Pentagon explains why they keep going to the poisoned well...

Josh Marshall at TPM discovered that Laurie Mylroie, wacko conspiracy theorist who connected Saddam Heussein to virtually every terrorist attack against since the '93 World Traded Center bombing, has been writing analytic pieces for the Department of Defense, as late as Oct., 2007.

....about the selection process for ONA researchers, a DOD spokesperson said in a statement:
"All aspects of researchers and research institutions are considered, with an 
emphasis on obtaining the widest range of possible intellectual approaches in order to provide a fully balanced approach to the analysis of future developments."

And how did the Pentagon use Mylroie's Iraq reports? Says DOD: "These reports were part of a multi-scope research effort to identify the widest possible range of analysts whose expertise was likely to generate insights and concepts which would contribute to Net Assessments on-going work to develop and refine trends, risks, and opportunities which will shape future (2020) national security environments."

Don't ya just love that special brand of rarefied Pentagon bafflegab bullshit?

It is time to begin cost cutting in the Pentagon. Re-assign thousands of careerist wimps whose reason for existence is to get serial desk jockey promotions leading to retirement gigs in the right wing think tanks and with weapons contractors.

Makes you wonder what Judy Miller is up to these days. Probably the same kind of honest work her pal, Laurie, is doing.

Amidst all the inaugural talk about how things are gonna change...

...Mr. Obama deserves credit for a lot of things, but perhaps most amazingly his ability to see "hope" in a public so demoralized by their own bad choices that the USA scene has devolved to a non-stop Special Olympics of everyday life, where absolutely everybody is debilitated, deluded, challenged, or needs a leg up, or an extra buck, or a pallet on the floor, or a gastric bypass, or a week in detox, or a head-start, or a fourth strike, or a $150-billion bailout.

There 's a lot of raw material from sea to shining sea, admittedly, but how do you re-shape it into a population guided by a sense of earnest purpose, with reality-based expectations, with habits of delayed gratification and impulse control, and a sense of their own history?

Jim Kunstler, CFN

The least-known and least-quoted speech of Dr. King...

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence

By Rev. Martin Luther King
4 April 1967

Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. On the same date, one year later, he was dead of an assassin's bullet.

"A time comes when silence is betrayal."

---

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

The rest here

Freeman columnist 'splains it all.

Some show Courage; others are into Betrayal

Mark Belling, this AM in Waukesha:

.... Two local politicians are currently sticking their necks out. The stance of one is principled and correct while the other is again proving herself to be a political moonbat.

...Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is saying he doesn’t want the money. How out of sync is Walker? He’s the lone hog in the back of the barn while all the other pigs are battling for position at the feeding trough.

It is terribly obvious the Obama plan will put fortunes in the hands of poverty pimps, political hustlers, grubby contractors and anybody else with a political pal.... But Walker realizes the federal money is a one-time thing.... Walker is saying he’ll only take money that requires no local match and no local operating costs. I haven’t found a single other politician in Wisconsin recognizing that the federal stimulus money will create massive new local spending.

In the meantime, Milwaukee Congresswoman Gwen Moore was on the losing side of a 390-5 vote in the U.S. House affirming Israel’s right to defend itself in Gaza. How far out in crackpot field is Moore? Consider the other four “no” votes: Ron Paul, the token Republican terror sympathizer, Maxine Waters, the Californian who oozes niceties about Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic peacenik even lefties are embarrassed by and somebody named Rahall.

The non-binding resolution passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate with even ultra-liberals like Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold voting for it. Moore is way out on the fringe on this one. Aside from Moore’s apparent belief that Israelis should have to suffer through daily bombings from Palestinians who think all Jews should die, her position is a betrayal of the many prominent Milwaukee Jews who have contributed heavily to her political fund. [emphasis added]

The jury is out on how Obama will respond to the Islamist terror threat but it’s fairly apparent that the jihadists have a dear friend in Gwen Moore.

This guy isn't just wrong...He's bent.

A Generational Anthem for Change

o The poet will read the poem of the day to millions of blank stares.

o The preacher (I'm hoping he'll reveal how--just the day before-- he was struck down on the Road to Damascus, the scales fell from his eyes, and he regrets that nasty bigoted stuff he said about gay marriage) will preach while millions put their fingers in their ears and intone: "Lalalalalalalalal....I'm not listening....lalalalalalalalal....I can't hear you".

o The President-elect will oath and promise to preserve and protect, getting the multitude all teary-eyed and lump-in-the-throat-ish.

And as we all prepare to listen to the inaugural address, we'll need a musical interlude to set the tone for the new President's program.
Though I heard a little piece of it sampled in some otherwise forgettable hip-hop a while back, It's likely many Obamaniacs have never listened to the greatest protest song of the 60s,

Compared to What.

It is--to our enduring shame--still up-to-the-minute. It had been in Les McCann's repertoire for six years. But the 1969 Montreux version with Eddie Harris, was released as a single and became a generational anthem for change.