THE TENSION: August 27, 2006

Saturday, September 2, 2006

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ. for 2 Sep

More news from the front:

If you took the photo of a Chihuahua at www.flickr.com/photos/benvoluto/216323527/, you have caused a Web sensation.

The mobile phone used to take the above picture was stolen from Web designer Ben Clemens on an Amtrak commuter train in California in mid-August, he says, according to Reuters.

Reuters and AP report that Al Qaeda called on non-Muslims especially in the United States to convert to Islam and abandon their 'misguided' ways or else suffer, according to a video tape posted on a Web site on Saturday. As I first noted in DFWC 8/28, Western conversion or death is the true goal of radical Islamic fascism. I'll say it once again, you can easily pass this off as a frivolous perhaps even meaningless point. However, it would be wise to recall how many folks in history have died before renouncing their religion. AP Video.

Anglers, don't be alarmed if you catch a trout with an antenna coming out of its belly. It's just a "robo-trout," reports AP.

CBS News reports that CNN's Kyra Phillips, embarrassed Tuesday when an open mic in the ladies' room turned some private comments into a soundtrack to a live speech by President Bush, poked fun at herself Thursday in an appearance on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman." See DFWC 8/29 for a link to a video of the gaff.

A New Zealand man without arms, who was caught speeding, has avoided a court conviction after police dropped dangerous driving charges against him, according to ABC News.

Affirming the impact of the Internet on music and the wane of MTV, the downward spiral of the MTV Video Music Awards' TV performance continued Thursday night as the ceremony's audience plunged from last year and VMA fans headed online reports B&C.

Insulting little people around the world, Contact Music reports that British rockers Kasabian said about Justin Timberlake, "He's a midget with whiskers who is just trying to be black." and referring to Timberlake's new track SexyBack, "Sexyback? More like hairy back. It's the worst title of any record I've ever heard!"

CNN Money releases list of the 25 smartest cities in US. Interestingly enough, sparsely repopulated post-Katrina New Orleans now makes the list.

While we are on the subject of Hurricane Katrina, Lowe's Home Improvement will soon sell homes in a kit -- plans, materials and appliances, called Katrina Cottages, according to the News & Observer.

AP reports several Brooklyn residents woke up to find their street empty -- because a prankster had posted a 'No Parking' sign and police had towed their rides. Resident David Bourgeois said he had to pay $205 to retrieve his Mini Cooper, with a $60 ticket on the windshield, from a police pound Wednesday after it was hauled away.

Seen any signs of the Decline and Fall?
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Tags: Decline and Fall of Western Civ, Open Thread, Entertainment, Wire, Headlines
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Friday, September 1, 2006

Combat Camera: Fri 1 Sep. 2006

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Randolph Corvin, with the 741st Ordnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), Fort Bliss, Texas, diffuses an improvised explosive device at an Afghan border police compound just north of Bari Kowt, Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, Aug. 26, 2006. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Army Spc. Bem Minor

U.S. Army soldiers from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment conduct an area reconnaissance mission in Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 22, 2006. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Martin Anton Edgil

U.S. Army soldiers take cover while coming under small arms fire in a village outside Majidiah, Iraq, during a cordon and search mission for known insurgents, Aug. 13, 2006. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Jackey Bratt

Sgt. Crescencio T. Padilla, a tank commander with A Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 5, peers through his sights while on post at an entry control point in Fallujah, Iraq, Aug. 8, 2006. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva

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Labels: Combat Camera, GWOT, Military, Terrorism

The Washington Post Plames Out

You know the crap is getting pretty deep when the Post begins an Op Ed about Plamegate with the sentence:

WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years.

Since 5 July 2006, the Post has mentioned Valerie Plame no less than 59 times! I don't have access to tools like LexisNexis so I really can't find the total number of times the Post has referenced Plame. But 59 times in 57 days is roughly a Plame a day. I guess in someone's mind mentioning a story once a day isn't too much attention.

Far short of an apology and closer to a Rathergate remark, the Post says:

That's not to say that Mr. Libby and other White House officials are blameless.

It's too bad the Post didn't just apologize for their part in perpetuating the "falsehood," and call for Armitage to be frog-marched out and charged, as Allison Stewart of MSNBC asked about John Karr, "How come he's not being charged with something like obstruction or making false statements or conspiracy to trigger a media frenzy at the very least?" (DFWC 8/29)

Rather than discuss the real news in the Plame case, such as who knew and for how long did they know it was Armitage who leaked, the Post offers up their limp-wristed appreciation of the whole affair by ending with the proclamation:

It's unfortunate that so many people took [Wilson] seriously.

Yeah, it's too bad the media took Wilson seriously.

NEWSBYTES
End of an Affair
It turns out that the person who exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame was not out to punish her husband.
(washingtonpost.com) -- WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years. But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's cover as an agent was purportedly blown in 2003 was former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage.

Tags: Plame, Wilson, WMD, Iraq, United States
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Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ. for 31 Aug

More news from the front:

The Golden YamGallery(CKG) shows a sculpture purportedly cast from 19-week old Suri Cruise's first bowel movement. The work by controversial artist Daniel Edwards, is to be auctioned off for charity on eBay next month.(AFP/CKG-HO)

President Bush is assassinated in a new movie, reports This Is London. What's next? I guess someone will make a movie about a former president who is taken hostage by Islamic fascists and beheaded on live TV. It will be interesting to see who denounces and who gets behind this anti-U.S., anti-Bush movie. Take names and keep notes, folks.

The Washington Post reports that "The Scream" and another masterpiece by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch were recovered by police in Norway Thursday, two years after they were ripped off a wall of an Oslo museum by two armed men in black ski masks. Come to think of it, "The Scream" sums up what I felt like when I first saw the "Golden Yam" above.

The Scream

Fox Reno reports that according to Access Hollywood, Donald Trump has parted ways with long-time TV sidekick Carolyn Kepcher. More details from AP.

Replacing bias with fluff, Bob Schieffer, who led the "CBS Evening News" from the rocky departure of Dan Rather to the dawn of the Katie Couric era, will make his last appearance in the anchor chair Thursday reports AP. Audio from Washington Post.

CNN's Krya is the real control freak, Dad laughs, according to the NY Post. See DFWC for 29 Aug for video goodness.

ABC's Brian Ross, known for his journalistic stretchthefactsattude, quotes the equally reliable Arab newspaper al Hayat for the details of a story about how the U.S. secretly agreed to the "real demands" set by the group behind the August 14 kidnapping of two Fox News journalists in Gaza. I guess Fox reporters are just worth more than others thanks to Tony Snow.

Tags: Decline and Fall of Western Civ, Open Thread, Entertainment, Wire, Headlines
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Combat Camera: Thu 31 Aug. 2006

SECURITY PATROL IN ADHAMIYAH, IRAQ

An truck full of Iraqi soldiers leads U.S. Army soldiers in Stryker vehicles from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team into the Adhamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 27, 2006. The U.S. and Iraqi Army soldiers are conducting a joint cordon and search mission to help clear homes and buildings in Baghdad from contraband items. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz

An Iraqi army soldier knocks before entering through a gate of a home improvement shop during a cordon and search operation in the Adhamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 27, 2006. The operation is a joint effort between U.S. Army and Iraqi army soldiers to help clear Baghdad from contraband items that could be used by insurgents to harm local Iraqi citizens and coalition forces. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz

U.S. Army Capt. Josh Bandy and Staff Sgt. Raymond Dorman, both with the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, provide security in an apartment complex stairwell in the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad, Iraq, during a cordon and search, Aug. 27, 2006. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kelly, commander of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, asks an imam if any weapons or contraband items are being hidden at the mosque during a cordon and search mission in Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 27, 2006. The U.S. and Iraqi army soldiers are conducting a joint cordon and search mission to help clear homes and buildings in Baghdad from contraband items. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz

Iraqi army soldiers compare the serial number on a weapon found in a mosque to official registration documents ensuring proper registration of the weapon during a cordon and search mission in the Adhamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 27, 2006. The Iraqi army soldiers were the only soldiers allowed to search the mosque during a joint cordon and search between U.S. and Iraqi army soldiers in an effort to rid the city from contraband items. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz

An Iraqi army soldier provides security at the entrance of a mosque in the Adhamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 27, 2006. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz

More Combat Camera Images on THE TENSION

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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ. for 30 Aug.

AP reports that RadioShack Corp. notified about 400 workers by e-mail that they were being dismissed immediately as part of planned job cuts. Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters got messages Tuesday morning saying: "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated."

Here's a story eerily familiar to the one earlier this year where UNC student Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar confessed to intentionally hitting people after he drove an SUV through a crowd of students. This time, the driver identified as Omeed A. Popal, 29, in a bloody hit-and-run spree that killed one man and injured more than a dozen people was mentally unstable and feeling stress from a recent arranged marriage, according to relatives, according to AP. Please note the driver's name. In this video, one witness says Omeed referred to himself as a "terrorist."

An Air Canada Jazz pilot who left the cockpit of his passenger jet to use a back washroom moments before landing found himself locked out upon his return, an airline official told AFP.

Reuters reports that the New York Times has decided to block British online readers from seeing a story about London terrorism suspects. The move raises new questions on restricting the flow of information in the Internet age, legal and media experts say.

The average British woman spends an astonishing two-and-a-half years on her hair in a lifetime, according to new research. reports the Daily Mail.

Offbeat video from ROO TV.

The Path to 9-11

(Special note to those who have arrived here while searching on ADVERTISERS for this film: The program has been scheduled to run commercial-free.)

Scene from The Path to 9-11.
UPDATE: The Path to 9-11

UPDATE 2: The Path to 9-11 Video Clips at ABC

Five years after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. fielded armies on two fronts, defeated tyrannical regimes whose goals were global domination, invented the atomic bomb, and built the nation into a superpower.

In the five years since terrorists attacked on 9/11, there remains but a hole in ground where the World Trade Center once stood.

If FDR had to put up with the same divisive partisan politics which have currently disabled the country's will, the probable end result would have been the creation of a no-fly zone over Hawaii.

This brings me to a new film about 9/11 to be aired in two parts on ABC on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack, The Path to 9-11.

The film reportedly cites specific examples of the Clinton administration's failure to address militant Islamic fascism. Word has it that when this dramatization was aired recently in DC to a specially selected group of Democrats and Republicans, the Clintonites in the audience had a holy fit. While the Bush administration has routinely been taken to task for 9/11, the Clinton folks have never had to answer for their part.

Expect an all-out attempt to discredit the film, which is all the more reason to promote it.

The Path to 9-11
ABC Television
Sunday, September 10 @ 8/7c
Monday, September 11 @ 8/7c
(From ABC) -- On September 11, 2001 the world stood still as terrorists used four planes as lethal weapons against innocent Americans. The 9/11 Commission was formed to determine how such an attack could happen, and its report documents the trail from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to the tragedy of that autumn morning. The bipartisan commission effort created a comprehensive record of events and provides valuable insight into what must be done to protect the nation in the future.

ABC will present "The Path to 9/11," a dramatization of the events detailed in The 9/11 Commission Report and other sources, in an epic miniseries event that will air with limited commercial interruption. Visit the ABC site.

Tags: 9-11, Terrorism, bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Flight 93, FBI, Mohammad, Muslim, terrorism, United States, Islam, facism, Bush, Clinton, television, TV, ABC
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Fess Up; Plame Out

OPEN THREAD

The editors of the Wall Street Journal describe Plamegate as the ballyhooed case of who leaked the name of CIA analyst Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak has been drenched in partisan politics and media hypocrisy. The leaker wasn't Karl Rove or Scooter Libby or anyone else in the White House who has been accused of running a conspiracy against Ms. Plame as revenge for her husband Joe Wilson's false accusations against the White House's case for war with Iraq. So what have the last three years been all about anyway? Political opportunism and internal score-settling, among other things. The latest news is that the Bush official who first disclosed Ms. Plame's identity was none other than former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

The Journal cites the new book by liberal journalists David Corn and Michael Isikoff:

[I]n October 2003 [Armitage] told Mr. Powell, who told the State Department general counsel, who in turn told the Justice Department but gave the White House Counsel only the sketchiest overview of what he'd learned and didn't mention Mr. Armitage's name. So while Mr. Fitzgerald presumably knew when he began his probe two months later that Mr. Armitage was Mr. Novak's source, the President himself was apparently kept in the dark, even as he was pledging publicly to find out who the leaker was.

The Journal asks:

There is more to be said at a future date about the specific case against Mr. Libby. But for now the Armitage news should concern one man in particular, and that's the President of the United States. How much differently would he have behaved had he known about Mr. Armitage's role in 2003? Would he have kept echoing the media-liberal spin that there was some nefarious White House leaker to discover, and continue to let the aides who most believed in his policies--Mr. Libby and Mr. Rove--be hounded by a special counsel? And why has he tolerated so much insubordination to his policies?

How could the media not know that it was Armitage who leaked? Why wasn't the media asking the hard questions? When faced with the facts, all media gatekeepers can do is groan and deflect when folks charge them with having a liberal bias.

NEWSBYTES
Fess Up, Mr. Armitage
Time to put the Plame conspiracy to its final rest.
(WSJ) -- From its very start, the ballyhooed case of who leaked the name of CIA analyst Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak has been drenched in partisan politics and media hypocrisy. The more we learn, however, the more it also reveals about the internal dysfunction of the Bush Administration and the lack of loyalty among some of its most senior officials.

Tags: Open Thread, United States, Headlines, wire
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Bob Dylan: Modern Times

NEW MUSIC PICK RELEASE PICK OF THE WEEK

SOUNDBYTE
Bob Dylan: Modern Times
(AMG Review 4 1/2 out of 5 Stars) -- When Bob Dylan dropped the deeply moving yet mournful and brooding Time Out of Mind in 1997, it was a rollicking rockabilly and blues record full of songs about mortality, disappointment, and dissolution. 2001 brought Love and Theft, an album steeped in blues and other folk forms that was funny, celebratory, biting, and stomping. In the five years since that set, Dylan was busy: he did everything from a Victoria's Secret commercial, to endlessly touring, to being in a couple of films — Larry Charles' Masked and Anonymous and as the subject of the Martin Scorsese documentary No Direction Home — to publishing the first of the purported three volumes of his cagey and rambling autobiography Chronicles, to thinking about Alicia Keys. This last comment comes from the man himself in "Thunder on the Mountain," the opening track on Modern Times, a barn-burning, raucous, and unruly blues tune that finds the old man sounding mighty feisty and gleefully agitated: "I was thinkin' 'bout Alicia Keys/Couldn't keep from cryin'/She was born in Hell's Kitchen and I was livin' down the line/I've been lookin' for her even clear through Tennessee." The drums shuffle with brushes, the piano is pumping à la Jerry Lee Lewis, the bass is popping, and a slide guitar that feels like it's calling the late Michael Bloomfield back from 1966 — à la Highway 61 Revisited — slips in and out of the ether like a ghost wanting to emerge in the flesh. Dylan's own choppy leads snarl in the break and he's letting his blues fall down like rain: "Gonna raise me an army, some tough sons of bitches/I'll recruit my army from the oldest villages/I've been to St. Herman's church and said my religious vows/I sucked the milk out of a thousand cows/I got the pork chop, she got the pie/She ain't no angel and neither am I...I did all I could/I did it right there and then/I've already confessed I don't need to confess again."... Read more.

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Bob Dylan: Modern Times

Tags: music, entertainment, Review, Reviews, iTunes, iPod, download, Rock, Pop, Bob Dylan
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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ. for 29 Aug

Tonight's DFWC surfs the waves of Katrina, lights a Plame and drives a Karr off a cliff.

Hot Air has posted a video of CNN’s Kyra Phillips caught with her skirt down. According to Hot Air, someone in CNN left Phillip's mic open and on the air as she went to the loo in the middle of President Bush’s speech commemorating the Katrina anniversary. So instead of getting the president’s remarks, CNN’s audience got that and Phillips in some girl-chat.

The newssphere is groaning about the utter fiasco that was Plamegate. Here we have the only time the legacy media cares anything about an "outed" CIA agent, and it's all in an effort to smear the president. Read `em and weep: Christopher Hitchens in Slate, Byron York in NRO, Dennis Sevakis in The American Thinker, Michael Isikoff's original story in Newsweek, and the Washington Post. The crime committed here was in knowing that Armitage was the leaker but remaining silent all the while.

AP reported on 22 Aug that former CIA officer Valerie Plame is considering suing the recent No. 2 State Department official in a case accusing members of the Bush administration of conspiring to leak her identity to the media, Plame's attorney said last Tuesday. I guess in AP's disappointment, they simply don't want to report anything about the recent developments.

The newssphere waded in soggy memories of Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast a year ago today. Having lived through Katrina on the Gulf Coast last year, I am here to tell you, if you WANT to remember Hurricane Katrina, you probably WEREN'T there. I was there. I chose to leave after the storm. Everyone has a choice. Some chose to whine, some chose to blame, some chose to get on with life. I choose not to remember Hurricane Katrina. Washington Post, AP, more Washington Post, CNN, Reuters.

Looking for more than his 15 minutes of fame on American TV, Iran's President Ahmadinejad challenges Bush to TV debate and voiced defiance as a deadline neared for Iran to halt work the West fears is a step toward building nuclear bombs, reports Reuters. Oft quoted on my blog, I repeat once again for your inspection the following words of wisdom: "An extremist with a microphone can be dangerous enough; an extremist with nuclear weapons poses a danger to the entire world." --David Saperstein

C.W. Nevius, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle says, "It's time to put the videos of dancing JonBenet away." However, the real crime committed here was one perpetrated by the media in the way of a feeding frenzy. Allison Stewart of MSNBC had the blind audacity to say on-air, "How come he's not being charged with something like obstruction or making false statements or conspiracy to trigger a media frenzy at the very least?" Between Plamegate and the Karr accident, the fact that some folks in the media aren't being frog-marched out the door is beyond me.

Combat Camera: Tue 29 Aug. 2006

President George W. Bush talks with U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Ngwa Ntumngia during a visit to Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., Aug. 27, 2006. The president is touring areas that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina one year ago. Ntumngia is an administration specialist with the 81st Medical Operations Squadron. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo Jr., U.S. Air Force. (Released)

U.S. Air Force Airmen from the 332nd Training Squadron help repair the roof of a water-damaged home in Biloxi, Miss., Aug. 25, 2006. The Airmen are participating in the effort to rebuild houses that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina one year ago. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo Jr., U.S. Air Force. (Released)

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jason Pry, left, and Senior Airman Justin Butler, both of the 169th Maintenance Squadron, 169th Fighter Wing, fill the liquid oxygen tank on an F-16C Fighting Falcon aircraft in preparation for take off from McEntire Air National Guard Station, S.C., Aug. 28, 2006. Members of the 169th Fighter Wing are deploying to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, for six weeks. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Carol Smith, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

U.S. Navy Sailors from the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command perform high-value asset escort training aboard Inshore Boat Units 41 and 42 from Naval Coastal Warfare Squadron 4 at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., Aug. 25, 2006. The training is the final test for level-two combat coxswains and gunners to qualify for handling small, weapons-capable boats in defense of naval vessels transiting narrow waterways. DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin K. Thomas, U.S. Navy. (Released)

U.S. Navy Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 2nd Class Randy Eaton and Damage Controlman 2nd Class Christopher Johnson are hoisted out of the water by an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Two Six Aug. 24, 2006, during combined search and rescue (SAR) training in the Mediterranean Sea with SAR swimmers assigned to the amphibious assault ship USS Saipan (LHA 2). HSC-26 is embarked aboard Saipan in support of the war on terror. DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Patrick W. Mullen III, U.S. Navy. (Released)

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Tags: War, Military, terrorism, Middle East, Operation Iraqi Freedom, United States, coalition, photography, photo, photos, pictures, images, photojournalism, Combat Camera, Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom, Iraq
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Wilson Bridge Demolition

VDOT Wilson Bridge Cam
Click for live cam.

Demolition delayed till 12:30 am.

NBC4: Bridge Demolition Video

FOX 5 Details on the Wilson Bridge Demolition

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Monday, August 28, 2006

The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money By Timothy P. Carney

BOOKS IN THE NEWS

The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money By Timothy P. Carney
(From Publishers Weekly) -- When it comes to the corporations that dominate the US economy, says Carney, there's no difference between Big Business Republicans and Tax-and-Spend Democrats. No matter who's in charge, Big Government and Big Business team up to create a quasi-fascist collective designed to extract maximum revenue from the common citizen. Carney has a host of facts to back up this theory, covering the history of Big Business and Big Government, the tradition of corporate welfare in America, profiles of such private offenders as Phillip Morris and Enron, and the "green" cheat of "environmentalism for profit." Even the heavy taxes and regulation under which large corporations operate is, paradoxically, largely to their benefit, in Carney's view; such impediments serve as barriers to competition, keeping out rivals and allowing monopolies and oligopolies to thrive-and the extra expense, in what becomes a familiar pattern, is simply passed on to the consumer. Though Carney's dire prognosis seems grim, this is an absorbing look at the disconcertingly cozy (and profitable) relationship that has developed between regulator and regulated in America.

REVIEWS
"This book should be read by every Northern Virginia taxpayer for a chapter aptly titled "You Get Taxed, They Get Rich" in which Carney illustrates this dynamic by examining how former Gov. Mark Warner pushed through the largest tax increase in the commonwealth’s history. Warner, now a presidential hopeful, was helped by the state’s top business leaders, who themselves spent more than $7 million lobbying for higher taxes, instead of the other way around."--The Washington DC Examiner

"Bashing big business is traditionally a left-wing indulgence, but it need not be. Political reporter Timothy Carney, a small-government conservative, takes up the task with relish in the "The Big Ripoff." Along the way, he produces a spirited and eminently readable indictment of the unsavory alliance between corporate and congressional America."--The Wall Street Journal

makes a good case that the American people might be better served with less taxpayer subsidization and governmental protection of big business.-- The Boston Globe

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The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money By Timothy P. Carney

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The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money

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The Decline and Fall of Western Civ. for 28 Aug

Tonight's DFWC just wallows in the politics:

Russel Shaw writing in the Huffington Post blog asks what if another terror attack just before this fall's elections could sway voters enough to elect Democrats? Make no mistake, this is the mindset of the so-called "netroots" who fancy themselves as the new liberal force in U.S. politics. You have been warned; please act accordingly.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday he is deeply troubled by the success of terrorist groups in "manipulating the media" to influence Westerners, reports AP.

Reflecting the true goal of radical Islamic fascism, FOX News reports that their journalists, who were released by kidnappers Sunday, were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint. You can easily pass this off as a frivolous perhaps even meaningless point. However, it would be wise to recall how many folks in history have died before renouncing their religion.

Toy manufacturer Mattel is reportedly threatening to sue a Brazilian artist for portraying Barbie as a lesbian, according to IOL.

It's a theme I have alluded to before: Forget any comparisons with Vietnam, the conflict with Islamic fascism is engaged on six continents and mirrors the rise of global fascism in the 1930s. U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum on Monday drew parallels between World War II and the current war against "Islamic fascism," saying they both require fighting a common foe in multiple countries, according to AP. Is there an echo in here? "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." --George Santayana

AP reports Sen. John Kerry didn't contest the results at the time, but now that he's considering another run for the White House, he's alleging election improprieties by the Ohio Republican who oversaw the deciding vote in 2004. It's a little late now.

AP also reports that Sen. Joseph Biden says that his home state of Delaware was a "slave state."

Byron York, writing in the National Review, remarks that the CIA-leak fiasco is back right where it started, after three years of investigation.

Combat Camera: Mon 28 Aug. 2006

U.S. Air Force airmen load humvees into a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in Southwest Asia on Aug. 5, 2006, for transport to Bagram, Afghanistan. The C-17 is attached to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron. DoD photo by Senior Airman Brian Ferguson, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Edward Radcliffe presents his grandfather, Edward Radcliffe, with an American flag that was flown over Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, Va., Aug. 5, 2006, during the unveiling and dedication of the memorial marker for his great-grandfather and Civil War Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Edward Ratcliff. DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Chad A. Hallford, U.S. Navy. (Released)

U.S. Army Staff Sgts. Matt Valenzuela and Richard Martinez, both of 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, search a home for contraband during a cordon and search mission in Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 18, 2006. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

An Iraqi army soldier and U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Faamagalo Potasi, background, search for weapons and contraband in the storage yard of a home improvement shop in the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 27, 2006. Potasi is with 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz, U.S. Air Force. (Released)