Or so chimes in Frontpage Magazine, David Horowitz’s organ.

And so we arrive at the reason that I sympathize with the Abraham Lincoln – haters. That is, outside the base of Lincoln-haters who either reside in the south or have strong heritage ties to the South who fly or display the Confederate flag and revere Jefferson Davis. I refer instead to the cadre of Lincoln – haters of a sort of libertarian bent who believe his assaults on civil liberties were not warranted, and even sometimes it comes to the point of: perhaps the Union was not worth saving. Today, when somebody wants to cry out for the suspension of this or that Constitutional provision during a period of war (or Endless Undefined War, as the case may be), they will cite Lincoln’s suspension of Habeas Corpus.

Actually, there was this article in a history magazine (American History or some such) that I read a few years ago. It was a purposefully contrarian list of “Overrated” and “Underrated” events in American history. Most Overrated Event in American History? The Civil War. Why? The South secedes, they will eventually be stuck rejoining the Union, slavery will fade away, and Institutional Racism will continue to exist and eventually be fought against. Half of one… two quarters of another. (Incidentally the “Most Underrated Event” is a hell of a lot less doubtful… the Virginia colony accept their first shipment of African slaves… and thus… the United States’ agricultural base is an economy based on slavery, and thus our culture will forever be permeated and thread together with the culture that blacks bring to it.) [Other items on the list included: Most Overrated Enemy — Russia, which paraded the same missiles down the street for the duration of the Cold War, and fooled us into thinking they could do anything. Most Underrated: Canada… I don’t remember why. I think it had something to do with the War of 1812. Most Overrated headline: Dewey Defeats Truman. It was retrieved off the stands early in the morning and replaced with the proper headline, very few people actually received a copy of that headline-emblazoned newspaper, and is generally overhyped — in part by the Chicago Times itself, since it makes a good souviener.)

I cannot say that Lincoln’s severe silencing of “Copperhead”s didn’t hlep win him the Civil War. Which is unfortunate and an uncomfortable place for my mind to end up at, because the idea gives a small (and by small, I mean microscopic) measure of credence to the blowhards who would create the above graphic suggesting we execute Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. (I wonder if I can get away with making a similar graphic for our current president with a quote from, say, the Ted Roosevelt — the one I posted here–, replete with an explanation of what the punishment for Treason is. (Or George Herbert Walker Bush’s quotation on outing a CIA agent, which has Al Franken repeating ad naseum the joke that “I guess this means Karl Rove and Scooter Libby face execution.”)

That was a close one. Good thing we had Ghengis Khan Mediating, to keep Bush and Mongolia’s President Nachagyn Bagabandy in line, otherwise tensions would have erupted and we surely would have had war. I say we give Ghengis Khan the Noble Peace Prize!

On the station that broadcasts Rush Limbaugh (more importantly, Art Bell and Ean Punnett on the weekend show of that lesser Coast to Coast host who’s the main host these days — and I don’t want to dignify him by mentioning his name), I hear a curious promo for Rush’s program.

“There are no right wing extremists. There is only the Consrvative Movement, which is the Republican Party.”

This sounds weirdly Maoist to me. I don’t know the context of Rush Limbaugh’s comments, and charitably trying to figure out what the heck he is talking about all I can come up with is an idea that there are “left wing extremists” who have a difficult relationship with the Democratic Party (making up a significant part of the base, but in various ways ignored and/or campaigned against by Democratic Party politicians… and just who represents the war protesters in the streets?*), whereas with the Republican Party — they proudly declare themselves “Conservative”, work with the “Conservative Movement”, and we march toward the Great Conservative Whatever Paradise of Meaning. (We do end up with a difference between the Democratic Party and Republican Party with Rush Limbaugh’s statement: the Republican Party is less fractured due to a blind-numbing single-mindedness. Which, I guess, is both why the Democratic Party is the lesser party, and why I am much more comfortable with the Democratic Party… why do I want 200+ Representatives in Washington thinking and acting in lockstep?)

Which makes Rush Limbaugh a Republican Party hack, as opposed to a Conservative Ideologue. Seriously, the latest Weekly Standard has an article that concerns itself with how the “Conservative Movement” should proceed post-Bush, where they will have the opportunity to rid itself of its many discontents with the president. Leave aside the paleo-conservative American Conservative (isolationists and social conervatives that they are, Pat Buchannan’s brigade are doomed to a lifetime of grumpiness as they survey the landscape, and find that — no — no matter what they do, they cannot seem to ban the existence of homosexuals, or lock women in the kitchen). Otherwise, you’re throwing your dice in with a political party, and the purpose of a political party is to move money through channels of the governement into whoever is funding the party… which does not a political movement make.
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*A good example of the disconnect came on the march the day after Election Day. Okay, they waved the mantle against Bush, but there was significant Kerry sentiment in the crowds. The War was the central issue. What were they marching for — Kerry’s position of increased troop levels in Iraq?

Last Friday is an example of a rare moment where I wish I still had C-SPAN. I guess the political show on Friday would provide good material for a DVD “Best of CSPAN — the House of Representatives” (I don’t have a clue what else it would include, as they cut through the video footage of the frequent parliamentary pauses where since nothing is happening on the floor, the video pans around for an hour or so combing everything to find amusing video footage of our Legislature in Action). There we had the House of Representatives debated a bill from Representative Duncan (Republican) who tore out two parts of Representative John Murtha (Democrat)’s 3-part plan of a bill on moving us out of Iraq. The best I can do is watching this and this and listening to the footage on NPR’s “Weekend Edition.”

Welcome Representative Jeanne Schmidt. She’s the woman who won a special election against Paul Hackett, by four points or thereabouts in a district that Bush had won by 30+ points or thereabouts… an election Charles Cooke, Newt Gingrich, and others referred to as a serious warning siren for the Republican Party. It’s a good thing it wasn’t her that said those words, and instead a Marine… otherwise I’d have to call her a World Class Asshole. Nay… it is striking how the Republicans hid behind the almighty “troops”, who are all, evidentally, uniformly demanding to “Continue the Mission” (whatever the hell the “Mission” is supposed to be these days). Also notice the defense from Representative Tom Lantos, who I believe is what is referred to as a “Hawk”.

[BTW: There is no “exit strategy” because the War with Iraq was itself an “Entrance Strategy”. This is why the Senate resolution to merely let the Iraqis know the US’s Intention is to depart was shot down. To Bush Administration and Bushistas, the act of not being in Iraq is the definition of Failure. Keep that in mind as we commence with the fallacious debate the nation’s political class is currently engaging themselves in.]

It looks like George Bush is going to shake up his cabinet, and get himself some new advisors that will move us to success in Iraq, and new policy innovations here in the US.

First to the forefront: The Robot Einstein:

The nation — nay, the WORLD, will soon be is in safe hands!
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Funny thing about Einstein… there was a comic strip… um… “Stone Soup”… which celebrated the contribution Albert Einstein’s girlfriend made to the Theory of Relativity. This comes with the speculation that Mileva made a significant contribution to Albert Einstein’s work (as per some references in their personal coorespondences), to the point where they were co-equals. Balderdash! Or… PROBABLY Balderdash. The references to “our special project” from Einstein’s love letters are more a reflection of his romantic feelings toward Mileva than any scientific project, a bringing her into his life sort of thing. Or so say most Einstein experts…

What that has to do with the Einstein Robot meeting George W Bush, I do not know. The photo, naturally, is in the Top Emailed photographs list at Yahoo… somewhere alongside:

[UPDATE:

Interesting combination of bumpers stickers.

“Kerry / Edwards 2004”.

And on top of it, diagonally crossing it, a bumpers-sticker of a band-aid.

To tell you the truth, I don’t know the precise meaning of it, but the general idea I do know.