Garret Vreeland, at DANGEROUSMETA!, linked to these. Eisenhower's farewell address, in 1961, should be required reading. If only we had listened. And could our present Resident think and write something like this? The answer to that makes me want to run screaming in despair.

Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. [read more]

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Shortcuts To Missile Defense

The Pentagon believes in Santa Claus.

Why shouldn't it? Every day is Christmas over there. Programs for health care, schools, playgrounds and day-care centers get killed, casualties of war, but at the Pentagon, economy is not a watchword; it is a wimpy, lefty kind of word used by people who don't want to invade Iraq or build the missile defense system, the commander in chief's dearest dream. [read more]