Portrait of Lincoln as a young man?

The evidence is compelling. There's more discussion here, here, and here.

I cleaned up the original image (I loves me my Paint Shop Pro) and the result is above. It is evident that the man in the portrait is pretty robust which doesn't jibe with later images of Lincoln but does square up with his early career as a rail splitter.

ABC 9/11-Porn: "Worse than you think."

Crooks and Liars

It is perhaps axiomatic that whenever the Entertainment divisions (and, AFAIK, the News Divisions are subordinated to the ED's) of the major networks get ahold of a historical event to "docu-dramatize" they inevitably screw it up. Badly.

They compress events, create "composite" characters, invent dramatic conflicts that didn't previously exits, and generally get the facts so thoroughly wrong that any semblance to reality is shattered.

Everything I hear about ABC's "Path to 9/11" contradicts all this. Somebody didn't "accidently" screw up this story because they're incompetent storytellers who just wanted to milk 9/11 for dramatic effect. From the people on our side of the fence who've been able to get their hands on a copy of the "pre-screening" dvd (that went out exclusively to the various right-wing media organs and blogs) say that it is a full-throated, swift-boated smear of Bill Clinton and his administration. A propaganda piece so dirty and despicable in it's lies and distortions, trotted out two months before a major election cycle, that it beggars the imagination.

It doesn't surprise me that there are right-wing crazies and organizations that engage in this behavior. What does surprise me is that a major media network, owned and operated, btw, by the Disney corporate empire, is distributing this filth. I can draw only two conclusions: either the ABC/Disney corporation is filled with right-wing crazies or they are so corrupted they think nothing about throwing their weight behind the Republican party to try to ensure the continuation of the most corrupt and criminal political machine that has ever existed since the signing of the Constitution.

Either way, if this piece of 9/11-porn is broadcast tonight on ABC I can promise ABC/Disney one thing. I will never watch another program on an ABC affiliated station for the rest of my life and that includes any product, either film or otherwise, created by Disney.

I hear that the second installment WILL contain commercials. I suspect a list will be posted of the sponsors and they can expect similar treatment from me and mine.

Really, there can be no half-measures with these people anymore.

Mencken: A downright moron

“When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack, or count himself lost. His one aim is to disarm suspicion, to arouse confidence in his orthodoxy, to avoid challenge. If he is a man of convictions, of enthusiasm, or self-respect, it is cruelly hard…

“The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even a mob with him by the force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second or third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

“The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

—H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

Crazy Republican Talking Points

An array of crazy Republican talking points has been sold by the massive Republican Spin Machine until widely believed by many uninformed citizens. Essentially these political lies can easily be debunked by simple applications of common-sense and logic. Here are a few of examples.

Saddam Hussein was the next Hitler and Iraq the next Nazi Germany. This is a staple Republican talking point used to sell Bush’s invasion of Iraq. The claim is repeated on Right-Wing Republican talk shows, in media controlled by partisan Republicans and by hundreds of Republican talking heads.

Iraq was never going to be a threat to world peace on the scale of Nazi Germany under Hitler. The economy of Iraq was and is absolutely tiny compared to the United States. It could never fund a military threat that would seriously challenge the American military.

The United States spends much more each year on our military than the entire value of the Iraq economy by many multiples. Our nation spends 48 percent of the entire world’s military expenditures on our armed forces. The next four big defense spenders are Japan, China, France and the United Kingdom at 3 to 4 percent each.

Saddam Hussein was the dictator of a nation with around ten percent of our population. His population was not as skilled, healthy or educated as the American public. His nation was not united behind Saddam Hussein’s leadership like Nazi Germany was under Hitler.

The earliest aggressions by Hussein were met and repelled by military actions by other nations. By the time George W. Bush invaded Iraq, the Iraqi military was no threat to Iraq’s neighbors. Internal enemies of Saddam Hussein were growing stronger. Islamic militants were seeking to overthrow Hussein. Kurds were in revolt in northern Iraq. The Shia Moslems were restive in southern Iraq. The Iraqi economy was in shambles. Saddam Hussein was effectively contained and no real threat to America.

A second crazy Republican talking point concerns the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Palme by highly placed operatives at the Bush White House. The essential lie is that Valerie Palme status as a covert CIA agent was not secret. The claim is that her CIA status was “well-known in Washington cocktail circles.”

It is simply not true that Valerie Palme was widely known to be working for the CIA. Even her neighbors and best friends were unaware of her CIA connection. Logically, rumors at cocktail parties of Washington’s power elite are not equivalent to intentionally publishing her covert CIA status in major newspapers. The fact is that the White House intentionally leaked her identity, in violation of US law, to politically punish her husband for revealing lies used by the Bush team to push the United States into invading Iraq.

In a third example, the death of al-Zarqawi has been promoted by Republicans as a major blow against the enemies of American occupation in Iraq. It is an easy sale to those without a deep knowledge of al-Zarqawi and his actions in Iraq.

This terrorist was engaged in bloody violent actions that actually undermined the popularity of the Iraqi insurgency among average Iraqis. Iraq is populated largely by Shia Moslems. The terrorist organization of al-Zarqawi was targeting the Shia along with American forces under his leadership.

While nominally aligned with the Bin Laden international organization, al-Zarqawi was attacking Shia leaders against the wishes of Bin Laden and his international movement. The international Bin Laden terrorists want the Shia and Sunni Moslems united in opposition to American interests. The death of al-Zarqawi may eventually result in a more united opposition by both Shia and Sunni Moslem fighters. It seems likely he will be replaced by a more effective terrorist leader. I am glad al-Zarqawi was killed but his death is certainly not a major blow against those opposed to American occupation of Iraq.

All citizens should condemn this kind of intentional disinformation and failed logic. There are hundreds of similar examples of intentional lying and distortion by Republican leaders on the most important issues facing our nation. When citizens hear these kinds of crazy talking points, they should immediately challenge them.

Written by Stephen Crockett (co-host, Democratic Talk Radio). Mail: P.O. Box 283, Earleville, Maryland 21919. Phone: 443-907-2367. Email: midsouthcm@aol.com .

Feel free to publish in your newspaper, newsletter, magazine, website or blog at no charge without prior approval.

Richard Manning: A conservatism that once conserved

Common Dreams

"During that time, I've gotten to know a few of my neighbors. Just a few; that's the way the world works now. Many of those encounters arose through heated conversations, all with the same theme. For example, once I politely complained to a man that his rotund and rottenly spoiled child was using his filthy, obnoxious dirt bike to cut furrows up the side of my land, and it was not their crookedness that upset me. The man said, "We moved out here so my boy could ride his dirt bike wherever he wanted."

The odd part is that this man and many of the rest of my neighbors call themselves conservative. I am not assuming; one only need read the stickers and flags covering their SUVs. Yet what is the foundation of this conservatism if it disregards what the neighbors might think, that is, ignores the community standard?

This is not a small matter. A misguided notion of freedom lies at the heart of the suburban cancer on the landscape. My neighbors will tell you they moved because in rural America you are free to do as you please. Where did they get this idea? Rural America, at least when there was a functioning rural America, never advertised any such freedom. Just the opposite..."