Saturday, August 12, 2006

About George McGovern A B-24J on take off Let's see: George McGovern was a decorated B-24 pilot flying out of Italy in WWII. He flew on the last mission in Europe in WWII on April 25, 1945 over Vienna. Karl Rove has seen 12 O'Clock High. McGovern was born in Avon, South Dakota in 1922, and lived in nearby Mitchell, having moved there at the age of six. He volunteered for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and served as a B-24 Liberator bomber pilot in the Fifteenth Air Force, flying 35 missions over enemy territory from bases in North Africa and later Italy, often against heavy anti-aircraft artillery. McGovern was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross; his wartime exploits were later at the center of Stephen Ambrose's book The Wild Blue . [1] McGovern married Eleanor Stegeberg of Woonsocket, South Dakota on October 31, 1943. On return from the war, he earned a PhD in history from Northwestern University and became a professor at his alma mater, Dakota Wesleyan University. Although he was raised by two Republican parents, he chose not to join any particular party until the 1948 presidential election, when he registered as an Independent and joined the newly-formed Progressive Party. During the campaign, he attended the party's first national convention as a delegate and volunteered for the eventually unsuccessful campaign of its presidential nominee, former Vice President Henry A. Wallace. Four years later, in 1952, he heard a radio broadcast of Governor Adlai Stevenson's speech accepting the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. He immediately went into town and registered as a Democrat, then volunteered for Stevenson's campaign the following day. Although Stevenson lost that election, McGovern remained active in Democratic politics. In 1956, he ran for and won a seat in the House of Representatives. So the next time one of these Republican cowards tosses up McGovern, a response is appropriate. (Via The News Blog.) 7:16:23 PM    comment []

Reagan Supreme Court appointee Justice Kennedy opines on the rule of law Interesting remarks last weekend from a Reagan appointee to the Supreme Court. It was a crazy week, so never really focused on what Kennedy was saying, but take a look:The United States is not making the case for freedom, democracy and Western law to the rest of the world, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said Saturday. "Make no mistake, there's a jury that's out. In half the world, the (Via AMERICAblog.) 6:43:32 PM    comment []

Hate mail from suggestion that Jesus was a liberal There's a website, www.jesusisaliberal.org, which suggests that Jesus was a liberal. (I'd go further and suggest that Jesus offered some views which were close to communism.) This site has provoked some interesting hate mail which seems somewhat at odds with what Jesus would do. (Via The Lippard Blog.) 2:35:47 PM    comment []

Bush vs Bush 12:23:52 PM    comment []

So why did the Bush Administration try to divert $6 million in explosives detection R&D money? While the Bush Administration continues to try to take credit for cracking the airplane bombing plot, and people are emptying lip gloss and bottles of what airport security measures fear could be explosives into one big container at airports, perhaps we should ask why the Administration sought to divert $6 million in money allocated to R&D into explosives detection devices -- the kind that could detect explosives being smuggled onto airplanes: While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology. Congressional leaders rejected the idea, the latest in a series of steps by the Homeland Security Department that has left lawmakers and some of the department's own experts questioning the commitment to create better anti-terror technologies. [snip] Lawmakers and recently retired Homeland Security officials say they are concerned the department's research and development effort is bogged down by bureaucracy, lack of strategic planning and failure to use money wisely. The department failed to spend $200 million in research and development money from past years, forcing lawmakers to rescind the money this summer. The administration also was slow to start testing a new liquid explosives detector that the Japanese government provided to the United States earlier this year. The British plot to blow up as many as 10 American airlines on trans-Atlantic flights was to involve liquid explosives. [snip] The administration's most recent budget request also mystified lawmakers. It asked to take $6 million from Homeland S&T's 2006 budget that was supposed to be used to develop explosives detection technology and instead divert it to cover a budget shortfall in the Federal Protective Service, which provides security around government buildings. (Via Brilliant at Breakfast.) 9:18:20 AM    comment []

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