Russian Spies Granted Top Honors, Bin Laden Found Yet Once Again, Or Not...

EJ Dionne Jr
Ross Douthat
Shannyn Moore

''My only regret in creating 23 million new jobs is that two million of those jobs were for right-wing pundits.'' —Bill Clinton

'There a few things in life harder to find and more important to keep than love. Well, love and a birth certificate.'' — President Barack Obama

''In Washington, we know there's a huge difference between a prostitute and a politician. There are some things a prostitute won't do.'' — Sen. Claire McCaskill

Remember those Russian spies who were living like 1950's moles, were caught and traded a few months ago in a spy swap with Russia? Today, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev bestowed the state's highest honor to them, in a ceremony at the Kremlin: "In June, the group of 10 spies, many of whom had been working undercover for years in the US as sleeper agents, returned to Russia in a sensational spy swap that saw Moscow send four Russian convicts to the West. The spies received a hero's welcome in Russia, with Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, leading them in a patriotic sing-along in July.


Anna Chapman, the most famous of the agents, visited the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this month for the launch of a Russian spaceship, boosting her celebrity status in Russia and abroad. Chapman was in Baikonur ostensibly as the new celebrity face of a Moscow bank. FondServisBank, which works with Russian companies in the aerospace industry, said it had hired Chapman to bring innovation to its information technologies. It did not escape Russians' attention that the initials of the bank, FSB, are the same as Russia's main spy agency.


Many ex-KGB spies have gone on the record slamming the shoddy and apparently antiquated spy craft of the 10, who were working for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, a successor of the Soviet KGB. Putin, who served as a spy in East Germany before going into politics, said in July that he had met with the spies to celebrate their return and warned that the "traitors" who exposed them could end up "in a ditch". The US is one of the few countries that will actually do spy swaps, or consider that a spy has value, which may be one reason that Iran wants to try the US hikers in their jail as spies. Israel wanted to use an agreement to extend the construction freeze in the West Bank, in exchange the US would release a convicted spy, who has been in our custody since the Clinton administration... Currently, there has been a rash of industrial espionage, where a Chinese national had been working for a US or Canadian company long enough to steal company secrets, then transfer that knowledge to a Chinese company that had set itself up as a competitor. One Chinese gentleman was caught at the airport with a briefcase full of company documents, while another is awaiting trial in Illinois... China is already the largest producer of fake prescription drugs, the darker side to the Gucci knock-off handbags and Rolex watches...

CNN is reporting that NATO officials are saying that Osama bin Laden is alive and well in northwest Pakistan No, he is not living in a cave, but in a house near his #2 go-to guy, living in relative comfort. Usually by the time a headline like this becomes public, it means that Pakistani intelligence has had them in custody for at least a month. If he is turned over to the US, the Democrats could use him to make a commercial for the November elections, double points if he mentions Ken Buck and Rand Paul by name!

The area mentioned is in the most rugged area of the borderlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with at least four different Taliban militias and other drug traders, who can muster up 30,000 men to protect bin Laden. The Mullah Omar is said to have moved from Quetta to the seaside town of Karachi, much like I was joking in an earlier post, I hope he likes their version of mojitos... Pakistani officials are denying all reports, saying that bogus tales like this surface every so often, all trying to discredit the great state of Pakistan. Personally, I think that bin Laden has recently been where he witnessed the devastation from the recent monsoons and it moved him to make a tape asking for help.

If Osama were in custody, it would explain why the US is moving to talk directly with the Talibans seeking peace, and even including Iran in the equation. Iran has been holding Osama's last wife and her children hostage in a house on the outskirts of Tehran since 2006. Some kind of coalition government  would form in Afghanistan, and hopefully it would last longer than the one in Iraq... If Osama were in custody, it could change the political landscape overnight in southeast Asia and the Middle East. If he were brought to trial in Saudi Arabia, would there be riots? If he were extradited to the US, would they try him in a civilian or military court? And would they keep him in the Supermax facility here in Colorado? Or, maybe Osama has changed his ways and would prefer to speak out on environmental issues from now on, inspiring all al-Qaeda members to drop their guns and plant trees instead, around rural campfires at night they will tell the story of how a mighty fighter became known as Muhammad Appleseed...



Tonite is the debate between Alaska's Joe Miller and his Democratic opponent. Hopefully, CSPAN will carry it, I can't wait to see who he will handcuff next...

Jobs Hypocrisy, Back To Square One In Iraq And Afpakistan

Maureen Dowd
Jill Lawrence
Nicholas Kristoff

"We're now into an era of what might you might call Darwinian conservatism -- a fend-for-yourself philosophy advanced by people who are skeptical about federal help, at least for others." - Jill Lawrence

"So far neither party has offered a comprehensive antidote to our economic pain. The Democrats have fallen short, and the cynics leading the G.O.P. haven’t so much as tried. We shouldn’t be surprised that this year even a state as seemingly well-mannered as Connecticut has produced a senatorial candidate best known for marching into a wrestling ring to gratuitously kick a man in the groin." - Frank Rich

"Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint." - Alexander Hamilton

Jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs
is what this election is all about, if you believe what every politician campaigning this year is saying. And it is all bullshit, rhetoric trying to get your vote. Because neither side can provide jobs or stimulate the economy so that the private sector will flourish. That's going to take a few more years, if at all...

The only thing that government can do is just what has been done - it can bail out private companies or it can fund programs to keep federal, state, and local government and school employees from losing their jobs. All of the negative nabobs keep saying that the tarp and stimulus didn't work, but they are wrong. The programs did exactly what they were designed to do, and we have made a profit in the process.


The money we gave to GM and Chrysler helped revive their markets, the cash for clunkers program worked very well to stimulate car buying, and they have a better designed, more popular group of cars that are selling well. The tarp money we lent Wall Street saved some firms, and even AIG looks like it will be able to pay back all $180 billion, with some interest.

Stimulus money went to save the jobs of those that would have been laid off this year - from the police department, the fire department, other government agencies, as well as local schoolteachers. Where it didn't go so well was in state and local construction projects, areas where they always procrastinate and fool around. The bad news is that without any more stimulus money coming into the states and your local cities, they will have to lay off a lot more personnel because the money normally saved for a rainy day is all gone. Colorado had to find a way to balance a $29 billion deficit this year, and next year it will be twice as worse. Colorado Springs sold its fleet of helicopters, response time from police and fire departments are twice as long, and if you have a handicapped or child with special needs, good luck to you, try moving to another place that still can fund their programs. Unless we legalize marijuana and turn our mega-churches into brothels, we may not have a city government two years from now.

Democrats have talked about more federal jobs program. Republicans have offered no ideas al all other than limiting federal government and laying off more workers. Tea party advocates haven't a clue because the Constitution hasn't told them how to create any jobs. Banks may be recovering, but they don't want to give out any small business loans. The SBA only will loan you $35,000. Many larger businesses have had to make do with a leaner work force and don't want to rehire now that they have a larger profit margin. Too bad, because its only with the creation of more small businesses, and the return of mom-and-pop storefronts, which make up the bulk of new hiring, will our economy begin to grow.

It may well be that we will have a globally repressed economy that may never recover past our previous levels. Resources and water are beginning to run out, and our manufacturing bases are vanishing. Natural disasters in the next few years will be intense, especially when next year's monsoons hit India and Pakistan. If drought continues a few hundred miles to the West in Russia, we will see a world-wide shortage in wheat and rice, well over a billion people will starve, maybe to their deaths.

Sorry, didn't mean to get so gloomy, but I wanted to contrast it to the stupid reasons we have given for going to war. Instead of invading Afghanistan and fighting and killing, what if we had used our military and went in and built roads and schools and hospitals? If we got rid of the land-mines and turned those areas into farmlands? Fighting all of the taliban groups was never our job, weren't we after al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden?...

It looks like all of Petraeus's work in Iraq has just gone to hell, if the report that the Sunni Awakening groups have pulled out of government coalitions and gone back to supporting al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Guess it did not help when Nuri al-Maliki kept arresting and putting the Sunnis in jail, as well as kicking their leaders out of their government jobs. Oh, well, better luck next time, and there will be a next time if we have a Republican majority followed by a president as hawkish and dumb as Sarah or Newt, or even John McCain...

Another State-Owned Chinese Mine Collapse, Harassing Liu's Friends, Chavez Goes Shopping In Moscow

David Ignatius
Matthew Continetti
Michelle Goldberg

"People are saying that everything is Obama's fault – he hasn't dug us out of Bush's recession and two wars fast enough. That's the problem." – David Letterman

"California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has released a new TV ad in both Mandarin and Cantonese. This is part of her effort to reach out to the Asian community. That's how California works, where a white woman from back East, trying to replace an Austrian governor, runs an ad in Chinese to explain to people why she hired a Mexican maid." – Jay Leno

"The Obama administration had lifted the six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, provided that the oil companies follow the new safety regulations. For example, there has to be at least one sober person on the rig at all times." – Jay Leno

Perhaps China wants to always be making news headlines and pouts like some spoiled actress entering rehab if she doesn't make the front page. Just as we were celebrating the miracle of the  Chilean miner's rescue comes news of another mine collapse in Henan, China. The mine in Chile was a gold mine and had less danger of methane buildups, while the mine in China is a coal mine, and that is what happened: "RESCUERS battled dangerous levels of gas, tons of coal dust and the risk of falling rocks as they worked to free 16 miners trapped by an explosion at a mine in central China early yesterday. Twenty-one miners were confirmed killed... The blast unleashed more than 2,500 tons of coal dust, an engineer for one of the mine's parent companies, Du Bo, said. Ventilation has resumed in the mining pit but gas levels remain high. The gas level inside the mine was 40 percent, far higher than the normal level of nearly 1 percent, China Central Television reported."

The mine is run by the state and had another methane gas explosion two years ago, which also killed people. You can tell by the percentage of methane gas that was allowed to build up in the tunnel that the company was negligent. China has the most mine disasters in the world, a dubious honor that it seems determined to lead...

What's worse, having a member of your family trapped in a coal mine, with little hope of rescue, or having the state pick up that family member and sent to some secret jail. The Chinese government is still pissed off that an activist that they already have in jail won the Nobel Peace Prize, that they are not content to harass him and his wife, they are focusing on all of their friends, too: "In the week after Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of promoting democratic change in China, dozens of people who openly agreed with his views say they have been detained, roughed up, harassed or kept from leaving their homes. The latest appears to be a woman who Liu has said should win the prize: Ding Zilin, who has fought for years for China's government to recognize the hundreds killed in the military's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Liu's wife sent out an alert late Thursday that said Ding had "disappeared" and urged people to "pay attention" to her case.


Specially targeted for harassment after Liu won the peace prize are the first group of signers of Charter 08, the demand for greater freedoms that brought Liu an 11-year prison sentence for subversion and that was cited by the Nobel committee.

"I'm so sorry. I have a lot to say, but I don't dare to talk. I've been confronted several times by police already since Liu Xiaobo won the prize," writer Zhao Shiying, who signed Charter 08, said Thursday."

These are the kind of abuses the Chinese government heaps upon its citizens, a tradition of arrogance and belittlement that was supposed to have been eradicated by the Communist Revolution in 1949. And as China continues to expand economically around the world, those attitudes will also be fostered on citizens of other countries and cultures, you might call it Repression - R - Us...

In order to play nice after the EU imposed sanctions, Russia canceled delivery to Iran of five defensive missile battalions. But, business is business, and Iran may get them after all, in a back-room deal with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who is visiting Moscow. He has offered to buy the S300PMU-1, and then attemp to deliver them to his new best friends. Also, while he was in Moscow, Russia announced that it was going to build a nuclear reactor in Venezuela... A lot of protest is going up over oil rich countries wanting to use nuclear power. It's not just Venezuela and Iran, but also Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Gulf Emirates. South Korea is already contracted to build a reactor in Dubai, using a lot of US technology. Water is running out in the Middle East and North Africa, the water table is going dry and the underground flow of water is not happening, and these countries are looking to running nuclear powered desalinization plants, or else face starvation and massive emigration. Right now there are over one billion people who do not get enough to eat on a daily basis, according to the world Health Organization.

I hadn't thought of it, but half of the world is enjoying the antics of our mid-term election. Of course, they are dismissive of emulating the US style of democracy as being too crazy and messy. While we still are trying to work with the Black and Hispanic votes, Meg Whitman even created a campaign ad in Mandarin and Cantonese, countries like Germany have given up. Chancellor Angela Merkel today said that multiculturalism has been a big failure in Germany. I don't know what she sees as the alternative, though this summer's deportation of Gypsies might give us a clue. So, after our wacky elections, we can pop up some popcorn and sit and watch as the European Union self-destructs, otherwise known as Tom Tancredo's wet dream...

Reid And Angle Could Use A Shot Of Tequila, Cutaneous Leishmaniasis In Afghanistan, Karl Rove Needs To Be Stoned

Eugene Robinson
John Dickerson

"Two years ago, with the nation facing a host of complex and difficult problems, voters put a bunch of thoughtful, well-educated people in charge of the government. Now many of those same voters, unhappy and impatient, have decided that things will get better if some crazy, ignorant people are running the show?" - Eugene Robinson

"After watching the Nevada Senate debate, the country should hope that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." - John Dickerson

I was disappointed that I had missed the debates between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman, along with the debate between Chris Coons and Christine O'Donnell. So I made sure to search out the debate last night between Harry Reid and Sharron Angle. I expected to come away with a negative impression of Ms Angle, and she didn't disappoint. At times she tried to get away with downright old fashioned slander, once accusing Mr Reid of making all of his money while as a Senator...

What surprised me, though, was that for all of his experience and years served, Harry Reid is a crappy debater. He comes across as someone's kindly grandfather who is reluctantly drawn into a scurfluffle. John Dickerson has a good description of the debate, it didn't feel like there were real people talking at each other, it felt more like someone quickly edited a response from previously taped material from both candidates... Whether Harry Reid pulls through and gets re-elected or not, the Democrats should seriously think of replacing him as leader of the Senate with someone younger and with a little more pep. I would love to see Al Franken or Amy Klobuchar in that post; it doesn't have to be awarded on the basis of seniority... Conversely, the Republicans should seriously consider replacing John Boehner and especially Mitch McConnell for their failed obstructionist strategies during the last two years...

 The NY Times reports that there are 33 races with candidates espousing tea party ideals, meaning that win or lose, they have a good chance of becoming a third party and influencing policy on a national level. I think that they will take over the Republican Party, as they essentially have already. All that's left is the formal announcement and cutting of the cake. Interesting, though, that we have all kinds of splinter groups of differing hues of conservatism wandering out in our political wilderness, and there are no moderates brave enough to take on the loudmouths. Unless we find a way to filter out the wackos, our future elections may end up stranger than this present one. The crazier ones are fun for their entertainment value, and we should always keep a Rand Paul or Michelle Bachmann in reserve for those dark and gloomy days, but please don't put them in charge of the CIA or in charge of foreign policy... On the other hand, I think Carly Fiorino is right, that all debates should now start off with a few shots of tequila...

One of the problems of war is what happens to a city or village after being bombed. Water sources are affected and the quality of sanitation goes downhill, paving the way for outbreaks of diseases. Afghanistan is currently seeing outbreaks of malaria and a disfiguring skin parasite transmitted by the bites of a sand fly, probably brought to the region by military gear that was in Iraq, as the BBC reports: "The Afghan capital, Kabul, has been hit by a disfiguring tropical skin disease, the World Health Organization says. The WHO warned that the disease, cutaneous leishmaniasis, threatens the health of 13 million Afghans, especially women and girls. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease transmitted through the bites of certain species of sand-fly. It can lead to severe scarring, often on the face, and regularly goes undiagnosed and untreated. Several other major cities such as Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-e Sharif are also centres of leishmaniasis."

So far the only way to treat this disease is by the use of expensive drugs, although an experimental form of heat treatment is currently being tested. It will go away by itself after a year or so, but leaving behind horrible scarring. This disease could be one of the reasons thousands of residents of Kabul took to the streets protesting the American presence... It's a good thing that peace talks between the Talibans, the Americans, NATO, and the Afghan government are taking place, because after nine years, it looks like we are wearing out our welcome... As an aside to this, if a peace is negotiated and we pack it all up, where will we locate our next Bagram prison, which is where we put our prisoners from our war on terror, the ones we keep without charges, and the ones we use mercenaries to torture for information. Maybe on Okinawa or deep in a mine in Chile?.. Just another gift from the good ol' USA...

Obama won't be making any choices on what to do next in Afghanistan until after the elections in November, and, as Robert Dalleck explains in Foreign Policy, his choices are bleak: "Obama faces his next momentous decision on what to do in Afghanistan while praying that Gen. David Petraeus, the hero of the Iraq surge, can duplicate the feat before the public's patience runs out. So far, the president has avoided either fully embracing the Afghan war or calling for outright withdrawal. His commitment of 30,000 additional troops was meant to reassure America's national security hawks that he is as determined as they are to defend the country's safety from future attacks. At the same time, his promise to begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011 suggests his understanding that Afghanistan could be another Vietnam -- a costly, unwinnable conflict that could tie the United States down in Asia for the indefinite future. It might also be, of course, that Obama has serious doubts about the value of sending American soldiers to die in a far-off, impoverished land of little strategic value, but understands that simply to walk away from the conflict carries unacceptable political risks, undermining his ability to enact a bold domestic agenda that is central to his administration and his chances for a second term."

Obama's domestic enemies are painting him as some kind of intellectual pussy who would rather try and talk than take action. It's the John Wayne syndrome: weak men like Dick Cheney and John Bolton trying to huff and puff and bluster the house down while belittling those who find it silly to swagger around wearing chaps and spurs... Remember, John Wayne was a coward and alcoholic who beat up on his Hispanic wives, yep a great American to idol and emulate...

It's about that time in the elections that the conservatives start pulling off childish pranks and name-calling, much like George Bush did to John McCain... It's about time that Christine O'Donnell calls her opponent gay, or Jan Brewer in Arizona calling her opponent gay, or Tom Tancredo in Colorado calling his opponents gay immigrants... We already are watching some of the most vicious television commercials crafted by Karl Rove, with every sentence in them a falsehood but said in a tone of voice scientifically guaranteed to produce a negative image inside your head. It's a high-tech way of bullying and calling the other guy names, a high-tech way of saying that the other guy is gay, a way to shame him in public... If we're going to bring back stoning people to death, could Karl be the first one we get to toss into the arena?

Advice To Miners: Don't Move To West Virginia, Ahmadinejad Hearts Hezbollah,

Dana Milbank
Nicholas Kristof
Hillary Rosen

"The Republicans are the only ones standing between you and reform." - John Boehner

"Somebody threw a book at President Obama. If you're trying to scare a president by throwing a book at him, you're one president too late." – David Letterman

"Rich Iott, the Republican nominee and Tea Party-backed candidate for Congress in Ohio, has admitted that he dressed up in a Nazi uniform for a Nazi reenactment. He said he was just following orders. His campaign slogan: 'In your heart you know he's Reich.''' – Jay Leno

David Letterman's "Top Ten Entries On Barack Obama's Enemies List"

10. Smug know-it-all at Apple Genius Bar
9. 'General Hospital's' Patrick for cheating on Robin with Lisa
8. Secretary who answers the phone, 'Yell-o?'
7. 'Late Show' audio technician Tom Herrmann
6. Those Chilean miners . . . You're trapped, we get it
5. Online store that still hasn't delivered his Captain Kirk chair
4. Anyone who doesn't think 'Glee' makes your spirit soar
3. Drugstores that don't carry Topol, the smoker's tooth polish
2. Late night talk show hosts who deliver lame top ten lists at his expense
1. Bastard who lost his birth certificate

The best story of the week is the successful rescue of 33 Chilean miners who had been trapped for over 2 months at a depth of 2000 feet below the surface. I got very emotional and laughed and cried along with the families as I saw the miners brought to the surface. And the Chilean government showed the whole world how to do it all the right way, from keeping the miners healthy, their spirits strong, and letting them know that the country was rooting for them along with their loved ones and families. The rescue took 22 hours and 39 minutes, and the person who hugged every one of them the most was the president of Chile. The drill operator was from Colorado, and NASA designed the capsule that brought the miners up from the deep. They will each get a few days to bask in the glory of being alive, then must make the decision if they will go back into a mine again. And it could be worse, it could be a coal mine that often produces toxic gases. My advice will be, don't move to West Virginia...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his mad two day dash through Lebanon without any assassination attempts, in fact, he was treated with more enthusiasm, cheering, and flag waving than he has ever gotten back home, that he might be considering migrating to Lebanon for good. The threat made to Israel was that if Israel decides to attack Iran, a counter-strike could very easily come through southern Lebanon.

Even though we see Ahmadinejad to be this ineffective guy, as wacky as Christine O'Donnell, he is seen in Iran as a puppet for the Revolutionary Guard and more moderate than the Grand Ayatollah who keeps him in power. In other parts of the Muslim world, he is seen as part of a movement where the Shias are ascending in power and influence, Hezbollah being a part of it, too. A lot will be determined in the next few years; if Hosni Mubarak is replaced as President of Egypt, and which member of the Saudi royal family will replace the elderly King Abdullah after he passes. If more conservative Sunnis take their place, then the Shia will be seen as the more progressive force, gaining influence throughout the whole region. Too bad the Saudi king can't live another 100 years or so, he has been the most positive ruler Saudi Arabia has had...

Too funny - - - from the great state of Illinois comes a report I found in TPM, of poor Green Party's candidate, Rich Whitney: "The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the name of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney is misspelled "Rich Whitey" on electronic-voting machines in 23 wards -- "about half in predominantly African-American areas." The error only occurs on screens voters would see when they are reviewing their choices (Whitney's name appears correctly on the initial screens), but officials say the error cannot be corrected before election day.


Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections, told the Sun-Times he expects 90% of votes on election day to be cast on paper ballots -- minimizing the number of voters who would see the misspelling.


"I don't want to be identified as 'Whitey.' If this is happening in primarily African-American wards, that's an even bigger concern," Whitney told the Sun-Times. The paper says he's considering legal action. "I don't know if this is machine politics at play or why this happened." Here the poor guy is polling only 2% of the vote, and on election day a lot of black folks will have the opportunity to vote for a rich whitey. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in those polling places, or better yet, to film folks as they leave the voting booths... The only thing worse is if the guy's real name is Tidy Whitey... I don't see how alternative parties will ever build up a constituency if subversions like this keeps on happening.

Rise of Germany's Right Wing Fascism, Federal Judge Rules Against DADT, Restore Sanity Rally Signs

Eleanor Clift
Matt Latimer
Dana Milbank

Top Ten Things You Should Know About Kim Jong Un
10."People Magazine" named him "Sexiest Kim Jong Alive"
9.At the age of nine was taller than his father
8.Enjoys wearing plaid shirts
7.Throws left, tortures right
6.Has skeletons in his closet. Not secrets, actual skeletons -- can you imagine?
5.Says he's "super-psyched and ready to bring it!"
4.Was a finalist to replace Max Weinberg as Conan's bandleader
3.Has a rock-hard set of abs he calls "The Detonation"
2.Wants to convert the Yongbyon Nuclear Facility to a Cheesecake Factory
1.Currently dating Lindsay Lohan

It may be instructive to briefly look at Germany, one of the most prosperous nations in the world, and look at how the global financial recessions brought on by Wall Street firms have affected the country. A study conducted every couple of years, shows that currently, there is a rise in right wing attitudes, even wishing for a strong leader, or Fuhrer, to lead them into safety: "A new study has revealed that far-right attitudes are deeply rooted in German society. One-third of Germans would send foreigners home if there weren't enough jobs, while one-sixth think Jews have too much influence.


"Germany is in serious danger of being overrun by foreigners." It's a sentence one would expect to find on an election poster for Germany's far-right NPD party. As it happens, it's a view that is held by over one-third of the German population -- a new survey has revealed that 35.6 percent of Germans agree with the statement. Additionally, more than 30 percent think that "foreigners come to take advantage of the welfare state" and that when jobs are scarce foreigners should be sent "back to their own country." More than one-tenth would like a "Führer" -- the survey deliberately used the German word for "leader" that is associated with Adolf Hitler -- who would govern the country "with a firm hand" for the benefit of all... One thing hasn't changed. Contrary to what the term far-right suggests, right-wing extremist attitudes don't only exist on the fringes of politics, but are also found in the political center, "in all social groups and in all age groups, regardless of employment status, educational level or gender." These attitudes have even been detected among groups that traditionally classify themselves as left-wing, such as trade unions and the Social Democrats."

Islamophobia is rising and there have been political parties formed to send immigrants back home, as well as the recent purging of Gypsies this summer, suggest that Tom Tancredo would be happier running for Chancellor than Governor of Colorado. Yet, within this framework is a community of about 130,000 Muslims, with an estimated 2000 sympathetic to jihadist philosophy. The city of Hamberg closed down the mosque where several 9/11 plotters prayed before leaving for America, and it had become a "shrine" for radical European jihadists, worth traveling to on vacation... And, as the NY Times reports, Germany is currently at the center of global terrorist plots.

"In July, American forces in Afghanistan detained a German citizen, Ahmed Sidiqi, 36, said to have ties to the men who helped plot the Sept. 11 attacks. Then just after Washington issued the terrorism alert based on information from Mr. Sidiqi, Pakistani officials said that several German citizens were killed in a drone strike.

The United States military also recently issued an alert for a 23-year-old Berlin man suspected of joining a group called the German Taliban Mujahadeen. Federal law enforcement authorities here followed suit with an arrest warrant for the man identified as Hayrettin Burhan Sauerland amid concerns that he might try to return here from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region to stage an attack, possibly against United States military personnel." We don't really know how many Germans and Europeans have traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and received terrorist raining, but its estimated perhaps in the 100's. Some may have just been travelers who like to vacation in dangerous places, there is a whole subculture out there who does, our American hikers who wandered over into Iran from Iraq show the risks involved. So, maybe you shouldn't worry so much in your paranoid mind about swarthy people of Middle East descent wandering around our military installations and nuclear plants, and retune your spidy sense for caucasians speaking in teutonic accents shuffling ever closer towards the Ground Zero mosque site...

Now that a federal judge has ruled that the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy is unconstitutional, watch how the military will dig in its heels and scream "Don't Ask Us To." Already, Robert Gates has said that it would have been better to have waited until the military task force's report on how to stop implementing DADT came out. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has said that it would be best if the Senate voted to repeal it, like that will ever happen... It was a stupid policy meant to be transitional, so that those homophobic older generals could retire first. Too bad that mental midgets like John McCain took it to heart and refused to budge on their positions over DADT. McCain said that he would wait and see what the Generals said about it. When the Generals said that they wanted DADT ended, that they all had served with gay officers in the past and that it was no big deal, McCain chose to ignore them. Thank God again that he was not elected our President...

In this day and age of an all volunteer armed forces, we can't really afford to turn down people who are smart and talented just because of sexual orientation. It's not like they are going to cruise the barracks every night, or ambush some straight guy and magically turn him queer... The ones in the military who are adamantly opposed to DADT are a bunch of paper pushers who never had to fight or work under combat pressure, and can sit back and nurture their ignorance. Its time for the military to end discrimination towards anyone who wants the military for a career, and focus on other policies that are more dangerous and apt to get people killed, like hiring mercenaries and leaving countries that we invaded without electricity and potable water... And don't forget to Write In Lady Gaga For Congress on your ballot...

Here are some signs that you might see at the Restore sanity rallies. I got them off of the Huffington Post, who had 144 examples, as well as the templates for you to make your own. Many of the tea party sites had the same thing, hundreds of slogans to download and put on your signs, which is why so many of the first twenty slogans were seen all over the country. Anyway, enjoy:

Iran Sabotaged, May Cause Lebanese Civil War, Angle's $14 Million In Moola

Eugene Robinson

"It's now being alleged that Lou Dobbs had illegal immigrants working for him. The good news, he's now qualified to run for governor of California." –Jay Leno

"Jerry Brown has apologized to Meg Whitman after a campaign aide called her a whore. Let me tell you, that is totally out of line. Politicians don't become whores until after they're elected." –Jay Leno

"What is it with conservatives? Seriously, I'm not trying to be partisan but it seems like if they're anti-illegal alien, they have illegal aliens working for them. If they're anti-gay, they turn out to be gay. If they're super Christian, they're a witch." –Bill Maher

What a tangled mess is happening in the Middle East, all centered around Iran. Where to begin? We know that the Stuxnet virus was released into the computers working the controlling systems for the nuclear program. Several Iranian physicists and technicians were arrested and executed without trial for allowing the virus to develop. Next, an Iranian army base was sabotaged, with bombs killing several soldiers. indicating that all is not well internally. Iran is also rounding up all foreigners who are posing as journalists, they caught two Germans without proper credentials in the middle of a journalistic interview. The Russians who were contracted to run the nuclear reactors and enrichment program are long gone, as they are acutely sensitive to government crackdowns...

Asia times reports on a little known fact that also hasn't been reported very much, just how vulnerable Iran is to cyber-attack. And the joke, it seems. is on Iran, and possibly all other governments that don't want to pay for their software: "Amid the mass of published analysis of the Stuxnet virus, Iran's most obvious vulnerability to cyber-war has drawn little comment: much of the Islamic Republic runs on pirated software. The programmers who apparently cracked Siemens' industrial control code to plant malware in Iran's nuclear facilities needed a high degree of sophistication. Most Iranian computers, though, run on stolen software obtained from public servers sponsored by the Iranian government. It would require far less effort to bring about a virtual shutdown of computation in Iran, and the collapse of the Iranian economy. The information technology apocalypse that the West feared on Y2K (the year 2000) is a real possibility." Instead of producing a sophisticated virus that inserts itself into German software, all that may be need to bring the country to its knees are hacks that any 13 year old kid can do...

American and Israeli experts were surprised to see some Chinese jet fighters recently added to the Iranian arsenal, they were displayed at a Turkish air show and joint military exercise and maneuvers. The fears are that they could be used if the mess in Lebanon boils over into a violent brew. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is coming to dinner, one, to visit the recognized government, and two, to visit Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. 2,500 Revolutionary Guard are already in Lebanon to beef up security and to plant Iranian flags all over the place. An al-Qaeda group that nobody has heard of before, has said that it will be a blood-bath if Ahmadinejad sets foot in Lebanon. The US is putting pressure on Syria to contain any Hezbollah violence. And Lebanon's Harriri has gone to Cairo pleading for some help here, man... Still, the visit is six days out. Too bad all of this can't be filmed like an episode of Law and Order, shifting from scene to scene as the plot thickens and develops... All to pave the way for the Court Jester, who knows what antics he may have up his sleeve?

Even Sarah Palin weighed in on her world where Iran had a nuclear bomb: “We have to realize that at the end of the day that a nuclear weapon in that country's hands is not just Israel's problem or America's problem it is the world's problem,” she said. “It could lead to Armageddon. It would lead to that World War III that could decimate so much of this planet.”


After the mid-term elections, the tea party may have to change its name to the champagne party, as many of its candidates are racking up the bucks, raking in the moola... Sharron Angle has reported a whopping $14 million in donations, ans even Christine O'Donnel has amassed over $2 million. Legally, they're not supposed to use the money for personal reasons, but Ms O'Donnell was accused of that before by a previous campaign manager. And Ms Angle will try to get around that by going into permanent campaign mode.

I don't know about you, but I'm finding the negative ads produced by the Karl Rove groups to especially annoying, compounded because there are so many of them. We can't watch television now without ending up yelling back at the screen "You lie!" I know that there are some intelligent and principled Republicans out there, and now would be a good time to stand up and stop all of the foolishness. If we go back into session at Congress even more divided and partisan, with tea party people adding to Republicans refusing to work together on anything that Obama proposes, then we will be truly screwed... When we need pragmatic ideas on how to get people to start businesses up again, find a way to reinvigorate a manufacturing base, and get our economy going in real time, not virtual Wall Street time. We can't do that if all of the Republicans band together to shoot down any Democratic idea, or any idea other than a tax cut, and some dork from Nevada is crying out to ban the Department of Education...


David Letterman's "Top Ten Signs There's Trouble at Fox News"

10. Accidentally said something positive about a Democrat
9. News ticker reads 'Bosses crazy, send help'
8. Today's top story: Is there anything more delicious than bacon?
7. Been criticizing Obama for not doing enough to prevent World War I
6. Bill O'Reilly inviting guests to enter the 'No Pants Zone'
5. Crime stories eerily similar to plot of most recent 'Hawaii Five-O'
4. Spent five hours today breaking down the Mets playoff chances
3. Thinking about hiring Rick Sanchez
2. Since June, Glenn Beck has been doing this nonstop (Beck barking)
1. They're thinking of giving the 10:00 p.m. slot to Leno