"The City" is an international financial oligarchy and is perhaps the most arbitrary and absolute form of government in the world. This international financial oligarchy uses the allegoric "Crown" as its symbol of power and has its headquarters in the ancient City of London, an area of 677 acres; which strangely in all the vast expanse of the 443,455 acres of Metropolitan London alone is not under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police, but has its own private force of about 2,000 men, while its night population is under 9,000.

AARP is spending millions of dollars to "educate" the public about President Bush's proposal to reform and strengthen Social Security. But is AARP telling seniors the truth about Social Security and the reform proposals?

A spokeswoman for Talon News said the site closed because its founder, Bobby Eberle of Pearland, Texas, 'can only take so much beating' over the page's political slant.

We are not the world's only remaining superpower, as the Washington cliché says, and if Bush could see past his ego, he would recognize that. Our economy is shaky. Federal, corporate and private debt is in the trillions, and Japan and China could wreck our economy just by dumping the debt paper they hold on the market.

In short, real-world circumstances require careful, skillful and quiet diplomacy – not bombast. I fear, however, that we have put in place the wrong administration at the wrong time. Science, economic smarts, diplomatic skills and military experience are woefully in short supply in the Bush administration, which is filled with academics, spinners and ideologues.

After his triumphant appearance at the Bilderberg Conference in Italy even the New York Times was gushing at the performance of John Edwards. The selection of John "Bilderberger" Edwards by John "Skull and Bones" Kerry was inevitable, as the secret societies own all the candidates in this "election."

Given his pessimistic temperament, Sam wasn’t given to inspiring affirmation. His outlook was bleak. The news was always bad, and I sometimes wondered what, if anything, he would regard as good news. His disdain for Republicans — “the stupid party,” he always called them — was fathomless. He seemed neither surprised nor disappointed when so-called conservatives rallied behind George W. Bush and the Iraq war; Burnham had taught him how deluding political labels and professed principles can be in the realm of power.

And yet, when a seemingly unbelieving man surrounds himself with Catholic friends, you can safely assume that he’s attracted to the faith. Whether or not he believes, he wishes he did.

Unfortunately, Sam lacked the social presence and conversational facility - and wealth - of Buckley—a man whom Sam went from admiring to despising. If only he had enjoyed the influence and media- accessibility that were available to Buckley, without having to pay the price Buckley did and still does, Sam might have exercised the impact on our conservative-leaning youth that was his right.

There is a simple reason why patriots on both the right and the left are stymied: because the center is rotten to its well-wadded, self-righteous, wilfully ignorant core. We speak here of the nation's "great and good," pillars of the community and stalwarts of the established order, the "captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters, the generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers, distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees, industrial lords and petty contractors," in T.S. Eliot's words -- to which we might add, as a modern gloss, the highly credentialed academics, extremely well-remunerated corporate journalists, politically wired churchmen and the innumerable massagers of public opinion and commercial desire.

It appears the George Soros's charitable giving goes a little beyond trying to defeat President Bush. Last week, Byron York of National Review revealed that in September 2002 the Soros-funded Open Society Institute (OSI) gave $20,000 to the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee.

The OSI funds hundreds of organizations and individuals. Many belong on the Who's Who of left-liberal advocacy groups and think tanks. Here are a few that received OSI grants of $100,000 or more:

From a newly established 'capitol' in the east Texas town of Overton, Daniel Miller, President of the Republic of Texas Interim Government, says a desire to be free, combined with ballooning concerns over rising taxes and property rights, will convince more Texans to support a 'referendum' on whether Texas should become an independent nation.

"We're seeking a referendum to allow the people of Texas to vote on independence," Miller said. "We're looking forward to the benefits of Texas independence, where Texas stands as a nation among other nations."

Every aspect of America seems permeated with debt, and that should be worrisome to all who are more prudent. This incomprehensible, staggering debt weighs heavily upon society and there is only one entity that benefits; that being the elitist cartel of banks. When the Soviet Union collapsed, it was not because communism was defeated, but rather it was a collapse of their currency caused by insurmountable debt.

And when the federal outlay is combined with that of California, Arizona, Arkansas and other states, the total net cost of illegal immigration is more than $20 billion a year.

What really irritates in the debate over illegal immigration is the dishonesty of those who oppose measures like California's Proposition 187, Arizona's Proposition 200 and Arkansas' Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act.

The last session of Congress was very successful for the pro-life movement. Two significant pieces of legislation -- the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act -- were signed into law by President Bush. It took years -- even decades -- of struggle on the part of pro-life activists to achieve those successes. There are children yet to be born who will owe their lives to those who kept working no matter the difficulties encountered, which in the process forced Americans to rethink their views about abortion. However, the reality is that while we have made great strides, there is still work to be done. Now in a Senate with more Senators considered to be sympathetic to pro-life concerns, what are the most important agenda items likely to be advanced in this session?

There are interesting connections between the White House credentialed Talon News Service, owned by Houston-based GOP activist Bobby Eberle, Jr., and two other "Talon" entities. One is investment and management company Talon LLC of Detroit, co-founded by Michael T. Timmis, a major contributor to conservative Republican causes. Talon Equity Partners LLC is an adjunct of Talon LLC. The other GOP-connected "Talon" firm is Talon LLC of Houston, a "special purpose entity" established by the now defunct GOP bankroller, Enron.

On February 15, 2005, Judge Michael Chertoff, a "de jure" Israeli citizen, was sworn in as the second Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security for the United States.

While his official biographies carefully omit the essentials of his parents' citizenship, this much can be deduced.

In a politically correct age dominated by cultural relativism, American exceptionalism -- the notion that the United States has reached its superpower status because of the values it represents -- can seem at best a hubristic expression of patriotism, or perhaps at worst, a myopic justification of imperialism. The thought of American colonists somehow tapping into the ideal form of governance in the wilderness of the New World just doesn't jibe with postmodernist denial of absolute truth, right and wrong. Though such an Americentric worldview may not appeal to the delicate sensibilities of academics, the unique American experience and the values behind it have become the building blocks shaping an increasingly democratic and integrated world.

So don’t count me among those on the Right who want either to do away with the U.N. or at least get the United States out of it. In fact, I think it’s such a swell organization that we are selfish to keep it all to ourselves. Therefore, I propose a rotating U.N. Headquarters. Every, oh, say, four years (like the Olympic Games) the U.N. would move to another nation. There would be some additional expenses, but I suspect member countries would be happy to pony up the costs for the honor of having this prestigious outfit eventually headquartered within their borders.

While the abolition of the UN would mean financial hardship for bureaucratic parasites in New York, it would actually enhance the prospects for peace and liberty worldwide. The UN is filling a much-needed void; the only useful service it could offer humanity would be to disappear, quietly and permanently.

Of this generation of leaders, it may be said in epitaph: They were too small to see the larger world. They frittered away in a decade what others had won in a half-century of perseverance in the Cold War.

The real culprit in this massive propaganda scam, though, has to be the public, which seems to take little interest in actively evaluating the news it is being spoon-fed. Unlike the people of the former Soviet Union, or the people of China, who developed a completely cynical view of the media in those two nations, and who long ago learned how to weed out the occasional truth from between the lines of lies and misrepresentations, the American public is almost completely passive and gullible, accepting the garbage that passes for news each day as the gospel truth.

English in the United States is divided into several, quite different dialects. Here, we'll look at the major (and some minor) dialects spoken in the US. It's important to keep in mind that the borders between where dialects are spoken aren't as definitively defined as they are on these maps, since they just provide a guide as to the various dialect regions.

Gene Scott, the shaggy-haired, cigar-smoking televangelist whose eccentric religious broadcasts were beamed around the world, has died, a family spokesman said. He was 75.

Scott died Monday after suffering a stroke, said the spokesman, Robert Emmers.

The longtime pastor of Los Angeles University Cathedral began hosting a nightly television broadcast of Bible teaching in the mid-1970s. His University Network eventually aired a nightly talk show and Sunday morning church services on radio and television stations in about 180 countries.

What does it mean to have core principles? Doesn’t it mean that if you believe that federalism is the way to structure our nation, with strong states and a weak national government, then you should assume that a law that takes power away from the state and gives it to the federal government is probably wrong? But if you blithely vote for bill after bill that strips the state of power and gives it to the federal government, then you can’t believe in federalism. So much for core principles.

So what is it exactly that Republicans believe?

Unfortunately, Americans are so incessantly bombarded with propaganda and lies, it's hard for many of them to see the elephant at the tea party. War is a racket. The common folks die and get maimed, and the big corporations and the politicians prosper. Don't let the liars in Washington abuse your children and their patriotism.

Creating "free-speech zones" to protect President Bush from critics; requiring reporters to be escorted by "minders"; lavishing tax dollars as payola on conservative commentators; entering into a tawdry press liaison with a male prostitute -- these actions and more illustrate the Bush administration's quasi-totalitarian hostility to a genuinely independent press.

AARP released a poll last month purportedly showing that the public agrees with it on a personal-account option for Social Security — opposing the idea by 48 percent to 43 percent. That poll seemed odd, since it was way out of line with polls going back over ten years now consistently showing large majorities supporting personal accounts.

So USA Next, the rapidly growing organization for future-looking, 21st-century seniors, asked nationally renowned pollster John McLaughlin to look into the AARP poll. What he found might remind you a little of what bloggers found when they looked into the supposed documents behind Dan Rather's phony CBS story about President Bush's National Guard service.

For two years Jeff Gannon cut an unobtrusive figure at White House press conferences. The shaven-headed, craggily handsome man worked for an obscure news agency called Talon News, known for its conservative sympathies. He was often the subject of jokes by colleagues on weightier news organisations.

While nominating Negroponte to this new post, Bush stated as follows:

1) The job will be a vital part of US counter-terrorism operations.
2) Negroponte understands the United States' global intelligence needs because he has spent the better part of his life in the nation's foreign service.
3) "If we are going to stop the terrorists before they strike, we have to ensure that the intelligence agencies work as a single unified enterprise."
4) Negroponte will take primary responsibility for delivering the president's daily intelligence briefing and will set budgets for the intelligence agencies.

From the president's last observation it would seem that the DNI will also act as his analysis chief.

Bush may not have read Dostoyevsky—but his speechwriters have.

In a world aflame with war and terrorism, George W. Bush’s second inaugural address was a match flung onto an oil slick. By the time his 17-minute peroration reached midpoint, it was clear that was his intention:

If we do not want to be part of the Pharisaic culture and do want to follow the nonviolent Jesus, we have to get in trouble just as Jesus was constantly in trouble for speaking the truth, loving the wrong people, worshipping the wrong way, and promoting the wrong things, like justice and peace. We have to resist this new American empire, as well as its false spirituality and all those who claim to be Christian yet support the murder of other human beings. We have to repent of the sin of war, put down the sword, practice Gospel nonviolence, and take up the cross of revolutionary nonviolence by loving our enemies and discovering what the spiritual life is all about.

What makes Negroponte the perfect candidate to be America's KGB chief is his refined cover. He has the Republicans on the Republican-dominated Intelligence Committee in his pocket anyhow, and as a career diplomat, urbane and fluent in five languages, he also appeals to the mushy national security state Democrats like John Rockefeller (D-W. VA), Evan Bayh (D-Indiana), Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who will be asked to join in rubber-stamping his nomination.

Since Bush's November victory, which brought GOP gains in the House, Senate and state capitals, confirming the Republican Party as "America's Party," Democrats have seemed adrift and despondent.

Moderates and major contributors are reacting to the election of Howard Dean as party chair as conservative alumni might react to news that SDS had just taken over the campus of the alma mater.

In 1986 or 1987 I was sitting in my house in Menlo Park, California, reading an article in a San Francisco newspaper. I had not noticed the author’s name when I began the article, but halfway through, I said to myself: “This is a mainstream article in a mainstream paper, but this man is one of us.” I looked up at the by-line, and made a mental note to remember the author’s name. It was Samuel Francis.

Five members of the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., want to renew debate about President Jimmy Carter's unilateral 1979 decision to sever ties with the elected government of Taiwan in an effort to curry favor with mainland China.

A resolution was introduced in the House Wednesday calling for the Bush administration to scrap its "one China" policy and resume full, formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Negroponte is certainly a good choice to get inside the mind of a terrorist, since as U.S. ambassador to Honduras under Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, he reportedly collaborated with a top-secret Army death squad, ominously called Battalion 316, that kidnaped, tortured and killed hundreds of civilians there. Honduras was a key ally for the Reagan crowd in its covert "contra" effort to topple Nicaragua's leftist government.

It is with unspeakable regret that I have to report the death of my friend and colleague Sam Francis. In any age, he would have been a remarkable man for the penetration of his mind, his unflinching pursuit of truth—regardless of current cant or personal consequences—and the gravity of his style. In our age, he is peerless, and his death represents an irreplaceable loss.

Sam and I were friends and allies for over 25 years, and although we had an occasional falling-out—once for many months—I never ceased admiring his work and his character. A gentleman of a school so old we can no longer recognize its existence, Sam never talked of his “feelings” and if one spoke of loyalty or friendship, he was sure to make an ironic quip. Nonetheless, I learned early on that he was loyal to his friends even (especially) when it entailed a threat to his own interest. In so many ways, he was the opposite of most conservatives. He rarely talked a good game, but he always played one.

The sudden death on Tuesday night of Sam Francis, whom we had believed was recovering from aneurysm-related heart surgery, is a sad moment particularly for us.

Sam played a quiet but effective role in putting together the principals of VDARE.COM and the Center For American Unity. Later, we were happy to reciprocate by giving his syndicated column a web home when it was dropped without explanation by TownHall.com – part of the Beltway Right’s steady migration towards politically correct respectability.

Sam was rushed to the hospital and had two heart surgeries that took seven-hours. One was for an aneurysm in his aorta of which few people survive. He remained in critical condition for the next 17 days but last night his blood pressure suddenly dropped and he slipped away quickly.

"The United States was not attacked because we are free. Bin Laden was not attacking the Bill of Rights. We were attacked because the U.S. military and political presence is massive over there. Bin Laden in his fatwah, his statement of declaration of war on the U.S> said the infidels were standing on sacred soil of Saudi Arabia. They want us out of the Middle East. They don't care whether we have seperation of church and state."

So, to borrow the title of Bill (Casino Royale) Bennett's silly book, "Where's the Outrage?"

Truth be told, Buchanan made lots of sense.

Did a vindictive Karl Rove leak the memo exposing CIA agent Valerie Plame to fake reporter Jeff Gannon (J.D. Guckert) as retaliation against Ambassador Joseph Wilson? Political analyst Al Martin asks this question in his column, "Fairy Godmother Rules: Karl Rove and the Gay Republican Mafia." (www.almartinraw.com)

# 1 on the blogdex right now is a searing story about how Gannon-Gate broke open. Some very good questions are being asked at America Blog. Hopefully people will shift focus away from Jeff Gannon to figure out what is really going on in the White House. Gay Hookers, "outed" CIA agents and fake journalistic credentials - does this story need to have dead hookers, drugs and a creepy murder cult before the mainstream press will pick up on it and actually do some investigative journalism? If the US media fails to do it right, the bloggers will have to take care of it. Let's hear less about the gay hooker and more about his clients.

Those conservatives who have not joined the New Brownshirts might ask themselves why the mighty Bush apparatus and its legions of propagandists and sycophants feel so threatened by a few expressions of dissent, a few facts, and a simple ethical statement. Could it be that they know that their edifice of lies will come crashing down if anyone is allowed to utter dissent or a word of truth?

I just got off the phone with my mother. The conversation left me numb. Why? Because my mother is asleep, or mostly asleep when it comes to what's going on in America. My mother can't allow herself to absorb my words because my words unnerve her. They make her mentally freak out. I speak of those who really drive the U.S. government and shape public policy. I might as well be talking backwards. My mother is not a mentally deficient person - just a brainwashed person. When I try to tell her of the Bush-bin Laden family connections, she says nothing. Hello, are you in there, Mom? I describe the Bilderbergs. I tell her of the Bush family's past history of funding Hitler and the Nazis, and she responds with, What happened to you? You were never this radical before. Are we having the same conversation here, Mom? I tell her that our government not only facilitated the events of 9-11, but they - along with the media - have engaged in a massive cover-up and have deceived the American people. I explain things slowly. My mother replies with, Whatever you say.

What began as an open-ended “war on terror” has morphed into a campaign to promote a Jacobin vision of democracy. By using the power of the U.S. government to ignite the fires of democratic revolution, the Bush administration is fighting terrorism by using methods pioneered by the political forefathers of modern terrorists. Thus it shouldn’t surprise us to see a near-clone of Ayatollah Khomeni rise to power as a result of the Bush administration’s democratic triumph in Iraq.

Americans are being sold out on the jobs front. Americans’ employment opportunities are declining as a result of corporate outsourcing of US jobs, H-1B visas that import foreigners to displace Americans in their own country, and federal guest worker programs.

And so it is. Think twice when George W. Bush and his cohorts jabber on about stuff like their "idealism." We the people can safely be as contemptuous of such rhetorical claims as was Kennan.

We can similarly dismiss statements like this one, delivered by George W. Bush 48 hours before the phony deadline for Saddam to leave Iraq expired on March 17.

As Mexicans pour into Eastern states with lower white crime rates, the national Mexican-American to white imprisonment ratio will likely rise.

The Hispanic crime rate is lower than the African-American mark. But at the current pace of immigration, legal and illegal, the number of Hispanic criminals should exceed the current number of black criminals within a few decades.

Immigrants may not have built America, but they are certainly building its prison population."

Our popular culture – free and diverse, or polluted and poisonous, depending on your views and values – is a consequence of convergent forces. First, a Supreme Court, led by such worthies as William Douglas, brought pornography under the protection of the First Amendment.

At the same time, Christianity, as definer of standards of morality, was being displaced by the new religion that came out of the cultural revolution of the '60s, secular humanism. This belief system holds that all voluntary sexual acts between consenting adults are moral.

In landmark legislation, lawmakers in New Hampshire are trying to abolish the state’s hate-crimes law on the grounds it punishes people for their words and thoughts. Speech and thoughts are protected under the First Amendment. Could New Hampshire be a trendsetter among states that have enacted—and now want to reject—their own “hate-crime” laws while Congress weighs national legislation?

President Bush's backing of a bill to toughen standards for more than 190 million state-issued driver's licenses is igniting a states'-rights tussle. Privacy advocates are already protesting that the measure is a step toward turning driver's licenses into national ID cards.

Continuing through the softball fluff piece, Wolf allowed the following lie to pass from J-I-M’s lips, “Talon News is a legitimate, conservative, online news service.” If Wolf was really doing his job he would have pointed out that Jim Guckert was actually denied a hard press pass specifically because his employer was not a credible news agency. The fact that Blitzer chose to not call Guckert on this is more evidence that his “exclusive” was nothing more than an opportunity to continue to portray J-I-M as the victim. This is not journalism. It is the packaging of the truth, the re-creation of the truth, to serve an agenda, period.

The October 11, 1999, cover story of National Review was a piece by Senior Editor Ramesh Ponnuru called "A Conservative No More," which argued that Patrick Buchan-an has abandoned conservative principles. The article complained about Mr. Buchanan's isolationism, opposition to free trade, and support for certain government programs, but the most serious charge appeared in the subtitle: "The tribal politics of Pat Buchan-an." According to Mr. Ponnuru, "Buchananism is a form of identity politics for white people – and becomes more worrisome as it is married to collectivism." Any expression of white identity is now apparently a betrayal of conservatism. It was not always so.

Knowing that I represented Brian and Ruth Christine in a highly-publicized trial that occupied a week of Court TV's air time, Jack McLamb recently asked me to write an article on American political prisoners for his Aid & Abet newsletter, which goes out to law enforcement officials and prisoners across America. Following is that article, which appeared in the last edition of McLamb's newsletter:

"An anti-gay conservative GOP writer has had clients dealing with gay escort services and gets immediate access to the family-values president of the United States and internal CIA documents concerning one of the biggest scandals of this administration. No story there!"

But more to the point, if we don't want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, why not negotiate? Why keep threatening the Iranians? It doesn't make any sense. If I were an Iranian, I would assume that President Bush intends eventually to attack the country. That would be stupid, but if you look at the stupidity of the Iraqi mess, you can't rule it out. Never believe that Bush won't do something just because it's dumb.

The sh*t has hit the fan, as regards an embedded Washington D.C. press reporter for a so-called "conservative" Web news site. In sum, "Jeff Gannon," late of Talon News/GOPUSA, is not even his real name; the guy has no journalistic credentials, leading one to wonder how he was given his White House Press credentials and why Sean Hannity has praised him effusively; his Web site (www.jeffgannon.com) is owned by a company that also owns homosexual military escort sites; "Mr. Gannon" had posted photos of himself, clad only in briefs, on some of these sites; it is claimed by some that Mr. Gannon is...friendly with Karl Rove; it is also hot-breaking that Mr. Gannon might have been instrumental in the passing of classified CIA documents from (persons unknown) in the Valerie Palme scandal to media-giant Robert Novak.

The government-run TV service will be channeled to the public through EchoStar Communication's Dish Network which will offer the Pentagon Channel to its more than 11 million viewers on a no-cost basis. Programming will appear on the network's public interest channels and will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Iranians are about to commit an "offense" far greater than Saddam Hussein's conversion to the euro of Iraq’s oil exports in the fall of 2000. Numerous articles have revealed Pentagon planning for operations against Iran as early as 2005. While the publicly stated reasons will be over Iran's nuclear ambitions, there are unspoken macroeconomic drivers explaining the Real Reasons regarding the 2nd stage of petrodollar warfare - Iran's upcoming euro-based oil Bourse.

The decency issue is neither conservative nor liberal because it isn't ideological. When I founded the PTC, I publicly embraced that position, inviting anyone, of any ideological persuasion or party affiliation to join in common cause.

But not enough high-profile liberals are speaking out. I have heard privately from many -- "A" list actors, directors, producers; members of Congress; public policy leaders; and yes, even the liberal news media -- endorsing a return to cultural decency in our land, yet a timidity controls them, and they find it most difficult to endorse, publicly, this call. This should not be the case.

Congressman Tom Tancredo (CO-06) today joined a bipartisan majority in approving landmark legislation designed to reduce illegal immigration and enhance national security. The bill, HR 418, sailed through the House of Representatives today by an overwhelming margin of 261-161.

As Iraq holds historic elections, Panorama presents a major film examining the state of Iraq today. Will the elections put the country on the road to peace - or push it deeper into war? Click here to watch it online

While President Bush angers many Republican congressmen and most voters by seeming to coddle illegal Mexican immigrants, his surprisingly loyal and usually liberal trench-mate in the Iraq War, Great Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, has just unveiled a bold plan to reduce the influx of foreigners that is shredding the cultural and economic fabric of the Mother Country.

Arch-immigration enthusiast Senator Sam Brownback (R, Kansas) is a leader of the human rights movement and an advocate of "immigration reform" worthy of emulation by Democrats.

"Immigration reform" in this context means amnesty and mass immigration in perpetuity…or at least until conditions in the receiving country have reached those of the sending countries—most likely by deteriorating—and the immigration stops by itself.

It is the attitude of Mattis and his breed - and there are lots like him, think of the deranged General Boykin, for example - that has drawn US forces into the disaster that Iraq has become. Their swaggering, triumphal, smack-'em-in-the-mouth approach has caused millions of Iraqis to hate American troops because from day one the Mattis-type people acted as if every Iraqi was an enemy. They weren't then, but most of them are, now, thanks to those in the military who followed the example of the all-American Marine who just loves killing people.

In 'Fascism Anyone?,' Laurence Britt identifies 14 characteristics common to fascist regimes. His comparisons of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet yielded this list of 14 'identifying characteristics of fascism.'

Democracy is America's panacea. But if the abdication of the kings, sheiks, sultans and autocrats in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the Gulf states would be good for America, why is the fall of these royal houses and of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt also sought by bin Laden and the Muslim Brotherhood? What assurances are there, in the history of the region, that when the kings depart, democrats will arise?

Rick Santorum is busy at work on the “Iran Freedom and Support Act,” in other words a bill designed to get America ready to bomb Iran. “By supporting the people of Iran, and through greater outreach to pro-democracy groups, we will hopefully foster a peaceful transition to democracy in Iran,” Santorum told Fox News ( http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146342,00.html ). “The bill also notes the futility of working with the Iranian government.”

I am - just bite down hard and say it, man - with Senator Edward Kennedy on this. I want U.S. forces to leave Iraq ASAP. If the place then descends into chaos, I'm fine with it . . . We can only do so much. God knows, we have done enough for Iraq, with blood and treasure. The rest is up to the Iraqis. If they make a pig's ear of it, that's a shame, but I can't see why it's our problem. There are lots of messed-up countries in the world. Iraq will be another one.

The trouble with Mexico is that it's full of Mexicans. Now, before any of you self-righteous white liberals or self-appointed Hispanic "leaders" fire off angry emails to me, keep in mind that this statement simply reflects the official policy of Mexico's Government, not what I personally believe. The current administration of Mexico has apparently decided to support the wholesale export of its people to America as a desirable economic policy.

On January 11, 2005, Alex Jones made a very profound statement during a call-in to Jack Blood’s Deadline Live radio show. He said, “Everyone in the freedom movement should join together and not worry about past grievances.” He continued, “We should get on the same team instead of nitpicking like we’re in a sewing circle.”

The British government on Tuesday gave the creator of Dolly the Sheep a human cloning license for medical research."

As far as the nationalists are concerned, to oppose the U.S. warfare state is to despise America, to condemn the atrocities committed by the Bush administration is the hate America, to reveal skepticism of foreign intervention is to reveal disloyalty to America, whereas to be a shill for all the slaughter done by the U.S. government is to be a good American.

The film Seven Days In May is one of my all-time favourites. The gripping 1964 drama, starring Burt Lancaster, depicts an attempted coup by far rightists in Washington using a top-secret Pentagon anti-terrorist unit called something like "Contelinpro."

The United States, unlike the Empires of old Europe has always preferred to excersize its hegemony indirectly. It has relied on local relays--uniformed despots, corrupt oligarchs, pliant politicians and obedient monarchs--rather than lengthy occupations and nation-building with carefully-controlled forms of elite, low-intensity democracy. It was only when rebellions from below threatened to disrupt this order that the Marines were dispatched and wars were fought.

Nonetheless, in the imperial capital, no less than abroad, doubts exist about President Bush's first-term accomplishments. The auguries for his second term, given the record of most 20th-century presidencies, are scarcely more favourable. President Bush may in time choose to take roads different from those in the past but the indications are that he will simply persist with his utopian fantasies.

In September, Dan Rather, using fabricated and forged memos, fired a head shot at the president of the United States. The gun blew up in his face. The rest is history. At CBS, they know today that their power is disappearing, their audience is departing, and their credibility is shot. Conservative perseverance exposed the liberal bias, and technology killed the monopoly.

When I first covered the Senate 45 years ago, confirmation battles were rare. It was considered a stain on the Senate in 1959 when President Eisenhower's nominee for secretary of commerce was rejected because of one powerful Democratic senator's personal animus. Today, nothing is personal. President Bush's 2001 nominees were attacked because of their opinions and his 2005 nominees because of administration policies. The decline of the Senate continues.

As Judge Robert Bork can tell you, having your last name turned into a verb is never a good thing. Still worse is when your name is taken, robbed of its capitalization, and used to describe others such as you. Vidkun Quisling was Norway's most infamous Nazi collaborator. When Churchill spoke of "These vile Quislings in our midst," he made the name synonymous with "traitor." Now that the interim report of the U.N.'s so-called "Independent Inquiry Committee" on the Oil for Food program is out, it's quite apparent that all the little volckers of the U.N. are doing their best to divert any serious investigation of the largest rip-off in history.

Washington, Franklin, Madison, and the other men who gave us independence and our form of government never set out to create a "representative democracy." Those men recognized in democracy a danger to freedom just as deadly as that represented by the worst despotism.

Bush's State of the Union address will be remembered as a masterpiece of Orwellian doublethink in which perpetual war is the only way to peace, martial law in Iraq is freedom, and the ignorance of the president is his strength.

A historian in the future, or a moralist, is likely to deem the Bush administration’s enthusiasm for torture the most striking aspect of its war against terrorism.

Why then are more people around the world now expressing alarm or disbelief and not satisfaction with the President's announcements? The simplest answer that covers all the facts is that the present American behavioral model is wildly at odds with the language of the President's speech.

It's possible that Bush doesn't know the actual state of the union. If you stop to think about it, how could he? He has reportedly issued a "good news only" directive to anyone tasked with bringing him information. He refuses to listen to anything that does not indicate he is making "great progress," or that does not support his vision of himself as God's warrior striding across the international landscape smearing freedom like putrid jam over every oil-rich nation inhabited by dark-skinned people.

It is altogether an abomination of Constitutional principles that Arizona should be left on its own, fighting to maintain control of its destiny. If Arizona can be isolated and pressured in such a manner, what other state, anywhere in the nation can consider itself safe? Indeed, the situation ominously suggests that a sovereign American nation may no longer exist.

George W. Bush's State of the Union Address, masked in talk of "freedom" and "democracy," was an outline of a brutal agenda of endless war, global empire, and the destruction of what remains of basic social services.

The tattered remnants of individual liberty still appear in their words—sometimes spoken with passionate eloquence—but always lying in the Procrustean bed of governmental altruism. Calling it “freedom,” they further socialize America from the inside out, under the impetus of “compassionate conservatism.” Calling it the “free market” they rip out the economic heart of capitalism—private property—and replace it with a new fascism: private “ownership” with a government subsidy. Calling it a “strong national defense,” they excise the motive of self-interest, replace it with responsibilities to others, and extend the welfare state globally.

Columnists who support a particular administration position should do so because they have independently concluded that an idea is worth their support, with no hint of payola, period. And readers should expect that.

Part of the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics states that "Journalists must be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know the truth." Such sound guidance can be more closely heeded.

So much has been written about the battle between the New Media and the Old Media, but not enough has been written about the extraordinary value blogs offer political campaigns. Indeed, not having a deep and wide relationship with the blogosphere in the modern political environment is roughly equivalent to not running campaign ads.

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, spoke in strong terms for Bush to stop illegal immigration.
"Until President Bush tells us he is willing to do everything possible to stop illegal immigrants from crossing our borders -- including the commitment of military assets to the task -- I can only assume the worst with regard to his motives. When the president tries to make us believe that open borders equals national security he loses all credibility."

Liberals have a practical reason why they won't say what they ultimately want, and a theoretical reason why they can't say it. The practical reason is that any usably clear statement of what the welfare state should be would define not only a goal but a limit. Conceding that an outer limit exists, and stipulating a location for it, strengthens the hand of conservatives--with liberals having admitted, finally, that the welfare state can and should do only so much, the argument now, the conservatives will say, is over just how much that is.

But what about the flap over Dr. Summers' suggestion that genetics or innate differences might play a role in the paucity of women in science and engineering? It's not that important whether Dr. Summers is right or wrong. What's important is the attempt by some of the academic elite to stifle inquiry. Universities are supposed to be places where ideas are pursued and tested, and stand or fall on their merit. Suppression of ideas that are seen as being out of the mainstream has become all too common at universities. The creed of the leftist religion is that any difference between people is a result of evil social forces. That's a vision that can lead to the return to the Dark Ages.

The blank slate ideology, increasingly discarded by scientists, asserts that there are no constants in human nature, that in fact there is no such thing as human nature at all. It implies that whoever or whatever controls the 'environment' - the social or cultural environment in which a child grows up - controls the man (or woman) that eventually emerges. It's an idea that underlies both communism and much of modern liberalism.

After four years of letting Congress spend what it wants, the second term Bush is resolved to attack the deficit by going after spending. His new budget, which goes to these same cheering lawmakers next Tuesday, will hold the growth in non-defense, non-homeland security to 1 percent, meaning many pet congressional programs would have to be slashed or eliminated.

Rather astonishingly, Bush did not veto a single bill in his first term. He'll almost certainly have to in his second, with the inevitable bruised feelings on Capitol Hill.

Time and time again over the past year we’ve asked the question: “Does truth still matter?” The resounding response we've received from people all over the world has been a symphony to our ears: YES, truth does matter. So, in the coming year we promise to continue telling it to you straight, improving the quality of our work, and seeking to widen the circle of knowledge and awareness wherever we go and in all that we do. We can never allow ourselves to forget that responsibility must be the outcome of knowledge. With this in mind, nothing delights me more than to tell you once again, as I did exactly one year ago today: The REVOLUTION is being televised. Let's keep it going strong.

My source in a northern Iraqi town, population 250,000, said he believed there to be 13,000 to 14,000 votes cast there. He did, however, relate that U. S. military authorities in the area had provided a Sheikh who has been totally supportive of the U.S. occupation, 70,000 blank ballots, supposedly to take to those who were too terrified to come to the polls themselves. Although I have only been told of this practice in one area, one wonders if that activity has been an accepted practice all over Iraq. If this practice is widespread, and blank ballots are only given to those who support the U.S., one could only wonder how many of those ballots will be returned that do not support candidates backed by the Bush administration.

A prominent financier who has been a stalwart of Democratic fund-raising the past half-century told me last week his patience has been exhausted. He has remained a loyal Democrat while lamenting his party's periodic lurches to the left, but says he will neither contribute nor solicit a dime for the party so long as Howard Dean is chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

The Ugly American of Vietnam has become the Uglier American of Iraq. It is not the inhumanity of My Lai which defines the US today but the sadism of Abu Ghraib. But even this hideous version may not have reached its nadir. That depth will be plumbed when the Bushies, comprising the American neocons and Israeli Zionists, attack Iran's nuclear installations, a possibility which Dick Cheney has mentioned. It will be an act which is likely to make even the poodle Tony Blair squirm in embarrassment. But will this US-Israeli "noble" endeavour to eliminate WMDs and spread democracy fulfil their dream of establishing an American empire? Or will it mark the beginning of the end of America's hyper power status as the bombing raids on Iran unleash uncontrollable forces of religious and ethnic fury?

The radical doesn't trust the state to reform itself. The moderate does. The radical does not seek the state's favor. The moderate depends wholly on it.

The moderates always seem to come down on the side of the prison wardens. Only when the radicals have broken through the wall, and the path is perfectly clear and safe, do they grab the chance and make a run for it. In retrospect, for example, even moderate libertarians grant that the American Revolution, repealing the Corn Laws, and overthrowing Soviet central planning were wonderful things. But they know in their hearts that they would have lacked the courage to do their part.

Will the elections in Iraq on January 30th be followed by more expressions of optimism and certainty about the wisdom of bringing freedom to the Middle East? Face it, the biggest and best news we could hear from the Administration would be an honest appraisal that we made a blunder of historic dimensions and that we will bring our troops home at a time certain. That deadline should inspire all Iraqis, Sunni, Shiites and Kurds alike to work to stop the takeover by other nearby nations, as they would know without banding together they would sink separately from attacks by their hostile neighbors.

People, these are not men who love America so much they’ll do anything to be a part of it, who work away their youth and health to make a better life for their families. No, this is the vile face of the enemy, and he’s already here. Our worst “border” is the airport, where these men arrive from first class, and marvel at the “Stupid Americans” while they plan, execute, and evade. This is real, it is deadly, and it is now. Join me, fellow Americans…if we fail this, there is no future.

The Liberals, the Democrats, the "Progressives" (as they like to call themselves) have metamorphosed into the New Reactionaries, the "Neo-Regressives," opposed to every real change and innovation and forward evolution in public policy, tied hard and fast to their memories of their glorious past, however mythical, mired to the knees in the concrete boots of the status quo.

And while the Progressives have morphed into the Neo-Regressives, the Conservatives, the Republicans, the "Neo-Cons" have become the New Progressives, the "Neo-Progressives," the messengers of creative new ideas and innovative answers to both old and emerging problems, potential solutions that the Old Progressives (the Neo-Regressives) reflexively oppose.

Elections of a sort took place in Iraq on Sunday, and one might prefer them to other things that Iraqis might have done that day. One has to give Washington some credit for this, and allow that US sPresident George W Bush has made some of Iraq's critics look silly. All of this is beside the point; the Iraqi elections, I shall argue, offer no precedent at all for democracy in the Arab world or anywhere else (with the limited exception of Saudi Arabia or Kuwait).

One can only hope that more Americans will manage to triumph over the overpowering fear and confront their government’s self-destructive foreign policies. Without an awesome awaking, the “kinder, gentler America” shall always succumb to the mad policies of a mad government.

Rush Limbaugh, a staunch Bush supporter, took two separate opportunities to warn the president that he faced conservative opposition on some key issues that could hurt his chances of passing the rest of his second-term agenda. First was federal spending, which "is surging out of control," according to the Heritage Foundation's new "Mandate for Leadership." The other was immigration, which, Mr. Limbaugh told his listeners, "could break up the Republican-conservative coalition" à la Ross Perot. "We cannot maintain our sovereignty without securing and protecting our borders in an era where terrorists around the world seek entry to this country," he said.

Or are they willing to live - for a country worth living for? Are they willing to say NO to all that will only destroy humanity, and their country's honor, and fight with life to bring that honor home?