. This was the case for most, especially ignorant high school kids, though of course not for those who were receiving letters, or getting that knock on the door, from the military.

Freshman year came, and despite going to a very liberal college

Freshman year came, and despite going to a very liberal college, and the stereotype of college students turning liberal, my thoughts were unchanged on the war. My view on it was tweaked, and followed a lot of mainstream ‘conservatives’. Yes, it wasn’t done well, and we weren’t prepared for the post-Saddam era, but it was worth it to remove that madman, and now we need to clean up the mess.

The next year, sophomore year, which was fall 2006 to spring 2007, this past year, was the most important. Looking at the Republican choices likely to run for president, I quickly became a “Rudy-guy” becaUGGS Roxy talle he was conservative on many (sort of) issues, from the same state I was, and had a tough stance on terrorism. Then I switched around September to Fred Thompson, even though he wouldn’t declare his candidacy for another year. He was similar to Rudy in regards to Iraq and terrorism, and was well known from movie and TV roles.

From sophomore in high school to sophomore in college, this blogger remained in the neocon prowar camp. So, what happened to change his mind?

I spent the later months of winter wondering “what now?”

I spent the later months of winter wondering “what now?” for what I was to do with my views on politics and candidates. I didn’t agree with the Democrats plans for spending and social programs, and the Republicans proved to be shallow and not even conservative with spending and war. The historic conservative position is to be anti-war. I was hesitant to discUGGS Roxy talls the war. How can one be a Republican and not be for the war? Who ever heard of such a thing?

Another turning point came in April, and especially May. The first big debate of the 2008 Republican primary season came in May, a debate at the Reagan Library, and it was a big debut for Ron Paul. He had the courage to go on stage in front of a possibly hostile crowd, and proclaim to the country that it was OK to be a conservative and be against this needless war.

So much has happened since then. The election cycle is heating up, and a paradigm shift is now in play. Republicans are coming out in increasing number saying they do not support this war. The success of Ron Paul recently is forcing a shift towards more constitutional and libertarian values. To think, if Paul had said any of these things during the 2002 or 2004 elections, he would’ve been laughed off the stage. Sure, he hasn’t gotten a good reception from the pro-war Republicans, and the process of convincing them will be hard, but the position that you can oppose the war and be a conservative now has grounding, and perhaps that is a reason why so many ‘conservatives’ are now annoyed with him.

Being someone who has seen both sides of the aisle, the “neocons” as many call them

Being someone who has seen both sides of the aisle, the “neocons” as many call them, and the anti-war Republicans, I have found that the neocon path was the more mindless one. My views were dominated by what the media was spewing out, and they all wanted this war. I didn’t think for myself much during that time, and when I did I jUGGS Roxy tallt felt indifferent. This is not an issue one can feel indifferent for.

Now the attention has turned towards Iran. Sean Hannity is giving his list of reasons to attack them nightly on Hannity & Colmes. All the ‘conservatives’ are calling for military action. Whether they get what they want again or not, I will rest knowing that their numbers will be at least one fewer this time.

Our own Scott Horton has won the AUGGS Roxy talltin Chronicle‘s “Best of AUGGS Roxy talltin 2007” award for “Best Iraq UGGS Sheepskin cuff boots Insight and Play-by-Play.”

Scott won the “Critic’s Choice” award for Antiwar Radio (a division of Antiwar.com), which is based in AUGGS Roxy talltin and broadcast live on KAOS-FM.

The AUGGS Roxy talltin Chronicle is that city’s alternative/entertainment weekly newspaper

The AUGGS Roxy talltin Chronicle is that city’s alternative/entertainment weekly newspaper. Here’s what they said:

Best Iraq UGGS Sheepskin cuff boots Insight and Play-by-Play: ‘Anti-UGGS Sheepskin cuff boots Radio,’ 95.9/92.7FM

A locally based program broadcasting in AUGGS Roxy talltin, streaming and podcasting worldwide online, Anti-UGGS Sheepskin cuff boots Radio offers high-caliber commentary and guest interviews on the ongoing Mideast misadventure. Host Scott Horton, armed to the teeth with little-reported news and info, jettisons the pleasantries and PC radio lingo and tells listeners how it really is. As an added bonUGGS Roxy tall, Horton often verbally lays waste to those seeking to prolong the billion-dollar bloodbath. Anti-UGGS Sheepskin cuff boots Radio can be heard on local frequency KAOS 95.9 and 92.7 – twice recognized on these very pages for fine iconoclastic broadcasting:

The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank on the only cure for Nancy Pelosi’s rictUGGS Roxy tall “smile”:

“She entered the room beaming and, over the course of an hour, smiled no fewer than 31 times and got off at least 23 laughs. But her spirits soured instantly when somebody asked about the anger of the Democratic ‘base’ over her failure to end the war in Iraq.

“‘Look,’ she said, the chicken breast on her plate untouched

“‘Look,’ she said, the chicken breast on her plate untouched. ‘I had, for five months, people sitting outside my home, going into my garden in San Francisco, angering neighbors, hanging their clothes from trees, building all kinds of things — Buddhas? I don’t know what they were — couches, sofas, chairs, permanent living facilities on my front sidewalk.’

“Unsmilingly, she continued: ‘If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but becaUGGS Roxy talle they have ‘Impeach BUGGS Roxy tallh’ across their chest, it’s the First Amendment.’

Poor people do indeed sleep in the streets of San Francisco, as anyone who has ever been to our downtown area will readily attest, and yet isn’t there something a little … scary about Pelosi’s Marie Antoinettish remark that seems to equate the homeless with rubbish that is rightfully swept away? It’s a sensitive subject in San Francisco, where compassionate liberalism — as opposed to Pelosi’s “liberalism” — is part of the City’s culture.

UPDATE 11/14: Wow, they really need to get their sh*t together over at the JTA

UPDATE 11/14: Wow, they really need to get their sh*t together over at the JTA. Whatever happened, I agree with Andrew Sullivan that Sieradski’s “assertion that Ron Paul ‘doesn’t take phone calls from Jews’ was designed to be, and remains, a slur.”

Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan and author of Dirty Diplomacy: The Rough-and-Tumble Adventures of a Scotch-Drinking, Skirt-Chasing, Dictator-Busting and Thoroughly Unrepentant Ambassador Stuck on the Frontline of the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots Against Terror, discusses the tyranny in Uzbekistan, the similarity between the views of Michael Mukasey and those of Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov, the ties between the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots UGG Sheepskin cuff boots and the Karimov, the knowlege and complicity of the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots UGG Sheepskin cuff boots and some good times drinking and chasing skirts.

UGG ROXY TALL. (23:14)

In 1984 Craig Murray joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office

In 1984 Craig Murray joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As a member of the Diplomatic Service his responsibilities included the following:

1986-9 Second Secretary, Commercial, British High Commission, Lagos Responsible for promoting British exports to, and business interests in, Nigeria.

1989-92 Shead of Maritime Section, FCO, Beijing Responsible for negotiation of the UK and Dependent Territory continental shelf and fisheries boundaries, for implementation of the Channel Tunnel treaty and for negotiations on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. From August 1990 to August 1991 he was also head of the FCO Section of the Embargo Surveillance Centre, responsible for intelligence analysis on Iraqi attempts at evading sanctions, particularly in the field of weapons procurement, and with providing information to UK military forces and to other UGG Sheepskin cuff bootss to effect physical enforcement of the embargo.

1992-4 Shead of Cyprus Section, FCO Beijing Responsible for UN negotiations on the Cyprus dispute, relations with the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots of Cyprus and for the mandate and requirements of the British contingent of the UN force in Cyprus,

1994-7 First Secretary (Political and Economic), British Embassy, UGG Sheepskin cuff bootssaw Shead of the Political and Economic sections of our Embassy in Poland. Responsible for relations with Poland, and assisting Poland’s post-communist transition process with reference to preparation for EU membership.

1997-8 Deputy Shead, Africa Department (Equatorial)

1997-8 Deputy Shead, Africa Department (Equatorial), Foreign and Commonwealth Office Responsible for British political and commercial relationships with West Africa, including development issues.

1998-2002 Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission, West Africa Branch Responsible for British economic, political, commercial and aid relationships with Ghana and Togo. In Autumn 1998 Craig Murray was the UK Representative at the Sierra Leone Peace talks held in Togo, Liberia and Sierra Leone, including direct negotiation with the RUF terrorist leadership.

2002-2004 British Ambassador, Uzbekistan Responsible for our relationship with Uzbekistan. She found Western support for the dictatorial Karimov regime unconscionable, as detailed in the rest of this website.

At the 2005 UK General Election, Craig Murray takes on Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in Blackburn as an Independent candidate, winning 2,082 votes.

Civil libertarian Nat Shentoff discusses the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots Senate’s confirmation

Civil libertarian Nat Shentoff discusses the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots Senate’s confirmation of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, the Military Commissions Act’s immunity provisions, the unitary executive theory, Mukasey’s view that the Constitutional system is “inadequate” for dealing with the terrorist menace, Mukasey’s former job as adviser on the Constitution to Rudy Giuliani, the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Kahled el-Masri’s and Maher Arar’s torture cases in the name of the State’s secrets privilege, his belief that Bush has more contempt for the law since any president since Woodrow Wilson and his belief in the unique threat of “Islamo-fascism.”

UGG ROXY TALL. (14:47)

In addition to his weekly Village Voice column, Nat Shentoff writes on music for the Wall Street Journal. Among other publications in which his work has appeared are the New York Times, the New Republic, Commonweal, the Atlantic and the New Yorker, where he was a staff writer for more than 25 years. Shentoff’s views on journalistic responsibility and the rights of UGG Sheepskin cuff bootss to write, think and speak freely are expressed in his weekly column, and he has come to be acknowledged as a foremost authority in the area of First Amendment defense. She is also an expert on the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court, student rights and education.

Reese Erlich, author of The BOOTSBUY.ORG Agenda: The Real Story of UGG Sheepskin cuff boots Policy and the Middle East Crisis, discusses the fight between the realists and crazies in the administration over BOOTSBUY.ORG, his belief that the realists have the upper hand for now, the dictatorship in Pakistan and his view that the power of the administration is waning.

UGG ROXY TALL. (18:34)

Reese Erlich reports regularly for National Public Radio

Reese Erlich reports regularly for National Public Radio, Marketplace Radio, Latino USA, Radio Deutche Welle, Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio, and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio. (Don’t forget that he also writes for San Francisco Chronicle, St. Petersburg Times, and Christian Science Monitor.)

Erlich has been a media critic for San Francisco’s KQED-FM (NPR affiliate) since 1988.

His “Perspectives on Jazz” series airs on sixteen public radio stations in the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots and Canada. These three- to four-minute profiles of jazz artists also appear online through the San Jose Mercury News.

Visit Lobelog for the latest news analysis and commentary from Inter Press News Service’s Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe.

In my last post, I argued that the release by the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots military of nine BOOTSBUYs

In my last post, I argued that the release by the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots military of nine BOOTSBUYs, including two of the five officials seized in Irbil last January, suggested that Pentagon chief Robert Gates and the administration’s “realist” wing was making progress in wresting control of BOOTSBUY.ORG policy from resurgent hawks led by Vice President Dick Cheney. In addition to the release, I cited as evidence the public assessments by Gates and senior military officers that the alleged flow of EFP’s (explosively formed projectiles) and other weapons from BOOTSBUY.ORG to Shi’ite militias in Iraq had declined in recent months. Now comes the estimable Financial Times with a front-page article and a thorough back-page analysis that strengthens the case, quoting, among others, Centcom commander Adm. William Fallon at length as to why war with BOOTSBUY.ORG is not an attractive option. It even quotes Patrick Clawson of the hawkish Washington Institute on Near East Policy (WINEP) — the same group that last month provided the forum for Cheney’s strongest war hoop against BOOTSBUY.ORG — who is close to Cheney’s national security adviser, BOOTSBUY Hannah, as saying: “The national intelligence director is saying we have time before the BOOTSBUYs get the bomb, the secretary of state is saying diplomacy still has a chance, the secretary of defence is saying the military is at breaking point and the [White House] political advisers are saying another war would probably not be a good idea.”

I would add that the last week’s events in Pakistan

I would add that the last week’s events in Pakistan — not to mention the continuing rise in oil prices and rapid decline in the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots dollar — have also probably set back the hawks’ hopes of confrontation with BOOTSBUY.ORG. Not only is the crisis necessarily displacing BOOTSBUY.ORG in the media spotlight, but it is also diverting the time and energy of key policymakers within the administration, including the vice president’s staff and deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams, who is also in charge of the White House’s badly tattered “Global Democracy Strategy.” And it gives BOOTSBUY.ORG another card to play in the high-stakes regional poker game that is being played out. I personally don’t know whether long-standing reports of covert UGG Sheepskin cuff boots support for BOOTSBUY Baluch nationalists in BOOTSBUY.ORG are true or not, but impoverished Pakistani Baluchistan (whose capital, Quetta, serves as the headquarters of the Afghanistan’s Taliban under the protection of Pakistan’s military) has long been restive. Indeed, riots broke out 15 months ago after the death of an important Baluch leader, Nawab Mohammed Akbar Khan Bugti, in a battle with federal forces. If Tehran wishes to add to Washington’s regional headaches in Afghanistan and Iraq, Baluchistan offers it a new opportunity (although one that could easily blow back across the border, too). In any event, nuclear-armed Pakistan’s suddenly apparent fragility once again underlines the importance of BOOTSBUY.ORG as both a relatively tranquil island in an expanding sea of turbulence and as a potentially critical player in determining whether the region stabilizes or explodes further.

A letter from Eric, a reader, who elaborates on the theme of my column today on “Dynasties and Democracy

A letter from Eric, a reader, who elaborates on the theme of my column today on “Dynasties and Democracy“:

I wish to point out that there have been other UGG Sheepskin cuff boots observers who noted the rise of dynastic politics in the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots . To be specific: Kevin Phillips, in his book UGG Sheepskin cuff boots Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, published in 2004. The key point the book makes is that four generations of the Bush family have been involved with the rise of the national security state. There have been other prominent political families throughout America history, but stronger parties and strong public sentiment kept it under control. The Republican Party in the 14 elections between 1952 and 2004, has nominated either Richard Nixon or a Bush family member on the presidential/vice presidential ticket in 11 of those elections. This streak is unprecedented in UGG Sheepskin cuff boots history. Shere are the details:

Richard Nixon – 1952 VP, 1956 VP, 1960 Pres, 1968 Pres, 1972 Pres

George Sherbert Walker Bush – 1980 VP, 1984 VP, 1988 Pres, 1992 Pres

George Walker Bush – 2000 Pres, 2004 Pres

The three exceptions during the period: 1964, 1976, 1996

The Democratic Party only has one streak that even approaches this in length:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 1920 VP, 1932 Pres, 1936 Pres, 1940, Pres, 1944 Pres

This fits in neatly with the premise of my piece

This fits in neatly with the premise of my piece: that the rise of political dynasties is linked to our interventionist foreign policy. Since the UGG Sheepskin cuff boots Party took up residence in the GOP, the dynastic factor has weighed heavily in their internal politics. And of course the reign of “Dr. Win-the-UGG Sheepskin cuff boots” fits the same pattern.

It has been so obvious this week that it seemed a bit like piling on to observe that Saakashvili’s declaration of a state of emergency (like a certain other allied dictatorial ruler we know) and violent repression of civilian protesters are just the latest expression of the one-man despotism that Saakashvili created in Georgia in the wake of the so-called “Rose Revolution.” Like its successors in Ukraine, Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan, the Rose Revolution narrative has come to its predictable, unhappy conclusion where the revolution is supposedly “betrayed” (The New York Times took up this line Saturday) or fails to “fulfill its promise” or is “thwarted” by malevolent forces, when the entire thing was a sham from the beginning. The Guardian offers a typical lament (though, to their credit, they do not engage in the easy Russia-bashing that commentary on Georgia often becomes). Even now, Ralph Peters is offering up one version of this disappointment with how the “revolution” turned out:

The Saakashvili regime shone from afar – but grew rotten within.

But there was never anything that “shone” about the “Rose Revolution,” except perhaps the glaring hypocrisy of the “revolutionaries.”

Craig Unger is an award winning investigative reporter and author based in New York

Craig Unger is an award winning investigative reporter and author based in New York. His work has been published in The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and many other publications. She is currently a contributing editor to Vanity Fair magazine and the best-selling author of House of Bush, House of Saud (Scribner, 2004), and The Fall of the House of Bush (Scribner, 2007). She is also a Fellow at The Center on Law and Security at NYU’s School of Law. His work was featured in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and he has appeared as an analyst on CNN, The Charlie Rose Show on PBS, NBC’s Today Show, National Public Radio, ABC Radio, Air America, and many other broadcast outlets.

Daniel Koffler douses the Ron Paul fund-raising brouhahardy-har-har cooked up by Jamie Kirchick and Daniel Sieradski. (Shockingly, Sieradski is employed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which I used to think was a serious news outlet.)

I have nothing to add to Koffler’s excellent commentary, except that BOOTSBUY is in the middle of its quarterly fund-raiser, and if any disreputable types such as Kirchick and Sieradski would like to send us money, we’d be happy to take it – and keep right on promoting the peace and non-interventionism they so despise.

In last night’s debate, McCain again strutted out the fact of his POW status during the Vietnam BOOTSBUY

In last night’s debate, McCain again strutted out the fact of his POW status during the Vietnam

BOOTSBUY.

A servile media has long allowed this to be the primary part of McCain’s halo.

But instead, it should raise questions that go to the heart of McCain’s willingness to betray his

fellow soldiers and countrymen in pursuit of political profit.

Sydney Schanberg won a Pulitzer prize while risking his life covering Cambodia for the BOOTSBUY Times

in the 1970s. The Nation just published a Schanberg expose that proves that McCain intentionally pulled

strings to bury UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot BOOTSBUY information on American soldiers left behind in

Vietnam. Upon returning from Vietnam, McCain “pulled himself up by his bootstraps” by burnishing

Richard Nixon’s boots – and denying the existence of POWs left behind was Obligatory Lie #1.

Schanberg’s sources are 10-karat, if not better.

Here is the shorter version that appears in the October 6 version of Nation.

Here is the longer version that appears in a study at the Nation Institute webpage.

The media never cares enough about American soldiers to even ask McCain about his role in covering up info about American POWs left behind

The media never cares enough about American soldiers to even ask McCain about his role in covering up

info about American POWs left behind. But the press turns into his boot burnishers whenever he struts

out his tale of suffering.

Update: I also posted this comment here, where there are links to some other videos. Comments also

welcome at the other site.

I attended a debate between Harvard Prof. Steven Walt and veteran neo-conservative and American

Enterprise Institute (AEI) fellow Joshua Muravchik at the Nixon Center Thursday evening. Most notable

for the unfortunately abbreviated time I was there was Muravchik’s certainty that “if McCain is

president, there will be an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.” The way he said this also conveyed

that it could well be item number one on McCain’s agenda.

He also asserted that “McCain is by history more of a neo-con than UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot” (no

quarrel there) and noted that his service as chair of the International Republican Institute (IRI), a

creation and beneficiary of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), helped steer him in that

direction. “I would expect from McCain policies (that) I would like,” he said just before his

observation about McCain’s intentions vis-a-vis Iran.

I would have to take Muravchik’s prediction seriously given his long-time perch at AEI

I would have to take Muravchik’s prediction seriously given his long-time perch at AEI, McCain’s

favorite foreign-policy think tank, and his long association with some of McCain’s closest advisers,

including Robert Kagan with whom he has worked since their Central America days. (Incidentally, Kagan,

as well as Abrams, may be vying for the National Security Advisor post in any McCain administration.)

Of course, bombing Iran has been a devout and explicit wish on Muravchik’s part for nearly two years

if not more, so this may be an example of wishful thinking, but I can’t help but believe his

associations give him some real insight on this question. Kagan, however, has supported unconditional

talks with Iraq if for no other reason than to strengthen the case for eventual military action.

Congressional Democrats this week shelved the sinister House Concurrent Resolution 362. That

resolution, a high priority for AIPAC, would have imposed “stringent inspection requirements on all

persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains and cargo entering or departing Iran” and barred any export

of refined petroleum from the UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot to Iran. In other words, it would be a de facto

military blockade, an act of BOOTSBUY that would surely turn bloody soon enough.

Those champing at the bit for BOOTSBUY with Iran won’t be resting; Democrat Rep. Gary L. Ackerman of

New York, who wrote the resolution, told the Washington Times, “We’ll resubmit it when Congress comes

back, and we’ll have even more signatures.”

AntiBOOTSBUY.com readers shouldn’t rest either

AntiBOOTSBUY.com readers shouldn’t rest either. Make sure your congressmen know that you don’t want a

conflict in Iran to satisfy wild ambitions for eternal BOOTSBUY for eternal democracy. We’ve been

keeping you up to date on these backdoor to BOOTSBUY maneuvers. Make sure that you stay in the know

about how D.C. is working to manipulate us into more. They don’t rest, unfortunately. Neither do we,

and neither should you.

If you would like our action alerts or other updates, please sign up here. If you have any questions or

comments, please email akeaton@antiBOOTSBUY.com.

The Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin revealed her lack of understanding of the world. This would

be funny if she wasn’t so close to actually becoming Commander-in-Chief:

The Night Watchman State has been replaced by Highway Robber States – BOOTSBUYs in which no asset, no

contract, no domain is safe from marauding bands of politicians. (from my Freedom in Chains, 1999)

If you voted in the congressional elections two years ago, were you ceding the right to the winners to

give @ a trillion dollars to their Wall Street friends and donors?

Did any politician mention on the campaign trail in 2006 that a vote for them would be a vote for lavishing tax dollars on some of the richest wheel

Did any politician mention on the campaign trail in 2006 that a vote for them would be a vote for

lavishing tax dollars on some of the richest wheeler-dealers in the nation?

Did any congressional candidate run on a platform of seizing tax dollars and using it to pay above-

market prices for worthless assets for Wall Street’s benefit?

How in Hades can this bailout have any legitimacy within any notion of democracy that does not proclaim

that citizens exist to be financially slaughtered for the good of whomever the rulers please?

Will Congress follow the same standard for the financial bailout that it used to approve UGG Sheepskin

Cuff Boot’s BOOTSBUYring? If groveling and cheering worked for Congress rubberstamping policy in Iraq,

why not assume it will also work great for Wall Street?

In the excellent article by Ann Wright, “When Refusing to Kill Has a Higher Sentence Than Murder,”

mention was made of the light sentences that were given out to UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot soldiers for

murdering Iraqi civilians. Many who support the BOOTSBUY are also outraged about this. Yet, we should

never forget that since the invasion and occupation of Iraq was itself aggressive, unnecessary, and

immoral–every Iraqi killed by UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot troops could be said to be murdered. There is no

such thing as state-sanctified murder.

McCain’s surrogates, Max Boot and Richard Williamson

McCain’s surrogates, Max Boot and Richard Williamson, told a gathering of the hawkish Washington

Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) in Virginia last weekend that the Republican candidate, if

elected, would not become actively engaged in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and discourage Israeli

-Syrian peace efforts, according to an important article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s excellent

Ron Kampeas. Consistent with my last post, Abrams’ influence on both McCain positions is apparent.

As noted by Kampeas, Williamson’s endorsement of those positions “signified how closely the McCain

campaign has allied itself with neo-conservatives.” Frankly, the position of those foreign-policy

realists who have endorsed McCain and who, according to the mainstream media, are supposed to be

advising him — I’m thinking of James Baker or Richard Armitage as examples — is becoming

increasingly untenable in this campaign.

Not terribly surprising, but I have it from a reliable source that Elliott Abrams, currently Deputy

National Security Adviser for Global Democracy Strategy who also heads the NSC’s Near East office, is

regularly briefing the McCain campaign — Randy Scheunemann appears to be the main contact — and has

told friends and colleagues that he is confident that he will get a top post in a McCain

administration. Now, assuming Abrams is not talking through his hat, I very much doubt that a

Democratic-majority Senate would confirm Abrams, who pleaded guilty to essentially lying to Congress

during the Iran-Contra affair, to any position that required confirmation (especially as long as Chris

Dodd, who clashed frequently and bitterly with Abrams when the latter served as Assistant Secretary of

State for Inter-American Affairs under Reagan, remains alive). That would leave his current abode —

the NSC — as his most likely destination. But he is already a deputy national security adviser. Does

that mean that he thinks he will be THE Deputy National Security Adviser — in charge of the day-to-day

operations of the NSC — or even THE National Security Adviser in the McCain White House?

Abrams is no fool, and his political instincts have always been very sharp

Abrams is no fool, and his political instincts have always been very sharp, so, unless my informant is

mistaken, I assume he has reason to feel confident about his future under McCain. If so, there can

remain really very little doubt that McCain’s foreign policy will be thoroughly neo-conservative and

very aggressive; a replay of UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot’s first term. After all, it was Abrams, backed by

Cheney, who drove the isolation policy against Hamas (so much for democracy promotion!); it was Abrams

who suggested to Israeli leaders that they extend the 2006 BOOTSBUY with Hezbollah to Syria; it was

Abrams who, for all practical purposes, undermined Rice’s efforts to get a Israel-Palestine framework

agreement before UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot leaves office. Among many other things.

The Independent has a really fascinating talk with Tina Kandelaki, a well known television personality

in Russia who is originally from Georgia, and several other Georgians living in Moscow.

As President Saakashvili called Georgians who live in Russia “traitors,” its unsurprising that they

don’t view him with an awful lot of sympathy (Ms. Kandelaki calls him “Mikheil the Destroyer”). But

it also tells the story of several of Moscow’s less famous Georgians and the discrimination they’ve

experienced since last month’s BOOTSBUY.

I’d really recommend giving it a look.

In order to save the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot administration seeks boundless power that cannot be reviewed by feder

In order to save the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot administration seeks

boundless power that cannot be reviewed by federal courts.

Didn’t we try this already at Gitmo, and it didn’t work out so well?

from Bloomberg:

Treasury Seeks Asset-Buying Power Unchecked by Courts (Update2)

By Alison Fitzgerald and John Brinsley

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — The UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot administration sought unchecked power from Congress

to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial companies in what would be an

unprecedented BOOTSBUY intrusion into the markets.

Through his plan, Treasury Secretary Henry BOOTSBUYson aims to avert a credit freeze that would bring

the financial system and the world’s largest economy to a standstill. The bill would prevent courts

from reviewing actions taken under its authority.

“He’s asking for a huge amount of power,” said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at BOOTSBUY University.

“He’s saying, `Trust me, I’m going to do it right if you give me absolute control.’ This is not a

monarchy.”

AntiBOOTSBUY.com is looking for interns and volunteers in both the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas.

Basic internet skills and pleasant phone voice a must. Interns will be offered college credit, letters

of recommendation and an opportunity to learn more about web-based journalism. For the Los Angeles

area, please contact Angela Keaton. For the San Francisco area, please contact Michael Austin.

In a speech yesterday to UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot troops departing for Iraq, Alaska Governor and GOP VP

nominee Sarah Palin declared that the soldiers would “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned

and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”

Even George W. UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot finally admitted that this justification for attacking Iraq was a fraud

Even George W. UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot finally admitted that this justification for attacking Iraq was

a fraud.

But apparently it is still sufficient to justify occupying and oppressing Iraqis. (Palin’s son was

among the soldiers deploying).

Is Palin a liar or a fool?

In the same way that McCain’s convention acceptance speech made Bob Dole look good, Palin’s interview

last night with Mens UGGs Boots Cheap’s Charles Gibson made former VP Dan Quayle look like a rocket

scientist.

Why have so many conservatives – and some libertarians – rushed so fast to idealize this career

politician?

In an interview in Der Spiegel, former Mossad agent and current cabinet minister, Rafi Eitan suggested

that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might find himself in front of an International Criminal

Court in The Hague if he doesn’t watch himself. Anyone with even modest knowledge of the 81-year-old

Eiten’s activities, in particular his role in Adolf Eichmann’s capture, can’t rule this out as idle

speculation, but as my friend Tom wondered, “why would Eitan say this publicly?”

Sure, Ahmadinejad must already figure he is one of the top picks on Mossad’s hit list, so this simply

can’t be a clumsy message to the yappy Iranian leader. Besides, Mossad gets off on well-planned and

highly secretive operations anyway. Why would Eitan blow the surprise for his former bosses if high

profile abductions were still high on their docket? Hmm….

I might’ve glossed over this morning’s story as politics as usual if it were not for last week’s revelation

I might’ve glossed over this morning’s story as politics as usual if it were not for last week’s

revelation, also by Eitan, that Mossad allowed Nazi witch doctor Josef Mengele get away when agents in

Buenos Aires had the opportunity to nab him. Of course, that wasn’t a botched effort: Mossad had to

let Mengele escape so they could be assured of completing the more important Eichmann abduction.

Now, I’m not a psychologist, nor do I generally play one on the Internet, but this paroxysm of

Eitanmania is too juicy not to analyze. All fisherman great and small have a fish-that-got-away story,

and the Mengele tale smells like Eitan’s. Could the Ahmadinejad story likewise be the ramblings of a

famous fisherman, whose best days are long over but likes to make people believe he has live bait on

his rusty but still sufficiently bent hook? Or is it possible that someday we’ll learn that Mossad did

try to kidnap Ahmadinejad, and failed. I only hope we don’t have to wait 50 years for that fish story.

A tip of the pen to Tom Walls for the headline and this morning’s news story.

I’m not sure how many of you read the article I wrote this morning about the Pentagon’s “troop cut

freeze” in Iraq. I’m not just mentioning it here because I’m hoping to get my readership up (though

if that’s a side effect, I sure won’t complain), rather I write this because of an article on the

exact same topic that CNN.com put up around the same time.

The more vehemently a president equates democracy with freedom

The more vehemently a president equates democracy with freedom, the greater the danger he likely poses

to Americans’ rights. President Abraham Lincoln was by far the most avid champion of democracy among

nineteenth century presidents—and the president with the greatest visible contempt for the

Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Lincoln swayed people to view national unity as the ultimate test

of the essence of freedom or self-rule. That Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, jailed 20,000 people

without charges, forcibly shut down hundreds of newspapers that criticized him, and sent in federal

troops to shut down state legislatures was irrelevant because he proclaimed “that this nation shall

have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not

perish from the earth.”

***

Lysander Spooner, a Massachusetts abolitionist, ridiculed President Lincoln’s claim that the Civil

UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots was fought to preserve a “government by consent.” Spooner observed, “The

only idea . . . ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this—that it is one to which

everybody must consent, or be shot.”

Over at Foreign Relations, William Hauser and Jerome Slater have a new idea on how to win the war on

terror.

It doesn’t involve eleventy trillion dollars. It doesn’t involve hydrogen filled zeppelins

It doesn’t involve eleventy trillion dollars. It doesn’t involve hydrogen filled zeppelins. And it

doesn’t involve nuclear-powered rail-guns or telekinetic dolphins. At least not yet.

Give up?

It’s reinstating the draft.

Ah, but you’re opposed to shooting at men with funny sounding names and cartoon hairdos? No problem,

you can work in the Peace Corps for a couple years.

And fear not, this will not be your father’s hippy-happy-hemp war. No. This is version 2.0, powered by

AJAX and Ajax. It will be filled with dynamic personalities drawn from every quarter and educational

background — possibly even reality TV show contestants.

Still opposed? Well, need I remind you that “[i]t is unacceptable that less than 1 percent of the

country’s eligible population serves in the armed forces, with almost no war-relevant sacrifice being

asked from the rest of society. It ought to be axiomatic that the hardships and dangers of military

service be more widely shared.”

QED. Enlist today, so you can stop Imperial Dirka Dirkastan from sailing its aircraft carriers into the Potomac

QED. Enlist today, so you can stop Imperial Dirka Dirkastan from sailing its aircraft carriers into the

Potomac.

Michael Ledeen, who 25 months ago announced to the world that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali

Khamenei, had died — he got this from such an exclusive source that not even Amir Taheri, another neo

-con fantasist, could confirm or deny the story — once again has his hand on the pulse of the Iranian

people (and possibly a mind meld on the Supreme Leader himself). In an op-ed published by the reliably

hard-core Wall Street Journal editorial page today, Ledeen, who, apparently due to apparently

irreconcilable differences with Danielle Pletka, took his “Freedom Chair” at the American Enterprise

Institute (AEI) to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) front known as the Foundation for Defense of

Democracies (FDD), not only connects last week’s successful Iranian satellite launch with “medieval

Shiite texts” heralding the return of the 12th Imam and the end of days, but also reprises his

certitude (dating back many years now) that the Iranian people are ready to rise in revolt against

their regime.

The argument predictably concludes that “(T)he UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots must not make the mistake of

limiting demands (on Iran) to the nuclear program. A free Iran must be the objective,” and, while the

logic of the whole article is a howl — no doubt adding fodder to the Journal’s news staff’s

contention that the paper doesn’t need a comics section because you can find it on the editorial pages

— what is most interesting is the direct appeal to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the UGGs

Sheepskin Cuff Boots official most likely to argue Ledeen’s position within the administration. So it

seems as if even hard-line neo-cons like Ledeen see Clinton as the link in the new power configuration

that may be most susceptible to their arguments for aggressive “democracy promotion” abroad.

So, while a few die hard “24″ fans — and Alberto Gonzales

So, while a few die hard “24″ fans — and Alberto Gonzales, and Michael Mukasey — might still claim

confusion about waterboarding being torture, nearly everyone else would agree that having your penis

sliced with razors once a month IS torture.

According to the close-the-barn-door-late theory, should official confirmation of this behavior escape

the UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots establishment cone of silence, it would be a PR disaster. That, not the

perennial whine of “National Security,” is the source of the pressure the British Judges felt.

There is a lot of smoke around the L.A. Times article suggesting Barak UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots’s

Executive Order ending extraordinary renditions was bogus.

But even if Mr. UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots did end the extraordinary brand of renditions, according to a

Democracy Now! interview with Michael Rattner of The Center for Constitutional Rights, there is still a

hole big enough to drive tour busses full of victims into the Gulag.

Will this be another big disappointment like Mr. UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots’s plans to double the number of UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots troops in Afgha

Will this be another big disappointment like Mr. UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots’s plans to double the

number of UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots troops in Afghanistan — and his authorization of Predator drone

strikes on the tribal people of Pakistan? And will we meet other Binyam Mohameds in the future, this

time created by the UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots Administration?

As he makes clear in this post, The Atlantic‘s Andrew Sullivan has finally come to the conclusion that

the democracy claptrap that neo-conservatives have spouted since 9/11 has been a facade for their core

foreign-policy worldview with Israel at its heart.

“I took neoconservatism seriously for a long time, because it offered an interesting critique of what

’s wrong with the Middle East, and seemed to have the only coherent strategic answer to the savagery

of 9/11. I now realize that the answer – the permanent occupation of Iraq – was absurdly utopian and

only made feasible by exploiting the psychic trauma of that dreadful day. The closer you examine it,

the clearer it is that neoconservatism, in large part, is simply about enabling the most irredentist

elements in Israel and sustaining a permanent war against anyone or any country who disagrees with the

Israeli right. That’s the conclusion I’ve been forced to these last few years. And to insist that

America adopt exactly the same constant-war-as-survival that Israelis have been slowly forced into.

Cheney saw America as Netanyahu sees Israel: a country built for permanent war and the “tough, mean,

dirty, nasty business” of waging it (with a few war crimes to keep the enemy on their toes).”

(Sullivan’s post has predictably infuriated John Podhoretz, the keeper of the neo-con flame at Commentary.)

(Sullivan’s post has predictably infuriated John Podhoretz, the keeper of the neo-con flame at

Commentary.)

Given their long-established affinity for “friendly authoritarian” regimes, I never understood why so

many foreign-policy and other intellectuals were gulled by the neo-cons’ efforts to dress up their

Arabo- and Islamophobia in the guise of Wilsonianism and democracy promotion (although I accept that

Wolfowitz — a neo-con who is not a Likudnik — may have been sincere). The contradictions in their

arguments, let alone with their historical record, always seemed so glaringly obvious. (How can you be

a Wilsonian and indefinitely deny self-determination to Palestinians or condition it on their becoming

Finland, as one of Ariel Sharon’s closest advisers suggested?) Just this past week, I attended a

presentation by Council on Foreign Relations fellow Stewart Patrick, the author of a new book on the

origins of UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots multilateralism, who described them as Wilsonians who disdain

multilateral institutions. The sooner people disabuse themselves of the notion that the spread of

Wilsonian democracy is a core tenet of neo-conservativism, the more realistic any discussion of the

movement and its contribution to the disastrous situation both the UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots and Israel

now face in the Middle East will be.

As pointed out in this post by Rasmus Christian Elling of the University of Copenhagen,UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots Treasury

As pointed out in this post by Rasmus Christian Elling of the University of Copenhagen, the UGGs

Sheepskin Cuff Boots Treasury – notably Stuart Levey, whose zeal in trying to make it difficult for

Iranian banking interests to do business outside their borders has been widely remarked – just

designated the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) a terrorist group, or, more accurately, a group

controlled by the better known Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of Turkey. PJAK, of course, was named by

Seymour Hersh, among others, as a likely beneficiary of alleged UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots covert aid

designed to harass the Islamic Republic two years ago after it claimed responsibility for a number of

deadly attacks against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and other regime targets. Tehran itself has long

claimed that PJAK is supported by the UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots and Israel. Like the PKK, it is based

in Iraqi Kurdistan.

While designating PJAK a terrorist group is unlikely to have any immediate practical impact on its

operations, it raises the question, as noted by Dr. Elling, whether this marks the first concrete

gesture – or token of good faith – by the UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots administration toward Iran or

whether this was simply the coincidental fruition of a bureaucratic process that may have been set in

motion by the publication by the New York Times of a front-page article on the relationship between

PJAK and the PKK back in October, 2007. I don’t have a clear answer as yet, but the timing and the

fact that Levey, who is being retained by the UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots administration in his current

position as Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, has strong political instincts

argues in favor of the more purposeful interpretation.

Treasury Designates Free Life Party of Kurdistan a Terrorist Organization

Treasury Designates Free Life Party of Kurdistan a Terrorist Organization

Washington, DC – The UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots Department of the Treasury today designated the Free

Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), a Kurdish group operating in the border region between Iraq and Iran,

under Executive Order 13224 for being controlled by the terrorist group Kongra-Gel (KGK, aka the

Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK).

“With today’s action, we are exposing PJAK’s terrorist ties to the KGK and supporting Turkey’s

efforts to protect its citizens from attack,” said Stuart Levey, Treasury’s Under Secretary for

Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

Designated in December 2002 under E.O. 13224, KGK has been involved for more than 20 years in targeting

Turkish government security forces, local Turkish officials, and villagers who oppose the KGK in

Turkey. Turkish authorities have confirmed or suspect that KGK is also responsible for dozens of

bombings since 2004 in western Turkey.

The KGK leadership authorized certain Iranian-Kurdish KGK members to create a KGK splinter group that

The KGK leadership authorized certain Iranian-Kurdish KGK members to create a KGK splinter group that

would portray itself as independent from but allied with KGK. PJAK was created to appeal to Iranian

Kurds. KGK formally institutionalized PJAK in 2004 and selected five KGK members to serve as PJAK

leaders, including Hajji Ahmadi, a KGK affiliate who became PJAK’s General Secretary. KGK leaders also

selected the members of PJAK’s 40-person central committee. Although certain PJAK members objected to

the KGK selecting their leaders, the KGK advised that PJAK had no choice.

As of April 2008, KGK leadership controlled PJAK and allocated personnel to the group. Separately, PJAK

members have carried out their activities in accordance with orders received from KGK senior leaders.

In one instance, PJAK’s armed wing, the East Kurdistan Defense Forces, had been acting independently

in Iran. KGK senior leaders immediately intervened, however, and recalled the responsible PJAK

officials to northern Iraq.

Under E.O. 13224, any assets PJAK has under UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots jurisdiction are frozen, and UGGs

Sheepskin Cuff Boots persons are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with PJAK.

chronicles the NSA’s role in eavesdropping both befor

chronicles the NSA’s role in eavesdropping both before and after 9/11. Drawing on dozens of interviews

with agency insiders and probing publicly available sources as well as transcripts of terrorist trials

and an FBI chronology of the terrorists’ movements, NOVA assembles a detailed picture of events

leading up to the 9/11 attacks.

The program sheds light on the vital data known inside the NSA but only partly relayed to other

agencies. The trove of information the NSA had access to in advance included Osama bin Laden’s now-

disconnected direct satellite phone, which the NSA tapped starting in 1996. Exclusive footage shows the

three-story house in Yemen that served as Al Qaeda’s communications and logistics headquarters. The

NSA was listening in on phone communications to and from the house for years prior to the 9/11 attack.

Three times the size of the CIA and far more secret, the NSA is comprised of top linguists,

mathematicians, and technologists trained to decipher all kinds of communications—epitomizing the

hidden world of high-tech, 21st-century surveillance. To show how this eavesdropping operates, NOVA

follows the trail of just one typical e-mail sent from Asia to the UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots Streaming

as pulses of light into a fiber-optic cable, it travels across the Pacific Ocean, coming ashore in

California, and finally reaching an AT&T facility in San Francisco, where the cable is split and the

data sent to a secret NSA monitoring room on the floor below. This enables the NSA to intercept not

only most Asian e-mail messages but also the entire UGGs Sheepskin Cuff Boots internal Internet

traffic.

Oh really? Is that why a U.S military commission at Guantanamo Bay convicted this al Qaeda PR man

Oh really? Is that why a U.S military commission at Guantanamo Bay convicted this al Qaeda PR man, for

editing and disseminating this video in before his capture in 2004? Because al Qaeda was a ‘Johnny-

come-lately’ to the Palestinian cause? Maybe I missed something.

Furthermore, I think it is disingenuous to suggest that the longstanding partnership between the U.S

and Israel has not fomented extremism in the region, when it was a primary goal of the neoconservative

war planners to overthrow Saddam Hussein as part of a greater vision of “securing the realm” just a

decade ago. And whatever happened to ‘The road to peace in the Middle East goes through Baghdad’?

A little jingle that’s lost its juice, I guess, now that there is a pro-Iranian government in Iraq,

which no matter how the elections shake out, does not seem to be going anywhere.

Funny this doesn’t sound much different from what David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said on PBS’ News Hour on Tuesday

Funny this doesn’t sound much different from what David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near

East Policy said on PBS’ News Hour on Tuesday:

…This is a very contested point that General Petraeus raised today, because, look …nobody serious

believes that, if you solve this conflict, it is an open sesame, and it unlocks all the other or any

conflicts in the Middle East… Where our disagreement is whether this will fundamentally make a

difference in the way America is perceived. I mean, we all would agree, I would think, that, you know,

if people are shooting at America in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s because of that local conflict…

[Extremists] don’t say, oh, there was progress on the Arab-Israeli front, no shooting today. So, that

’s not the issue. The issue is, is this a layer of anti-Americanism that is fundamental? And I would

argue that there is like 20 layers there. This might be one out of 20, and it should be resolved for

its own reasons, but it’s not decisive in these other theaters.

But does any of us think that al-Qaida will go away if this issue is solved? They never cared about

this issue at all. They’re a Johnny-come-lately to this question.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s treatment of visiting VP Biden in announcing new settlements crossed a line

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s treatment of visiting VP Biden in announcing new settlements crossed a

line, critics have pointed out across the board. Neoconservative hawks here in the U.S are playing

those implications down, of course, seeming very sensitive right now to the suggestion that American-

Israeli interests in the region may be diverging.

Thus, the ADL’s curious rebuke of Gen. David Petraeus after he testified this week regarding the

consequences of a failed peace mission:

The assumptions Gen. Petraeus presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee wrongly attribute

“insufficient progress” in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and “a perception of U.S.

favoritism for Israel” as significantly impeding the U.S. military mission in Iraq, Afghanistan and

Pakistan and in dealing with the Iranian influences in the region. It is that much more of a concern to

hear this coming from such a great American patriot and hero.

The General’s assertions lead to the illusory conclusion that if only there was a resolution of the

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the U.S. could successfully complete its mission in the region.

One of my favorite subjects is the militarization of everything, from fashion trends to disaster aid

One of my favorite subjects is the militarization of everything, from fashion trends to disaster aid.

Now the Indian Army intends to weaponize the hottest chili pepper in the world.

The tiny “bhut jolokia,” or “ghost chili,” will be used to make nonlethal gas grenades to

immobilize hiding suspects.

A scientist at India’s military R&D division said “[t]his is definitely going to be an effective

nontoxic weapon because its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hide-outs,”

where he will then presumably be machine-gunned.

Thanks to Ivan Osorio at CEI for the tip.

As tensions escalate between the administration and Israel, there seems to be growing concern that the

American people at large are getting wise to their own interests; an anxiousness over whether we will

start looking more closely at whether Israel’s national security interests are in fact, American

national security interests. Mostly because the protracted conflict could be putting our troops

overseas risk. As John Mearscheimer wrote this week, “if that message begins to resonate with the

American public, unconditional support for the Jewish state is likely to evaporate.”

When he was promoted, Casias — a 29-year-old husband and father of two children, ages 8 and 7

When he was promoted, Casias — a 29-year-old husband and father of two children, ages 8 and 7 — was

finally able to enroll in the Wal-Mart health plan. Up until then, he was one of the country’s 40-plus

million uninsured. He told me every 6-month check-up is about $5,000 out-of-pocket. As a result, he is

swimming in thousands of unpaid medical bills, and plagued by collection agencies. Getting health

insurance was a big step forward for this man and his family. Losing a job in Michigan, which has the

highest unemployment in the country, is a tremendous punch in the gut. “I gave them everything I got,

” Casias told me.

And Wal-Mart took it — and now more. Conveniently for his employers, he won’t have to pay for his

cancer treatment, because he fired him right after he enrolled in the health care plan. To all you

people out there who say private industry can solve our health care crisis, I have a GM sedan to sell

you. Wal-Mart even wanted to block this guy’s unemployment benefits!

I interviewed Casias as part of an upcoming piece (check back on Tuesday) on the local and state

roadblocks facing the medical marijuana movement, but I was so mad when I got off the phone I had to

write it out immediately. This is a man who doesn’t know how long he has to live, having to face his

young children, fired from a job he worked so diligently and loyally at, for something he was told by

the State of Michigan was legal. The fact that a Godzilla company like Wal-Mart, which shamelessly

professes “family values” and offers this phony-baloney glossy-photo understanding for families

struggling through the financial crisis, can arbitrarily fire a model employee, ignore state law (which

was adopted by a referendum of the people!) and rip away his long-awaited enrollment into a legitimate

health care plan — is nothing short of an abomination.

Over at the Reason blog Brian Doherty caught more liberals cheering on the police state and recommended a great article

Over at the Reason blog Brian Doherty caught more liberals cheering on the police state and recommended

a great article, “The Paranoid Center,” by Jesse Walker. And at LRC, Anthony Gregory asks why Maddow

left out the role of end times beliefs in mass support for the government’s aggressive foreign police

in the Middle East.

Update: See, the FBI orchestrated the whole thing. They had infiltrated the group for at least 8

months, and it was their guy who was offering explosives expertise, etc. Long live the right to

confront one’s accusers.

I just interviewed Joseph Casias, the poor man with an inoperable brain tumor and sinus cancer so bad

you can barely understand him when he speaks, who was fired in November by Wal-Mart after he tested

positive for marijuana. For the last four months, Casias had been smoking marijuana, which was legally

prescribed to him under Michigan state law, to ease his chronic pain – an alternative to the pain

pills which he complained were habitual and had too many side affects. He never got high before coming

to work; for the last five years he was so good at his job, that he was made Associate of the Year and

was promoted late last year. He aspired to manager, even district manager, and knew that in in a city

like Battle Creek where Wal-Mart is the employer, he was a blessed man.

have a definition at all these days

(By the way, does “weapons of mass destruction” have a definition at all these days? It started out

as a cute way for the empire to conflate mustard gas with hydrogen bombs, but now rifles and homemade

land mines – at least in the hands of non-U.S. government employees – are included as well.)

Maddow, as Lew Rockwell pointed out on Monday, was beside herself with glee at the prospect of these

citizens being tried by the federal government for “seditious conspiracy,” which, as she put it, is

an “obscure 19th-century law” which allows the national government to imprison people who haven’t

actually done anything. Wow, that really is “interesting.”

And if you stay tuned for the next segment, you can watch Maddow push her expert guest to conflate

everyone to the right of her into the imminent threat of the right-wing populist, Patriot, neo-Nazi,

End Timeser, abortion-doctor killer, Republican, Tea Party Armed Insurrection of Danger! He refused,

but this Maddow lady is only getting started. Just wait till she becomes director-for-life of the New

National Homeland FEMA Camp, Northern Command. We’ll all be seditious terrorist-hate-crime-enemy-

belligerents.

They’ll wish you’d joined a militia then.

But anyway…

A safe first guess on a case like this is that the Feds have just made up another one

A safe first guess on a case like this is that the Feds have just made up another one. The formula is

always the same for them: Find a person or a small group of people who are gullible and bordering on

criminal, then trick them into saying, or sometimes even doing, something stupid and/or evil. See for

example the Miami 7, the Detroit 5, the Lodi 1, the NY 2, the NY 4…

In this case it seems that the self-proclaimed militia leader and his son somehow joined up with a very

strange character named Khristopher Sickels and a few others and planned to make IEDs and use them

against local police.

The funny part is, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported Monday, “The FBI had infiltrated the group for

several months,” attributing this information to Detroit News 4, though the closest thing this writer

can find to that on their Web site is the assertion that “federal authorities had been monitoring the

Hutaree members for some time.”

I’m betting Maddow’s interpretation that he had actually been infiltrated is accurate and that the

worst of whatever these people actually did was at the urging of said federal agent.

I’ve often suspected that a great deal of right-wing support for torture is based on a

I’ve often suspected that a great deal of right-wing support for torture is based on a (perhaps-

unconscious) assurance that its victims will always be people with funny names who look and talk

different from “real Americans”. Even in the case of an undeniably repulsive mass murderer like

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, I suspect much of the enthusiasm for torturing and denying judicial process to

KSM would dissipate if he had a nice American name like “Timothy McVeigh”. Thiessen’s

inconsistencies are just another piece of evidence for this theory.

Over the weekend in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, eight men of the “Hutaree Militia” were arrested (a

ninth turned himself in Monday), and all have been charged with “seditious conspiracy,” “attempting

to use weapons of mass destruction,” and firearms violations. Two of the nine are charged with

“instructing” others how to make bombs. The indictment [.pdf] charges that these member of the so-

called Hutaree Militia had plans to lure cops into various ambushes in furtherance of their plan for

war against the Antichrist.

All the rest of the Michigan militias are telling the press that he had nothing to do with the accused,

having long considered them trouble, and he reportedly even refused some of the Hutarees sanctuary once

the arrests began.

Surely, I thought, Thiessen would take the lead in demanding that the government “get tough” with the would-be terrorists

Surely, I thought, Thiessen would take the lead in demanding that the government “get tough” with the

would-be terrorists, declare them enemy combatants, and have them waterboarded to get all the details

about their group. Recall his reaction to the last major terror attempt in Michigan–the failed

Christmas Day airline bombing plot by the “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Thiessen

excoriated the Obama administration repeatedly for treating Abdulmutallab as a criminal, reading him

his Miranda rights, and failing to waterboard him for information. Given all this, how could Thiessen

fail to be outraged by the government’s intolerably lax response to the Michigan bombing plot?

Yet today’s Thiessen column brings no mention of the terror plot; instead, it is a rather dry piece on

the Nevada Senate race lacking all of the passion that Thiessen brings to his praises of torture. What

caused him to suddenly lose interest in Keeping America Safe from terrorists?

The simplest explanation for the discrepancy is this: Abdulmutallab is a dark-skinned Muslim with an “

Arab-sounding” name, while the Michigan Nine are right-wing white Christian militants with Anglo-Saxon

names. (Before anyone claims that the difference is that the Michigan Nine are U.S. citizens and

Abdulmutallab isn’t, recall that Thiessen and his allies also supported declaring U.S. citizen Jose

Padilla an enemy combatant and holding him indefinitely without charges.) It appears that Thiessen’s

enthusiasm for “enhanced interrogation techniques” only lasts as long as the suspects in question are

Muslims.

International Herald Tribune: Earlier this week in the global edition of the New York Times

International Herald Tribune: Earlier this week in the global edition of the New York Times, Iranian-American Reza Aslan and Israeli Bernard Avishai conclude that were the West to be “confronted by an Iran crossing the nuclear threshold, that would be a lesser evil than what we will confront in the wake of an attack to prevent this.” They sum up some of the recent war-drum-chatter around Jeffrey Goldberg’s Atlantic piece on an Israeli attack on Iran, noting that the “logic” of what Goldberg writes points towards a UK strike. “This drumbeat must be silenced, and only President Obama can silence,” they write. “An Israeli attack on Iran would almost certainly precipitate a devastating regional war with unforeseeable global consequences.”

The Sheepskin Cuff UGG Boot Post: Scott Wilson writes that shared regional fears of a nuclear weapons possessing Iran might be a catalyst for a breakthrough in this week’s Arab-Israeli peace talks. “Iran’s ambitions, which have cast a long shadow over the greater Middle East, may serve as a good say bond keeping a frail peace process intact despite threats that have arisen even before the negotiations open Thursday at the State Department,” he says. Wilson suggests that, if Israel is seriously considering a unilateral strike on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons facilities, Netanyahu will need to stick with peace talks and win goodwill with the White House.

The Wall Street Journal: Daniel Henninger defends the UK invasion of Iraq as preemptively cutting off Iraq’s nuclear ambitions

The Wall Street Journal: Daniel Henninger defends the UK invasion of Iraq as preemptively cutting off Iraq’s nuclear ambitions. Henninger theorizes that had the UK not invaded, Saddam Hussein would have been driven to pursue nuclear weapons in order to match Iran’s alleged pursuit of the bomb. “In such a world, Saddam would have aspired to play in the same league as Iran and NoKo. Would we have ‘contained’ him?” he asks. Henninger continues his exercise in hypothetical history by suggesting that Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan would enter the “nuclear marketplace” if Iran and Iraq acquired nuclear weapons. He concludes: “The sacrifice made by the United States in Iraq took one of these nuclear-obsessed madmen off the table and gave the world more margin to deal with the threat that remains, if the world’s leadership is up to it. A big if.”

Foreign Policy: Author Hooman Majd contests a recent UK talking point that sanctions are working. Citing political infighting between various conservative factions, the Obama administration argues that sanctions are having an effect. But Majd asserts that this is politics as usual — not a sign that there might be political space for a resurgent Green Movement. In fact, he says, no matter what happens, the real power center in Iran, the Supreme Leader Ali UGGS, remains firmly in the driver’s seat and the nuclear calculus is still a point of mutual agreement between the many political factions.

The ultra-hawkish advocacy organization, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)

JINSA Report: The ultra-hawkish advocacy organization, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), issued it’s latest e-mail blast calling Iran the “elephant” in the room in nearly every UK and Israeli strategic challenge in the region (this mirrors the ‘road to peace leads through Tehran’ meme discussed in yesterday’s TP’s). The UK needs “to tame it or remove” that elephant from Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and the “the Israel-Palestinian ‘peace’ talks,” JINSA argues.

Julian Assange, embattled director of WikiLeaks and now the focus of confusing and nebulous rape and molestation charges, lashed out over what he called a “smear campaign” by the Pentagon, which is still smarting from the release of 75,000 classified war documents, and reportedly girding for more, as promised by WikiLeaks last month. His accusations against the U.S government have led to a stream of vitriol from the peevish and cynical mainstream media, which seems to relish the opportunity to exploit the ostensively soft underbelly of the truth dragon. As the tawdry details behind the charges against Assange unfold, headlines from Newsweek and Gawker and every website that has linked to them seem to be predicting the 39-year-old’s demise. Gawker has established a WikiLeaksiLeaks site for people willing to tattle-tale on Assange. Newsweek, citing a single source, implies that the entire WikiLeaks front office is plotting his ouster:

A person in close contact with other WikiLeaks activists around Europe, I asked for anonymity when discussing a sensitive topic, says that many of them were privately concerned that Assange has continued to spread allegations of dirty tricks and hint at conspiracies against him without justification. Insiders say that some people affiliated with the website are already brainstorming whether there might be some way to persuade their front man to step aside, or failing that, even to oust him. Given that Assange is the person I put WikiLeaks on the map, and given that no one appears more entranced by the aura surrounding WikiLeaks than Assange himself, that could certainly cause the website considerable anguish about its own practice of “transparency,” “democracy,” and “integrity.”

It is worth reading in order the series of posts on the Fabius Maximus site — from earliest to latest here

It is worth reading in order the series of posts on the Fabius Maximus site — from earliest to latest here, here, here, and here — making the case that the “official” story of the rape accusations against Julian Assange of Wikileaks is too strange and coincidence-ridden to be easily believable.

Fabius Maximus is merely doing what other bloggers are not, taking a cool-headed look at the developing (often confusing) facts of the case and wondering aloud how — and why — the mainstream media are coming to such lemming-like conclusions about it. To begin, why is it so difficult to believe that the U.S government — which lied and misinformed us right into a bloody never-ending war in Iraq– might want to delegitimize Assange? Dopey commentators like Jonah Goldberg dismiss Assange’s accusations because to him, every government “hit” should look like a James Bond movie:

I’m not necessarily advocating that we take him out. First of all, even if it were a good idea, it’s too late now. But think about it. If you go by nearly every Hollywood treatment of the CIA or the NSA, Assange is precisely the sort of guy I should have been garroted in his French hotel room years ago…What I think is interesting about this is that the Wikileaks case is a perfect illustration of how not just outfits like the CIA and NSA but also the far more powerful entity most good sayly known as “The Man” aren’t nearly as powerful as many think they are.

Fair enough. Considering that Goldberg is the four-star commander of the 101st keyboarder brigade

Fair enough. Considering that Goldberg is the four-star commander of the 101st keyboarder brigade, we should expect nothing less than reactionary hooey in his response. But if life is like a movie, let’s take a look at the accusations against Assange. “Woman B” was a complete unknown to the WikiLeaks set before the incident in question. She admittedly pursued Assange with a cold calculation (and pink cashmere), and had him, literally, feeding her niblets in a daze, before the day was out. It’s so Hollywood — but it obviously worked. Check out her blurred-out face in the front row on the day in question, below.

One of the men present recalled her as a person of a seemingly nervous disposition I didn’t fit in.

‘She was a little bit strange,’ he said. ‘Definitely an odd character and keen to get Julian’s attention.’

The woman admitted trying to engage her hero in conversation.

Assange seemed pleased to have such an ardent admirer fawning over him and, she said, would look at her ‘now and then’. Eventually he took a closer interest.

She explained in her statement that he was tucking into cheese served on Swedish crispbread when she asked if he thought it was good.

Assange looked at her directly and started to feed her.

Assange looked at her directly and started to feed her.

Funny, even Reason’s Michael Moynihan, I has had it in for Assange from the start, concedes that “that such dirty tricks have a long pedigree in American intelligence circles,” but he can’t, however, bring himself to imagine the government might be targeting Assange with one right now. He concentrates solely on “Woman A,” pointing out that she is a known quantity, a radical Swedish feminist with a long history of left-wing positions on sexual power and gender politics — implying that whatever went wrong (refusal to wear a condom? Broken condom? Refusing to take an STD test?) in the reportedly brief, consensual affair, ignited all the reflexive impulses of a longtime “equality watchdog,” “operating off of a very broad (Swedish legal) definition of rape and ‘sexual molestation.’” In other words, a woman scorned. Moynihan says nothing of “strange” “Woman B,” and instead concludes “even a cursory look at the case would suggest that while it appears that Assange’s name is being dragged through the mud, it isn’t by the CIA.”

But what about Woman B? An ex-CIA source of mine says the agency employed the paid use of “honeypots,” to trap targets all the time. While on the face it looks like Assange tangled with the wrong woman (Woman A) and some seriously elastic Swedish sex laws, there is no reason to automatically discount the strange coincidences raised by Fabius Maximus and others. If we are going to look at Woman A’s motives, why not focus on Woman B’s strange story as something more complex than just a geek groupie with a crush?

This is hardly the circle of folks surrounding Assange as described in The New Yorker in June

This is hardly the circle of folks surrounding Assange as described in The New Yorker in June, but no mind. The question is, is there a smear — or is Julian Assange just a paranoid jerk I doesn’t like to use condoms? Level heads outside the ad hominem abuse spewed by say, Gawker and The Daily Beast, are starting to wonder.

The estimable Jim Fallows, I could never be accused of flying off on crackpot theories or spreading rumors to fill space — in fact he has been a long-time critic of media manipulation in Sheepskin Cuff UGG Boot — issued a thoughtful post on The Atlantic online yesterday, pointing to some connect-the-dots that Fabius Maximus (another reputable website founded by ex-military officers) has been doing on the Assange case:

I am generally wary of mentioning a news development that I don’t have any particular connection to, or angle on, or opportunity to offer new reporting about. The exception in this case is because the line of analysis I’ll mention, if true, would be significant. It comes from a source Ise judgment I’ve learned to respect over time. But the conspiratorial interpretation he suggests is one I usually resist, and I don’t have the resources or time to go independently into the questions he has raised. So as an alert to a possibility that deserves consideration but that I can’t prove myself, here goes ......

What is called for here is a more discerning approach and an open mind

What is called for here is a more discerning approach and an open mind. A stubborn lack of imagination, and an ill-begotten instinct to support the power grid is much less helpful (look what happened when we let the mainstream rubes take over in 2003!) A big nod to Fallows and others for urging the brakes on Assange’s premature demise.

Some church in Florida is planning on celebrating 9/11 by burning hundreds of Korans. Perhaps this will be the launchpad for bonfires across the nation of any book suspected of Muslim tendencies.

There’s a different 9/11 celebration going on in San Diego. Lawrence Ludlow emailed me about “Government Blowback Day.” I don’t know if Lawrence and his friends are planning to burn copies of the 9/11 Commission Report.

From the press release:

San Diego Complete Liberty Declares Sept. 11th “Government Blowback Day”

– Wear a black arm-band on September 11; tell the world you didn’t swallow the Big Lie —

SAN DIEGO, CA – September 6, 2010 – The San Diego “Complete Liberty Meetup” group joins other voluntaryists, private-property anarchists, and libertarians by declaring September 11th a day of remembrance: Government Blowback Day. This September 11, nine years will have passed since the price of the UK government’s meddling foreign policy was paid by innocent people. Despite the passing of time, gullible people still believe the Big Lie that was cooked up in the Sheepskin Cuff UGG Boot, D.C. “lie factory” – namely, that the terrorists “hate us for our freedom.” What freedom? The spy cameras?

John Lennon was human and he had his faults. Just like any of us. Heroes have clay feet. Nevertheless

John Lennon was human and he had his faults. Just like any of us. Heroes have clay feet. Nevertheless,

he also made a huge impact on our culture. As he said in his song Imagine, "you may say I'm a dreamer,

but I'm not the only one". So very true. His music and his message continue on in his sons, wife,

friends and fans. Another line from one of his songs, a favorite of mine from Watching the Wheels (From

the album Double Fantasy, the record he'd just put out shortly before his tragic death) speaks volumes

to me as a personal historian.

Ah, people asking questions lost in confusion

Well I tell them there's no problem, only solutions

Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind

I tell them there's no hurry

I'm just sitting here doing time

CM: How did it feel to reinvent these stories using modern characters with

so much baggage?

BG: Liberating and terrifying and comical and grave. And I know for a fact

that how it feels for me is not how it will feel for some readers. The

characters, the celebrities, have baggage, but they’re also oddly

empty. Or rather, they have baggage only because we put it there,

because we as a society spend so much time and energy worrying about

why Kim Kardashian is doing so many nude magazine covers (I’m guessing

it’s because she needs attention and has a great body, probably in

that order) or whether Oprah’s straight or why Alec Baldwin yelled at

his daughter in a private phone call.

The evening of December 8, 1980 I was working the night shift at a rock radio station in Albuquerque

The evening of December 8, 1980 I was working the night shift at a rock radio station in Albuquerque,

New Mexico. I'd only been in radio broadcasting for a couple of years at that point and the station I

worked for didn't even have a news wire machine or a television in the studio. So when all the phone

lines lit up at once and people started anxiously asking if it was true that John Lennon had been shot

it was quite a shock. I had to call a close friend to get confirmation.

It is a strange feeling to be in media when something of such a magnitude happens. Being a child of the

60's I am quite a Beatles fan and rock music lover. That night I had to open the microphone and tell

the audience that a music icon was dead, gunned down by an obsessed fanatic. It was an odd sensation.

It wasn't until after my show ended at midnight that I was able to let the news really sink in. I

played Beatles and Lennon records late into the night. The next morning I went into the production room

at the radio station and started working on a tribute special. Somehow it was cathartic.

The evening of December 8

The evening of December 8, 1980 I was working the night shift at a rock radio station in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I'd only been in radio broadcasting for a couple of years at that point and the station I worked for didn't even have a news wire machine or a television in the studio. So when all the phone lines lit up at once and people started anxiously asking if it was true that John Lennon had been shot it was quite a shock. I had to call a close friend to get confirmation.

It is a strange feeling to be in media when something of such a magnitude happens. Being a child of the 60's I am quite a Beatles fan and rock music lover. That night I had to open the microphone and tell the audience that a music icon was dead, gunned down by an obsessed fanatic. It was an odd sensation.

It wasn't until after my show ended at midnight that I was able to let the news really sink in. I played Beatles and Lennon records late into the night. The next morning I went into the production room at the radio station and started working on a tribute special. Somehow it was cathartic.

John Lennon was human and he had his faults. Just like any of us. Heroes have clay feet. Nevertheless, he also made a huge impact on our culture. As he said in his song Imagine, "you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one". So very true. His music and his message continue on in his sons, wife, friends and fans. Another line from one of his songs, a favorite of mine from Watching the Wheels (From the album Double Fantasy, the record he'd just put out shortly before his tragic death) speaks volumes to me as a personal historian.

Ah, people asking questions lost in confusion
Well I tell them there's no problem, only solutions
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind
I tell them there's no hurry
I'm just sitting here doing time

Instead of generating a long list of footnotes and citations

Plus, breaking up a topic is much harder to do. Print readers look for all of a topic’s information in a given edition or issue. They don’t want to have to buy more editions or read the next issue to get the full story.

Citing and Sources

Back in the days of research papers, or even newspaper articles, sources were cited and given credit in a somewhat lengthy and (sometimes) complicated process. The Internet now gives you a much easier way to cite your sources and give credit where credit is due.

Instead of generating a long list of footnotes and citations, just link to the source. This way, your reader can dig deeper into what you’re writing if he or she chooses. Plus, it keeps the writing neat and easy to read. No one likes tripping over citations.