THE ATTEMPTED CHARACTER ASSASSINATION OF RUSH

Reliapundit posted the video of Rush taking on Harry Reid and his ilk yesterday. I can't begin to tell you the last time I was this mad. I was spitting nails yesterday!! My blood pressure was through the roof. After listening to Rush's AWESOME interview with Clarence Thomas I had to hear what Harry Reid said on the senate floor about Rush. I was livid and literally screaming at the radio. This is the ULTIMATE in character assassination.

Whether you love him or hate him the one thing EVERYONE knows about Rush Limbaugh is that he loves and supports the troops. He would never say anything even remotely negative about them. Yet, Harry Reid, Dick Durbin and Harkin had the audacity to take the completely false smear that Media Matters created and talk about it on the floor of Congress as if it were fact. This from the very traitors who have done nothing but undermine and trash our troops. I really don't know how they can say this stuff with a straight face and I certainly don't know how they sleep at night!!

Then they want others to condemn Rush and are trying to get us to believe that Rush somehow insulted our troops. He was talking about one person, Jesse Macbeth, who had been in the military for 6 weeks and didn't even make it through basic training. He was a phony soldier because he was pretending to have fought in Iraq and said he got a purple heart and then was being used by the left as a propaganda tool saying he had killed innocent civilians. It was all a fabrication and a lie, making him indeed a phony soldier as ABC pointed out on the special they did on phony soldiers.

You can bet Harry Reid, Dick Durbin and Tom Harkin are going to hear from me today!! Here are their numbers for those of you who might also want to express your thoughts and feelings on the matter:

Senator Harry Reid--(202)224-3542
Senator Tom Harkin--(202)224-3254
Senator Dick Durbin--(202)224-2152

Meanwhile, Representative Jack Kingston offered a resolution in the House supporting Rush and what he has done for the troops. Kudos to Representative Jack Kingston!! I will be contacting him as well with my support!

Others on this issue:
Radio Equalizer
Newsbusters exposes Media Matters
ABC's Phony War Vets

LIMBAUGH VERSUS REID, DURBIN, HARKIN, AND SOROS

MORE PROOF THAT ELECTIONS MATTER: SARKOZY AND MERKEL

AP:

Nicolas Sarkozy to stay at Bush's residence in Washington in November :

President George W. Bush will host French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Washington in November. The specific date of the visit has not been announced.

Also in November, Bush and his wife, Laura, are planning to host German Chancellor Angela Merkel for two days at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas. That visit will happen on Nov. 9-10, with an agenda covering NATO, the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Merkel is one of Bush's closest European colleagues; Sarkozy and Bush are still forming a bond, and the new French leader is seen as Bush's last chance to renew relations with France. Sarkozy was treated to an all-American lunch, a ride on a speed boat and an introduction to the whole Bush family in August.

Bush's parents own an Atlantic oceanfront estate in Maine, and the president used all the trappings to make Sarkozy feel welcome.

• CAN ANY SANE PERSON IMAGINE THAT SEGOLENE ROYAL AND GERHARD SCHROEDER WOULD BE GETTING ALONG WITH BUSH AS WELL AS HAVE MERKEL AND SARKOZY!?

• NOPE.

• WHO WE ELECT MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE.

• CHIRAC AND SCHROEDER WERE CROOKED WEASELS WHO UNDERCUT US AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY.

• MERKEL AND SARKOZY ARE ALLIES.

• GORE AND HLLARY AND OBAMA AND EDWARDS HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH CHIRAC AND SCHROEDER THAN THEY DO WITH MERKEL AND SARKOZY.

• IT WOULD HAVE MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE IF HAD WE ELECTED GORE IN 2000, OR KERRY IN 2004.

• IF WE ELECT A DEM, IN 2006 THE DIFFERENCE WILL BE JUST AS STARK.

• FRANCE NEEDED TO AVOID SEGOLENE AS MUCH AS WE NEED TO AVOID ANY FREAKIN' DEM.

[ASIDE: THIS POST IS, IN PART, A RESPONSE TO A POST BY ROGER L. SIMON AT PJM IN WHICH SUGGESTED THAT GORE WOULD'VE DONE IN IRAQ WHAT GWB HAS DONE.

AT BEST, THIS IS WISHFUL THINKING, IMHO.

THE FACT THAT JOE LIEBERMAN COULD NOT RETAIN HIS SEAT AS A DEMOCRAT SAYS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TODAY'S DEMOCRATS. AND GORE WOULD'VE PANDERED TO THEM JUST AS HE HAS FOR THE LAST 6 YEARS.]

ANOTHER WEEK OF KICKING AL QAEDA'S ASS

KUNA/KUWAIT:

The US troops killed seven terrorists and detained 11 suspects Sunday and Monday during operations to disrupt Al-Qaeda in Iraq leadership in central and northern Iraq, a US military statement said on Monday.

The operations included West of Tarmiyah, Mosul, south Baghdad and Hamrin Mountains in Dyal, the statement added.

Among the dead were some of al-Qaeda senior leaders in the targeted areas. The troops also found huge amounts of weapons and explosives.

• WE'RE WINNING.

• BECAUSE BUSH TOOK ON THE DEMS AND PUSHED THROUGH THE SURGE, AND HAS STUCK WITH IT.

• THE DEMS WOULD'VE HAS US EXIT.

IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE WHO IS IN THE WHITE HOU8SE.

UK: SMOKERS AND THE OBESE DENIED CARE BY NHS

UK GUARDIAN:

One in 10 NHS trusts restricts operations for obese people or smokers, according to a TV investigation.

Sixteen of the 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) in England have policies restricting non-emergency surgery such as hip replacements, according to a report on ITV1's Tonight With Trevor McDonald programme.

Out those, eight PCTs had restrictions based on a patient's weight; one restricted surgery to smokers; and a further seven NHS trusts restricted operations to smokers and to obese patients.

Guidelines published by the government's drug rationing body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, allow trusts to take patients' lifestyles into account in deciding if a treatment would be effective.

But critics interviewed for the programme, Too Fat For Treatment, said care was being restricted on the basis of poor evidence or on financial grounds.

• THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE TAX-COLLECTOR PAYS FOR YOUR HEALTHCARE AND YOUR PENSION.

• IT'S BECAUSE THEY REAP A DOUBLE REWARD WHEN THEY DENY YOU CARE: THEY SAVE THE COST OF THE CARE, AND THEN WHEN YOU DIE - PREMATURELY - THEY SAVE THE PENSION PAYOUT.

• THIRD-PARTY PAY FINANCED BY THE GOVERNMENT INEVITABLY LEADS TO RATIONING - WHICH IS NOTHING ELSE PICKING WINNERS AND LOSERS, EVERY SOCIALIST'S FAVORITE PROFESSION.

Leftist hypocrisy again

An excellent comment:

Last week, every major newspaper in Texas published a report of a study by "nonpartisan" Texans for Public Justice. It detailed the amounts of money that donors contributed to legislative and major statewide races during the 2006 election. One implied TPJ criticism echoed by the newspaper reports: Millionaire contributors have too much influence on Texas elections.

Most of the articles singled out Houston builder Bob Perry, who favored Republican candidates. His 2006 total: $7.1 million.

What neither the authors of the TPJ study nor any of the journalists reporting the story mentioned was the fact - easily found on the TPJ Web site - that one source of TPJ funding is the "Open Society Institute, New York, NY." The institute - as easily determined by five minutes of Google research - was founded by billionaire George Soros, who remains its chairman. During a 2006 interview, Soros told a New York Times writer that he gave "something like $27.5 million" to MoveOn.org and other anti-Republican groups during the 2004 election campaign.

I mention all of that simply to say ... It's a good thing George Soros doesn't reside in Texas. If he did, the "nonpartisans" at Texans for Public Justice would be pouncing on him like a duck on a June bug. Don't ya think?

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Old Glory not Welcome on American TV?

Congressman Hunter requested an American flag somewhere in the backdrop to the presidential debate but the request was refused by PBS:

"Republican front-runners weren't the only things missing from the presidential debate stage. The American flag was AWOL, too.

The backdrop to the "All-American Presidential Forum," brought to you by Tavis Smiley and PBS, was a map of the United States, superimposed with a checkerboard of multicultural faces.

The buzz among some Republicans was that organizers thought the flag might "offend" some members of the audience. Cavey, while critical of the decision, chalks it up to aesthetics, not politics. Red-white-and-blue simply would have clashed with the map's yellow-to-burnt-orange hues. [Whom do they think they're kidding?] ....

"They could have walked across the street to the police station to get a flag in half an hour, and I know personally that Morgan State University has a flag somewhere," Cavey said. "I thought it was absolutely inappropriate that the 'All-American Presidential Debate' couldn't even produce an American flag."

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

THE BLACK-WHITE DIVIDE AIN'T BLACK & WHITE

THIS IS BLACK.











THIS IS WHITE.










THIS IS WHAT BLACK PEOPLE'S SKIN IS REALLY COLORED LIKE.

IT AIN'T BLACK; IT'S BROWN, OR VARIANTS OF BROWN.









THIS IS WHAT WHITE PEOPLE'S SKIN IS REALLY COLORED LIKE.

IT AIN'T WHITE; IT'S TAN, OR VARIANTS OF TAN.



USING THE TERMS "BLACK" AND "WHITE" FOR THE TWO RACES PERPETUATES A FALSEHOOD: THAT THE RACES ARE BLACK & WHITE - OPPOSITES, ONE WITH COLOR AND ONE WITHOUT COLOR.

TAN-COLORED PEOPLE AND BROWN-COLORED PEOPLE ARE CLOSER IN COLOR TO EACH OTHER THAN WHITE IS TO BACK.

THINK ABOUT IT.

JUSTICE THOMAS: A GREAT MAN AND A GREAT JURIST

PATTERICO HAS THE EXCERPTS AND LINKS.

FRIEDMAN'S TRUE GOAL: CHANGE AGENDA TO ONE MORE FAVORABLE TO DEMS

LOTS HAS BEEN POSTED ABOUT FRIEDMANS COLUMN TODAY - "9/11 IS OVER".

I POSTED SOMETHING ON IT BELOW.

BUT I WANT TO ADD ONE THING:

THE REAL REASON FRIEDMAN AND THE NYTIMES WANT THE ELECTION TO BE ONE WHICH IS NOT ABOUT 9/11 - BUT ABOUT AGW AND COMPETING IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY - IS THAT THEY KNOW THEY WILL LOSE ANY ELECTION ABOUT NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEFENDING THE FREE WORLD FROM THE JIHADISTS AND IRAN.

PERIOD. END OF STORY.

CONSERVATISM WITH HEART RADIO

Make sure to tune into Conservatism with Heart tomorrow where I will be interviewing Robin Boyd, author of "A Quagmire of Hate: The Post-Election Liberals". She is an awesome blogger who has covered the Haditha Marines' case extensively on her blog. We will be talking about that case, replaying the awesome Murtha/Mattera clip (see below) and perhaps some about our distaste for those who suffer from BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome).


In the beginning of the show I will briefly touch on a couple of other things that may include:

--My thoughts on Newt finally declaring he is not getting into the presidential race
--Clarence Thomas' Autobiography
--My review of "The Kingdom"

To join us for the fun, call in toll-free at 1-877-864-4869

BOLTON SAYS IT RIGHT: WE SHOULD ATTACK IRAN AND DEPOSE OF AHMEDINEJAD

John Bolton spoke to the British Tories and had the following to say:

Former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Tory delegates in Britain Sunday that efforts by the UK and the EU to negotiate with Iran had failed and that he saw no alternative to a pre-emptive strike on suspected nuclear facilities in the country.

Bolton said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was "pushing out" and "is not receiving adequate push-back" from the West. "I don't think the use of military force is an attractive option, but I would tell you I don't know what the alternative is.

"Because life is about choices, I think we have to consider the use of military force. I think we have to look at a limited strike against their nuclear facilities."

He added that any strike should be followed by an attempt to remove the "source of the problem", Ahmadinejad.

"If we were to strike Iran it should be accompanied by an effort at regime change ... The US once had the capability to engineer the clandestine overthrow of governments. I wish we could get it back," he said.

Bolton said that the fact that only partial intelligence about Iran's nuclear activity existed should not be used as an excuse not to act.

"Intelligence can be wrong in more than one direction... Responding after they (nuclear devices) are used is unacceptable."

Bolton also said the UN was "fundamentally irrelevant".

The former envoy criticized Britain's "softly softly" approach to Iran's imprisonment of 15 British sailors in April.

They were released after Ahmadinejad announced he was making a "gift" to the British people. "They [Iran] got no response from the UK or the US. If you were the Iranian leader, what conclusion do you draw?"

A very sad thing about how the British navy sailors were freed is that the UK may have paid Iran to get them back (H/T: Molten Thought). If that's so, I'd say it makes England an unreliable partner in the GWOT.

WE'RE KICKING AL QAEDA ASS IN IRAQ

BREITBART/AP:

U.S. and Iraqi forces killed more than 60 insurgent and militia fighters in intense battles over the weekend, with most of the casualties believed to have been al-Qaida fighters, officials said Sunday. ...

U.S. aircraft killed more than 20 al-Qaida fighters who opened fire on an American air patrol northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.

The firefight between U.S. aircraft and the insurgent fighters occurred Saturday about 17 miles northwest of the capital, the military said.

The aircraft observed about 25 al-Qaida insurgents carrying AK-47 assault rifles—one brandishing a rocket-propelled grenade—walking into a palm grove, the military said.

"Shortly after spotting the men, the aircraft were fired upon by the insurgent fighters," it said.

IF THE ENEMY DIDN'T HAVE THE DEMS AND THE MSM PULLING FOR THEM IT WOULD ALL BE OVER ALREADY. NEED PROOF? HERE (SAME LINK):

The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, joined a broad swath of Iraqi politicians—both Shiite and Sunni—in criticizing a nonbinding Senate resolution seen here as a recipe for splitting the country along sectarian and ethnic lines. ... The Senate resolution, adopted last week, proposed reshaping Iraq according to three sectarian or ethnic territories. It calls for a limited central government with the bulk of power going to the country's Shiite, Sunni or Kurdish regions, envisioning a power- sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia. Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, a Democrat presidential candidate, was a prime sponsor.

In a highly unusual statement, the U.S. Embassy said resolution would seriously hamper Iraq's future stability.

"Our goal in Iraq remains the same: a united, democratic, federal Iraq that can govern, defend, and sustain itself," the unsigned statement said.

"Iraq's leaders must and will take the lead in determining how to achieve these national aspirations. ... attempts to partition or divide Iraq by intimidation, force or other means into three separate states would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed," it said.

The statement came just hours after representatives of Iraq's major political parties denounced the Senate proposal.

The Kurds in three northern Iraqi provinces are running a virtually independent country within Iraq while nominally maintaining relations with Baghdad. They support a formal division, but both Sunni and Shiite Muslims have denounced the proposal.

At a news conference earlier in the day, at least nine Iraqi political parties and party blocs—both Shiite and Sunni—said the Senate resolution would diminish Iraq's sovereignty and said they would try to pass a law to ban any division of the country.

"This proposal was based on the incorrect reading and unrealistic estimations of Iraq's past, present and future," according to a statement read at a news conference by Izzat al-Shahbandar, a representative of the secular Iraqi National List.

On Friday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told The Associated Press that "dividing Iraq is a problem, and a decision like that would be a catastrophe."

Iraq's constitution lays down a federal system, allowing Shiites in the south, Kurds in the north and Sunnis in the center and west of the country to set up regions with considerable autonomous powers.

• RETREAT IS NOT THE SOLUTION.
• AL QAEDA AND THE DEMS WANT US TO RETREAT.
• AL QAEDA AND THE DEMS WANT IRAQ DIVIDED -AS IN DIVIDE & CONQUER.
  
• KILLING THE ENEMY IS THE SOLUTION.
• ALWAYS HAS BEEN.
  

WHY HILLARY SHOULD BE INDICTED - AND SOON

DOUG HAS THE DETAILS AND THE LINKS.

THE ONLY PLACE SHE SHOULD SERVE FOR 8 YEARS IS IN PRISON - FOR COMMITTING SEVERAL FELONIES, INCLUDING, (LIKE HER HUBBY)... PERJURY!

MORE IDIOCY FROM FREIDMAN: SAYS CLEAN CARS AND SHINY AIRPORTS MORE IMPORTANT THAN DEFENDING THE FREE WORLD

TO PSEUDO-INTELLECTUALS AND POSTMODERN LEFTISTS LIKE FRIEDMAN, FIGHTING THE BOGEYMAN OF CO2-INDUCED AGW IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN COUNTER-ATTACKING THE JIHADISTS - AL QAEDA AND IRAN.


IDIOCY.

WHICH IS ALL I EVER EXPECT FROM FRIEDMAN.

HERE'S A LINK TO MY PREVIOUS CRITIQUE OF FRIEDMAN.

Complete round up at MEMEORANDUM.

[BTW: Friedman's last book was titled THE WORLD IS FLAT, and the premise of the book was the cliched idea that IT revolution has made the world smaller, that there is no more "there" only "here". The title employs a metaphor WHICH IS DIRECTLY THE OPPOSITE OF THAT MESSAGE: In a flat world, you CAN'T get there from here; you fall off the face of the Earth. The fact that the Earth is ROUND is what made the advent of the Columbian Age so revolutionizing. COMPLETE ANALYSIS OF THIS POINT HERE.]

WHY ARE SO MANY BLACK MEN IN PRISON? BECAUSE THEY'RE CRIMINALS!

ORLANDO PATTERSON; NYTIMES/OP-ED:

America has more than two million citizens behind bars, the highest absolute and per capita rate of incarceration in the world. Black Americans, a mere 13 percent of the population, constitute half of this country’s prisoners. A tenth of all black men between ages 20 and 35 are in jail or prison; blacks are incarcerated at over eight times the white rate. ...

How, after decades of undeniable racial progress, did we end up with this virtual gulag of racial incarceration?

Part of the answer is a law enforcement system that unfairly focuses on drug offenses and other crimes more likely to be committed by blacks, combined with draconian mandatory sentencing and an absurdly counterproductive retreat from rehabilitation as an integral method of dealing with offenders. An unrealistic fear of crime that is fed in part by politicians and the press, a tendency to emphasize punitive measures and old-fashioned racism are all at play here. [I THINK THIS PARAGRAPH IS TOTAL BULLSHIT; THERE IS NON UNREALISTIC FEAR OF CRIME; FEAR OF CRIME IS REALISTIC. MORE BELOW RELIAPUNDIT.]

But there is another equally important cause: the simple fact that young black men commit a disproportionate number of crimes, especially violent crimes, which cannot be attributed to judicial bias, racism or economic hardships. The rate at which blacks commit homicides is seven times that of whites.[BRAVO! SOME TRUTH! BRAVO!]

Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and other leaders of the Jena demonstration who view events there, and the racial horror of our prisons, as solely the result of white racism are living not just in the past but in a state of denial. Even after removing racial bias in our judicial and prison system — as we should and must do — disproportionate numbers of young black men will continue to be incarcerated.

Until we view this social calamity in its entirety — by also acknowledging the central role of unstable relations among the sexes and within poor families, by placing a far higher priority on moral and social reform within troubled black communities, and by greatly expanding social services for infants and children — it will persist.

I DON'T AGREE WITH EVERYTHING IN THIS OP-ED - (THE GULAG COMPARISON IS VERY BAD!), BUT HE GETS IT MOSTLY RIGHT.

AND LIBS LIKE JOHN EDWARDS JESSE JACKSON AL SHARPTON, WHO GET IT ENTIRELY WRONG.

IRAQIS REJECT DEMOCRAT PLAN FOR IRAQ

BREITBART/AP:

Representatives of Iraq's major political parties on Sunday strongly denounced a U.S. Senate proposal calling for a limited centralized Iraqi government with the bulk of the power given to the country's ethnically divided regions.

The groups, which represented both Shiites and Sunnis, said the plan would hamper Iraq's future stability, and they suggested parliament draft a law permanently banning the splitting of Iraq along sectarian or ethnic lines.

"This proposal was based on the incorrect reading and unrealistic estimations of Iraq's past, present and future," according to the statement read by Izzat al-Shahbandar, a representative of the Iraqi National List, a secular political party.

The nonbinding Senate resolution calls for Iraq to be divided into federal regions under control of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis in a power-sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., was a prime sponsor of the measure.

THE PLAN FOR TRIFURCATION OF IRAQ WAS PROPOSED BY JOE "THE LYING PLAGIARIST" BIDEN.

BTW: NATO STILL HAS TROOPS IN THE BALKAN "QUAGMIRE" CITED BY BIDEN AS A SUCCESS TO BE EMULATED, SO EVEN IF YOU'RE A LEFT-WING SURRENDER MONKEY YOU SHOULN''T THINK THAT EVEN THIS PLAN IS A TICKET FOR RETREAT.

Questioning Homosexual Marriage is "Hate speech" -- Again

Some issues may not be discussed publicly at all in Massachusetts:

"A speech by a "parental rights" activist in Gloucester has been canceled after a gay marriage advocacy group threatened to protest what it deemed "hate speech."

Cape Ann Marriage and Family, which characterizes itself as "pro-family" and has been active in advocating for a popular vote on gay marriage, had planned a meeting at a Main Street pizza parlor featuring a lecture by David Parker of Lexington.

Parker is suing the state for the right to be notified when issues of sexuality, including gay marriage, are discussed in his young son's school. The case was initially dismissed but is on appeal. Parker first raised the issue in 2005, when his 5-year-old son came home with a children's book promoting diversity that included illustrations of families headed by same-sex couples....

"This is a very common ploy of the pro-homosexual movement to stifle free speech," said Parker. "When they find out that there is going to be some kind of public event where they do not approve of the speech, they label it as hate speech before they've heard it and they threaten a protest."

Parker called Know Thy Neighbor's tactics "intimidation and harassment" and a violation of his free speech rights. He said he planned to pursue a complaint of a civil rights violation with the district attorney. "I think what Tom Lang is doing is hate speech," Parker said. "He's making accusations of hate speech before he's even heard it. He's the one who hates free speech."

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Hitler, Mussolini, Roosevelt

What FDR had in common with the other charismatic collectivists of the 30s. Excerpts:

On May 7, 1933, just two months after the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the New York Times reporter Anne O'Hare McCormick wrote that the atmosphere in Washington was "strangely reminiscent of Rome in the first weeks after the march of the Blackshirts, of Moscow at the beginning of the Five-Year Plan..America today literally asks for orders." The Roosevelt administration, she added, "envisages a federation of industry, labor and government after the fashion of the corporative State as it exists in Italy." That article isn't quoted in Three New Deals, a fascinating study by the German cultural historian Wolfgang Schivelbusch. But it underscores his central argument: that there are surprising similarities between the programs of Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler.

With our knowledge of the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II, we find it almost impossible to consider such claims dispassionately. But in the 1930s, when everyone agreed that capitalism had failed, it wasn't hard to find common themes and mutual admiration in Washington, Berlin, and Rome, not to mention Moscow. (Three New Deals does not focus as much on the latter.) Nor is that a mere historical curiosity, of no great importance in the era following democracy's triumph over fascism, National Socialism, and communism. Schivelbusch concludes his essay with the liberal journalist John T. Flynn's warning, in 1944, that state power feeds on crises and enemies. Since then we have been warned about many crises and many enemies, and we have come to accept a more powerful and more intrusive state than existed before the '30s.....

In the North American Review in 1934, the progressive writer Roger Shaw described the New Deal as "Fascist means to gain liberal ends." He wasn't hallucinating. FDR's adviser Rexford Tugwell wrote in his diary that Mussolini had done "many of the things which seem to me necessary." Lorena Hickok, a close confidante of Eleanor Roosevelt who lived in the White House for a spell, wrote approvingly of a local official who had said, "If [President] Roosevelt were actually a dictator, we might get somewhere." She added that if she were younger, she'd like to lead "the Fascist Movement in the United States." At the National Recovery Administration (NRA), the cartel-creating agency at the heart of the early New Deal, one report declared forthrightly, "The Fascist Principles are very similar to those we have been evolving here in America."

Roosevelt himself called Mussolini "admirable" and professed that he was "deeply impressed by what he has accomplished." The admiration was mutual. In a laudatory review of Roosevelt's 1933 book Looking Forward, Mussolini wrote, "Reminiscent of Fascism is the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices..Without question, the mood accompanying this sea change resembles that of Fascism." The chief Nazi newspaper, Volkischer Beobachter, repeatedly praised "Roosevelt's adoption of National Socialist strains of thought in his economic and social policies" and "the development toward an authoritarian state" based on the "demand that collective good be put before individual self-interest."

In 1973 one of the most distinguished American historians, John A. Garraty of Columbia University, created a stir with his article "The New Deal, National Socialism, and the Great Depression." Garraty was an admirer of Roosevelt but couldn't help noticing, for instance, the parallels between the Civilian Conservation Corps and similar programs in Germany. Both, he wrote, "were essentially designed to keep young men out of the labor market. Roosevelt described work camps as a means for getting youth `off the city street corners,' Hitler as a way of keeping them from `rotting helplessly in the streets.' In both countries much was made of the beneficial social results of mixing thousands of young people from different walks of life in the camps. Furthermore, both were organized on semimilitary lines with the subsidiary purposes of improving the physical fitness of potential soldiers and stimulating public commitment to national service in an emergency."

And in 1976, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan incurred the ire of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), pro-Roosevelt historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., and The New York Times when he told reporters that "fascism was really the basis of the New Deal."

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Panic In Iran

I have a long post about what the recent Israeli attack on Syria portends for Iran.


The short version: if America and/or Israel is going to attack Iran the attack will probably happen in the next two months or so.

Women Of The Israeli Army

A really nice piece in the Grateful Dead style. I wish I knew Hebrew better. I'd like to be able to converse with some of the lovelies. Women who pack heat turn me on.

Music by Vlado Kreslin

More Women of the Israeli Army
Some More Women of the Israeli Army

Cross Posted at Classical Values

SO WHY WASN'T AHMEDINEJAD ARRESTED LAST WEEK?

That's what's being asked over at Commentary's Contentions blog right now. And they're absolutely correct, the way that no actions were taken to handcuff and imprison the Iranian monster are absolutely disgraceful.