Those Dirty Effing Hippies Might Just Be Right Again.

How many times do people have to be right before they are no longer demonized and ridiculed as flakes and traitors.

The national conversation, in the last 40 years or so, has gone something like this, in its broadest form:

Q: Who said Bush is a liar and a war criminal?

A: Millions of people all over the world, who protested the war in Iraq before it started.

Q: Oh, do you mean all those dirty, effing, hippie, tree-hugger nitwits and peace people? They caused us to lose Vietnam by rolling in the mud of upstate New York, worshiping Jane Fonda and smoking Marijuana.

A: Ooooo.K
and
Q : Have you been to a protest lately? Did you actually smell the smoke of any pungent herb in the air? Have you seen much violence at any protest? Seen any Fonda altars lately? Do you really believe that over 60% of Americans are dirty, effing hippies?

A) Well, maybe not, but many have been brainwashed by those dirty effing hippies?

Q: How have they been brainwashed? By the "liberal media?" Are there dirty effing hippies on CNN regularly? I must have missed those programs? What about MSNBC? Keith Olbermann? Oh, puleeze, the man was a sportscaster. Dirty, effing hippies aren't known for their maniacal love of professional sports. What great megaphone do dirty, effing hippies have at their disposal to brainwash anyone?

Blah, Blah, Blah.....

The Hippies were right about just about everything 45 years ago and they are right now.

DeFazio asks, but he's denied access

Classified info - The congressman wanted to see government plans for after a terror attack

Friday, July 20, 2007

JEFF KOSSEFF

The Oregonian Staff

WASHINGTON -- Oregonians called Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack.

As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom" in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.

On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED.

"I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack," DeFazio says.

Homeland Security Committee staffers told his office that the White House initially approved his request, but it was later quashed. DeFazio doesn't know who did it or why.

"We're talking about the continuity of the government of the United States of America," DeFazio says. "I would think that would be relevant to any member of Congress, let alone a member of the Homeland Security Committee."

Bush administration spokesman Trey Bohn declined to say why DeFazio was denied access: "We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive."

Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he "cannot think of one good reason" to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee.

"I find it inexplicable and probably reflective of the usual, knee-jerk overextension of executive power that we see from this White House," Ornstein said.

This is the first time DeFazio has been denied access to documents. DeFazio has asked Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., to help him access the documents.

"Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right," DeFazio said.

Jeff Kosseff: 202-383-7814 jeff.kosseff@newhouse.com

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

National Insecurity

By Gary Hart

Both the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century and the follow-on Council on Foreign Relations report a year after 9-11 concluded that the backbone of homeland security is the 50-state National Guard. Properly trained and equipped, the Guard must play the central role in deterring jihadist attacks on America and responding to them if they occur.

Today, more than 40% of our combat and combat support units in Iraq are National Guard and Reserve forces. We cannot continue to maintain and expand our military operations in Iraq without these Guard and Reserve forces. Many of their units have been redeployed multiple times in violation of the agreements Guard members sign when they enlist. We are exhausting not only our regular standing combat troops, we are also exhausting the deployed Guard and Reserve units.

Most important, the National Guard units in Iraq are not in the United States standing post over our nation's security at home. They are not being trained and equipped for this vital mission. If we are in fact at war with terrorism, we are leaving our homeland flanks totally exposed. The Administration and its supporters have excused this dereliction in security with the hollow slogan: We're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here.
This specious argument fails on several counts. The "them" we are fighting in Iraq are overwhelmingly Iraqi insurgents who have no interest in following us home. And the relatively small but growing numbers of al Qaeda in Iraq can do more than one thing at once, as the people of London and Madrid can testify. It is the United States that cannot fight them there using National Guard forces needed to fight them here.

Members of Congress truly concerned with national security will pass legislation requiring National Guard forces in Iraq to be steadily withdrawn and restored to the homeland security mission originally placed upon them by the Constitution of the United States.


(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.