Around the World Wide Web 30

1. Born Again Redneck compares the 10-point political program in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto to liberal policies today. Not much difference.

2. The 25 Most Ridiculous Band Names in Rock History. As you read the list they just keep getting worse and worse.

3. The Republicans don't need to say anything nasty about the Democrats. All they need to do is let them talk and hope their words get press coverage. Here is John Edwards's plan to end terrorism:

The plan Mr. Edwards presented yesterday — which he dubbed “A Strategy to Shut Down Terrorists and Stop Terrorism Before It Starts” — calls for a 10,000-person “Marshall Corps” to deal with issues ranging from worldwide poverty and economic development to clean drinking water and micro-lending. He said investing in those areas would shore up weak nations and help ensure that terrorism does not take root there. That, he said, would allow the country to stop potential terrorists before they even join the ranks.

The Democrats cannot understand that terrorism comes from a radical ideology that hates the West, held by such groups as the Muslim Brotherhood. These radicals exploit poverty to gain adherents, and a new bureaucracy of 10,000 people will change nothing. There will always be enough poverty for militant Islamists to exploit. Instead of abasing ourselves in yet another altruistic scheme of appeasement that ends up padding the Swiss bank accounts of Mideast strongmen, we need to destroy the states that sponsor terrorism.

4. Big Lizards has the last word on the Hush Rush Crusade, the phony "phony soldiers" controversy.

...I think this is a catastrophic error in judgment by the Democrats. The American people are never as stupid as liberals and Democrats imagine them to be... and they're about to find that out the hard way.

This is an excellent point. As you often read in forums such as Democratic Underground, when Dems attempt to talk themselves into believing the reality they want to believe, they dismiss the American people as "sheep" and so on. This leads them to believe they can pull a fast one over voters with clever lies -- that never work.

5. If you're really bored, here is a Marxist explanation of the "Libertarian Movement." If you don't want to read it, I'll sum up the argument for you: because rich people fund Austrian economics think tanks, etc., the movement for laissez-faire capitalism is an attempt by the wealthy ruling class to thwart socialism and maintain power. One might point out that a lot of rich people such as George Soros and the Hollywood elite fund liberal groups. Economic determinism is a shallow and insufficient explanation of cultural movements.

6. A slide show of quotes from Hillary Clinton. The political statements at the beginning are more interesting than the quotes towards the end, many of which are Mrs. Clinton cussing a blue streak at such servants as Arkansas state troopers. The political quotes show that she is a committed socialist ideologue, not your average welfare state doofus of a politician.