A brief political analysis of the 18th Amendment

While most people only have the general knowledge that prohibition outlawed the sale of alcohol, an over whelming majority of Americans have no idea of the political reasons behind prohibition. Just as a majority of Americans remain woefully ignorant why the United States supports a repressive Islamic country like Saudi Arabia, while at the same time being antogonistic towards the less repressive regime of Iran, most Americans do not know the political factors behind prohibition.Many people would be surprised to learn that while supporters of prohibition came from a wide spectrum, some notable political supporters of prohibition included the Ku Klux Klan and supporters of the women’s suffrage movement.

The KKK, which had always been anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and anti-Jewish, during the late 1910s, saw the Jewish owners of some of the German breweries, as well as the newly arriving immigrants from eastern Europe as a threat. In order to diminish their emerging political power, the KKK in the south supported prohibition as a means to eliminate some of the social gathering places like saloons in the major urban cities where the immigrants were gathering after work. Along with their fundemental racist stance towards blacks, many KKK members were afraid of a black man holding a ballot in one hand and a bottle in the other.

Further aiding the prohibition movement in America was a growing anti-German movement as a result of the start of World War I in 1914. A speech by John Strange, a politician from Michigan, typified how the looming war with Germany helped the supporters of prohibition, when he said that some of America's greatest enemies were “ Pabst, Shultz, and Miller.”

In the book, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, the author explains how the two leading social and political trends of the era, such as the suffrage (women's right to vote) and the fore mentioned anti-immigration movement of the KKK, helped shape and pass the 18th Amendment. In addition to the suffrage movement, another notable factor that helped institute prohibition was the passing of the 16th amendment in 1913, which instituted a federal income tax.

Although the modern Joe Six Pack voter has no idea how the federal income tax amendment in 1913 helped the prohibition movement, like most things in American politics, the answer is to follow the money.

Going back as far as the 1790s during the whiskey rebellion and then later with the Beer Tax during Civil War, the federal government obtained a great deal of its revenue from the excise tax on alcohol.. During some periods of the 1800s, revenue from the excise tax on alcohol contributed as much as 50 percent of all the federal tax revenue. This made the federal government very dependant on the excise tax attached to alcohol. However, with the passage of the 16th amendment, the federal government became less dependant on alcohol excise taxes.

Women supported prohibition because women in the 19th and early 20th century had almost no political or property rights. As Mr. Okrent explains in his book, as the saloon culture of the 1800s developed, women often had to deal with the violence and sexual diseases the men would bring home with them from the saloons and brothels. With brothels attached to the saloons, many women often contracted “syphilis of the innocent” from their husbands. Upset at their husbands drinking away all their family’s money, fearful of getting beat up or their children suffering the same drunken violence, women were quick to support the prohibition of alcohol.

Methodists and Baptists were the only religious sects that aggressively pushed for the prohibition of alcohol. So it is no surprise that the only two states never to ratify the 18th Amendment were the two states with the highest populations of Catholics; Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Guess that may explain why George W. Bush, grandson of Prescott Bush the republican senator from Connecticut at the time of Prohibition obtained a fondness for alcohol.

U.S. soldier confession of planned killings of Afghan civilians

Although six out of ten Americans do not support the war in Afghanistan, the conflict grinds on with no end in sight. One of the reasons is that most of the main stream media does not fully report on news stories that are negative of the U.S. military.

Although every cable news outlet will give you a live video feed of Linsday Lohan arriving for a court date, or some other infotainment news, a vast majority of these so called news outlets don't have the balls or the integrity to report on the story of five U.S. soldiers killing Afghan civilians for sport.

There is little difference between President Barack Obama and George W. Bush when it comes to the military. The only thing protecting Obama from the same kind of political fallout Bush experienced with the Abu Ghariab torture scandal is that most people are now more worried about their own survival as the never ending recession grinds on. Although the Grand Prince sees the corelation between never ending war and a weak economy, most Americans remain blissfully naive.

From Yahoo Upshot and ABC News.

One of five U.S. soldiers accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport and posing for photographs with their mutilated bodies has confessed to investigators, according to video of the confession obtained by ABC News and CNN.
Spc. Jeremy Morlock, 22, was arrested in June on charges of murdering three innocent civilians near Kandahar, where his 5th Stryker Brigade was stationed. In a taped interview with Army investigators, Morlock claimed that his superior, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, coldly selected innocent Afghans to kill for sport and then instructed his men to help make it look like they were insurgents.

Top Ten most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009

1. “TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R” (series), by Lauren Myracle.
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs.

Lauren Myracle's ttyl series, written in text-message dialect, holds the distinction of being the most frequently challenged book of 2009. The first book in the series, ttyl was, for example, removed from middle school libraries throughout Round Rock, Texas, in November of 2008 because a student's parents objected to sexual content and profanity in the book. Although two review committees voted to retain the book, Superintendent Jesus Chavez had the book removed from middle school libraries in the district before the school board could review the matter. In Round Rock Texas, not only do you have censorship, you have authoritarian rule within the school board.

2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality

A children's book based on the true story of two male penguins who adopted a chick in New York's Central Park Zoo, sits among the most frequently challenged books of 2008 and 2009. In Loudon County, Virginia, the book was challenged by a parent who saw it as an attack on families headed by heterosexuals. Two committees composed of librarians, teachers, principals, parents, and administrators recommended against any restrictions on the book. Despite those recommendations, the superintendent decided to restrict student access to Tango, making it available only to teachers and parents. After ABFFE and NCAC sent a letter to the superintendent urging him to reverse the decision, he returned the book to circulation due to "procedural errors" in the review process.

3. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide

One of 55 books that parents in Fayetteville, Arkansas are petitioning to have removed from school libraries. The parents, who formed Parents Protecting the Minds of Children, object to the profane language and depictions of sexuality in many of the books and have accused the librarians and other opponents of their efforts of promoting a "homosexual agenda". PPMC objects to this book because of its depictions of gay sex.

4. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

An eighth grader from Stanford Middle School in California spearheaded a campaign to remove Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from his classroom. He was uncomfortable with the use of racial slurs. In protest, he wore a shirt to school emblazoned with some of the racial epithets from the book. He was asked to cover his shirt. The book was taken under review of the school district and was kept in the classroom.

5. “Twilight” (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

After noticing the large number of students requesting the books from the middle school library, Julia Gerfin, a school administrator in California, reviewed the four-book Twilight series and determined last month that they were too mature for middle school students. The decision, however, was temporarily reversed four days later.

6. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

A parent of a Noble High School student in North Berwick, Maine objected to the lewd content of The Catcher in the Rye and asked that it be removed from her son’s classroom. The parent who brought the challenge expressed a desire for more cooperation between the school and parents in the book selection process. The book was retained by a 7 – 1 vote from the school board.

7. “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence

Pulled from classrooms in Clawson, Michigan as too racy for middle school students. as too racy for middle school students. The novel is the story of a young girl who sues her parents because they want her to donate a kidney to her sister.

8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

An inspirational tale about overcoming body insecurities, peer pressure and family dysfunction — was one of the most highly honored books in the genre when it appeared in late 2003. However, some parents want the book banned for being too sexually explicit. A school administrator from Carroll County Maryland overturned a committee vote and banned the book in 2005.

9. “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited for Age Group

Challenged in Burke County schools in Morgantown, N.C. (2008) by parents concerned
about the homosexuality, rape, and incest portrayed in the book.

10. “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited for Age Group

The novel's protagonist, Jerry Renault, refuses to sell chocolates during his all-male boarding school's fundraiser. The resulting chain of events reveals a world of gang intimidation and the abuse of power. The parents of an eighth grader in Lancaster Massachusetts thought the language, sexual content, and violence made the book unsuitable for the age group. It was also challenged in the Wake County, N.C. schools in 2006, deemed "vulgar and sexually explicit language" by parents who received help during the ban from Called2Action, a Christian group that says its mission is to "promote and defend our shared family and social values."

Banned Books Week Sept 25- Oct 2

Hundreds of books are challenged in schools and libraries in the United States each year. A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, while a banning reflects the actual removal of those materials. The American Library Association (ALA) provides confidential support to teachers and librarians and tracks challenges that occur. ALA recorded 460 challenges in 2009 but estimates that this reflects only 20-25% of actual incidents, as most challenges are never reported. According the ALA, the majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 48%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (10% each).

Over the past nine years, American libraries were faced with 4,312 challenges.

* 1,413 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material;
* 1,125 challenges due to “offensive language”;
* 897challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”;
* 514 challenges due to “violence”
* 344 challenges due to “homosexuality”
* 109 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,”
* 269 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.”

Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unothordox or unpopular. Banned Books Week stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. Intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

This map is drawn from cases documented by ALA and the Kids' Right to Read Project, a collaboration of the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. Details are available in ALA's "Books Banned and Challenged 2007-2008; 2008-2009; and 2009-2010,"and the "Kids' Right to Read Project Report."
View Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2010 in a larger map

Dangerous Jobs

Here is a video showing what it takes to change a lightbulb on top of a 1768 foot transmission tower.

The growing conflict over dwindling energy resources

Ever since reading his book, Rising Planet Shrinking Planet, I have valued and respected what Michael T. Klare has to say about the geo-politics of energy resources. Almost on cue, less than 12 hours after Michael Klare posted an article on TomDispatch, there was a leading story on Yahoo News about a diplomatic spat between China and Japan regarding the detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain near disputed islands in the East China Sea. While the AP report framed the issue as a detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain near disputed islands in the East China Sea, for astute readers of TomDispatch and other people who don’t rely on the main stream media to get their information, the real story was more about future territorial claims regarding the energy deposits of natural gas both of these countries want to possess for their own economic security.

As a professor at Peking University's School of International Studies noted in the AP story, China is taking such a hard stance regarding the detainment of a fishing boat captain because if China did not protest so loudly in this incident, it would be tantamount to accepting Japanese sovereignty claims over disputed islands and the natural gas fields in the area.

In the recent article on TomDispatch by Michael Klare, the author of Blood and Oil, and Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet offers some sobering views on why China will not concide any ground to Japan in reagrds to energy resources.

Chinese leaders view energy as a -- possibly the -- major concern of the country and have been devoting substantial resources and planning to the procurement of adequate future supplies. In addressing this task, Chinese leaders face two fundamental challenges: securing sufficient energy to meet ever-rising demand and deciding which fuels to rely on in satisfying these requirements. How China responds to these challenges will have striking implications on the global stage.

According to the most recent projections from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), Chinese energy consumption will grow by 133% between 2007 and 2035 -- from, that is, 78 to 182 quadrillion British thermal units (BTUs). Think about it this way: the 104 quadrillion BTUs that China will somehow have to add to its energy supply over the next quarter-century equals the total energy consumption of Europe and the Middle East in 2007. Finding and funneling so much oil, natural gas, and other fuels to China is undoubtedly going to be the single greatest economic and industrial challenge facing Beijing -- and in that challenge lays the possibility of real friction and conflict.

With China importing 4.8 million barrels of oil per day to fuel its ever increasing economy, a number predicted to reach over 10.6 million barrels per day sometime around 2030, the likely hood of future conflict over dwindling energy resources between the great powers in the world only increases exponentially. This seemingly insignificant incident in the East China Sea largley ignored by the main stream media, is one of the reasons why most Americans remain woefully misinformed about world events.

American media suppresses report on US military crimes in Afghanistan

As the press reports on the political debate of extending Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy, the more important story of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan forming their own secret “kill team” that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected various body parts as trophy’s, is largely ignored by the media in America and shunned by political leaders. Unable, afraid, or unwilling to link the enormous amounts of money being spent on the war in Afghanistan to the political debate of extending tax cuts to the wealthy, the lack of coverage by the mass media of soldiers murdering civilians and keeping body parts as trophies enables more Americans to be less critical of the war in Afghanistan and isolated from the vicious brutality that goes with war. Just as President Bush and the GOP controlled Congress has pushed the country closer to bankruptcy by starting two wars while at the same time cutting taxes for the wealthy, the lack of extensive media coverage of U.S. soldiers collecting human body parts as war trophies is now pushing a country engulfed in perpetual war towards moral bankruptcy.

While most of the American media focused on the story of an obscure Christian minister in Florida threatening to burn copies of the Koran in the days prior to anniversary of 9-11, the corporate-controlled US media maintained a virtual blackout on Pentagon documents released on September 8. In contrast to most of the media in America, the significance of revelations of U.S. soldiers murdering Afghan civilians was widely recognized around the world. The British newspaper The Guardian published a front-page expose on the morning of 9 September, in addition to several major articles in other newspapers in Britain, Canada and Australia. With the sole exception of the Associated Press, United Press International, The New York Daily News, CNN, The Seattle Times and the Tacoma Tribune-Review, which carried extensive accounts based on interviews with local military personnel and family members of some of the accused, the rest of the mass media in America ignored the story.

As this story is certainly embarrassing for the U.S. military, like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the Obama administration and the Pentagon will undoubtedly use the same tactic as the Bush administration did and blame the atrocious actions of these soldiers as an isolated incidence among the tens of thousands of soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, this tactic allows the media to focus on the actions of low ranking soldiers, and diverts attention away from the higher-level policy makers. As anthropologist Laura Nader noted in her 1969 essay entitled, “Up the Anthropologist”, the study of social systems is often directed downwards, at those less powerful in a society rather than those in power. By focusing on the low-level actions of individual soldiers, the media hinders the American public from beginning to question the more substantive constitutional and moral implications of a country in perpetual state of war.

While vast majorities of Americans are not aware of U.S. soldiers murdering civilians and collecting human body parts as war trophies, most Americans are also unfamiliar with the immense amount of private military contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the story of 12 U.S. soldiers illegally killing Afghan civilians is disturbing, unlike private military contractors who often go unpunished for similar crimes, U.S. soldiers who commit crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan can still be held accountable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The most notable example of the disparity of how military personal are accountable for the crimes they commit as opposed to private military contractors is the 2007 incident in Iraq where five Blackwater guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in a controversial shooting in a busy Baghdad square were acquitted of all charges.

The lack of coverage by most of the media in America of US soldiers killing Afghan civilians for sport and collecting fingers as trophies , reveals the continuing problem of the press failing to perform its duty as a free and independent watchdog.

If there is any hope of creating the social and political mobilization needed to end the military mission in Afghanistan that is bankrupting the country, the press in America needs to regain its independence and practice one of the most fundamental freedoms in the American constitution. Freedom of the Press.

Pentagon Charge Sheets

California looking to communist China for High-Speed trains

In a story that Il Principe has been following since April 7, 2010, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was recently in China looking at new high-speed trains for California. This one story summarizes why the American economy is unable to get out of its longest recession since the end of World War II and is a world power in decline. While media pundits and politicians try to make excuses why the American economy is still in a recession, the most obvious reason is that the American economy has become precariously imbalanced towards consumer consumption and has gone from a country of production to a country of consumption.

Americans from every generation should be embarrassed that a political leader from the largest state in America is shopping for high-speed trains designed, engineered, and manufactured by a communist country. If that was not embarrassing enough, the governor of California is also looking to a communist country for the financing it needs for the state’s high-speed rail project. This makes a mockery of the political rhetoric espoused by a generation of American politicians that capitalism was superior to communism. If American politicians did not hand out billions of dollars to defense corporations located in southern California building expensive and unnecessary weapons to fight communist Russia during the Cold War like the B-2 stealth bomber for two billions a copy, perhaps these same politicians would now have some money to give the governor from California.

While not widely known to most Americans, at the time of its development, the United States Air Force already had several other aircraft and weapons systems that performed the same mission as the B-2 stealth bomber. Even after the end of the Cold War, the two billion dollar a copy B-2 Stealth bomber is still in use, and to justify their use, they have been used to attack such high-value targets in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Making matters worse for the American taxpayer, Northrop Grumman, the maker of the B-2, was recently awarded a military contract to refit and repaint the fleet of 20 planes still in service at a cost of over $60 million per plane.

Without implementing any increase in taxes or in the federal budget deficit, the governor of California would not be forced to go to communist China to get the financing needed to build a vital public works project, if one aircraft carrier was decommissioned or if twenty obsolete foreign military bases were closed in Europe. Instead of flying an American flag in blind patriotism, more Americans should recognize the connection between their country’s crumbling infrastructure and a corrupted political establishment unable to challenge the power of entrenched interests associated with the military.

Analyzing why the United States does not have an advanced high speed rail network or a more developed mass transit system within its major cities, reveals a political establishment more focused on catering to the needs of the politically connected wealthy members of society. As the wealthy members of America are less likely to use mass transit, the politicians in control of funding public works projects like a high speed rail line in California have no incentive.

Instituting a decades long policy of rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure with American built high speed trains is perhaps the best approach for America to become the great industrial nation it was during its apex of power in the late 1940s. While the process will be long and difficult, this long term economic strategy will serve the interests of the entire country and not just the political elite members of society as it does today.

The notorious short-term memory of American voters

Although republicans are trying to hold democrats responsible for the ongoing recession in America, GOP politicians have a selective and very short-term memory when it comes their party’s handling of the U.S. economy. In addition to trying to blame Obama for the economy, republicans are also trying to accuse Obama and the democrats of a government takeover of healthcare and other abuses of power. These are audacious claims coming from a political party which launched the United States on a war based on false intelligence, while at the same time cutting taxes and instituting a cowardice stop loss policy on military members, which enabled the Bush administration and the GOP controlled congress to avoid any political fallout from conscription. Counting on the notorious short-term memory of American voters, GOP political strategists in Washington are running a mid-term campaign centered on fear, a flawed policy of economic stimulus through tax cuts, and continuing to support a flawed national security policy of energy security through military protection for a finite natural resource.

During the mid-term election season of 2010, Americans need to be reminded that it was a republican controlled congress and White House and not the Obama administration that should be held accountable for the current economic malaise in America. The Bush administration and the GOP controlled congress decision to invade and occupy Iraq, while at the same time cutting taxes for wealthy Americans, have directly resulted in adding over one trillion dollars to the public debt and contributed significantly to the current federal deficit of over one trillion dollars. These actions eradicate any claims by republican candidates as being more fiscally conservative or capable in issues related to national security.

The greatest economic recession since the Great Depression, along with two years of economic misery and high unemployment, has allowed republican candidates, enabled by an unwitting mass media, to distract American voters from the abuses of power, subversion of the U.S. Constitution, and the mishandling of the economy by the republicans from 2001 to 2006. Although the Bush administration was simply taking advantage of the powerful executive branch institutions created by the National Security Act of 1947, both political parties bear responsibility in their failure to check the power of an executive branch determined to go to war.

By launching the United States on a preemptive war based on false intelligence, while at the same time trying to use the least amount of troops to achieve their political goal of replacing Saddam Hussein, the GOP has forfeited all their self-proclaimed political capital on matters related to military defense, national security, and defending the freedoms given to Americans in the Constitution.. Political rhetoric of supporting the troops, while at the same time implementing the cruel cowardice of a stop loss policy on military members, which enabled Bush administration and the GOP controlled congress to avoid the political fallout of conscription, further forfeited any national security credentials republicans may still try to claim.

Voters in the mid-term election of 2010 need to be reminded that The Patriot Act of 2002 and the military attack on Iraq started with false intelligence, occurred under republican control of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. Voters should also be reminded that some of the most damaging attacks on American democracy and the U.S. Constitution occurred during republican control of the legislative and executive branches from 2001 to 2006. Some of the more notable abuses of power and violations of the U.S. Constitution conducted during republican control of the government included the illegal and unconstitutional wiretapping of American citizens, encouraging the illegal use of torture on prisoners, and formally invoking executive privilege, a concept not found in the U.S. Constitution, seven times between 2001 and 2008.

Instead of debating if a mosque should be built on private property or how they are going to jump start the economy, politicians from both political parties in the current mid-term election campaign season should be discussing ways to reverse the constitutional crisis created by militarism and corporatism in America over the last 60 years. No bid contracts for the politically connected Halliburton, numerous stories of corruption and graft related to the reconstruction effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, are only a few examples of how militarism and corporatism are destroying the country from within. While politicians proclaim their support for democracy and freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, due to executive branch expansion over the last four decades and a negligent legislative branch to confront it, significant rollbacks of Americans own constitutional liberties have taken place. Writing in Federalist No.8 in 1787, Alexander Hamilton predicted how war and liberty are at odds with each other.

“The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effect and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger will compel nations the most attached to liberty, to resort to repose and security to institutions which will have the tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become more willing to run the risk of being less free.”

What passes for conventional wisdom is simply wrong

As a way to promote his latest book, Andrew Bacevich recently posted an article on TomDispatch entitled, The Unmaking of a Company Man -An Education Begun in the Shadow of the Brandenburg Gate.

In the article, Bacevich explains to his readers how he begun to challenge and question long held conventional wisdom, namely the package of assumptions, habits, and precepts that have defined American foreign policy and the use of the military since the end of World War II. While shedding habits of conformity acquired over decades may be difficult to some people, like Bacevich and many other anti-imperialist scholars, once you begin to critically question and analyze how American leaders have used military force since the end of the Second World War, it is easier to identify all the incidences of militarism in America.

As you go farther down the path of reeducation like Bacevich talks about in his recent article, the more you will see how badly militarism infects the American republic and has weakened the United States. Just as Eisenhower warned the American people in his famous farewell speech to the American public in 1961, the vast and powerful military industrial complex, is the fertile ground of political corruption in which militarism has risen up from within America. An American foreign policy greatly influenced by the Pentagon and an affinity for the military by the American people has emerged as central to the American identity.

Along with infecting government and society, Eisenhower warned that the military industrial complex was also beginning to infect spiritual aspects of America. The recent decision by a congregation in Florida to burn copies of the Islamic Koran is a prime example of how Eisenhower’s prediction of how the military industrial complex, or in another words, militarism, has infected the American spiritual conscience.

Reviewing American history over the last six decades reveals that enormous defense budgets and associated weapons programs supplied by politically connected defense corporations, require an enemy. A critical assessment of American history reveals that a corrupted political establishment along with institutions and organizations with interests in national security, has now replaced the fighting the spread of communism in the Cold War era, to fighting Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist organizations like Al-Qaida.

The new book by Andrew Bacevich, which recently received a positive book review in the New York Times, is the latest addition to Il Principe’s library.

Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography

The Yahoo News blog, The Upshot, reported on a disturbing story of more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department buying on-line child pornography. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) opened investigations into only 20 percent of the individuals identified, and succeeded in prosecuting just a handful. While this may not surprise most readers, the story gets more alarming when it is revealed that many of the people investigated for buying on-line child pornography had the highest security clearances including Top Secret (TS) and Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (SCI) security clearances. As one commenter noted in the comments section of the story, “Is anyone surprised we saw the human abuses at Guantanamo, etc, with people like this in charge?”

As reported by The Upshot,

Project Flicker investigative reports obtained by The Upshot through the Freedom of Information Act, which you can read here, show that DCIS investigators identified 264 Defense employees or contractors who had purchased child pornography online. All told, 76 of the individuals had Secret or higher clearances. However, DCIS investigated only 52 of the suspects, and just 10 were ever charged with viewing or purchasing child pornography. The Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) cross-checked the ICE list against military databases to come up with a list of Defense employees and contractors who appeared to be guilty of purchasing child pornography. The names included staffers for the secretary of defense, contractors for the ultra-secretive National Security Agency, and a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

These kinds of stories reveal how policy papers supporting increased defense spending from Washington D.C. think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation are nothing short of propaganda.

Perhaps this kind of story should be filed under the category, military entertainment complex?