November 13, 2006

Libertarian Commentary on the News, 5 - 11 November, 2006
The end of this week, we again commemorate Veterans’ Day, on a date which is the 88th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the Great War, later called the “First World War” or the first phase of the Twentieth Century Global War. I find that few people understand the difference between “Memorial Day” and “Veterans Day” – but it is key: Veterans Day is intended more to honor those veterans who survived the wars than those who died in the wars (for which Memorial Day was originally intended). And even though we might decry the naïve way in which too many soldiers over the years have followed the wrong leaders and fought for the wrong causes, it is still appropriate to honor their courage, dedication, and sacrifice. It certainly does the cause of liberty no good to disdain and speak evil of veterans, living or dead.

Since the election is (gratefully) finally over this week, I’ll start with that. It was, to me, overall, a very disappointing one because so little has really changed, and more serious concerns about the integrity of the American voting system have arisen. But I’ll start out with the best news from the election.

Election 2006: TN: Property tax ballot measure wins
Tennessean
"Future property tax rate increases would have to go to the voters under a Metro Nashville referendum on Tuesday's ballot. Supporters of the ballot measure outnumbered opponents by a strong margin. 'It was very jubilant,' ballot measure organizer Ben Cunningham said of the party of supporters gathered at Brown's Diner on Nashville's Blair Boulevard. 'What (voters) are saying is that we want to take some of this authority back from the Metro Council and reserve it for ourselves, for the voters,' he said. Cunningham also led the effort by the Tennessee Tax Revolt group to kill a statewide tax on wages in 2001. Cunningham said supporters' only promotions of the current measure in the days leading up to Tuesday's election were use of informal e-mail reminders and about $2,000 in automated phone calls. No formal committee was organized to oppose the measure." (11/08/06)

A bright star in the election, and hopefully to be imitated quickly in both Tennessee and outside that state. A “formal committee” wasn’t needed to oppose the ballot issue – it had lots of organized opposition: the entire Nashville-Davison County government.

One more bright point – in a Wyoming election cycle otherwise disappointing, Dennis Brossman of Lander, a Libertarian, and a good guy indeed, took 18% of the vote for Secretary of State! Way to go, WLP!

Mama's Note: The sad note is that, even with state bank accounts obscenely swollen with stolen goods, the people of Wyoming voted to increase their taxes anyway! They also, very foolishly, altered the state constitution to give more pork and power to government "schools." Heartbreaking...

Now, on to the rest of election coverage:

Elections 2006: Mehlman to step down from RNC post
Memphis Commercial Appeal
"Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose party lost both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, will step down from his post when his two-year term ends in January, GOP officials said Thursday. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because Mehlman had not yet made his intentions public. Brian Jones, an RNC spokesman, declined to comment beyond saying that an announcement about Mehlman's future with the party would be made in the days ahead." (11/09/06)

Mehlman has also supposedly been “outed” as a homosexual, and therefore condemned for hypocrisy in supporting GOP efforts to prevent homosexual “marriage.” I’m sure he has better things to do than work for a bunch of scum-sucking politicians who have no guts and aren’t even true to those who have bought them.

Mama's Note: Remember, an "honest" politician is simply one who stays loyal to the one who bought him/her...

Elections 2006: MA: State says it will take control of city voting
Boston Globe
"Secretary of State William F. Galvin declared yesterday that he will seize control of the Boston Election Department because the city has repeatedly demonstrated an inability to conduct fair and smooth elections. The extraordinary move followed reports that the city ran out of ballots Tuesday at about 30 precincts in Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and East Boston, heavily minority areas where voters turned out in droves to support Deval L. Patrick for governor. City officials acknowledged they have a policy of distributing only enough ballots for 50 percent of registered voters at each polling place and then delivering more ballots from City Hall as they are needed." (11/09/06)

Typical response – it becomes an excuse for government takeover, and not an opportunity to clean up.

Election 2006: World welcomes shift in US politics
Tahoe Daily Tribune
"The electoral rebuke for President Bush and the resignation of his defense secretary, both deeply unpopular away from American shores over the Iraq war, was celebrated throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Still, there was concern Wednesday that a Washington power split and a severely weakened Bush might mean uncertainty in crucial areas like global trade talks." (11/08/06)

As usual, there is NOTHING that the US can do that will make people overseas happy. Even our disappearance off the face of the earth would be seen as an evil action on our part to bully the rest of the world.

Elections 2006: Study Warns of Voter Suppression, Intimidation
CNSNews.com
A public policy group is warning that voters – especially minorities – may face intimidation and suppression at the polls, but a Republican Party spokesman called the study “preposterous.”

Obviously most of what was published about the elections on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday is not worth discussing, as it was overtaken by events. This, though, is worth noting – because despite many screams of “outrage” on Tuesday, all the complaints about voting machines, fraud, intimidation, and similar things were strangely absent the rest of the week – for some reason, Republicans don’t seem to push that button the way the Dems do. Frankly, I worry more about the outright lies perpetrated during the campaign period, and the lack of integrity of the voting numbers AFTER people have cast their votes. If you control one or both, there is no need to intimidate people and drive them away from the polls.

Elections 2006: Conservative magazine pillories Bush
Raw Story
"The American Conservative, a magazine started by Pat Buchanan to offset the overrepresentation of neoconservative thought in public debate, has taken a strong anti-Bush position this election. The article states that '[i]t should surprise few readers that we think a vote that is seen -- in America and the world at large -- as a decisive 'No' vote on the Bush presidency' is important for the health of the nation. Since its inception, The American Conservative has taken a strong isolationist stance on most foreign policy issues. As Iraq has toppled into chaos over the years, the magazine has inveighed against the Bush team in harsher and harsher terms." (11/06/06)

This is one of several pre-election articles worth looking at – and shows that the conservative attacks on the GOP and Bush aren’t just sour grapes after the election. Look at the next article for some interesting data.

Elections 2006: Corruption named as key issue by voters in exit polls
CNN
"By a wide margin, Americans who voted Tuesday in the midterm election say they disapprove of the war in Iraq. But when asked which issue was extremely important to their vote, more voters said corruption and ethics in government than any other issue, including the war, according to national exit polls. A large majority of voters also disapproved of how Congress and President Bush are doing their jobs." (11/07/06)

Democrats were able to win without any concrete plan for resolving either of these issues, of course. But they did do a good job of selling the idea that only the GOP was responsible for both, regardless of what the facts were. The only question is why, if the voters disapprove so much, that they continue to send the same old parties and party hacks back again and again.

Mama's Note: They send the incumbents back because only those "other" politicians are crooked - theirs are just misunderstood!

Elections 2006: Voters signal loss of patience with war plan
Boston Globe
"The Democratic victory last night did not mark the end of the war in Iraq, but it seemed to mark the end of America's patience with the war. President Bush, whose 'stay the course' mantra became a rallying cry for Democratic challengers, now will come under intense pressure to choose a new course. He will have to contend with more than just the demands of a Democratic-led House. Congressional Republicans, who once marched in lock step with their commander in chief, are also likely to break with the White House, having now tasted electoral defeat. 'The Iraq war has opened up some big divisions in the Republican Party and that's the next thing to play out,' said Boston University political scientist Julian Zelizer, author of a book on congressional politics. 'There'll be a lot of Republicans looking toward 2008.'" (11/08/06)

What this article doesn’t point out (and no surprise, seeing it is the Boston Globe) is that the split in the GOP is not just over the Iraq occupation, but is even more so on conservative principles – as a good many people have pointed out in the days since the election. But the real split isn’t between the GOP thugs in Congress and the White House, but between the politicians and the majority of the GOP registered voters.

Elections 2006: Western Democrats offer party a promising horizon
Boston Globe
"They wear cowboy boots and oppose most gun controls. They don't worry much about the spotted owl, but they do care about the pristine places where they can hunt and fish. They are Western Democrats, and along with other segments of their party, they are confident that they will experience a strong power surge today that could win them the House, a majority of governorships, and at least several US Senate seats. They are also hoping for something else: a chance to help their party remake its Northeastern, blue-state image into a broader, stronger force capable of governing the country for years to come." [FND editor's note: One has to wonder, if these Dems will succeed where the GOP failed, by honorably appealing to the basic libertarian values the country was founded upon - SAT] (11/07/06)

I’m not exactly sure who is whistling in the dark here – but Steve’s comments are a perfect example – the idea that EITHER major party is capable of doing anything except fighting for power and gathering more power to the government is laughable. South Dakota and Wyoming are two of those states where these so-called “Western Democrats” exist, but despite their claims to be moderate and despite their packing guns when back home and talk about how moderate they are they vote a straight liberal-totalitarian ticket in DC. And each year, as more of the “elite” move into Jackson Hole and Deadwood and Big Sky and Telluride, their veneer of “westernness” grows thinner and more worn.

Elections 2006: Incoming Democrats Will Bring Moderation, Experts Predict
CNSNews.com
The newly elected members of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives will force the party’s leadership to shift to the center in the name of maintaining control, according to political analysts...

This, too, is whistling in the dark.

Mama's Note: Oh goodie... we're going to be "moderately" raped, murdered, robbed and spied on - instead of a more radical kind. How nice of them.

Elections 2006: Pelosi, Dean and Reid Hail ‘New Direction’
CNSNews.com
Democratic leaders credited their “New Direction” platform with their party's Election Day victories, saying that's clearly what American voters want -- and what they'll get -- beginning with a change of policy on the war in Iraq...

The opposite of whistling in the dark, but still just as clueless. The Democrats presented nothing new, simply playing on the incompetence of the GOP (especially its abandonment of conservative principles) and the anti-Iraq sentiment in the nation.

Mama's Note: Ah yes, a change of direction... instead of a steady downward course toward destruction, our new "leaders" guarantee that our economy will corkscrew into the ground with new "minimum wages" and "free" healthcare, etc.

Elections 2006: Groups For and Against Guns Put Best Possible Spin on Election
CNSNews.com
The midterm election may have been a referendum on the president, war, corruption, and scandal, but “it does not translate into greater support for gun control at the grass roots level,” says Gun Owners of America. A leading gun control group, however, says quite the contrary...

Clearly, in this year’s election, gun issues were pretty low on the list of who to vote for, and I think GOA has the right of it. But expect the thugs in Congress to ignore that minor fact.

Elections 2006: Election Not A ‘Voter Rebuke’ for Conservatives, Leaders Say
CNSNews.com
Tuesday’s midterm election results may have been a loss for the GOP, but it was “emphatically not a loss for conservatives,” leaders of several conservative organizations said Wednesday...

Since the GOP is not a conservative organization (contrary to Sean Hannity’s protestations), this seems to be accurate to me. And I expect the next two years to show this is indeed the case.

More election news is scattered throughout this column, under different headings. Don’t miss a word – if you don’t get your fix today, you’ll have to do without election and campaign news for at least a, well, maybe, a week. Sigh.

Afghani Front: Startling findings in Tillman probe
Winchester Herald Chronicle
"In a remote and dangerous corner of Afghanistan, under the protective roar of Apache attack helicopters and B-52 bombers, special agents and investigators did their work. They walked the landscape with surviving witnesses. They found a rock stained with the blood of the victim. They reenacted the killings -- here the U.S. Army Rangers swept through the canyon in their Humvee, blasting away; here the doomed man waved his arms, pleading for recognition as a friend, not an enemy." (11/09/06)

If only the government would go to such detail and effort to resolve the truth of so many other things!

Mama's Note: If only they would tell the truth the first time! They use lies when the truth would serve them better, and even when the truth can't be hidden. Such fools.

Canaan Front: Hamas chief: Truce with Israel off
Journal Gazette/Times-Courier
"Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal says that a truce with Israel is finished and is appealing to all Palestinian factions to resume attacks. Israeli tank shells ripped through a residential neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, killing at least 18 members of an extended family, including eight children, and wounding dozens of others, Palestinian health officials said." (11/08/06)

Well, Hamas has its excuse to resume open warfare, and is taking swift action to do so. It was only a matter of time before the missile attacks and the orchestrated chaos in the Gaza Strip would provide such an opportunity, and now, here it is.

Canaan Front: Rabbis Call for Prayer Vigils to Counter ‘Abomination’ March
CNSNews.com
Israel’s religious leaders are calling for a peaceful prayer protest on Friday to counter a homosexual parade scheduled to take place that same day in Jerusalem. The upcoming parade has infuriated the city’s religious Jews, Muslims and Christians...

The new Hamas campaign has also given a reason to cancel this little act of disgusting provocation. It was replaced by a “private” rally (below)

Canaan Front: Homosexual Rally in Jerusalem
Mercury News
Israel's gay community braved vehement opposition from religious fundamentalists and held a large rally Friday in Jerusalem, complete with live rock music, dancing and declarations of pride. The event - originally planned as a march through the city - was held behind fences at a university sports stadium on the Holy City's outskirts after organizers bowed to police fears of violent protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Nearly 4,000 revelers flocked to the stadium, about the same number as attended last year's gay pride march in the city, where Jewish, Muslim and Christian opposition to the events runs high.

Actually, this might even be considered an action promoting peace, since it has the Orthodox Jews and the most fundamental of Moslems in agreement!

Canaan Front: Abbas, Hamas talks on joint government fail
Saratoga Springs Saratogian
"The Palestinian president and prime minister, heading rival movements, on Monday failed again to agree on a joint government that might lead to lifting Western sanctions that have bankrupted their administration -- but they planned to keep trying. President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas met in Gaza for more than two hours." (11/06/06)

What they don’t point out is that dead PLO leader Arafat has left enough money around the world in various banks to keep their “administration” going for decades, if just limited to economic development and welfare, and not to destroying Israel and fighting each other.

Culture and World Wars: Public Health Group Calls for Troop Pullout
CNS News.com
The world's largest organization of public health professionals concluded its annual meeting in Boston this week by calling for U.S. forces to leave Iraq. The group also wants an end to abstinence-only sex education and a global "alcohol-control" treaty. Holding its 134th annual gathering, the American Public Health Association called "for the immediate initiation of the safe withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from Iraq accompanied by the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping troops in areas of high risk for inter-ethnic conflict or civil war."

This article touches on a lot of different issues, and being in the public health field somewhat myself, I am baffled at the hubris of such proclamations by the APHA. From the point of view of American public health officials, the big advantage to a US withdrawal from Iraq would be fewer dead and wounded Americans returning home – but from the point of view of overall public health, the bloodbath in Iraq will continue. We tried an “alcohol control” regime once – it was called “Prohibition” and it led to a public health nightmare. And UN “peacekeeping” forces have been public health disasters for the areas they occupy – second only to OAU (Organization for African Unity) “peacekeepers.” And don’t let me start on the political bias of condemning abstinence-only sex education.

Mama's Note: The bottom line, as usual, is that no organization or government has any legitimate place dictating the personal decisions and actions of individuals. There wouldn't be any controversy at all about "sex education" if only parents and guardians were doing it, of course.

Culture Wars: 7 of 8 states outlaw homosexual “marriage”
San Francisco Chronicle
"Ballot measures to ban same-sex marriage were winning in seven of eight states late Tuesday, with voters in Arizona poised to be the first in the nation to turn down such a measure. The measures, all constitutional amendments to limit marriage to heterosexuals and some to ban domestic partnerships, passed in Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee and were winning in Colorado, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Idaho." (11/07/06)

This makes the anti-homosexual “marriage” cause 28 for 29, if I am counting right. Arizona’s vote was very close, and probably caused by some disarray in the group pushing the amendment, rather than any inherent liberalism in the state. The tactics used by the anti-ballot measure groups in both South Dakota and Colorado were, to put it tactfully, disgusting in the extreme, accusing supporters and voters of being anti-American, filled with hate, and more. But the nasty propaganda apparently failed. For once.

Mama's Note: As we've said so many times, "marriage" is in the hearts of the participants. Government has no more business dictating this than any other non-aggressive behavior.

Culture Wars: MegaChurch Pastor [sic] Begs Forgiveness
AOL News
On Sunday, Ted Haggard, [Patty Erwin’s] disgraced former pastor [sic], was at the top of her [prayer] list. Erwin, who's been coming to the 14,000-member church for 15 years, said "Desperately, we love him, and we wouldn't be here if we didn't." Haggard, 50, was fired Saturday after a Denver man accused him of having drug-fueled homosexual trysts with him. In a letter read during Sunday services, Haggard confessed to "sexual immorality" and asked for forgiveness for himself and for his accuser. "I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life," said Haggard, who resigned last week as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 30 million evangelical Christians. Erwin, other church goers and the ministers speaking Sunday made it clear they didn't approve of what Haggard had done but they also called on people to seek God's grace, love and restoration in their own lives. The Rev. [sic] Larry Stockstill, senior pastor [sin] of Bethany World Prayer Center in Baker, La., and a member of the board that fired Haggard, said Haggard had been more open to his dark side because he was stretched thin by the demands of his pastoral work and his national profile. Haggard had acknowledged on Friday that he paid Mike Jones of Denver for a massage and for methamphetamine, but said he did not have sex with him and did not take the drug. But the church's overseer board, made up of clergy from other churches, concluded that he did commit "sexually immoral conduct" and fired him Saturday.

Look, I understand this man’s troubles – he has been doing something for years that he teaches and probably thinks he believes is evil and damning, and I am sure that he is sincerely sorry (and maybe not just about being caught). But this entire sorry spectacle is a hideous illustration of what is evil and wrong about so-called “Christendom” in this nation, and for that matter, around the planet.

Let me explain. These are the same people that apparently want practicing homosexuality illegal, and not just immoral. These are the same people that want to see not just currently illegal drugs made illegal, but want to add alcohol, tobacco, and possibly caffeine and white sugar (and some, even chocolate) to the list for which people can have their carcasses thrown into jail, be forced to go through “treatment,” have their homes, vehicles, and businesses invaded by thugs in black uniforms, and have their urine or blood tested anytime, anywhere, for any reason.

These are the people that think that because George W Bush has “confessed” Christ as Lord, he is the man on a white horse who can be trusted even as he takes freedom away in the name of “preserving” freedom. Fortunately (in my view, at least) and sadly, these people are NOT Christians– no matter how loudly they claim to be so. The article shows itself shows some of the reasons I state this as fact: Erwin and her fellow congregants aren’t in this mega-church because they are disciples of God, but because of this man; this mega-church is “overseen” by “clergy” from other churches; grace and forgiveness apparently have nothing to do with confession of sins and repentance. They have had one man ruling over 14,000 people (no wonder he was “stretched thin”), and many other things which show that this church has as little to do with the Christianity taught in the Bible and founded by a carpenter from Nazareth about 1,980 years ago as this electronic magazine you are reading has to do with clay tablets marked with cuneiform and baked in a dung oven. This mega-church is no more a church of Jesus Christ than it is the Fourth Temple.

This man, and those he ruled over, and those he is allied with (publicly, that is) is a slave in mentality – he is apparently incapable of controlling his own actions, his own life – he seeks to have the government make these things illegal and force him to stop doing it because he thinks that he can be forced to do what he will not do, literally, for the love of God. And thus he wants to make the rest of us slaves of government as well. That is NOT the Gospel preached by Paul and others for most of twenty centuries, that is NOT what Jesus Christ died for – and until this man and his former followers stop putting their faith in themselves and other people (whether we are talking “oversight boards” of “clergy” or government), and start putting faith in God, they are the enemies of God, of liberty, and of lovers of liberty (whether believers in God or not).

The revelation of this man’s sin was clearly politically motivated, and very well may have an impact on ballot issues in Colorado and elsewhere this week (I’m writing this on the 5th), which is itself as wrong as churches, even mega-churches like this, bowing down to the state (government) in promoting tyranny and accepting control. Like too many others, these people are their own worst enemies, and their very own actions are destroying them and their objectives.

Culture wars: South Dakotans reject abortion ban
Washington Post
"South Dakotans rejected a toughest-in-the-nation law that would have banned virtually all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest -- defeating one of the most high-profile state measures facing voters Tuesday. The outcome was a blow to conservatives, who also had cause for worry in Arizona. An amendment to ban gay marriage was trailing there with returns nearly complete; it would be the first defeat for such a measure after prevailing in more than two dozen states in recent years." (11/08/06)

According to a lot of the pundits, this was a bucking of trends – but seemingly, South Dakota has shifted definitely to the left this year, as most of the “conservative” and “libertarian” ballot issues were defeated. The ballot measure to end judicial immunity for crooked judges was defeated 89-10. The idea that it is wrong to kill an innocent child for the sin of one of his parents (rape or incest) has been rejected by the state – morality has been determined to be nothing but a matter of voting. Tax cuts were rejected, limits on government were rejected – only a refusal to expand the power of government to grant “marriage” to homosexuals was an indication of “conservative” progress in the state. This so-called conservative state will once again be represented for the next two years, by a farm-progress-type liberal (Miss Herseth) voted in by 77%! And whereas the really nasty and disgusting propaganda against the marriage ballot issue apparently did not work, in this case, the same type of disgusting pro-abortion propaganda DID have at least some impact. Or so it seems. But more and more people are starting to wonder if there is something fishy about election results, as compared to third-party polls.

Culture wars: Punishment expected for soldiers who posed nude
MSNBC
"Female Kentucky National Guard soldiers who allegedly posed nude for pictures before being sent to Iraq will face nonjudicial, administrative sanctions rather than courts-martial, the Army said. The women were not suspended and were 'busy supporting the war effort,' Maj. Jay Adams, chief of public affairs for the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), told The Courier-Journal of Louisville on Tuesday." (11/08/06)

Nonjudicial punishment (Article 15) seems appropriate in this case. Stupid acts, but in today’s cultural climate, typical.

Culture Wars: Conservatives Mobilize Against Wal-Mart
CNSNews.com
A conservative activist group is trying to recruit one million families who will refuse to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving...

This is, of course, an attempt to persuade Wally World, by economic means, to change its attitude towards homosexuals, since it seems to have signed on to the grand agenda of preference and accommodation.

Culture Wars: Abortion Advocacy Group May Subpoena White House Documents
CNSNews.com
A federal magistrate ruled on Monday that an abortion advocacy group can subpoena White House emails and other communications with the FDA pertaining to the FDA's decision on over-the-counter sales of Plan B emergency contraception...

Aha! Another fertile area for the Demos in Congress to investigate!

Economy: Gasoline hits 2006 low
USA Today
"The price of gasoline has fallen to its lowest level in more than 10 months. The federal Energy Information Administration said Monday that U.S. motorists paid $2.20 a gallon on average for regular grade last week, a decrease of 1.8 cents from the previous week. Pump prices are now 17.6 cents lower than a year ago and have plummeted by more than 80 cents a gallon since the start of August. The last time prices were below $2.20, on average, was the week ending Dec. 26, 2005. Gasoline can be found for less than $2 a gallon in many parts of the country." (11/06/06)

Obviously, manipulating the gasoline prices didn’t help the GOP preserve its tyrannical and immoral control of Congress, eh? And obviously, with the enlightened and benevolent rule of our new Democratic masters, prices will continue to drop - $1.00/gallon here we come, right? Seriously, I’ve gotten gas for $1.969 a gallon in western South Dakota – a small bit of pleasure!

Elections 2008: GOP defeat may boost McCain
Arizona Republic
"Arizona Sen. John McCain's party suffered a stunning setback on Tuesday as voters overwhelmingly rejected Republican candidates in congressional, gubernatorial and local races around the country. It may be just the development McCain needs to launch his bid for the White House. 'McCain is actually one of the winners of last night's (Tuesday's) voting,' said Frank Luntz, a pollster with GOP ties. 'He's in a better situation today because Republicans will have lost both houses of Congress, ... [and] you may not agree with John McCain on everything, but you'd rather have him in the White House than Hillary.'" [FND editor's note: If those are the choices, God help us all; yet another matter of who one despises the least, which over the last couple decades got us Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush ... Vote because you LIKE your selection ... or stay home! - SAT] (11/09/06)

McCain may have been a winner, but so are Libertarians, if they think about it. We have seen yet another example of politics as usual, and it smells worse and worse.

European Front: Italy: Row over toilet artwork
BBC News [UK]
"A toilet which flushes to the sound of Italy's national anthem has been impounded by police in northern Italy, sparking great patriotic debate. The offending loo was the creation of two local artists and was on display at the Bolzano Museum of Modern Art. Prosecutors say the Fratelli d'Italia anthem is a national emblem which should be protected and should never be open to ridicule. A judgment is expected to be made later this week." (11/06/06)

It should come as no surprise that this would happen in Bolzano (real name Bozen), which was stolen by Italy from Austria in 1915 with the aid of France and the UK. It is still largely ethnic German-speaking, and considered by many to properly be part of Austria.

European Front: Germany: Nazis attack memorial, arrested
BBC News [UK]
"German police have made 16 arrests after neo-Nazis vandalised a Jewish memorial on the anniversary of the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. The extremists destroyed wreaths and candles which had been left at the memorial in Frankfurt an der Oder. Some shouted 'Sieg Heil' as police arrived, officials said. Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) saw mobs attack Jewish synagogues, homes and businesses across Germany, beating some people to death." (11/10/06)

This particular disease is endemic in Germany, and much of the rest of Europe – and not that unknown here in the USA. As long as we have freedom, we will have to protect it from this kind of thug as well as the government kind.

Government-run, theft-funded schools: CA: Schools to fingerprint students for lunch program
CNN
"A plan to fingerprint elementary school students when they buy lunch has some parents worrying that Big Brother has come to the cafeteria. The Hope Elementary School District has notified parents that, beginning this month, students at Monte Vista, Vieja Valley and Hope elementary schools will press an index finger to a scanner before buying cafeteria food. The scan will call up the student's name and student ID, teacher's name and how much the student owes, since some receive government assistance for food. It is meant to speed up cafeteria lines." (11/05/06)

The paperwork demanded of schools who participate in USDA and state reduced- and free-lunch programs is driving this more than any innate desire for power or thuggery, but the result is the same. Yeah, the paperwork is a pain, and so is accounting for money owed. And sadly, most private schools participate in these programs, as well. We need to end not just government control of schools, but programs like this that encourage stupid actions like this.

Government-run, theft-funded schools: AZ: Private tests get kids into gifted classes
Arizona Republic
"Hundreds of parents in Arizona are doing an end-around their neighborhood schools to get their kids in gifted programs. They're turning to a little-known state rule that mandates if a psychologist or other 'qualified professional' tests a child and determines he or she is gifted, the school must put the student into a full- or part-time gifted classroom. It applies even if the child failed the school's test for being gifted. Some parents call it 'buying in.' Private one-on-one testing costs from $250 to $700. In districts where parents are aware of the option and have the cash, they often successfully use private tests to get their kids in gifted classes. Officials at several wealthy Valley districts said about 5 to 10 percent of their gifted students were admitted based on private testing." (11/06/06)

I suppose the parents consider it to be a good deal: spending a few hundred dollars to potentially get thousands of dollars of education welfare for their “gifted” children. Yet another way government-ruined schools can continue to waste more and more money and do less and less with it.

Home Front: GA: Immigration crackdown debated
Christian Science Monitor
"What happened in tiny Stillmore, Ga., either delights or disturbs observers of the nation's immigration debate. As part of a get-tough campaign against America's estimated 12 [sic] million undocumented workers, immigration agents over Labor Day weekend raided a Hispanic community with connections to a poultry plant, sweeping up 125 people in a series of raids across three mid-Georgia counties, with Stillmore at the epicenter. But was the raid legal? And was it right? In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Federal Court in Atlanta, the Southern Poverty Law Center claims the constitutional rights of six US citizens were violated by overzealous agents during the Stillmore raids. Moreover, they allege the government used 'Gestapo-like tactics' as part of a deliberate campaign of fear ordered by the Department of Homeland Security." (11/03/06)

The contrasting responses show the deep divide in the body politic over this – and make it clear that violence may soon be overt in such situations.

Mama's Note: Of course, the "Southern Poverty Law Center" is as socialist as they come and much more interested in imposing socialism on the population than anything to do with real constitutional or anything to do with liberty and justice for all. I do wonder how the economy is going in that area now. Did all the local unemployed go to work, or did those businesses just have to shut down for lack of help?

Home Front: Military families, vets protest plans to rush reserve call ups
Truthout
"The Pentagon revealed in September that it may change the policy limiting National Guard deployments in order to send more weekend warriors to Iraq after the elections. While most of the media and the American public slept through the news, the family members of more than 400,000 National Guard and Reservists did not. Some of them have spent the past six weeks collecting thousands of signatures on petitions protesting the Pentagon's plans and demanding an end to the 'backdoor draft,' cited in the document as 'troop extensions, stop-loss orders, [and] involuntary recalls.' The petitions will be delivered to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday, just seventy-two hours after all four versions of the Military Times published an editorial calling for his removal." (11/07/06)

Of course, this was in the works before Rumsfeld’s resignation, and the change of leadership will likely make no difference on the change in deployment planning for National Guard troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. It is tough on communities and families, and the blame lies squarely on government – both Bushes and Clinton – for gutting the National Guard and Reserves to divert the “peace dividend” to better pork after the end of the Cold War.

Home Front: DOJ disputes report on terror cases
USA Today
"Federal prosecutors rejected 87% of the international terrorism cases brought by the FBI during the first nine months of fiscal year 2006, a Syracuse University analysis concluded. The review, conducted by the university's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), found that the number of rejections has been generally increasing since 2001. Prosecutions fell from 118 defendants in fiscal year 2002, to 19 defendants from Oct. 1, 2005, to June 30, the latest data available." (11/05/06)

This could be either good or bad: bad because the Feebe’s incompetence is showing again, and good because the Fed prosecutors are waking up to the fact that a lot of the claims are bogus.

Home Front: Texas: Test of Big Brother cams off to a rocky start
Yahoo! News
"Texas launched its ambitious effort to use Internet users to watch the border for illegal immigrants. But the network of surveillance cameras Friday was plagued by technical problems, the images were grainy and the cameras were placed so high that it was hard to distinguish a person from, say, a bush." (11/03/06)

I hardly think of these as “Big Brother” compared to the cameras on traffic signals, in parks, and along streets of American cities: these are nothing more than the same kind of security camera that any home or business owner might install on the edge of their property to keep an eye on trespassers.

Home Front: US plans to screen all who enter, leave country
Washington Post
"The federal government disclosed details of a border-security program to screen all people who enter and leave the United States, create a terrorism risk profile of each individual and retain that information for up to 40 years." [FND editor's note: Water's getting warmer, fellow froggies - MLS] (11/03/06)

To me, at least, this is a totally different matter than security cameras along a fence – this kind of thing is not designed to catch lawbreakers and threats to our peace and freedom, but to create databases that replace the National Socialist “papers, please” in every part of life.

Home Front: PA: Bomb dogs sniff out Human Cannonball
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"About seven hours after two CMU students caused a stir at the stadium and the Joint Terrorism Task Force swooped in with four bomb dogs that alerted on the students' Lexus, another bomb dog alerted on a trailer parked Uptown at the Mellon Arena. ... The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was in town, and while Pittsburgh police were conducting a security check at the arena, a dog alerted to a particular trailer. Circus employees opened the trailer for officers and found it empty. The employees explained that this particular trailer is the one used by none other than -- The Human Cannonball. As a Pittsburgh police report helpfully instructs, 'The act uses a live cannon to fire a man through the air.'" (11/06/06)

Ah, what a stupid government trick we have here! Expect more and more of this sort of bogus event to clog police response and create panic.

Home Front: Sheehan arrested in Washington
Elkhart Truth
"Activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested Wednesday as she led about 50 protesters to a White House gate Wednesday to deliver antiwar petitions she said were signed by 80,000 Americans. The Berkeley, Calif., woman, whose son was killed in Iraq more than two years ago, was arrested along with three other women on the sidewalk outside the White House gate, said Lt. Scott Fear, a U.S. Park Police spokesman. They were charged with interfering with a government function, he said." (11/08/06)

Good for her. I hope she enjoys her time in the slammer. Once more she has created a purely public-relations event to do something that could have been handled far better. But she got her press-time – at least in the Elkhart Truth!

Home Front: FBI investigating taped beating of LA man
USA Today
"The FBI opened an investigation Thursday into video footage of a police officer repeatedly striking a suspect in the face during a struggle on a Hollywood street. Federal investigators initiated a civil rights inquiry after the video from the three-month-old incident came to the bureau's attention Thursday, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. The footage shows two officers holding down William Cardenas, 24, on a sidewalk as one punches him several times in the face before they are able to handcuff him. The struggling suspect yells repeatedly, 'I can't breathe!'" (11/09/06)

Oh, for a video tape of my own arrest for “trespassing” several years ago at the State Fair. I’m glad that someone taped this little event – and just hope that the Feebes don’t mess up as usual on getting a criminal prosecution for these jackbooted thugs.

Iranian Front: Iran stands firm over EU sanctions
EuroNews [France]
"Iran's top nuclear negotiator says it will reconsider its ties with the UN's atomic watchdog if European drafted sanctions are approved. Ali Larijani's been speaking in Moscow, where he's attending talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, with Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. Iran has repeatedly warned that it will block inspections of its nuclear programme by the International Atomic Energy Agency if the UN imposed sanctions." (11/10/06)

In other words, we won’t play if you’re mean to us. As I’ve pointed out before, Iran has every reason to be seen as an enemy of the West, and is working towards the goal of getting the USA and the rest of the West to attack.

Mama's Note: I'm having a very hard time with the idea that Iran has a "goal" of getting the US to attack them. Why would they WANT that? I'd like to understand...

Iraqi Front: Iraqi official: 150,000 civilians killed by insurgents
Greensboro News-Record
"A stunning new death count emerged Thursday, as Iraq's health minister estimated 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war -- about three times previously accepted estimates. Moderate Sunni Muslims, meanwhile, threatened to walk away from politics and pick up guns, while the Shiite-dominated government renewed pressure on the United States to unleash the Iraqi army and claimed it could crush violence in six months." (11/09/06)

In studying the history of the Arab peoples and Islam, I’ve found that this kind of civilian casualty count is actually not that unusual. The major difference is that usually the West (the USA and others) isn’t involved as directly as in this current occupation. I’ve no doubt of the confidence of the Shi’a that the Iraqi Army could crush the violence so quickly – but I suspect that it would see the death toll double or triple.

Iraqi Front: Mortar exchanges kill 21 in Baghdad
Lincoln Courier
"Shiites and Sunnis traded mortar attacks Tuesday on Baghdad neighborhoods across the Tigris, killing 21 as police found the bodies of 15 torture victims in the river south of the capital. The violence persisted despite a move by the Interior Ministry to charge 57 members of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi police force, including a general, in the alleged torture of hundreds of detainees at a prison in east Baghdad." (11/07/06)

More and more I realize this is the normal way of life in most of the Arab and Islamic world – where tribal and religious conflict is settled only in blood, and the blood-feuds have been going on for 1400 years.

Iraqi Front: Saddam Receives Death Sentence
Washington Post
A divided and violence-ridden Iraq broke into starkly disparate displays of emotion on Sunday after judges in Baghdad condemned former president Saddam Hussein to hang for crimes against humanity. Kurds pounded giant drums in traditional celebration. Shiite boys and men threw candy and fired into the air. Bitter-faced Sunni men clasped Hussein's portrait in one hand, a weapon in the other. The varied reactions demonstrated how long-standing divisions have widened in Iraq since Hussein's fall and threatened to divide and bloody the country further. In Baghdad's Green Zone, a five-judge Iraqi panel announced a unanimous sentence of death for Hussein and two of his seven codefendants, including Hussein's half brother. Four other defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 years to life, and an eighth was acquitted. The sentences of death and life imprisonment will be automatically appealed, with no time limit set for the appellate judges' decision.

In truth, if this sentence is carried out, Saddam will fare much, much better than most deposed Islamic leaders/tyrants since the spawning of that faith and its first empires: most would have been pulled from the spider hole he was in, blinded immediately with hot needles, then beheaded, his head put on a pole for display in front of the new rulers’ palace, and his body cut lengthwise and hung for months or years on either side of the major highway leading into Baghdad or whatever capital. More and more people may wish that had happened, if the Post’s predictions of more division are true. Of course, Saddam’s execution, by an Iraqi government, could be a suitable point for the dismembering of Iraqi and a departure of Coalition forces.

Iraqi Front: US Soldiers in Iraq Say No Pullout Until Job Is Done
CNS News.com
Dozens of soldiers across Iraq say the U.S. should not pull out of Iraq right now, because doing so would have devastating consequences – and it would mean their hard work has come to nothing, the Washington Post reported (on Page A-13) on Monday...

Yeah, the story is about a story, but I couldn’t find the Post article. This is still worth noting and commenting on – a change in Congress isn’t going to change the attitude of most soldiers in combat zones. They will continue to view Congress cynically as the greatest threat to their survival and to freedom and peace, but will continue (for the most part) to honor their oaths.

Mama's Note: How sad to think that the soldiers themselves can't understand how pointless the whole exercise is. It's like saying we must continue to pour blood down the drain because if we stopped, it would make all the blood already wasted somehow more wasted.

Iraqi Front: Very Few Embedded Reporters Remain in Iraq
CNS News.com
Although Iraq is one of the most important issues in Tuesday’s midterm election, the number of journalists reporting alongside U.S.-led coalition troops in that country has fallen to “terrible” levels, according to the head of an organization of military journalists...

Everyone already knows all that they need to know, right? We (that is, the US military) are killing and terrorizing a peace loving population that would have nothing to do with terrorism or Islamic imperialism if we weren’t over there in their face, and all the soldiers over there are ne’er-do-wells that can’t make it in the “real world.” So why should the media worry about having people actually there on site?

Mama's Note: The "embedded reporters" were not generally being of much use getting the truth told to the rest of the world, and they were getting killed pretty frequently, so it's not a great mystery to me why there aren't more of them now. If the government (or the popular news media) was at all interested in telling the truth, there would be reporters wherever they were needed, I suspect. As it is, the US media and government are both quite willing to hide the truth.

Iraqi Front: World opinion divided on Saddam sentence
Tulsa World
"Saddam Hussein's death sentence was celebrated by some on Sunday as justice deserved or even divine, but denounced by others as a political ploy two days before critical U.S. midterm congressional elections. Worldwide, the range of reactions -- including a European outcry over capital punishment and doubts about the fairness of the tribunal that ordered Saddam to hang -- reflected new geopolitical fault lines drawn after America's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and depose its dictator." (11/05/06)

I hardly think any of the “geopolitical fault lines” are new – most Euro-states have decided that the death penalty is far worse than becoming dhimmis or other forms of slavery. (But if the death penalty is so evil, how come we don’t hear mass condemnations of China – just of the US?). Too, most Muslims adhere to the idea of “my enemy’s enemy is maybe my friend –even if I hate him” and figure that to condemn his sentence is a way of striking back at a common enemy – the Coalition and the new Iraqi government. Of course, another favorite Muslim belief is “never give a sucker an even break” – and even his “friends” might figure that Saddam deserves whatever the victors want to do to him, because he failed to win. As for the timing, it was just one of many conspiracy theories floating around the US pre-election period.

Iraqi Front: Saddam back in court for genocide trial
Orange Times and Democrat
"A subdued Saddam Hussein returned to court Tuesday for his genocide trial, two days after judges in another trial convicted him of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang. Saddam, smiling faintly and dressed in a black suit and white shirt, found his way quietly to his seat among the other six defendants charged in the Operation Anfal crackdown against Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s. Saddam showed none of the bravado of two days ago, when he shouted 'Long live the people and death to their enemies!' as another court sentenced him to the gallows. Instead, the ex-president sat in stony silence as Kurdish survivors told of being duped by promises of amnesty, only to watch their friends and family being shot by Iraqi government soldiers." (11/07/06)

I suppose it has had time to sink in? Not that he really believes, deep down in his heart, in his personal extinction, according to studies of such dictators (and perhaps most successful politicians). Still, the odds have ALWAYS been in favor of him dying a violent death – most Iraqi, Ottoman, and other Islamic leaders over the past 1400 years have failed to die in bed.

Iraqi Front: TV stations closed for showing Saddam protests
Electronic Iraq
"Reporters Without Borders today condemned the Iraqi government's decision yesterday to close down two privately-owned TV stations for 'inciting violence and murder' by screening footage of protests against former President Saddam Hussein's death sentence. The main daily newspapers have also been suspended for three days beginning yesterday under a curfew decreed prior to the verdict." (11/08/06)

It will be a long, hard struggle for even a “democratic” Islamic state to grant true freedom of the press – but at least the studios and press rooms were not destroyed and the staff was not killed – as often happens in “peaceful” Islamic countries.

Iraqi Front: Mubarak warns against hanging Saddam
Longmont Daily Times-Call
"Egypt's president came out strongly against hanging Saddam Hussein, saying in remarks published Thursday that it could make Iraq explode into more violence. But Iraq's prime minister said the execution could take place by the end of the year. The statement from President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt broke an uneasy silence among Arab leaders over Sunday's verdict by an Iraqi court, which convicted Saddam for the killings of some 150 Shiite Muslims after an assassination attempt against him in 1982." (11/09/06)

Of course, Mubarak is pretty much a “secular” (i.e., apostate) Muslim. A true Muslim would welcome the death of such a failed leader as just punishment for his shortcomings (and for his own lack of adherence to Islamic standards for rulers). Mubarak, like his predecessors Sadat and Nasser, has never hesitated to execute hundreds of captured and convicted “terrorists” and opponents – so maybe he has another reason to urge not killing Saddam: he might be the next Muslim ruler on the gallows.

Iraqi Front: Iraq: Fallujah returns to insurgent hands
Star Tribune
"Two years after U.S. troops launched a devastating ground assault that purged, at least temporarily, the heart of the Iraqi insurgency, Fallujah once again is a violent place. In recent months, insurgents have filtered back into the city, despite tight controls that limit access to only six checkpoints. Residents must submit to an extraordinary identification system that includes fingerprinting, retina scans and bar-coded identification cards. An insurgent intimidation campaign has killed two City Council members and at least 30 police officers. The campaign has been so effective that police patrols have all but stopped, as officers fear to walk the streets. The number of shootings, bombings and bombs found and defused has doubled since last winter, to about four or five a day, U.S. officers say. There have been about half a dozen car bombings in recent weeks. " (11/08/06)

Expect Fallujah to continue to change hands many times – the history of the land now called Iraq shows that is the typical pattern as various factions of Islamic imperialists fought each other for decades – not just years.

Korean Front: China, US, ROK discuss North Korea strategy
CNN
"Chinese and U.S. diplomats met Wednesday amid efforts to restart nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea after Washington and Seoul threw out a possible complication by saying they would refuse to treat the North as a nuclear state. 'Together, we have the responsibilities of world peace and global security,' said U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who led the American delegation. The Chinese side was led by Yang Jiechi, a deputy foreign minister." (11/08/06)

It may be a complication, but it is a necessary fiction - based on the idea that the West has the obligation to invade any rogue nuclear state, and that neither the US nor ROK really want to invade. Everyone is hoping (as in the case of Cuba) that the Kim regime will gradually collapse, figuring a few more million starved to death is better than 2 or 3 times that number killed in fighting that would probably rival the intensity of WW2’s Eastern Front.

Page 2 Click HERE Link checked!! - and checked again!! ML Our right to defend ourselves and more!

Nathan Barton is writing this from a wonderful place in the West, which might be in the Black Hills of South Dakota or Wyoming, or might be in one of the Four Corners States. Exactly where it is, the breezes blow with the scent of liberty, and the sound of the pines or the pinions is the sound of freedom. For thousands of years, people have fought and died for the liberty that Americans in the great spaces of the West enjoy, and he writes these commentaries in the hopes that continued generations will be able to do so, until the end of Time.

Be sure to visit my blog, Liberty's Outpost.

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