I'm feeling kind of proud of my neighborhood today. (First heard about this story on the Mike Malloy show.) There's a bit of a hubbub because a local sixth-grade class, as part of a social studies assignment, wrote letters to a 20-year-old American soldier stationed in South Korea, and soon to be deployed to Iraq.

Well, it seems that the youngsters were not interested in toeing the politically correct line:

Filled with political diatribes, the letters — excerpts of which were printed in yesterday's Post — predicted GIs would die by the tens of thousands, accused soldiers of killing Iraqi civilians and bashed President Bush.
....
In an accompanying letter to Jacobs, Kunhardt had written that the students "come from a variety of backgrounds and political beliefs, but unanimously support the bravery and sacrifice of American soldiers around the world."

"Support" was not the word that came to Jacobs' mind when he read the letters.

One girl wrote that she believes Jacobs is "being forced to kill innocent people" and challenged him to name an Iraqi terrorist, concluding, "I know I can't."

Another girl wrote, "I strongly feel this war is pointless," while a classmate predicted that because Bush was re-elected, "only 50 or 100 [soldiers] will survive."

A boy accused soldiers of "destroying holy places like mosques."

The soldier's response to the letters is as sad as it is loathsome. This strikes me as mind-bogglingly depressing:

Uplifting letters from children are dear to soldiers, Jacobs said. He looks at a batch he got from a Girl Scout troop from his hometown of Middletown, N.J., whenever he feels lonely.

But then there's this:

"If I were in Iraq and read that the youth of our nation doesn't want me to be there and doesn't believe in what I'm doing, it would mess up my head," Jacobs said.

Oh, it would "mess up your head"? Pussy. Liar.

"I want to think these letters were coached by the teacher or the parents of these children," Jacobs said in an interview from Camp Casey, Korea.

No doubt these same parents marched through the neighborhood crying out to all the children that Santa Claus isn't real. Asshole.

"It boggles my mind that children could think this stuff."

It boggles your mind that children could think. Stupid asshole.

I'm elevating this comment from Giuseppe Abote:

Doug Wead = Amway. The man is a high-ranking "Diamond" in the sales network. That means he appears on stage at enormous Amway rallies in municipal stadiums before adoring crowds of thousands who lap up his stock phrases in praise of Amway's special mixture of bare-knuckles capitalism and Christianist demagogy.

Why do big shots in Amway get so rich and powerful? Because they make all the thousands of deluded distributors beneath them in the pyramid purchase oodles of motivational cassettes. The money the big-time operators make off tapes is truly, truly unbelievable. Mansions, motorboats, Cadillac cars, an entire private island in the Caribbean.

But ... oh. NY Times says, "He said he never sought to sell or profit from" the tapes. Oh, forget it then!

I thought this angle was interesting. Anyone else have thoughts/info on the connections between Amway and our current slide toward destruction?

Get yours today. See you at Tuesday's briefing!

New York Times: "In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the Future President…"

…yet nothing remotely interesting, provocative, or revelatory.

So the Times got hold of some hot tapes made "secretly" between 1998 and 2000 by old Bush hand/evangelist Doug Wead, in which one would expect presidential aspirant George W. to insouciantly shoot from his hip, tell it like it is, reveal startling insights about himself, and/or embarrassingly stick his foot in his mouth.

Yet, at least in the parts the Times got to hear, he doesn’t do that at all.

Instead, the Times scoop consists a boring litany of oddly-Karl-Rove-vetted-sounding things like:

"I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement." [While preparing to meet Christian leaders in September 1998.]

"I like Ashcroft a lot… He is a competent man. He would be a good Supreme Court pick. He would be a good attorney general. He would be a good vice president." [In November 1998, contemplating a Bush cabinet.]

"Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off the bat. One, I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?" [Recounting a conversation with James Robison, a prominent evangelical minister in Texas.]

"James, that's the difference between me and the president. I've learned. I am prepared to accept the responsibility of this office." [Again with Robison, comparing his own "immature" mistakes with Bill Clinton's.]

So is this Bush guy too good to be true, or what?!

Which leads one to wonder:

Were these tapes really recorded secretly? Or were they recorded deliberately, with the Bushies' knowledge, and released to head off at the pass any real, actually damaging W revelations, of which undoubtedly there are scores so far suppressed (and scores more yet to come)?

And why does Wead say he made the tapes?

"I believe that, like him or not, he is going to be a huge historical figure. If I was on the telephone with Churchill or Gandhi, I would tape record them too."

Perfect. Churchill, Gandhi. Might as well throw Christ, Buddha, and Moses in there too.

Forget the past. Forget the present. Forget reality and let’s talk about how great this legacy is gonna be!