Rome. Leaders of 19 NATO countries voted Tuesday to allow Russia into the alliance's decision-making process, effectively making a diplomatic partner of the very entity that NATO was created to defend against. Rome has become a bunker. Many of the main streets in the center of town are closed to the public. Getting to the coastal roads has become impossible. And the roar of all the helicopters has given me a headache. From my livingroom window, I can see 3 helicopters zapping around like mosquitoes.
Berlusconi said today was the most beautiful day of his life. He thanked the heads of state for coming to Rome calling them all by first name. He called Bush "Dub-ya". And my ears will be happy once all the boys go back home again.
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."