Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

John McCain

2008-03-12T19:37:28Z

Billdozer: no matter how badly you want that line of advertising to be acceptable to an encyclopedic entry it simply isn't.

[[Image:Casmier.jpg|right|thumb|250px|John McCain]]
'''John Sidney McCain III''' (born Panama Canal Zone, August 29, 1936) <ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000303 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]</ref> is the senior [[United States Senate|Senator]] from the state of [[Arizona]], having served 20 years after replacing [[Barry Goldwater]] in 1986. He is currently the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000303 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]</ref> McCain, a [[Baptist]],<ref> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296973,00.html McCain Identifies Himself as a [[Baptist]]</ref> has clinched the [[Republican]] nomination for [[President of the United States of America|President of the United States]] in the [[2008 Presidential Election|2008 Election]].<ref>[http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/NATIONWORLD/803050441/0/LOCAL1901 ''McCain clinches GOP nomination; Huckabee bows out''] 5 March 2008 IndyStar.com</ref><ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,255535,00.html John McCain Announces Plans for '08 Presidential Candidacy on 'Late Night With David Letterman'], Associated Press, 1 March 2007</ref>

==Political career==
McCain was elected to the [[House of Representatives]] from Arizona's 1st district in 1982 and served two terms before being elected to the [[Senate]] in 1986. In 2000, he pursued the presidency but lost his bid for the Republican nomination to [[George W. Bush]], the first time he had lost an election.<ref>[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_mccain/index.html John McCain] at the New York Times</ref> John McCain is currently running for presidency of the United States as a Republican.

==Political record==
#Patriotism: as a [[POW]] for seven years during the [[Vietnam War]] (see below), McCain is a living symbol of the honor and sacrifice of [[America]]'s armed forces.
#National defense: McCain, a veteran, has been strong on national defense and a consistent supporter of the [[Iraq War]].
#World affairs: McCain claims little patience for foreign opinion. In 2006, he said, "You can't expect the French to lead. You can't expect the Germans to lead. You can't even expect the British, our friends, to lead. The United States has to lead."<ref>http://www.azstarnet.com/news/138072</ref>
#[[Israel]]: McCain has a 25-year pro-[[Israel]] voting record, going even further than President [[George W. Bush]] in defending [[Israel]]'s most intense offensive against [[Lebanon]] in 24 years in response to Hezbollah's attacks on Israel.<ref>http://www.azstarnet.com/news/138072</ref> The [[Jerusalem]] Post observed that McCain has "the best chance of returning his party to the [[Reagan]]-era level of at least 30 percent of [[Jewish]] voters pulling the [[GOP]] lever. In the last five presidential elections it has ranged from 9 to 24 percent."<ref>http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1202211060463</ref> McCain received an extraordinary endorsement for President by the prominent former [[Democrat]] [[Joe Lieberman]], a leading spokesman for [[American]]-[[Israeli]] relations.
#[[Abortion]]: On Senate votes directly concerning abortion, McCain has voted on the pro-life side.
#[[Government]] Spending. McCain has vigorously advocated for the elimination of so-called "[[pork-barrel]]" spending. He voted against President Bush's Medicare Prescription Drug Act on the grounds that it was too costly.
#[[Evolution]]: McCain's position is that [[intelligent design]] should be taught along with the [[theory of evolution]].
#[[Campaign finance]]: In 2002, McCain joined with liberal Democrat Russell Feingold to prohibit independent groups from advertising about a candidate within many weeks of an election. This law prohibits ads that do not even recommend for whom to vote, but merely urge people to contact their representatives concerning a vote that the representatives will make in Congress. A court recently declared this unconstitutional.
#[[Same-sex marriage]]: In 2006, McCain joined Democrats and liberal Republicans in voting against the Federal Marriage Amendment to protect traditional marriage. Later, on ''Hardball'', McCain declared, "On the issue of the gay marriage, I believe that people want to have private ceremonies, that's fine." Also, McCain's home state of Arizona was the only state to defeat a marriage referendum (in 2006), as McCain did nothing to support it.
#[[Gambling]]: The McCain-Feingold campaign finance law allows Indian nations (which get nearly all their money from unregulated casinos) to make unlimited political donations, even though political donations by American citizens are strictly limited and political spending by corporations is prohibited.
#Tax cuts: McCain opposed President George W. Bush's tax cuts, on the argument that cutting taxes without also cutting spending was not actually a tax cut, but was a tax on future generations. He now supports keeping the Bush tax cuts in place.
#Criticism of the religious right: In his unsuccessful campaign in 2000, McCain criticized elements of the religious right because they were backing [[George W. Bush]].
#[[Gun control]]: In 2004, McCain held a "C" rating by the [[NRA]] on a scale from "A" to "F".<ref>[http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel200411021307.asp]</ref> In 2000 he campaigned as an advocate of the [[Second Amendment]], but in 2002 McCain supported [[gun control]] by joining with [[Democrat]] [[Joseph Lieberman]] to push legislation that would shut down gun shows.<ref>[http://www.haciendapub.com/gunpage10.html "Gun Shows and Gun Control: McCain Is at It Again!"]</ref>
#Immigration: In 2005-2006, McCain joined with liberal Senator [[Ted Kennedy]] to support a sweeping bill that was favorable to illegal aliens. It has not passed.
#"Gang of 14": On May 23, 2005, McCain was part of a group of 14 Senators who blocked the planned "nuclear option" for confirming blocked Republican nominees for the bench. Under this compromise a few judicial nominees were allowed to be confirmed (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor), but others (e.g., Henry Saad) remained blocked and had to withdraw.
#Senate Attendance Record. McCain has missed 33% of the Senate votes in early 2007, far more than the leading Democratic contenders.<ref>http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0331missedvotes0331.html</ref>

== Electability ==

He has been called "the Democrats' worst nightmare".<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w7OKBAT0Fk&feature=related ''Democrats Worst Nightmare''] Accessed 5 March 2008</ref>

Of the major contenders, only McCain has a background that includes military service. [[Colonel]] [[George "Bud" Day|Bud Day]], the United States' most highly decorated officer, and the most decorated since [[General]] [[Douglas MacArthur]], said: ''"Having stood side-by-side with John McCain on the battlefield, I know that he has the character and will to lead this great country. John McCain is the Commander-In-Chief our military needs during this generational struggle against global terrorism."''

McCain has the reputation as an independent-minded maverick<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402301.html McCain Fighting to Recapture Maverick Spirit of 2000 Bid], [[Michael Shear|Michael D. Shear]], ''[[Washington Post]]'', March 15, 2007</ref> and favorite of the media.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070305/blumenthal McCain Mutiny], [[Max Blumenthal]], ''[[The Nation]]'', February 21, 2007</ref> David Limbaugh said, "McCain is not only not conservative enough; he has also built a reputation as a maverick by stabbing his party in the back -- not in furtherance of conservative principles but by betraying them. McCain delights in sticking it to his colleagues while winning accolades from the [[Mainstream media|mainstream liberal media]]." <ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24669 'Maverick' and 'Conservative' Aren't Synonyms], [[David Limbaugh]], ''[[Human Events]]'', 01/25/2008</ref>

John McCain was a member of the [[Keating Five]], a scandal relating to the [[Savings and Loan Crisis]]. The Senate Ethics Committee criticized him for "questionable conduct."

John McCain has cancer (melanoma) and has undergone multiple operations for it.<ref>http://www.riskworld.com/PressRel/2001/01q3/PR01a027.htm</ref> Cancer was an issue that hurt the presidential candidacy of Paul Tsongas in 1992. However, it was not even mentioned in the 2004 presidential campaign, despite the fact that John Kerry was treated for prostate cancer in early 2003.

John McCain is 71 years old, making him one of the oldest candidates to seek the presidency. Several issues relating to McCain's advanced aged and health have been discussed in the media.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/18/mccain.ap/index.html?eref=rss_politics</ref>

==Military career==
[[Image:McCain 1965.jpg|right|thumb|250px|McCain photographed in 1965]]
McCain served in the [[United States Navy]] from 1958 to 1981. By 1967, McCain was a veteran pilot aboard the [[USS Forrestal]] aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. On 29 July 1967, while preparing to take off on a bombing run over North Vietnam a missile accidentally fired from another plane, hitting the fuel tanks on McCain's aircraft and triggering explosions and fire. McCain escaped from his plane by crawling onto the nose of the aircraft and diving on to the ship's deck which was ablaze from burning fuel. His attempt to rescue a fellow pilot whose flight suit was on fire was prevented when McCain was blown over by further explosions. When the fire was contained 24 hours later, 134 men had been killed and hundreds more injured. It was called the worst non-combat-related accident in U.S. naval history.<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=526451&in_page_id=1811 ''The coronation of the ultimate survivor, John McCain''] 5 March 2008 [[Daily Mail]]</ref>

Three months later McCain was shot down over Hanoi and held as a [[Prisoner of War]] for seven years.<ref>[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_mccain/index.html John McCain] at the New York Times</ref>

::''On October 26, 1967, during his 23rd air mission, McCain's plane was shot down over the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. His captors soon learned he was the son of a high-ranking officer in the U.S. Navy and repeatedly offered him early release, but McCain refused, ... knowing that the North Vietnamese would use his release as a powerful piece of propaganda.''

::''He eventually spent five and a half years in various prison camps, three and a half of those in solitary confinement, and was repeatedly [[US POWs in Vietnam|beaten and tortured]] before he was finally released, along with other American POWs, in March 1973, two months after the Vietnam cease fire went into effect.''

::''Though McCain had lost most of his physical strength and flexibility, he was determined to continue serving as a naval aviator. After a painful nine months of rehabilitation, he returned to flying duty, but it soon became clear that his injuries had permanently impaired his ability to advance in the Navy.'' <ref>[http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9542249 John McCain Biography (1936-)]</ref>

McCain graduated from the National War College in 1974. Upon his retirement from the Navy in 1981, as a Captain, he had been commended with the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, and Distinguished Flying Cross.<ref> [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000303 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]</ref>

== Fundraising in 2007 ==
McCain struggled to raise money for his 2008 presidential campaign, a sign of weakness for a front-runner. "Former [[Massachusetts]] Governor [[Mitt Romney]] raised $23 million for his presidential campaign in the first three months of [2007], almost doubling the total of top Republican contender John McCain. McCain, an [[Arizona]] senator, brought in about $12.5 million in the first quarter, his campaign said. 'We had hoped to do better,' said Terry Nelson, his campaign manager. Former [[New York]] Mayor [[Rudy Giuliani]] said he raised $15 million, including more than $10 million in March alone."<ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aZ7SuEo0wuMM&refer=home</ref>

However, for all his money and spending, [[Rudy Giuliani]] won only one delegate.

== Votes missed ==
As of August 2007, McCain had missed more votes during the current session of Congress than any Senator other than [[South Dakota]] [[Democrat]] [[Tim Johnson]], who had suffered a brain hemorrhage that had kept him from Congress. He had missed over 48% of his votes. <ref>Lawrence Journal-World, August 10, 2007</ref> This is due to the fact that he is running for President, and he has to attend political rallies across the country.

==Personal life==
[[Image:Cindy McCain.jpg|thumb|Cindy McCain]]
McCain was born in the [[Panama Canal]] Zone. He was educated in [[Alexandria]], [[Virginia]] before receiving his Bachelors of Science from the [[United States Naval Academy]] in 1958.<ref>[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_mccain/index.html John McCain] at the New York Times</ref>

McCain has been married twice. His first marriage, to Carol Shepp, ended in [[divorce]] in 1980. His second and current wife is Cindy Lou Hensley.

His son John Sidney IV is a Midshipman at the [[United States Naval Academy]], Annapolis, and his son James is a non-commissioned officer in the [[United States Marine Corps]], who has served in [[Iraq]] as part of [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]].

===McCain's family===
*Wife Cindy
*4 sons
**Douglas
**Andrew
**John (''"Jack"'') Sidney IV
**James
*3 daughters
**Sidney
**Meghan
**Bridget
*Parents
**[[Admiral]] John Sydney McCain, Jr. (from [[Indiana]])
**[[Roberta McCain|Roberta Wright McCain]] (from [[Oklahoma]]).

== Books ==
* ''Faith of My Fathers'' (Random House; 1999) ISBN 0-3755-0191-6
* ''Odysseus in America'' (Scribner; 2002) ISBN 0-7432-1156-1
* ''Worth Fighting For: A Memoir'' (Diane Publ. Co; 2002) ISBN 0-7567-6759-8
* ''Medal of Honor'' (Artisan; 2003) ISBN 1-5796-5240-9
* ''Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life'' (Random House; 2004) ISBN 1-4000-6030-3
* ''Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember'' (Random House; 2005) ISBN 1-4000-6412-0
* ''Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them'' (Twelve; 2007) ISBN 0-4466-9911-X

==Further reading==
*McCain, John [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=513224&in_page_id=1811 ''My six years of hell: John McCain recalls life as a prisoner of war in Vietnam''] 8 February 2008 [[Daily Mail]]. Accessed 9 February 2008

==See Also==
* [[John McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign]]
* [[Previous Breaking News/John McCain|Articles about '''John McCain''' from previous "Breaking News"]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQsckD9trn4&eurl=http://evangelicalsformccain.org/meetthesenator.htm ''John McCain: Courageous Service''] - Streaming video documentary hosted at YouTube, including footage of McCain's time as a POW and the Forrestal incident.
*[http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9542249 John McCain Biography]
*[http://evangelicalsformccain.org/index.htm Evangelicals for McCain] - Christians, Families and Patriots for John McCain
*[http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/01/mccains-mom-pop.html McCain's Mom Pops Off]
*[http://www.rd.com/national-interest/people-and-politics/our-interview-with-sen-john-mccain/article.html Presidential Candidate John McCain on the Issues]

==References==
{{reflist|small}}

{{2008 presidential candidates}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCain, John}}
[[Category:United States Senators]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]

John McCain

2008-03-12T19:22:02Z

Billdozer: /* Political record */ other than your own preference you don't have anything even resembling a case for keeping that line in. very mature of you.

John McCain

2008-03-12T19:17:36Z

Billdozer: perhaps i'm crazy but i don't think conservapedia's purpose is solely to advertise for the candidate you prefer

Ann Coulter

2008-03-12T19:13:54Z

Billdozer:

{{merge from|Coulter on Hillary and McCain}}
[[Image:Coulter2006.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Coulter on the ''Tonight Show with Jay Leno''.]]
'''Ann Hart Coulter''' (b. 1961) is an [[attorney]], legal affairs correspondent, and social commentator. She has written five bestselling books on the topic of the faults of being [[liberal]]. U.S. Federal Judge [[Richard Posner]] called her one of America's top public intellectuals. <ref>[http://home.uchicago.edu/~rposner/publicintellect.htm] "Data for tables in Chapter 5 of Richard A. Posner, Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline" where Posner talks about the data he used for his book ''Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline''.</ref> <ref>[http://home.uchicago.edu/~rposner/TABLE%20II.pdf] Table II, which is Posner's data for 607 public intellectuals. A PDF search of "Coulter" will show she is on Posner's list.</ref>

Coulter has enjoyed a popular following for her critique of liberalism, her outspokenness against all those who wish to hurt the [[United States of America|United States]], and her strong defense of family values against [[abortion]] and [[same-sex marriage]].

Coulter is a high profile female [[conservative]], in line with [[Phyllis Schlafly]] and [[Condoleezza Rice]]. Her books and strong speaking style have endeared her to fans and infuriated opponents.

As a [[Christian]], Coulter attributes to the [[Judeo-Christian]] tradition the view that [[human being]]s are utterly and distinctly apart from other species.

Being an unabashedly conservative pundit, Coulter's social commentaries often draw the ire of [[liberal]]s. Her comments are frequently controversial and sometimes considered offensive. <ref>She called Democratic women "no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant [[hippie]] chick pie wagons". [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/05/AR2007030501610_2.html (Washington Post)]</ref><ref>At a CPAC conference, Coulter joked, "I was going to have a few comments about John Edwards but you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot.'" [http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Coulter_Faggot_not_offensive_to_gay_0306.html]</ref>

Coulter recently made headlines by endorsing [[Hillary Clinton]] instead of [[John McCain]], who she asserts is not conservative, but liberal.

==Books==

Some of her books include
*''[[High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton]]'' (2002)
*''[[Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right]]'' (2003)
*''[[Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism]]'' (2004)
*''[[How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)]]'' (2005)
*''[[Godless: The Church of Liberalism]]'' (2007)
*''[[If Democrats Had Any Brains They'd Be Republicans]]'' (2007)

In ''Godless'', Coulter argues that liberals make a [[religion]] out of their beliefs which they follow with the same sort of intolerant zeal which they condemn in [[fundamentalist]]s. "Liberalism is a comprehensive belief system denying the Christian belief in man's immortal soul [and] that we are moral beings in God's image." (pg. 3)

==Quotes==
* "Whether they are defending the [[Soviet Union]] or bleating for [[Saddam Hussein]], liberals are always against [[United States of America|America]]. They are either traitors or idiots ... " <Ref>''Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.''</ref>
* "My only regret with [[Timothy McVeigh]] is he did not go to the [[New York Times]] Building." She later clarified "Of course I regret [saying] it. I should have added, 'after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters."<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-06-09-coulter-roemer_x.htm 9/11 Commissioner Criticizes Coulter's 'Hate-Filled Attack'] Associated Press story in USA Today. "'My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building,' The New York Observer quoted her as saying on Aug. 20, 2002. She clarified those remarks with RightWingNews.com: 'Of course I regret it. I should have added, "after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters."'"</ref><ref>Hawkins, [http://rightwingnews.com/interviews/anncoulter.php An Interview With Ann Coulter], Right Wing News.</ref>

* "Saddam's barbaric rape rooms, chemical attacks and torture — those, liberals could live with. But now they want us to send troops to [[Darfur]], a country from which no one anticipates terrorism anytime in the next millennium. If you're looking for a good definition of "no imminent threat," Darfur is it... These people can't even wrap up genocide. We've been hearing about this slaughter in Darfur forever — and they still haven't finished. The aggressors are moving like termites across that country. It's like genocide by committee. Who's running this holocaust in Darfur, FEMA?...Darfur is not the threat... though a hostage-taking, [[Holocaust]]-denying lunatic who doesn't own a necktie but is within two years of having a nuclear bomb comes to mind. You can already hear [[Harry Reid]] and [[Nancy Pelosi]] saying, "If the Democrats were in charge, the use of military force wouldn't be necessary because we'd constructively engage them and appease their stated desire to kill us." <REF>This appeared on Coulter's web site on April 4th, 2007. http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=177</REF>

* "If you want a shorter rebuilding process, then we're going to have to wage less humane wars. The enemy — as well as innocent civilians — must be bombed into quivering terror. Otherwise, we displace aggression but don't destroy it. Americans are weaker for having seen that kind of carnage in [[World War II]]. Recall that the Worst Generation was raised by the Greatest Generation. That tells you how awful war is. The Greatest Generation was so exhausted by the war, it didn't have the spine to stand up to pot-smoking, draft-dodging hippies occupying administration buildings." <REF>This appeared on Coulter's web site on April 4th, 2007. http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=177</REF>

* "I think [women] should be armed but should not vote. No, they all have to give up their vote, not just, you know, the lady clapping and me. The problem with women voting -- and your [[Communists]] will back me up on this -- is that, you know, women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it. And when they take these polls, it's always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care." <ref> ''Politically Incorrect'', Feb. 26, 2001 </ref>

* "...a cruise missile is more important than Head Start." <ref>Nov. 2001 speech rebroadcast by C-Span in Jan. 2002</ref>

* On Sept. 13, 2001 she wrote this about the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|Sept. 11 terrorist attack]]: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." <ref>''National Review Online'', September 2001 [http://www.nationalreview.com/coulter/coulter.shtml]</ref>

* "We need to execute people like John Walker [Lindh] in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors," Conservative Political Action Conference, January 2002. Coulter later clarified what she meant; "when I said we should "execute" John Walker Lindh, I mis-spoke. What I meant to say was 'We should burn John Walker Lindh alive and televise it on prime-time network TV'. My apologies for any misunderstanding that might have occurred. " <ref>[http://www.rightwingnews.com/interviews/coulteriffic.php RWN's Ann Coulter Interview #2] John Hawkins. </ref>

* "Liberals are driven by [[Satan]] and lie constantly. <ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=21345 That Was No Lady -- That Was My Husband], by Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', 06/28/2007.</ref>

* "Every concrete example of the racism allegedly sweeping the nation's campuses keeps turning out to be a fraud. Far from "institutional racism," there is "institutional racial hoaxism" run amok in this country."<ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=22909&email Another Liberal Noose-ance], by Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', 10/17/2007,</ref>

* "Rather than own up to their moral blindness to Soviet espionage, Democrats fired up the liberal slander machine, which would be deployed again and again over the next half century to the present day.<ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23316 McCarthyism: The Rosetta Stone of Liberal Lies], by Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', 11/07/2007.</ref>

* "By exposing the Democrats' absolute blindness to Soviet [[totalitarianism]], McCarthy shattered forever the nation's confidence in the Democrats' capacity to govern. For that, the [[Stalin]]ist [[liberal hate speech|hate machine]] attacked him viciously and has never let up."<ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23824 They'll Never Forgive You], by Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', 12/05/2007.</ref>

* "How about having [[Tim Russert]] ask Hillary if she believes the [[New Testament]] is the [[perfection]] of the [[Old Testament]]? She claims to be a [[Christian]]. Let's get it on the table: Is she or isn't she? It doesn't get any more bare-bones than that.<ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23174 How Long Before the A.D.L. Kicks Out All its Jews?], By Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', October 31, 2007.</ref>

* "We just want Jews to be perfected, as they say." <ref>[http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/funnyquotes/a/anncoulter.htm] By Ann Coulter</ref>

* "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity." <ref>[http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/funnyquotes/a/anncoulter.htm] By Ann Coulter</ref>

* "[The New York Times'] reaction to al-Zarqawi's death was to lower the U.S. flag at the Times building to half-staff. (Ha ha — just kidding! Everybody knows there aren't any American flags at The New York Times.)" <ref>[http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter071306.php3 ''N.Y. Times: Better dead than read]]</ref>

==See Also==
*[[Previous Breaking News/Ann Coulter|Articles about '''Ann Coulter''' from previous "Breaking News"]]
*[[Conservative Links]]
*[[Lou Dobbs]]

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/welcome.cgi AnnCoulter.com]
*RealClearPolitcs.com [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/03/poll_most_americans_love_coult.html Poll: Most Americans Love Coulter Columns], accessed 6 May 2007.
*[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/05/AR2007030501610_2.html The Long Fuse on Ann Coulter's Bomb] - ''Washington Post'' - March 6, 2007

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coulter, Ann}}

[[Category:Women Authors]]

John McCain

2008-03-12T19:10:07Z

Billdozer: /* Political record */ it is a highly subjective opinion and doesn't account for MANY other factors.

John McCain

2008-03-12T19:06:00Z

Billdozer: /* Political record */ not to start an edit war but that line is individual opinion in the extreme.

User:Billdozer

2008-03-12T18:32:53Z

Billdozer:

I like the idea of Wikipedia, but I quickly found that it was functionally a Marxist entity, with left-wing editors vigoriously infusing their POV into the entires while purging any fact or argument that doesn't suit their agenda. I was especially fed up with the way anyone to the right of Che Guevara was subject to having threats featuring inane and vague rules hurled at them for even attempting to balance out or improve an article. There is hardly an entry on Wikipedia involving a political figure that doesn't look like it was written by a hardcore Keith Olbermann fan.

Thus, I'm trying my hand here. Hope this is better!

{{userboxtop|Billdozer}}
{{User progun}}
{{User ronny}}
{{User noBush}}
{{User Christian1}}
{{User American}}
{{userboxbottom}}

John McCain

2008-03-12T18:32:10Z

Billdozer: /* Political record */

[[Image:Casmier.jpg|right|thumb|250px|John McCain]]
'''John Sidney McCain III''' (born Panama Canal Zone, August 29, 1936 - ) <ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000303 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]</ref> is the senior [[United States Senate|Senator]] from the state of [[Arizona]], having served 20 years after replacing [[Barry Goldwater]] in 1986. He is currently the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000303 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]</ref> McCain, a [[Baptist]],<ref> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296973,00.html McCain Identifies Himself as a [[Baptist]]</ref> has clinched the [[Republican]] nomination for [[President of the United States of America|President of the United States]] in the [[2008 Presidential Election|2008 Election]].<ref>[http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/NATIONWORLD/803050441/0/LOCAL1901 ''McCain clinches GOP nomination; Huckabee bows out''] 5 March 2008 IndyStar.com</ref><ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,255535,00.html John McCain Announces Plans for '08 Presidential Candidacy on 'Late Night With David Letterman'], Associated Press, 1 March 2007</ref>

==Political career==
McCain was elected to the [[House of Representatives]] from Arizona's 1st district in 1982 and served two terms before being elected to the [[Senate]] in 1986. In 2000, he pursued the presidency but lost his bid for the Republican nomination to [[George W. Bush]], the first time he had lost an election.<ref>[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_mccain/index.html John McCain] at the New York Times</ref> John McCain is currently running for presidency of the United States as a Republican.

==Political record==
#Patriotism: as a [[POW]] for seven years during the [[Vietnam War]] (see below), McCain is a living symbol of the honor and sacrifice of [[America]]'s armed forces.
#National defense: McCain, a veteran, has been strong on national defense and a consistent supporter of the [[Iraq War]].
#World affairs: McCain claims little patience for foreign opinion. In 2006, he said, "You can't expect the French to lead. You can't expect the Germans to lead. You can't even expect the British, our friends, to lead. The United States has to lead."<ref>http://www.azstarnet.com/news/138072</ref>
#[[Israel]]: McCain has a 25-year pro-[[Israel]] voting record, going even further than President [[George W. Bush]] in defending [[Israel]]'s most intense offensive against [[Lebanon]] in 24 years in response to Hezbollah's attacks on Israel.<ref>http://www.azstarnet.com/news/138072</ref> The [[Jerusalem]] Post observed that McCain has "the best chance of returning his party to the [[Reagan]]-era level of at least 30 percent of [[Jewish]] voters pulling the [[GOP]] lever. In the last five presidential elections it has ranged from 9 to 24 percent."<ref>http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1202211060463</ref> McCain received an extraordinary endorsement for President by the prominent former [[Democrat]] [[Joe Lieberman]], a leading spokesman for [[American]]-[[Israeli]] relations.
#[[Abortion]]: On Senate votes directly concerning abortion, McCain has voted on the pro-life side.
#[[Government]] Spending. McCain has vigorously advocated for the elimination of so-called "[[pork-barrel]]" spending. He voted against President Bush's Medicare Prescription Drug Act on the grounds that it was too costly.
#[[Evolution]]: McCain's position is that [[intelligent design]] should be taught along with the [[theory of evolution]].
#[[Campaign finance]]: In 2002, McCain joined with liberal Democrat Russell Feingold to prohibit independent groups from advertising about a candidate within many weeks of an election. This law prohibits ads that do not even recommend for whom to vote, but merely urge people to contact their representatives concerning a vote that the representatives will make in Congress. A court recently declared this unconstitutional.
#[[Same-sex marriage]]: In 2006, McCain joined Democrats and liberal Republicans in voting against the Federal Marriage Amendment to protect traditional marriage. Later, on ''Hardball'', McCain declared, "On the issue of the gay marriage, I believe that people want to have private ceremonies, that's fine." Also, McCain's home state of Arizona was the only state to defeat a marriage referendum (in 2006), as McCain did nothing to support it.
#[[Gambling]]: The McCain-Feingold campaign finance law allows Indian nations (which get nearly all their money from unregulated casinos) to make unlimited political donations, even though political donations by American citizens are strictly limited and political spending by corporations is prohibited.
#Tax cuts: McCain opposed President George W. Bush's tax cuts, on the argument that cutting taxes without also cutting spending was not actually a tax cut, but was a tax on future generations. He now supports keeping the Bush tax cuts in place.
#Criticism of the religious right: In his unsuccessful campaign in 2000, McCain criticized elements of the religious right because they were backing [[George W. Bush]].
#[[Gun control]]: In 2004, McCain held a "C" rating by the [[NRA]] on a scale from "A" to "F".<ref>[http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel200411021307.asp]</ref> In 2000 he campaigned as an advocate of the [[Second Amendment]], but in 2002 McCain supported [[gun control]] by joining with [[Democrat]] [[Joseph Lieberman]] to push legislation that would shut down gun shows.<ref>[http://www.haciendapub.com/gunpage10.html "Gun Shows and Gun Control: McCain Is at It Again!"]</ref>
#Immigration: In 2005-2006, McCain joined with liberal Senator [[Ted Kennedy]] to support a sweeping bill that was favorable to illegal aliens. It has not passed.
#"Gang of 14": On May 23, 2005, McCain was part of a group of 14 Senators who blocked the planned "nuclear option" for confirming blocked Republican nominees for the bench. Under this compromise a few judicial nominees were allowed to be confirmed (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor), but others (e.g., Henry Saad) remained blocked and had to withdraw.
#Senate Attendance Record. McCain has missed 33% of the Senate votes in early 2007, far more than the leading Democratic contenders.<ref>http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0331missedvotes0331.html</ref>

== Electability ==

He has been called "the Democrats' worst nightmare".<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w7OKBAT0Fk&feature=related ''Democrats Worst Nightmare''] Accessed 5 March 2008</ref>

Of the major contenders, only McCain has a background that includes military service. [[Colonel]] [[George "Bud" Day|Bud Day]], the United States' most highly decorated officer, and the most decorated since [[General]] [[Douglas MacArthur]], said: ''"Having stood side-by-side with John McCain on the battlefield, I know that he has the character and will to lead this great country. John McCain is the Commander-In-Chief our military needs during this generational struggle against global terrorism."''

McCain has the reputation as an independent-minded maverick<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402301.html McCain Fighting to Recapture Maverick Spirit of 2000 Bid], [[Michael Shear|Michael D. Shear]], ''[[Washington Post]]'', March 15, 2007</ref> and favorite of the media.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070305/blumenthal McCain Mutiny], [[Max Blumenthal]], ''[[The Nation]]'', February 21, 2007</ref> David Limbaugh said, "McCain is not only not conservative enough; he has also built a reputation as a maverick by stabbing his party in the back -- not in furtherance of conservative principles but by betraying them. McCain delights in sticking it to his colleagues while winning accolades from the [[Mainstream media|mainstream liberal media]]." <ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24669 'Maverick' and 'Conservative' Aren't Synonyms], [[David Limbaugh]], ''[[Human Events]]'', 01/25/2008</ref>

John McCain was a member of the [[Keating Five]], a scandal relating to the [[Savings and Loan Crisis]]. The Senate Ethics Committee criticized him for "questionable conduct."

John McCain has cancer (melanoma) and has undergone multiple operations for it.<ref>http://www.riskworld.com/PressRel/2001/01q3/PR01a027.htm</ref> Cancer was an issue that hurt the presidential candidacy of Paul Tsongas in 1992. However, it was not even mentioned in the 2004 presidential campaign, despite the fact that John Kerry was treated for prostate cancer in early 2003.

John McCain is 71 years old, making him one of the oldest candidates to seek the presidency. Several issues relating to McCain's advanced aged and health have been discussed in the media.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/18/mccain.ap/index.html?eref=rss_politics</ref>

==Military career==
[[Image:McCain 1965.jpg|right|thumb|250px|McCain photographed in 1965]]
McCain served in the [[United States Navy]] from 1958 to 1981. By 1967, McCain was a veteran pilot aboard the [[USS Forrestal]] aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. On 29 July 1967, while preparing to take off on a bombing run over North Vietnam a missile accidentally fired from another plane, hitting the fuel tanks on McCain's aircraft and triggering explosions and fire. McCain escaped from his plane by crawling onto the nose of the aircraft and diving on to the ship's deck which was ablaze from burning fuel. His attempt to rescue a fellow pilot whose flight suit was on fire was prevented when McCain was blown over by further explosions. When the fire was contained 24 hours later, 134 men had been killed and hundreds more injured. It was called the worst non-combat-related accident in U.S. naval history.<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=526451&in_page_id=1811 ''The coronation of the ultimate survivor, John McCain''] 5 March 2008 [[Daily Mail]]</ref>

Three months later McCain was shot down over Hanoi and held as a [[Prisoner of War]] for seven years.<ref>[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_mccain/index.html John McCain] at the New York Times</ref>

::''On October 26, 1967, during his 23rd air mission, McCain's plane was shot down over the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. His captors soon learned he was the son of a high-ranking officer in the U.S. Navy and repeatedly offered him early release, but McCain refused, ... knowing that the North Vietnamese would use his release as a powerful piece of propaganda.''

::''He eventually spent five and a half years in various prison camps, three and a half of those in solitary confinement, and was repeatedly [[US POWs in Vietnam|beaten and tortured]] before he was finally released, along with other American POWs, in March 1973, two months after the Vietnam cease fire went into effect.''

::''Though McCain had lost most of his physical strength and flexibility, he was determined to continue serving as a naval aviator. After a painful nine months of rehabilitation, he returned to flying duty, but it soon became clear that his injuries had permanently impaired his ability to advance in the Navy.'' <ref>[http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9542249 John McCain Biography (1936-)]</ref>

McCain graduated from the National War College in 1974. Upon his retirement from the Navy in 1981, as a Captain, he had been commended with the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, and Distinguished Flying Cross.<ref> [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000303 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]</ref>

== Fundraising in 2007 ==
McCain struggled to raise money for his 2008 presidential campaign, a sign of weakness for a front-runner. "Former [[Massachusetts]] Governor [[Mitt Romney]] raised $23 million for his presidential campaign in the first three months of [2007], almost doubling the total of top Republican contender John McCain. McCain, an [[Arizona]] senator, brought in about $12.5 million in the first quarter, his campaign said. 'We had hoped to do better,' said Terry Nelson, his campaign manager. Former [[New York]] Mayor [[Rudy Giuliani]] said he raised $15 million, including more than $10 million in March alone."<ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aZ7SuEo0wuMM&refer=home</ref>

However, for all his money and spending, [[Rudy Giuliani]] won only one delegate.

== Votes missed ==
As of August 2007, McCain had missed more votes during the current session of Congress than any Senator other than [[South Dakota]] [[Democrat]] [[Tim Johnson]], who had suffered a brain hemorrhage that had kept him from Congress. He had missed over 48% of his votes. <ref>Lawrence Journal-World, August 10, 2007</ref> This is due to the fact that he is running for President, and he has to attend political rallies across the country.

==Personal life==
[[Image:Cindy McCain.jpg|thumb|Cindy McCain]]
McCain was born in the [[Panama Canal]] Zone. He was educated in [[Alexandria]], [[Virginia]] before receiving his Bachelors of Science from the [[United States Naval Academy]] in 1958.<ref>[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_mccain/index.html John McCain] at the New York Times</ref>

McCain has been married twice. His first marriage, to Carol Shepp, ended in [[divorce]] in 1980. His second and current wife is Cindy Lou Hensley.

His son John Sidney IV is a Midshipman at the [[United States Naval Academy]], Annapolis, and his son James is a non-commissioned officer in the [[United States Marine Corps]], who has served in [[Iraq]] as part of [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]].

===McCain's family===
*Wife Cindy
*4 sons
**Douglas
**Andrew
**John (''"Jack"'') Sidney IV
**James
*3 daughters
**Sidney
**Meghan
**Bridget
*parents
**[[Admiral]] John Sydney McCain, Jr. (from [[Indiana]])
**[[Roberta McCain|Roberta Wright McCain]] (from [[Oklahoma]]).

== Books ==
* ''Faith of My Fathers'' (Random House; 1999) ISBN 0-3755-0191-6
* ''Odysseus in America'' (Scribner; 2002) ISBN 0-7432-1156-1
* ''Worth Fighting For: A Memoir'' (Diane Publ. Co; 2002) ISBN 0-7567-6759-8
* ''Medal of Honor'' (Artisan; 2003) ISBN 1-5796-5240-9
* ''Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life'' (Random House; 2004) ISBN 1-4000-6030-3
* ''Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember'' (Random House; 2005) ISBN 1-4000-6412-0
* ''Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them'' (Twelve; 2007) ISBN 0-4466-9911-X

==Further reading==
*McCain, John [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=513224&in_page_id=1811 ''My six years of hell: John McCain recalls life as a prisoner of war in Vietnam''] 8 February 2008 [[Daily Mail]]. Accessed 9 February 2008

==See Also==
* [[John McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign]]
* [[Previous Breaking News/John McCain|Articles about '''John McCain''' from previous "Breaking News"]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQsckD9trn4&eurl=http://evangelicalsformccain.org/meetthesenator.htm ''John McCain: Courageous Service''] - Streaming video documentary hosted at YouTube, including footage of McCain's time as a POW and the Forrestal incident.
*[http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9542249 John McCain Biography]
*[http://evangelicalsformccain.org/index.htm Evangelicals for McCain] - Christians, Families and Patriots for John McCain
*[http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/01/mccains-mom-pop.html McCain's Mom Pops Off]
*[http://www.rd.com/national-interest/people-and-politics/our-interview-with-sen-john-mccain/article.html Presidential Candidate John McCain on the Issues]

==References==
{{reflist|small}}

{{2008 presidential candidates}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCain, John}}
[[Category:United States Senators]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]

User:Billdozer

2008-03-12T18:27:33Z

Billdozer:

I like the idea of Wikipedia, but I quickly found that it was functionally a Marxist entity, with left-wing editors vigoriously infusing their POV into the entires while purging any fact or argument that doesn't suit their agenda. I was especially fed up with the way anyone to the right of Che Guevara was subject to having threats featuring inane and vague rules hurled at them for even attempting to balance out or improve an article. There is hardly an entry on Wikipedia involving a political figure that doesn't look like it was written by a hardcore Keith Olbermann fan.

Thus, I'm trying my hand here. Hope this is better!

{{userboxtop|Beardo}}
{{User progun}}
{{User ronny}}
{{User noBush}}
{{User Christian1}}
{{User American}}
{{userboxbottom}}

Mary Rowlandson

2008-03-12T18:26:31Z

Billdozer:

'''Mary Rowlandson''' was born in 1636 in [[England]]. She lived in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Her book, ''The Narrative of the Captivity, Suffering, and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson'', relates the story of several weeks she spent as an Indian captive. Despite the horrible treatment she often suffers, Rowlandson continues to look to God for help throughout the work. Rowlandson is eventually ransomed into freedom.

[[Category:United States History]]

Second Amendment

2008-03-12T18:24:57Z

Billdozer: /* Individual or Collective Right? */ not all liberals and conservatives think the same on this, so I cleaned the language a bit

The '''Second Amendment to the United States Constitution''' reads:<ref>This is the most-often quoted form of this Amendment, but note later in this entry the significant objection to including three commas rather than just one.</ref>

"''A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.''"

== Individual or Collective Right? ==

Some interpret the Second Amendment as protecting merely a collective right of state militias, while most interpret it as protecting an individual right.<ref>http://www.davekopel.com/2A/LawRev/35finalpartone.htm</ref>

==Where the Second Amendment comes from==
In 1786, the [[United States]] existed as a loose national [[government]] under the [[Articles of Confederation]]. This confederation was perceived to have several weaknesses, among which was the inability to mount a Federal military response to an armed uprising in western [[Massachusetts]] known as [[Shays' Rebellion]].

In 1787, to address these weaknesses, the [[Philadelphia Convention]] was held with the idea of amending the Articles. When the convention ended with a proposed [[Constitution]], those who debated the ratification of the Constitution divided into two camps; the [[Federalist]]s (who supported ratification of the Constitution) and the [[Anti-Federalists]] (who opposed it).

Among their objections to the Constitution, anti-Federalists feared a standing army that could eventually endanger [[democracy]] and [[civil liberties]]. Although the anti-Federalists were unsuccessful at blocking ratification of the Constitution, through the Massachusetts Compromise they insured that a [[Bill of Rights]] would be made, which would provide constitutional guarantees against taking away certain rights.

One of those rights was the right to bear arms. This was intended to prevent the Federal Government from taking away the ability of the states to raise an army and defend itself and arguably to prevent them from taking away from individuals the ability to bear arms.

==Comments==
The meaning of this amendment is controversial with respect to [[gun control]].

The [[National Rifle Association]], which supports gun rights, has a stone plaque in front of its headquarters bearing the words "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." The slogan means that individual citizens have the right to own and use guns.

American law has always said that the militia includes ordinary private citizens, and gun rights advocates say that the amendment means individuals have the right to own and use guns. Gun control advocates began in the late 20th century to say it means only that there is only some sort of collective or state-controlled right.

[[Supreme Court]] opinions have all been consistent with the individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment, but the lower court opinions are mixed.

As of 2007, people argue about the meaning of the Second Amendment, but there is no definitive answer. The latest ruling is Parker v District of Columbia, in which the DC Circuit court of appeals ruled on March 9, 2007 that the [[Washington, D.C.|DC]] gun ban violated individual rights under the Second Amendment.

'''''The One Comma vs. The Three Comma Debate

'''''A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.''''''''''

Quoted from:
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39388c210c1b.htm

Down to the Last Second (Amendment)

Participants in the various debates on firearms, crime, and constitutional law may have noticed that the Second Amendment is often quoted differently by those involved. The two main variations differ in punctuation- specifically, in the number of commas used to separate those twenty-seven words. But which is the correct one? The answer to this question must be found in official records from the early days of the republic. Therefore, a look into the progression of this declaratory and restrictive clause from its inception to its final form is in order.

Before beginning, one must note that common nouns, like "state" and "people," were often capitalized in official and unofficial documents of the era. Also, the letter "f" was at times used in place of the letter "s" in both print and manuscript. For example, "Congress" is sometimes spelled as "Congrefs," as is the case in the parchment copy of the Bill of Rights displayed by the National Archives. The quotations listed here are accurate. With the exception of the omission of quotations marks, versions of what is now known as the Second Amendment in boldface appear with the exact spelling, capitalization, and punctuation as the cited originals.

==Chronological History==

During ratification debates on the Constitution in the state conventions, several states proposed amendments to that charter. Anti-Federalist opposition to ratification was particularly strong in the key states of New York and Virginia, and one of their main grievances was that the Constitution lacked a declaration of rights. During the ratification process, Federalist James Madison became a champion of such a declaration, and so it fell to him, as a member of the 1st Congress, to write one. On June 8, 1789, Madison introduced his declaration of rights on the floor of the House. One of its articles read:

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.1

On July 21, John Vining of Delaware was appointed to chair a select committee of eleven to review, and make a report on, the subject of amendments to the Constitution. Each committeeman represented one of the eleven states (Rhode Island and North Carolina had not ratified the Constitution at that time), with James Madison representing Virginia. Unfortunately, no record of the committee's proceedings is known to exist. Seven days later, Vining duly issued the report, one of the amendments reading:

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but no person religiously scrupulous shall be compelled to bear arms. 2

In debates on the House floor, some congressmen, notably Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and Thomas Scott of Pennsylvania, objected to the conscientious objector clause in the fifth article. They expressed concerns that a future Congress might declare the people religiously scrupulous in a bid to disarm them, and that such persons could not be called up for military duty. However, motions to strike the clause were not carried. On August 21, the House enumerated the Amendments as modified, with the fifth article listed as follows:

5. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the People, being the best security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; but no one religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person. 3

Finally, on August 24, the House of Representatives passed its proposals for amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the Senate for their consideration. The next day, the Senate entered the document into their official journal. The Senate Journal shows Article the Fifth as:

Art. V. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, but no one religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person. 4

On September 4, the Senate debated the amendments proposed by the House, and the conscientious objector clause was quickly stricken. Sadly, these debates were held in secret, so records of them do not exist. The Senators agreed to accept Article the Fifth in this form:

...a well regulated militia, being the best security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall net be infringed. 5

In further debates on September 9, the Senate agreed to strike the words, "the best," and replace them with, "necessary to the." Since the third and fourth articles had been combined, the Senators also agreed to rename the amendment as Article the Fourth. The Senate Journal that day carried the article without the word, "best," but also without the replacements, "necessary to." Note that the extraneous commas have been omitted:

A well regulated militia being the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 6

With two-thirds of the Senate concurring on the proposed amendments, they were sent back to the House for the Representatives' perusal. On September 21, the House notified the Senate that it agreed to some of their amendments, but not all of them. However, they agreed to Article the Fourth in its entirety:

Resolved, That this House doth agree to the second, fourth, eighth, twelfth, thirteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth amendments... 7

By September 25, the Congress had resolved all differences pertaining to the proposed amendments to the Constitution. On that day, a Clerk of the House, William Lambert, put what is now known as the Bill of Rights to parchment. Three days later, it was signed by the Speaker of the House, Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, and the President of the Senate, Vice President John Adams. This parchment copy is held by the National Archives and Records Administration, and shows the following version of the fourth article:

Article the Fourth. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 8

The above version is used almost exclusively today, but aside from the parchment copy, the author was unable to find any other official documents from that era which carry the amendment with the extra commas. In fact, in the appendix of the Senate Journal, Article the Fourth is entered as reading:

Art. IV. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.9

Also, the Annals of Congress, formally called The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, show the proposed amendment as follows:

Article the Fourth. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.10

Further, once two-thirds of both chambers of the Congress agreed to the proposed amendments, the House passed a resolve to request that the President send copies of them to the governors of the eleven states in the Union, and to those of Rhode Island and North Carolina. The Senate concurred on September 26, as recorded in their journal:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be requested to transmit to the executives of the United States, which have ratified the constitution copies of the amendments proposed by Congress, to be added thereto; and like copies to the executives of the states of Rhode Island and North Carolina.11

Fortunately, an original copy of the amendments proposed by the Congress, and sent to the State of Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations, does survive. Certified as a true copy by Assembly Secretary Henry Ward, it reads in part:

Article the Fourth, --A well regulated Militia being neceffary to the Security of a free State, the Right of the People to keep and bear Arms fhall not be infringed. 12

And so, the proposed amendments to the Constitution were sent to the states for ratification. When notifying the President that their legislatures or conventions had ratified some or all of the proposed amendments, some states attached certified copies of them. New York, Maryland, South Carolina, and Rhode Island notified the general government that they had ratified the fourth amendment in this form:

Article the Fourth. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 13

Articles the First and Second were not ratified by the required three-fourths of the states, but by December 15, 1791, the last ten articles were. These, of course, are now known as the Bill of Rights. Renumbering the amendments was required since the first two had not been ratified. The 1796 revision of The Federalist on the New Constitution reflects the change as such:

ARTICLE THE SECOND

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.14

This version is carried throughout the 19th Century, in such legal treatises as Joseph Story's Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1833) and Thomas Cooley's Principles of Constitutional Law (1898). It is also transcribed in this manner in the 1845 Statutes at Large, although the term "state" is capitalized in that text. The latter are the official source for acts of Congress.15,16, 17

This version still appears today, as is the case with the annotated version of the Constitution they sponsored on the Government Printing Office web site (1992, supplemented in 1996 and 1998). The Second Amendment is shown as reading:

A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed. 18

(The Senate-sponsored GPO site does carry a "literal print" of the amendments to the Constitution showing the Second Amendment with the additional commas. The punctuation and capitalization of the amendments transcribed there are the same as those found on the parchment copy displayed in the Rotunda of the National Archives.)19

Thus, the correct rendition of the Second Amendment carries but a single comma, after the word "state." It was in this form that those twenty-seven words were written, agreed upon, passed, and ratified.

Why the Commas are Important

It is important to use the proper Second Amendment because it is clearly and flawlessly written in its original form. Also, the function of the words, "a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state," are readily discerned when the proper punctuation is used. On the other hand, the gratuitous addition of commas serve only to render the sentence grammatically incorrect and unnecessarily ambiguous. These points will be demonstrated later in the Second Amendment Series.

Footnotes to Comment section:

1. Amendments Offered in Congress by James Madison, June 8, 1789. The Constitution Society. http://www.constitution.org/bor/amd_jmad.htm, 16 January 2000.

2. Amendments Reported by the Select Committee. July 28, 1789. The Constitution Society. http://www.constitution.org/bor/amd_scom.htm, 16 January 2000.

3. U.S. House Journal. 1st Cong., 1st sess., 21 August 1789.

4. U.S. Senate Journal. 1st Cong., 1st sess., 25 August 1789.

5. U.S. Senate Journal, 1st Cong., 1st sess., 4 September 1789.

6. U.S. Senate Journal, 1st Cong., 1st sess., 9 September 1789.

7. U.S. House Journal. 1st Cong., 1st sess., 21 September 1789.

8. Bill of Rights. National Archives and Records Administration. http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/billrights/bill.jpg, 22 January 2000.

9. U.S. Senate Journal. 1st Cong., 1st sess., Appendix.

10. Annals of Congress, 1st Cong., 1st sess., Appendix

11. U.S. Senate Journal. 1st Cong. 1st sess., 26 September 1789.

12. A True Bill. The Constitution for the United States, Its Sources and Its Applications. http://www.nidlink.com/~bobhard/billofrt.jpg, 27 January 2000.

13. U.S. House Journal, 1st Cong., 3rd sess., Appendix Note: Maryland and South Carolina capitalized the "m" in "Militia."

14. The Federalist on the New Constitution, 1796. The Constitution for the United States, Its Sources and Its Applications. http://www.nidlink.com/~bobhard/f16b1234.jpg, 17 February 2000.

15. Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution Society. http://www.constitution.org/js/js_344.htm, 18 February 2000.

16. Quotes from Constitutional Commentators. Gun Cite. http://www.guncite.com/gc2ndcom.html, 2 February 2000.

17. Statutes at Large 1845, 21.

18. Second Amendment--Bearing Arms. The Constitution of the United States of America. http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/constitution/amdt2.html, 18 February 2000.

19. Text of the Amendments (Literal Print). The Constitution of the United States of America. http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/constitution/conamt.html, 18 February 2000.

== Footnotes ==

<references/>

==See Also==
[[United States Constitution]]

{{US amendments}}
[[Category: Constitution]]

User:Billdozer

2008-03-12T18:23:13Z

Billdozer:

I like the idea of Wikipedia, but I quickly found that it was functionally a Marxist entity, with left-wing editors vigoriously infusing their POV into the entires while purging any fact or argument that doesn't suit their agenda. I was especially fed up with the way anyone to the right of Che Guevara was subject to having threats featuring inane and vague rules hurled at them for even attempting to balance out or improve an article. There is hardly an entry on Wikipedia involving a political figure that doesn't look like it was written by a hardcore Keith Olbermann fan.

Thus, I'm trying my hand here. Hope this is better!

{{userboxtop|Beardo}}
{{User progun}}
{{User noBush}}
{{User Christian1}}
{{User American}}
{{userboxbottom}}

User:Billdozer

2008-03-12T18:07:45Z

Billdozer:

Lost (TV series)

2008-03-12T18:02:31Z

Billdozer:

'''''Lost''''' is a popular [[ABC]] television series.

The series follows the survivors of Oceanic flight 815, which crashes in an unidentified island in the Pacific Ocean. The group of strangers must learn to cooperate in order to survive the island's challenges, which are vastly more complicated than initially thought.

Episodes typically center around one character, with events on the island mixed with flashbacks to important parts of that person's life before the crash.

In one episode, confidence man James "Sawyer" Ford confesses that he is a Republican. The political affiliations of other characters are never discussed.

Like [[24]], the show has been criticized for its depiction of torture as a useful interrogation method. One of the series' main characters is a former Republican Guard torture expert.

==External Links==
*[http://imdb.com/title/tt0411008/ The Internet Movie Database's' 'Lost'' entry]

[[category:broadcasting]]

Lost (TV series)

2008-03-12T18:01:27Z

Billdozer: New page: '''''Lost''''' is a popular ABC television series. The series follows the survivors of Oceanic flight 815, which crashes in an unidentified island in the Pacific Ocean. The group of s...

'''''Lost''''' is a popular [[ABC]] television series.

The series follows the survivors of Oceanic flight 815, which crashes in an unidentified island in the Pacific Ocean. The group of strangers must learn to cooperate in order to survive the island's challenges, which are vastly more complicated than initially thought.

Episodes typically center around one character, with events on the island mixed with flashbacks to important parts of that person's life before the crash.

In one episode, confidence man James "Sawyer" Ford confesses that he is a Republican. The political affiliations of other characters are never discussed.

Like [[24]], the show has been criticized for its depiction of torture as a useful interrogation method. One of the series' main characters is a former Republican Guard torture expert.

==External Links==
*[http://www.abc.com/lost/ ABC's ''Lost'' official site]
*[http://imdb.com/title/tt0411008/ The Internet Movie Database's' 'Lost'' entry]

[[category:broadcasting]]

User:Billdozer

2008-03-12T17:52:03Z

Billdozer: New page: I like the idea of Wikipedia, but I quickly found that it was functionally a Marxist entity, with left-wing editors vigoriously infusing their POV into the entires while purging any fact o...

I like the idea of Wikipedia, but I quickly found that it was functionally a Marxist entity, with left-wing editors vigoriously infusing their POV into the entires while purging any fact or argument that doesn't suit their agenda. I was especially fed up with the way anyone to the right of Che Guerva was subject to having threats featuring inane and vague rules hurled at them for even attempting to balance out or improve an article. There is hardly an entry on Wikipedia involving a political figure that doesn't look like it was written by a hardcore Keith Olbermann fan.

Thus, I'm trying my hand here. Hope this is better!

Eliot Spitzer

2008-03-12T17:47:03Z

Billdozer:

[[Image:Eliot Spitzer2.jpg|right|thumb|Eliot Spitzer]]
'''Eliot Laurence Spitzer''' (born June 10, 1959) is the Governor of [[New York]] and member of the [[Democratic Party]]. Spitzer was elected governor in a landslide victory in the November 2006 election<ref>http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2006&fips=36&off=5&elect=0&f=0</ref>. He is the former New York State Attorney General.

* On the national scene for nearly two decades, Mr. Spitzer was in private law practice briefly before becoming a district attorney and chief New York prosecutor. Mr. Spitzer made national headlines along the way, successfully prosecuting everything from financial malfeasance to prostitution rings — with the former earning him the nickname Mr. Clean of Wall Street. <ref>''Washington Times'' editorial, March 11, 2008 [http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080311/EDITORIAL/673743404/1013]</ref>

On March 10, 2008, Spitzer informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a [[prostitution]] ring. He is also currently the subject of an investigation by the New York state Attorney General's office for ordering the State Police to keep special records of [[Republican]] state Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno's whereabouts when he traveled with police escorts in New York City. At the direction of top officials of the Spitzer administration, the New York State Police created documents meant to cause political damage to Bruno.

The cover of the June 14, 2004 edition of ''[[National Review]]'' referred to Spitzer as "the most destructive politician in America". <ref>http://www.nationalreview.com/ponnuru/ponnuru200406090832.asp</ref> He was considered an enemy by those on [[Wall Street]]. <ref>Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2008</ref>

It has been noted that Spitzer, despite using laws against prostution to destroy his enemies and further his political career, was willing to violate these laws himself. <ref>http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VBF6OO0&show_article=1</ref>

== References ==
<div class="references-small">
<references />

==External links==
*[http://www.ny.gov/governor/ Governor of New York] - Official Website of the Governor of New York
*[http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?si=200634&c=422598 Follow the Money] - Eliot L Spitzer 2006 campaign contributions
*[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html?em&ex=1205294400&en=d0917c3b73427b6a&ei=5087%0A Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring] - from the ''New York Times''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spitzer, Eliot}}
[[Category: Democratic Party]]
[[Category: United States Governors]]

Ronald Wilson Reagan

2008-03-12T17:42:56Z

Billdozer:

{{President
|image=Aaag.jpg
|seq=40
|term_start=January 20, 1981
|term_end=January 20, 1989
|party=Republican
|vp=George H. W. Bush
|previous=Jimmy Carter
|next=George H. W. Bush
|birth_date=February 6, 1911
|birth_place=Tampico, Illinois, USA
|death_date=June 5, 2004
|death_place=Bel Air, California
|spouse=Jane Wyman
|spouse2= Nancy Davis Reagan
|religion=Presbyterian
}}
'''Ronald Wilson Reagan '''(February 6, 1911- June 5, 2004), considered by many to be one of the greatest American Presidents, was the 40th [[President of the United States of America]] from 1981 to 1989, following [[Democrat]] [[Jimmy Carter]] and preceding [[Republican]] [[George H. W. Bush]]. Ronald Reagan is credited with leading America peacefully through the Cold War, lowering taxes, promoting a free economy, and helping bring about the end of [[communism]] in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He was known affectionately to Americans as "The Gipper," harking back to a film where he was cast as All-American George Gip.<ref>[http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200310290853.asp]</ref>

In one of his most famous challenges to Soviet communism in Europe, Reagan gave a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin in which he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Reagan's economic policies became known as "Reaganomics" based on the idea that tax cuts will spur savings and investment. Reagan was strongly opposed to the concept of big government, advocating a reduction in the size and budget of the federal government. During his terms in office, he faced a divided Congress split between Republican and Democratic control for six of his eight years as President. Reagan was known for forging alliances with the Democratic Speaker of the House, [[Tip O'Neill]], among others, to effectively pass legislation.

==Early Life==
Reagan was born and raised in Illinois and attended Eureka College, where he quickly developed a reputation as a "jack of all trades", excelling in the areas of athletics and theater. In his first year at Eureka, where Reagan earned a degree in economics, the president of the college tried to cut back the faculty. Reagan immediately helped organize a student strike. Reagan enlisted in the military during World War II, but his eyesight was not good enough for combat duty. He used his acting skills to make military training films and promote the sale of "War Bonds".<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/05/reagan.obit/index.html</ref>

Reagan became a radio sports announcer, and then a famous actor, leading the Screen Actors Guild. Ironically, Reagan was thus the only president to ever lead a [[labor union]], traditionally considered bastions of liberalism. Reagan himself was a registered Democrat well into the 1950's, but as head of the Screen Actors Guild he fought against communist infiltration. Peggy Noonan, wrote: ''Even in his zeal to purge the communist influence from Hollywood, he fought those who engaged in witch hunts and defended those who had been falsely accused of involvement.'' Reagan met his second wife, actress Nancy Davis, when she ended up on the "Black List" and came to him for help.<ref>[http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DavidLimbaugh/2001/11/17/noonan_when_character_was_king]</ref>

==Governor of California==
In 1966, he was elected the 33rd Governor of California, succeeding [[Pat Brown]]. In 1970, he was re-elected. But in 1974, he chose not to seek a third term and was succeeded by [[Jerry Brown]]. Events and achievements during his terms included:

*Called in the National Guard to restore order when People's Park protesters began attacking police, and restoring order to California's chaotic University campuses. [http://police.berkeley.edu/about_UCPD/ucpdhistory.html#anchor178048] Reagan authorized the use of violent force against the peaceful protesters in Berkeley <ref>University of California, Berkeley - Police Department. [http://police.berkeley.edu/about_UCPD/ucpdhistory.html#anchor178048 History Topic: People's Park] August 2006</ref>, saying "If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with."<ref> ''San Francisco Chronicle'', early morning edition, May 15 1969</ref> In the resulting chaos, police used fired buckshot into the crowd, fatally wounding one bystander and blinding another, and injuring hundreds of others.

*Led a comprehensive and far-reaching revision of California's massive public assistance programs, actually increasing benefits to the truly needy.

*Working well with the Democrats to forge consensus on a variety of issues.

*Opposing the Dos Rios Dam.

==Presidency==
[[Image:Reaganfamily-red-rr-.jpg|left|thumb|275px|President & Mrs. Reagan with their extended family.]]
In 1968, Reagan was a late candidate for president in the Republican primaries. However, [[Richard Nixon]] easily won that nomination. In 1976, Reagan challenged Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination, before withdrawing his name from consideration. Reagan knew if he continued, he would take the nomination away from Ford, and forever be branded as a Party spoiler. This he did not want, so he signaled his wish to be removed from consideration, and gave a very effective speech at the convention in support of Ford. Then, in 1980, he beat [[George H. W. Bush]] in the Republican primaries, and went on to oppose [[Jimmy Carter]] (incumbent) in the general election with G.H.W. Bush as his running mate. A poor economy and the incumbent's failing to deal with several international crises aided Reagan. As he put it, "I'm told I can't use the word depression. Well, I'll tell you the definition. A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; depression is when you lose your job. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his." In the general election, he received 50.75% of the popular vote and 90.9% of the electoral.

Once in office, Reagan showed he was playing hardball. When the Federal [[Air Traffic Controllers]] struck illegally, Reagan gave them 48 hours before he fired all who hadn't gone back to work (11,359).

In 1984, Reagan won 49 out of 50 states' electoral votes, and the largest public vote in almost 100 years, 58.77%. During his second term, he helped end the [[Cold War]] with the help of [[Margaret Thatcher]] and some assistance from [[Pope John Paul II]] and [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] by recognizing the weakness of the Soviet economy, and spent them out of existence by not being able to compete with defense spending.<ref>[http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/agathon/2661_8.htm#7867The Demise of the Brezhnev Doctrine and the Dismantling of the Warsaw Treaty Organization], " The party leadership gradually came to understand that the sustaining of domestic [[perestroika]] in the USSR was endangered by the inability of an inefficient economy to carry the burdens of excessive overseas military spending in the form of the Warsaw Pact".</ref>

===Economy===
Fueled by an over spending Congress that steadfastly refused Reagan's budget proposals, the national debt increased 160% during his two terms in office. The economic growth that resulted from tax cuts made deficits as a percentage of GDP lower than what they had been in during the previous decade of stagflation.

===Foreign policy===
Reagan's 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative became popularly known as "Star Wars," the name given to it by critics because they thought it was pure fantasy like the popular George Lucas films. This plan was never actually fully instituted. Although billions of dollars have been spent on development, no space-based missile defense was tested successfully until 2006. While many academics claim SDI gave the United States a large amount of leverage in its standoff with the [[Soviet Union]], many political scientists and historians note that Star Wars played a secondary role in the calculus of Soviet policy-making, where internal structural problems were paramount. However, it should be noted that the threat the Soviet Union felt from the initiative was instrumental in making them step-up negotiations, according to many involved with diplomacy at the time. [[Henry Kissinger]] wrote: ''I know it's an axiomatic view of the Left around the world that missile defense is sinful, and that it's desirable to keep each nation as vulnerable as possible. But that's a debatable premise. The U.S. must defend itself against ''whoever'' has missiles that would threaten the United States. And you don't have to be able to name an enemy.''<ref>[http://www.doublestandards.org/dreifus1.html]</ref>
[[Image:300px-ReaganBerlinWall.jpg‎|right|275px|thumb|"Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"]]

Reagan was president at the time of the shooting down of [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] by the Soviets on September 1, 1983. He termed the shootown of an innocent straying passenger plane with 269 passengers and crew a "massacre" and the ensuing rage over the tragedy both world-wide and in the U.S. provided support for the deployment of cruise and Pershing ll missiles in West Europe- just six minutes flying time from Moscow.

Upon his death, Margaret Thatcher commented: ''As Prime Minister, I worked closely with Ronald Reagan for eight of the most important years of all our lives. We talked regularly both before and after his presidency. And I have had time and cause to reflect on what made him a great president. Ronald Reagan knew his own mind. He had firm principles - and, I believe, right ones. He expounded them clearly, he acted upon them decisively. When the world threw problems at the White House, he was not baffled, or disorientated, or overwhelmed. He knew almost instinctively what to do. When his aides were preparing option papers for his decision, they were able to cut out entire rafts of proposals that they knew 'the Old Man' would never wear. When his allies came under Soviet or domestic pressure, they could look confidently to Washington for firm leadership. And when his enemies tested American resolve, they soon discovered that his resolve was firm and unyielding. Yet his ideas, though clear, were never simplistic. He saw the many sides of truth. Yes, he warned that the Soviet Union had an insatiable drive for military power and territorial expansion; but he also sensed it was being eaten away by systemic failures impossible to reform. Yes, he did not shrink from denouncing Moscow's 'evil empire'. But he realized that a man of goodwill might nonetheless emerge from within its dark corridors. So the President resisted Soviet expansion and pressed down on Soviet weakness at every point until the day came when communism began to collapse beneath the combined weight of these pressures and its own failures. And when a man of goodwill did emerge from the ruins, President Reagan stepped forward to shake his hand and to offer sincere cooperation. Nothing was more typical of Ronald Reagan than that large-hearted magnanimity - and nothing was more American.''<ref>[http://reagan2020.us/eulogies/thatcher.asp]</ref>

===Soviet Union===
Shortly after taking office in 1981 Reagan issued National Security Decision Directive 11-82, (NSDD 11-82), that explicitly made U.S. defense spending a form of economic warfare against the Soviets. The United States would "exploit and demonstrate the enduring economic advantages of the West to develop a variety of [arms] systems that are difficult for the Soviets to counter, impose disproportionate costs, open up new areas of major military competition and obsolesce previous Soviet investment or employ sophisticated strategic options to achieve this end. Reagan's [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] (SDI), or "Star Wars" as the media referred to it, was a costly high tech research and development program designed to make arms spending a "rising burden on the Soviet economy."<ref>Peter Schweizer , [http://www.reason.com/news/show/28929.html ''Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism''], New York: Doubleday, 2002.</ref>
[[Image:Photo 4 250.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Reagan and Gorbachev at Reykjavik]]
A report by the CIA of the critical domestic economic problems and social discontent Soviet [[CPSU]] General Secretary Gorbachev provided a look what the sources of his principal dilemma-the very reforms needed to deal with the problems would threaten preservation of the [[nomenklatura]] and put at risk Gorbachev’s ability to maintain the power to bring about [[Perestroika]].<ref>CIA Assessments of the Soviet Union: [https://www.cia.gov/csi/monograph/russia/enter.html Chapter 5, Enter Gorbachev ], Douglas J. MacEachin, CIA Publications, 1996.</ref> Gorbachev requested a Summit with Reagan in Reykjavik in October 1986 to discuss the stresses competition from the Reagan’s defense posture was having on Soviet military spending and economy, and Gorbachev’s ability to carryout his plans of restructuring Communist control. Gorbachev told the [[Politburo]] in preparation for the Summit, "Our goal is to prevent the next round of arms race. If we do not do this ... will pulled into an arms race beyond our power, and we will lose this race, for we are presently at the limit of out capabilities."<ref>Notes of Politburo Meeting 4 October 1986, [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/22/documents/reykjavik/ Gorbachev's instructions for the group preparing for Reykjavik]</ref>

By the late 80s, the Soviet Union began unilateral force cuts and troop withdrawals from Eastern Europe, and by May 1989 an unprecedented series of disclosures by senior Soviet officials revealed actual reductions in defense spending for the 1986-1990 and 1991-1995 Five Year Plan periods.<ref> Christopher Wilkinson NATO Review, [http://www.nato.int/docu/review/1991/9102-4.htm Soviet Defense Spending], NATO's Economics Directorate No. 2 - April 1991, Vol. 39 p. 16-22</ref> Genrikh Grofimenko, a former adviser to [[Leonid Brezhnev]], said "Ninety-nine percent of the Russian people believe that [the US] won the Cold War because of your president's insistence on SDI".<ref>Peter Schweizer, ''Reagan’s War''.</ref>

===[[Containment]] and the [[Iran]]ian initiative===
In 1985, after Reagan won reelection to his second term, the focus turned from reviving the domestic economy to several foreign policy matters which had been lingering throughout the decade. One such matter involved Iran, a long time ally of the Western Allies since 1941 that had experienced an Islamic Revolution in 1979 after President Carter announced [[Human Rights]] had superseded [[Containment]] as the primary focus of American foreign policy. Since 1980 Iran had been enmeshed in a brutal trench war with neighboring Iraq which was emerging as a potent military threat in the region to other allies. Members of the National Security Council staff, along with CIA Director [[William Casey]], persuaded Reagan much could be gained and several problems could be addressed simultaneously with an overture to Iran to restore relations.

The objective of the plan was fourfold:
#Take steps to restore good relations with the [[Islamic Republic of Iran]] which was becoming increasingly hostile to the West;
#Take measures to convince Iran that Israel could become a friend and ally;
#Insurance against Iraq becoming too strong which and become a threat to [[Kuwait]] or [[Saudi Arabia]];
#Provide funding for other operations to continue the policy of containment in the Western Hemisphere, most notably [[Nicaragua]], and the violence the Soviet/Cuban/Nicaragua connection was creating in [[El Salvador]] and [[Honduras]].

There were humanitarian aspects to the proposal as well; (1) the Iran-Iraq War had stalemated for nearly six years and Reagan was advised that he was in the unique position as President to help facilitate bringing a senseless war with much suffering to an end; (2) the suffering of the people of the Central American Republics at the hands of Soviet inspired subversion which had in the decade of the 80s established a beachhead in North America; (3) Iran perhaps could be persuaded to use its good offices and influence hostage takers in Lebanon who had held several Western prisoners, many of the Christian Missionaries, for several years.

Reports had filtered back to Reagan that children as young as nine years old had been used by Iran to clear minefields.<ref>[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/iran-iraq.htm Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), ''Iraqi Retreats, 1982-84''], Globalsecurity.org, retrieved 20 March 2007.</ref> In weighing Iraq's delicate Sunni/Shia balance and the growing threat of Iranian-sponsored terrorism, the NSC staff and Casey recognized the dangers of an Iraqi collapse as well as the urgent need to dissuade Iran from continuing its ruthless and inhumane tactics.<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq53.pdf NSDD 139, 5 April 1984].</ref>

The [[Boland amendment]], a Vietnam era-style Congressional impingement on the legitimate foreign policy prerogatives of the Executive via the power of the purse, was used to deny Reagan's recommitment to the [[Truman Doctrine]] which had been adhered to by every President, Democratic and Republican alike since Truman, with the exception of [[President Carter]] who's [[human rights]] policy had brought one of the active belligerents, the [[Ayatollah Khomeini]], to power. In three of the active Soviet fronts, [[Afghanistan]], [[Nicaragua]], and [[El Salvador]], some Congressional Democratic leaders were openly sympathetic to Soviet foreign policy.<ref>[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/591eifow.asp ''One Weekend in April, A Long Time Ago ... What John Kerry thought about the Sandinista in Nicaragua''], Hugh Hewitt, The Weekly Standard, 09/09/2004.</ref><ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20060331222819/www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/6/7/234527.shtml ''Kerry: 'I'm Proud I Stood Against Reagan''] Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff, 7 June 2004.</ref> So the decision was made to fund [[Containment]] of Soviet objectives on an active front in North America with sales of TOW missiles to Iran. Israel provided the TOWs because the Boleyn Amendment forbade direct US funding and it was a welcome opportunity for Israel to build bridges to a much needed friend in the Middle East.

This operation was known as the "[[Iran-Contra affair]]." After word got out about the operation in November 1986, investigations were made, leading to the convictions of several members of the Reagan administration. President Reagan himself testified before the Tower Commission that he had poor recollection of the details of the operation due in part to the heavy pain medications had had been on in that period.

==Cold War victory==
Reagan is credited for ending the [[Cold War]] in victory for the United States. Historian Tony Judt in ''Postwar'' credits Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], while the political scientist Jan Kubik presents a viewpoint that credits [[Pope John Paul II]].<ref>[http://praguepost.com/articles/2007/02/28/letters-to-the-editor.php]</ref> Other historians contend structural weaknesses within the Communist bloc meant Reagan's actions were inconsequential to the end of [[communism]]. This is the view adopted by [[Russia]]ns themselves, and many political historians, citing [''[[perestroika]]''] and [''[[glasnost]]''] as beginning an inevitable slow fading of central power, and a collapse by irreconcilable differences between the central Soviet [[Politburo]] and the constituent republics, especially the [[Ukraine]].<ref>David Remnick, "Lenin's Tomb</ref> In the end, the consensus seems to point to all of the above, that hastened the demise of the Soviet Union; Internal factors, religious pressure brought by the Pope, Gorbachev's "Perestroika" and the united front of Ronald Reagan and [[Margaret Thatcher]], leading [[NATO]] and [[the West]] to embed a [[missile defense system]] in [[Western Europe]], and the economic superiority of [[Capitalism]], which simply out-spent and out-performed that of the Communist one. One thing that cannot be quantified is Reagan's ability to give [[hope]], his never-ending [[optimism]] that good would indeed triumph over evil. Many see that as key to bringing extra [[confidence]] to those locked behind the "[[Iron Curtain]]" to press even harder for reforms.

Columnist [[Cal Thomas]] wrote about it like this: ''He proved he was right about the big things. Faced with editorial denunciations at home and massive [[demonstration]]s in [[Europe]] against his plan to put missiles there to offset a [[Soviet threat]], Reagan went ahead and did it anyway. The Soviets could not keep pace with the buildup or Reagan's proposed missile defense system (derided by critics as "[[Star Wars]]"). When those critics could not bring themselves to admit they were wrong, they unpersuasively claimed the Soviet Union fell under its own weight. More accurately, Reagan pushed it onto "the ash heap of history," with the able assistance of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and [[Pope John Paul II]]. What Reagan did more than anything else - and it will be his lasting legacy - is replace [[despair]] with hope. Most people, even his detractors, felt a glow from being in his presence. He was the kindest, most gracious president I have met, and I have met them all since JFK. In his presence you felt he was interested in you and not himself. He was a good man.''<ref>[http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CalThomas/2004/06/07/ronald_reagans_wonderful_life]</ref>

[[Brian Mulroney]], the Canadian Prime Minister, said of Reagan: ''"Some in the West during the early 1980s believed communism and democracy were equally valid and viable. This was the school of "[[moral equivalence]]." In contrast Ronald Reagan saw [[Soviet communism]] as a menace to be confronted in the genuine belief that its squalid underpinning would fall swiftly to the gathering winds of [[freedom]]. Provided, as he said, that NATO and the [[industrialize]]d democracies stood firm and united. They did. And we know now who was right."''<ref>[http://reagan2020.us/eulogies/mulroney.asp]</ref>

*Former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan paid tribute to the fallen president in a recent ''Wall Street Journal editorial''. In it, Noonan noted: "Ronald Reagan told the truth to a world made weary by lies. He believed truth was the only platform on which a better future could be built. He shocked the world when he called the Soviet Union ‘evil,’ because it was, and an 'empire,' because it was that, too. He never stopped bringing his message to the people of the world, to Europe and China and in the end the Soviet Union. And when it was over, the Berlin Wall had been turned into a million concrete souvenirs, and Soviet communism had fallen. But of course, it didn’t fall. It was pushed. By Mr. Know Nothing Cowboy Gunslinger Dimwit. All presidents should be so stupid."<ref>[http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=1679]</ref>

==Post-presidency==
Reagan retired to California. He would occasionally involve himself in politics, including a speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention. In 1994, he announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, a degenerative nerve disorder that annihilates the victim's mental capacity. He died at his Bel-Air home on June 5, 2004 at age 93, making him the second-longest lived president in history.

==Miscellaneous Facts==
*Reagan was the first and only labor leader and former President of an AFL-CIO union ever elected US President.
*Reagan was the first and only divorced president.
*Reagan was a lifeguard for seven years growing up, and was said to have saved 77 people.<ref>http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/reagan/stories/bio.part.one/index.html</ref>
*Reagan was the first president to break the "[[Curse of Tippecanoe]]"
*At 69, Reagan was the oldest man elected to the presidency.
*The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum is located in Simi Valley, California.<ref>http://www.reaganfoundation.org/visitorguide/hours_directions.asp</ref>
*Reagan's 1994 announcement that he had Alzheimer's Disease brought large amounts of public attention to the disease.
*Reagan loved jelly beans.<ref>http://www.jellybelly-uk.com/pages/q&a/trivia.shtml</ref> The blueberry flavor was made in his honor. [[Jelly Belly]] even created a [http://www.jellybelly-uk.com/pages/q&a/bean_art_gallery.shtml Ronald Reagan portrait out of jelly beans].
*His speech writer [[Peggy Noonan]] is a columnist for the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]''.

== Quotes ==
*"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology." - January 20, 1981
*"...peace is the highest aspiration of the American People. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will never surrender for it, now or ever." - January 20, 1981
*"We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look." - January 20, 1981
*"I've learned in Washington, that that's the only place where sound travels faster than light." - December 12, 1983
*"The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence, and patience to turn that dream into reality." - March 8, 1985
*"I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day." —March 13, 1985, in a speech threatening to veto legislation raising taxes.<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3638320/</ref>
*"A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough." - December 5, 1990
*"The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence, and patience to turn that dream into reality." - March 8, 1985
*"If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here, to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." —Speech at the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3638320/</ref>
*"...I know it's hard when you're up to your armpits in alligators to remember you came here to drain the swamp." - February 10, 1982
*"There is no question that we have failed to live up to the dreams of the founding fathers many times and in many places. Sometimes we do better than others. But all in all, the one thing we must be on guard against is thinking that because of this, the system has failed. The system has not failed. Some human beings have failed the system." - June 21, 1973
*"The work of volunteer groups throughout our country represents the very heart and soul of America. They have helped make this the most compassionate, generous, and humane society that ever existed on the face of this earth." - Oct. 16, 1973
*"...peace is the highest aspiration of the American People. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will never surrender for it, now or ever." - January 20, 1981
*"In America, our origins matter less than our destination, and that is what democracy is all about." - August 17, 1992<ref>http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/quotes/default.asp</ref>

==See also==
*[[How Ronald Reagan won the Cold War]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040614-646317,00.html Time Magazine Article on ''The All-American President'']
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rr40.html White House Official Page]
*[http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/ Reagan's Presidential Library]
*[http://imdb.com/name/nm0001654/ Actor Bio At IMDB]
*[http://www.ronaldreaganmemorial.com/ Official Memorial]
*[http://www.reagan.navy.mil/index.html USS ''Ronald Reagan'' CVN 76 official website]
*[http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Ronald_Reagan Quotations by Ronald Reagan]

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:United States Governors]]
[[Category:Ronald Reagan]]
{{USPresidents}}

Bill O'Reilly

2008-03-12T17:34:05Z

Billdozer: /* Views on prejudice and racism */

[[Image:Bll.png|thumb|right|Bill O' Reilly On The O' Reilly Report]]
'''Bill O'Reilly''' is a commentator and host of the show ''The O'Reilly Factor'' on the [[Fox News Channel]], which he calls the "No Spin Zone." O'Reilly often remarks that his personal political viewpoint is not captured by the modern [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] and [[Republican Party|Republican]] archetypes and would rather call himself a "traditionalist." In this vein, he has expressed support for some positions not traditionally associated with his political supporters including anthropogenic climate change and civil unions for both heterosexual and homosexual couples.

''The O'Reilly Factor'' is the highest-rated hour on any cable news channel. 5 million people nightly watch the show and there are millions more who listen to him on radio stations. <ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/23/60minutes/main645202.shtml Bill O'Reilly: "No Spin"] Transcript 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace aired Sept. 26, 2004. </ref>

Recently [[Conservative|conservatives]] criticized Billy O'Reilly [http://www.conservapedia.com/Fox_News_Channel#Fox_News_Channel_and_Homosexuality regarding his views in relation to homosexuality].

==Views on prejudice and racism==

O'Reilly has condemned white racist prejudice against US blacks, although recently some remarks he made underscoring the fact that black-owned and Italian-owned restaurants are comparable were taken out of context by the far-left "watchdog" group Media Matters. [http://mediamatters.org/items/200709260003?f=h_top] Some asserted outrage over his use of the term "lynching party" when discussing Michelle Obama, though in actuality he was defending her and not using the term in a racist context.

==Criticism==
O'Reilly has often been accused of berating his guests. He is deeply disliked by many on the far-left, who often accuse him of distorting facts or slandering those unfriendly to his position. He has occasionally been criticized by conservatives on certain issues such as his stance on gun control.

==Trivia==

* O'Reilly and [[Stephen Colbert]] have a friendly rivalry {{fact}}, even appearing on each others' shows.

* O'Reilly is often called a "name caller" and a study by Indiana University concluded that: "Our results show a consistent pattern of O'Reilly casting non-Americans in a negative light. Both illegal aliens and foreigners were constructed as physical threats to the public and never featured in the role of victim or hero."<ref>{{cite web|author = Indiana University|url= http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5535.html|title = Content analysis of O'Reilly's Rhetoric find spin to be a 'factor'}}</ref><ref>Mike Conway, Maria Elizabeth Grabe, and Kevin Grieves, "[http://journalism.indiana.edu/papers/oreillyjourstud07.pdf Villains, Victims, and the Virtuous in Bill O'Reilly's 'No-Spin Zone']," ''Journalism Studies'' 8:2 (2007).</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Conservative Links]]

==References==

<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT: Oreilly, Bill}} 
[[Category:Broadcasters|Oreilly, Bill]]

Bill O'Reilly

2008-03-12T17:32:20Z

Billdozer: /* Criticism */ removed overt anti-O'Reilly tirade

[[Image:Bll.png|thumb|right|Bill O' Reilly On The O' Reilly Report]]
'''Bill O'Reilly''' is a commentator and host of the show ''The O'Reilly Factor'' on the [[Fox News Channel]], which he calls the "No Spin Zone." O'Reilly often remarks that his personal political viewpoint is not captured by the modern [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] and [[Republican Party|Republican]] archetypes and would rather call himself a "traditionalist." In this vein, he has expressed support for some positions not traditionally associated with his political supporters including anthropogenic climate change and civil unions for both heterosexual and homosexual couples.

''The O'Reilly Factor'' is the highest-rated hour on any cable news channel. 5 million people nightly watch the show and there are millions more who listen to him on radio stations. <ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/23/60minutes/main645202.shtml Bill O'Reilly: "No Spin"] Transcript 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace aired Sept. 26, 2004. </ref>

Recently [[Conservative|conservatives]] criticized Billy O'Reilly [http://www.conservapedia.com/Fox_News_Channel#Fox_News_Channel_and_Homosexuality regarding his views in relation to homosexuality].

==Views on prejudice and racism==

O'Reilly has condemned white racist prejudice against US blacks, although recently some remarks he made underscoring the fact that black-owned and Italian-owned restaurants are comparable were taken out of context by the far-left "watchdog" group Media Matters. [http://mediamatters.org/items/200709260003?f=h_top]

==Criticism==
O'Reilly has often been accused of berating his guests. He is deeply disliked by many on the far-left, who often accuse him of distorting facts or slandering those unfriendly to his position. He has occasionally been criticized by conservatives on certain issues such as his stance on gun control.

==Trivia==

* O'Reilly and [[Stephen Colbert]] have a friendly rivalry {{fact}}, even appearing on each others' shows.

* O'Reilly is often called a "name caller" and a study by Indiana University concluded that: "Our results show a consistent pattern of O'Reilly casting non-Americans in a negative light. Both illegal aliens and foreigners were constructed as physical threats to the public and never featured in the role of victim or hero."<ref>{{cite web|author = Indiana University|url= http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5535.html|title = Content analysis of O'Reilly's Rhetoric find spin to be a 'factor'}}</ref><ref>Mike Conway, Maria Elizabeth Grabe, and Kevin Grieves, "[http://journalism.indiana.edu/papers/oreillyjourstud07.pdf Villains, Victims, and the Virtuous in Bill O'Reilly's 'No-Spin Zone']," ''Journalism Studies'' 8:2 (2007).</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Conservative Links]]

==References==

<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT: Oreilly, Bill}} 
[[Category:Broadcasters|Oreilly, Bill]]

National Rifle Association

2008-03-12T17:28:12Z

Billdozer:

[[Image:National Rifle Association logo.png|National Rifle Association logo|thumb|250px]]
The '''National Rifle Association''' (or '''NRA''') is an advocacy group which promotes the right to bear arms as well as promoting interest in shooting sports. It runs training classes in gun use and safety, and publishes magazines of interest to gun owners. It is also dedicated to protecting Americans' [[Second Amendment]] rights.

The NRA was founded after the [[American Civil War]] by former Union soldiers seeking to improve the shooting skills of the population at large.

The NRA is non-partisan and has endorsed both [[Republican Party|Republicans]] and [[Democratic Party|Democrats]]. It most often endorses Republicans, as that party is more prone to fielding candidates receptive to Second Amendment rights.

In 2004 the NRA successfully opposed renewal of the federal assault weapons ban of 1994, which banned many features of certain semiautomatic rifles and certain types of removable magazines, against a campaign to make the ban permanent and expand it.<ref>http://www.nra.org/Article.aspx?id=886</ref> The ban expired at midnight, September 13, 2004.{{fact}}

The NRA owns and operates the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia, which is free to the public.

==Prominent Members==
*[[Michael Moore]]<ref>http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel040403.asp</ref>
*[[George H.W. Bush]] (resigned 1995)
*[[Charlton Heston]]
*[[Larry Craig]]
*[[Mitt Romney]] (since August 2007)
*[[Dick Cheney]]
*[[Ted Nugent]]
*[[John Dingell]]
*[[Hunter S. Thompson]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.nra.org National Rifle Association]

==References==
<references/>

[[category:Politics]]

Gun

2008-03-12T17:26:51Z

Billdozer:

[[Image:Glock30.jpg|right|200px]]
A '''gun''' is a weapon that fires a bullet, dart or other projectile.

The four main types of modern firearms today are bolt-operated, pump action, semi-automatic, and automatic weapons. In a bolt-action weapon, each new [[round (ordnance)|round]] must be loaded manually, by moving the [[breech]] to eject the empty casing. In pump action guns (usually shotguns) a new round must be manually loaded by pulling back on pump of the gun, located underneath the barrel. In semi-automatic weapons, each pull of the trigger fires a bullet, each shot ejecting spent brass and loading new ammuntion until the magazine is depleted. In fully automatic weapons, bullets will be fired as long as the trigger is depressed. Fully automatic fire will cause the gun to heat up very quickly, which can become dangerous as it can burn exposed flesh and because rounds may "cook off" or fire unexpectedly due to the chamber becoming hot enough to ignite the propellant.

==Gun control==
The cultural issues surrounding guns are debated. [[Conservative]]s generally prefer to reserve for the [[individualism|individual]] [[the right to self-defense]] through the use of guns. [[Liberal]]s generally prefer to give away this right to guards, police, and the military, or even completely deny that it is an important right.{{fact}}

Guns are shown to be highly effective at detering crime and protecting the gun owner. Police officers often use guns to enforce the law, except in some countries where the police are not armed. It is debatable whether unarmed police can properly protect citizens from gun-wielding criminals, as they must wait for the arrival of specialist firearms officers before being able to act.

Studies have repeatedly shown that law-abiding citizens carrying guns are an effective deterrent against crime. Further comparison between different states by [[John Lott]] indicates that states that have more conservative gun laws have lower crime rates, violent crime rates, and firearms [[homicide]]s than states with more liberal gun laws.

[[Second Amendment|Guns are also a defense against a tyrannical government.]] The 20th century has proved repeatedly that a well-armed and dedicated guerrilla army can defeat even the strongest occupying army using only small arms. Thus, guns potentially act as a deterrent against a tyrannical government.

== Science Fiction ==

[[Science fiction]], such as [[Star Trek]], has postulated many different types of directed energy weapons. These are guns that fire beams, waves, or packets of energy. Some energy guns can be set to stun, not to wound or kill. Most firearms legislation would not classify these as firearms, so their ownership would be unrestricted, as are many non-firearm weapons such as flame throwers.

==See also==
*[[Gun control]]
==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Guns]]

Gun

2008-03-12T17:24:48Z

Billdozer: made a few adjustments in the interest of the article

[[Image:Glock30.jpg|right|200px]]
A '''gun''' is a weapon that fires a bullet, dart or other projectile.

The four main types of modern firearms today are bolt-operated, pump action, semi-automatic, and automatic weapons. In a bolt-action weapon, each new [[round (ordnance)|round]] must be loaded manually, by moving the [[breech]] to eject the empty casing. In pump action guns (usually shotguns) a new round must be manually loaded by pulling back on the underneath of the gun. In semi-automatic weapons, each pull of the trigger fires a bullet. In fully automatic weapons, bullets will be fired as long as the trigger is depressed until either the trigger is released, the gun jams, or it runs out of ammunition. Fully automatic fire will cause the gun to heat up very quickly, which can become dangerous as it can burn exposed flesh and because rounds may "cook off" or fire unexpectedly due to the chamber becoming hot enough to ignite the propellant.

==Gun control==
The cultural issues surrounding guns are debated. [[Conservative]]s generally prefer to reserve for the [[individualism|individual]] [[the right to self-defense]] through the use of guns. [[Liberal]]s generally prefer to give away this right to guards, police, and the military, or even completely deny that it is an important right.{{fact}}

Guns are shown to be highly effective at detering crime and protecting the gun owner. Police officers often use guns to enforce the law, except in some countries where the police are not armed. It is debatable whether unarmed police can properly protect citizens from gun-wielding criminals, as they must wait for the arrival of specialist firearms officers before being able to act.

Studies have repeatedly shown that law-abiding citizens carrying guns are an effective deterrent against crime. Further comparison between different states by [[John Lott]] indicates that states that have more conservative gun laws have lower crime rates, violent crime rates, and firearms [[homicide]]s than states with more liberal gun laws.

[[Second Amendment|Guns are also a defense against a tyrannical government.]] The 20th century has proved repeatedly that a well-armed and dedicated guerrilla army can defeat even the strongest occupying army using only small arms. Thus, guns potentially act as a deterrent against a tyrannical government.

== Science Fiction ==

[[Science fiction]], such as [[Star Trek]], has postulated many different types of directed energy weapons. These are guns that fire beams, waves, or packets of energy. Some energy guns can be set to stun, not to wound or kill. Most firearms legislation would not classify these as firearms, so their ownership would be unrestricted, as are many non-firearm weapons such as flame throwers.

==See also==
*[[Gun control]]
==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Guns]]

Franklin D. Roosevelt

2008-03-12T16:31:01Z

Billdozer: /* Legacy */

{{President
|image=509px-FDR in 1933.jpg
|seq=32
|term_start=March 4, 1933
|term_end=April 12, 1945
|party=Democratic
|vp= John N. Garner
|vp_dates=1933-1941
|2vp=Henry A. Wallace
|2vp_dates=1941-1945
|3vp=Harry Truman
|3vp_dates=1945
|4vp=
|4vp_dates=
|previous=Herbert Hoover
|next=Harry Truman
|seq2=
|term2_start=
|term2_end=
|party2=
|vp2=
|vp2dates=
|2vp2=
|2vp2dates=
|3vp2=
|3vp2dates=
|4vp2=
|4vp2dates=
|previous2=
|next2=
|birth_date=January 30, 1882
|birth_place=Hyde Park, New York
|death_date=April 12, 1945
|death_place=Warm Springs, Georgia
|spouse=[[Eleanor Roosevelt]]
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
}}

'''Franklin Delano Roosevelt''' was the 32nd [[President of the United States of America]] of the [[United States]] of America, following [[Herbert Hoover]] and preceding [[Harry Truman]]. Roosevelt was a member of the [[Democratic Party]]. He was elected four times and served a few months longer than 3 terms, from 1933-1945, the longest any one man has been president of the United States. He was elected amidst the uncertainty of the [[Great Depression]].

On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage, due partly to the crippling [[disease]], [[polio]]myelitis, which physically disabled him during his presidency.<ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fr32.html</ref>

Although Mr. Roosevelt was very popular at first, it has been argued by scholars and analysts then and now that many [[New Deal]] relief efforts actually helped to prolong the [[Great Depression]]. Mr. Roosevelt started the second wave of the massive expansion of the Federal Government and greatly increased American foreign aid. Some of these policies were viewed controversially coupled with persistent high level of unemployment in the 1930s as a result and later US involvement in WWII.<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/32_f_roosevelt/printable.html</ref>

From his second term the people were told that Roosevelt was the only man who could keep the US out of war. Later, it was asserted that he was the only man who could successfully fight the war that which he alone could keep the US out of. Then it was said that he was the only man who was capable of facing [[Josef Stalin]] on equal terms. Finally, he was said to be the only man who could guarantee against the ruthlessness of Stalin in the post-war era.

==Early life==
Franklin Roosevelt studied law at Columbia University where he failed to graduate. Secretary of Labor [[Frances Perkins]], the first woman ever appointed to a cabinet post and knew FDR from his early manhood up to his death, says he was not a student, that he knew nothing of economics and that he admitted he had never read a book on the subject. <ref>''The Roosevelt I Knew,'' Frances Perkins, New York, Viking Press, 1946. p. 34.</ref>

== Election of 1932 ==
{{stub|section}}
The Democrats made Government expansion under the Hoover administration an issue in the campaign of 1932, charging that Hoover was promoting socialism. After Roosevelt had taken office, former Democratic New York Governor Al Smith, saw Roosevelt's ultimately expansive policies as a betrayal of the true ideals of the Democratic party and supported Republican candidates in subsequent elections.

While the Democrats were damning Hoover as a big spender, at the same time he was refusing to be drawn into big spending, the Democratic House passed a bill appropriating $1,500,000,000 for old-fashioned [[pork-barrel]] outlays.

Roosevelt won a lanside victory in the presidential election of 1932, winning 472 electoral votes (nearly 90% of the total) and 22,800,000 popular votes (57% of the total) to defeat incumbent president Herbert Hoover.<ref>1932 Presidential Election Results http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?f=0&year=1932</ref> He was running primarily on the platform that he would help the country recover from the Great Depression with his New Deal.

== First Term ==
===Foreign policy===

On November 16, 1933, when the Roosevelt administration granted diplomatic recognition to the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]], the USSR pledged itself to refrain "from interfering in any manner in the internal affairs of the United States." This occurred three weeks after the founding of the [[Comintern]] affiliated [[American League for Peace and Democracy]]. The process of Communist “influence” in American life was accelerated. This “influence,” as described by [[Communist party]] defector [[Louis Budenz]], was to “infiltrate key government posts, undermine the patriotism of wellmeaning people in strategic or confidential positions, and win over those whose words, spoken and written, have an effect on American [[public opinion]];” it was checked “partially during the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact|Hitler-Stalin alliance]], it went all out in the course of the [[Second World War]]."<ref>Men Without Faces, The Communist Conspiracy in the U. S. A., By Louis Budenz,New York Harper & Brothers, 1950, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=//PDFsml_AD/Men_Without_Faces-Louis_Francis_Budenz-1950-315pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=238&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 2] pdf.</ref>

Numerous [[Attorney General's list|Comintern affiliate]] organizations sprung up in the ensuing years, including the [[American Youth Congress]] in 1934 and the [[League of American Writers]] in 1935. [[KGB]] officers traveled the country in the guise of diplomatic and consular officials, conducting [[espionage]] activities <ref>[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/10.gif Anonymous letter to Hoover], undated (received 7 August 1943), National Security Agency Venona Collection. "[[SEMENOV]] works in AMTORG, is robbing the whole of the war industry in America. SEMENOV has his agents in all the industrial towns of the U.S.A., in all aviation and chemical war factories and in big industries."</ref> freely and offering bribes.

On February 28, 1934, Elliott Roosevelt, son of the President, and [[Anthony Fokker]] each received half a million dollars for selling fifty military aircraft to the Soviet government. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,756770-2,00.html ''Son's Scheme''], Time magazine, Oct. 19, 1936,</ref>

===New Deal===
:''For Main Article see '''[[New Deal]].'''''
[[Image:Flatgrowth.JPG|thumb|300px|right|Real Output and Growth remained stagnant throughout the New Deal largely due to government interference. The Depression came back with a vengence in 1937-1938 because of the [[economic planner]]s over emphasis on consumption, and de-emphasis and persecution of producers--the people who make the economy work. ''Source:New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression.''<ref>''New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis, ''Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, Journal of Political Economy, volume 112 (2004), pages 779–816.</ref>]]
FDR is also famous for his [[New Deal]], a set of [[economic planning]] experiments that were meant to bring about the end of the [[Great Depression]], but instead prolonged it and caused American citizens to be burdened with unnecessary government programs for decades to come. [[Economic growth]] was negligible to non-existent, and what growth did occur was consumed by an every swelling bureaucracy.

Enforcement of the [[Anti-trust Act]] was considered as an essential instrument to prevent [[cartel]]s and trusts in restraint of trade which had been viewed as deadly to the system of [[free enterprise]]. On the campaign trail Roosevelt called loudly for its strict enforcement. Yet immediately upon Roosevelt's accession to office the Anti-trust Act was suspended in order to cartelize every industry in America on the Italian [[fascist]] corporative model. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 1, Chapter 4, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/cgi-bin/framed/2767/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Four___The_New_New_Deal.htm ''The New New Deal''].</ref> The National Recovery Act (NRA) and the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] (AAA) were plans to take the whole industrial and agricultural life of the country under the wing of the government, organize it into vast farm and industrial cartels, as they were called in Germany, corporatives as they were called in Italy, and operate business and farms by economic planning schemes dictated and carried out under the supervision of government. This is, in fact, the essence of [[fascism]]. In those days fascism was not defined as [[anti-Semitism]]. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Book 1, Chapter 7, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Seven___An_Enemy_Is_Welc.htm ''An Enemy Is Welcomed''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

The AAA reported to the Secretary of Agriculture but was independent of the Department of Agriculture bureaucracy. [[Harold Ware]] was a [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) official in the AAA and founded the [[Ware group]]. The group consisted of young lawyers and economists, had about 75 members in 1934 and was divided into about eight cells. The AAA was later found [[unconstitutional]], but by that time the Communist operatives had established jobs in government employment. [[Alger Hiss]], [[Lee Pressman]], [[John Abt]], [[Charles Kramer]], [[Nathan Witt]], [[Henry Collins]], [[George Silverman]], [[Marion Bachrach]], [[John Herrmann]], [[Nathaniel Weyl]], [[Donald Hiss]] and [[Victor Perlo]] were all members of the Ware group. [[Harry Dexter White]], who was involved in the most auspicious policy [[subversion (political)|subversion]] as Director of the Division of Monetary Research in the [[Treasury Department]], was also affiliated with the group. The Ware group was the CPUSA's covert arm at this time. Each of these agents not only provided classified documents to Soviet intelligence, but was involved in political influence operations as well.

In 1934, a Congressional Investigation was held to examine statements by Dr. William A. Wirt, who headed the U.S. [[Department of Education|Office of Education]]. Dr. Wirt had attended a dinner party with several Brain Trusters at the home of his secretary, [[Alice Barrows]]. Barrows began working for the Office of Education in 1919 and was secretly a member of the [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA) which advocated the violent overthrow of the United States Constitution. Several of the Brain Trusters present at the dinner revealed to Wirt they were CPUSA members. Wirt testified,
{{Cquote|I was told they believe that by thwarting our then evident economic recovery, they would be able to prolong the country’s destitution until they had demonstrated to the American people that the Government must operate business and commerce. By propaganda, they would destroy institutions making long term capital loans—and then push Uncle Sam into making these loans. Once Uncle Sam becomes our financier, he must also follow his money with control and management. <ref>Hearings, House Select Committee To Investigate Certain Statements of Dr. William Wirt, 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, April 10 and 17, 1934. </ref><ref>''Dr Wirt faces the cameras and tells all'', Literary Digest v. 117 (April 21 1934) p. 7.</ref><ref>FBI Silvermaster file [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster053.pdf Volume 53 June 1946], p. 78 pdf.</ref>}}

A June 1945 [[Venona project]] decryption of Soviet [[KGB]] wartime cables from the Washington D.C. KGB Office to Moscow's Eighth Department, the political intelligence wing, relayed information on matters regarding Attorney General Francis Biddle. KGB agent [[Charles Kramer]], who served on the staff of several U.S. Senate Subcommittees, and Barrows are the sources of the information. <ref>Venona 3706 KGB Washington to Moscow, 29 June 1945.</ref> Mary Van Kleek who headed the Russell Sage Foundation and also served on the Board of the National Council, visited Washington weekly to meet with Barrows and [[Greg Silvermaster|Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]].

During [[World War II]] Barrows was the Executive Secretary of the the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. This organization was declared in 1953 to be a [[Glossary_of_espionage_terms#Fronts_and_cutouts|Communist front]] organization by the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] (SACB). In its Findings of Fact, the SACB said the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship,
{{Cquote|advances positions...markedly pro-Soviet and...anti-United States Government...is a Communist-action organization which has as its primary purpose to advance the objectives of the world Communist movement under the [[hegemony]] of the Soviet Union; it has the policy to support and defend the Soviet Union under any and all circumstances...We conclude that the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc., is substantially directed, dominated, and controlled by the Communist Party of the United States...and is primarily operated for the purpose of giving aid and support to...the Soviet Union, a Communist foreign government." <ref>United States. Subversive Activities Control Board. [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=usfexec;cc=usfexec;q1=Barrows;rgn=full%20text;idno=81242.0001.001;didno=81242.0001.001;view=image;seq=511;page=root;size=s;endseq=3;frm=frameset Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board.] Washington. United States Government Printing Office. 1966. Vol. 1, p. 501.</ref>}}

====Civilian Conservation Corps====
:''Main article [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]''

Soon after President Roosevelt's inauguration in March 1933, he announced the establishment of the CCC camps to take the boys off the street corners and out of the transient camps and to get money for their families. Of the New Deal innovations, perhaps the most generally applauded was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), adapted from German predecessors. That was a year after Hitler had coordinated all work camps under [[Nazi]] leadership. In 1934 the German university student organization voted that the work camps should be compulsory before matriculation and in 1935, Hitler decreed that the work camps be compulsory for both sexes. That same plan under the prompting of [[Harry Hopkins]] was announced by Roosevelt. <ref>''Getting Us into War'', Porter Sargent Publisher: P. Sargent, Boston, 1941. [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Getting_Us_Into_War-Porter_Sargent-1941-640pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=218&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 In the Footsteps of Hitler], pg. 492 pdf</ref> Ralph Ingersoll's ''PM'' newspaper reported the President's statement that training in the conscript camps will remove those elements in the thinking of youth which makes them "critical of their elders." <ref>''PM'', June 20, 1940. "that training in the conscript camps will remove those elements in the thinking of our youth which makes them 'critical of their elders'...We should hold little hope for the future of any nation whose young people had ceased to be critical of their elders."</ref><ref>''American Youth'', Kenneth Holland, Harvard University Press, 1940, pg. 103. "As the camps and resident centers are established on a permanent basis they should be carefully integrated with educational, vocational, employment and adjustment activities of institutions already in existence. It is to be hoped that established schools and other training institutions in the United States will see in the [[labor camp]]s a new technique for providing youth with practical experience better adapted to its needs and interests than the present academic school courses."</ref>

===Social Security===
An Old Age Social Security Bill was passed during his first term which provided for workers who reach the age of 65 a pension of $8 a week at most. The plan had to be pushed through against his procrastination until finally in the 1934 congressional elections the Republicans denounced him for his tardiness. When he did finally consent to a bill, it contained a plan for building a huge reserve fund that would extract billions from the workers' payrolls without any adequate return. Over the protest of the President, the Congress finally took that provision proposed by Roosevelt out of the law. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Chapter 14, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Fifteen___The_Roosevelt_.htm ''The Roosevelt Myth''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref>

===Taxation===

FDR, in a letter to journalist Roy W. Howard, wrote,
:"What is known as consumer taxes, namely the invisible taxes paid by people in every walk of life, fall relatively much more heavily upon the poor man than on the rich man." <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt, letter to Roy W. Howard, September 2, 1935. </ref>

[[Robert H. Jackson]], then serving as [[Internal Revenue Service]] General Counsel, observed in Congressional testimony that prior to FDR’s election, "we find those taxes bearing most heavily on the well-to-do contributed 68% per cent of the government's total internal revenue and customs receipts, while miscellaneous taxes and customs receipts, bearing most heavily upon the consumer contributed only 31.8%” By 1935 the situation was reversed with “taxes based on ability to pay contributed 38.7% . . . there has been an increase in the proportion of revenues contributed by taxes on consumption to 61.3%."<ref>Testimony of Robert Jackson, Assistant General Counsel, Treasury Department, Committee on Finance, U . S. Senate, August 6, 1985.</ref>

===Economic growth===

New capital made available for investment amounted to $348,000,000 in 1935. This was less than 1/10th of the amount available in 1929. By contrast, the British economy had nearly recovered to its 1929 levels by 1935, and the amount available for investment was almost twice as much as the United States.

{| style="background:white; color:blue" border="1" class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! United States <ref>Standard Statistics Co., ''New Honey for Operating and Producing.''</ref>
! Great Britain <ref>Midland Bank, London, ''New Issues for British Companies,'' converted from £ to $ at $4.8665.</ref>
|-
| 1927
| $3,201,000,000
| $710,509,000
|-
| 1928
| 3,062,000,000
| 983,033,000
|-
| 1929
| 3,668,000,000
| 759,174,000
|-
| 1930
| 3,039,000,000
| 394,186,500
|-
| 1931
| 1,006,000,000
| 155,728,000
|-
| 1932
| 321,000,000
| 248,191,500
|-
| 1933
| 177,000,000
| 296,856,500
|-
| 1934
| 356,000,000
| 350,388,000
|-
| 1935
| 348,000,000
| 666,710,500
|-

|}

===Congress of Industrial Organizations===

By 1935 membership in labor unions had sunk to a low figure as a result of [[unemployment]]. There were men around the President at this time that saw the tremendous possibilities of organizing labor as a political force. An industrial union is one in which all the people engaged in a single industry are included without regard to the type of skills at which they work. The industrial union was the one great instrument by which all labor could be organized and the President was urged to promote this idea as the starting point in building up a powerful political labor movement. There were three large industrial unions at that time, [[John L. Lewis]]’s [[United Mine Workers]] (UMW), the International Ladies Garment Workers Union of David Dubinsky and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of [[Sidney Hillman]].

Roosevelt tried to sell the plan to John L. Lewis of the UMW, and William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Green and the AFL opposed the idea of industrial unions and refused, but under the leadership of Lewis, a new group of unions was formed called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The Comintern directed [[Lee Pressman]] <ref>FBI Report, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946, United States Government, pgs. 298 - 300 pdf. "Leon Pressman, alias Lee Pressman, served as General Counsel for the [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] from 1933 to 1935; in 1935 he was appointed General Counsel for the [[Works Progress Administration]]. In 1937 he was appointed to the General Counsel for the National [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO). Pressman was also associated with various Communist front organizations. Pressman was a known contact of [[Anatoly Gorsky]], New York [[KGB]] Rezident, and KGB Agents [[Alger Hiss]] and [[Harry Dexter White]]. </ref> of the [[Ware group]] to assume the position of general counsel<ref>FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster132.pdf Vol. 132, pg. 109] pdf. "Pressman is said to have run arms to Spain during the Civil War via Mexico and to have worked with General Mark Moren in the project. Moren was involved in the [[Rubens Robinson]] passport case in 1938." See also Underground Espionage Agent, Adolf Berle notes, September 2, 1939. [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,789421,00.html ''32,000 & Mrs. Rubens''], Time magazine, Feb. 07, 1938. "In the first years of the Soviet Union, to escape from Russia was difficult and dangerous. Today it has become almost impossible, an attempt tantamount to suicide. Barbed and electrically charged wire, searchlight-equipped watch towers. 24-hour frontier patrols aided by bloodhounds and police dogs guard every mile of border. .... Weak from [[scurvy]] and [[dysentery]], Konarski told correspondents: 'The camp contains about 32,000 prisoners. They are kept there until [[death]] results from hard work, bad food and consequent sickness. I met two [[American citizen]]s in the camp, Arthur Hanley, a chemical engineer from California, and Edward Rose, a machinist from Boston, Mass. They said they came to Russia in 1921 as volunteer workers. Rose said he was [[arrest]]ed in Leningrad in 1923. Hanley was caught trying to escape from Russia to Latvia in 1925. Each was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but, although they have served out their sentences, they are still being held. They told me they know of three other native-born Americans who are held prisoner in other Soviet camps.'...Mrs. Ruth Marie Rubens (alias Robinson), one U. S. citizen officially known to be in jail in Moscow (TIME, Dec. 27 [1938]). In Moscow on December 9 able, active U. S. Charge d'Affaires Loy W. Henderson learned that Mrs. Rubens had "disappeared"' from the big Hotel National next door to the U.S. Embassy. On January 18 the Soviet Foreign Office finally admitted that Mrs. Rubens was under arrest, failed to say on what charge.... hundreds of Germans are today in Soviet jails and for years German diplomatic & consular officials have not been allowed to see them."</ref> where he became known as "Comrade Big." The year 1936 was a period of furious organizing work by it among the unskilled workers of the country. As Lewis, Dubinsky, and Hillman set about organizing millions of workers they were immediately up against the problem of finding skilled organizers to promote and manage the new unions.

There had been in the United States a [[Communist]] labor organization known as the Trade Union Unity League which took its instructions directly from [[Moscow]]. It is estimated that ten or fifteen thousand Communists were in these unions. In 1934, Moscow directed the Communist party in the United States to dissolve the Trade Union Unity League unions and to march the members of those unions into the American Federation of Labor. The purpose was not to advance the cause of labor unions or to get better working conditions for the members, but to use the apparatus of the labor union as an instrument of [[revolution]]. The Communist leaders saw in the rise of the CIO a better opportunity for their own revolutionary objectives than in the AFL and instructed their members to withdraw from the AFL and go into the CIO where they achieved disproportionate influence. <ref>''The Soviet World of American Communism'', Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson, Yale University Press, 1998, Document 13, pp. 58-68. ISBN 0-300-07150-7. </ref>

Lewis was interested in bringing into existence industrial unions like his own, in which he had always believed. Roosevelt was interested in bringing into American labor unions as many voters as possible and in capturing their leadership to build a powerful labor faction which could control the Democratic party and which he and his allies could control through the vast power of the government and the vast powers of labor leaders, along with the immense financial resources that so great a labor movement would have. The Communists were interested in getting into key positions as union officers, statisticians, economists, etc., in order to utilize the apparatus of the unions to promote the cause of revolution. By the early part of 1938, over three million workers had been organized. Lewis was later to split with FDR. <ref>''Communists and the CIO: From the Soviet archives'', Harvey Klehr and John E. Haynes, Labor History, Volume 35, Issue 3 Summer 1994 , pages 442 - 446. [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a772103056~db=all?tab=references]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788129-4,00.html ''Turning Point?''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 12, 1937.</ref>

== Second Term ==

{{Cquote|Planning will become a function of the federal government; either that or the planning agency will supersede the government, which is why, of course, such a scheme will be assimilated to the State. <ref>''The Principle of Planning and the Institution of Laissez Faire,'' Rexford G. Tugwell, The American Economic Review, vol. 22, no. 1, March 1932. [http://www.bartleby.com/73/147.html]</ref>}}

On August 13, 1938, John P. Frey, president of the Metal Trades Department of the AFL, appeared before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]. Frey, in a presentation lasting several days, laid before the Committee a complete documented account of CPUSA penetration of the CIO. He gave the names of 280 organizers in CIO unions under salary who were CPUSA members. He charged that John Brophy who was the director of the CIO, was expelled by the United Mine Workers some years before for disloyal activities and while he was not directly a CPUSA member, he was assisted in his work by two active members of the Party. He had gone to Russia as a member of a delegation sponsored by the Party and approved by Moscow and when he returned the UMW accused him of being a paid agent of the Soviet government. Brophy at a meeting said that the condition of workers in the Soviet Union "should be a source of inspiration to workers in America."

Frey named union after union in the CIO, giving names of the Communists who were holding positions of leadership and trust. He charged, for instance, that they dominated the United Office and Professional Workers Union, that the president of that organization was a CPUSA member and through that organization they had infiltrated the government with numerous Party members in almost all the bureaus in Washington.

[[Thomas Corcoran]] <ref>After World War II Corcoran employed Soviet agent [[Duncan Lee]] in his Washington law firm, Corcoran and Youngman. FBI Silvermaster file biographical details on [[Duncan C. Lee]], [[Elizabeth Bentley]]'s allegations concerning him, his contacts with [[Donald Wheeler]] and [[Mary Price]], [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster092.pdf Vol. 92, pgs. 20 - 21] pdf, January 26, 1947. On June 6 1945, 6 persons, including U.S. government officials [[Andrew Roth]] and [[John Stewart Service]], were arrested on [[conspiracy]] and [[espionage]] charges related to possession of roughly 1000 stolen classified Government documents in the offices of ''[[Amerasia]]'' magazine. ''Amerasia'', edited by [[Philip J. Jaffe]], had published classified materials verbatim from the United States wartime intelligence service, the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS). ''Amerasia's'' chief financial benefactor was [[Frederick V. Field]]. [[Joseph Milton Bernstein]], a [[GRU]] contact between Soviet agents in the OSS and the [[Board of Economic Warfare]], was also an employee. Others connected with the ''Amerasia'' scandal were [[T.A. Bisson]] and [[Owen Lattimore]]. Corcoran worked with the [[Truman administration]] to cover up the scandal.</ref> moved from the [[Reconstruction Finance Corporation]] to the White House and was instrumental in securing numerous appointments for friends and colleagues to [[New Deal]] agencies. Eventually he was pushed out in favor of [[Harry Hopkins]] for the position of Roosevelt's right-hand man.

===Court packing plan===

Tommy Corcoran was given the task by Roosevelt to persuade Congress to pass the proposed legislation. [[I. F. Stone]] of the ''New York Post'', who later was to agree to work for the [[KGB]], wrote speeches for Corcoran on this issue.

===Crash of 1937===

When FDR was inaugurated for his second term [[national income]], [[payroll]]s, and [[industrial production]] <ref>League of Nations Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, June, 1936. Percentage change 1929 to March 1936, United States -21.8%, rank number 13.</ref> were still 20 per cent below the 1929 figure and construction was still only about one third what it had been in 1929. By June, 1937 the Treasury boasted relief payments were less than in the same period the preceding year. But this was not so. The Treasury made a practice of cooking the books and producing phony numbers. It merely shifted relief payments to other accounts. They were, in fact, larger than the year before. Stock prices declined and by September the reality could be no longer hidden. By the end of October the market crashed. The budget was running a [[deficit]] at the time $300,000,000 a month.

[[Robert H. Jackson]], Assistant Attorney General, and Secretary of the Interior [[Harold Ickes]] in December made speeches inspired by the President on the [[conspiratorial]] ''America's 60 Families.'' <ref>''New Deal Chorus'', Time magazine, [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758849-1,00.html pg. 1][http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758849-2,00.html pg. 2], Jan. 17, 1938.</ref> In January, John D. Biggers staggered the administration with a report Roosevelt had commissioned that stated there were 10,870,000 people out of work. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758790,00.html ''Two Schemes''], Time magazine, Jan. 10, 1938.</ref> Roosevelt realized that all the “pump priming” and spending $17 billion had failed. Despite the billions added to the debt, the Depression was back. He was now at the center of a tug-of-war with advocates of spending like [[Harry Hopkins]], [[Leon Henderson]] and [[Rex Tugwell]] on one side, and opponents like [[Henry Morgenthau]] on the other. DNC Chairman [[Jim Farley]] reports he had a talk on the subject with Roosevelt on March 28, 1938.

FDR told Farley he would have "to go in for pump priming or relief," then Roosevelt confessed to a difficulty that is little understood: what could he spend on? There is only a limited number of things which the federal government can spend. The federal government can build schools, hospitals, roads, institutions of all sorts. But they are built in cities, counties, states and the activities which go on in these buildings are within the jurisdiction of the states. And the continuing perpetual maintainance of such things, like payroll, is the in the purview of the states. The federal government can spend money on agricultural experimentation, on scientific research, on national parks, on power dams, etc. But in the end the outlays on these things are limited. The one big thing the federal government can spend money on is the army and navy. Roosevelt explained to Farley that he could not spend on local projects because the states and cities did not want any more buildings and institutions which they would have to support. They were having trouble enough paying the bills of those already built. Roosevelt revealed to Farley that many [[WPA]] projects approved by the government were abandoned because the states and cities could not raise the money to support them. In the 1938 Congressional elections Harry Hopkins was spending as fast as he could without any regard to utility to meet the immediate political necessities of an election but couldn't go on indefinitely. And the whole problem was complicated by pressure from within his own party to balance the budget.

The country now reached a greater crisis than in 1933. The public debt, which was $22 billion when Roosevelt took office and was a heritage of [[World War I]], now was $37 billion. Taxes had been more than doubled by Roosevelt. By April 1938 unemployment reached several thousand more than when Roosevelt was elected in 1932. This was not Hoover’s Depression but Roosevelt’s Depression. Voices began to speak up suggesting after all Hoover may have known what he was doing, but here, nine years after the Depression began the fundamental condition of the country was no further advanced than it was at the end of Hoover's three year struggle with it.

Making provision for war increased business profits. In 1936 Roosevelt had said, "If we face the choice of profits or peace, the nation will answer – must answer - 'We choose peace'. It is the duty of all of us to encourage such a body of public opinion in this country that the answer will be clear." <ref>''Getting Us into War'', Porter Sargent Publisher: P. Sargent, Boston, 1941. [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Getting_Us_Into_War-Porter_Sargent-1941-640pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=218&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 ''No More Millionaires''], pg. 372 pdf</ref> By 1938 Roosevelt embarked on a massive defense appropriations buildup; the Administration would advance 30% to a defense contractor when placing an order. The National City Bank reported an increase of overall business profits in the year 1939 over 1938 of 63.6%, and in its December 1940 Bulletin showed for 284 companies "directly affected by war and defense program" a rise of 79.2%. The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported, "Betterment in profits was naturally more pronounced, as a rule, in those industries benefiting directly or indirectly from the European conflict." <ref>''Wall Street Journal'', May 3, 1940.</ref>

[[Curtiss-Wright Aircraft]], to enlarge its plant, received a loan of $92 million at 4%. [[I. F. Stone]] of ''[[The Nation]]'' magazine wrote,
:"Offered as a non-recourse loan . . . the government would have no claim against the Wright company if it failed to repay the loan. All the government could do in that case would be to take the factory. Since the plant would be financed entirely by the government, the government would really be taking back its own property if the Wright company for some reason wanted to drop it. ...The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported on August 2 that while the loan was for $92,000,000, 'the cost of the proposed plant and its equipment is understood to be only $37,000,000 or $38,000,000'. When asked by the ''Journal'' correspondent about 'this apparent discrepancy', Jesse Jones said, 'We don't believe it would be in the public interest to break down that total at this time'....As this is being written, the Wright contract has yet to be signed. The company is now asking for five-year amortization instead of eight. Incidentally, a vice-president of this finicky company, T. P. Wright, was assigned to the Defense Commission on June 8 to help speed up production"
The Defense Commission was the same commission that would determine and approve the terms of the loan.<ref>''Getting Us into War'', Sargent, 1941, pg. 433.</ref> ''PM'' noted "For an $18,000,000 plant to command a $92,000,000 credit from any bank, including a federal one, may make financiers blink, but that is what has been arranged". The Curtiss-Wright loan was only a little over five times the value of the plant. But Boeing Aircraft, with a plant worth $3,000,000 was awarded a loan of $32,000,000, more than ten times. And Boeing was to own it in five years.<ref>Roger Ingersoll, ''PM'', August. 9, 1940.</ref>

== Third Term ==

It is fairly certain that early in 1939, if not a little sooner, FDR made up his mind to seek a third election in the [[United States presidential election, 1940|presidential election of 1940]]. FDR realized the political difficulties involved in a third nomination so he wanted to make it appear as a "draft Roosevelt" movement. He discussed other candidates with his aids, among the names were Democratic National Committee Chairman [[James Farley]], whom FDR rejected because he was [[Roman Catholic]]. The name of Paul McNutt was urged; FDR was angry McNutt would even permit his name to be discussed. FDR told Farley: "I consider it bad taste on his part to be letting his name be used when he is still a member of my administration." Roosevelt sent him as High Commissioner to the Philippines and jokingly asked: "Is that far enough?"<ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Book 1, Ch. 6, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Seven___The_Third_Term.htm ''The Third Term''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref> Historian [[Doris Kearns Goodwin]] in her book ''No Ordinary Time'' explored the decision to seek a third time and concludes FDR probably decided to enter the war at the same time he decided to run again, although he was politically unable to enter the war until the [[Japanese]] [[attack on Pearl Harbor]].

Administrative Assistants to Roosevelt included [[James Forrestal]], [[Lauchlin Currie]]<ref>Committee on Un-American Activities, "The Shameful Years: Thirty Years of Soviet Espionage in the United States," 82d Congress, 2d Session, 1951, pp. 15-17; [http://www.counterintelligencetraining.com/BK/ci_centre_bibliography.htm Required Reading List for Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Intelligence and Security Professionals,]The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Alexandria, VA.</ref> and [[David K. Niles]]. Their function was "to get, information and to condense and summarize it for [Roosevelt's] use." <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins : An Intimate History'', Robert E. Sherwood, New York Harper and Brothers, 1948, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Roosevelt_and_Hopkins-An_Intimate_History-Robert_E_Sherwood-1948-1034pgs-GOV-POL.sml.pdf&id=252&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 226] pdf.</ref> Forrestal later was to jump from a 16th story window of Bethesda Naval Hospital psychiatric ward. <ref>''The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People'', John Loftus and Mark Aarons, New York : St.Martin's Press, 1994. [http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/vegyes_/secretwar_06.rtf]</ref> Currie and Niles were to be found working for the [[KGB]].<ref>''Uncovering Stalin's Spies'' Julius W. Friend, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, (2000) Vol. 13 No. 3, pgs. 381 - 384. [http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/UN1VH8U16UMXEFGF.pdf]</ref><ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00039.cfm ''The Venona Story''], Robert L. Benson, Center for Cryptological History, National Security Agency. One of the special reports issued in July 1948 (1948 was a presidential election year) gives the earliest translation found that mentions friends of [[David Niles]], an important advisor to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, "will arrange anything for a bribe." Venona message 786 New York KGB to Moscow, 1 June 1944, [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p1.gif pg. 1], [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p2.gif pg. 2]).</ref> Currie alerted his KGB controllers that "the United States was on the verge of breaking the Soviet code."<ref>''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'', Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, Washington, DC, Regnery, 2000, [http://books.google.com/books?id=mVpWH51F7toC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=lauchlin+currie+break+code&source=web&ots=Yj2NHYwgxB&sig=sbZ3789Tz0jd7xPRiC6EEdeuJ48 pg. 27.] Herbert Romerstein was the Chief, Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures, U.S. Information Agency from (1983-1989), Staff member, U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (1978-1983), and Minority Chief Investigator, House Committee on Internal Security (1971-1975). [http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/facultyID.9/profile.asp]</ref>

=== Commander in Chief ===

[[John P. Davies]] was assigned to Gen. [[Joseph Stilwell]] as Stilwell's adviser in China. Hopkins made a note at the time: "The President indicated his strong dissatisfaction with the way the whole show was running in China. He stated that Stillwell obviously hated the Chinese and that his cablegrams are sarcastic about the Chinese and this feeling is undoubtedly known to the Generalissimo."<ref>Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 739.</ref>Roosevelt and Hopkins biographer [[Robert Sherwood]] wrote that Gen. [[George C. Marshall]] told Hopkins his only serious disagreement with
Hopkins was on the issue of Stilwell. Sherwood adds that "he was unquestionably a serious nuisance to Roosevelt and there were many times when he was on the verge of recalling him."<ref> Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 740.</ref>

On May 19, 1942, pressured by Communist union officials of the American Communications Association, [[CIO]], Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, informed Rear Admiral Adolphus Staton that Communist radio operators were not to be removed from their ships. Less than six months earlier, Congress, with the lone dissenting vote of [[Vito Marcantonio]], enacted Public Law 351, which authorized the Secretary of the Navy to have all radio operators with a [[subversion (political)|subversive]] background taken off their ships. Rear Admiral Staton had recommended the removal of a number of Communists. In the presence of Rear Admiral S. C. Hooper and others, Knox instructed Rear Admiral Staton "that, in the opinion of the President, membership or suspected membership in the CPUSA was not sufficient to deprive a radio operator of his job." <ref>''America's Tragedy-Today'', Major Hamilton A. Long, (NY: Post Printing), pgs. 15-25.</ref> Expounding a memorandum bearing President Roosevelt's initials, Knox brushed aside the objections of Staton and Hooper, declaring that the order came from the President himself. Because the presidential command defied the law of the land, it was not put into writing. Consequently, the Communist radio operators returned to their ships and Rear Admirals Hooper and Staton were put on the inactive list.

Stalin publicly disbanded the [[Comintern]] in 1943. A Moscow message to all stations on 12 September 1943, message number 142, relating to this event is one of the most interesting and historically important messages <ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00008.cfm Venona 142(a) Moscow to Canberra 12 September 1943]. Text reads: "change in circumstances - and in particular the dissolution of the [[Comintern]] - necessitates a change in the method used by the workers of our residencies to keep in touch with the leaders of the local [[Communist_Party_of_the_United_States_of_America#Secret_apparatus|Communist]] organizations on intelligence matters. 
2. Our workers, by continuing to meet the leader of the Communists, are exposing themselves to danger and are giving cause [''orgs of''] local authorities to suspect that the Comintern is still in existence. 
3. We propose: 
a. That personal contact with leaders of the local Communist organizations should cease and that Communist material should not be accepted for forwarding to the Comintern. 
b. That meetings of our workers may take place only with special reliable undercover [ZAKONSPIRIROVANNYJ] contacts of the Communist [D% organizations], who are not suspected by the [''orgs of''] local authorities, exclusively about specific aspects of our intelligence work (acquiring [1 group unidentified] contacts, leads [NAVODKI], rechecking of those who are being cultivated, etc.). For each meeting it is necessary to obtain our consent. 

Representative of the Soviet Union. 

No. 4084 
Lt. Gen. [[P.M. Fitin]]. 

Notes: [a] This message is known to have been sent also to NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, and OTTAWA.</ref> in the entire corpus of [[VENONA]] translations. This message clearly discloses the [[KGB]]'s connection to the Comintern and to the national Communist parties. <ref>''Counterintelligence Reader'', National Counterintelligence Center, United States, [http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci2/2ch4_a.htm Vol. 2, Ch. 4], n.d.</ref> Shortly afterwards Rear Admiral Staton, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, was asked to testify before the Cox Committee of House of Representatives on the [[White House]] efforts to protect Communists in the Armed Forces. Staton complied in executive session. Before he could appear in public hearings, [[Adlai Stevenson]], assistant to Secretary Knox, instructed him that "there were White House orders" forbidding him to testify. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777835,00.html ''Cox's Circus''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 19, 1943.</ref> By that time Counter-Intelligence officers had obtained irrefutable proof that the CPUSA had developed an extensive plan to abolish the Armed Forces' counter-subversive system. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref>

Roosevelt himself was responsible for the order of January 1, 1944 which abolished the entire setup of the Counter-Intelligence Corps in the [[War Department]].<ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref> On February 19 the War Department issued the order which purposely disorganized the counter-subversive reporting system of the Armed Forces. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 13</ref> On May 19, the day after learning of the secret order to destroy the War Department records on subversives, Senator [[StyIes Bridges]], a member of the Military Affairs Committee, demanded an explanation from Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]]. Lieutenant General McNarney, Army Chief of Staff deputy, was "vague, evasive and obstructive." Bridges told McNarney "he could forgive an officer who makes a mistake or loses a battle, but that an officer who betrays the security of his country should be taken out and shot." McNarney admitted the order had been issued from "higher authority." After much wrangling, Secretary Stimson in a letter of May 27 promised to prevent the destruction of records on subversives. <ref>Long, op.cit., pgs. 28-31.</ref>

The War Department, on December 30, 1944, issued a secret order which expressly condoned "divided loyalty" and established as a guiding rule that "the subversive-suspect should be given the benefit of all reasonable doubt."

===Big Three conferences===
:''See also '''[[Teheran conference]]'''''

At the [[Teheran conference]] it was secretly agreed to let the Soviet Union have not only eastern Poland but also part of Finland, the Baltic States and parts of Romania. It was secretly agreed to support the Yugoslav Communist, [[Joseph Broz Tito]], and desert the pro-Western, anti-totalitarian friend, General Mihailovich. Roosevelt told a joint session of Congress upon his return to the United States that no secret arrangements had been made.

:''See also '''[[Yalta conference]]'''''

At the [[Yalta conference]] a [[reparations]] commission was set up. The Soviet Union wanted the amount to be 20 billion dollars of which the USSR would take half. It was agreed that labor might be taken as a possible source of reparations. This was a way of authorizing the seizure of human beings to work as [[slave]]s and is the basis of the crime perpetrated after hostilities ceased to which Franklin Roosevelt agreed. <ref>''Speaking Frankly'', James F. Byrnes, New York: Harper & Bros., 1947, p. 29.</ref>

Roosevelt also agreed at Yalta to have all fugitive Soviet nationals or citizens of satellite nations and tens of thousands of [[POW]]'s who elected to stay this side of the [[Iron Curtain]], returned to the Soviet Union. This was in contravention of the Geneva Convention. The ''Saturday Evening Post'' commented:
{{Cquote|With this shameful agreement as their authority, Russian [[KGB|MVD]] agents strode through the displaced-persons camps after the war and put the finger on thousands who had managed to escape the Soviet tyranny. These miserable victims were herded into boxcars and driven back to death, torture or the slow murder of the Siberian mines and forests. Many killed themselves on the way. Also under a Yalta agreement, the Russians were permitted to use German prisoners in forced labor as an item in 'reparations account.' For such inhumanities there is no excuse.<ref>''Saturday Evening Post'', Editorial, April 11, 1953, pg. 12.</ref>}}

Roosevelt not only made agreements secret from the American people but secret from his closest advisers in the government. He made agreements with Stalin hostile to the objectives of Churchill and kept secret from Churchill. He made secret agreements with [[Chiang Kai-shek]] secret from both Churchill and Stalin. He made secret agreements in derogation of Chiang Kai-shek's interests without Chiang Kai-shek's knowledge. And he made many secret agreements which no one in the U.S. State Department knew about until after his death and then learned about only at embarrassing moments from Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]. <ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 13, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Thirteen___The_Final_Bet.htm ''The Final Betrayal''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

== Fourth Term ==
[[Image:Fbisilvermasterfilevol15p4.JPG|right|250px|thumb|CPUSA defector [[Louis Budenz]] testified he could name 400 individuals involved in the [[CPUSA#Secret_apparatus|Communist conspiracy]]; <ref>[http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft296nb15t&chunk.id=d0e6193&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e4718&brand=eschol FBI Headquarters File 100-63, Louis Francis Budenz, Internal Security—C, Serial 122.]</ref> others testified there may have been over 1000.<ref>Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations ([http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm McCarthy Hearings 1953-54]).</ref> The Silvermaster group had 27 high level infiltrators still employed in the US government well after the War ended.<ref>[http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster015.pdf FBI Silvermaster file Vol. 15, pg. 4 pdf.]</ref>
]]
In February 1944 Congress rejected Roosevelt's demand for a $10,500,000,000 tax increase and cut it to $2,300,000,000. Roosevelt vetoed it saying this was a "bill not for relief of the needy but of the greedy."
Senator [[Alben Barkley]], Democratic leader, rose on the floor of the Senate to say the veto was "a calculated and deliberate assault upon the legislative integrity of every member of Congress." The entire Senate united in a roar of applause. Barkley declared that after seven years of carrying the [[New Deal]] banner for Roosevelt, he would resign his post as Democratic majority leader and he called on every member of the Congress to preserve its self respect and override the veto. The Senate overrode it 72 to 14 and the House 299 to 95.

After the [[Comintern]] was disbanded Roosevelt was offered the nomination of the [[Communist]] dominated [[American Labor Party]] and he had accepted their nomination in the [[Presidential election of 1944]]. It was 825,000 votes from [[Earl Browder]] and [[Sidney Hillman]]'s American Labor Party that gave him his majority. His administration was now the hopeless prisoner of these demanding and ruthless radical labor leaders,<ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 12, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Twelve___The_Atlantic_Ch.htm ''The Atlantic Charter Is Scrapped''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> who had shown their ability to elect or defeat the Democratic party, who had filled all the departments and bureaus with their agents and who had insinuated their experts into the CIO labor unions and their propagandists into the radio, the movies and all the great instruments of communication and opinion - a fact which Mr. Roosevelt's successors would have to face when the war ended. <ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20060820054409/http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/review/2000/summer/re2-su0.htm ''The Venona Progeny''], Hayen B. Peake, Naval War College Review, Summer 2000, Vol. LIII, No. 3. "[[Venona]] makes absolutely clear that they had active agents in the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Justice Department, Senate committee staffs, the military services, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the [[Manhattan Project]], and the [[White House]], as well as wartime agencies. No modern government was more thoroughly penetrated." [[Hayden B. Peake]] is the curator of [[Central Intelligence Agency]]’s (CIA) Historical Intelligence Collection. [http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/P_folder/peake.html]</ref>

So thorough was [[KGB]] penetration of the Roosevelt Administration, that when [[Army Signals Intelligence]] cryptographer [[Meredith Gardner]] extracted the names of [[Hans Bethe]], [[Niels Bohr]], [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Harold Urey]], [[Edward Teller]] and 11 other scientists working on the [[Manhattan Project]] from a December 2, 1944 KGB encypherment,<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00014.cfm Venona 1699 New York to Moscow, December 2, 1944].</ref> KGB agent [[William Weisband]] watched him do it.<ref>VENONA: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957, Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., (Washington, D.C.: [[National Security Agency]], Central Intelligence Agency, 1996) [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm]; The ''Baltimore Sun'' (Laura Sullivan, "SPY'S ROLE LINKED TO US FAILURE ON KOREA," 6/29/00) reported that a report newly declassified by the US National Security Agency (NSA) shows that [[William Weisband]] alerted the Soviets to extensive US eavesdropping in 1948, resulting in a complete blackout of information from the communist bloc for more than two years. This crippled the NSA's intelligence gathering efforts in the late 1940s and begins to explain why the US was caught unprepared for the [[DPRK]]'s 1950 invasion of the [[ROK]]. NSA historian David A. Hatch, who authored the report, said, "This report answers several significant questions. Up until now, there has been a great lack of knowledge surrounding some of these events ... and this should help sharpen [the public's] understanding." [Ed. note: This article was included in the US Department of Defense's Early Bird news service for June 29, 2000.] [http://www.nautilus.org/archives/napsnet/dr/0006/JUN29.html#item8] </ref>

[[Strom Thurmond]] also supported FDR's decision to seek a fourth term, and referred to Roosevelt as having been the world’s greatest leader. <ref>[http://www.kevinbaker.info/c_wtm.html What Trent Meant], Kevin Baker.</ref>

== Reflections on Christianity ==

FDR said this about the Bible in an address on October 6, 1935:

:"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the [[Bible]] has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic."

:"Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."<ref>Quoted in DeMar, ''The Untold Story'', p. 60 and Gabrial Sivan, ''The Bible and Civilization'' (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1973), p. 178.</ref>

FDR became famous for delivering "fireside chats" over the new medium of [[radio]], and on March 9, 1937 he declared:

:"I hope that you have re-read the [[United States Constitution| Constitution]] of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again."

While running for his third time in a Brooklyn speech, Roosevelt said,

:"I am certain that the rank and file of patriotic Republicans do not realize the nature of this threat. They should remember, and we must remember, what the collaborative understanding between Communism and Nazism has done to the processes of democracy abroad...

:"Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization. They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy. Their objective is to prevent democracy from becoming strong. <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins'', Sherwood, 1948, pgs. 193-194 (pgs. 211 - 212 pdf).</ref>

As [[World War II]] broke out in Europe, FDR warned:

:"Those forces hate [[Democracy]] and [[Christianity]] as two phases of the same civilization."

The following year, on May 27, 1941, FDR stated in one of his radio addresses:

:The Nazis are as ruthless as the Communists in the denial of God.

"In his second inaugural address, FDR pledged to do his utmost by 'seeking Divine guidance.' He took that mission further on January 25, 1941, when he wrote a personal prologue to a special edition of the New Testament, which was distributed to millions of U.S. soldiers. 'As Commander-in-Chief,' Roosevelt wrote, 'I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.' He believed that all American soldiers should have the opportunity to read the words of Christ in preparing for battle. Once, when joining those soldiers aboard a warship with Winston Churchill, FDR asked the crew and prime minister to join him in singing the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' In his final inaugural address, FDR affirmed, "So we pray to Him for the vision to see our way clearly ... to achievement of His will.' "<ref>God and George W. Bush (New York: Regan Books, 2004), p. 176</ref>

When American soldiers were landing on the beaches of Normandy, Roosevelt led the nation in prayer during a radio broadcast. <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, [http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odddayp.html Franklin Roosevelt's D-Day Prayer], June 6, 1944.</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Image:Dcrosmor.jpg|right|thumb|330px]]

Roosevelt is an admired but still hotly debated president. Many credit Roosevelt with helping the United States survive the Great Depression and with providing solid leadership during World War II. Others, especially conservatives, assert that he uselessly expanded the welfare state, abused executive powers, and badly botched diplomacy before, and during World War II.

Roosevelt's image now appears on the [[Dime]].

==See also==
*[[New Ordeal]]
*[[Michael Whitney Straight]]

==Further reading==
*Charles Maclaurin, ''Post Mortem'' and ''Mere Mortals'' (New York: Doran, 1923, 1925).

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

== External Links ==
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=176 "The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.onpower.org/history_greatdepression.html/ Great Depression]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65 ''Depression, War and Cold War'', by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=138 "Wartime Prosperity?", by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1431 Pearl Harbor]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1468 FDR: The Man, the Leader, the Legacy], Ralph Raico, Future of Freedom Foundation, April 1, 2001. Retrieved from The Independent Institute.org 06/17/07.


{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Franklin D.}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Talk:John F. Kennedy

2008-03-12T16:29:17Z

Billdozer: /* Sordid personal life */

"crisis" should read "Cuban Missile Crisis", please.

== Not Fair ==
It is not entirely fair to lay the blame of the failure of the Bay of Pigs squarely at JFK's feet. There was a lot of urging from the CIA and the military NOT to go ahead with American military itervention on behalf of the insurgents. Considering the atmosphere of the world at that time, I can't say listening to them was a horrible idea. Regrettable that the operation was botched, but the reasons why it was botched are not 100% of JFK's doing.

And it's quite interesting that the hawks in his administration that urged him NOT to intervene in Bay of Pigs are the ones who the author of this article quite cleverly insinuates are the reason why Kennedy kept us safe through the Cuban Missle Crisis, as if without them Kennedy would have been inept. If you're looking for the slightest reasons to praise the hawks in his administration, even if it is to just lessen JFK's abilities as an individual, you could have made mention of the hawks being the driving force behind not intervening in Bay of Pigs, and thus applauded them for it in the process (when keeping in mind that not risking such a blatant and overt challenge to the USSR that would not have been necesary and risked TERRIBLE reprecussions...). But it looks like the author of this article was too concerned with finding anything to blame on Kennedy, and thus missed their opportunity to render more praise unto the conservative hawks. [[User:Jros83|Jros83]] 02:30, 25 June 2007 (EDT)

:To add to the Bay of Pigs discussion, the CIA under Eisenhower actually made the plan, it was recomended to Kennedy once he took office. The way this page reads is as though he is 100% totally at fault for everything. I think he was a do-nothing president that is only popular because he was assasinated, but seriously folks, lets calm down the rhetoric. ALSO: I changed the reference about him being the "youngest president". He was the youngest person ever ELECTED president, but Teddy Roosevelt was actually a year or two younger than Kennedy when he took office. I didn't want to re-write the whole section, but I figured I'd throw in a minor correction. [[User:JamesBenjamin|JamesBenjamin]] 18:54, 29 June 2007 (EDT)

== Sordid personal life ==
Okay, I've tried twice to include something about how Kennedy was a sex fiend and twice they were scrubbed right away. I expect this lionizing nonsense from Wikipedia but I thought the point of this was that conservatives could actually post relevant information about entries of importance without having it waxed by Marxist Wikipedia editors. If I'm missing something, then please tell me why [[User:Billdozer|Billdozer]]
:Show us solid, verifyable evidence from official sources that Kennedy was such a man, and we'll include it. [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 22:38, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

What's a solid, official source? There isn't an official source that says Bill Clinton was, um, serviced by an intern in the Oval Office, but everyone in the world knows it to be true. Similarly, there were no shortage of witnesses who could attest to JFK's ravenous sexual apptetite. [[User:Billdozer|Billdozer]]
:Witnesses came out within weeks testifying as to Bill and Monica's indiscretions; plus there's past indiscretions all over Arkansas, such as Paula Jone's and others lawsuits. These, at the least, made the newspapers at that time. I want to see similar patterns for Kennedy, reported in the newspapers at the time he was a U.S. senator, as well as when he was a U.S. president. [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 05:47, 12 March 2008 (EDT)

There are other reliable sources than newspapers. The newspapers wouldn't even have printed Clinton's misdoings if the Drudge Report hadn't forced the case into the open. The press was well aware of what JFK was really like but they protected him, as the press tends to do for left-wing presidents. But good luck finding a JFK biography, even a glowing one, that doesn't at least acknowledge some sort of pattern of sexual misconduct. [[User:Billdozer|Billdozer]]

Michelle Malkin

2008-03-12T05:01:12Z

Billdozer: /* Beliefs */

[[Image:Mm7.jpg|right|thumb|Michelle Malkin]]
'''Michelle Malkin''' (born 1970) is an [[United States|American]] [[conservative]] [[pundit]], blogger, and television [[journalist]]. Malkin serves as a contributer to the [[Fox News Channel]].

== Beliefs ==

Michelle has an entire section on articles against [[illegal immigration|illegal immigrant]] amnesty.<ref>[http://michellemalkin.com/category/immigration/amnesty/ Amnesty section] on MichelleMalkin.com</ref> Michelle has stated that she wants the U.S. to clear the legal immigrant backlogs ''first'', instead of trying to legalize illegals.<ref>[http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/17/memo-to-washington-clear-the-damn-backlogs-first/ Memo to Washington: Clear the damn backlogs first], MichelleMalkin.com, June 17, 2007</ref> After the [[United States]] built a border fence with [[Mexico]] on the wrong side, Michelle wrote that she wonders if we can "do anything right on [[border security]]." Her solution is "Border security now. Not later."<ref> [http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/26/border-follies-us-sorry-for-building-barrier-that-encroaches-on-mexico/ Border follies: U.S. sorry for building barrier that encroaches on Mexico], MichelleMalkin.com, June 26, 2007 </ref>

Michelle highlighted a group of ex-Muslims hoping to change the terms of debate about [[Islam]] in [[Europe]]. <ref> [http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/20/ex-muslims-stand-up-in-britain/ Ex-Muslims stand up in Britain]</ref>

Michelle argues that [[Jesse Jackson]] should be trying to stop black gangs instead of protesting gun shops. <ref> [http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/24/the-desperate-jesse-jackson/ The desperate Jesse Jackson], MichelleMalkin.com, June 24, 2007</ref>

==Archives==
These are the archive categories for Michelle's articles:

*'''[[Abortion]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/abortion/
*'''[[Animal rights]]''' wackos http://michellemalkin.com/category/animal-rights/
*'''[[BBC]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/bbc/
*'''[[Berkeley]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/berkeley/
*'''[[Blogosphere]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/blogosphere/
*'''[[Cameron Diaz]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/cameron-diaz/
*'''[[Cronyism]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/cronyism/
*'''[[Cuba]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/cuba/
*'''[[Liberal hypocrisy|Double standards]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/double-standards/
*'''[[Duke University|Duke]] [[lacrosse]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/duke-lacrosse/
*'''[[Dunkin Donuts]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/dunkin-donuts/
*'''[[Education]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/education/
*'''End of life issues''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/end-of-life-issues/
*'''[[Environmentalist|Enviro-nitwits]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/enviro-nitwits/
*'''[[Fairness Doctrine]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/fairness-doctrine/
*'''[[Feminist Nonsense]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/feminist-nonsense/
*'''[[Fun]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/fun/
*'''[[Guns]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/guns/
*'''[[Haditha]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/haditha/
*'''[[Haleigh Poutre]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/haleigh-poutre/
*'''[[Health care]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/health-care/
*'''[[Hollyweird]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/hollyweird/
*'''[[Homeland Security]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/homeland-security/
*'''[[Housekeeping]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/housekeeping/
*'''[[Idiots]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/idiots/
*'''[[Immigration]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/immigration/
*'''[[Islam]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/islam/
*'''[[Israel]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/israel/
*'''[[John Conyers]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/john-conyers/
*'''[[John Murtha]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/john-murtha/
*'''[[Jose Padilla]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/jose-padilla/
*'''[[Let's Roll]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/lets-roll/
*'''[[Media]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/media/
*'''[[Media Bias]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/media-bias/
*'''[[Memorials]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/memorials/
*'''[[Moonbats]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/moonbats/
*'''[[Music]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/music/
*'''[[Philippines]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/philippines/
*'''[[Political Correctness]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/political-correctness/
*'''[[Politicians]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/politicians/
*'''[[Politics]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/politics/
*'''[[Pork]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/pork/
*'''[[Public Officials]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/public-officials/
*'''[[R.I.P.]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/obituaries/
*'''[[Race Hustlers]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/race-hustlers/
*'''[[Race relations]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/race-relations/
*'''[[Repression]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/repression/
*'''[[Saudi Arabia]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/saudi-arabia/
*'''[[Social Security]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/social-security/
*'''[[Supreme Court]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/supreme-court/
*'''[[Terrorist attacks]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/terrorist-attacks/
*'''[[The Factor]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/the-factor/
*'''[[Truthers]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/truthers/
*'''[[Turkey]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/turkey/
*'''[[Uncategorized]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/uncategorized/
*'''[[Unhinged]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/unhinged/
*'''[[United Nations]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/united-nations/
*'''[[Veterans]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/veterans/
*'''[[Voter fraud]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/voter-fraud/
*'''[[VTech shootings]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/vtech-shootings/
*'''[[War]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/war/
*'''[[Ward Churchill]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/ward-churchill/
*'''[[Web 2.0]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/web-20/
*'''[[Where in the World]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/where-in-the-world/
*'''[[Worthy Causes]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/worthy-causes/

== See also ==

*[[Conservative Links]]
*[[Sher Zieve]]
*[[Elvira Arellano]]

==References==
<references/>

==External Links==
*[http://michellemalkin.com/ Michelle Malkin's blog]
*[http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/archive.shtml Malkin's Townhall.com column archive]
*[http://hotair.com/ Michelle Malkin's video blog]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malkin, Michelle}}
[[category:Journalists]]

Michelle Malkin

2008-03-12T05:00:32Z

Billdozer: Malkin no longer appears on O'Reilly

[[Image:Mm7.jpg|right|thumb|Michelle Malkin]]
'''Michelle Malkin''' (born 1970) is an [[United States|American]] [[conservative]] [[pundit]], blogger, and television [[journalist]]. Malkin serves as a contributer to the [[Fox News Channel]].

== Beliefs ==

Michelle has an entire section on articles against [[illegal immigration|illegal immigrant]] amnesty.<ref>[http://michellemalkin.com/category/immigration/amnesty/ Amnesty section] on MichelleMalkin.com</ref> Michelle has stated that she wants the U.S. to clear the legal immigrant backlogs ''first'', instead of trying to legalize illegals.<ref>[http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/17/memo-to-washington-clear-the-damn-backlogs-first/ Memo to Washington: Clear the damn backlogs first], MichelleMalkin.com, June 17, 2007</ref> After the [[United States]] built a border fence with [[Mexico]] on the wrong side, Michelle wrote that she wonders if we can "do anything right on [[border security]]." Her solution is "Border security now. Not later."<ref> [http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/26/border-follies-us-sorry-for-building-barrier-that-encroaches-on-mexico/ Border follies: U.S. sorry for building barrier that encroaches on Mexico], MichelleMalkin.com, June 26, 2007 </ref>

Michelle highlighted a group of Ex-Muslims hoping to change the terms of debate about [[Islam]] in [[Europe]]. <ref> [http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/20/ex-muslims-stand-up-in-britain/ Ex-Muslims stand up in Britain]</ref>

Michelle says that [[Jesse Jackson]] should be trying to stop black [[gangs]], instead of protesting gun shops. <ref> [http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/24/the-desperate-jesse-jackson/ The desperate Jesse Jackson], MichelleMalkin.com, June 24, 2007</ref>

==Archives==
These are the archive categories for Michelle's articles:

*'''[[Abortion]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/abortion/
*'''[[Animal rights]]''' wackos http://michellemalkin.com/category/animal-rights/
*'''[[BBC]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/bbc/
*'''[[Berkeley]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/berkeley/
*'''[[Blogosphere]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/blogosphere/
*'''[[Cameron Diaz]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/cameron-diaz/
*'''[[Cronyism]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/cronyism/
*'''[[Cuba]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/cuba/
*'''[[Liberal hypocrisy|Double standards]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/double-standards/
*'''[[Duke University|Duke]] [[lacrosse]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/duke-lacrosse/
*'''[[Dunkin Donuts]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/dunkin-donuts/
*'''[[Education]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/education/
*'''End of life issues''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/end-of-life-issues/
*'''[[Environmentalist|Enviro-nitwits]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/enviro-nitwits/
*'''[[Fairness Doctrine]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/fairness-doctrine/
*'''[[Feminist Nonsense]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/feminist-nonsense/
*'''[[Fun]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/fun/
*'''[[Guns]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/guns/
*'''[[Haditha]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/haditha/
*'''[[Haleigh Poutre]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/haleigh-poutre/
*'''[[Health care]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/health-care/
*'''[[Hollyweird]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/hollyweird/
*'''[[Homeland Security]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/homeland-security/
*'''[[Housekeeping]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/housekeeping/
*'''[[Idiots]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/idiots/
*'''[[Immigration]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/immigration/
*'''[[Islam]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/islam/
*'''[[Israel]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/israel/
*'''[[John Conyers]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/john-conyers/
*'''[[John Murtha]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/john-murtha/
*'''[[Jose Padilla]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/jose-padilla/
*'''[[Let's Roll]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/lets-roll/
*'''[[Media]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/media/
*'''[[Media Bias]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/media-bias/
*'''[[Memorials]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/memorials/
*'''[[Moonbats]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/moonbats/
*'''[[Music]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/music/
*'''[[Philippines]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/philippines/
*'''[[Political Correctness]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/political-correctness/
*'''[[Politicians]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/politicians/
*'''[[Politics]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/politics/
*'''[[Pork]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/pork/
*'''[[Public Officials]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/public-officials/
*'''[[R.I.P.]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/obituaries/
*'''[[Race Hustlers]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/race-hustlers/
*'''[[Race relations]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/race-relations/
*'''[[Repression]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/repression/
*'''[[Saudi Arabia]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/saudi-arabia/
*'''[[Social Security]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/social-security/
*'''[[Supreme Court]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/supreme-court/
*'''[[Terrorist attacks]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/terrorist-attacks/
*'''[[The Factor]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/the-factor/
*'''[[Truthers]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/truthers/
*'''[[Turkey]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/turkey/
*'''[[Uncategorized]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/uncategorized/
*'''[[Unhinged]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/unhinged/
*'''[[United Nations]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/united-nations/
*'''[[Veterans]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/veterans/
*'''[[Voter fraud]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/voter-fraud/
*'''[[VTech shootings]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/vtech-shootings/
*'''[[War]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/war/
*'''[[Ward Churchill]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/ward-churchill/
*'''[[Web 2.0]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/web-20/
*'''[[Where in the World]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/where-in-the-world/
*'''[[Worthy Causes]]''' http://michellemalkin.com/category/worthy-causes/

== See also ==

*[[Conservative Links]]
*[[Sher Zieve]]
*[[Elvira Arellano]]

==References==
<references/>

==External Links==
*[http://michellemalkin.com/ Michelle Malkin's blog]
*[http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/archive.shtml Malkin's Townhall.com column archive]
*[http://hotair.com/ Michelle Malkin's video blog]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malkin, Michelle}}
[[category:Journalists]]

Larry Flynt

2008-03-12T04:56:24Z

Billdozer:

'''Larry Flynt''' is the founder of the immoral and pornographic magazine ''Hustler''. Since founding the magazine, Flynt has become an advocate of a liberal conception of [[free speech]], under which profanity and pornography are classed as protected speech.

Flynt acquired national status when he published a satirical article defaming, in disgusting terms, preacher [[Jerry Falwell]]. Falwell sued Flynt, but lost in the [[Supreme Court]], when the [[ACLU]] defended him. The case was dramatized in the 1996 film ''The People v. Larry Flynt''. Since Flynt's case, slanderous satire has been presumed acceptable as free speech.

[[category:Culture War]]

Larry Flynt

2008-03-12T04:55:35Z

Billdozer:

'''Larry Flynt''' is the founder of the immoral and pornographic magazine ''Hustler''. Since founding the magazine, Flynt has become an advocate of a liberal conception of [[free speech]], under which profanity and pornography are classed as protected speech.

Flynt acquired national status when he published a satirical article defaming, in disgusting terms, preacher [[Jerry Falwell]]. Falwell sued Flynt, but lost in the [[Supreme Court]], when the [[ACLU]] defended him. The case was dramatized in the 1996 film 'The People v. Larry Flynt. Since Flynt's case, slanderous satire has been presumed acceptable as free speech.

[[category:Culture War]]

Talk:John F. Kennedy

2008-03-12T04:49:24Z

Billdozer: /* Sordid personal life */

John F. Kennedy

2008-03-12T02:37:38Z

Billdozer: please see discussion before sanitizing

{{President
|image=John_kennedy.jpg
|seq=35
|term_start=January 20, 1961
|term_end=November 22, 1963
|party=Democratic
|vp=Lyndon B. Johnson
|previous=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|next=Lyndon B. Johnson
|birth_date=May 29, 1917
|birth_place=Brookline, Massachusetts
|death_date=November 22, 1963
|death_place=Dallas, Texas
|spouse=Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
}}

'''John Fitzgerald Kennedy''' '''(May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963)''' was a decorated World War II veteran, and the 35th [[President of the United States of America]], the youngest person elected to that position. He died in 1963 when he was assassinated by [[Lee Harvey Oswald]].
{{cquote|And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.|4=John Kennedy's [[John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address|Inaugural Address]]|5=<ref>http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm</ref>}}

Kennedy won the [[United States presidential election, 1960|1960 Presidential election]] against [[Richard Nixon]] by a thin margin. An important part of the campaign turned out to be the role of television. When Kennedy and Nixon held their presidential debate, those who listened on radio thought that Nixon won, but those who saw it on television thought Kennedy had won. Kennedy, young, tanned, and wearing discrete makeup for the camera, had a better television presence.

Though he won the presidential election of 1960 against Nixon, there were questions about the legitimacy of the election. Particularly in Illinois, where corrupt [[Democrat]] Mayor Richard J. Daley, who had a history of stealing elections, almost certainly "helped out" Kennedy. For more details about this story, see the Daley biography ''American Pharaoh.''

Kennedy was responsible for the [[Bay of Pigs]] fiasco, encouraging the invasion but then pulling back support and even allowing advance notice of the invasion to leak to [[Fidel Castro]]. When a year later the [[Soviet Union]] was building a ballistic missile site in [[Cuba]] that could house nuclear missiles, Kennedy handled the ensuing [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] with the help of hawks in his administration whose conduct, such as putting bombers on alert status, posed a credible threat to Soviets and helped cause them to back down.

Kennedy authorized the de-segregation of federal housing and proposed the civil rights bill, passed after his assassination. He created the [[Peace Corps]] and also pledged to put a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s, a pledge that was later fulfilled after his death.

Kennedy was well-known for his staggering number of sexual indiscretions. Kennedy's thrist for coitus was so intense that he literally had an 18-year-old Air Force employee travel with him so he could have sex on command.

Kennedy cut taxes and appointed [[Byron White]] to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], who consistently ruled with [[conservatives]] on social issues such as [[abortion]] and [[homosexuality]].

Kennedy's image appears on the American half-dollar coin.
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
== References==

* Professor Thomas C. Reeves, "A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy." Illustrated. 510 pp. New York: The Free Press. $24.95. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7D9143EF931A35755C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all New York Times Book Review]

{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, John F.}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]

Talk:John F. Kennedy

2008-03-12T02:36:56Z

Billdozer:

John F. Kennedy

2008-03-12T02:24:23Z

Billdozer: Wikipedia entry completely scrubs JFK's sordid personal history, so Conservapedia should not.

{{President
|image=John_kennedy.jpg
|seq=35
|term_start=January 20, 1961
|term_end=November 22, 1963
|party=Democratic
|vp=Lyndon B. Johnson
|previous=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|next=Lyndon B. Johnson
|birth_date=May 29, 1917
|birth_place=Brookline, Massachusetts
|death_date=November 22, 1963
|death_place=Dallas, Texas
|spouse=Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
}}

'''John Fitzgerald Kennedy''' '''(May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963)''' was a decorated World War II veteran, and the 35th [[President of the United States of America]], the youngest person elected to that position. He died in 1963 when he was assassinated by [[Lee Harvey Oswald]].
{{cquote|And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.|4=John Kennedy's [[John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address|Inaugural Address]]|5=<ref>http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm</ref>}}

Kennedy won the [[United States presidential election, 1960|1960 Presidential election]] against [[Richard Nixon]] by a thin margin. An important part of the campaign turned out to be the role of television. When Kennedy and Nixon held their presidential debate, those who listened on radio thought that Nixon won, but those who saw it on television thought Kennedy had won. Kennedy, young, tanned, and wearing discrete makeup for the camera, had a better television presence.

Though he won the presidential election of 1960 against Nixon, there were questions about the legitimacy of the election. Particularly in Illinois, where corrupt [[Democrat]] Mayor Richard J. Daley, who had a history of stealing elections, almost certainly "helped out" Kennedy. For more details about this story, see the Daley biography ''American Pharaoh.''

Kennedy was responsible for the [[Bay of Pigs]] fiasco, encouraging the invasion but then pulling back support and even allowing advance notice of the invasion to leak to [[Fidel Castro]]. When a year later the [[Soviet Union]] was building a ballistic missile site in [[Cuba]] that could house nuclear missiles, Kennedy handled the ensuing [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] with the help of hawks in his administration whose conduct, such as putting bombers on alert status, posed a credible threat to Soviets and helped cause them to back down.

Kennedy authorized the de-segregation of federal housing and proposed the civil rights bill, passed after his assassination. He created the [[Peace Corps]] and also pledged to put a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s, a pledge that was later fulfilled after his death.

Kennedy cut taxes and appointed [[Byron White]] to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], who consistently ruled with [[conservatives]] on social issues such as [[abortion]] and [[homosexuality]].

Kennedy was well-known for his staggering number of sexual indiscretions. Kennedy's thrist for coitus was so intense that he literally had an 18-year-old Air Force employee travel with him so he could have sex on command.

Kennedy's image appears on the American half-dollar coin.
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
== References==

* Professor Thomas C. Reeves, "A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy." Illustrated. 510 pp. New York: The Free Press. $24.95. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7D9143EF931A35755C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all New York Times Book Review]

{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, John F.}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]

Jimmy Carter

2008-03-12T01:28:51Z

Billdozer: /* Post-presidency */

{{President
|image=Carter.jpg
|seq=39
|term_start=January 20, 1977
|term_end=January 20, 1981
|party=Democratic
|vp=Walter Mondale
|previous=Gerald Ford
|next=Ronald Reagan
|birth_date=October 1, 1924
|birth_place=Plains, Georgia, USA
|death_date=
|death_place=
|spouse=Rosalynn Carter
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Baptist]]
}}
'''James Earl Carter, Jr.''' was the 39th [[President of the United States of America]] following [[Gerald Ford]] and preceding [[Ronald Reagan]]. He was a [[Democrat]] who served from 1977-1981, after being the Governor of [[Georgia]].

Carter is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and served in the Navy from 1946 through 1953, rising to the rank of Lieutenant.

His difficulty in overcoming the challenges that were presented to the nation during his time in office helped lead to the election of [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1980. He has been unusually active as an ex-president, serving as an election monitor in many emerging democracies, working with [[Habitat for Humanity]], and as a self-proclaimed "peace advocate", was recognized with the [[Nobel Prize|Nobel Peace Prize]]. In recent years, he has become very controversial because of his alleged [[Anti-Semitism|anti-semitic]] sentiments.

==Early Years==
Carter was born and raised on his father's farm in Georgia. He entered the Naval Academy at [[Annapolis]] and graduated from there in 1946. Shortly afterwards, on July 7, he married Rosalynn Smith. Carter worked in submarines, until he resigned in 1953. He became a peanut farmer afterwards. <ref> [[Encyclopedia of Presidents, Jimmy Carter]], by Linda R. Wade, Children's Press, Chicago, 1989, pp. 11-33. </ref>

==Early Political Service==
Carter entered politics by running for the Georgia State Senate. He almost lost a close race against Homer Moore, but Carter beat him in the final tally. He worked hard in the Legislature and went on to run for Governor of Georgia in 1966. Although he failed in 1966, in 1970 he managed to win the office of Governor. He was known as a supporter of equal rights for blacks and had the picture of Dr. [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]] hung in the Georgia state capitol. He went on regular trips to Europe and the Middle East. <ref> [[Encyclopedia of Presidents, Jimmy Carter]], by Linda R. Wade, Children's Press, Chicago, 1989, pp. 35-40. </ref>

==[[United States presidential election, 1976|1976 Campaign]]==
Carter officially announced his involvement in the race for President. Despite being a relatively politically inexperienced candidate, he turned it to his advantage. He was able to avoid the [[Watergate]] scandal and claim a clean history. He eventually managed to win the Democratic nomination and chose Minnesota Senator [[Walter Mondale]] as his running mate. Carter based his campaign on his reputation, political freshness and being a honest, born-again Christian. His opponent [[Gerald Ford]] campaigned on his record as a Congressman and success in recovering from Watergate. Carter wavered slightly after the first presidential debate, but managed to regain lost ground over the next few appearances. Carter managed to win the general election over Ford.<ref> [[Encyclopedia of Presidents, Jimmy Carter]], by Linda R. Wade, Children's Press, Chicago, 1989, pp. 45-57. </ref>

==Presidency==
Carter's presidency was marked by a period of American hegemony being challenged abroad and economic recession and [[stagflation]] striking at home. Carter's presidency was marked by retrenchment, after the disappointing agony that had been the [[Vietnam War]], and economic [[stagflation]] churning at home.

In the midst of the 1980 campaign, a pro-U.S. monarchy was toppled by the 1979 [[Iran|Iranian]] Revolution and dozens of [[Iran Hostage Crisis|American hostages were taken]] inside the American embassy by Islamic fundamentalist revolutionaries after Carter gave sanctuary to exiled dictator Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. With the international outrage at the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] invasion of [[Afghanistan]] later the same year, Carter was rendered impotent, as America saw its influence declining abroad.

Despite Carter's own Democratic Party controlling both Houses of Congress, and the White House he failed to reform the tax system, and to reduce the size of the government bureaucracy, as promised during the 1976 campaign, or to pass the Martin Luther King holiday.

He has also been criticized for not doing enough to promote his proclaimed human rights foreign policy stance in his administration, such as continuing to support the [[Indonesia]]n government even while it was implicated in the commission of acts of genocide in the occupation of East Timor.

Carter's response to Soviet aggression against Afghanistan was to single out American farmers who suffered terribly when he terminated the Russian Wheat Deal, a keystone Nixon [[Detente]] initiative to establish trade with USSR and lessen [[Cold War]] tensions.

He was defeated in the [[United States presidential election, 1980|1980 presidential election]] by Ronald Reagan by nearly ten percentage points. [[Republican Party|Republicans]] also gained control of the Senate for the first time in twenty-five years. The electoral college vote was a landslide, with 489 votes (representing 44 states) for Reagan and 49 for Carter (representing 6 states and the District of Columbia).

Carter personally opposed [[abortion]] but only recently, more than a quarter of a century after his presidency, expressed his opposition in public.

===Stagflation===
A major issue President Carter failed to deal with was [[inflation]], caused especially by continued high levels of government spending and the rising price of imported oil, which was the major source of energy for many industries. The [[Misery index]], an indicator of economic hardship that Carter popularized and frequently mentioned in the [[United States presidential election of 1976|presidential election of 1976]], rose 50% in four years.

Government spending caused interest rates to rise to unprecedented levels (above 12 percent per year). Inflation and interest rates reached their highest levels since [[World War II]]. The rapid change in interest rates led to disintermediation of bank deposits, which sowed the seeds of the [[Savings and Loan crisis]]. Investments in fixed income were becoming less valuable. Holders of both bonds, and pensions being paid to retired people had their life savings wiped out. The stagnant growth of the economy (causing unemployment), in combination with a high rate of inflation, has often been called [[stagflation]], an unprecedented situation in American economics.

[[Bert Lance]], Carter's appointee to head the [[Office of Management and Budget]] which manages the U.S. federal budget, was forced to resign when his past bank overdrafts and "check kiting" schemes in Georgia were exposed.

==Post-presidency==
[[Image:Palestine peace not apartheid.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Cover of Jimmy Carter's book, ''Peace Not Apartheid'', which accuses [[Israel]] of practicing racism.]]
Carter has been active in foreign affairs since his presidency. His continued work mediating international disputes, organizing election observations, and working with organizations on disease and hunger were cited when he was awarded the 2002 [[Nobel Prize|Nobel Peace Prize]]. In his Nobel lecture, Carter declared his support for "international law":

<blockquote>
Our President, [[Woodrow Wilson]], was honored here for promoting the [[League of Nations]], whose two basic concepts were profoundly important: "collective security" and "self-determination." Now they are embedded in international law. Violations of these premises during the last half-century have been tragic failures, as was vividly demonstrated when the Soviet Union attempted to conquer Afghanistan and when Iraq invaded Kuwait. <ref>[http://jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/nobel.phtml Text of Carter's Nobel Lecture] Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, 2002.</ref>
</blockquote>

In a October 2000 survey of 132 prominent professors of history, law, and political science, President Carter was grouped in the "Below Average" group, ranked 30th, with a mean score of 2.47 out of 5.00.<ref>Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House (New York, Wall Street Journal Book, 2004)</ref> This survey, sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and the conservative Federalist Society, ranked President Carter ahead of Richard Nixon, and below George H.W. Bush.

In 2001 as President Clinton exited office and handed out many dubious and questionable pardons, some to [[terrorist]]s and others which appeared bought and paid for, Carter blasted President Clinton's actions and referred to them as "disgraceful".

In Jimmy Carter's latest book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid", he appeared to endorse Arab terrorism against Israel as a tactic to achieve political ends, he wrote:
<blockquote>
It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel.
</blockquote>
The sentiment was widely criticized. He apologized for the wording of that sentence, but not for his larger message.<ref>Washington Post, January 24, 2007 [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/23/AR2007012301668.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/books]</ref>

*His 2006 book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," has attracted charges of plagiarism. It caused Professor Kenneth Stein to resign from the Carter Center because of its depiction of Israel through three decades of diplomatic and military dealings with the Palestinians. Mr. Stein had served as an aide to Mr. Carter during most of those years. He considers the book deceitful and malicious. As the book's title adumbrates, Jimmy compares Israel with the white supremacist regime of old South Africa. Fourteen members of the Carter Center's advisory board have resigned over the book. In March, Jimmy explained these resignations to an audience at George Washington University by saying, "They all happen to be Jewish Americans." [http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20070524-083911-8313r.htm]

== UFO Sighting ==
[[Image:Carter Sighting Report 2.gif|thumb|right|President Carter's report the planet may have been visited by space aliens.]]
Carter claims to have witnessed an unidentified flying object in 1969; he remains the only U.S. President to have formally reported a [[UFO]]. In 1975 Carter told a ''[[Washington Post]]'' reporter, " A light appeared and disappeared in the sky . . . I think the light was beckoning me to run in the California primary." <ref>[http://www.presidentialufo.com/jimmy.htm Jimmy Carter UFO] </ref> He filed a report with the International UFO Bureau in [[Oklahoma City]] after a request from that organization. <ref>[http://www.presidentialufo.com/carter_ufo_report.htm President Jimmy Carter's Actual UFO Sighting Report]</ref> During his presidential campaign, Carter promised to release the truth about any alleged UFO cover-up.

Through Stanford Research Institute, Mr. Alfred Webre was Principal Investigator for a proposed civilian scientific study of extraterrestrial communication presented to and developed with interested Carter White House staff. This took place during the period from May 1977 until the fall of 1977.

==Voyager Probe==
President Carter placed this official statement on the Voyager space probe <ref>http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=555</ref> for its trip outside the solar system on June 16, 1977: "We cast this message into the cosmos . . . Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some - - perhaps many - - may have inhabited planets and space faring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: We are trying to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope some day, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of Galactic Civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe."<ref>http://www.presidentialufo.com/jimmy.htm</ref>

==See also==
* [[Carter Doctrine]]

==Further reading==
*[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13265 Carter the worst ex-president -- Steven Hayward]
*[http://blogcentral.jpost.com/index.php?cat_id=7&blog_id=59&blog_post_id=935 Jimmy Carter is a liar], Alan Dershowitz, ''Jerusalem Post'', March 13 2007.
*[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901541.html Jimmy Carter's Jewish Problem] by Deborah Lipstadt.

==References==
<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Jimmy}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States|Carter, Jimmy]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Peace|Carter, Jimmy]]

John F. Kennedy

2008-03-12T01:27:03Z

Billdozer:

{{President
|image=John_kennedy.jpg
|seq=35
|term_start=January 20, 1961
|term_end=November 22, 1963
|party=Democratic
|vp=Lyndon B. Johnson
|previous=Dwight D. Eisenhower
|next=Lyndon B. Johnson
|birth_date=May 29, 1917
|birth_place=Brookline, Massachusetts
|death_date=November 22, 1963
|death_place=Dallas, Texas
|spouse=Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
}}

'''John Fitzgerald Kennedy''' '''(May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963)''' was a decorated World War II veteran, and the 35th [[President of the United States of America]], the youngest person elected to that position. He died in 1963 when he was assassinated by [[Lee Harvey Oswald]].
{{cquote|And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.|4=John Kennedy's [[John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address|Inaugural Address]]|5=<ref>http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm</ref>}}

Kennedy won the [[United States presidential election, 1960|1960 Presidential election]] against [[Richard Nixon]] by a thin margin. An important part of the campaign turned out to be the role of television. When Kennedy and Nixon held their presidential debate, those who listened on radio thought that Nixon won, but those who saw it on television thought Kennedy had won. Kennedy, young, tanned, and wearing discrete makeup for the camera, had a better television presence.

Though he won the presidential election of 1960 against Nixon, there were questions about the legitimacy of the election. Particularly in Illinois, where corrupt [[Democrat]] Mayor Richard J. Daley, who had a history of stealing elections, almost certainly "helped out" Kennedy. For more details about this story, see the Daley biography ''American Pharaoh.''

Kennedy was responsible for the [[Bay of Pigs]] fiasco, encouraging the invasion but then pulling back support and even allowing advance notice of the invasion to leak to [[Fidel Castro]]. When a year later the [[Soviet Union]] was building a ballistic missile site in [[Cuba]] that could house nuclear missiles, Kennedy handled the ensuing [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] with the help of hawks in his administration whose conduct, such as putting bombers on alert status, posed a credible threat to Soviets and helped cause them to back down.

Kennedy authorized the de-segregation of federal housing and proposed the civil rights bill, passed after his assassination. He created the [[Peace Corps]] and also pledged to put a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s, a pledge that was later fulfilled after his death.

Kennedy cut taxes and appointed [[Byron White]] to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], who consistently ruled with [[conservatives]] on social issues such as [[abortion]] and [[homosexuality]].

Kennedy was well-known for his staggering number of sexual indiscretions. Kennedy's thrist for coitus was so intense that he literally had an 18-year-old Air Force employee travel with him so he could have sex on command.

Kennedy's image appears on the American half-dollar coin.
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
== References==

* Professor Thomas C. Reeves, "A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy." Illustrated. 510 pp. New York: The Free Press. $24.95. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7D9143EF931A35755C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all New York Times Book Review]

{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, John F.}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]

Ann Coulter

2008-03-12T01:01:45Z

Billdozer:

{{merge from|Coulter on Hillary and McCain}}
[[Image:Coulter2006.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Coulter on the ''Tonight Show with Jay Leno''.]]
'''Ann Hart Coulter''' (b. 1961) is an [[attorney]], legal affairs correspondent, and social commentator. She has written five bestselling books on the topic of the faults of being [[liberal]]. U.S. Federal Judge [[Richard Posner]] called her one of America's top public intellectuals. <ref>[http://home.uchicago.edu/~rposner/publicintellect.htm] "Data for tables in Chapter 5 of Richard A. Posner, Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline" where Posner talks about the data he used for his book ''Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline''.</ref> <ref>[http://home.uchicago.edu/~rposner/TABLE%20II.pdf] Table II, which is Posner's data for 607 public intellectuals. A PDF search of "Coulter" will show she is on Posner's list.</ref>

Coulter has enjoyed a popular following for her critique of liberalism, her outspokenness against all those who wish to hurt the [[United States of America|United States]], and her strong defense of family values against [[abortion]] and [[same-sex marriage]].

Coulter is a high profile female [[conservative]], in line with [[Phyllis Schlafly]] and [[Condoleezza Rice]]. Her books and strong speaking style have endeared her to fans and infuriated opponents.

As a [[Christian]], Coulter attributes to the [[Judeo-Christian]] tradition the view that [[human being]]s are utterly and distinctly apart from other species.

Being an unabashedly conservative pundit, Coulter's social commentaries often draw the ire of [[liberal]]s. Her comments are frequently controversial and sometimes considered offensive. <ref>She called Democratic women "no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant [[hippie]] chick pie wagons". [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/05/AR2007030501610_2.html (Washington Post)]</ref><ref>At a CPAC conference, Coulter joked, "I was going to have a few comments about John Edwards but you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot.'" [http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Coulter_Faggot_not_offensive_to_gay_0306.html]</ref>

==Books==

Some of her books include
*''[[High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton]]'' (2002)
*''[[Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right]]'' (2003)
*''[[Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism]]'' (2004)
*''[[How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)]]'' (2005)
*''[[Godless: The Church of Liberalism]]'' (2007)
*''[[If Democrats Had Any Brains They'd Be Republicans]]'' (2007)

In ''Godless'', Coulter argues that liberals make a [[religion]] out of their beliefs which they follow with the same sort of intolerant zeal which they condemn in [[fundamentalist]]s. "Liberalism is a comprehensive belief system denying the Christian belief in man's immortal soul [and] that we are moral beings in God's image." (pg. 3)

==Quotes==
* "Whether they are defending the [[Soviet Union]] or bleating for [[Saddam Hussein]], liberals are always against [[United States of America|America]]. They are either traitors or idiots ... " <Ref>''Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.''</ref>
* "My only regret with [[Timothy McVeigh]] is he did not go to the [[New York Times]] Building." She later clarified "Of course I regret [saying] it. I should have added, 'after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters."<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-06-09-coulter-roemer_x.htm 9/11 Commissioner Criticizes Coulter's 'Hate-Filled Attack'] Associated Press story in USA Today. "'My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building,' The New York Observer quoted her as saying on Aug. 20, 2002. She clarified those remarks with RightWingNews.com: 'Of course I regret it. I should have added, "after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters."'"</ref><ref>Hawkins, [http://rightwingnews.com/interviews/anncoulter.php An Interview With Ann Coulter], Right Wing News.</ref>

* "Saddam's barbaric rape rooms, chemical attacks and torture — those, liberals could live with. But now they want us to send troops to [[Darfur]], a country from which no one anticipates terrorism anytime in the next millennium. If you're looking for a good definition of "no imminent threat," Darfur is it... These people can't even wrap up genocide. We've been hearing about this slaughter in Darfur forever — and they still haven't finished. The aggressors are moving like termites across that country. It's like genocide by committee. Who's running this holocaust in Darfur, FEMA?...Darfur is not the threat... though a hostage-taking, [[Holocaust]]-denying lunatic who doesn't own a necktie but is within two years of having a nuclear bomb comes to mind. You can already hear [[Harry Reid]] and [[Nancy Pelosi]] saying, "If the Democrats were in charge, the use of military force wouldn't be necessary because we'd constructively engage them and appease their stated desire to kill us." <REF>This appeared on Coulter's web site on April 4th, 2007. http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=177</REF>

* "If you want a shorter rebuilding process, then we're going to have to wage less humane wars. The enemy — as well as innocent civilians — must be bombed into quivering terror. Otherwise, we displace aggression but don't destroy it. Americans are weaker for having seen that kind of carnage in [[World War II]]. Recall that the Worst Generation was raised by the Greatest Generation. That tells you how awful war is. The Greatest Generation was so exhausted by the war, it didn't have the spine to stand up to pot-smoking, draft-dodging hippies occupying administration buildings." <REF>This appeared on Coulter's web site on April 4th, 2007. http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=177</REF>

* "I think [women] should be armed but should not vote. No, they all have to give up their vote, not just, you know, the lady clapping and me. The problem with women voting -- and your [[Communists]] will back me up on this -- is that, you know, women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it. And when they take these polls, it's always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care." <ref> ''Politically Incorrect'', Feb. 26, 2001 </ref>

* "...a cruise missile is more important than Head Start." <ref>Nov. 2001 speech rebroadcast by C-Span in Jan. 2002</ref>

* On Sept. 13, 2001 she wrote this about the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|Sept. 11 terrorist attack]]: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." <ref>''National Review Online'', September 2001 [http://www.nationalreview.com/coulter/coulter.shtml]</ref>

* "We need to execute people like John Walker [Lindh] in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors," Conservative Political Action Conference, January 2002. Coulter later clarified what she meant; "when I said we should "execute" John Walker Lindh, I mis-spoke. What I meant to say was 'We should burn John Walker Lindh alive and televise it on prime-time network TV'. My apologies for any misunderstanding that might have occurred. " <ref>[http://www.rightwingnews.com/interviews/coulteriffic.php RWN's Ann Coulter Interview #2] John Hawkins. </ref>

* "Liberals are driven by [[Satan]] and lie constantly. <ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=21345 That Was No Lady -- That Was My Husband], by Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', 06/28/2007.</ref>

* "Every concrete example of the racism allegedly sweeping the nation's campuses keeps turning out to be a fraud. Far from "institutional racism," there is "institutional racial hoaxism" run amok in this country."<ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=22909&email Another Liberal Noose-ance], by Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', 10/17/2007,</ref>

* "Rather than own up to their moral blindness to Soviet espionage, Democrats fired up the liberal slander machine, which would be deployed again and again over the next half century to the present day.<ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23316 McCarthyism: The Rosetta Stone of Liberal Lies], by Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', 11/07/2007.</ref>

* "By exposing the Democrats' absolute blindness to Soviet [[totalitarianism]], McCarthy shattered forever the nation's confidence in the Democrats' capacity to govern. For that, the [[Stalin]]ist [[liberal hate speech|hate machine]] attacked him viciously and has never let up."<ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23824 They'll Never Forgive You], by Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', 12/05/2007.</ref>

* "How about having [[Tim Russert]] ask Hillary if she believes the [[New Testament]] is the [[perfection]] of the [[Old Testament]]? She claims to be a [[Christian]]. Let's get it on the table: Is she or isn't she? It doesn't get any more bare-bones than that.<ref>[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23174 How Long Before the A.D.L. Kicks Out All its Jews?], By Ann Coulter, ''Human Events'', October 31, 2007.</ref>

* "We just want Jews to be perfected, as they say." <ref>[http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/funnyquotes/a/anncoulter.htm] By Ann Coulter</ref>

* "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity." <ref>[http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/funnyquotes/a/anncoulter.htm] By Ann Coulter</ref>

* "[The New York Times'] reaction to al-Zarqawi's death was to lower the U.S. flag at the Times building to half-staff. (Ha ha — just kidding! Everybody knows there aren't any American flags at The New York Times.)" <ref>[http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter071306.php3 ''N.Y. Times: Better dead than read]]</ref>

==See Also==
*[[Previous Breaking News/Ann Coulter|Articles about '''Ann Coulter''' from previous "Breaking News"]]
*[[Conservative Links]]
*[[Lou Dobbs]]

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/welcome.cgi AnnCoulter.com]
*RealClearPolitcs.com [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/03/poll_most_americans_love_coult.html Poll: Most Americans Love Coulter Columns], accessed 6 May 2007.
*[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/05/AR2007030501610_2.html The Long Fuse on Ann Coulter's Bomb] - ''Washington Post'' - March 6, 2007

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coulter, Ann}}

[[Category:Women Authors]]

Franklin D. Roosevelt

2008-03-12T00:56:00Z

Billdozer: /* Reflections on Christianity */

{{President
|image=509px-FDR in 1933.jpg
|seq=32
|term_start=March 4, 1933
|term_end=April 12, 1945
|party=Democratic
|vp= John N. Garner
|vp_dates=1933-1941
|2vp=Henry A. Wallace
|2vp_dates=1941-1945
|3vp=Harry Truman
|3vp_dates=1945
|4vp=
|4vp_dates=
|previous=Herbert Hoover
|next=Harry Truman
|seq2=
|term2_start=
|term2_end=
|party2=
|vp2=
|vp2dates=
|2vp2=
|2vp2dates=
|3vp2=
|3vp2dates=
|4vp2=
|4vp2dates=
|previous2=
|next2=
|birth_date=January 30, 1882
|birth_place=Hyde Park, New York
|death_date=April 12, 1945
|death_place=Warm Springs, Georgia
|spouse=[[Eleanor Roosevelt]]
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
}}

'''Franklin Delano Roosevelt''' was the 32nd [[President of the United States of America]] of the [[United States]] of America, following [[Herbert Hoover]] and preceding [[Harry Truman]]. Roosevelt was a member of the [[Democratic Party]]. He was elected four times and served a few months longer than 3 terms, from 1933-1945, the longest any one man has been president of the United States. He was elected amidst the uncertainty of the [[Great Depression]].

On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage, due partly to the crippling [[disease]], [[polio]]myelitis, which physically disabled him during his presidency.<ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fr32.html</ref>

Although Mr. Roosevelt was very popular at first, it has been argued by scholars and analysts then and now that many [[New Deal]] relief efforts actually helped to prolong the [[Great Depression]]. Mr. Roosevelt started the second wave of the massive expansion of the Federal Government and greatly increased American foreign aid. Some of these policies were viewed controversially coupled with persistent high level of unemployment in the 1930s as a result and later US involvement in WWII.<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/32_f_roosevelt/printable.html</ref>

From his second term the people were told that Roosevelt was the only man who could keep the US out of war. Later, it was asserted that he was the only man who could successfully fight the war that which he alone could keep the US out of. Then it was said that he was the only man who was capable of facing [[Josef Stalin]] on equal terms. Finally, he was said to be the only man who could guarantee against the ruthlessness of Stalin in the post-war era.

==Early life==
Franklin Roosevelt studied law at Columbia University where he failed to graduate. Secretary of Labor [[Frances Perkins]], the first woman ever appointed to a cabinet post and knew FDR from his early manhood up to his death, says he was not a student, that he knew nothing of economics and that he admitted he had never read a book on the subject. <ref>''The Roosevelt I Knew,'' Frances Perkins, New York, Viking Press, 1946. p. 34.</ref>

== Election of 1932 ==
{{stub|section}}
The Democrats made Government expansion under the Hoover administration an issue in the campaign of 1932, charging that Hoover was promoting socialism. After Roosevelt had taken office, former Democratic New York Governor Al Smith, saw Roosevelt's ultimately expansive policies as a betrayal of the true ideals of the Democratic party and supported Republican candidates in subsequent elections.

While the Democrats were damning Hoover as a big spender, at the same time he was refusing to be drawn into big spending, the Democratic House passed a bill appropriating $1,500,000,000 for old-fashioned [[pork-barrel]] outlays.

Roosevelt won a lanside victory in the presidential election of 1932, winning 472 electoral votes (nearly 90% of the total) and 22,800,000 popular votes (57% of the total) to defeat incumbent president Herbert Hoover.<ref>1932 Presidential Election Results http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?f=0&year=1932</ref> He was running primarily on the platform that he would help the country recover from the Great Depression with his New Deal.

== First Term ==
===Foreign policy===

On November 16, 1933, when the Roosevelt administration granted diplomatic recognition to the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]], the USSR pledged itself to refrain "from interfering in any manner in the internal affairs of the United States." This occurred three weeks after the founding of the [[Comintern]] affiliated [[American League for Peace and Democracy]]. The process of Communist “influence” in American life was accelerated. This “influence,” as described by [[Communist party]] defector [[Louis Budenz]], was to “infiltrate key government posts, undermine the patriotism of wellmeaning people in strategic or confidential positions, and win over those whose words, spoken and written, have an effect on American [[public opinion]];” it was checked “partially during the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact|Hitler-Stalin alliance]], it went all out in the course of the [[Second World War]]."<ref>Men Without Faces, The Communist Conspiracy in the U. S. A., By Louis Budenz,New York Harper & Brothers, 1950, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=//PDFsml_AD/Men_Without_Faces-Louis_Francis_Budenz-1950-315pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=238&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 2] pdf.</ref>

Numerous [[Attorney General's list|Comintern affiliate]] organizations sprung up in the ensuing years, including the [[American Youth Congress]] in 1934 and the [[League of American Writers]] in 1935. [[KGB]] officers traveled the country in the guise of diplomatic and consular officials, conducting [[espionage]] activities <ref>[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/10.gif Anonymous letter to Hoover], undated (received 7 August 1943), National Security Agency Venona Collection. "[[SEMENOV]] works in AMTORG, is robbing the whole of the war industry in America. SEMENOV has his agents in all the industrial towns of the U.S.A., in all aviation and chemical war factories and in big industries."</ref> freely and offering bribes.

On February 28, 1934, Elliott Roosevelt, son of the President, and [[Anthony Fokker]] each received half a million dollars for selling fifty military aircraft to the Soviet government. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,756770-2,00.html ''Son's Scheme''], Time magazine, Oct. 19, 1936,</ref>

===New Deal===
:''For Main Article see '''[[New Deal]].'''''
[[Image:Flatgrowth.JPG|thumb|300px|right|Real Output and Growth remained stagnant throughout the New Deal largely due to government interference. The Depression came back with a vengence in 1937-1938 because of the [[economic planner]]s over emphasis on consumption, and de-emphasis and persecution of producers--the people who make the economy work. ''Source:New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression.''<ref>''New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis, ''Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, Journal of Political Economy, volume 112 (2004), pages 779–816.</ref>]]
FDR is also famous for his [[New Deal]], a set of [[economic planning]] experiments that were meant to bring about the end of the [[Great Depression]], but instead prolonged it and caused American citizens to be burdened with unnecessary government programs for decades to come. [[Economic growth]] was negligible to non-existent, and what growth did occur was consumed by an every swelling bureaucracy.

Enforcement of the [[Anti-trust Act]] was considered as an essential instrument to prevent [[cartel]]s and trusts in restraint of trade which had been viewed as deadly to the system of [[free enterprise]]. On the campaign trail Roosevelt called loudly for its strict enforcement. Yet immediately upon Roosevelt's accession to office the Anti-trust Act was suspended in order to cartelize every industry in America on the Italian [[fascist]] corporative model. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 1, Chapter 4, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/cgi-bin/framed/2767/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Four___The_New_New_Deal.htm ''The New New Deal''].</ref> The National Recovery Act (NRA) and the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] (AAA) were plans to take the whole industrial and agricultural life of the country under the wing of the government, organize it into vast farm and industrial cartels, as they were called in Germany, corporatives as they were called in Italy, and operate business and farms by economic planning schemes dictated and carried out under the supervision of government. This is, in fact, the essence of [[fascism]]. In those days fascism was not defined as [[anti-Semitism]]. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Book 1, Chapter 7, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Seven___An_Enemy_Is_Welc.htm ''An Enemy Is Welcomed''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

The AAA reported to the Secretary of Agriculture but was independent of the Department of Agriculture bureaucracy. [[Harold Ware]] was a [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) official in the AAA and founded the [[Ware group]]. The group consisted of young lawyers and economists, had about 75 members in 1934 and was divided into about eight cells. The AAA was later found [[unconstitutional]], but by that time the Communist operatives had established jobs in government employment. [[Alger Hiss]], [[Lee Pressman]], [[John Abt]], [[Charles Kramer]], [[Nathan Witt]], [[Henry Collins]], [[George Silverman]], [[Marion Bachrach]], [[John Herrmann]], [[Nathaniel Weyl]], [[Donald Hiss]] and [[Victor Perlo]] were all members of the Ware group. [[Harry Dexter White]], who was involved in the most auspicious policy [[subversion (political)|subversion]] as Director of the Division of Monetary Research in the [[Treasury Department]], was also affiliated with the group. The Ware group was the CPUSA's covert arm at this time. Each of these agents not only provided classified documents to Soviet intelligence, but was involved in political influence operations as well.

In 1934, a Congressional Investigation was held to examine statements by Dr. William A. Wirt, who headed the U.S. [[Department of Education|Office of Education]]. Dr. Wirt had attended a dinner party with several Brain Trusters at the home of his secretary, [[Alice Barrows]]. Barrows began working for the Office of Education in 1919 and was secretly a member of the [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA) which advocated the violent overthrow of the United States Constitution. Several of the Brain Trusters present at the dinner revealed to Wirt they were CPUSA members. Wirt testified,
{{Cquote|I was told they believe that by thwarting our then evident economic recovery, they would be able to prolong the country’s destitution until they had demonstrated to the American people that the Government must operate business and commerce. By propaganda, they would destroy institutions making long term capital loans—and then push Uncle Sam into making these loans. Once Uncle Sam becomes our financier, he must also follow his money with control and management. <ref>Hearings, House Select Committee To Investigate Certain Statements of Dr. William Wirt, 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, April 10 and 17, 1934. </ref><ref>''Dr Wirt faces the cameras and tells all'', Literary Digest v. 117 (April 21 1934) p. 7.</ref><ref>FBI Silvermaster file [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster053.pdf Volume 53 June 1946], p. 78 pdf.</ref>}}

A June 1945 [[Venona project]] decryption of Soviet [[KGB]] wartime cables from the Washington D.C. KGB Office to Moscow's Eighth Department, the political intelligence wing, relayed information on matters regarding Attorney General Francis Biddle. KGB agent [[Charles Kramer]], who served on the staff of several U.S. Senate Subcommittees, and Barrows are the sources of the information. <ref>Venona 3706 KGB Washington to Moscow, 29 June 1945.</ref> Mary Van Kleek who headed the Russell Sage Foundation and also served on the Board of the National Council, visited Washington weekly to meet with Barrows and [[Greg Silvermaster|Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]].

During [[World War II]] Barrows was the Executive Secretary of the the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. This organization was declared in 1953 to be a [[Glossary_of_espionage_terms#Fronts_and_cutouts|Communist front]] organization by the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] (SACB). In its Findings of Fact, the SACB said the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship,
{{Cquote|advances positions...markedly pro-Soviet and...anti-United States Government...is a Communist-action organization which has as its primary purpose to advance the objectives of the world Communist movement under the [[hegemony]] of the Soviet Union; it has the policy to support and defend the Soviet Union under any and all circumstances...We conclude that the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc., is substantially directed, dominated, and controlled by the Communist Party of the United States...and is primarily operated for the purpose of giving aid and support to...the Soviet Union, a Communist foreign government." <ref>United States. Subversive Activities Control Board. [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=usfexec;cc=usfexec;q1=Barrows;rgn=full%20text;idno=81242.0001.001;didno=81242.0001.001;view=image;seq=511;page=root;size=s;endseq=3;frm=frameset Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board.] Washington. United States Government Printing Office. 1966. Vol. 1, p. 501.</ref>}}

====Civilian Conservation Corps====
:''Main article [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]''

Soon after President Roosevelt's inauguration in March 1933, he announced the establishment of the CCC camps to take the boys off the street corners and out of the transient camps and to get money for their families. Of the New Deal innovations, perhaps the most generally applauded was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), adapted from German predecessors. That was a year after Hitler had coordinated all work camps under [[Nazi]] leadership. In 1934 the German university student organization voted that the work camps should be compulsory before matriculation and in 1935, Hitler decreed that the work camps be compulsory for both sexes. That same plan under the prompting of [[Harry Hopkins]] was announced by Roosevelt. <ref>''Getting Us into War'', Porter Sargent Publisher: P. Sargent, Boston, 1941. [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Getting_Us_Into_War-Porter_Sargent-1941-640pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=218&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 In the Footsteps of Hitler], pg. 492 pdf</ref> Ralph Ingersoll's ''PM'' newspaper reported the President's statement that training in the conscript camps will remove those elements in the thinking of youth which makes them "critical of their elders." <ref>''PM'', June 20, 1940. "that training in the conscript camps will remove those elements in the thinking of our youth which makes them 'critical of their elders'...We should hold little hope for the future of any nation whose young people had ceased to be critical of their elders."</ref><ref>''American Youth'', Kenneth Holland, Harvard University Press, 1940, pg. 103. "As the camps and resident centers are established on a permanent basis they should be carefully integrated with educational, vocational, employment and adjustment activities of institutions already in existence. It is to be hoped that established schools and other training institutions in the United States will see in the [[labor camp]]s a new technique for providing youth with practical experience better adapted to its needs and interests than the present academic school courses."</ref>

===Social Security===
An Old Age Social Security Bill was passed during his first term which provided for workers who reach the age of 65 a pension of $8 a week at most. The plan had to be pushed through against his procrastination until finally in the 1934 congressional elections the Republicans denounced him for his tardiness. When he did finally consent to a bill, it contained a plan for building a huge reserve fund that would extract billions from the workers' payrolls without any adequate return. Over the protest of the President, the Congress finally took that provision proposed by Roosevelt out of the law. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Chapter 14, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Fifteen___The_Roosevelt_.htm ''The Roosevelt Myth''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref>

===Taxation===

FDR, in a letter to journalist Roy W. Howard, wrote,
:"What is known as consumer taxes, namely the invisible taxes paid by people in every walk of life, fall relatively much more heavily upon the poor man than on the rich man." <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt, letter to Roy W. Howard, September 2, 1935. </ref>

[[Robert H. Jackson]], then serving as [[Internal Revenue Service]] General Counsel, observed in Congressional testimony that prior to FDR’s election, "we find those taxes bearing most heavily on the well-to-do contributed 68% per cent of the government's total internal revenue and customs receipts, while miscellaneous taxes and customs receipts, bearing most heavily upon the consumer contributed only 31.8%” By 1935 the situation was reversed with “taxes based on ability to pay contributed 38.7% . . . there has been an increase in the proportion of revenues contributed by taxes on consumption to 61.3%."<ref>Testimony of Robert Jackson, Assistant General Counsel, Treasury Department, Committee on Finance, U . S. Senate, August 6, 1985.</ref>

===Economic growth===

New capital made available for investment amounted to $348,000,000 in 1935. This was less than 1/10th of the amount available in 1929. By contrast, the British economy had nearly recovered to its 1929 levels by 1935, and the amount available for investment was almost twice as much as the United States.

{| style="background:white; color:blue" border="1" class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! United States <ref>Standard Statistics Co., ''New Honey for Operating and Producing.''</ref>
! Great Britain <ref>Midland Bank, London, ''New Issues for British Companies,'' converted from £ to $ at $4.8665.</ref>
|-
| 1927
| $3,201,000,000
| $710,509,000
|-
| 1928
| 3,062,000,000
| 983,033,000
|-
| 1929
| 3,668,000,000
| 759,174,000
|-
| 1930
| 3,039,000,000
| 394,186,500
|-
| 1931
| 1,006,000,000
| 155,728,000
|-
| 1932
| 321,000,000
| 248,191,500
|-
| 1933
| 177,000,000
| 296,856,500
|-
| 1934
| 356,000,000
| 350,388,000
|-
| 1935
| 348,000,000
| 666,710,500
|-

|}

===Congress of Industrial Organizations===

By 1935 membership in labor unions had sunk to a low figure as a result of [[unemployment]]. There were men around the President at this time that saw the tremendous possibilities of organizing labor as a political force. An industrial union is one in which all the people engaged in a single industry are included without regard to the type of skills at which they work. The industrial union was the one great instrument by which all labor could be organized and the President was urged to promote this idea as the starting point in building up a powerful political labor movement. There were three large industrial unions at that time, [[John L. Lewis]]’s [[United Mine Workers]] (UMW), the International Ladies Garment Workers Union of David Dubinsky and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of [[Sidney Hillman]].

Roosevelt tried to sell the plan to John L. Lewis of the UMW, and William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Green and the AFL opposed the idea of industrial unions and refused, but under the leadership of Lewis, a new group of unions was formed called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The Comintern directed [[Lee Pressman]] <ref>FBI Report, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946, United States Government, pgs. 298 - 300 pdf. "Leon Pressman, alias Lee Pressman, served as General Counsel for the [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] from 1933 to 1935; in 1935 he was appointed General Counsel for the [[Works Progress Administration]]. In 1937 he was appointed to the General Counsel for the National [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO). Pressman was also associated with various Communist front organizations. Pressman was a known contact of [[Anatoly Gorsky]], New York [[KGB]] Rezident, and KGB Agents [[Alger Hiss]] and [[Harry Dexter White]]. </ref> of the [[Ware group]] to assume the position of general counsel<ref>FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster132.pdf Vol. 132, pg. 109] pdf. "Pressman is said to have run arms to Spain during the Civil War via Mexico and to have worked with General Mark Moren in the project. Moren was involved in the [[Rubens Robinson]] passport case in 1938." See also Underground Espionage Agent, Adolf Berle notes, September 2, 1939. [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,789421,00.html ''32,000 & Mrs. Rubens''], Time magazine, Feb. 07, 1938. "In the first years of the Soviet Union, to escape from Russia was difficult and dangerous. Today it has become almost impossible, an attempt tantamount to suicide. Barbed and electrically charged wire, searchlight-equipped watch towers. 24-hour frontier patrols aided by bloodhounds and police dogs guard every mile of border. .... Weak from [[scurvy]] and [[dysentery]], Konarski told correspondents: 'The camp contains about 32,000 prisoners. They are kept there until [[death]] results from hard work, bad food and consequent sickness. I met two [[American citizen]]s in the camp, Arthur Hanley, a chemical engineer from California, and Edward Rose, a machinist from Boston, Mass. They said they came to Russia in 1921 as volunteer workers. Rose said he was [[arrest]]ed in Leningrad in 1923. Hanley was caught trying to escape from Russia to Latvia in 1925. Each was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but, although they have served out their sentences, they are still being held. They told me they know of three other native-born Americans who are held prisoner in other Soviet camps.'...Mrs. Ruth Marie Rubens (alias Robinson), one U. S. citizen officially known to be in jail in Moscow (TIME, Dec. 27 [1938]). In Moscow on December 9 able, active U. S. Charge d'Affaires Loy W. Henderson learned that Mrs. Rubens had "disappeared"' from the big Hotel National next door to the U.S. Embassy. On January 18 the Soviet Foreign Office finally admitted that Mrs. Rubens was under arrest, failed to say on what charge.... hundreds of Germans are today in Soviet jails and for years German diplomatic & consular officials have not been allowed to see them."</ref> where he became known as "Comrade Big." The year 1936 was a period of furious organizing work by it among the unskilled workers of the country. As Lewis, Dubinsky, and Hillman set about organizing millions of workers they were immediately up against the problem of finding skilled organizers to promote and manage the new unions.

There had been in the United States a [[Communist]] labor organization known as the Trade Union Unity League which took its instructions directly from [[Moscow]]. It is estimated that ten or fifteen thousand Communists were in these unions. In 1934, Moscow directed the Communist party in the United States to dissolve the Trade Union Unity League unions and to march the members of those unions into the American Federation of Labor. The purpose was not to advance the cause of labor unions or to get better working conditions for the members, but to use the apparatus of the labor union as an instrument of [[revolution]]. The Communist leaders saw in the rise of the CIO a better opportunity for their own revolutionary objectives than in the AFL and instructed their members to withdraw from the AFL and go into the CIO where they achieved disproportionate influence. <ref>''The Soviet World of American Communism'', Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson, Yale University Press, 1998, Document 13, pp. 58-68. ISBN 0-300-07150-7. </ref>

Lewis was interested in bringing into existence industrial unions like his own, in which he had always believed. Roosevelt was interested in bringing into American labor unions as many voters as possible and in capturing their leadership to build a powerful labor faction which could control the Democratic party and which he and his allies could control through the vast power of the government and the vast powers of labor leaders, along with the immense financial resources that so great a labor movement would have. The Communists were interested in getting into key positions as union officers, statisticians, economists, etc., in order to utilize the apparatus of the unions to promote the cause of revolution. By the early part of 1938, over three million workers had been organized. Lewis was later to split with FDR. <ref>''Communists and the CIO: From the Soviet archives'', Harvey Klehr and John E. Haynes, Labor History, Volume 35, Issue 3 Summer 1994 , pages 442 - 446. [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a772103056~db=all?tab=references]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788129-4,00.html ''Turning Point?''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 12, 1937.</ref>

== Second Term ==

{{Cquote|Planning will become a function of the federal government; either that or the planning agency will supersede the government, which is why, of course, such a scheme will be assimilated to the State. <ref>''The Principle of Planning and the Institution of Laissez Faire,'' Rexford G. Tugwell, The American Economic Review, vol. 22, no. 1, March 1932. [http://www.bartleby.com/73/147.html]</ref>}}

On August 13, 1938, John P. Frey, president of the Metal Trades Department of the AFL, appeared before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]. Frey, in a presentation lasting several days, laid before the Committee a complete documented account of CPUSA penetration of the CIO. He gave the names of 280 organizers in CIO unions under salary who were CPUSA members. He charged that John Brophy who was the director of the CIO, was expelled by the United Mine Workers some years before for disloyal activities and while he was not directly a CPUSA member, he was assisted in his work by two active members of the Party. He had gone to Russia as a member of a delegation sponsored by the Party and approved by Moscow and when he returned the UMW accused him of being a paid agent of the Soviet government. Brophy at a meeting said that the condition of workers in the Soviet Union "should be a source of inspiration to workers in America."

Frey named union after union in the CIO, giving names of the Communists who were holding positions of leadership and trust. He charged, for instance, that they dominated the United Office and Professional Workers Union, that the president of that organization was a CPUSA member and through that organization they had infiltrated the government with numerous Party members in almost all the bureaus in Washington.

[[Thomas Corcoran]] <ref>After World War II Corcoran employed Soviet agent [[Duncan Lee]] in his Washington law firm, Corcoran and Youngman. FBI Silvermaster file biographical details on [[Duncan C. Lee]], [[Elizabeth Bentley]]'s allegations concerning him, his contacts with [[Donald Wheeler]] and [[Mary Price]], [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster092.pdf Vol. 92, pgs. 20 - 21] pdf, January 26, 1947. On June 6 1945, 6 persons, including U.S. government officials [[Andrew Roth]] and [[John Stewart Service]], were arrested on [[conspiracy]] and [[espionage]] charges related to possession of roughly 1000 stolen classified Government documents in the offices of ''[[Amerasia]]'' magazine. ''Amerasia'', edited by [[Philip J. Jaffe]], had published classified materials verbatim from the United States wartime intelligence service, the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS). ''Amerasia's'' chief financial benefactor was [[Frederick V. Field]]. [[Joseph Milton Bernstein]], a [[GRU]] contact between Soviet agents in the OSS and the [[Board of Economic Warfare]], was also an employee. Others connected with the ''Amerasia'' scandal were [[T.A. Bisson]] and [[Owen Lattimore]]. Corcoran worked with the [[Truman administration]] to cover up the scandal.</ref> moved from the [[Reconstruction Finance Corporation]] to the White House and was instrumental in securing numerous appointments for friends and colleagues to [[New Deal]] agencies. Eventually he was pushed out in favor of [[Harry Hopkins]] for the position of Roosevelt's right-hand man.

===Court packing plan===

Tommy Corcoran was given the task by Roosevelt to persuade Congress to pass the proposed legislation. [[I. F. Stone]] of the ''New York Post'', who later was to agree to work for the [[KGB]], wrote speeches for Corcoran on this issue.

===Crash of 1937===

When FDR was inaugurated for his second term [[national income]], [[payroll]]s, and [[industrial production]] <ref>League of Nations Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, June, 1936. Percentage change 1929 to March 1936, United States -21.8%, rank number 13.</ref> were still 20 per cent below the 1929 figure and construction was still only about one third what it had been in 1929. By June, 1937 the Treasury boasted relief payments were less than in the same period the preceding year. But this was not so. The Treasury made a practice of cooking the books and producing phony numbers. It merely shifted relief payments to other accounts. They were, in fact, larger than the year before. Stock prices declined and by September the reality could be no longer hidden. By the end of October the market crashed. The budget was running a [[deficit]] at the time $300,000,000 a month.

[[Robert H. Jackson]], Assistant Attorney General, and Secretary of the Interior [[Harold Ickes]] in December made speeches inspired by the President on the [[conspiratorial]] ''America's 60 Families.'' <ref>''New Deal Chorus'', Time magazine, [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758849-1,00.html pg. 1][http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758849-2,00.html pg. 2], Jan. 17, 1938.</ref> In January, John D. Biggers staggered the administration with a report Roosevelt had commissioned that stated there were 10,870,000 people out of work. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758790,00.html ''Two Schemes''], Time magazine, Jan. 10, 1938.</ref> Roosevelt realized that all the “pump priming” and spending $17 billion had failed. Despite the billions added to the debt, the Depression was back. He was now at the center of a tug-of-war with advocates of spending like [[Harry Hopkins]], [[Leon Henderson]] and [[Rex Tugwell]] on one side, and opponents like [[Henry Morgenthau]] on the other. DNC Chairman [[Jim Farley]] reports he had a talk on the subject with Roosevelt on March 28, 1938.

FDR told Farley he would have "to go in for pump priming or relief," then Roosevelt confessed to a difficulty that is little understood: what could he spend on? There is only a limited number of things which the federal government can spend. The federal government can build schools, hospitals, roads, institutions of all sorts. But they are built in cities, counties, states and the activities which go on in these buildings are within the jurisdiction of the states. And the continuing perpetual maintainance of such things, like payroll, is the in the purview of the states. The federal government can spend money on agricultural experimentation, on scientific research, on national parks, on power dams, etc. But in the end the outlays on these things are limited. The one big thing the federal government can spend money on is the army and navy. Roosevelt explained to Farley that he could not spend on local projects because the states and cities did not want any more buildings and institutions which they would have to support. They were having trouble enough paying the bills of those already built. Roosevelt revealed to Farley that many [[WPA]] projects approved by the government were abandoned because the states and cities could not raise the money to support them. In the 1938 Congressional elections Harry Hopkins was spending as fast as he could without any regard to utility to meet the immediate political necessities of an election but couldn't go on indefinitely. And the whole problem was complicated by pressure from within his own party to balance the budget.

The country now reached a greater crisis than in 1933. The public debt, which was $22 billion when Roosevelt took office and was a heritage of [[World War I]], now was $37 billion. Taxes had been more than doubled by Roosevelt. By April 1938 unemployment reached several thousand more than when Roosevelt was elected in 1932. This was not Hoover’s Depression but Roosevelt’s Depression. Voices began to speak up suggesting after all Hoover may have known what he was doing, but here, nine years after the Depression began the fundamental condition of the country was no further advanced than it was at the end of Hoover's three year struggle with it.

Making provision for war increased business profits. In 1936 Roosevelt had said, "If we face the choice of profits or peace, the nation will answer – must answer - 'We choose peace'. It is the duty of all of us to encourage such a body of public opinion in this country that the answer will be clear." <ref>''Getting Us into War'', Porter Sargent Publisher: P. Sargent, Boston, 1941. [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Getting_Us_Into_War-Porter_Sargent-1941-640pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=218&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 ''No More Millionaires''], pg. 372 pdf</ref> By 1938 Roosevelt embarked on a massive defense appropriations buildup; the Administration would advance 30% to a defense contractor when placing an order. The National City Bank reported an increase of overall business profits in the year 1939 over 1938 of 63.6%, and in its December 1940 Bulletin showed for 284 companies "directly affected by war and defense program" a rise of 79.2%. The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported, "Betterment in profits was naturally more pronounced, as a rule, in those industries benefiting directly or indirectly from the European conflict." <ref>''Wall Street Journal'', May 3, 1940.</ref>

[[Curtiss-Wright Aircraft]], to enlarge its plant, received a loan of $92 million at 4%. [[I. F. Stone]] of ''[[The Nation]]'' magazine wrote,
:"Offered as a non-recourse loan . . . the government would have no claim against the Wright company if it failed to repay the loan. All the government could do in that case would be to take the factory. Since the plant would be financed entirely by the government, the government would really be taking back its own property if the Wright company for some reason wanted to drop it. ...The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported on August 2 that while the loan was for $92,000,000, 'the cost of the proposed plant and its equipment is understood to be only $37,000,000 or $38,000,000'. When asked by the ''Journal'' correspondent about 'this apparent discrepancy', Jesse Jones said, 'We don't believe it would be in the public interest to break down that total at this time'....As this is being written, the Wright contract has yet to be signed. The company is now asking for five-year amortization instead of eight. Incidentally, a vice-president of this finicky company, T. P. Wright, was assigned to the Defense Commission on June 8 to help speed up production"
The Defense Commission was the same commission that would determine and approve the terms of the loan.<ref>''Getting Us into War'', Sargent, 1941, pg. 433.</ref> ''PM'' noted "For an $18,000,000 plant to command a $92,000,000 credit from any bank, including a federal one, may make financiers blink, but that is what has been arranged". The Curtiss-Wright loan was only a little over five times the value of the plant. But Boeing Aircraft, with a plant worth $3,000,000 was awarded a loan of $32,000,000, more than ten times. And Boeing was to own it in five years.<ref>Roger Ingersoll, ''PM'', August. 9, 1940.</ref>

== Third Term ==

It is fairly certain that early in 1939, if not a little sooner, FDR made up his mind to seek a third election in the [[United States presidential election, 1940|presidential election of 1940]]. FDR realized the political difficulties involved in a third nomination so he wanted to make it appear as a "draft Roosevelt" movement. He discussed other candidates with his aids, among the names were Democratic National Committee Chairman [[James Farley]], whom FDR rejected because he was [[Roman Catholic]]. The name of Paul McNutt was urged; FDR was angry McNutt would even permit his name to be discussed. FDR told Farley: "I consider it bad taste on his part to be letting his name be used when he is still a member of my administration." Roosevelt sent him as High Commissioner to the Philippines and jokingly asked: "Is that far enough?"<ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Book 1, Ch. 6, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Seven___The_Third_Term.htm ''The Third Term''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref> Historian [[Doris Kearns Goodwin]] in her book ''No Ordinary Time'' explored the decision to seek a third time and concludes FDR probably decided to enter the war at the same time he decided to run again, although he was politically unable to enter the war until the [[Japanese]] [[attack on Pearl Harbor]].

Administrative Assistants to Roosevelt included [[James Forrestal]], [[Lauchlin Currie]]<ref>Committee on Un-American Activities, "The Shameful Years: Thirty Years of Soviet Espionage in the United States," 82d Congress, 2d Session, 1951, pp. 15-17; [http://www.counterintelligencetraining.com/BK/ci_centre_bibliography.htm Required Reading List for Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Intelligence and Security Professionals,]The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Alexandria, VA.</ref> and [[David K. Niles]]. Their function was "to get, information and to condense and summarize it for [Roosevelt's] use." <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins : An Intimate History'', Robert E. Sherwood, New York Harper and Brothers, 1948, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Roosevelt_and_Hopkins-An_Intimate_History-Robert_E_Sherwood-1948-1034pgs-GOV-POL.sml.pdf&id=252&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 226] pdf.</ref> Forrestal later was to jump from a 16th story window of Bethesda Naval Hospital psychiatric ward. <ref>''The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People'', John Loftus and Mark Aarons, New York : St.Martin's Press, 1994. [http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/vegyes_/secretwar_06.rtf]</ref> Currie and Niles were to be found working for the [[KGB]].<ref>''Uncovering Stalin's Spies'' Julius W. Friend, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, (2000) Vol. 13 No. 3, pgs. 381 - 384. [http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/UN1VH8U16UMXEFGF.pdf]</ref><ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00039.cfm ''The Venona Story''], Robert L. Benson, Center for Cryptological History, National Security Agency. One of the special reports issued in July 1948 (1948 was a presidential election year) gives the earliest translation found that mentions friends of [[David Niles]], an important advisor to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, "will arrange anything for a bribe." Venona message 786 New York KGB to Moscow, 1 June 1944, [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p1.gif pg. 1], [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p2.gif pg. 2]).</ref> Currie alerted his KGB controllers that "the United States was on the verge of breaking the Soviet code."<ref>''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'', Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, Washington, DC, Regnery, 2000, [http://books.google.com/books?id=mVpWH51F7toC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=lauchlin+currie+break+code&source=web&ots=Yj2NHYwgxB&sig=sbZ3789Tz0jd7xPRiC6EEdeuJ48 pg. 27.] Herbert Romerstein was the Chief, Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures, U.S. Information Agency from (1983-1989), Staff member, U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (1978-1983), and Minority Chief Investigator, House Committee on Internal Security (1971-1975). [http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/facultyID.9/profile.asp]</ref>

=== Commander in Chief ===

[[John P. Davies]] was assigned to Gen. [[Joseph Stilwell]] as Stilwell's adviser in China. Hopkins made a note at the time: "The President indicated his strong dissatisfaction with the way the whole show was running in China. He stated that Stillwell obviously hated the Chinese and that his cablegrams are sarcastic about the Chinese and this feeling is undoubtedly known to the Generalissimo."<ref>Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 739.</ref>Roosevelt and Hopkins biographer [[Robert Sherwood]] wrote that Gen. [[George C. Marshall]] told Hopkins his only serious disagreement with
Hopkins was on the issue of Stilwell. Sherwood adds that "he was unquestionably a serious nuisance to Roosevelt and there were many times when he was on the verge of recalling him."<ref> Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 740.</ref>

On May 19, 1942, pressured by Communist union officials of the American Communications Association, [[CIO]], Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, informed Rear Admiral Adolphus Staton that Communist radio operators were not to be removed from their ships. Less than six months earlier, Congress, with the lone dissenting vote of [[Vito Marcantonio]], enacted Public Law 351, which authorized the Secretary of the Navy to have all radio operators with a [[subversion (political)|subversive]] background taken off their ships. Rear Admiral Staton had recommended the removal of a number of Communists. In the presence of Rear Admiral S. C. Hooper and others, Knox instructed Rear Admiral Staton "that, in the opinion of the President, membership or suspected membership in the CPUSA was not sufficient to deprive a radio operator of his job." <ref>''America's Tragedy-Today'', Major Hamilton A. Long, (NY: Post Printing), pgs. 15-25.</ref> Expounding a memorandum bearing President Roosevelt's initials, Knox brushed aside the objections of Staton and Hooper, declaring that the order came from the President himself. Because the presidential command defied the law of the land, it was not put into writing. Consequently, the Communist radio operators returned to their ships and Rear Admirals Hooper and Staton were put on the inactive list.

Stalin publicly disbanded the [[Comintern]] in 1943. A Moscow message to all stations on 12 September 1943, message number 142, relating to this event is one of the most interesting and historically important messages <ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00008.cfm Venona 142(a) Moscow to Canberra 12 September 1943]. Text reads: "change in circumstances - and in particular the dissolution of the [[Comintern]] - necessitates a change in the method used by the workers of our residencies to keep in touch with the leaders of the local [[Communist_Party_of_the_United_States_of_America#Secret_apparatus|Communist]] organizations on intelligence matters. 
2. Our workers, by continuing to meet the leader of the Communists, are exposing themselves to danger and are giving cause [''orgs of''] local authorities to suspect that the Comintern is still in existence. 
3. We propose: 
a. That personal contact with leaders of the local Communist organizations should cease and that Communist material should not be accepted for forwarding to the Comintern. 
b. That meetings of our workers may take place only with special reliable undercover [ZAKONSPIRIROVANNYJ] contacts of the Communist [D% organizations], who are not suspected by the [''orgs of''] local authorities, exclusively about specific aspects of our intelligence work (acquiring [1 group unidentified] contacts, leads [NAVODKI], rechecking of those who are being cultivated, etc.). For each meeting it is necessary to obtain our consent. 

Representative of the Soviet Union. 

No. 4084 
Lt. Gen. [[P.M. Fitin]]. 

Notes: [a] This message is known to have been sent also to NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, and OTTAWA.</ref> in the entire corpus of [[VENONA]] translations. This message clearly discloses the [[KGB]]'s connection to the Comintern and to the national Communist parties. <ref>''Counterintelligence Reader'', National Counterintelligence Center, United States, [http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci2/2ch4_a.htm Vol. 2, Ch. 4], n.d.</ref> Shortly afterwards Rear Admiral Staton, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, was asked to testify before the Cox Committee of House of Representatives on the [[White House]] efforts to protect Communists in the Armed Forces. Staton complied in executive session. Before he could appear in public hearings, [[Adlai Stevenson]], assistant to Secretary Knox, instructed him that "there were White House orders" forbidding him to testify. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777835,00.html ''Cox's Circus''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 19, 1943.</ref> By that time Counter-Intelligence officers had obtained irrefutable proof that the CPUSA had developed an extensive plan to abolish the Armed Forces' counter-subversive system. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref>

Roosevelt himself was responsible for the order of January 1, 1944 which abolished the entire setup of the Counter-Intelligence Corps in the [[War Department]].<ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref> On February 19 the War Department issued the order which purposely disorganized the counter-subversive reporting system of the Armed Forces. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 13</ref> On May 19, the day after learning of the secret order to destroy the War Department records on subversives, Senator [[StyIes Bridges]], a member of the Military Affairs Committee, demanded an explanation from Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]]. Lieutenant General McNarney, Army Chief of Staff deputy, was "vague, evasive and obstructive." Bridges told McNarney "he could forgive an officer who makes a mistake or loses a battle, but that an officer who betrays the security of his country should be taken out and shot." McNarney admitted the order had been issued from "higher authority." After much wrangling, Secretary Stimson in a letter of May 27 promised to prevent the destruction of records on subversives. <ref>Long, op.cit., pgs. 28-31.</ref>

The War Department, on December 30, 1944, issued a secret order which expressly condoned "divided loyalty" and established as a guiding rule that "the subversive-suspect should be given the benefit of all reasonable doubt."

===Big Three conferences===
:''See also '''[[Teheran conference]]'''''

At the [[Teheran conference]] it was secretly agreed to let the Soviet Union have not only eastern Poland but also part of Finland, the Baltic States and parts of Romania. It was secretly agreed to support the Yugoslav Communist, [[Joseph Broz Tito]], and desert the pro-Western, anti-totalitarian friend, General Mihailovich. Roosevelt told a joint session of Congress upon his return to the United States that no secret arrangements had been made.

:''See also '''[[Yalta conference]]'''''

At the [[Yalta conference]] a [[reparations]] commission was set up. The Soviet Union wanted the amount to be 20 billion dollars of which the USSR would take half. It was agreed that labor might be taken as a possible source of reparations. This was a way of authorizing the seizure of human beings to work as [[slave]]s and is the basis of the crime perpetrated after hostilities ceased to which Franklin Roosevelt agreed. <ref>''Speaking Frankly'', James F. Byrnes, New York: Harper & Bros., 1947, p. 29.</ref>

Roosevelt also agreed at Yalta to have all fugitive Soviet nationals or citizens of satellite nations and tens of thousands of [[POW]]'s who elected to stay this side of the [[Iron Curtain]], returned to the Soviet Union. This was in contravention of the Geneva Convention. The ''Saturday Evening Post'' commented:
{{Cquote|With this shameful agreement as their authority, Russian [[KGB|MVD]] agents strode through the displaced-persons camps after the war and put the finger on thousands who had managed to escape the Soviet tyranny. These miserable victims were herded into boxcars and driven back to death, torture or the slow murder of the Siberian mines and forests. Many killed themselves on the way. Also under a Yalta agreement, the Russians were permitted to use German prisoners in forced labor as an item in 'reparations account.' For such inhumanities there is no excuse.<ref>''Saturday Evening Post'', Editorial, April 11, 1953, pg. 12.</ref>}}

Roosevelt not only made agreements secret from the American people but secret from his closest advisers in the government. He made agreements with Stalin hostile to the objectives of Churchill and kept secret from Churchill. He made secret agreements with [[Chiang Kai-shek]] secret from both Churchill and Stalin. He made secret agreements in derogation of Chiang Kai-shek's interests without Chiang Kai-shek's knowledge. And he made many secret agreements which no one in the U.S. State Department knew about until after his death and then learned about only at embarrassing moments from Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]. <ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 13, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Thirteen___The_Final_Bet.htm ''The Final Betrayal''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

== Fourth Term ==
[[Image:Fbisilvermasterfilevol15p4.JPG|right|250px|thumb|CPUSA defector [[Louis Budenz]] testified he could name 400 individuals involved in the [[CPUSA#Secret_apparatus|Communist conspiracy]]; <ref>[http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft296nb15t&chunk.id=d0e6193&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e4718&brand=eschol FBI Headquarters File 100-63, Louis Francis Budenz, Internal Security—C, Serial 122.]</ref> others testified there may have been over 1000.<ref>Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations ([http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm McCarthy Hearings 1953-54]).</ref> The Silvermaster group had 27 high level infiltrators still employed in the US government well after the War ended.<ref>[http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster015.pdf FBI Silvermaster file Vol. 15, pg. 4 pdf.]</ref>
]]
In February 1944 Congress rejected Roosevelt's demand for a $10,500,000,000 tax increase and cut it to $2,300,000,000. Roosevelt vetoed it saying this was a "bill not for relief of the needy but of the greedy."
Senator [[Alben Barkley]], Democratic leader, rose on the floor of the Senate to say the veto was "a calculated and deliberate assault upon the legislative integrity of every member of Congress." The entire Senate united in a roar of applause. Barkley declared that after seven years of carrying the [[New Deal]] banner for Roosevelt, he would resign his post as Democratic majority leader and he called on every member of the Congress to preserve its self respect and override the veto. The Senate overrode it 72 to 14 and the House 299 to 95.

After the [[Comintern]] was disbanded Roosevelt was offered the nomination of the [[Communist]] dominated [[American Labor Party]] and he had accepted their nomination in the [[Presidential election of 1944]]. It was 825,000 votes from [[Earl Browder]] and [[Sidney Hillman]]'s American Labor Party that gave him his majority. His administration was now the hopeless prisoner of these demanding and ruthless radical labor leaders,<ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 12, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Twelve___The_Atlantic_Ch.htm ''The Atlantic Charter Is Scrapped''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> who had shown their ability to elect or defeat the Democratic party, who had filled all the departments and bureaus with their agents and who had insinuated their experts into the CIO labor unions and their propagandists into the radio, the movies and all the great instruments of communication and opinion - a fact which Mr. Roosevelt's successors would have to face when the war ended. <ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20060820054409/http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/review/2000/summer/re2-su0.htm ''The Venona Progeny''], Hayen B. Peake, Naval War College Review, Summer 2000, Vol. LIII, No. 3. "[[Venona]] makes absolutely clear that they had active agents in the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Justice Department, Senate committee staffs, the military services, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the [[Manhattan Project]], and the [[White House]], as well as wartime agencies. No modern government was more thoroughly penetrated." [[Hayden B. Peake]] is the curator of [[Central Intelligence Agency]]’s (CIA) Historical Intelligence Collection. [http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/P_folder/peake.html]</ref>

So thorough was [[KGB]] penetration of the Roosevelt Administration, that when [[Army Signals Intelligence]] cryptographer [[Meredith Gardner]] extracted the names of [[Hans Bethe]], [[Niels Bohr]], [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Harold Urey]], [[Edward Teller]] and 11 other scientists working on the [[Manhattan Project]] from a December 2, 1944 KGB encypherment,<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00014.cfm Venona 1699 New York to Moscow, December 2, 1944].</ref> KGB agent [[William Weisband]] watched him do it.<ref>VENONA: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957, Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., (Washington, D.C.: [[National Security Agency]], Central Intelligence Agency, 1996) [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm]; The ''Baltimore Sun'' (Laura Sullivan, "SPY'S ROLE LINKED TO US FAILURE ON KOREA," 6/29/00) reported that a report newly declassified by the US National Security Agency (NSA) shows that [[William Weisband]] alerted the Soviets to extensive US eavesdropping in 1948, resulting in a complete blackout of information from the communist bloc for more than two years. This crippled the NSA's intelligence gathering efforts in the late 1940s and begins to explain why the US was caught unprepared for the [[DPRK]]'s 1950 invasion of the [[ROK]]. NSA historian David A. Hatch, who authored the report, said, "This report answers several significant questions. Up until now, there has been a great lack of knowledge surrounding some of these events ... and this should help sharpen [the public's] understanding." [Ed. note: This article was included in the US Department of Defense's Early Bird news service for June 29, 2000.] [http://www.nautilus.org/archives/napsnet/dr/0006/JUN29.html#item8] </ref>

[[Strom Thurmond]] also supported FDR's decision to seek a fourth term, and referred to Roosevelt as having been the world’s greatest leader. <ref>[http://www.kevinbaker.info/c_wtm.html What Trent Meant], Kevin Baker.</ref>

== Reflections on Christianity ==

FDR said this about the Bible in an address on October 6, 1935:

:"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the [[Bible]] has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic."

:"Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."<ref>Quoted in DeMar, ''The Untold Story'', p. 60 and Gabrial Sivan, ''The Bible and Civilization'' (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1973), p. 178.</ref>

FDR became famous for delivering "fireside chats" over the new medium of [[radio]], and on March 9, 1937 he declared:

:"I hope that you have re-read the [[United States Constitution| Constitution]] of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again."

While running for his third time in a Brooklyn speech, Roosevelt said,

:"I am certain that the rank and file of patriotic Republicans do not realize the nature of this threat. They should remember, and we must remember, what the collaborative understanding between Communism and Nazism has done to the processes of democracy abroad...

:"Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization. They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy. Their objective is to prevent democracy from becoming strong. <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins'', Sherwood, 1948, pgs. 193-194 (pgs. 211 - 212 pdf).</ref>

As [[World War II]] broke out in Europe, FDR warned:

:"Those forces hate [[Democracy]] and [[Christianity]] as two phases of the same civilization."

The following year, on May 27, 1941, FDR stated in one of his radio addresses:

:The Nazis are as ruthless as the Communists in the denial of God.

"In his second inaugural address, FDR pledged to do his utmost by 'seeking Divine guidance.' He took that mission further on January 25, 1941, when he wrote a personal prologue to a special edition of the New Testament, which was distributed to millions of U.S. soldiers. 'As Commander-in-Chief,' Roosevelt wrote, 'I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.' He believed that all American soldiers should have the opportunity to read the words of Christ in preparing for battle. Once, when joining those soldiers aboard a warship with Winston Churchill, FDR asked the crew and prime minister to join him in singing the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' In his final inaugural address, FDR affirmed, "So we pray to Him for the vision to see our way clearly ... to achievement of His will.' "<ref>God and George W. Bush (New York: Regan Books, 2004), p. 176</ref>

When American soldiers were landing on the beaches of Normandy, Roosevelt led the nation in prayer during a radio broadcast. <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, [http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odddayp.html Franklin Roosevelt's D-Day Prayer], June 6, 1944.</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Image:Dcrosmor.jpg|right|thumb|330px]]

Roosevelt is an admired but still hotly debated president. Many credit Roosevelt with helping the United States survive the Great Depression and with providing solid leadership during World War II. Others, especially conservatives, assert that he uselessly expanded the welfare state, abused executive powers, and badly botched diplomacy before, during, and after World War II.

Roosevelt's image now appears on the [[Dime]].

==See also==
*[[New Ordeal]]
*[[Michael Whitney Straight]]

==Further reading==
*Charles Maclaurin, ''Post Mortem'' and ''Mere Mortals'' (New York: Doran, 1923, 1925).

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

== External Links ==
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=176 "The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.onpower.org/history_greatdepression.html/ Great Depression]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65 ''Depression, War and Cold War'', by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=138 "Wartime Prosperity?", by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1431 Pearl Harbor]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1468 FDR: The Man, the Leader, the Legacy], Ralph Raico, Future of Freedom Foundation, April 1, 2001. Retrieved from The Independent Institute.org 06/17/07.


{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Franklin D.}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Franklin D. Roosevelt

2008-03-11T21:08:49Z

Billdozer: /* Legacy */ what was there wasn't about his legacy, just a rant about business.

{{President
|image=509px-FDR in 1933.jpg
|seq=32
|term_start=March 4, 1933
|term_end=April 12, 1945
|party=Democratic
|vp= John N. Garner
|vp_dates=1933-1941
|2vp=Henry A. Wallace
|2vp_dates=1941-1945
|3vp=Harry Truman
|3vp_dates=1945
|4vp=
|4vp_dates=
|previous=Herbert Hoover
|next=Harry Truman
|seq2=
|term2_start=
|term2_end=
|party2=
|vp2=
|vp2dates=
|2vp2=
|2vp2dates=
|3vp2=
|3vp2dates=
|4vp2=
|4vp2dates=
|previous2=
|next2=
|birth_date=January 30, 1882
|birth_place=Hyde Park, New York
|death_date=April 12, 1945
|death_place=Warm Springs, Georgia
|spouse=[[Eleanor Roosevelt]]
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
}}

'''Franklin Delano Roosevelt''' was the 32nd [[President of the United States of America]] of the [[United States]] of America, following [[Herbert Hoover]] and preceding [[Harry Truman]]. Roosevelt was a member of the [[Democratic Party]]. He was elected four times and served a few months longer than 3 terms, from 1933-1945, the longest any one man has been president of the United States. He was elected amidst the uncertainty of the [[Great Depression]].

On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage, due partly to the crippling [[disease]], [[polio]]myelitis, which physically disabled him during his presidency.<ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fr32.html</ref>

Although Mr. Roosevelt was very popular at first, it has been argued by scholars and analysts then and now that many [[New Deal]] relief efforts actually helped to prolong the [[Great Depression]]. Mr. Roosevelt started the second wave of the massive expansion of the Federal Government and greatly increased American foreign aid. Some of these policies were viewed controversially coupled with persistent high level of unemployment in the 1930s as a result and later US involvement in WWII.<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/32_f_roosevelt/printable.html</ref>

From his second term the people were told that Roosevelt was the only man who could keep the US out of war. Later, it was asserted that he was the only man who could successfully fight the war that which he alone could keep the US out of. Then it was said that he was the only man who was capable of facing [[Josef Stalin]] on equal terms. Finally, he was said to be the only man who could guarantee against the ruthlessness of Stalin in the post-war era.

==Early life==
Franklin Roosevelt studied law at Columbia University where he failed to graduate. Secretary of Labor [[Frances Perkins]], the first woman ever appointed to a cabinet post and knew FDR from his early manhood up to his death, says he was not a student, that he knew nothing of economics and that he admitted he had never read a book on the subject. <ref>''The Roosevelt I Knew,'' Frances Perkins, New York, Viking Press, 1946. p. 34.</ref>

== Election of 1932 ==
{{stub|section}}
The Democrats made Government expansion under the Hoover administration an issue in the campaign of 1932, charging that Hoover was promoting socialism. After Roosevelt had taken office, former Democratic New York Governor Al Smith, saw Roosevelt's ultimately expansive policies as a betrayal of the true ideals of the Democratic party and supported Republican candidates in subsequent elections.

While the Democrats were damning Hoover as a big spender, at the same time he was refusing to be drawn into big spending, the Democratic House passed a bill appropriating $1,500,000,000 for old-fashioned [[pork-barrel]] outlays.

Roosevelt won a lanside victory in the presidential election of 1932, winning 472 electoral votes (nearly 90% of the total) and 22,800,000 popular votes (57% of the total) to defeat incumbent president Herbert Hoover.<ref>1932 Presidential Election Results http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?f=0&year=1932</ref> He was running primarily on the platform that he would help the country recover from the Great Depression with his New Deal.

== First Term ==
===Foreign policy===

On November 16, 1933, when the Roosevelt administration granted diplomatic recognition to the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]], the USSR pledged itself to refrain "from interfering in any manner in the internal affairs of the United States." This occurred three weeks after the founding of the [[Comintern]] affiliated [[American League for Peace and Democracy]]. The process of Communist “influence” in American life was accelerated. This “influence,” as described by [[Communist party]] defector [[Louis Budenz]], was to “infiltrate key government posts, undermine the patriotism of wellmeaning people in strategic or confidential positions, and win over those whose words, spoken and written, have an effect on American [[public opinion]];” it was checked “partially during the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact|Hitler-Stalin alliance]], it went all out in the course of the [[Second World War]]."<ref>Men Without Faces, The Communist Conspiracy in the U. S. A., By Louis Budenz,New York Harper & Brothers, 1950, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=//PDFsml_AD/Men_Without_Faces-Louis_Francis_Budenz-1950-315pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=238&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 2] pdf.</ref>

Numerous [[Attorney General's list|Comintern affiliate]] organizations sprung up in the ensuing years, including the [[American Youth Congress]] in 1934 and the [[League of American Writers]] in 1935. [[KGB]] officers traveled the country in the guise of diplomatic and consular officials, conducting [[espionage]] activities <ref>[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/10.gif Anonymous letter to Hoover], undated (received 7 August 1943), National Security Agency Venona Collection. "[[SEMENOV]] works in AMTORG, is robbing the whole of the war industry in America. SEMENOV has his agents in all the industrial towns of the U.S.A., in all aviation and chemical war factories and in big industries."</ref> freely and offering bribes.

On February 28, 1934, Elliott Roosevelt, son of the President, and [[Anthony Fokker]] each received half a million dollars for selling fifty military aircraft to the Soviet government. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,756770-2,00.html ''Son's Scheme''], Time magazine, Oct. 19, 1936,</ref>

===New Deal===
:''For Main Article see '''[[New Deal]].'''''
[[Image:Flatgrowth.JPG|thumb|300px|right|Real Output and Growth remained stagnant throughout the New Deal largely due to government interference. The Depression came back with a vengence in 1937-1938 because of the [[economic planner]]s over emphasis on consumption, and de-emphasis and persecution of producers--the people who make the economy work. ''Source:New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression.''<ref>''New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis, ''Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, Journal of Political Economy, volume 112 (2004), pages 779–816.</ref>]]
FDR is also famous for his [[New Deal]], a set of [[economic planning]] experiments that were meant to bring about the end of the [[Great Depression]], but instead prolonged it and caused American citizens to be burdened with unnecessary government programs for decades to come. [[Economic growth]] was negligible to non-existent, and what growth did occur was consumed by an every swelling bureaucracy.

Enforcement of the [[Anti-trust Act]] was considered as an essential instrument to prevent [[cartel]]s and trusts in restraint of trade which had been viewed as deadly to the system of [[free enterprise]]. On the campaign trail Roosevelt called loudly for its strict enforcement. Yet immediately upon Roosevelt's accession to office the Anti-trust Act was suspended in order to cartelize every industry in America on the Italian [[fascist]] corporative model. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 1, Chapter 4, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/cgi-bin/framed/2767/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Four___The_New_New_Deal.htm ''The New New Deal''].</ref> The National Recovery Act (NRA) and the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] (AAA) were plans to take the whole industrial and agricultural life of the country under the wing of the government, organize it into vast farm and industrial cartels, as they were called in Germany, corporatives as they were called in Italy, and operate business and farms by economic planning schemes dictated and carried out under the supervision of government. This is, in fact, the essence of [[fascism]]. In those days fascism was not defined as [[anti-Semitism]]. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Book 1, Chapter 7, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Seven___An_Enemy_Is_Welc.htm ''An Enemy Is Welcomed''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

The AAA reported to the Secretary of Agriculture but was independent of the Department of Agriculture bureaucracy. [[Harold Ware]] was a [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) official in the AAA and founded the [[Ware group]]. The group consisted of young lawyers and economists, had about 75 members in 1934 and was divided into about eight cells. The AAA was later found [[unconstitutional]], but by that time the Communist operatives had established jobs in government employment. [[Alger Hiss]], [[Lee Pressman]], [[John Abt]], [[Charles Kramer]], [[Nathan Witt]], [[Henry Collins]], [[George Silverman]], [[Marion Bachrach]], [[John Herrmann]], [[Nathaniel Weyl]], [[Donald Hiss]] and [[Victor Perlo]] were all members of the Ware group. [[Harry Dexter White]], who was involved in the most auspicious policy [[subversion (political)|subversion]] as Director of the Division of Monetary Research in the [[Treasury Department]], was also affiliated with the group. The Ware group was the CPUSA's covert arm at this time. Each of these agents not only provided classified documents to Soviet intelligence, but was involved in political influence operations as well.

In 1934, a Congressional Investigation was held to examine statements by Dr. William A. Wirt, who headed the U.S. [[Department of Education|Office of Education]]. Dr. Wirt had attended a dinner party with several Brain Trusters at the home of his secretary, [[Alice Barrows]]. Barrows began working for the Office of Education in 1919 and was secretly a member of the [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA) which advocated the violent overthrow of the United States Constitution. Several of the Brain Trusters present at the dinner revealed to Wirt they were CPUSA members. Wirt testified,
{{Cquote|I was told they believe that by thwarting our then evident economic recovery, they would be able to prolong the country’s destitution until they had demonstrated to the American people that the Government must operate business and commerce. By propaganda, they would destroy institutions making long term capital loans—and then push Uncle Sam into making these loans. Once Uncle Sam becomes our financier, he must also follow his money with control and management. <ref>Hearings, House Select Committee To Investigate Certain Statements of Dr. William Wirt, 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, April 10 and 17, 1934. </ref><ref>''Dr Wirt faces the cameras and tells all'', Literary Digest v. 117 (April 21 1934) p. 7.</ref><ref>FBI Silvermaster file [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster053.pdf Volume 53 June 1946], p. 78 pdf.</ref>}}

A June 1945 [[Venona project]] decryption of Soviet [[KGB]] wartime cables from the Washington D.C. KGB Office to Moscow's Eighth Department, the political intelligence wing, relayed information on matters regarding Attorney General Francis Biddle. KGB agent [[Charles Kramer]], who served on the staff of several U.S. Senate Subcommittees, and Barrows are the sources of the information. <ref>Venona 3706 KGB Washington to Moscow, 29 June 1945.</ref> Mary Van Kleek who headed the Russell Sage Foundation and also served on the Board of the National Council, visited Washington weekly to meet with Barrows and [[Greg Silvermaster|Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]].

During [[World War II]] Barrows was the Executive Secretary of the the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. This organization was declared in 1953 to be a [[Glossary_of_espionage_terms#Fronts_and_cutouts|Communist front]] organization by the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] (SACB). In its Findings of Fact, the SACB said the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship,
{{Cquote|advances positions...markedly pro-Soviet and...anti-United States Government...is a Communist-action organization which has as its primary purpose to advance the objectives of the world Communist movement under the [[hegemony]] of the Soviet Union; it has the policy to support and defend the Soviet Union under any and all circumstances...We conclude that the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc., is substantially directed, dominated, and controlled by the Communist Party of the United States...and is primarily operated for the purpose of giving aid and support to...the Soviet Union, a Communist foreign government." <ref>United States. Subversive Activities Control Board. [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=usfexec;cc=usfexec;q1=Barrows;rgn=full%20text;idno=81242.0001.001;didno=81242.0001.001;view=image;seq=511;page=root;size=s;endseq=3;frm=frameset Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board.] Washington. United States Government Printing Office. 1966. Vol. 1, p. 501.</ref>}}

====Civilian Conservation Corps====
:''Main article [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]''

Soon after President Roosevelt's inauguration in March 1933, he announced the establishment of the CCC camps to take the boys off the street corners and out of the transient camps and to get money for their families. Of the New Deal innovations, perhaps the most generally applauded was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), adapted from German predecessors. That was a year after Hitler had coordinated all work camps under [[Nazi]] leadership. In 1934 the German university student organization voted that the work camps should be compulsory before matriculation and in 1935, Hitler decreed that the work camps be compulsory for both sexes. That same plan under the prompting of [[Harry Hopkins]] was announced by Roosevelt. <ref>''Getting Us into War'', Porter Sargent Publisher: P. Sargent, Boston, 1941. [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Getting_Us_Into_War-Porter_Sargent-1941-640pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=218&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 In the Footsteps of Hitler], pg. 492 pdf</ref> Ralph Ingersoll's ''PM'' newspaper reported the President's statement that training in the conscript camps will remove those elements in the thinking of youth which makes them "critical of their elders." <ref>''PM'', June 20, 1940. "that training in the conscript camps will remove those elements in the thinking of our youth which makes them 'critical of their elders'...We should hold little hope for the future of any nation whose young people had ceased to be critical of their elders."</ref><ref>''American Youth'', Kenneth Holland, Harvard University Press, 1940, pg. 103. "As the camps and resident centers are established on a permanent basis they should be carefully integrated with educational, vocational, employment and adjustment activities of institutions already in existence. It is to be hoped that established schools and other training institutions in the United States will see in the [[labor camp]]s a new technique for providing youth with practical experience better adapted to its needs and interests than the present academic school courses."</ref>

===Social Security===
An Old Age Social Security Bill was passed during his first term which provided for workers who reach the age of 65 a pension of $8 a week at most. The plan had to be pushed through against his procrastination until finally in the 1934 congressional elections the Republicans denounced him for his tardiness. When he did finally consent to a bill, it contained a plan for building a huge reserve fund that would extract billions from the workers' payrolls without any adequate return. Over the protest of the President, the Congress finally took that provision proposed by Roosevelt out of the law. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Chapter 14, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Fifteen___The_Roosevelt_.htm ''The Roosevelt Myth''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref>

===Taxation===

FDR, in a letter to journalist Roy W. Howard, wrote,
:"What is known as consumer taxes, namely the invisible taxes paid by people in every walk of life, fall relatively much more heavily upon the poor man than on the rich man." <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt, letter to Roy W. Howard, September 2, 1935. </ref>

[[Robert H. Jackson]], then serving as [[Internal Revenue Service]] General Counsel, observed in Congressional testimony that prior to FDR’s election, "we find those taxes bearing most heavily on the well-to-do contributed 68% per cent of the government's total internal revenue and customs receipts, while miscellaneous taxes and customs receipts, bearing most heavily upon the consumer contributed only 31.8%” By 1935 the situation was reversed with “taxes based on ability to pay contributed 38.7% . . . there has been an increase in the proportion of revenues contributed by taxes on consumption to 61.3%."<ref>Testimony of Robert Jackson, Assistant General Counsel, Treasury Department, Committee on Finance, U . S. Senate, August 6, 1985.</ref>

===Economic growth===

New capital made available for investment amounted to $348,000,000 in 1935. This was less than 1/10th of the amount available in 1929. By contrast, the British economy had nearly recovered to its 1929 levels by 1935, and the amount available for investment was almost twice as much as the United States.

{| style="background:white; color:blue" border="1" class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! United States <ref>Standard Statistics Co., ''New Honey for Operating and Producing.''</ref>
! Great Britain <ref>Midland Bank, London, ''New Issues for British Companies,'' converted from £ to $ at $4.8665.</ref>
|-
| 1927
| $3,201,000,000
| $710,509,000
|-
| 1928
| 3,062,000,000
| 983,033,000
|-
| 1929
| 3,668,000,000
| 759,174,000
|-
| 1930
| 3,039,000,000
| 394,186,500
|-
| 1931
| 1,006,000,000
| 155,728,000
|-
| 1932
| 321,000,000
| 248,191,500
|-
| 1933
| 177,000,000
| 296,856,500
|-
| 1934
| 356,000,000
| 350,388,000
|-
| 1935
| 348,000,000
| 666,710,500
|-

|}

===Congress of Industrial Organizations===

By 1935 membership in labor unions had sunk to a low figure as a result of [[unemployment]]. There were men around the President at this time that saw the tremendous possibilities of organizing labor as a political force. An industrial union is one in which all the people engaged in a single industry are included without regard to the type of skills at which they work. The industrial union was the one great instrument by which all labor could be organized and the President was urged to promote this idea as the starting point in building up a powerful political labor movement. There were three large industrial unions at that time, [[John L. Lewis]]’s [[United Mine Workers]] (UMW), the International Ladies Garment Workers Union of David Dubinsky and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of [[Sidney Hillman]].

Roosevelt tried to sell the plan to John L. Lewis of the UMW, and William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Green and the AFL opposed the idea of industrial unions and refused, but under the leadership of Lewis, a new group of unions was formed called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The Comintern directed [[Lee Pressman]] <ref>FBI Report, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946, United States Government, pgs. 298 - 300 pdf. "Leon Pressman, alias Lee Pressman, served as General Counsel for the [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] from 1933 to 1935; in 1935 he was appointed General Counsel for the [[Works Progress Administration]]. In 1937 he was appointed to the General Counsel for the National [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO). Pressman was also associated with various Communist front organizations. Pressman was a known contact of [[Anatoly Gorsky]], New York [[KGB]] Rezident, and KGB Agents [[Alger Hiss]] and [[Harry Dexter White]]. </ref> of the [[Ware group]] to assume the position of general counsel<ref>FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster132.pdf Vol. 132, pg. 109] pdf. "Pressman is said to have run arms to Spain during the Civil War via Mexico and to have worked with General Mark Moren in the project. Moren was involved in the [[Rubens Robinson]] passport case in 1938." See also Underground Espionage Agent, Adolf Berle notes, September 2, 1939. [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,789421,00.html ''32,000 & Mrs. Rubens''], Time magazine, Feb. 07, 1938. "In the first years of the Soviet Union, to escape from Russia was difficult and dangerous. Today it has become almost impossible, an attempt tantamount to suicide. Barbed and electrically charged wire, searchlight-equipped watch towers. 24-hour frontier patrols aided by bloodhounds and police dogs guard every mile of border. .... Weak from [[scurvy]] and [[dysentery]], Konarski told correspondents: 'The camp contains about 32,000 prisoners. They are kept there until [[death]] results from hard work, bad food and consequent sickness. I met two [[American citizen]]s in the camp, Arthur Hanley, a chemical engineer from California, and Edward Rose, a machinist from Boston, Mass. They said they came to Russia in 1921 as volunteer workers. Rose said he was [[arrest]]ed in Leningrad in 1923. Hanley was caught trying to escape from Russia to Latvia in 1925. Each was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but, although they have served out their sentences, they are still being held. They told me they know of three other native-born Americans who are held prisoner in other Soviet camps.'...Mrs. Ruth Marie Rubens (alias Robinson), one U. S. citizen officially known to be in jail in Moscow (TIME, Dec. 27 [1938]). In Moscow on December 9 able, active U. S. Charge d'Affaires Loy W. Henderson learned that Mrs. Rubens had "disappeared"' from the big Hotel National next door to the U.S. Embassy. On January 18 the Soviet Foreign Office finally admitted that Mrs. Rubens was under arrest, failed to say on what charge.... hundreds of Germans are today in Soviet jails and for years German diplomatic & consular officials have not been allowed to see them."</ref> where he became known as "Comrade Big." The year 1936 was a period of furious organizing work by it among the unskilled workers of the country. As Lewis, Dubinsky, and Hillman set about organizing millions of workers they were immediately up against the problem of finding skilled organizers to promote and manage the new unions.

There had been in the United States a [[Communist]] labor organization known as the Trade Union Unity League which took its instructions directly from [[Moscow]]. It is estimated that ten or fifteen thousand Communists were in these unions. In 1934, Moscow directed the Communist party in the United States to dissolve the Trade Union Unity League unions and to march the members of those unions into the American Federation of Labor. The purpose was not to advance the cause of labor unions or to get better working conditions for the members, but to use the apparatus of the labor union as an instrument of [[revolution]]. The Communist leaders saw in the rise of the CIO a better opportunity for their own revolutionary objectives than in the AFL and instructed their members to withdraw from the AFL and go into the CIO where they achieved disproportionate influence. <ref>''The Soviet World of American Communism'', Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson, Yale University Press, 1998, Document 13, pp. 58-68. ISBN 0-300-07150-7. </ref>

Lewis was interested in bringing into existence industrial unions like his own, in which he had always believed. Roosevelt was interested in bringing into American labor unions as many voters as possible and in capturing their leadership to build a powerful labor faction which could control the Democratic party and which he and his allies could control through the vast power of the government and the vast powers of labor leaders, along with the immense financial resources that so great a labor movement would have. The Communists were interested in getting into key positions as union officers, statisticians, economists, etc., in order to utilize the apparatus of the unions to promote the cause of revolution. By the early part of 1938, over three million workers had been organized. Lewis was later to split with FDR. <ref>''Communists and the CIO: From the Soviet archives'', Harvey Klehr and John E. Haynes, Labor History, Volume 35, Issue 3 Summer 1994 , pages 442 - 446. [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a772103056~db=all?tab=references]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788129-4,00.html ''Turning Point?''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 12, 1937.</ref>

== Second Term ==

{{Cquote|Planning will become a function of the federal government; either that or the planning agency will supersede the government, which is why, of course, such a scheme will be assimilated to the State. <ref>''The Principle of Planning and the Institution of Laissez Faire,'' Rexford G. Tugwell, The American Economic Review, vol. 22, no. 1, March 1932. [http://www.bartleby.com/73/147.html]</ref>}}

On August 13, 1938, John P. Frey, president of the Metal Trades Department of the AFL, appeared before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]. Frey, in a presentation lasting several days, laid before the Committee a complete documented account of CPUSA penetration of the CIO. He gave the names of 280 organizers in CIO unions under salary who were CPUSA members. He charged that John Brophy who was the director of the CIO, was expelled by the United Mine Workers some years before for disloyal activities and while he was not directly a CPUSA member, he was assisted in his work by two active members of the Party. He had gone to Russia as a member of a delegation sponsored by the Party and approved by Moscow and when he returned the UMW accused him of being a paid agent of the Soviet government. Brophy at a meeting said that the condition of workers in the Soviet Union "should be a source of inspiration to workers in America."

Frey named union after union in the CIO, giving names of the Communists who were holding positions of leadership and trust. He charged, for instance, that they dominated the United Office and Professional Workers Union, that the president of that organization was a CPUSA member and through that organization they had infiltrated the government with numerous Party members in almost all the bureaus in Washington.

[[Thomas Corcoran]] <ref>After World War II Corcoran employed Soviet agent [[Duncan Lee]] in his Washington law firm, Corcoran and Youngman. FBI Silvermaster file biographical details on [[Duncan C. Lee]], [[Elizabeth Bentley]]'s allegations concerning him, his contacts with [[Donald Wheeler]] and [[Mary Price]], [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster092.pdf Vol. 92, pgs. 20 - 21] pdf, January 26, 1947. On June 6 1945, 6 persons, including U.S. government officials [[Andrew Roth]] and [[John Stewart Service]], were arrested on [[conspiracy]] and [[espionage]] charges related to possession of roughly 1000 stolen classified Government documents in the offices of ''[[Amerasia]]'' magazine. ''Amerasia'', edited by [[Philip J. Jaffe]], had published classified materials verbatim from the United States wartime intelligence service, the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS). ''Amerasia's'' chief financial benefactor was [[Frederick V. Field]]. [[Joseph Milton Bernstein]], a [[GRU]] contact between Soviet agents in the OSS and the [[Board of Economic Warfare]], was also an employee. Others connected with the ''Amerasia'' scandal were [[T.A. Bisson]] and [[Owen Lattimore]]. Corcoran worked with the [[Truman administration]] to cover up the scandal.</ref> moved from the [[Reconstruction Finance Corporation]] to the White House and was instrumental in securing numerous appointments for friends and colleagues to [[New Deal]] agencies. Eventually he was pushed out in favor of [[Harry Hopkins]] for the position of Roosevelt's right-hand man.

===Court packing plan===

Tommy Corcoran was given the task by Roosevelt to persuade Congress to pass the proposed legislation. [[I. F. Stone]] of the ''New York Post'', who later was to agree to work for the [[KGB]], wrote speeches for Corcoran on this issue.

===Crash of 1937===

When FDR was inaugurated for his second term [[national income]], [[payroll]]s, and [[industrial production]] <ref>League of Nations Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, June, 1936. Percentage change 1929 to March 1936, United States -21.8%, rank number 13.</ref> were still 20 per cent below the 1929 figure and construction was still only about one third what it had been in 1929. By June, 1937 the Treasury boasted relief payments were less than in the same period the preceding year. But this was not so. The Treasury made a practice of cooking the books and producing phony numbers. It merely shifted relief payments to other accounts. They were, in fact, larger than the year before. Stock prices declined and by September the reality could be no longer hidden. By the end of October the market crashed. The budget was running a [[deficit]] at the time $300,000,000 a month.

[[Robert H. Jackson]], Assistant Attorney General, and Secretary of the Interior [[Harold Ickes]] in December made speeches inspired by the President on the [[conspiratorial]] ''America's 60 Families.'' <ref>''New Deal Chorus'', Time magazine, [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758849-1,00.html pg. 1][http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758849-2,00.html pg. 2], Jan. 17, 1938.</ref> In January, John D. Biggers staggered the administration with a report Roosevelt had commissioned that stated there were 10,870,000 people out of work. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758790,00.html ''Two Schemes''], Time magazine, Jan. 10, 1938.</ref> Roosevelt realized that all the “pump priming” and spending $17 billion had failed. Despite the billions added to the debt, the Depression was back. He was now at the center of a tug-of-war with advocates of spending like [[Harry Hopkins]], [[Leon Henderson]] and [[Rex Tugwell]] on one side, and opponents like [[Henry Morgenthau]] on the other. DNC Chairman [[Jim Farley]] reports he had a talk on the subject with Roosevelt on March 28, 1938.

FDR told Farley he would have "to go in for pump priming or relief," then Roosevelt confessed to a difficulty that is little understood: what could he spend on? There is only a limited number of things which the federal government can spend. The federal government can build schools, hospitals, roads, institutions of all sorts. But they are built in cities, counties, states and the activities which go on in these buildings are within the jurisdiction of the states. And the continuing perpetual maintainance of such things, like payroll, is the in the purview of the states. The federal government can spend money on agricultural experimentation, on scientific research, on national parks, on power dams, etc. But in the end the outlays on these things are limited. The one big thing the federal government can spend money on is the army and navy. Roosevelt explained to Farley that he could not spend on local projects because the states and cities did not want any more buildings and institutions which they would have to support. They were having trouble enough paying the bills of those already built. Roosevelt revealed to Farley that many [[WPA]] projects approved by the government were abandoned because the states and cities could not raise the money to support them. In the 1938 Congressional elections Harry Hopkins was spending as fast as he could without any regard to utility to meet the immediate political necessities of an election but couldn't go on indefinitely. And the whole problem was complicated by pressure from within his own party to balance the budget.

The country now reached a greater crisis than in 1933. The public debt, which was $22 billion when Roosevelt took office and was a heritage of [[World War I]], now was $37 billion. Taxes had been more than doubled by Roosevelt. By April 1938 unemployment reached several thousand more than when Roosevelt was elected in 1932. This was not Hoover’s Depression but Roosevelt’s Depression. Voices began to speak up suggesting after all Hoover may have known what he was doing, but here, nine years after the Depression began the fundamental condition of the country was no further advanced than it was at the end of Hoover's three year struggle with it.

Making provision for war increased business profits. In 1936 Roosevelt had said, "If we face the choice of profits or peace, the nation will answer – must answer - 'We choose peace'. It is the duty of all of us to encourage such a body of public opinion in this country that the answer will be clear." <ref>''Getting Us into War'', Porter Sargent Publisher: P. Sargent, Boston, 1941. [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Getting_Us_Into_War-Porter_Sargent-1941-640pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=218&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 ''No More Millionaires''], pg. 372 pdf</ref> By 1938 Roosevelt embarked on a massive defense appropriations buildup; the Administration would advance 30% to a defense contractor when placing an order. The National City Bank reported an increase of overall business profits in the year 1939 over 1938 of 63.6%, and in its December 1940 Bulletin showed for 284 companies "directly affected by war and defense program" a rise of 79.2%. The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported, "Betterment in profits was naturally more pronounced, as a rule, in those industries benefiting directly or indirectly from the European conflict." <ref>''Wall Street Journal'', May 3, 1940.</ref>

[[Curtiss-Wright Aircraft]], to enlarge its plant, received a loan of $92 million at 4%. [[I. F. Stone]] of ''[[The Nation]]'' magazine wrote,
:"Offered as a non-recourse loan . . . the government would have no claim against the Wright company if it failed to repay the loan. All the government could do in that case would be to take the factory. Since the plant would be financed entirely by the government, the government would really be taking back its own property if the Wright company for some reason wanted to drop it. ...The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported on August 2 that while the loan was for $92,000,000, 'the cost of the proposed plant and its equipment is understood to be only $37,000,000 or $38,000,000'. When asked by the ''Journal'' correspondent about 'this apparent discrepancy', Jesse Jones said, 'We don't believe it would be in the public interest to break down that total at this time'....As this is being written, the Wright contract has yet to be signed. The company is now asking for five-year amortization instead of eight. Incidentally, a vice-president of this finicky company, T. P. Wright, was assigned to the Defense Commission on June 8 to help speed up production"
The Defense Commission was the same commission that would determine and approve the terms of the loan.<ref>''Getting Us into War'', Sargent, 1941, pg. 433.</ref> ''PM'' noted "For an $18,000,000 plant to command a $92,000,000 credit from any bank, including a federal one, may make financiers blink, but that is what has been arranged". The Curtiss-Wright loan was only a little over five times the value of the plant. But Boeing Aircraft, with a plant worth $3,000,000 was awarded a loan of $32,000,000, more than ten times. And Boeing was to own it in five years.<ref>Roger Ingersoll, ''PM'', August. 9, 1940.</ref>

== Third Term ==

It is fairly certain that early in 1939, if not a little sooner, FDR made up his mind to seek a third election in the [[United States presidential election, 1940|presidential election of 1940]]. FDR realized the political difficulties involved in a third nomination so he wanted to make it appear as a "draft Roosevelt" movement. He discussed other candidates with his aids, among the names were Democratic National Committee Chairman [[James Farley]], whom FDR rejected because he was [[Roman Catholic]]. The name of Paul McNutt was urged; FDR was angry McNutt would even permit his name to be discussed. FDR told Farley: "I consider it bad taste on his part to be letting his name be used when he is still a member of my administration." Roosevelt sent him as High Commissioner to the Philippines and jokingly asked: "Is that far enough?"<ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Book 1, Ch. 6, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Seven___The_Third_Term.htm ''The Third Term''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref> Historian [[Doris Kearns Goodwin]] in her book ''No Ordinary Time'' explored the decision to seek a third time and concludes FDR probably decided to enter the war at the same time he decided to run again, although he was politically unable to enter the war until the [[Japanese]] [[attack on Pearl Harbor]].

Administrative Assistants to Roosevelt included [[James Forrestal]], [[Lauchlin Currie]]<ref>Committee on Un-American Activities, "The Shameful Years: Thirty Years of Soviet Espionage in the United States," 82d Congress, 2d Session, 1951, pp. 15-17; [http://www.counterintelligencetraining.com/BK/ci_centre_bibliography.htm Required Reading List for Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Intelligence and Security Professionals,]The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Alexandria, VA.</ref> and [[David K. Niles]]. Their function was "to get, information and to condense and summarize it for [Roosevelt's] use." <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins : An Intimate History'', Robert E. Sherwood, New York Harper and Brothers, 1948, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Roosevelt_and_Hopkins-An_Intimate_History-Robert_E_Sherwood-1948-1034pgs-GOV-POL.sml.pdf&id=252&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 226] pdf.</ref> Forrestal later was to jump from a 16th story window of Bethesda Naval Hospital psychiatric ward. <ref>''The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People'', John Loftus and Mark Aarons, New York : St.Martin's Press, 1994. [http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/vegyes_/secretwar_06.rtf]</ref> Currie and Niles were to be found working for the [[KGB]].<ref>''Uncovering Stalin's Spies'' Julius W. Friend, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, (2000) Vol. 13 No. 3, pgs. 381 - 384. [http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/UN1VH8U16UMXEFGF.pdf]</ref><ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00039.cfm ''The Venona Story''], Robert L. Benson, Center for Cryptological History, National Security Agency. One of the special reports issued in July 1948 (1948 was a presidential election year) gives the earliest translation found that mentions friends of [[David Niles]], an important advisor to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, "will arrange anything for a bribe." Venona message 786 New York KGB to Moscow, 1 June 1944, [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p1.gif pg. 1], [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p2.gif pg. 2]).</ref> Currie alerted his KGB controllers that "the United States was on the verge of breaking the Soviet code."<ref>''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'', Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, Washington, DC, Regnery, 2000, [http://books.google.com/books?id=mVpWH51F7toC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=lauchlin+currie+break+code&source=web&ots=Yj2NHYwgxB&sig=sbZ3789Tz0jd7xPRiC6EEdeuJ48 pg. 27.] Herbert Romerstein was the Chief, Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures, U.S. Information Agency from (1983-1989), Staff member, U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (1978-1983), and Minority Chief Investigator, House Committee on Internal Security (1971-1975). [http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/facultyID.9/profile.asp]</ref>

=== Commander in Chief ===

[[John P. Davies]] was assigned to Gen. [[Joseph Stilwell]] as Stilwell's adviser in China. Hopkins made a note at the time: "The President indicated his strong dissatisfaction with the way the whole show was running in China. He stated that Stillwell obviously hated the Chinese and that his cablegrams are sarcastic about the Chinese and this feeling is undoubtedly known to the Generalissimo."<ref>Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 739.</ref>Roosevelt and Hopkins biographer [[Robert Sherwood]] wrote that Gen. [[George C. Marshall]] told Hopkins his only serious disagreement with
Hopkins was on the issue of Stilwell. Sherwood adds that "he was unquestionably a serious nuisance to Roosevelt and there were many times when he was on the verge of recalling him."<ref> Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 740.</ref>

On May 19, 1942, pressured by Communist union officials of the American Communications Association, [[CIO]], Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, informed Rear Admiral Adolphus Staton that Communist radio operators were not to be removed from their ships. Less than six months earlier, Congress, with the lone dissenting vote of [[Vito Marcantonio]], enacted Public Law 351, which authorized the Secretary of the Navy to have all radio operators with a [[subversion (political)|subversive]] background taken off their ships. Rear Admiral Staton had recommended the removal of a number of Communists. In the presence of Rear Admiral S. C. Hooper and others, Knox instructed Rear Admiral Staton "that, in the opinion of the President, membership or suspected membership in the CPUSA was not sufficient to deprive a radio operator of his job." <ref>''America's Tragedy-Today'', Major Hamilton A. Long, (NY: Post Printing), pgs. 15-25.</ref> Expounding a memorandum bearing President Roosevelt's initials, Knox brushed aside the objections of Staton and Hooper, declaring that the order came from the President himself. Because the presidential command defied the law of the land, it was not put into writing. Consequently, the Communist radio operators returned to their ships and Rear Admirals Hooper and Staton were put on the inactive list.

Stalin publicly disbanded the [[Comintern]] in 1943. A Moscow message to all stations on 12 September 1943, message number 142, relating to this event is one of the most interesting and historically important messages <ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00008.cfm Venona 142(a) Moscow to Canberra 12 September 1943]. Text reads: "change in circumstances - and in particular the dissolution of the [[Comintern]] - necessitates a change in the method used by the workers of our residencies to keep in touch with the leaders of the local [[Communist_Party_of_the_United_States_of_America#Secret_apparatus|Communist]] organizations on intelligence matters. 
2. Our workers, by continuing to meet the leader of the Communists, are exposing themselves to danger and are giving cause [''orgs of''] local authorities to suspect that the Comintern is still in existence. 
3. We propose: 
a. That personal contact with leaders of the local Communist organizations should cease and that Communist material should not be accepted for forwarding to the Comintern. 
b. That meetings of our workers may take place only with special reliable undercover [ZAKONSPIRIROVANNYJ] contacts of the Communist [D% organizations], who are not suspected by the [''orgs of''] local authorities, exclusively about specific aspects of our intelligence work (acquiring [1 group unidentified] contacts, leads [NAVODKI], rechecking of those who are being cultivated, etc.). For each meeting it is necessary to obtain our consent. 

Representative of the Soviet Union. 

No. 4084 
Lt. Gen. [[P.M. Fitin]]. 

Notes: [a] This message is known to have been sent also to NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, and OTTAWA.</ref> in the entire corpus of [[VENONA]] translations. This message clearly discloses the [[KGB]]'s connection to the Comintern and to the national Communist parties. <ref>''Counterintelligence Reader'', National Counterintelligence Center, United States, [http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci2/2ch4_a.htm Vol. 2, Ch. 4], n.d.</ref> Shortly afterwards Rear Admiral Staton, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, was asked to testify before the Cox Committee of House of Representatives on the [[White House]] efforts to protect Communists in the Armed Forces. Staton complied in executive session. Before he could appear in public hearings, [[Adlai Stevenson]], assistant to Secretary Knox, instructed him that "there were White House orders" forbidding him to testify. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777835,00.html ''Cox's Circus''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 19, 1943.</ref> By that time Counter-Intelligence officers had obtained irrefutable proof that the CPUSA had developed an extensive plan to abolish the Armed Forces' counter-subversive system. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref>

Roosevelt himself was responsible for the order of January 1, 1944 which abolished the entire setup of the Counter-Intelligence Corps in the [[War Department]].<ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref> On February 19 the War Department issued the order which purposely disorganized the counter-subversive reporting system of the Armed Forces. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 13</ref> On May 19, the day after learning of the secret order to destroy the War Department records on subversives, Senator [[StyIes Bridges]], a member of the Military Affairs Committee, demanded an explanation from Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]]. Lieutenant General McNarney, Army Chief of Staff deputy, was "vague, evasive and obstructive." Bridges told McNarney "he could forgive an officer who makes a mistake or loses a battle, but that an officer who betrays the security of his country should be taken out and shot." McNarney admitted the order had been issued from "higher authority." After much wrangling, Secretary Stimson in a letter of May 27 promised to prevent the destruction of records on subversives. <ref>Long, op.cit., pgs. 28-31.</ref>

The War Department, on December 30, 1944, issued a secret order which expressly condoned "divided loyalty" and established as a guiding rule that "the subversive-suspect should be given the benefit of all reasonable doubt."

===Big Three conferences===
:''See also '''[[Teheran conference]]'''''

At the [[Teheran conference]] it was secretly agreed to let the Soviet Union have not only eastern Poland but also part of Finland, the Baltic States and parts of Romania. It was secretly agreed to support the Yugoslav Communist, [[Joseph Broz Tito]], and desert the pro-Western, anti-totalitarian friend, General Mihailovich. Roosevelt told a joint session of Congress upon his return to the United States that no secret arrangements had been made.

:''See also '''[[Yalta conference]]'''''

At the [[Yalta conference]] a [[reparations]] commission was set up. The Soviet Union wanted the amount to be 20 billion dollars of which the USSR would take half. It was agreed that labor might be taken as a possible source of reparations. This was a way of authorizing the seizure of human beings to work as [[slave]]s and is the basis of the crime perpetrated after hostilities ceased to which Franklin Roosevelt agreed. <ref>''Speaking Frankly'', James F. Byrnes, New York: Harper & Bros., 1947, p. 29.</ref>

Roosevelt also agreed at Yalta to have all fugitive Soviet nationals or citizens of satellite nations and tens of thousands of [[POW]]'s who elected to stay this side of the [[Iron Curtain]], returned to the Soviet Union. This was in contravention of the Geneva Convention. The ''Saturday Evening Post'' commented:
{{Cquote|With this shameful agreement as their authority, Russian [[KGB|MVD]] agents strode through the displaced-persons camps after the war and put the finger on thousands who had managed to escape the Soviet tyranny. These miserable victims were herded into boxcars and driven back to death, torture or the slow murder of the Siberian mines and forests. Many killed themselves on the way. Also under a Yalta agreement, the Russians were permitted to use German prisoners in forced labor as an item in 'reparations account.' For such inhumanities there is no excuse.<ref>''Saturday Evening Post'', Editorial, April 11, 1953, pg. 12.</ref>}}

Roosevelt not only made agreements secret from the American people but secret from his closest advisers in the government. He made agreements with Stalin hostile to the objectives of Churchill and kept secret from Churchill. He made secret agreements with [[Chiang Kai-shek]] secret from both Churchill and Stalin. He made secret agreements in derogation of Chiang Kai-shek's interests without Chiang Kai-shek's knowledge. And he made many secret agreements which no one in the U.S. State Department knew about until after his death and then learned about only at embarrassing moments from Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]. <ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 13, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Thirteen___The_Final_Bet.htm ''The Final Betrayal''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

== Fourth Term ==
[[Image:Fbisilvermasterfilevol15p4.JPG|right|250px|thumb|CPUSA defector [[Louis Budenz]] testified he could name 400 individuals involved in the [[CPUSA#Secret_apparatus|Communist conspiracy]]; <ref>[http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft296nb15t&chunk.id=d0e6193&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e4718&brand=eschol FBI Headquarters File 100-63, Louis Francis Budenz, Internal Security—C, Serial 122.]</ref> others testified there may have been over 1000.<ref>Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations ([http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm McCarthy Hearings 1953-54]).</ref> The Silvermaster group had 27 high level infiltrators still employed in the US government well after the War ended.<ref>[http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster015.pdf FBI Silvermaster file Vol. 15, pg. 4 pdf.]</ref>
]]
In February 1944 Congress rejected Roosevelt's demand for a $10,500,000,000 tax increase and cut it to $2,300,000,000. Roosevelt vetoed it saying this was a "bill not for relief of the needy but of the greedy."
Senator [[Alben Barkley]], Democratic leader, rose on the floor of the Senate to say the veto was "a calculated and deliberate assault upon the legislative integrity of every member of Congress." The entire Senate united in a roar of applause. Barkley declared that after seven years of carrying the [[New Deal]] banner for Roosevelt, he would resign his post as Democratic majority leader and he called on every member of the Congress to preserve its self respect and override the veto. The Senate overrode it 72 to 14 and the House 299 to 95.

After the [[Comintern]] was disbanded Roosevelt was offered the nomination of the [[Communist]] dominated [[American Labor Party]] and he had accepted their nomination in the [[Presidential election of 1944]]. It was 825,000 votes from [[Earl Browder]] and [[Sidney Hillman]]'s American Labor Party that gave him his majority. His administration was now the hopeless prisoner of these demanding and ruthless radical labor leaders,<ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 12, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Twelve___The_Atlantic_Ch.htm ''The Atlantic Charter Is Scrapped''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> who had shown their ability to elect or defeat the Democratic party, who had filled all the departments and bureaus with their agents and who had insinuated their experts into the CIO labor unions and their propagandists into the radio, the movies and all the great instruments of communication and opinion - a fact which Mr. Roosevelt's successors would have to face when the war ended. <ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20060820054409/http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/review/2000/summer/re2-su0.htm ''The Venona Progeny''], Hayen B. Peake, Naval War College Review, Summer 2000, Vol. LIII, No. 3. "[[Venona]] makes absolutely clear that they had active agents in the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Justice Department, Senate committee staffs, the military services, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the [[Manhattan Project]], and the [[White House]], as well as wartime agencies. No modern government was more thoroughly penetrated." [[Hayden B. Peake]] is the curator of [[Central Intelligence Agency]]’s (CIA) Historical Intelligence Collection. [http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/P_folder/peake.html]</ref>

So thorough was [[KGB]] penetration of the Roosevelt Administration, that when [[Army Signals Intelligence]] cryptographer [[Meredith Gardner]] extracted the names of [[Hans Bethe]], [[Niels Bohr]], [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Harold Urey]], [[Edward Teller]] and 11 other scientists working on the [[Manhattan Project]] from a December 2, 1944 KGB encypherment,<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00014.cfm Venona 1699 New York to Moscow, December 2, 1944].</ref> KGB agent [[William Weisband]] watched him do it.<ref>VENONA: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957, Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., (Washington, D.C.: [[National Security Agency]], Central Intelligence Agency, 1996) [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm]; The ''Baltimore Sun'' (Laura Sullivan, "SPY'S ROLE LINKED TO US FAILURE ON KOREA," 6/29/00) reported that a report newly declassified by the US National Security Agency (NSA) shows that [[William Weisband]] alerted the Soviets to extensive US eavesdropping in 1948, resulting in a complete blackout of information from the communist bloc for more than two years. This crippled the NSA's intelligence gathering efforts in the late 1940s and begins to explain why the US was caught unprepared for the [[DPRK]]'s 1950 invasion of the [[ROK]]. NSA historian David A. Hatch, who authored the report, said, "This report answers several significant questions. Up until now, there has been a great lack of knowledge surrounding some of these events ... and this should help sharpen [the public's] understanding." [Ed. note: This article was included in the US Department of Defense's Early Bird news service for June 29, 2000.] [http://www.nautilus.org/archives/napsnet/dr/0006/JUN29.html#item8] </ref>

[[Strom Thurmond]] also supported FDR's decision to seek a fourth term, and referred to Roosevelt as having been the world’s greatest leader. <ref>[http://www.kevinbaker.info/c_wtm.html What Trent Meant], Kevin Baker.</ref>

== Reflections on Christianity ==

FDR said this about the Bible in an address on October 6, 1935:

:"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the [[Bible]] has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic."

:"Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."<ref>Quoted in DeMar, ''The Untold Story'', p. 60 and Gabrial Sivan, ''The Bible and Civilization'' (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1973), p. 178.</ref>

FDR became famous for delivering "fireside chats" over the new medium of [[radio]], and on March 9, 1937 he declared:

:"I hope that you have re-read the [[United States Constitution| Constitution]] of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again."

While running for his third time in a Brooklyn speech, Roosevelt said,

:"I am certain that the rank and file of patriotic Republicans do not realize the nature of this threat. They should remember, and we must remember, what the collaborative understanding between Communism and Nazism has done to the processes of democracy abroad...

:"Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization. They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy. Their objective is to prevent democracy from becoming strong. <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins'', Sherwood, 1948, pgs. 193-194 (pgs. 211 - 212 pdf).</ref>

As [[World War II]] broke out in Europe, FDR warned:

:"Those forces hate [[Democracy]] and [[Christianity]] as two phases of the same civilization."

The following year, on May 27, 1941, FDR stated in one of his radio addresses:

:The Nazis are as ruthless as the Communists in the denial of God.

"In his second inaugural address, FDR pledged to do his utmost by 'seeking Divine guidance.' He took that mission further on January 25, 1941, when he wrote a personal prologue to a special edition of the New Testament, which was distributed to millions of U.S. soldiers. 'As Commander-in-Chief,' Roosevelt wrote, 'I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.' He believed that all American soldiers should have the opportunity to read the words of Christ in preparing for battle. Once, when joining those soldiers aboard a warship with Winston Churchill, FDR asked the crew and prime minister to join him in singing the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' In his final inaugural address, FDR affirmed, "So we pray to Him for the vision to see our way clearly ... to achievement of His will.' "<ref>God and George W. Bush (New York: Regan Books, 2004), p. 176</ref>

At the most difficult point in the War, when American boys were landing on the beaches of Normandy, FDR led the nation in prayer publicly during a radio broadcast. <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, [http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odddayp.html Franklin Roosevelt's D-Day Prayer], June 6, 1944.</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Image:Dcrosmor.jpg|right|thumb|330px]]

Roosevelt is an admired but still hotly debated president. Many credit Roosevelt with helping the United States survive the Great Depression and with providing solid leadership during World War II. Others, especially conservatives, assert that he uselessly expanded the welfare state, abused executive powers, and badly botched diplomacy before, during, and after World War II.

Roosevelt's image now appears on the [[Dime]].

==See also==
*[[New Ordeal]]
*[[Michael Whitney Straight]]

==Further reading==
*Charles Maclaurin, ''Post Mortem'' and ''Mere Mortals'' (New York: Doran, 1923, 1925).

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

== External Links ==
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=176 "The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.onpower.org/history_greatdepression.html/ Great Depression]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65 ''Depression, War and Cold War'', by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=138 "Wartime Prosperity?", by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1431 Pearl Harbor]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1468 FDR: The Man, the Leader, the Legacy], Ralph Raico, Future of Freedom Foundation, April 1, 2001. Retrieved from The Independent Institute.org 06/17/07.


{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Franklin D.}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Franklin D. Roosevelt

2008-03-11T21:05:29Z

Billdozer:

{{President
|image=509px-FDR in 1933.jpg
|seq=32
|term_start=March 4, 1933
|term_end=April 12, 1945
|party=Democratic
|vp= John N. Garner
|vp_dates=1933-1941
|2vp=Henry A. Wallace
|2vp_dates=1941-1945
|3vp=Harry Truman
|3vp_dates=1945
|4vp=
|4vp_dates=
|previous=Herbert Hoover
|next=Harry Truman
|seq2=
|term2_start=
|term2_end=
|party2=
|vp2=
|vp2dates=
|2vp2=
|2vp2dates=
|3vp2=
|3vp2dates=
|4vp2=
|4vp2dates=
|previous2=
|next2=
|birth_date=January 30, 1882
|birth_place=Hyde Park, New York
|death_date=April 12, 1945
|death_place=Warm Springs, Georgia
|spouse=[[Eleanor Roosevelt]]
|spouse2=
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
}}

'''Franklin Delano Roosevelt''' was the 32nd [[President of the United States of America]] of the [[United States]] of America, following [[Herbert Hoover]] and preceding [[Harry Truman]]. Roosevelt was a member of the [[Democratic Party]]. He was elected four times and served a few months longer than 3 terms, from 1933-1945, the longest any one man has been president of the United States. He was elected amidst the uncertainty of the [[Great Depression]].

On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage, due partly to the crippling [[disease]], [[polio]]myelitis, which physically disabled him during his presidency.<ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fr32.html</ref>

Although Mr. Roosevelt was very popular at first, it has been argued by scholars and analysts then and now that many [[New Deal]] relief efforts actually helped to prolong the [[Great Depression]]. Mr. Roosevelt started the second wave of the massive expansion of the Federal Government and greatly increased American foreign aid. Some of these policies were viewed controversially coupled with persistent high level of unemployment in the 1930s as a result and later US involvement in WWII.<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/32_f_roosevelt/printable.html</ref>

From his second term the people were told that Roosevelt was the only man who could keep the US out of war. Later, it was asserted that he was the only man who could successfully fight the war that which he alone could keep the US out of. Then it was said that he was the only man who was capable of facing [[Josef Stalin]] on equal terms. Finally, he was said to be the only man who could guarantee against the ruthlessness of Stalin in the post-war era.

==Early life==
Franklin Roosevelt studied law at Columbia University where he failed to graduate. Secretary of Labor [[Frances Perkins]], the first woman ever appointed to a cabinet post and knew FDR from his early manhood up to his death, says he was not a student, that he knew nothing of economics and that he admitted he had never read a book on the subject. <ref>''The Roosevelt I Knew,'' Frances Perkins, New York, Viking Press, 1946. p. 34.</ref>

== Election of 1932 ==
{{stub|section}}
The Democrats made Government expansion under the Hoover administration an issue in the campaign of 1932, charging that Hoover was promoting socialism. After Roosevelt had taken office, former Democratic New York Governor Al Smith, saw Roosevelt's ultimately expansive policies as a betrayal of the true ideals of the Democratic party and supported Republican candidates in subsequent elections.

While the Democrats were damning Hoover as a big spender, at the same time he was refusing to be drawn into big spending, the Democratic House passed a bill appropriating $1,500,000,000 for old-fashioned [[pork-barrel]] outlays.

Roosevelt won a lanside victory in the presidential election of 1932, winning 472 electoral votes (nearly 90% of the total) and 22,800,000 popular votes (57% of the total) to defeat incumbent president Herbert Hoover.<ref>1932 Presidential Election Results http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?f=0&year=1932</ref> He was running primarily on the platform that he would help the country recover from the Great Depression with his New Deal.

== First Term ==
===Foreign policy===

On November 16, 1933, when the Roosevelt administration granted diplomatic recognition to the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]], the USSR pledged itself to refrain "from interfering in any manner in the internal affairs of the United States." This occurred three weeks after the founding of the [[Comintern]] affiliated [[American League for Peace and Democracy]]. The process of Communist “influence” in American life was accelerated. This “influence,” as described by [[Communist party]] defector [[Louis Budenz]], was to “infiltrate key government posts, undermine the patriotism of wellmeaning people in strategic or confidential positions, and win over those whose words, spoken and written, have an effect on American [[public opinion]];” it was checked “partially during the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact|Hitler-Stalin alliance]], it went all out in the course of the [[Second World War]]."<ref>Men Without Faces, The Communist Conspiracy in the U. S. A., By Louis Budenz,New York Harper & Brothers, 1950, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=//PDFsml_AD/Men_Without_Faces-Louis_Francis_Budenz-1950-315pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=238&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 2] pdf.</ref>

Numerous [[Attorney General's list|Comintern affiliate]] organizations sprung up in the ensuing years, including the [[American Youth Congress]] in 1934 and the [[League of American Writers]] in 1935. [[KGB]] officers traveled the country in the guise of diplomatic and consular officials, conducting [[espionage]] activities <ref>[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/10.gif Anonymous letter to Hoover], undated (received 7 August 1943), National Security Agency Venona Collection. "[[SEMENOV]] works in AMTORG, is robbing the whole of the war industry in America. SEMENOV has his agents in all the industrial towns of the U.S.A., in all aviation and chemical war factories and in big industries."</ref> freely and offering bribes.

On February 28, 1934, Elliott Roosevelt, son of the President, and [[Anthony Fokker]] each received half a million dollars for selling fifty military aircraft to the Soviet government. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,756770-2,00.html ''Son's Scheme''], Time magazine, Oct. 19, 1936,</ref>

===New Deal===
:''For Main Article see '''[[New Deal]].'''''
[[Image:Flatgrowth.JPG|thumb|300px|right|Real Output and Growth remained stagnant throughout the New Deal largely due to government interference. The Depression came back with a vengence in 1937-1938 because of the [[economic planner]]s over emphasis on consumption, and de-emphasis and persecution of producers--the people who make the economy work. ''Source:New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression.''<ref>''New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis, ''Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, Journal of Political Economy, volume 112 (2004), pages 779–816.</ref>]]
FDR is also famous for his [[New Deal]], a set of [[economic planning]] experiments that were meant to bring about the end of the [[Great Depression]], but instead prolonged it and caused American citizens to be burdened with unnecessary government programs for decades to come. [[Economic growth]] was negligible to non-existent, and what growth did occur was consumed by an every swelling bureaucracy.

Enforcement of the [[Anti-trust Act]] was considered as an essential instrument to prevent [[cartel]]s and trusts in restraint of trade which had been viewed as deadly to the system of [[free enterprise]]. On the campaign trail Roosevelt called loudly for its strict enforcement. Yet immediately upon Roosevelt's accession to office the Anti-trust Act was suspended in order to cartelize every industry in America on the Italian [[fascist]] corporative model. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 1, Chapter 4, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/cgi-bin/framed/2767/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Four___The_New_New_Deal.htm ''The New New Deal''].</ref> The National Recovery Act (NRA) and the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] (AAA) were plans to take the whole industrial and agricultural life of the country under the wing of the government, organize it into vast farm and industrial cartels, as they were called in Germany, corporatives as they were called in Italy, and operate business and farms by economic planning schemes dictated and carried out under the supervision of government. This is, in fact, the essence of [[fascism]]. In those days fascism was not defined as [[anti-Semitism]]. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Book 1, Chapter 7, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Seven___An_Enemy_Is_Welc.htm ''An Enemy Is Welcomed''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

The AAA reported to the Secretary of Agriculture but was independent of the Department of Agriculture bureaucracy. [[Harold Ware]] was a [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) official in the AAA and founded the [[Ware group]]. The group consisted of young lawyers and economists, had about 75 members in 1934 and was divided into about eight cells. The AAA was later found [[unconstitutional]], but by that time the Communist operatives had established jobs in government employment. [[Alger Hiss]], [[Lee Pressman]], [[John Abt]], [[Charles Kramer]], [[Nathan Witt]], [[Henry Collins]], [[George Silverman]], [[Marion Bachrach]], [[John Herrmann]], [[Nathaniel Weyl]], [[Donald Hiss]] and [[Victor Perlo]] were all members of the Ware group. [[Harry Dexter White]], who was involved in the most auspicious policy [[subversion (political)|subversion]] as Director of the Division of Monetary Research in the [[Treasury Department]], was also affiliated with the group. The Ware group was the CPUSA's covert arm at this time. Each of these agents not only provided classified documents to Soviet intelligence, but was involved in political influence operations as well.

In 1934, a Congressional Investigation was held to examine statements by Dr. William A. Wirt, who headed the U.S. [[Department of Education|Office of Education]]. Dr. Wirt had attended a dinner party with several Brain Trusters at the home of his secretary, [[Alice Barrows]]. Barrows began working for the Office of Education in 1919 and was secretly a member of the [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA) which advocated the violent overthrow of the United States Constitution. Several of the Brain Trusters present at the dinner revealed to Wirt they were CPUSA members. Wirt testified,
{{Cquote|I was told they believe that by thwarting our then evident economic recovery, they would be able to prolong the country’s destitution until they had demonstrated to the American people that the Government must operate business and commerce. By propaganda, they would destroy institutions making long term capital loans—and then push Uncle Sam into making these loans. Once Uncle Sam becomes our financier, he must also follow his money with control and management. <ref>Hearings, House Select Committee To Investigate Certain Statements of Dr. William Wirt, 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, April 10 and 17, 1934. </ref><ref>''Dr Wirt faces the cameras and tells all'', Literary Digest v. 117 (April 21 1934) p. 7.</ref><ref>FBI Silvermaster file [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster053.pdf Volume 53 June 1946], p. 78 pdf.</ref>}}

A June 1945 [[Venona project]] decryption of Soviet [[KGB]] wartime cables from the Washington D.C. KGB Office to Moscow's Eighth Department, the political intelligence wing, relayed information on matters regarding Attorney General Francis Biddle. KGB agent [[Charles Kramer]], who served on the staff of several U.S. Senate Subcommittees, and Barrows are the sources of the information. <ref>Venona 3706 KGB Washington to Moscow, 29 June 1945.</ref> Mary Van Kleek who headed the Russell Sage Foundation and also served on the Board of the National Council, visited Washington weekly to meet with Barrows and [[Greg Silvermaster|Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]].

During [[World War II]] Barrows was the Executive Secretary of the the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. This organization was declared in 1953 to be a [[Glossary_of_espionage_terms#Fronts_and_cutouts|Communist front]] organization by the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] (SACB). In its Findings of Fact, the SACB said the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship,
{{Cquote|advances positions...markedly pro-Soviet and...anti-United States Government...is a Communist-action organization which has as its primary purpose to advance the objectives of the world Communist movement under the [[hegemony]] of the Soviet Union; it has the policy to support and defend the Soviet Union under any and all circumstances...We conclude that the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc., is substantially directed, dominated, and controlled by the Communist Party of the United States...and is primarily operated for the purpose of giving aid and support to...the Soviet Union, a Communist foreign government." <ref>United States. Subversive Activities Control Board. [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=usfexec;cc=usfexec;q1=Barrows;rgn=full%20text;idno=81242.0001.001;didno=81242.0001.001;view=image;seq=511;page=root;size=s;endseq=3;frm=frameset Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board.] Washington. United States Government Printing Office. 1966. Vol. 1, p. 501.</ref>}}

====Civilian Conservation Corps====
:''Main article [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]''

Soon after President Roosevelt's inauguration in March 1933, he announced the establishment of the CCC camps to take the boys off the street corners and out of the transient camps and to get money for their families. Of the New Deal innovations, perhaps the most generally applauded was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), adapted from German predecessors. That was a year after Hitler had coordinated all work camps under [[Nazi]] leadership. In 1934 the German university student organization voted that the work camps should be compulsory before matriculation and in 1935, Hitler decreed that the work camps be compulsory for both sexes. That same plan under the prompting of [[Harry Hopkins]] was announced by Roosevelt. <ref>''Getting Us into War'', Porter Sargent Publisher: P. Sargent, Boston, 1941. [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Getting_Us_Into_War-Porter_Sargent-1941-640pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=218&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 In the Footsteps of Hitler], pg. 492 pdf</ref> Ralph Ingersoll's ''PM'' newspaper reported the President's statement that training in the conscript camps will remove those elements in the thinking of youth which makes them "critical of their elders." <ref>''PM'', June 20, 1940. "that training in the conscript camps will remove those elements in the thinking of our youth which makes them 'critical of their elders'...We should hold little hope for the future of any nation whose young people had ceased to be critical of their elders."</ref><ref>''American Youth'', Kenneth Holland, Harvard University Press, 1940, pg. 103. "As the camps and resident centers are established on a permanent basis they should be carefully integrated with educational, vocational, employment and adjustment activities of institutions already in existence. It is to be hoped that established schools and other training institutions in the United States will see in the [[labor camp]]s a new technique for providing youth with practical experience better adapted to its needs and interests than the present academic school courses."</ref>

===Social Security===
An Old Age Social Security Bill was passed during his first term which provided for workers who reach the age of 65 a pension of $8 a week at most. The plan had to be pushed through against his procrastination until finally in the 1934 congressional elections the Republicans denounced him for his tardiness. When he did finally consent to a bill, it contained a plan for building a huge reserve fund that would extract billions from the workers' payrolls without any adequate return. Over the protest of the President, the Congress finally took that provision proposed by Roosevelt out of the law. <ref> ''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Chapter 14, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Fifteen___The_Roosevelt_.htm ''The Roosevelt Myth''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref>

===Taxation===

FDR, in a letter to journalist Roy W. Howard, wrote,
:"What is known as consumer taxes, namely the invisible taxes paid by people in every walk of life, fall relatively much more heavily upon the poor man than on the rich man." <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt, letter to Roy W. Howard, September 2, 1935. </ref>

[[Robert H. Jackson]], then serving as [[Internal Revenue Service]] General Counsel, observed in Congressional testimony that prior to FDR’s election, "we find those taxes bearing most heavily on the well-to-do contributed 68% per cent of the government's total internal revenue and customs receipts, while miscellaneous taxes and customs receipts, bearing most heavily upon the consumer contributed only 31.8%” By 1935 the situation was reversed with “taxes based on ability to pay contributed 38.7% . . . there has been an increase in the proportion of revenues contributed by taxes on consumption to 61.3%."<ref>Testimony of Robert Jackson, Assistant General Counsel, Treasury Department, Committee on Finance, U . S. Senate, August 6, 1985.</ref>

===Economic growth===

New capital made available for investment amounted to $348,000,000 in 1935. This was less than 1/10th of the amount available in 1929. By contrast, the British economy had nearly recovered to its 1929 levels by 1935, and the amount available for investment was almost twice as much as the United States.

{| style="background:white; color:blue" border="1" class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! United States <ref>Standard Statistics Co., ''New Honey for Operating and Producing.''</ref>
! Great Britain <ref>Midland Bank, London, ''New Issues for British Companies,'' converted from £ to $ at $4.8665.</ref>
|-
| 1927
| $3,201,000,000
| $710,509,000
|-
| 1928
| 3,062,000,000
| 983,033,000
|-
| 1929
| 3,668,000,000
| 759,174,000
|-
| 1930
| 3,039,000,000
| 394,186,500
|-
| 1931
| 1,006,000,000
| 155,728,000
|-
| 1932
| 321,000,000
| 248,191,500
|-
| 1933
| 177,000,000
| 296,856,500
|-
| 1934
| 356,000,000
| 350,388,000
|-
| 1935
| 348,000,000
| 666,710,500
|-

|}

===Congress of Industrial Organizations===

By 1935 membership in labor unions had sunk to a low figure as a result of [[unemployment]]. There were men around the President at this time that saw the tremendous possibilities of organizing labor as a political force. An industrial union is one in which all the people engaged in a single industry are included without regard to the type of skills at which they work. The industrial union was the one great instrument by which all labor could be organized and the President was urged to promote this idea as the starting point in building up a powerful political labor movement. There were three large industrial unions at that time, [[John L. Lewis]]’s [[United Mine Workers]] (UMW), the International Ladies Garment Workers Union of David Dubinsky and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of [[Sidney Hillman]].

Roosevelt tried to sell the plan to John L. Lewis of the UMW, and William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Green and the AFL opposed the idea of industrial unions and refused, but under the leadership of Lewis, a new group of unions was formed called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The Comintern directed [[Lee Pressman]] <ref>FBI Report, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946, United States Government, pgs. 298 - 300 pdf. "Leon Pressman, alias Lee Pressman, served as General Counsel for the [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] from 1933 to 1935; in 1935 he was appointed General Counsel for the [[Works Progress Administration]]. In 1937 he was appointed to the General Counsel for the National [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO). Pressman was also associated with various Communist front organizations. Pressman was a known contact of [[Anatoly Gorsky]], New York [[KGB]] Rezident, and KGB Agents [[Alger Hiss]] and [[Harry Dexter White]]. </ref> of the [[Ware group]] to assume the position of general counsel<ref>FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster132.pdf Vol. 132, pg. 109] pdf. "Pressman is said to have run arms to Spain during the Civil War via Mexico and to have worked with General Mark Moren in the project. Moren was involved in the [[Rubens Robinson]] passport case in 1938." See also Underground Espionage Agent, Adolf Berle notes, September 2, 1939. [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,789421,00.html ''32,000 & Mrs. Rubens''], Time magazine, Feb. 07, 1938. "In the first years of the Soviet Union, to escape from Russia was difficult and dangerous. Today it has become almost impossible, an attempt tantamount to suicide. Barbed and electrically charged wire, searchlight-equipped watch towers. 24-hour frontier patrols aided by bloodhounds and police dogs guard every mile of border. .... Weak from [[scurvy]] and [[dysentery]], Konarski told correspondents: 'The camp contains about 32,000 prisoners. They are kept there until [[death]] results from hard work, bad food and consequent sickness. I met two [[American citizen]]s in the camp, Arthur Hanley, a chemical engineer from California, and Edward Rose, a machinist from Boston, Mass. They said they came to Russia in 1921 as volunteer workers. Rose said he was [[arrest]]ed in Leningrad in 1923. Hanley was caught trying to escape from Russia to Latvia in 1925. Each was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but, although they have served out their sentences, they are still being held. They told me they know of three other native-born Americans who are held prisoner in other Soviet camps.'...Mrs. Ruth Marie Rubens (alias Robinson), one U. S. citizen officially known to be in jail in Moscow (TIME, Dec. 27 [1938]). In Moscow on December 9 able, active U. S. Charge d'Affaires Loy W. Henderson learned that Mrs. Rubens had "disappeared"' from the big Hotel National next door to the U.S. Embassy. On January 18 the Soviet Foreign Office finally admitted that Mrs. Rubens was under arrest, failed to say on what charge.... hundreds of Germans are today in Soviet jails and for years German diplomatic & consular officials have not been allowed to see them."</ref> where he became known as "Comrade Big." The year 1936 was a period of furious organizing work by it among the unskilled workers of the country. As Lewis, Dubinsky, and Hillman set about organizing millions of workers they were immediately up against the problem of finding skilled organizers to promote and manage the new unions.

There had been in the United States a [[Communist]] labor organization known as the Trade Union Unity League which took its instructions directly from [[Moscow]]. It is estimated that ten or fifteen thousand Communists were in these unions. In 1934, Moscow directed the Communist party in the United States to dissolve the Trade Union Unity League unions and to march the members of those unions into the American Federation of Labor. The purpose was not to advance the cause of labor unions or to get better working conditions for the members, but to use the apparatus of the labor union as an instrument of [[revolution]]. The Communist leaders saw in the rise of the CIO a better opportunity for their own revolutionary objectives than in the AFL and instructed their members to withdraw from the AFL and go into the CIO where they achieved disproportionate influence. <ref>''The Soviet World of American Communism'', Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson, Yale University Press, 1998, Document 13, pp. 58-68. ISBN 0-300-07150-7. </ref>

Lewis was interested in bringing into existence industrial unions like his own, in which he had always believed. Roosevelt was interested in bringing into American labor unions as many voters as possible and in capturing their leadership to build a powerful labor faction which could control the Democratic party and which he and his allies could control through the vast power of the government and the vast powers of labor leaders, along with the immense financial resources that so great a labor movement would have. The Communists were interested in getting into key positions as union officers, statisticians, economists, etc., in order to utilize the apparatus of the unions to promote the cause of revolution. By the early part of 1938, over three million workers had been organized. Lewis was later to split with FDR. <ref>''Communists and the CIO: From the Soviet archives'', Harvey Klehr and John E. Haynes, Labor History, Volume 35, Issue 3 Summer 1994 , pages 442 - 446. [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a772103056~db=all?tab=references]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788129-4,00.html ''Turning Point?''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 12, 1937.</ref>

== Second Term ==

{{Cquote|Planning will become a function of the federal government; either that or the planning agency will supersede the government, which is why, of course, such a scheme will be assimilated to the State. <ref>''The Principle of Planning and the Institution of Laissez Faire,'' Rexford G. Tugwell, The American Economic Review, vol. 22, no. 1, March 1932. [http://www.bartleby.com/73/147.html]</ref>}}

On August 13, 1938, John P. Frey, president of the Metal Trades Department of the AFL, appeared before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]. Frey, in a presentation lasting several days, laid before the Committee a complete documented account of CPUSA penetration of the CIO. He gave the names of 280 organizers in CIO unions under salary who were CPUSA members. He charged that John Brophy who was the director of the CIO, was expelled by the United Mine Workers some years before for disloyal activities and while he was not directly a CPUSA member, he was assisted in his work by two active members of the Party. He had gone to Russia as a member of a delegation sponsored by the Party and approved by Moscow and when he returned the UMW accused him of being a paid agent of the Soviet government. Brophy at a meeting said that the condition of workers in the Soviet Union "should be a source of inspiration to workers in America."

Frey named union after union in the CIO, giving names of the Communists who were holding positions of leadership and trust. He charged, for instance, that they dominated the United Office and Professional Workers Union, that the president of that organization was a CPUSA member and through that organization they had infiltrated the government with numerous Party members in almost all the bureaus in Washington.

[[Thomas Corcoran]] <ref>After World War II Corcoran employed Soviet agent [[Duncan Lee]] in his Washington law firm, Corcoran and Youngman. FBI Silvermaster file biographical details on [[Duncan C. Lee]], [[Elizabeth Bentley]]'s allegations concerning him, his contacts with [[Donald Wheeler]] and [[Mary Price]], [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster092.pdf Vol. 92, pgs. 20 - 21] pdf, January 26, 1947. On June 6 1945, 6 persons, including U.S. government officials [[Andrew Roth]] and [[John Stewart Service]], were arrested on [[conspiracy]] and [[espionage]] charges related to possession of roughly 1000 stolen classified Government documents in the offices of ''[[Amerasia]]'' magazine. ''Amerasia'', edited by [[Philip J. Jaffe]], had published classified materials verbatim from the United States wartime intelligence service, the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS). ''Amerasia's'' chief financial benefactor was [[Frederick V. Field]]. [[Joseph Milton Bernstein]], a [[GRU]] contact between Soviet agents in the OSS and the [[Board of Economic Warfare]], was also an employee. Others connected with the ''Amerasia'' scandal were [[T.A. Bisson]] and [[Owen Lattimore]]. Corcoran worked with the [[Truman administration]] to cover up the scandal.</ref> moved from the [[Reconstruction Finance Corporation]] to the White House and was instrumental in securing numerous appointments for friends and colleagues to [[New Deal]] agencies. Eventually he was pushed out in favor of [[Harry Hopkins]] for the position of Roosevelt's right-hand man.

===Court packing plan===

Tommy Corcoran was given the task by Roosevelt to persuade Congress to pass the proposed legislation. [[I. F. Stone]] of the ''New York Post'', who later was to agree to work for the [[KGB]], wrote speeches for Corcoran on this issue.

===Crash of 1937===

When FDR was inaugurated for his second term [[national income]], [[payroll]]s, and [[industrial production]] <ref>League of Nations Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, June, 1936. Percentage change 1929 to March 1936, United States -21.8%, rank number 13.</ref> were still 20 per cent below the 1929 figure and construction was still only about one third what it had been in 1929. By June, 1937 the Treasury boasted relief payments were less than in the same period the preceding year. But this was not so. The Treasury made a practice of cooking the books and producing phony numbers. It merely shifted relief payments to other accounts. They were, in fact, larger than the year before. Stock prices declined and by September the reality could be no longer hidden. By the end of October the market crashed. The budget was running a [[deficit]] at the time $300,000,000 a month.

[[Robert H. Jackson]], Assistant Attorney General, and Secretary of the Interior [[Harold Ickes]] in December made speeches inspired by the President on the [[conspiratorial]] ''America's 60 Families.'' <ref>''New Deal Chorus'', Time magazine, [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758849-1,00.html pg. 1][http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758849-2,00.html pg. 2], Jan. 17, 1938.</ref> In January, John D. Biggers staggered the administration with a report Roosevelt had commissioned that stated there were 10,870,000 people out of work. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758790,00.html ''Two Schemes''], Time magazine, Jan. 10, 1938.</ref> Roosevelt realized that all the “pump priming” and spending $17 billion had failed. Despite the billions added to the debt, the Depression was back. He was now at the center of a tug-of-war with advocates of spending like [[Harry Hopkins]], [[Leon Henderson]] and [[Rex Tugwell]] on one side, and opponents like [[Henry Morgenthau]] on the other. DNC Chairman [[Jim Farley]] reports he had a talk on the subject with Roosevelt on March 28, 1938.

FDR told Farley he would have "to go in for pump priming or relief," then Roosevelt confessed to a difficulty that is little understood: what could he spend on? There is only a limited number of things which the federal government can spend. The federal government can build schools, hospitals, roads, institutions of all sorts. But they are built in cities, counties, states and the activities which go on in these buildings are within the jurisdiction of the states. And the continuing perpetual maintainance of such things, like payroll, is the in the purview of the states. The federal government can spend money on agricultural experimentation, on scientific research, on national parks, on power dams, etc. But in the end the outlays on these things are limited. The one big thing the federal government can spend money on is the army and navy. Roosevelt explained to Farley that he could not spend on local projects because the states and cities did not want any more buildings and institutions which they would have to support. They were having trouble enough paying the bills of those already built. Roosevelt revealed to Farley that many [[WPA]] projects approved by the government were abandoned because the states and cities could not raise the money to support them. In the 1938 Congressional elections Harry Hopkins was spending as fast as he could without any regard to utility to meet the immediate political necessities of an election but couldn't go on indefinitely. And the whole problem was complicated by pressure from within his own party to balance the budget.

The country now reached a greater crisis than in 1933. The public debt, which was $22 billion when Roosevelt took office and was a heritage of [[World War I]], now was $37 billion. Taxes had been more than doubled by Roosevelt. By April 1938 unemployment reached several thousand more than when Roosevelt was elected in 1932. This was not Hoover’s Depression but Roosevelt’s Depression. Voices began to speak up suggesting after all Hoover may have known what he was doing, but here, nine years after the Depression began the fundamental condition of the country was no further advanced than it was at the end of Hoover's three year struggle with it.

Making provision for war increased business profits. In 1936 Roosevelt had said, "If we face the choice of profits or peace, the nation will answer – must answer - 'We choose peace'. It is the duty of all of us to encourage such a body of public opinion in this country that the answer will be clear." <ref>''Getting Us into War'', Porter Sargent Publisher: P. Sargent, Boston, 1941. [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Getting_Us_Into_War-Porter_Sargent-1941-640pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=218&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 ''No More Millionaires''], pg. 372 pdf</ref> By 1938 Roosevelt embarked on a massive defense appropriations buildup; the Administration would advance 30% to a defense contractor when placing an order. The National City Bank reported an increase of overall business profits in the year 1939 over 1938 of 63.6%, and in its December 1940 Bulletin showed for 284 companies "directly affected by war and defense program" a rise of 79.2%. The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported, "Betterment in profits was naturally more pronounced, as a rule, in those industries benefiting directly or indirectly from the European conflict." <ref>''Wall Street Journal'', May 3, 1940.</ref>

[[Curtiss-Wright Aircraft]], to enlarge its plant, received a loan of $92 million at 4%. [[I. F. Stone]] of ''[[The Nation]]'' magazine wrote,
:"Offered as a non-recourse loan . . . the government would have no claim against the Wright company if it failed to repay the loan. All the government could do in that case would be to take the factory. Since the plant would be financed entirely by the government, the government would really be taking back its own property if the Wright company for some reason wanted to drop it. ...The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported on August 2 that while the loan was for $92,000,000, 'the cost of the proposed plant and its equipment is understood to be only $37,000,000 or $38,000,000'. When asked by the ''Journal'' correspondent about 'this apparent discrepancy', Jesse Jones said, 'We don't believe it would be in the public interest to break down that total at this time'....As this is being written, the Wright contract has yet to be signed. The company is now asking for five-year amortization instead of eight. Incidentally, a vice-president of this finicky company, T. P. Wright, was assigned to the Defense Commission on June 8 to help speed up production"
The Defense Commission was the same commission that would determine and approve the terms of the loan.<ref>''Getting Us into War'', Sargent, 1941, pg. 433.</ref> ''PM'' noted "For an $18,000,000 plant to command a $92,000,000 credit from any bank, including a federal one, may make financiers blink, but that is what has been arranged". The Curtiss-Wright loan was only a little over five times the value of the plant. But Boeing Aircraft, with a plant worth $3,000,000 was awarded a loan of $32,000,000, more than ten times. And Boeing was to own it in five years.<ref>Roger Ingersoll, ''PM'', August. 9, 1940.</ref>

== Third Term ==

It is fairly certain that early in 1939, if not a little sooner, FDR made up his mind to seek a third election in the [[United States presidential election, 1940|presidential election of 1940]]. FDR realized the political difficulties involved in a third nomination so he wanted to make it appear as a "draft Roosevelt" movement. He discussed other candidates with his aids, among the names were Democratic National Committee Chairman [[James Farley]], whom FDR rejected because he was [[Roman Catholic]]. The name of Paul McNutt was urged; FDR was angry McNutt would even permit his name to be discussed. FDR told Farley: "I consider it bad taste on his part to be letting his name be used when he is still a member of my administration." Roosevelt sent him as High Commissioner to the Philippines and jokingly asked: "Is that far enough?"<ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', Book 1, Ch. 6, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Seven___The_Third_Term.htm ''The Third Term''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948.</ref> Historian [[Doris Kearns Goodwin]] in her book ''No Ordinary Time'' explored the decision to seek a third time and concludes FDR probably decided to enter the war at the same time he decided to run again, although he was politically unable to enter the war until the [[Japanese]] [[attack on Pearl Harbor]].

Administrative Assistants to Roosevelt included [[James Forrestal]], [[Lauchlin Currie]]<ref>Committee on Un-American Activities, "The Shameful Years: Thirty Years of Soviet Espionage in the United States," 82d Congress, 2d Session, 1951, pp. 15-17; [http://www.counterintelligencetraining.com/BK/ci_centre_bibliography.htm Required Reading List for Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Intelligence and Security Professionals,]The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Alexandria, VA.</ref> and [[David K. Niles]]. Their function was "to get, information and to condense and summarize it for [Roosevelt's] use." <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins : An Intimate History'', Robert E. Sherwood, New York Harper and Brothers, 1948, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Roosevelt_and_Hopkins-An_Intimate_History-Robert_E_Sherwood-1948-1034pgs-GOV-POL.sml.pdf&id=252&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 226] pdf.</ref> Forrestal later was to jump from a 16th story window of Bethesda Naval Hospital psychiatric ward. <ref>''The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People'', John Loftus and Mark Aarons, New York : St.Martin's Press, 1994. [http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/vegyes_/secretwar_06.rtf]</ref> Currie and Niles were to be found working for the [[KGB]].<ref>''Uncovering Stalin's Spies'' Julius W. Friend, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, (2000) Vol. 13 No. 3, pgs. 381 - 384. [http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/UN1VH8U16UMXEFGF.pdf]</ref><ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00039.cfm ''The Venona Story''], Robert L. Benson, Center for Cryptological History, National Security Agency. One of the special reports issued in July 1948 (1948 was a presidential election year) gives the earliest translation found that mentions friends of [[David Niles]], an important advisor to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, "will arrange anything for a bribe." Venona message 786 New York KGB to Moscow, 1 June 1944, [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p1.gif pg. 1], [http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/01_Jun_1944_R3_m1_p2.gif pg. 2]).</ref> Currie alerted his KGB controllers that "the United States was on the verge of breaking the Soviet code."<ref>''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'', Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, Washington, DC, Regnery, 2000, [http://books.google.com/books?id=mVpWH51F7toC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=lauchlin+currie+break+code&source=web&ots=Yj2NHYwgxB&sig=sbZ3789Tz0jd7xPRiC6EEdeuJ48 pg. 27.] Herbert Romerstein was the Chief, Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures, U.S. Information Agency from (1983-1989), Staff member, U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (1978-1983), and Minority Chief Investigator, House Committee on Internal Security (1971-1975). [http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/facultyID.9/profile.asp]</ref>

=== Commander in Chief ===

[[John P. Davies]] was assigned to Gen. [[Joseph Stilwell]] as Stilwell's adviser in China. Hopkins made a note at the time: "The President indicated his strong dissatisfaction with the way the whole show was running in China. He stated that Stillwell obviously hated the Chinese and that his cablegrams are sarcastic about the Chinese and this feeling is undoubtedly known to the Generalissimo."<ref>Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 739.</ref>Roosevelt and Hopkins biographer [[Robert Sherwood]] wrote that Gen. [[George C. Marshall]] told Hopkins his only serious disagreement with
Hopkins was on the issue of Stilwell. Sherwood adds that "he was unquestionably a serious nuisance to Roosevelt and there were many times when he was on the verge of recalling him."<ref> Roosevelt and Hopkin, Sherwood, pg. 740.</ref>

On May 19, 1942, pressured by Communist union officials of the American Communications Association, [[CIO]], Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, informed Rear Admiral Adolphus Staton that Communist radio operators were not to be removed from their ships. Less than six months earlier, Congress, with the lone dissenting vote of [[Vito Marcantonio]], enacted Public Law 351, which authorized the Secretary of the Navy to have all radio operators with a [[subversion (political)|subversive]] background taken off their ships. Rear Admiral Staton had recommended the removal of a number of Communists. In the presence of Rear Admiral S. C. Hooper and others, Knox instructed Rear Admiral Staton "that, in the opinion of the President, membership or suspected membership in the CPUSA was not sufficient to deprive a radio operator of his job." <ref>''America's Tragedy-Today'', Major Hamilton A. Long, (NY: Post Printing), pgs. 15-25.</ref> Expounding a memorandum bearing President Roosevelt's initials, Knox brushed aside the objections of Staton and Hooper, declaring that the order came from the President himself. Because the presidential command defied the law of the land, it was not put into writing. Consequently, the Communist radio operators returned to their ships and Rear Admirals Hooper and Staton were put on the inactive list.

Stalin publicly disbanded the [[Comintern]] in 1943. A Moscow message to all stations on 12 September 1943, message number 142, relating to this event is one of the most interesting and historically important messages <ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00008.cfm Venona 142(a) Moscow to Canberra 12 September 1943]. Text reads: "change in circumstances - and in particular the dissolution of the [[Comintern]] - necessitates a change in the method used by the workers of our residencies to keep in touch with the leaders of the local [[Communist_Party_of_the_United_States_of_America#Secret_apparatus|Communist]] organizations on intelligence matters. 
2. Our workers, by continuing to meet the leader of the Communists, are exposing themselves to danger and are giving cause [''orgs of''] local authorities to suspect that the Comintern is still in existence. 
3. We propose: 
a. That personal contact with leaders of the local Communist organizations should cease and that Communist material should not be accepted for forwarding to the Comintern. 
b. That meetings of our workers may take place only with special reliable undercover [ZAKONSPIRIROVANNYJ] contacts of the Communist [D% organizations], who are not suspected by the [''orgs of''] local authorities, exclusively about specific aspects of our intelligence work (acquiring [1 group unidentified] contacts, leads [NAVODKI], rechecking of those who are being cultivated, etc.). For each meeting it is necessary to obtain our consent. 

Representative of the Soviet Union. 

No. 4084 
Lt. Gen. [[P.M. Fitin]]. 

Notes: [a] This message is known to have been sent also to NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, and OTTAWA.</ref> in the entire corpus of [[VENONA]] translations. This message clearly discloses the [[KGB]]'s connection to the Comintern and to the national Communist parties. <ref>''Counterintelligence Reader'', National Counterintelligence Center, United States, [http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci2/2ch4_a.htm Vol. 2, Ch. 4], n.d.</ref> Shortly afterwards Rear Admiral Staton, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, was asked to testify before the Cox Committee of House of Representatives on the [[White House]] efforts to protect Communists in the Armed Forces. Staton complied in executive session. Before he could appear in public hearings, [[Adlai Stevenson]], assistant to Secretary Knox, instructed him that "there were White House orders" forbidding him to testify. <ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777835,00.html ''Cox's Circus''], Time magazine, Monday, Jul. 19, 1943.</ref> By that time Counter-Intelligence officers had obtained irrefutable proof that the CPUSA had developed an extensive plan to abolish the Armed Forces' counter-subversive system. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref>

Roosevelt himself was responsible for the order of January 1, 1944 which abolished the entire setup of the Counter-Intelligence Corps in the [[War Department]].<ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 12.</ref> On February 19 the War Department issued the order which purposely disorganized the counter-subversive reporting system of the Armed Forces. <ref>Long, op.cit., pg. 13</ref> On May 19, the day after learning of the secret order to destroy the War Department records on subversives, Senator [[StyIes Bridges]], a member of the Military Affairs Committee, demanded an explanation from Secretary of War [[Henry Stimson]]. Lieutenant General McNarney, Army Chief of Staff deputy, was "vague, evasive and obstructive." Bridges told McNarney "he could forgive an officer who makes a mistake or loses a battle, but that an officer who betrays the security of his country should be taken out and shot." McNarney admitted the order had been issued from "higher authority." After much wrangling, Secretary Stimson in a letter of May 27 promised to prevent the destruction of records on subversives. <ref>Long, op.cit., pgs. 28-31.</ref>

The War Department, on December 30, 1944, issued a secret order which expressly condoned "divided loyalty" and established as a guiding rule that "the subversive-suspect should be given the benefit of all reasonable doubt."

===Big Three conferences===
:''See also '''[[Teheran conference]]'''''

At the [[Teheran conference]] it was secretly agreed to let the Soviet Union have not only eastern Poland but also part of Finland, the Baltic States and parts of Romania. It was secretly agreed to support the Yugoslav Communist, [[Joseph Broz Tito]], and desert the pro-Western, anti-totalitarian friend, General Mihailovich. Roosevelt told a joint session of Congress upon his return to the United States that no secret arrangements had been made.

:''See also '''[[Yalta conference]]'''''

At the [[Yalta conference]] a [[reparations]] commission was set up. The Soviet Union wanted the amount to be 20 billion dollars of which the USSR would take half. It was agreed that labor might be taken as a possible source of reparations. This was a way of authorizing the seizure of human beings to work as [[slave]]s and is the basis of the crime perpetrated after hostilities ceased to which Franklin Roosevelt agreed. <ref>''Speaking Frankly'', James F. Byrnes, New York: Harper & Bros., 1947, p. 29.</ref>

Roosevelt also agreed at Yalta to have all fugitive Soviet nationals or citizens of satellite nations and tens of thousands of [[POW]]'s who elected to stay this side of the [[Iron Curtain]], returned to the Soviet Union. This was in contravention of the Geneva Convention. The ''Saturday Evening Post'' commented:
{{Cquote|With this shameful agreement as their authority, Russian [[KGB|MVD]] agents strode through the displaced-persons camps after the war and put the finger on thousands who had managed to escape the Soviet tyranny. These miserable victims were herded into boxcars and driven back to death, torture or the slow murder of the Siberian mines and forests. Many killed themselves on the way. Also under a Yalta agreement, the Russians were permitted to use German prisoners in forced labor as an item in 'reparations account.' For such inhumanities there is no excuse.<ref>''Saturday Evening Post'', Editorial, April 11, 1953, pg. 12.</ref>}}

Roosevelt not only made agreements secret from the American people but secret from his closest advisers in the government. He made agreements with Stalin hostile to the objectives of Churchill and kept secret from Churchill. He made secret agreements with [[Chiang Kai-shek]] secret from both Churchill and Stalin. He made secret agreements in derogation of Chiang Kai-shek's interests without Chiang Kai-shek's knowledge. And he made many secret agreements which no one in the U.S. State Department knew about until after his death and then learned about only at embarrassing moments from Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]. <ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 13, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Thirteen___The_Final_Bet.htm ''The Final Betrayal''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

== Fourth Term ==
[[Image:Fbisilvermasterfilevol15p4.JPG|right|250px|thumb|CPUSA defector [[Louis Budenz]] testified he could name 400 individuals involved in the [[CPUSA#Secret_apparatus|Communist conspiracy]]; <ref>[http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft296nb15t&chunk.id=d0e6193&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e4718&brand=eschol FBI Headquarters File 100-63, Louis Francis Budenz, Internal Security—C, Serial 122.]</ref> others testified there may have been over 1000.<ref>Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations ([http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm McCarthy Hearings 1953-54]).</ref> The Silvermaster group had 27 high level infiltrators still employed in the US government well after the War ended.<ref>[http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster015.pdf FBI Silvermaster file Vol. 15, pg. 4 pdf.]</ref>
]]
In February 1944 Congress rejected Roosevelt's demand for a $10,500,000,000 tax increase and cut it to $2,300,000,000. Roosevelt vetoed it saying this was a "bill not for relief of the needy but of the greedy."
Senator [[Alben Barkley]], Democratic leader, rose on the floor of the Senate to say the veto was "a calculated and deliberate assault upon the legislative integrity of every member of Congress." The entire Senate united in a roar of applause. Barkley declared that after seven years of carrying the [[New Deal]] banner for Roosevelt, he would resign his post as Democratic majority leader and he called on every member of the Congress to preserve its self respect and override the veto. The Senate overrode it 72 to 14 and the House 299 to 95.

After the [[Comintern]] was disbanded Roosevelt was offered the nomination of the [[Communist]] dominated [[American Labor Party]] and he had accepted their nomination in the [[Presidential election of 1944]]. It was 825,000 votes from [[Earl Browder]] and [[Sidney Hillman]]'s American Labor Party that gave him his majority. His administration was now the hopeless prisoner of these demanding and ruthless radical labor leaders,<ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 12, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Twelve___The_Atlantic_Ch.htm ''The Atlantic Charter Is Scrapped''], Flynn, 1948.</ref> who had shown their ability to elect or defeat the Democratic party, who had filled all the departments and bureaus with their agents and who had insinuated their experts into the CIO labor unions and their propagandists into the radio, the movies and all the great instruments of communication and opinion - a fact which Mr. Roosevelt's successors would have to face when the war ended. <ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20060820054409/http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/review/2000/summer/re2-su0.htm ''The Venona Progeny''], Hayen B. Peake, Naval War College Review, Summer 2000, Vol. LIII, No. 3. "[[Venona]] makes absolutely clear that they had active agents in the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Justice Department, Senate committee staffs, the military services, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the [[Manhattan Project]], and the [[White House]], as well as wartime agencies. No modern government was more thoroughly penetrated." [[Hayden B. Peake]] is the curator of [[Central Intelligence Agency]]’s (CIA) Historical Intelligence Collection. [http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/P_folder/peake.html]</ref>

So thorough was [[KGB]] penetration of the Roosevelt Administration, that when [[Army Signals Intelligence]] cryptographer [[Meredith Gardner]] extracted the names of [[Hans Bethe]], [[Niels Bohr]], [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Harold Urey]], [[Edward Teller]] and 11 other scientists working on the [[Manhattan Project]] from a December 2, 1944 KGB encypherment,<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/venon00014.cfm Venona 1699 New York to Moscow, December 2, 1944].</ref> KGB agent [[William Weisband]] watched him do it.<ref>VENONA: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957, Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., (Washington, D.C.: [[National Security Agency]], Central Intelligence Agency, 1996) [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm]; The ''Baltimore Sun'' (Laura Sullivan, "SPY'S ROLE LINKED TO US FAILURE ON KOREA," 6/29/00) reported that a report newly declassified by the US National Security Agency (NSA) shows that [[William Weisband]] alerted the Soviets to extensive US eavesdropping in 1948, resulting in a complete blackout of information from the communist bloc for more than two years. This crippled the NSA's intelligence gathering efforts in the late 1940s and begins to explain why the US was caught unprepared for the [[DPRK]]'s 1950 invasion of the [[ROK]]. NSA historian David A. Hatch, who authored the report, said, "This report answers several significant questions. Up until now, there has been a great lack of knowledge surrounding some of these events ... and this should help sharpen [the public's] understanding." [Ed. note: This article was included in the US Department of Defense's Early Bird news service for June 29, 2000.] [http://www.nautilus.org/archives/napsnet/dr/0006/JUN29.html#item8] </ref>

[[Strom Thurmond]] also supported FDR's decision to seek a fourth term, and referred to Roosevelt as having been the world’s greatest leader. <ref>[http://www.kevinbaker.info/c_wtm.html What Trent Meant], Kevin Baker.</ref>

== Reflections on Christianity ==

FDR said this about the Bible in an address on October 6, 1935:

:"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the [[Bible]] has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic."

:"Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."<ref>Quoted in DeMar, ''The Untold Story'', p. 60 and Gabrial Sivan, ''The Bible and Civilization'' (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1973), p. 178.</ref>

FDR became famous for delivering "fireside chats" over the new medium of [[radio]], and on March 9, 1937 he declared:

:"I hope that you have re-read the [[United States Constitution| Constitution]] of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again."

While running for his third time in a Brooklyn speech, Roosevelt said,

:"I am certain that the rank and file of patriotic Republicans do not realize the nature of this threat. They should remember, and we must remember, what the collaborative understanding between Communism and Nazism has done to the processes of democracy abroad...

:"Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization. They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy. Their objective is to prevent democracy from becoming strong. <ref>''Roosevelt and Hopkins'', Sherwood, 1948, pgs. 193-194 (pgs. 211 - 212 pdf).</ref>

As [[World War II]] broke out in Europe, FDR warned:

:"Those forces hate [[Democracy]] and [[Christianity]] as two phases of the same civilization."

The following year, on May 27, 1941, FDR stated in one of his radio addresses:

:The Nazis are as ruthless as the Communists in the denial of God.

"In his second inaugural address, FDR pledged to do his utmost by 'seeking Divine guidance.' He took that mission further on January 25, 1941, when he wrote a personal prologue to a special edition of the New Testament, which was distributed to millions of U.S. soldiers. 'As Commander-in-Chief,' Roosevelt wrote, 'I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.' He believed that all American soldiers should have the opportunity to read the words of Christ in preparing for battle. Once, when joining those soldiers aboard a warship with Winston Churchill, FDR asked the crew and prime minister to join him in singing the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' In his final inaugural address, FDR affirmed, "So we pray to Him for the vision to see our way clearly ... to achievement of His will.' "<ref>God and George W. Bush (New York: Regan Books, 2004), p. 176</ref>

At the most difficult point in the War, when American boys were landing on the beaches of Normandy, FDR led the nation in prayer publicly during a radio broadcast. <ref>Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, [http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odddayp.html Franklin Roosevelt's D-Day Prayer], June 6, 1944.</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Image:Dcrosmor.jpg|right|thumb|330px]]
It was essential that he do everything in his power to reestablish confidence in the economic system. What the nation needed was more jobs at machines, in ships, in mines and stores creating and distributing goods that were needed and providing wages and profits with which these goods could be purchased. If there are to be jobs for all they must be jobs producing something - goods and services. He began with a sweeping attack upon business and kept it up until the end of [[World War II]]. When Roosevelt came into power business was regarded as some gigantic criminal conspiracy against the welfare of the nation.

Business cannot function at full measure unless consumption is held within total output, and savings are produced. Those savings then must regularly flow into new investment. New investment means the flow of economic resources into establishing new industries and the expansion of old ones. It means encouraging construction trades, manufacturing, producing and installing new equipment and tools. It means allowing the creation of new private businesses. Instead FDR carried on ceaseless attacks and denouncements of business, warned people against it, subjected businesses to dozens of absurd, semi revolutionary schemes, coupled with deficit financing which ate up all the savings, inflation, utopian panaceas, constant preaching that profit was evil, investors parasites, and businessmen scoundrels and enemies of the people. <ref>''Roosevelt Myth'', Book 3, Ch. 4, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/cgi-bin/framed/2767/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Four___Toward_the_Precip.htm ''Toward the Precipice''], Flynn, 1948.</ref>

Roosevelt's image now appears on the [[Dime]].

==See also==
*[[New Ordeal]]
*[[Michael Whitney Straight]]

==Further reading==
*Charles Maclaurin, ''Post Mortem'' and ''Mere Mortals'' (New York: Doran, 1923, 1925).

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

== External Links ==
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=176 "The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.onpower.org/history_greatdepression.html/ Great Depression]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65 ''Depression, War and Cold War'', by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=138 "Wartime Prosperity?", by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1431 Pearl Harbor]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1468 FDR: The Man, the Leader, the Legacy], Ralph Raico, Future of Freedom Foundation, April 1, 2001. Retrieved from The Independent Institute.org 06/17/07.


{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Franklin D.}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Leonardo DiCaprio

2008-03-11T21:02:43Z

Billdozer:

'''Leonardo DiCaprio''' (born 1972) is a [[liberal]] actor and [[environmentalist]]. He is best known for his role as Jack in the film ''Titanic''.

He supported [[John Kerry]]'s failed bid for president in 2004. In recent years, he has gained notoriety for being a so-called "expert" on [[global warming]], even ignoring the fact that he dropped out of high school. His recent global-warming [[schlockumentary]] ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]'' was a major box-office flop.

Despite his liberal politics, DiCaprio is said to be an avid shooter. <ref>http://awesternheart.blogspot.com/2005/10/pistol-packing-hollywood-hypocrites.html</ref>

[[Category: Actors]]
[[Category: Environmentalism]]
[[Category: Liberal activists]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:DiCaprio, Leonardo}}

==References==

Leonardo DiCaprio

2008-03-11T21:01:58Z

Billdozer:

Leonardo DiCaprio

2008-03-11T21:00:49Z

Billdozer:

'''Leonardo DiCaprio''' (born 1972) is a [[liberal]] actor and [[environmentalist]]. He is best known for his role as Jack in the film ''Titanic''.

He supported [[John Kerry]]'s failed bid for president in 2004. In recent years, he has gained notoriety for being a so-called "expert" on [[global warming]], even ignoring the fact that he dropped out of high school. His recent global-warming [[schlockumentary]] ''[[The Eleventh Hour]]'' was a major box-office flop.

Despite his liberal politics, DiCaprio is said to be an avid shooter. .<ref>[http://awesternheart.blogspot.com/2005/10/pistol-packing-hollywood-hypocrites.html/ A Western Heart» Pistol-packing Hollywood<ref>

[[Category: Actors]]
[[Category: Environmentalism]]
[[Category: Liberal activists]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:DiCaprio, Leonardo}}

Keith Olbermann

2008-03-11T20:55:39Z

Billdozer:

{{merge|Olbermann Watch}}
[[Image:Keith-ratingslie.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Keith Olbermann, liberal commentator]]
'''Keith Olbermann''' is a [[liberal]] [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] political commentator and activist,
<ref>Keith Olbermann ... is notorious for anti-Bush, anti-conservative rants. [http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth] </ref>
formerly a sportscaster on ESPN. He currently hosts ''Countdown,'' a nightly news and commentary program on [[MSNBC]]. Olbermann's show is well known for one-sided analysis of the issues, with conservatives rarely (if ever) appearing to discuss news events.

In July of 2006, the [[Anti-Defamation League]] filed a complaint to MSNBC because of Olbermann's repeated use of the [[Nazi]] salute while attacking popular commentator [[Bill O'Reilly]] on his television show and in public.<ref>[http://www.adl.org/media_watch/tv/20060728-MSNBC.htm Anti-Defamation League Letter to MSNBC], July 28, 2006.</ref>

==Keith Olbermann 24 controversy==
The '''Keith Olbermann 24 controversy''' concerns a January 2007 incident in which [[liberal]] [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] political commentator Keith Olbermann attacked the popular FOX television series ''24'."

On the January 16, 2007 edition of Olbermann's show, ''Countdown with Keith Olbermann'', he accused the widely acclaimed ''[[24]]'' of "fearmongering" and being "propaganda designed to keep people thinking about domestic terrorism to keep us scared" asking, "is it a program-length commercial for one political party?" Olbermann asked the rhetorical question, "if the irrational right can claim that the news is fixed to try to alter people's minds or that networks should be boycotted for nudity or for immorality, shouldn't those same groups be saying ''24'' should be taken off of TV because it's naked [[brainwashing]]?"

This was in response to the January 15 broadcast of ''24'' in which a low-grade nuclear weapon is detonated in the [[Valencia]] community of [[Los Angeles]] by a [[terrorist]] group. Fox Commentator [[Cal Thomas had]] written an editorial in which he advised, "Watch the TV drama 24 for what could be our prophetic and imminent future, with a nuclear device exploding in major cities."

On the February 2, 2007 edition of ''Countdown'', Olbermann gave the show the "bronze" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment.

==Olbermann sees conspiracies==
In a rambling broadcast after the FBI made an arrest of four [[terror]] suspects for plot to attack JFK International Airport and plant explosives to blow up major jet-fuel supply tanks and pipelines,<ref>[http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel07/plot060207.pdf Four Individuals Charged in Plot to Bomb John F. Kennedy International Airport], FBI Press Release New York Field Office, June 2 2007.</ref> Olbermanmn charged the [[Bush adminstration]] with [[conspiracy]]. JFK handles on average over 1,000 flights daily. The plotters were assisted by an international network of Muslim extremists from the United States, Guyana, and Caribbean, including senior leadership of [[Jamaat Al Muslimeen]] (“JAM”), which was responsible for a deadly coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990. In Olbermann
's mind

{{Cquote|the so-called plot happens to be revealed the day before the second [[2008 Presidential Election|Democratic presidential]] debate and, as the scandal continues to unfold over the firings of U.S. attorneys and their replacements by political hacks. The so-called plot is announced by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney for Brooklyn, New York, and by the police chief of New York City, the father of a correspondent for [[Fox News Channel]]." Olbermann further theorized that President Bush was "fomenting yet another war...a new Cold War with Russia, possibly to obscure the unending nightmare in Iraq. <ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/06/05/publiceye/entry2886646.shtml Olbermann Overstates?,] Matthew Felling, ''CBS News'', June 5, 2007.</ref>}}

Matthew Felling of ''CBS News'' noted, "Hammering away at things that aren’t there – or barely there – is a surefire way to dilute your message."

==See Also==
*[http://media.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2IwYTc1MTVlMTU0ZDZlN2ViZGI0YzJmZWJiZjBhZTE= Keith Olbermann: "24" is a Right-Wing Plot]

*[http://newsbusters.org/node/10206 Olbermann Denounces '24' as Part of Pro-Bush 'Fearmongering' and 'Brainwashing']

*[http://newsbusters.org/node/10224 Olbermann Hates '24', NewsBusters, and All References to Terrorism]

*[http://www.opinioneditorials.com/freedomwriters/syuhas_20070118.html MSNBC's Very Own Conspiracy Nut: Keith Olbermann & Fox's fictional TV show '24']

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obADH-gUG5o Video of Olbermann's accusations]

==References==
<references/>

==See Also==
:[[Olbermann Watch]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olbermann, Keith}}

[[Category:Broadcasters|Olbermann, Keith]]
[[category:liberal activists|Olbermann, Keith]]

Stephen King

2008-03-11T20:54:22Z

Billdozer: /* Writing Career */ removed awkward line

'''Stephen Edwin King''' is a best-selling American novelist and short story writer, often considered as the "Master of Horror". His books have been translated into 33 different languages, published in over 35 different countries. There are over 300 million copies of his novels in publication. Some of his novels take on [[occult]] themes.

== Biography and first works==

Stephen King was born in 1947, in Maine. He attended Lisbon High School, in Lisbon.

King's amateur press Triad and Gaslight Books, published a two part book titled "The Star Invaders" in 1964. He made is first actual published appearance in 1965 in the magazine ''Comics Review'' with his pulp story "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber." The story ran about 6,000 words in length.

In 1966, King graduated from high school and took a scholarship to attend the University of Maine. Later that summer he was already working on a novel called "Getting It On", about some kids who take over a classroom and try unsuccessfully to ward off the [[National Guard]]. During his first year at college, King completed his first full length novel, "The Long Walk." He submitted the novel to Bennett Cerf/Random House only to have it rejected. King took the rejection bad and filed the book away.

It was arount those times that he made his first small sale with his story "The Glass Floor" for the amount of thirty-five dollars.

In June 1970, King graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelor of Science degree in English and a certificate to teach high school.

His next idea came from the poem by [[Robert Browning]], "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." Due to his lack of income he was unable to further pursue the novel at great length and it too was filed away. King took a measly job of pumping gas earning $1.25 an hour. Also he earned money for his writings by submitting his short stories do men's magazines such as ''Cavalier''.

== Writing Career ==

On January 2, 1971, Stephen King married to Tabitha Jane Spruce. In the fall of 1971, King took a teaching job at Hampden Academy earning $6,400 a year. The Kings then moved to Hermon, a town west of Bangor, Maine.

Stephen King than began to work on a short story about a teenage girl named Carietta White. After a completing a few pages, King decided it was not a worthy story and crumpled the pages up and tossed them into the trash. Fortunately, his wife took the pages out and read them. She encouraged her husband to continue the story.

In January 1973, King submitted '''Carrie''' to Doubleday. In March, Doubleday bought the book and sold the paperback rights to New American Library for $400,000. Based on the book contract, Stephen King would get half of that. King quit his teaching job to pursue writing full time.

Since then, King has had numerous short stories and novels published and movies created from his work, sometimes directed by high-profile names. Worth mentioning are the film versions of "Carrie", directed
by Brian de Palma; "The Shining", by Stanley Kubrick; "Misery", by Rob Reiner; and "The Shawnshank Redemption", by Frank Darabont. In his review of "The Green Mile", award-winning critic Roger Ebert wrote that ''"Stephen King, sometimes dismissed as merely a best-seller, has in his best novels some of the power of [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]], who created worlds that enveloped us and populated them with colorful, peculiar, sharply seen characters. King in his strongest work is a storyteller likely to survive as Dickens has, despite the sniffs of the litcrit establishment."''<ref>http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19991210/REVIEWS/912100302/1023</ref>

In June 1999 Stephen King was severely injured in an accident that left him in critical condition with injuries to his lung, broken ribs, a broken leg and a severely fractured hip. After three weeks of operations he was released from the Central Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. Stephen continues to be bedridden and requires intensive rehabilitation over the remainder of this year. He is expected to be able to walk about 9-12 months after the accident. Due to Stephen King's injuries his current projects that he was working on have been hampered and will be delayed at least a year.
He relives this incident in ''The Dark Tower'', the final book in the ''Dark Tower'' series, in which his life is saved by Jake Chambers.

In 2003 he was awarded The National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and currently collaborates for ''Entertainment Weekly'' magazine.

== List of Stephen King's works ==

*Carrie (1974)
*Salem's Lot (1975)
*Rage (as Richard Bachman) (1977)
*The Shining (1977)
*Night Shift (1978)
*The Stand (1978)
*The Dead Zone (1979)
*The Long Walk (as Richard Bachman) (1979)
*Danse Macabre (1980)
*Firestarter (1980)
*The Fag (1980)
*Cujo (1981)
*Roadwork (as Richard Bachman) (1981)
*Creepshow (1982)
*Different Seasons (1982)
*The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982)
*The Running Man (as Richard Bachman) (1982)
*Christine (1983)
*Pet Sematary (1983)
*The Talisman (1984)
*Thinner (as Richard Bachman) (1984)
*Cycle of the Werewolf (1985)
*Skeleton Crew (1985)
*The Bachman Books (1985)
*It (1986)
*Misery (1987)
*The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
*The Eyes of the Dragon (1987)
*The Tommyknockers (1987)
*The Dark Half (1989)
*Four Past Midnight (1990)
*The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990)
*Needful Things (1991)
*The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)
*Dolores Claiborne (1992)
*Gerald's Game (1992)
*Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993)
*Insomnia (1994)
*Rose Madder (1995)
*The Green Mile: All 6 Parts (1996)
*The Regulators (as Richard Bachman) (1996)
*Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)
*Six Stories (1997)
*Apt Pupil (1998)
*Bag of Bones (1998)
*Hearts in Atlantis (1999)
*Storm of the Century (1999)
*The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999)
*On Writing (2000)
*Secret Windows (2000)
*Black House (2001)
*Dreamcatcher (2001)
*Everything's Eventual (2002)
*From a Buick 8 (2004)
*Cell (2006)
==References==
{{reflist}}

==External Links==
[http://www.stephenking.com/ Stephen King: The Official Website]

[[Category:Authors|King, Stephen]]
[[Category:Horror]]

24 (TV series)

2008-03-11T20:53:24Z

Billdozer: more summary

[[Image:24 Season 5.jpg|right|thumb|290px|The main cast of ''24's'' fifth season.]]
'''''24''''' is a popular award-winning [[Fox]] network television series starring Kiefer Sutherland as a federal agent at the [[Los Angeles]] branch of the fictional CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit). The show is somewhat known for its controversial depiction of torture.

The series follows the adventures of Jack Bauer, an American counter-terrorism agent. Each episode of the series takes place over the course of an hour, with each episode of a season covering a 24 hour period of time. Bauer often finds himself embroiled in conflicts with terrorists, mercenaries, corrupt burreaucrats, and businessmen. He readily employs controversial techniques to accomplish his goals, including (but not limited to) torture and murder. Despite this, Bauer is shown to be a loving father, considerate husband, and good friend, giving the series a strong sense of right and wrong amidst a sea of moral gray.

==External Links==
*[http://www.fox.com/24/ Fox's ''24'' official site]

[[category:broadcasting]]