Someone recently asked me, "Why is it that you say America cannot be a republic and an empire?" Well, my friend, here is your answer: The Secretary of the United States Air Force wants to shoot you with ray guns in order, he says, to justify shooting them at foreigners. "If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation [and we really want to shoot them at foreigners as soon as possible]." Now comes the test. Will he...

Man, oh, man. Bob Dreyfuss has done it again. Go read, and get back to me. Go ahead and throw in Robert A. Pape's new one for the Cato Institute.

The KAOS Report. 95.9 and 92.7 FM in Austin, stream here. Archive here.

Antiwar.com research editor, Jason Ditz, has an interesting analysis of what's going on in the Blair government over in the UK. It seems Blair wants to replace himself with a guy named Reid instead of his long-time heir apparent, Gordon Brown. But why? And why did Blair fire ex-Stalinist Jack Straw as Foreign Secretary? Check it out here.

Yes, I know, you already knew that, but I have to complain about the Presiden't speech Monday night. There was a bunch of Roosevelt-invoking garbage in there, obviously, but there's one particular lie that Bush will not stop telling the people of this country, which, due to its total absurdity, is beginning to chap my Texas hide. So let's get this straight once and for all: If America leaves Iraq, the chances that al Qaeda will take over and use the oil money to build a giant al Qaeda...

The assholes from Popular Mechanics made fools of them today on Democracy Now! Really stupid. Update: Those indestructable towers the kooks want you to believe in:

Pondering Surrender by Anthony Gregory LewRockwell.com Five years ago, Americans, all horrified by the terrorist attacks, tended to have two different ideas about the underlying cause and the appropriate response. One was to blame the attacks on terrorists who simply hated our freedom. "Freedom itself was attacked," said President George W. Bush. "And freedom will be defended." The president soon led the country into war and pushed through a series of new measures to consolidate the national...

"That was during a time of patriotism."

As reported by Antiwar.com's Debbie Clark: Saturday morning, after a march around the Capital building, 30-35 people from Camp Democracy - mostly Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War members - went to the Pentagon to see the new 9/11 memorial. As they were nearing the end of the tour, Geoffrey Millard, a disabled Iraq war veteran, left a stack of pamphlets about the dangers of depleted uranium on a brochure stand as they were entering the chapel. At first, no one noticed and...

Like this guy did: Go to LibertyStickers.com! There are more than 600 government hating slogans. See especially the Scott Horton section. (Those are the ones I still get royalties for. : ) ) Some guy bought 11 of these this morning.

September 11, 2006Post-9/11 prosecutions end with a whimper Brian Doherty Reason Many elements of post-9/11 law enforcement are supposed to be justified by a real, serious, ongoing threat of further domestic terror assaults. Without that threat, the ways 9/11 supposedly had to change law enforcement become meaningless

This time it's Fred Reed. His friend saw the plane. Update: Alexander Cockburn adds to the wreckage.

My God man! What the hell has happened to this country? We at Stress do not make this stuff up: From the Boston Globe: "Maine National Guard members in Iraq and Afghanistan are never far from the thoughts of their loved ones. But now, thanks to a popular family-support program, they're even closer. Welcome to the ``Flat Daddy" and ``Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home....

Bush Aims to Kill War Crimes Act by Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith September 5, 2006 The US War Crimes Act of 1996 makes it a felony to commit grave violations of the Geneva Conventions. The Washington Post recently reported that the Bush administration is quietly circulating draft legislation to eliminate crucial parts of the War Crimes Act. Observers on The Hill say the Administration plans to slip it through Congress this fall while there still is a guaranteed Republican majority--perhaps...

Check out the pathetic barrel-bottom scraping communist "logic" the Republican party's pied pipers have led their rats to (as of September 6, 2006): "The way to judge the morality of a military effort isn