I was going to give this guy to the right my Head Up The Wazzoo Award, but this issue is too serious for that. This is Maurice Hinchey, Democratic Congressman for the 22nd Congressional District of New York, and he is at the forefront of the Democrat’s efforts to contain, control or even to abolish free “Conservative” speech in the United States. No way, you say? Well, think again. From a report on the George Soros funded National Conference on Media Reform GOPUSA.com writes:

Several speakers, including Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, declared that they think Congress should use a new federal “fairness doctrine” to target conservative speech on television and radio.
(…)
Reaching new levels of hysteria, Rep. Maurice Hinchey said the survival of America was itself at stake because “neo-fascist” and “neo-con” talk-show hosts led by Rush Limbaugh had facilitated the “illegal” war in Iraq and were complicit in President Bush’s repeated violations of the Constitution, such as by detaining terrorists. He warned that the “right-wing oriented media” were now preparing the way for Bush to wage war on Iran and Syria.

His answer, a bill titled the “Media Ownership Reform Act,” would reinstate the federal fairness doctrine and authorize bureaucrats at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to monitor and alter the content of radio and television programs.

Hinchey, chairman of the “Future of American Media Caucus” in the House, was introduced as the new chairman of a subcommittee with jurisdiction over the FCC. For Hinchey and the vast majority at the conference, there was a pressing need for more, not less, regulation of what they call the “corporate media.”

With passage of his bill, Hinchey said that “progressives” would be able to demand and get “equal access” to programs hosted by conservatives and rebut the “baloney” of people like Limbaugh. “All of that stuff will end,” Hinchey said about the influence of conservative media. By name, he also denounced Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting.

Hinchey praised Democratic FCC commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, who appeared at the conference, and indicated that with the election of a Democratic President in 2008, the FCC could be openly used to frustrate the growing popularity of conservative ideas, perhaps under the cover of resisting “media consolidation.”

I’ve just finished listening to a couple of segments of the Laura Ingram show with this wordy SOB, and he’s a scary guy. A typical Liberal pol., he ducked and dived, shucked and jived, but Laura persisted and made it easy to understand his position. Conservative viewpoints must never go unchallenged! Of course he claimed to have never before heard her show, and that he really never gets a chance to watch any TV, and that Air America and other Liberal talk radio venues are plenty competitive in their markets — just a completely disconnected East Coast Dem!

So, what’s the big deal? Fairness sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, in 1949 there weren’t very many radio networks (three?), not really any TV and a couple of national newspapers, so fairness in presentation of opinion was on the government’s mind. Regulation of the papers was out, but the airways, with their at-that-time extremely limited number of commercially available frequencies was fair game. The People own the airways, right? So, the pols get to play. From the Museum of Broadcast Communications, a capsule history of the Fairness Doctrine:

The policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission that became known as the “Fairness Doctrine” is an attempt to ensure that all coverage of controversial issues by a broadcast station be balanced and fair. The FCC took the view, in 1949, that station licensees were “public trustees,” and as such had an obligation to afford reasonable opportunity for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues of public importance. The Commission later held that stations were also obligated to actively seek out issues of importance to their community and air programming that addressed those issues. With the deregulation sweep of the Reagan Administration during the 1980s, the Commission dissolved the fairness doctrine.
(…)
By the 1980s, many things had changed. The “scarcity” argument which dictated the “public trustee” philosophy of the Commission, was disappearing with the abundant number of channels available on cable TV. Without scarcity, or with many other voices in the marketplace of ideas, there were perhaps fewer compelling reasons to keep the fairness doctrine. This was also the era of deregulation when the FCC took on a different attitude about its many rules, seen as an unnecessary burden by most stations. The new Chairman of the FCC, Mark Fowler, appointed by President Reagan, publicly avowed to kill to fairness doctrine.

By 1985, the FCC issued its Fairness Report, asserting that the doctrine was no longer having its intended effect, might actually have a “chilling effect” and might be in violation of the First Amendment. In a 1987 case, Meredith Corp. v. FCC, the courts declared that the doctrine was not mandated by Congress and the FCC did not have to continue to enforce it. The FCC dissolved the doctrine in August of that year.

So, that should have been the end of it, right? Not. So. Fast. There. Buddy! Liberals don’t really believe in fairness — they only believe in the freedom to speak their viewpoints on everything!

However, before the Commission’s action, in the spring of 1987, both houses of Congress voted to put the fairness doctrine into law–a statutory fairness doctrine which the FCC would have to enforce, like it or not. But President Reagan, in keeping with his deregulatory efforts and his long-standing favor of keeping government out of the affairs of business, vetoed the legislation. There were insufficient votes to override the veto. Congressional efforts to make the doctrine into law surfaced again during the Bush administration. As before, the legislation was vetoed, this time by Bush.

The fairness doctrine remains just beneath the surface of concerns over broadcasting and cablecasting, and some members of congress continue to threaten to pass it into legislation.

“Some members” like ol’ Hinchey there, and Dennis Kucinich are working overtime to end your ability to listen to Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Sean Hannity, and yes, Laura Ingram and others — because they are SUCCESSFUL conservative voices, and to them, that ain’t fair! Captain Ed is very concerned:

The Fairness Doctrine did not require broadcasters to present issues in a “fair and honest manner”; it required them to turn their stations into ping-ponging punditry if they allowed opinion to appear on the air at all. It created such a complicated formula that most broadcasters simply refused to air any political programming, as it created a liability for station owners for being held hostage to all manner of complaints about lack of balance.
(…)
Democrats aren’t wasting much time in rolling back free speech now that they have the majority. Putting Kucinich in charge of domestic policy reform was no mistake on their part. They want to kill talk radio, and if they manage to hold their majority and win the White House in 2008, they just might do it.

The next time you get that feeling like your vote doesn’t count — Think Again!

A newly implemented Fairness Doctrine would be anything but . . . (db)

Technorati Tags: Fairness Doctrine, Rep. Maurice Hinchey, Sen. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Bernie Sanders

As I sit here at the keyboard, on Saddam Death Watch via radio & the Net, my mind keeps going back to something I read the other day about the author of The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides and Beach Music — Pat Conroy. Actually, it was a column that Conroy himself wrote, An Honest Confession by an American Coward, which is an essay from his upcoming non-fiction book, My Losing Season. In this essay he relates how he came face-to-face with the realization that his personal perception of his own actions during the time of the Vietnam War (draft dodger and antiwar demonstrator) were not the noble acts that he, and his admiring minions, had always thought that they were. In his words:

I understand now that I should have protested the war after my return from Vietnam, after I had done my duty for my country. I have come to a conclusion about my country that I knew then in my bones but lacked the courage to act on: America is good enough to die for even when she is wrong.

I’ll not excerpt his piece any more than that, it deserves to be read in full, so go and read it now, then come back.

I don’t have an epiphany of Conroy’s magnitude to relate — mine is lamer and even more pathetic, at least to my mind. You see, the first day that I actually thought about the Vietnam War was on August 5th, 1971 — the day of the draft lottery for men born in 1952. My number was 351. Upon hearing that, I promptly ended any interest in that conflict happening oh, so far away. I was living in Tulsa, OK and Southeast Asia was as foreign to me as . . . oh . . . Southeast Asia! Sure, I had heard of Lt. Calley and the My Lai Massacre, had seen The Green Berets, knew that there had been something called the Tet Offensive (whatever that was) — but as a high school senior and college freshman, I didn’t pay any attention to the nightly news, and had not yet picked up the discipline of reading the paper daily.

Pat Conroy may have been afraid to serve, but I was so obtuse, that I didn’t even give serving enough thought to have mustered up any fear. Now, that’s pathetic! Regardless of my heart condition, diagnosed only a few years ago but would have been there way back then and would have gone undiagnosed — I’m sure there were quite a few of those cases that went anyway. What I find so disconcerting, looking back, is how easy it was to not have given Vietnam much thought. I can’t remember ever having the war discussed in any of our high school classes, and in that first year at Tulsa University, I can only remember a single instance of contact with a returned vet, at least he said he was — angry man . . . very angry! At least that is the gist of what I garnered from his essay that he read to us. I was unaware that I had a cousin that had been involved in one of the more harrowing battles for one of those Vietnam hills. As I’ve said before, they didn’t call me Ozone in college for nothin’.

What brings this all back right now is Bill Whittle’s reflection on last Nov.’s elections. Along with admonishing all of us to show what losing with grace means, and charging us to gird for the upcoming electoral contests to come, he writes something that bookends the bolded statement from Conroy as shown above.

America is not only much, much stronger than you imagine; it is stronger than you CAN imagine.

I thank God daily for both of those facts. I thank him as well for all those that were not too preoccupied to pay attention, not too self-absorbed to go and serve their country. I thank him for all those that serve today, risking all that they are and all that they might ever be — just to make life safe for the likes of me. I certainly can’t undo and redo, my early life. But, I can do and will do, all that can be done now. Readers of this blog know that I not only support the troops, but their mission as well. Seems impossible to me to do one without doing the other — unless you are self-delusional, that is. We need strong national leaders, not those whose first impulse to any conflict is to talk it to death, and then run away when the going gets too tough. When our parents’ wars became too tough, they persevered, they continued to fight and die, until they won. Somehow the Boomers forgot what Conroy recently remembered: “America is good enough to die for even when she is wrong.” We must be thankful that those that make up our volunteer military feel this way, that they didn’t forget. It’s not something that we as a country can afford to ever forget again . . . (db)

Technorati Tags: Pat Conroy, Vietnam War, Bill Whittle, Eject! Eject! Eject!

BTW — Saddam is scheduled to die in a little over two hours from now. All of Hell must be awaiting his arrival. His seventy-two virgins will probably be butt-ugly demons with razor wire Cat o’ Nine Tails. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy!

While the Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton led proposal of appeasement and retreat is being heralded by the likes of The New York Times and our own local rag, and while the Barbara Boxers of this side of the world look toward finally tackling “the most important issue of our time”, Global Warming, those that wish to kill every man, woman and child in the West are working feverishly on the technology required to do just that.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned Western leaders to follow the path of God or “vanish from the face of the earth”.

“These oppressive countries are angry with us … a nation that on the other side of the globe has risen up and proved the shallowness of their power,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northern town of Ramsar, the semi-official news agency Mehr reported Wednesday.

“They are angry with our nation. But we tell them ’so be it and die from this anger’. Rest assured that if you do not respond to the divine call, you will die soon and vanish from the face of the earth,” he said.

The outspoken president also maintained Iran’s defiance over its controversial nuclear programme, saying it was on course to fully master nuclear technology.

“Thank to God’s help, we have gone all the way and are only one step away from the zenith.

“We hope to have the big nuclear celebration by the end of the year (March 2007),” Ahmadinejad said, echoing comments he has made on numerous occasions in recent months.

Wonder what that means? I doubt that he’s referring to some twinkling lights on the main mosque in Tehran — maybe a big smoldering hole where Tel aviv used to be?

On a day when the last reunion of Pearl Harbor survivors is in progress, remembering the surprise attack that finally woke up the U.S. to the threat against our way of life and causing our full engagement with the enemies in Europe and Japan, the President of Iran vows our total destruction. We got our own wake up call on 9/11/2001 — and some of us actually woke up — the rest seem to have continuously hit the snooze alarm. From the conclusions in that Iraq Study Group report — for some, their sleep has now turned in a coma . . . (db)

Technorati Tags: Iraq Study Group, Jim Baker, Lee Hamilton, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Pearl Harbor Day

Mark Tapscott, Editorial Page Editor of the Washington Examiner and blogger at Tapscott’s Copy Desk sent me a link to today’s Examiner editorial about the GOP Congressional leadership elections. It was written after Lott once again was chosen as the GOP Senate leader, but before the House elections had taken place. The Examiner wasn’t much impressed with the Lott decision.

A major factor in the GOP’s loss of its majorities in both chambers of Congress was nationwide voter disgust with the billions of tax dollars being wasted on anonymous earmarks, exemplified in the activities of now-jailed super lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Lott has been among the most vocal opponents of earmark reform. So now the GOP minority puts him in the second-most powerful job in the Republican caucus?

Being cautiously optimistic about the House leadership elections, the editorial says:

On the House side, the GOP has one remaining chance to do something concrete to indicate they got the voters’ message. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., are seeking the House minority leader and whip positions, respectively. Both are articulate, energetic reformers. If the House GOP caucus opts instead to keep part or all of the leadership team that bungled the 2006 campaign, the party will richly deserve its coming years in the political wilderness.

Finally, confronting the reality of the Boehner/Blunt wide-margin sweep of the GOP caucus, Mark writes on his blog:

The key issue here is whether the GOP can ever be a reliable tool for advancing the principles and programs that America’s moderate conservative majority have supported for decades. I remain open to persuasion otherwise, but my view is the leadership decisions made by the Senate and House GOP provide abundant evidence that conservatives, libertarians and faith-based traditionalists should look elsewhere. [emph. mine]

Wow! When Newt left in ‘98, to avoid being replaced after losing seats in that election cycle, and then having his replacement, Bob Livingston, pretty much immediately thereafter resigning in the midst of scandal, Denny Hastert seemed like a calming choice for the House leadership position. Well, in 2006, calm was not what was needed — An iron fist on ethics and some strong earmark control was what needed to be seen by John Q. Voter.

The choice that Mark lays out, whether to remain in the GOP or go looking elsewhere, doesn’t seem like much of a choice to me — ’cause there ain’t much else out there. Third parties are irrelevant, causing damage to the party that is the membership donor. Far easier, and quicker, would be to “fix” the broken party, which Captain Ed will be starting to work on in the near future with what he is calling the First Principles Project. Those that we have selected by our votes have chosen not to lead, instead they are sitting on their fat status quos.

It’s gonna be up to the ground troops to make this one right! (db)

Technorati Tags: GOP Congressional Leadership Elections, GOP Senate Leadership Elections, Trent Lott, John Boehner, Roy Blunt

Cross-posted over at Junk Yard Blog . . .

The old Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times” seems about right for this post-election hangover all three branches of government are going through. So as not to terminally bury the lede of this post, it’s actually gonna be about Chinese military expansion, but first I’ve gotta crab a bit about the House & Senate leadership choices.

The Dems are already at each others throats in the House, with San-Fran Nancy more concerned about “loyalty” to the old-time-back-roomers than to her empty promise to “Drain the swamp” of corruption. Even the San-Fran Press is not amused:

NANCY PELOSI isn’t even speaker of the House yet, and already she is acting like the GOP leaders whom she so handily toppled in last week’s election.

When U.S. Rep. Pelosi, D-San Francisco, was working for a Democratic takeover of the House, she promised to “drain the swamp” — swamp being an apt term for the too cozy relationship between GOP biggies and big donors, which too often led to the shoveling of taxpayers’ dollars into the maws of corporate contributors.

So who does Pelosi back to be her top lieutenant when her party wins? Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., the prince of “earmarks.”

Not to be outdone, Senate Democrats will stick with Harry Reid as their leader, that is unless Jack Abramoff has some really interesting anecdotes to share that the MSM will actually cover. Ben Stein said this about Reid’s land deal in a conversation with John Gibson:

But I think Harry Reid is a very peculiar case because he was caught doing a very questionable land deal in Nevada and basically just got even — did not even get a slap on the wrist. I don’t understand that. I mean, if that had been a Republican, they would have taken him out and drawn and quartered him.

Speaking of the Republicans, they are not to be outdone in the step-on-your-own-you-know-what department. The Senate Repubs put Trent Lott back in power as minority leader and now Boehner is their leader in the House and Roy Blunt returns as whip. No new faces needed there, huh guys? Didn’t we lose last week? Just askin’.

The executive branch has been busy of late, tryin’ to regroup no doubt and figure out some way to keep the next two years from being just one more Excedrin moment after another. Today, Secretary of State Condi Rice broached the subject of China’s military expansion — the jist? “WE” don’t like it! From Breitbart:

The United States has some concerns about a rising China, including a military expansion that may be excessive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

Beijing has spent heavily in recent years on adding submarines, missiles, fighter planes and other high-tech weapons to its arsenal and extending the reach of the 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest fighting force.

Its reported military budget rose more than 14 percent this year to $35.3 billion, but outside estimates of China’s true spending are up to three times that level.

“There are concerns about China’s military buildup,” Rice told a television interviewer. “It’s sometimes seemed outsized for China’s regional role.”

Beijing insists its multibillion-dollar buildup is defensive, but it has alarmed some Asian neighbors and U.S. military planners who see China as a potential threat to U.S. military pre-eminence in the Pacific.

Asked whether U.S. foreign policy toward China is aimed at containing China’s ability to flex military power, Rice turned the question to politics and economics.

“U.S. policy is aimed at having China be a responsible stakeholder in international politics,” she replied. “That means that Chinese energy, Chinese growth, Chinese incredible innovation and entrepreneurship, would be channeled into an international economy in which everybody can compete and compete equally.”

Yeah. Like they are gonna be satisfied with a WalMart in every province and a Micky Dees on every corner — wait, they already got that! When you unwrap those appliances in 5 weeks, look to see if ANY of them DON’T have the words “Made in China” on them, so they’ve got that, too. The Olympics will be there in ‘08, so the eyes of the world will be on China for a couple of weeks, not to mention a lot of hard currency being spent by that same “world” — what do these guys want?

Same as all of the James Bond villians past and present — total world domination. At least, that is what a couple of Chinese billionaire brothers told me once on one of my business trips to Taipei. They explained it to me like this.

“China is the greatest culture on the planet, and in the 21st Century will become the greatest power as well. It all depends upon the diaspora of Chinese money and influence. We live here in Taiwan as free Chinese, but there is actually only one China — all Chinese belong to Mother China, and in time, will all be together again as China becomes The Great World Power.

It will be easy, and the world won’t understand until it is too late. We will put our money into every economy and become necessary to those economies’ survival. With economic power will come political influence.

Sometime before the year 2050, the world will kneel before Mother China!“

Pretty close to word-for-word, at least that is how I remember the conversation — actually, he was monologuing, huh? I remember my reaction — thought that they were a bit stark-raving mad. But, that was before it became known that China had stolen our Aegis missile technology and actually put it into use. Then we learned that WE barely dodged another big bullet with the arrest of a Chinese agent on his way to Hong Kong just over a year ago carrying top-secret info on propulsion systems for naval warships. At least they got this group, ’cause it was the same one that stole the Aegis information.

These thefts, begun in 1990 and continuing throughout the Clinton administration and finally stopped last year, have been major factors in China’s ability to build and deploy a formidable blue-water navy. Just days ago our own Navy released the story of a U.S. carrier battle group that was successfully stalked by a Chinese diesel sub, which was able to surface within firing range of the carrier before it was detected. Now, that’s some scary stuff!

One of my continuing memes is that as serious as the GWOT happens to be and as big a threat that radical Islam has become to the entire Western World, we cannot take our eye off China — ’cause no matter how many toasters they make for us, they sure aren’t our buddies! (db)

Technorati Tags: China Military Threat

Cross-posted over at Junk Yard Blog . . .

Can you even imagine bemoaning the loss of John Murtha as House majority leader? Check out the comments on this Kos post.

Hoyer won. It wasn’t even close.

149 to 86.

It’s worth it to take a look — entertaining stuff! The Dems won’t be in power for a couple of months and they can’t stop themselves from self-destructing already! Major Mike over at My Sandmen puts it this way:

While the Republicans have their own problems trying to go in a gnu directions with an old goat, the Dems seem intent on detonating a block of C4 directly under their most vulnerable fissure. Pelosi demonstrated how un-political she was by endorsing Murtha before making sure she had the votes…this is like giving the Kos Kidz one lick on an ice cream cone, then taking it away. This Murtha-gyration did irreparable harm to the Dems infrastructure…the damage to which will become apparent at the 2008 Convention.

Also, be sure and read Hugh’s take on Mitch McConnell as the new Senate minority leader. Maybe the next two years is gonna be a blast after all!

Technorati Tags: Mitch McConnell, Steny Hoyer

According to Patterico’s take on it, the foxes are establishing control of the Congressional hen-house. Hope you weren’t holding your breath waiting for some fresh eggs out of these jokers.

John “Grandpa Simpson” Murtha is set to be tapped as the House Majority Leader. He has some ethical issues, including a history of being investigated in Abscam. In that investigation, he obliquely discussed with an undercover investigator the possibility that he might accept bribes in the future, once the investigator provided him sufficient political cover. But more about that in a moment.

And Alcee Hastings looks like the pick for the House Intelligence Committee. He was impeached and removed from his position as a federal judge for bribery. Now we’re putting him in charge of national secrets. No bribery potential there!

This is all terrible for the country — but it’s great for Republicans.

Politically speaking, I couldn’t have scripted this better. Corruption was the top issue for disgruntled voters, so Nancy Pelosi is turning to these guys.

Perfect.

It won’t take those that were swing voters, and those that were so disgusted that they stayed home, long to figure out that they just bought a pig in a poke, and that the Dems are gonna smear lipstick all over that porker! Now, I think I’ll go back over to Patterico and read the extended version of the above — maybe after that I can get these barnyard analogies out of my head . . . Sheesh! (db)

[Addendum: from Michelle Malkin]

My woman-to-woman advice for Nancy Pelosi today: To clean a house, you take the garbage out, not in.
(…)
Nancy Pelosi doesn’t know spic from span. She’s conducting Beltway business as usual, just like the good old boys she demonized throughout the campaign. (Madame Pelosi just happens to do it in an Armani aqua blue-gray pantsuit that gets thumbs-up from obsequious Washington fashion writers.)

Well, a back-scratching corruptocrat in pastel is still a back-scratching corruptocrat. Case in point: Which congressman is Mrs. Clean considering as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence? Impeached federal judge Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., who took bribes, lied under oath and was kicked off the bench.

And which colleague is she backing for House majority leader? One of Congress’s leading dirtbags: Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.

As if his extremist cut-and-run war strategy weren’t bad enough, Murtha’s (un)ethical record is enough to make even liberal apologists blush.

Now you’ll really want to go and read or watch the whole thing!

Technorati Tags: Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, Alcee Hastings, House Majority Leader, House Intelligence Committee

A meme that I continue to come back to here at “Okie” is how much the generation that came of age in the ’60s and ’70s has hurt our society — with their narcissism, their abdication of responsibility to the defense of their country, their buying wholesale into a derisive attitude toward traditional religious faiths combined with an almost total embrace of multiculturalism over that of their own American culture.

The Congressional elections of last week have at long last given control over to the Democrats, except that this time it’s the Democrats of Nancy Pelosi, she being the representative of the Haight Ashbury “progressives” that form the foundation of the “nutroots” faction of the Democratic base. Given, our side lost this one amid unforgivable scandals, failure to clean house and outrageous in-your-face pork — ie Republicans acting far too much like Democrats. But that still doesn’t mean that we as a society won’t be threatened by the Woodstock Kids being in kontrol.

The Anchoress is often on the same page with this issue, and today is no exception.

A few days ago I wrote that Democrats never seem to know what time it is. They seem a little like Fitzgerald’s Gatsbians who “beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Here we are in the 21st century – presumably time has moved forward, and yet with the ascendancy of the Democrats, we are immediately treated to the presence of George McGovern and the withdrawal mentality of Haight-Ashbury people who never wanted to commit to anything beyond keeping up with a trend and finding that elusive “self-fulfillment.”

Don’t miss her riffs on the Left’s undying love for killing the unborn, euthanasia as the newest form of community service and “The Holiness of Be-ing.” And then she links to this heavy-duty post by Elizabeth Powers. Here is an excerpt:

Though the liberalism that emerged from the sixties is usually interpreted as a triumph of idealism over the moral slumber of the 1950s, there is another way to regard that idealism. In truth, the 1950s was a very good time, of which all of us living today are the fortunate beneficiaries. But we who first went to school in that decade have been particularly favored, unduly so. While our parents had experienced World War II and the Depression, we grew up with path-breaking dermatological and dental care. When the “sixties” arrived (which for most of us was the 1970s), many of us were unwilling to make the same sacrifices our parents had made, either by going to war or becoming mothers. Sacrifice meant wasting all our good dermatological care, our college education, and indeed the good life for which they had raised us. We justified our unwillingness to follow in their footsteps by portraying the decade in which we had been raised as the breeding ground of repression, authoritarianism, xenophobia, moral and sexual hypocrisy, and untold (and therefore in need of telling and exposing) varieties of injustice. The fact is, we simply had it too good and wanted to keep things that way.

There is a noisy contingent still trapped in those times and whose opposition to the war in Iraq comes straight from the sixties playbook, but such overtly anti-American attitudes haven’t, in the current conflict, gained much traction. After all, the Boomers have grown up, chronologically at least, and the liberals among them don’t relish camping in tents in Crawford, Texas, or even marching in the streets. They have also benefited most from America, Inc. By now, they have made it through the institutions, the media, the law, and the universities. They have paid off their mortgages. They enjoy the advantages of the best health care system in the world. They are about to receive not only Social Security but also the fruits of their considerable investment in retirement plans. The terms of their opposition to war and to authority have changed—the president is an incompetent—but, as in their youth, they remain averse to sacrifice. Their priorities are now those of people who have had a good life and don’t want to jeopardize it.

Having grown up as the child of depression and WWII era parents, I know that Powers has this one nailed. I can’t really imagine what my father’s childhood actually was like, even though I have heard the stories, and at the age where I was self-absorbed in the making of really shitty art, my dad was sailing across the world’s oceans on the Mighty A, transporting healthy Marines to the Pacific theater and taking the wounded ones back home. Somehow his 20s were a damn site more consequential than mine.

But, he raised me, and for some reason he insisted that I be as pacifistic as possible. Maybe he had just seen far too much carnage of war, and didn’t want to see his son ever have to experience that. Maybe he thought that he and mom were raising kids that were going to build a better world. He fell into the dementia of Alzheimers before he could see the transformation that his son would make toward a conservative mindset and full support for the military. It took a long time to throw off the mental baggage of our culture’s love of the ’60s/’70s rebels and malcontents, but it was worth the effort.

We are living in a time of increasing danger, much like that of our parents in the 1930s. There are the appeasers, the cowards, the self-absorbed — and then there are those that are out there, risking all that they are and all that they might ever be, trying to help keep us safe. Somehow we must survive the next two years and work with increased zeal to put the adults back in control of Congress, even if they are a few decades younger than those youths-of-yesteryear that will sit in the catbird seats of power this Jan. (db)

Today the IAEA announced that it has found plutonium and traces of highly enriched uranium at a nuclear waste facility in Iran. From the AP:

International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.

The report, prepared for next week’s meeting of the 35-nation IAEA, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency’s attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran’s nuclear program that have lead to fears it might be interested in developing nuclear arms.

And it said it could not confirm Iranian claims that its nuclear activities were exclusively nonmilitary unless Tehran increased its openness.

“The agency will remain unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran,” without additional cooperation by Tehran, said the report, by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Such cooperation is a “prerequisite for the agency to be able to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program,” it added.

“Peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program” . . . right! Of course, ol’ Mahmoud is always good for a couple of chuckles. Early Tuesday the AP quotes him as saying:

“Initially, they (the U.S. and its allies) were very angry. The reason was clear: They basically wanted to monopolize nuclear power in order to rule the world and impose their will on nations[.]”

“Today, they have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran, with an Iran possessing the whole nuclear fuel cycle[.]“

What the hey?

“Today, they [the U.S. and its allies] have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran.”

Reminds me of that line from Duck Soup often attributed to Groucho Marx, “Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?” Actually, it was Chico dressed up as Grocho. Guess Russia, China and those gonads-of-tin Europeans just love ol’ Mahmoud’s fake Groucho routine.

But, sometime in the next two years, our own lame-duck big-guy might feel like using this one actually from Groucho, “He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.” Or maybe, this one actually from Chico, “Take your face out of my foot!” Heh! (db)

Technorati Tags: Plutonium in Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, IAEA, Groucho Marx

There’s a dark and a troubled side of life
There’s a bright and a sunny side, too
Though we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also may view.

Keep on the sunny side always on the sunny side
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us every day it will brighten all the way
If we keep on the sunny side of life.

The storm and its fury broke today
Brushing hopes that we’ve cherished so dear
Cloud and storm will in time pass away
The sun again will shine bright and clear.

Let us breathe with a song of hope each day
Though the moments be cloudy or fair
Let us trust in our Saviour away
He keepeth everyone in his care.

At least that’s how the Carter Family sung it . . .

Haven’t felt very sunny since last Tuesday night — learnin’ that the GOP had lost the House, and then not really hoping, but in the back of my mind giving the Senate a CA Super Lotto’s chance to stay Republican, but just like winnin’ Lotto, would have had a better chance of gettin’ struck by lightnin’ than that happening, so on Thursday we learned that Harry Reid won’t be gettin’ investigated for his Nevada land deals and his lack of disclosure thereof, at least not in the next two years. That’s not very sunny either!

But, a quick spin around the conservative ’sphere chinks a few holes in the cloud cover, just enough to see a bit o’ blue — as “they” say, whoever they are, “Hope springs eternal” — and “Revenge is a dish best served cold”. Hey, I’m likin’ this better already . . .

The Anchoress, although way under the weather (hope you get better real soon!), never fails to amaze this ol’ Okie with her blogging resilience and spiritual insights.

I know many people are depressed, but while I am not happy about the election outcome, I do think it’s unseemly for Christians, at least, to be depressed…our God is not politics or the GOP, right?

Remember…things turn on a dime, nothing is static and God has his hand in everything.

And remember this: The Evil loves discord – evil HAD to love what has been going on in this country for the past 8 years. While the Dems are going to be holding on to their hate for a while (and the press will more than let them), the more-rational, more moderately-inclined people who may have gotten caught up in the venom of the last couple of years will let go of it and look to see what “solutions” are forthcoming. The Dems have been screaming “work with us, we matter…” now, they have a seat at the table with a president who tried like hell to work with them in the beginning of his run (and got smacked down for it, repeatedly) and who will do what he thinks is best for the nation. Now, they have to put up or shut up, and if they want to be taken seriously, they’re going to have to actually do some work.

Now, self deprecatingly, she’s directing traffic over to Alicia Colon’s New York Sun articlesaying that Colon says the same thing in a much superior way. I don’t know about that, but Colon’s take is interesting.

Instead of championing their own candidates’ positions, the Democrats tailored all their political ads to associate President Bush with their opponents. The reason, quite possibly, is because the only clear Democrat agenda was getting rid of Mr. Bush. There really is such a thing as the Bush Derangement Syndrome. It has been the driving force behind the Democrats, the mainstream news organizations, and the academic community. They hate him.

If President Clinton had done everything Mr. Bush has done since he’s been in office, he would be hailed as a hero and given credit for the booming economy, the low unemployment, and overseeing our nation’s security and the liberation of two countries. But Mr. Bush is an evangelical Christian, and while this is the greatest country in the world and we are a good people, I very much doubt that we have a moral majority.

She follows that up with a laundry list of discretions on our part that would call into question anyone that tries to claim we have managed a Christian theocracy in this country. Actually, the only ones that go that far have either had their favored ox gored or are ever in fear of such. Gays come to mind, when they want the thousands-of-years-old meaning of marriage redefined. Or the ACLU, terrified of any religious symbolism in the public square, forcing historic tiny crosses to be removed from city & county seals, like here in Los Angeles, where the majority of our county commissioners are either in agreement or too afraid to take on this pack of liberal lawyers. Colon ends with this.

This should be an exciting, not gloomy, time for the Republicans, as the culling of its party has begun. Byebye, Republicans in name only.

Mr. Bush was always able to work with decent Democrats when he was a Texas governor. Hopefully, a rare breed, the conservative Democrat, has been widely elected and we’ll finally see bipartisan legislation.

Now that the Democrats are in charge, the voters will finally get to see the emperor in his new clothes. Hee, hee, hee.

Hope she’s right, ’cause that would be fun to see. Over at Captain’s Quarters,
Captian Ed has this to say to those like me that are a bit depressed over this election cycle.

Elections come and elections go. Americans make choices, and we live with these choices. They do not amount to the end of the world or the end of our democracy unless Americans stop supporting the processes that allow those choices. I have been through enough good news and bad news that I have learned two very important lessons, both in politics and in life:

Nothing is ever as good as it looks, and nothing is ever as bad as it seems.

And, the Captain also perks me up with the more-than-a-pipedream possibility that Joe Lieberman may switch parties — that would really twist ol’ Reid’s panties in a tight wad. Heh!

Hey, I’m not dead yet — in fact I think I’m feelin’ better! (I know, Monty Python– but it fits.) “Blue skies, smilin’ at me — it’s blue skies, that I see” . . . (db)