There was a time when I feared things like war, terrorism, and natural disasters. I hoped that our government would be able to set aside their differences once they were confronted with indisputable truth or eminent threats. But that feeling is slowly going away, along with my hopes. More and more these days, I find myself angry, and complacent. And I don’t think I’m alone.

Three years ago, if the news networks told America that British agents had broken up a plot to blow up multiple airplanes crossing the Atlantic, and were tracking more than 20 more possible plots, air travel would have come to a screeching halt, and their would probably be a rush on duct tape and canned foods. But today, we just get pissed, and barely skip a beat. Is this what we have been reduced to? What ever happened to the values instilled in America since 9/11? You know, those “family values” like preserving life, protecting the homeland, and the Moral Majority?

"The Volonteer American. Where the "Far Left" meets
the rest of the human race, and where Americans find
Americans."

Here, Here, to President Clark!

As if the rest of the world didn't read it? (sssnarkkk)!!!!!!!!!!!

Tell me I'm wrong?!

That's our nitch. (on the stump)

I have some Ideas, but I bet Wes has better ones.

If you don't vote up anything else, keep this thought alive, as if America depended on it!!!

(this was edited after having of a good night's sleep and realizing that I should have done a better job explaining myself)

Today, I was watching CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interview Time Magazine’s Iraq correspondent Michael Ware. Ware has just posted his latest article on the Iraqi insurgency and is one of the only members of the western press in Iraq to have such access to the major insurgent groups.

During his interview, Wolf asked him about what drove the insurgents’ zealotry and the answer he gave motivated me to write this piece so that what he said would not be left “inaudible” to the rest of America. This is what Michael Ware said; (full transcript from CNN’s Situation Room Aired April 4, 2006 - 17:00 ET)

WARE: All right. Talking about the Sunni insurgents, the mainstream, the main body, by and large, these are former military officers, former Ba'athists, members of the intelligence services, secret police. These are relatively well-trained individuals. Many of them, the U.S.' former allies from the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war.

They want largely a secular society. They've said they're prepared to host U.S. bases, akin to Germany and Japan. Let's normalize relations. We share common enemies, Iran and al Qaeda. How did we end up on the wrong side of this?

Three things jumped out at me here (bold), but first I must take on the hidden key. Michael used a word that most people would be hard pressed to pick up on, as a matter of fact, I don’t even think it’s a word that’s been used much outside of a West Point classroom or textbook. The term, transcribed as “INAUDIBLE”, is Clausewitzian, describing the theories of Carl von Clauswitz.

In 2005, Fox News anchor John Gibson penned"The War On Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought”. His fellow Fox News blaviator, Bill O'Reilly, joined the chorus going so far as to post a list of retailers like Target for not using “Christmas” in some of their advertisements. From this point on, the perception of a War on all things Christian were seen to be under attack, and the call was out to defend it.

Over the years, especially since the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade, the emerging theocratic wing of the Christian community has trumpeted their interpretation of Biblical law in the public square. Since then, they’ve attempted to foist their theoretically a skewed vision of “America as The Promised Land” via school prayer, political proselytizing, and fomentation of End Times fear mongering.

So what is this “War on Christianity” and where does it come from? Well, I have an idea, and it’s not because the Democrats or Liberals are trying to wage one.

The latest supposed front in this “War on Christianity” is the “War on Easter” al’la Fox News (video from BradBlog). Though I do agree that bunnies and eggs have little to do with the Christian faith, nor do I care if someone hangs “Happy Easter” signs all over the city, the reactionary cries of a “War on Easter” because someone thought that people of different faiths might feel offended by an expression of a single religion on the door of a public servant is a classic example of how the Right provacates this perception. Something tells me that they would be the first to tare down a picture of the Al Aqsa Mosque or Mecca.

If you googled “War on Christmas” today, you’d find 49,900 entries on the subject. The top search result, the Jeremiah Project outlines the reasons they believe that Christianity is under attack. Two of these reasons they give is the limiting of religious liberty in the area of public and private education, and exclusion of the Bible from school classrooms and from other school property. Now I haven’t heard anything about religious schools being denied the right to proselytize in their classrooms. But public schools, funded by public monies are not allowed to do so. They never were. That’s called state sponsored religion.

Last night, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council was on Hardball with Rev. Al Sharpton and the Bible in schools issue came up (video from Crooks and Liers). Chris Matthews said, “If everyone at school is forced to read the King James Bible they may feel a little bit out of it.” to which Tony replied, “But nobody’s calling for that”. Oh, but they are.

This powerful new book by former Nixon advisor Kevin Phillips outlines the triple threat of a Republican Party radicalized by religion, a debt ridden society, and our reliance on a whining supply of energy. Heralded in the sixties as the author of the so called bible of the Nixon Administration, “The Emerging Republican Majority”, and the man who coined the name of the Republican Party’s most coveted voting block, “The Sun Belt”, Mr. Phillips has since penned some of the most telling treatises on American history to date.

In his 1999 book, “The Cousin’s War”, he chronicled the three great Anglo-American civil conflicts. First was the English Civil War of 1642–1649, which led to the triumph of Parliament and its Puritan allies over King Charles I. Second was the American Revolution, 1775–1783, in which he dissected the internal conflicts within this conflict between and within the Brits, Scots and the American Colonists. And finally the American Civil War, 1861–1865, which he then went about tying into the previous two by means of the lingering social, religious, and economical connotations that fueled these most defining moments in American history.

This book was followed in 2002 by “Wealth and Democracy”, a study of politics and wealth over the past 200 years of America history. In this book, he identified the beginnings of what he saw as a dangerous turning point in the future of our country as compared to other past economic powers through history. You could say that he saw it coming.

After 9/11, he wrote what I would consider required reading for anyone who had any question of why we were attacked. The book, “American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush”, is the quintessential biography of the Bush family’s rise to power in America. Published in 2004, it chronicles four generations of the Bush and Walker families from their beginnings in the late 1800’s through both world wars and to the pinnacle of power in American politics as well as corporate America and our national security agencies.

Today, in his latest chapter, “American Theocracy” he calls on all of his knowledge and expertise and brings it together into a sobering critique of the Bush administration. He outlines the dangers that lie before us and the lowly road that George W. Bush has led us down. If there was ever a book that all Americans must read, this is it.

It’s was a great feeling to hear that our elected officials are actually listening to us on something for once. The announcement today from DP World that it will transfer their holdings of US port assets to an American entity sounds very promising, but as Sen. Schumer, and now, half of Capitol Hill keeps saying, “The devil is in the details”. Knowing how things seem to work in DC lately, I’ll bet that there’s going to plenty of room for the devil to hide in what ever details are yet to be provided.

I’m glad that Dubai saw the light. I was confident that they would restrain themselves from trying to force this thru with threats of kicking our Navy out of their ports over a business deal. Our presence there provides for their security. It would be suicide for them to play that card. That was an action of an ally. We are still all in this together.

The Associated Press is reporting that the US Coast Guard, sighting US Intelligence reports, can not determine the threat status posed by the deal to turn over up to 21 US shipping port operations. This undated document points out gaps in intelligence information and flies in the face of the Bush administrations assertion that they fully vetted the deal and found no national security issues.

"The breadth of the intelligence gaps" the document sights, "also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities," inferring that it could lay open more than just our ports to potential attack. Liz Sidoti from the AP states that, "The document raised questions about the security of the companies' operations, the backgrounds of all personnel working for the companies, and whether other foreign countries influenced operations that affect security."

(Jen, I have been trying to get an account at DK and ran into a snag. Besides, they have a 24 hr. moritorium on new contributors so, sae la vie. If someone could cross-post the following with links during the liveblog tomarrow, I would apreciate it. Thanks.)

This post is the culmination of the ideas and discussions prompted by the Bush administration’s latest questionable move to allow the transfer of mainland U.S. port operations to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. What is written here was inspired by the members of the WesPac Community and penned by The Blue State Bandit.

Sorry I know I'm a little late posting this, but just incase anybody wanted to read, here you go.

Last night, CNN reported, that Dubai Ports World will "postpone" its takeover of US ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The deal, which was originals reported to effect 6 US port operations, has since been revealed to include 5 more on the East Coast and 10 in the Gulf region. This would encompass 21 ports ranging from Portland Maine on the East Coast, to Corpus Christi Texas in the Gulf. This latest revelation may only prove to increase pressure on the Bush administration to back off from this deal.