Happy New Year!

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

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The Jolly Boots of Doom

"Bow down, bow down, before the power of Santa or be crushed, be crushed, by his jolly boots of doom!"

Thanks to Rev. Darko!

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The Best of...

Today's broadcast of The Free World Pub will be an encore presentation of our premier broadcast on August 11, 2007. Be sure to tune in at 11:00am Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT) today.

The Free World Radio Network: Broadcasting from California, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Washington State... and now Illinois!

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Last minute Christmas suggestion

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The Political Atlas...

Be sure to tune in to The Political Atlas, with your host, Charlie Kensil, tonight at 7:00pm Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT).

The Free World Radio Network: Broadcasting from California, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Washington State

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Irrefutable Proof: We Did Not Go To The Moon

Or: Fighting stupidity with stupidity.

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Festivus, Part Two - The Human Fund

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Festivus, Part One

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The War on Christmas - Update!

Looks like it is going to get nasty now:

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RIP Dan Fogelberg

1951-2007

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The Best of... on Shakedown Street

Blog Talk Radio Featured Host Brian Wolf presents a Best of... program tonight:

The Best of Shakedown Street: Fred Phelps (original air date: 08/19/2007)

Tune in today at 4:00pm Pacific Time (-08:00 GMT)

The Free World Radio Network: Broadcasting from California, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Washington State

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Huckabee Ties Giuliani for National Lead

From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

A new American Research Group national poll shows Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee are tied for first place in the Republican presidential race with 21%, followed by Sen. John McCain at 18%, Mitt Romney at 16% and Fred Thompson at 6%.

Just a month ago, Huckabee was in fifth place in the same poll with just 6% support.

Among Democrats, Sen. Hillary Clinton leads with 41% support, followed by Sen. Barack Obama at 22%, and John Edwards at 13%.

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On Shakedown Street today...

Join Blog Talk Radio Featured host Brian Wolf and his special guest, Danna Crawford, owner of PowerSellingMom.com, and a blogger and Ebay buying specialist on Shakedown Street at 4:00pm Pacific Time (-08:00 GMT).

The Free World Radio Network: Broadcasting from California, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Washington State

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Today's broadcasts

At 10:00am Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT) be sure to tune in to my program, Situation Awareness, for a discussion of "Where were you?" during America's seminal moments.

Then, at 11:00am Eastern Time the Free World Pub opens its doors.

That's today on the Free World Radio Network, broadcast over Blog Talk Radio.

The Free World Radio Network: Broadcasting from California, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Washington State

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The Crazification Factor

(click image for larger view)
This article, Lunch Discussions #145: The Crazification Factor, first appeared on Kung Fu Monkey on October 07, 2005. It is an excellent observation, but the real point is in this comment:

John: But he's (President Bush) citing that desire as a basis for our strategy. You can't cite your enemy's delusional hopes as a basis for a rational strategy. Goals don't exist in a vacuum, they're linked to capability. David Koresh was utterly committed to being Jesus Christ. See how far that got him. Either Bush is making strategy based on a delusional goal of his opponent, which is idiotic; or he's saying he believes his opponent has the capability of achieving this delusional goal, which is idiotic. Neither bodes well for the republic. (read the entire article)

That bears repeating:

You can't cite your enemy's delusional hopes as a basis for a rational strategy. Goals don't exist in a vacuum, they're linked to capability.

Indeed!

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The Political Atlas... tonight

Be sure to tune in to The Political Atlas, with your host, Charlie Kensil, at 7:00pm Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT) tonight.

The Free World Radio Network: Broadcasting from California, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Washington State

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Rudy's Latest Ad

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Tonight... Heifer International

Tonight, at 4:00pm Pacific Time (-08:00 GMT), Blog Talk Radio Featured Host Brian Wolf welcomes Ray White, Public Information Director at Heifer International on Shakedown Street.

The Free World Radio Network: Broadcasting from California, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Washington State

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Taxi Drivers for Torture

I want to thank my guest, Dr. Andy Opel for joining me on today's broadcast of Situation Awareness (click here to listen to the broadcast).

Here is a list of resources from today's program:

• Arar Commission


• Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar (Library and Archives Canada)


• The Maher Arar inquiry - frequently asked questions


• Wikipedia Entry for Maher Arar


• Rendition movie site


• Rendition entry on IMDB


• Torture and Profit by Andy Opel

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Rightwing "humor"

December 1, 2007

Right-Wing Nutcases Laugh It Up Over Clinton Office Hostage Crisis
by Marc McDonald
http://www.opednews.com/

"Anyone care to bet the protagonist is a card-carrying member of the Democrat Party (aka nutroot) who is frustrated that Hillary hasn't personally defunded the War in Iraq yet? Might even be a member over at Daily Kos?"
---Rotarymunkey, commenter at MichelleMalkin.com

I have to admit, I never really understood the right-wing sense of humor.

Like when Ronald Reagan joked in 1964 about the 17 million people who then went to bed hungry every night in America, saying that "they were all on a diet."

Or when Rush Limbaugh called 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton a "dog."

Or when George W. Bush yucked it up over the issue of the non-existent WMDs in Iraq during a "comedy" skit in the Oval Office.

I don't know---maybe I just don't have much of a sense of humor, because I saw nothing funny about yesterday's hostage crisis, in which a distraught man wearing what appeared to be a bomb walked into the campaign office of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.

However, plenty of right-wing folks thought the whole episode was real funny. Take (please) the wingnuts who hang out at the blog of right-wing nutcase Michelle Malkin.

As of Friday night, Malkin's comments section was full of posters who were joking about the crisis and speculating about how the "liberal" media and the Democrats would conspire to spin the episode to Hillary's advantage.

A poster by the name of "Fodder Jack" seemed to find humor in the crisis, writing, "Maybe it is a last ditch effort by the press to get an interview with Hillary."

Another writer called "Reppac122" was (like many across the right-wing blogosphere) already using the occasion to attack the Clintons. "My cynical political thinking here is that the Clintons (yes, both of them) will use this horrible situation for their political benefit."

Another writer, using the handle, "RetFireman," raised the issue of conspiracy: "Now be honest...with all that has come out lately, and I am not saying it is staged, but how many people would be that surprised to find out at some later date that it was? Be honest with yourself, and consider who we are talking about."

Commenter "Eric CharlotteNC" sarcastically mocked Liberals in his post. "If our troops weren't in Iraq this never would have happened! Or maybe global warming got this guy very hot!"

"Blacktygrrrr" added his own two cents: "The bottom line is if the hostage taker is a liberal, he will be dismissed as deranged, since many liberals are deranged anyway."

"Rotarymunkey" had this to say: "Anyone care to bet the protagonist is a card-carrying member of the Democrat Party (aka nutroot) who is frustrated that Hillary hasn't personally defunded the War in Iraq yet? Might even be a member over at Daily Kos?"

And so it goes, on and on.

Of course, none of this comes as much of a surprise to those of us who are at all familiar with the vicious hatemongering in the right-wing blogosphere.

The scary thing is Malkin's blog supposedly has a policy of screening out "offensive" remarks. If the above comments weren't screened out, one can only wonder what truly deranged nutcase comments were deleted. The mind boggles.

I'm sure there are those who would argue that Malkin isn't responsible for the deranged posters who comment on her blog. But anyone familiar with Malkin's own writings knows that she herself is a truly psychotic nutcase whose babblings over the years have been far scarier than any of the comments above.

As prominent Malkin critic Glenn Greenwald pointed out, Malkin once wrote a book "defending the ethnicity-based imprisonment of innocent American citizens in internment camps."

As media watchdog site Media Matters pointed out, the mainstream media has given, on numerous occasions in the past, significant coverage to episodes in which controversial comments appeared on progressive blogs.

How much do you want to bet that the MSM ignores the right-wing hatemongering that appeared in the aftermath of the Clinton office hostage crisis?

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Coming up today...

At 10:00am Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT) be sure to tune in to my program, Situation Awareness, and join me and my guest, Dr. Andy Opel, as we discuss Torture Profiteering.

Then at 11:00am Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT) The Free World Pub opens its doors.

That's coming up today live on Blog Talk Radio.

The Free World Radio Network: Broadcasting from California, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas and Washington State

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