so, it's ALL poland's fault

the war, the 'alleged'* holocaust, barack obama and i guess me too. there are droves of people who listen to the buchanans and the becks and the hannitys and the limbaughs and the coulters and the o'reillys. they not only listen, they BELIEVE AND ADMIRE. the world is indeed a very scary place. i'm almost speechless (but not quite)

(*not alleged to ME mind you. alleged to peeps like buchanan)

Pat Buchanan: Hitler didn’t want war

Political columnist Pat Buchanan is coming under fire for a column arguing that Adolf Hitler didn’t want to launch a European war, and that World War II could have been avoided if Poland had agreed to hand over the city of Gdansk to Germany.

He even appears to have implied that the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened if the Allied powers hadn’t guaranteed Poland’s security.

In his column published Monday by Creators Syndicate, Buchanan wrote:

The German-Polish war [sic] had come out of a quarrel over a town the size of Ocean City, Md., in summer. Danzig, 95 percent German, had been severed from Germany at Versailles in violation of Woodrow Wilson’s principle of self-determination. Even British leaders thought Danzig should be returned.

Why did Warsaw not negotiate with Berlin, which was hinting at an offer of compensatory territory in Slovakia? Because the Poles had a war guarantee from Britain that, should Germany attack, Britain and her empire would come to Poland’s rescue......

By Daniel Tencer

as well they SHOULD be!!!

Tuskegee Airmen Invited to Obama Inauguration
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
When the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black force of elite pilots, emerged from combat in World War II, they faced as much discrimination as they had before the war. It was not until six decades later that their valor was recognized and they received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can give.

Now, the roughly 330 pilots and members of the ground crew who are left from about 16,000 who served are receiving another honor that has surpassed their dreams: They are being invited to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama as the country’s first black president.

“I didn’t believe I’d live long enough to see something like this,” said Lt. Col. Charles A. Lane Jr., 83, of Omaha, a retired Tuskegee fighter pilot who flew missions over Italy.........




picture: U.S. Army Signal Corps, via Associated Press

i have ALWAYS liked the little sparrow

now i like her EVEN MORE
Edith Piaf, superspy
Posted by Cory Doctorow
Marilyn sez, "The Germans loved Edith Piaf so much they let her travel freely in occupied France, and even let her sing for French P.O.W.s. She staged photo ops with the prisoners and later had the pix made into passport photos which she smuggled into the camp during a return visit." During that visit, says Piaf's sister-in-law Christie Laume, the "Little Sparrow" gained permission to have her picture taken with the prisoners. Piaf returned to France with the photos of the prisoners and, with the help of some unknown Resistance members, quickly had the images enlarged and used for passports. Within weeks, Piaf returned to perform at the camp again, smuggling these passports to the prisoners. Laume could not say exactly how the scheme was hatched, or how the passports were used. It seems Piaf took more than one secret to the grave with her. That being said, Piaf did explain to Laume why she risked her life to save others. Link (Thanks, Marilyn!) .................
(hat tip: boing boing
edith piaf's paris

why am i hearing jim morrison's voice

singing 'this is the end' (over the sound of muted helicopter blades) in the back of my mind?

vietnam - yes?
vietnam - no?

we stayed too long in vietnam NOT left too soon. remember that

anyway, here's an analysis of the king's speech
Apocalypse ... Now? Press Explores Bush's Iraq/Vietnam Link

By Greg Mitchell
NEW YORK After years of mocking those who drew comparisons between the U.S. engagements in Vietnam and Iraq, war supporters are now invoking them – led by commander-in-chief George W. Bush, in a much-publicized speech today at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City. Now, how will the media respond to the “Vietnamization” of rhetoric on Iraq, as unveiled by President Bush today? At least three major papers quickly sought out critics who have tried to debunk it. USA Today located Stanley Karnow, one of the leading scholars on the Vietnam war. “Vietnam was not a bunch of sectarian groups fighting each other,” as in Iraq. “Does he think we should have stayed in Vietnam?” Robert Dallek, author of several celebrated biographies of recent U.S. presidents, including Lyndon Johnson, told the Los Angeles Times: “"It just boggles my mind, the distortions I feel are perpetrated here by the president."We were in Vietnam for 10 years. We dropped more bombs on Vietnam than we did in all of World War II in every theater. We lost 58,700 American lives, the second-greatest loss of lives in a foreign conflict. And we couldn't work our will," he said............