The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.

Growing up, we are told what a great country this is. Why it is great because we have democracy, some guaranteed freedoms. We have the rule of law and a system which is designed so that the innocent are not railroaded. How we don't have religious oppression because of the separation of church and state. We have other freedoms, like speech, freedom from unlawful search and seizure, etc. It's all in the Bill of Rights. And also, we learn about other countries which lost their rights, countries like Germany where hate propaganda and fear were used against the populace to stifle moral and ethical outcry against the amoral (and evil, we are told) government.

And we think to ourselves (or at least I did) "Thank goodness we have freedom of speech, and the freedom to assemble, and a well educated citizenry, and the means to keep our history alive and fresh so that we don't tumble into those same pitfalls."

And you wake up one day, and the citizenry is handing over its rights as fast as they can to a group of people who are using Nazi strategy not as a cautionary tale, but as a playbook. What happened?

Sure, we were all frightened by the attacks on September 11. Sure, the horrors committed by a populace stampeded by fear are not as fresh in our minds as they might have been in 1950. But, what have we let them do with our freedoms?

Do you think that freedom of assembly actually exists in America today? That americans, in this "free country" can actually protest something, like our glorious leader and his policies, freely? We'll have some counter examples to this presented in the days and weeks to come.

Don't forget the Reichstag fire.

Media Watch

Another hugely important site is "The Daily Howler". Go there, bookmark, and visit every day. The author, Bob Somerby, does an excellent job of chronicaling how the conservative news media lies, cheats, and propagandizes in order to defeat Democratic candidates. At this site, and in its archives, you will find the true stories of Al Gore and "invented the internet", Love Canal, Love Story, the Buddhist temple, Willie Horton, the canoe trip, the Posh Hotel, and all of the other amazing untruths the press showered on the public from 1998 on about candidate Gore. The site is partisan (Somerby, along with Tommy Lee Jones, was a roommate of Gore's in college), but fair in its reporting and meticulously attributed. Somerby continues his good work by looking at current conservative smear campaigns against the next round of Democratic candidates.

Korea Watch

More reactions to Smirk's Korean policy: "High Plains Bungler"

Class Warfare Watch

Apparently committing class warfare is much less of a crime than talking about it. After all, Bush can be the anti-Robin Hood all he wants, and if someone so much as mentions that the rich are getting much richer at the expense of the poor, that person is drowed out by the polly-like squawk of "Class Warfare! Class Warfare! Braaawk!" If Bush would just stop committing class warfare, maybe people wouldn't want to talk about it so much. "Who's Playing 'Class Warfare'?" Some class warfare humor: "Wealthiest 0.0001% Praise Bush Economic Package"

Fiesty Old Lady Watch

Here is an exchange between national treasure Helen Thomas and national prevaricator Ari Fleishcher a couple of days ago:
MR. FLEISCHER: Helen, if you think that the people of Iraq are in a position to dictate who their dictator is, I don't think that has been what history has shown.
Q: I think many countries don't have -- people don't have the decision -- including us.

Helen Thomas is not afraid to tell it like it is. I worry about her.

More excellent quotes and questions from Thomas at this press conference.

Conspiracy Watch

For the tinfoil-hat crowd, here are the "Top Ten Conspiracy Theories of 2002"

Speaking of conspiracies, we'll close today with a quote from JFK from 1963:

"The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough - more than enough - or war and hate and oppression."

If only that were still true today.