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Microeconomics

2010-05-03T23:28:56Z

Hopefiend:

'''Microeconomics''' is the study of the behavior of individual units, firms, households or persons in the [[economy]].

If [[macroeconomics]] is compared to the study of a "forest", then microeconomics is the study of the trees in the forest.
[[Category:Economics]]

Atheism and Miracles

2010-05-03T22:36:24Z

Hopefiend: Reverted vandalism

In regards to '''atheism and miracles''', modern scholars are divided on the issue of whether or not [[David Hume]] was an [[atheism|atheist]].<ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/#10</ref> With that caveat in mind, Hume is well known for arguing that it is always more probable that the testimony of a miracle is false than that the miracle occurred.<ref>http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/creation-providence.html</ref> Christian apologists [[William Lane Craig]], [[Norman Geisler]], [[C.S. Lewis]], [[JP Holding]], and others have shown the inadequacy and unreasonableness of Hume's position regarding miracles. <ref>http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/creation-providence.html</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/miracles.html</ref><ref>http://www.ses.edu/journal/articles/2.1Hoffman.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth19.html</ref><ref>http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/pages/resources/publications/knowingDoing/2004/Miracles.pdf</ref> <ref>http://www.tektonics.org/gk/hume01.html</ref> <ref>http://www.comereason.org/phil_qstn/phi060.asp</ref>

Impossibly high standards are often set for miracles to be accepted including requirements such as multiple doctor's testimonies from before and after a medical miracle may have occurred along with x-rays and other confidential medical information being made public. When such evidence is produced it is simply stated to be inadequate or fraudulent.

{{Nb Atheism}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Atheism]]

Great Fire of Rome

2010-05-03T22:32:44Z

Hopefiend: Reverted vandalism by User:TorranceK

The '''Great Fire of Rome''' was a massive [[fire]] which started on July 19, 64AD. The fire destroyed the [[Circus Maximus]] as well as a large portion of the city. Rumors that the [[Roman Emperor]] at the time, [[Nero]], started the fire himself and fiddled as the city burned are unsubstantiated, but were spreading across the populace. Nero found a [[scapegoat]] to blame.

The Great Fire became the catalyst for the first wave of state sponsored persecution of [[Christians]] in the Roman Empire when Nero claimed that local Christians started it. According to the Roman historian [[Tacitus]], apart from being killed in the arena, their bodies were also used as lamps to help light the city at night.

For more information see: [[Nero]]
[[category:Ancient Rome]]

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

2010-05-03T22:31:12Z

Hopefiend: Reverted vandalism by User:TorranceK

{{Infobox Film
| name= Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
| image=Mr smith goes to washington.jpg
| caption=1939 movie poster
| director=[[Frank Capra]]
| producer=Frank Capra
| writer=Sidney Buchman (script) Lewis R. Foster (outline)
| narrator=
| starring=[[James Stewart]] [[Jean Arthur]] [[Claude Rains]] [[Edward Arnold]] Guy Kibbee Beulah Bondi
| music=Dmitri Tiomkin
| cinematography=Joseph Walker
| editing=Gene Havlick Al Clark
| distributor=Columbia Pictures Corporation
| released=October 19, 1939
| runtime=130 min
| country=[[United States]]
| language=[[English]]
| budget=
| gross=
| preceded_by=
| followed_by=
| website=
| amg_id2=33698
| imdb_id=0031679
}}
'''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington''' was a 1939 [[motion picture]] that illustrates, better than any other film in its genre, the strengths as well as the dysfunctions of the political system in the [[United States]]. It tells the story a down-to-earth, idealistic young man, [[Jefferson Smith]], who is appointed to the [[United States Senate|Senate]] by the governor of a Midwestern State in the American Midwest.

== Plot ==
{{spoiler}}
=== An Empty Senate Seat ===
[[United States Senate|Senator]] Sam Foley is dead—and as far as his colleague, Senator [[Joseph Paine]] ([[Claude Rains]]) and Paine's party boss, Jim Taylor ([[Edward Arnold]]), are concerned, his death couldn't have come at a worse time. Because at the time of his death, Senators Foley and Paine were seeking to extract a five-million-dollar Federal appropriation for the construction of a [[dam]] in their State, and they and their three colleagues in the [[United States House of Representatives|House]] had recently managed to have their appropriation attached as a legislative rider to a pending "Deficiency Bill" when Foley died. Therefore, the dilemma for Mr. Taylor and Senator Paine was obvious: whoever replaced Mr. Foley in the Senate must ask no questions, and follow the voting instructions given by Senator Paine and, through him, Mr. Taylor.

Faced with this, Paine suggests to Taylor that the proposed Willett Creek Dam project be postponed to the next session of Congress, or scrapped altogether. Taylor refuses, saying that a cancellation might trigger an investigation, which would reveal that Taylor and his friends have been holding the land that would be sold to the government under false names. Best to go through with the project before anyone even thinks to question it, says Taylor. Taylor also takes offense at Paine's suggesting that Taylor would do anything to present a "risk" to Paine's career, especially when Taylor has already planned a campaign to promote Paine's name at the national party convention, in an effort to have Paine nominated for the office of [[President of the United States]]. So Paine gives his assent to the appointment of one Horace Miller, a "born stooge" who would gladly take orders.

However, [[Governor]] Hubert "Hap" Hopper ([[Guy Kibbee]]) has another problem: the citizens of his State have begun a raucous movement in protest to the corruption, the graft, and the political favoritism by which Jim Taylor controls virtually every industry, and government at every level except the Federal, in their State. So when Jim Taylor tries to order Hap to appoint Horace Miller as Sam Foley's replacement, the outraged citizens will not hear of it. They even have their own candidate to suggest: one Henry Hill, whom Taylor and his associates regard as a "crackpot" and a "longhair."

Hap Hopper cannot even escape the debate in his own home. His many sons, all of whom are members of the Boy Rangers youth group, tease him unmercifully about being Jim Taylor's puppet, and suggest yet a third candidate: [[Jefferson Smith]], their senior adult leader. His recommendations, from the point of view of the boys, are unassailable: he runs a newspaper by and for boys (''Boys' Stuff''), and he recently singlehandedly extinguished a forest fire. That Hopper has not heard of Smith before this is probably because Smith is a retiring man, much more at home leading his Boy Ranger troops than engaging in self-promotion among adults, and has generally shunned all publicity since the fire.

Gov. Hopper sputters to the boys that he will have none of their endorsements of Smith or any other candidate. Yet that night he still has not made up his mind between Miller (Taylor's man) or Hill (the citizens' obvious choice). He decides to settle the question with a toss of a coin: heads for Hill and tails for Miller. But when he tosses the coin, ''it lands on its edge'', propped against a folded newspaper that displays, on the exposed below-the-fold portion of the front page, the story of the Sweetwater forest fire and Jeff Smith's role in fighting the blaze. Hopper takes that as a hint and appoints Smith.

=== Bally-hoo ===
Jefferson Smith first receives news of his appointment from the Governor himself, who pays a visit to his home. Taylor, Paine, and Taylor's front man, Chick McGann ([[Eugene Pallette]]), are at first outraged—but then Senator Paine sees political wisdom in the appointment and expresses his complete confidence that he can manage Smith effectively in [[Washington, DC|Washington]].

Taylor orders his many newspapers to announce the appointment with a maximum of "hype" and "bally-hoo," and gives a sumptuous banquet in Smith's honor. Smith is moved nearly to tears when one of his Boy Rangers gives him a gift-wrapped briefcase and stumbles over his not-quite-memorized presentation speech. But Smith's own speech then causes another shock—a shock of recognition, this time by Joseph Paine. In point of fact, Jefferson Smith is the son of newspaper publisher Clayton Smith, who was murdered in his office while he and Paine were fighting for the interests of a miner against the corrupt mining syndicate that employed him. As Paine hears Clayton Smith's name mentioned, his face betrays a small amount of pain—but no one notices him, and no one calls on him to explain what is wrong with what he just heard. Smith, for his part, is effusive in his praise of Paine, relying as he does on the opinion that his father had of Paine before he was murdered.

=== Arrival in Washington ===
Smith and Paine travel together to Washington by rail. When Smith steps off the train, he is surprised to be greeted by a bevy of giggling young women, led by Miss Susan Paine ([[Astrid Allwyn]]), the senior Senator's daughter. But before Chick McGann can shepherd Smith to his offices in the Senate Office Building (which building, the script never says), Smith leaves Union Station on a tour bus and disappears. While he is spending the day touring Washington and all its monuments and memorials (including the [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln]] Memorials), McGann frantically calls Smith's office (which was probably Sam Foley's old office).

Smith's appointed secretary, Clarissa Saunders ([[Jean Arthur]]), finds the turn of events highly amusing. "[[Daniel Boone]]'s lost!" she exclaims to her friend and persistent romantic suitor, "Diz" Moore ([[Thomas Mitchell]]). She then makes one of several announcements of her intention to quit the operation and leave Washington for good, saying that the only reason she stays is that she needs "money and a new suit of clothes." Still, she hates being appointed as {{cquote|Secretary to a leader of little squirts!}}
As night is falling in Washington, a young, befuddled man knocks on the door and asks whether he has reached the offices of Senator Jefferson Smith. Saunders, who has never seen the man before, brusquely dismisses him before realizing that that man actually ''is'' the long-lost Smith!

Saunders hastily reports that Smith has reappeared (and is not inebriated, either), and drives him to the Madison Hotel, where Senator Paine has arranged for Smith to have some initial interviews. She then meets Diz in a bar (probably on K street) and says,{{cquote|I'm still trying to figure out whether he's animal, vegetable, or mineral!}}

Smith's patriotic utterances offend her, because she cannot believe that anyone actually believes in [[American patriotism]] anymore. Accordingly, in order to ensure that she can quit in style, she agrees to grant access to Smith to several reporters hungry for any story that they can find or invent. Diz Moore is shocked at Saunders' behavior, at one point telling one of the men to {{cquote|Go chase an ambulance!}}

But at length Smith finds himself interviewing several reporters, who encourage him to strike several "Boy Ranger"-type poses. They then proceed to write stories that make a mockery of the interview and the man.

Senator Paine, upon reading these articles, immediately calls Saunders on the carpet, obviously suspecting her of complicity in the affair. He gives Saunders a stern lecture, coupled by a promise of more lucrative positions to come if she will cooperate and keep Smith away from "anything that smacks of politics," including any mention of the Willett Creek Dam project.

And so, promptly at noon the next day, Smith appears in the Senate (after taking a trip to [[Mount Vernon]] "to get into the mood"), and as Paine presents his credentials, another Senator questions whether Smith is up to the job. Paine vouches for Smith's innocence in the matter, and the [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] swears Smith in as a Senator without further delay. Immediately after the Senate ends the days session, however, Smith hunts down each of the reporters who interviewed him and punches him in the nose. Finally an angry Smith appears at the [[National Press Club]], where several reporters tackle him and share with him a hard and uncomfortable truth: that he is an honorary appointee, and little more than an empty senatorial suit, expected to vote "Yes" when Paine tells him to.

=== Writing a bill ===
Smith goes to see Paine at his Washington residence and protests that he really ''would'' feel like an empty suit unless he receives more guidance on all the bills that are on the calendar. Paine is loath to explain any of this, saying, {{cquote|These bills have been put together by some of the greatest legal minds in the country. I don't understand half of them myself, and I used to be a lawyer.}}

Paine then suggests that Smith make good on his desire, expressed in the atrocious interview (and actually printed), to have established a National Boys' Camp in their State. There Smith meets Susan Paine again, and is almost overcome with an emotion that he clearly cannot handle. After he stumbles out of the Paine home (knocking over a table lamp on the way out), Susan Paine bursts out laughing, and her father observes,{{cquote|At the expense of some of the furniture, you seem to have made another conquest.}}

Smith then goes straight to his office and presses Saunders into service in helping him draft just such legislation. After giving Smith a brief and highly cynical lecture on how a bill becomes (or, more likely, does not become) a law, Saunders reluctantly agrees to help him draft his bill.

As Smith speaks, his down-to-earth style and earnestness begin to make an impression on Saunders, something entirely new in her experience. But when Smith mentions the location of his camp—specifically on and near the headwaters of Willett Creek—Saunders sees yet another opportunity to score a cheap point with the press. Without explaining the conflict that she knows exists between Smith's bill and Section 40 of the upcoming Deficiency Bill (see above), she helps Smith finish his draft, and then calls Diz and tells him to be sure to attend the Senate the next day to watch what happens when Smith presents his bill. Sure enough, as soon as Smith mentions the name "Willett Creek," Paine rises from his chair and gives a head signal to Chick McGann, who has been watching from another point in the gallery. Diz, who is very familiar with both men, thanks Saunders for the obviously juicy tip.

Outside, Paine and McGann realize that they have a very serious problem: Smith has proposed erecting a boys' camp on the very site of the proposed Willett Creek Dam, and when the Deficiency Bill is read out loud in the Senate the next day, Smith will hear about it and start to question it, something that neither man wants. McGann proposes to take Smith on yet another tour of the city, but Paine cautions that Smith is "not stupid." McGann then insists that Paine use his daughter, Susan, to distract Smith—and Paine, after first protesting, agrees.

=== The Glamor Queen, and a Revelation ===
So Susan Paine calls Saunders and asks her to take Smith shopping for a proper suit of clothes and pair of shoes, a haircut, and a manicure, and then asks Smith directly to "escort" her to a "ball" for visiting foreign princes (whether [[Arab]] or [[Europe]]an, Miss Paine never says). Smith, like any high-school boy having a crush on a glamorous actress, agrees. This cuts Saunders to the quick. Saunders has nothing but the utmost contempt for "Susan Pain-in-the-neck," and in a heartfelt confession to Diz, expresses her fear that Susan Paine will use Smith unmercifully using the cruel weapons that only the most glamorous women possess (and know how to use). She and Diz go to a local bar and get drunk, and then Susan decides to go back to the office to clear out her desk.

To Saunders' horror, Smith is in the office, still dazed with what he thinks is his "triumph" at being the escort to such a beautiful woman as Susan Paine. "Horseradish!" cries Saunders, who finally tells Smith the real reason that Susan Paine asked him out on a pricey dinner date: to keep him out of the Senate when the Deficiency Bill was read. She points out the fateful Section Forty, describing the Willett Creek Dam, and then blurts out that Smith should simply go home, because he, a "halfway decent" man, does not belong in Washington.

=== Compromise ===
Smith is shocked at Saunders' behavior, but even more shocked at Section Forty. So he goes directly to Paine's home, copy of the Deficiency Bill in hand, and protests to Paine that a dam could have been better built in any of "a hundred other places" in the State where a dam would be more useful, and that Kenneth Allen, who owns some of the land affected, denies any knowledge of any dam project. Paine tells Smith that he couldn't possibly understand the "benefits" of the bill, and Smith then asks, "Who's Taylor?" Then Smith says he has heard that the Willett Creek Dam was "Jim Taylor's idea to get graft."

Paine protests that Smith has insulted him by suggesting that he, Paine, was "involved in a scheme for graft." But Chick McGann does not wait for Smith's answer. He immediately calls Jim Taylor back in Jackson City (the capital of the unnamed State) to alert him that Smith now presents a problem that he, McGann, and Senator Paine can no longer handle.

Taylor comes to Washington at once and arranges to meet Smith, who in the meantime has been pestering the members of his State's House delegation for information about Section Forty. Paine at first tells Taylor to "count [him] out," and Taylor tells Paine that he, Taylor, could arrange that Paine ''and'' Smith go back home and forget about politics. Paine reluctantly allows Taylor to proceed, and makes himself scarce. Smith meets Taylor, who coolly informs Smith that if he's "smart," he can have any position in business or politics that he wants. Smith suddenly grasps that Taylor actually tells sitting Congressman, ''and'' Senator Paine, what to do. Smith coldly tells Taylor, {{cquote|You're a liar.}}

But Paine has retreated to his Senate office, with instructions to tell any callers that he is out-of-town. Smith doesn't believe that, and barges in on Paine. Paine now confesses to Smith that, twenty years earlier, he "compromised" so that he could serve their State "in a hundred honest ways." As proof of his "success," he cites the statistics that their State has the lowest [[unemployment]] and the highest Federal grant receipts. Finally, Paine begs Smith ''not'' to talk about the Willett Creek Dam or make any protest against it.

Smith refuses to heed that advice. In the Senate the next day, Smith rises to protest Section Forty as "nothing but a scheme for graft." Immediately Paine rises for recognition, and Smith willingly yields the floor to his colleague. Whereupon Paine proceeds to tell the Senate that ''Smith'' has bought the land described in his National Boys' Camp bill, and is hoping to turn a profit on the sale of that land to the government for the establishment of that very camp!

A shocked Smith now finds himself hauled before the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections, where Governor Hopper and businessman Kenneth Allen present a forged deed granting Smith ownership of the land, and an equally forged contract guaranteeing to Mr. Allen half the profits that Smith might realize from the sale of that land to the government. Smith protests that he never signed either instrument, and then competing handwriting experts, by a "vote" of two to one, conclude that those contracts were not forged, and that Smith had indeed signed both instruments.

Paine then testifies that he had pointed out to Smith the conflict between his boys' camp bill and Section Forty, and that Smith had angrily said, "Move the dam!" Paine states that he found Smith's attitude perplexing until he learned that Smith owned the land in question.

Smith, too overcome to speak, bolts from the Committee rather than give any testimony. The next evening, Taylor throws a celebratory party in Paine's home. Paine sits aloof, clearly distraught at the turn of events in which he has participated.

=== Inspiration from Lincoln ===
Smith packs his bags and is about to leave Washington, but first stops at the Lincoln Memorial to look into Lincoln's face for the last time. Saunders finds him there, saying that she couldn't leave, and was glad that she had not. She tells Smith that Lincoln was not reproaching Smith at all, but rather encouraging him to fight on—and Saunders believes that she knows how Smith can fight, and perhaps even win.

=== The filibuster ===
The next day, the press gallery is shocked to see Smith appearing in the Senate, when they know that the Committee on Privileges and Elections has already voted to recommend his expulsion from the Senate. Diz Moore clearly blames Saunders for the spectacle, but an unrepentant Saunders encourages Diz to pray harder than he ever prayed in his life.

The Committee chairman delivers his report, but before Senator Agnew can call for a vote, Smith stands and asks for recognition. The Vice President sternly tells Senator Agnew that, Committee report or no, Smith is still a Senator and has the same privileges as has any Senator until those privileges are revoked. Then, after further lecturing the people in the galleries to maintain a respectful silence, he makes the fateful decision to recognize Smith.

Smith begins to speak, and makes clear that he will not yield the floor, for anything but a question or a point of order or personal privilege, until he has said what he has now come to the Senate to say. As he takes out a vacuum bottle and several fresh fruits, vegetables, and rolls, the rest of the Senate, exhorted by Joseph Paine, walk out in protest. The press gallery is electrified as they realize that a [[filibuster]] has now begun.

Saunders continues to coach Smith from her position in the gallery, as Smith first directs the Senate Sergeant-at-arms to "call a quorum," and then reads one lengthy document after another, all carefully chosen: the [[Declaration of Independence]], the [[Constitution of the United States]], and finally several key passages from the [[Bible]]. While this is happening, Diz Moore begins his own campaign of sympathetic coverage of Smith and his battle. Diz is outraged to learn that Taylor has effectively muzzled all the news organs in his State, so that not one word by Smith or in Smith's favor is being printed or heard.

Saunders has an idea: to use Jeff Smith's old newspaper, ''Boys' Stuff'', to send the message. So while Taylor's controlled newspapers continue to print the "doctored-up junk" that so disgusts Diz, ''Boys' Stuff'' prints Smith's message and in detail, with the full background. Sadly, as soon as Taylor's men realize that ''Boys' Stuff'' is getting out, they move at once to steal the copies of ''Boys' Stuff'' by force, invade and shut down the press, and even run a group of boys off the road. And so, with rare exception, all that the people hear is Taylor's message, and they respond with thousands of telegrams effectively telling Smith to cease and desist.

Paine has those telegrams brought into the well of the Senate and invites Smith to read them. Smith, who now has been talking for twenty-four hours, does read them. Then he calmly tells Paine that now he is fighting "one of those lost causes" that Paine used to say were the only causes worth fighting for, and were even worth dying for, as Clayton Smith had done.

Then Smith challenges the Senate one more time:{{cquote|You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well, I'm not licked! And I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause, even if this room gets filled with lies like these, and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place! Somebody'll listen to me...somebody...}}

Whereupon Smith loses consciousness and collapses. Saunders, watching from above, screams. Another Senator examines Smith and announces that he is still alive, and has merely fainted. A young Senate page whispers this news to Saunders.

Then three shots ring out from the door to the Senate cloakroom, after which Senator Paine rushes in, babbling in a barely coherent manner that Section Forty is indeed a fraud, that every word that Smith had spoken was the truth, and that he, Paine, was no longer fit to hold any position of honor, trust or profit, and thus he, not Smith, ought to be expelled from the Senate.

== Cast ==
* [[James Stewart]] as [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Jefferson Smith]]
** [[Jean Arthur]] as Clarissa Saunders, his Washington secretary
** [[Beulah Bondi]] as Ma Smith, his mother
** [[Dickie Jones]] as Dick, a young Senate page

* [[Claude Rains]] as Senator [[Joseph Paine|Joseph Harrison Paine]]
** [[Astrid Allwyn]] as Susan Paine, his daughter

* [[Edward Arnold]] as James Taylor
** [[Eugene Pallette]] as Chick McGann, his chief Washington facilitator

* [[Guy Kibbee]] as Hubert "Hap" Hopper, governor of the State in question.
** [[Ruth Donnelly]] as Emma Hopper, his wife.

* [[Thomas Mitchell]] as "Diz" Moore, a "gentleman of the press."

* [[Harry Carey]] as the [[Vice President of the United States]], shown in this film in his role as President of the Senate.

* [[Jack Carson]] as Sweeney, one of the jesting reporters in the National Press Club, a role for which he was uncredited.

* [[H. V. Kaltenborn]], veteran commentator for [[CBS News]], portraying himself as he covers the filibuster.

{{endspoiler}}

== Themes ==
The primary themes of the film are high ideals, patriotism, having the courage to fight for what's right and the little guy making good against impossible odds. These themes are common in Capra's other films such as [[Meet John Doe]] and the perennial Christmas favorite [[It's a Wonderful Life]]. Jefferson Smith shows his devotion to those ideals in everything he does: standing at attention in the presence of the Governor, able to recite the words of [[Abraham Lincoln]] or [[Thomas Jefferson]] by heart, and falling into near-ecstasy on being told that he has been assigned the desk once used by Senator [[Daniel Webster]]. His most eloquent display of high ideals, aside from the filibuster, is his description of the purpose of his proposed National Boys' Camp: to make boys aware of their heritage of liberty, which all too many of his fellow citizens have forgotten—a most astute observation, even if made by a fictional character.

However, this film tragically demonstrates that the politicians of Frank Capra's day paid only lip service to these high ideals, while conducting themselves in a manner that the Founders would regard with disgust, prompting them to suggest loudly that all of them be removed from office for violation of the public trust. Whether modern politicians conduct themselves in any better fashion than did the characters in this film is an open question, and for many the answer is, "No." Thus Jefferson Smith is a [[Literary type|type]] of any average citizen who, taught all his life to be respectful of those who enter into the noble calling of public service, discovered, to his horror, that public servants, with rare exception, behave in a manner that is most ''ig''noble. Indeed, Senator Joseph Paine tells him, {{cquote|You've got to check your ideals at the door the way you check your rubbers.}}

Paine further observes,{{cquote|You can't count on the people voting. Half the time they don't vote, anyway. That's how empires have been built since time began.}}

Several other themes deserve mention in greater detail:

=== Dysfunctional politics ===
Frank Capra portrayed a highly dysfunctional American political system. In Frank Capra's vision, politicians are a venal lot, often under the control of corrupt political bosses who have amassed the power to control industry and the media, which in turn gives them the power to reward their friends, and punish their enemies, at will and with impunity. Capra's vision also portrayed ordinary citizens as willing, at least to some extent, to rise up in protest to these wrongs.

Many Americans today believe that American political institutions are even more dysfunctional today than Frank Capra portrayed them as being. They have formed the [[Tea Party Movement]], and have made appearances in "town hall meetings" that have played out in a fashion quite similar to the scene in this film of the citizens loudly rejecting Governor Hopper's original choice of Horace Miller to replace the late Sam Foley in the Senate.

=== Political reality ===
When Senator-designate Smith first appears in the Senate, the young page named Dick assures him that sitting and listening is "the way to get re-elected." He also sardonically observes, when describing the foreign dignitaries in the diplomatic section of the Senate gallery, that {{cquote|They and the page boys are the only class we have in the place!}}

The prayers offered by the Senate chaplain seemed strained, forced, and little more than a script, especially since many, if not most, of the Senators give every indication of paying hypocritical lip service to that script.

=== Failure to read bills ===
When Senator Joseph Paine freely confesses that he doesn't understand half the bills he votes on, though he was once a practicing attorney, he might have been confessing far more than he intended. Today the spectacle of Senators and Representatives voting on bills that run to over a thousand pages, without even taking the trouble to read them, has become a national scandal.

=== "Yellow" journalism and drive-by media ===
When [[Rush Limbaugh]] coined the phrase "drive-by media" to describe the [[Mainstream Media]], he might have had in mind conduct of the sort displayed by the reporters who write the first mocking stories about Senator Smith. Even Diz Moore recoils at the tactics of what he calls the "ambulance chasers" in his profession.

=== Media manipulation and alternative media ===
Jim Taylor's vast political machine also includes several newspapers, plus an unspecified power to "line up" other news organs in his State. He is a thoroughly unscrupulous man, not above using physical force to stall or prevent the delivery of any message that does not come from him, through any medium. His brutal suppression of ''Boys' Stuff'', even to running a group of boys off the road, is a prize example.

Many commentators believe that the [[Mainstream Media]] today behave quite like the tame news organs under Jim Taylor's control. ''Boys' Stuff'' is a [[Literary type|type]] of the [[Alternative Media]], an outlet for the news that is beyond the control of the modern analogue of Jim Taylor. The definite threats now being made against the modern alternative media by [[Mark Lloyd]] and other "[[Obama Administration#Czars|Czars]]" represent only a higher degree of brutality than that employed by Taylor and his men.

That Jim Taylor does not entirely succeed (and indeed has his reputation utterly destroyed by film's end) is a testament to the respect that at least some members of the press still retain for the ideals of their own profession. Diz Moore is offended to the point of mortification at the exercise of Jim Taylor's power, and that, even more than his loyalty to Clarissa Saunders, prompts him to assist Smith in any way within his power.

=== Government manipulation ===
By far Jim Taylor's greatest threat is his ability to manipulate the institutions of government, even at the Federal level. He makes or breaks Governors, Representatives, and Senators. He suborns a sitting Governor to appear before a committee of the Senate and commit [[perjury]]. And when a number of adult citizens who know what is going on stage a rally to protest his actions, Jim Taylor's corrupt State police turn fire hoses on the demonstrators.

That this film was released at the peak of the power, in Europe, of [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini]] should not be lost on any student of history. Jim Taylor, to be sure, does not go so far as to set fire to his State capitol, nor single out a particular demographic as the objects of any special hatred. But in every other way, he evokes Mussolini, if not Hitler, in his conduct, except that his methods are more those of an organized criminal than those of a true totalitarian dictator.

Yet in all his cold calculation, Jim Taylor makes a fatal ''mis''calculation regarding the continued loyalty of Joseph Paine. He secures Paine's cooperation in a campaign to destroy Jeff Smith's reputation only by threatening to destroy Paine's own political career. At first Paine must only stand by, but then Taylor insists that he play a much more active role, one that begins with perjury and continues with the perpetuation of lie after lie on the floor of the Senate. As Paine watches Smith resist until he can resist no more, and then hears Smith remind Paine of the young man he once had been, the heightened cognitive dissonance between the ideals that Paine once upheld, and the deplorable things that he is now doing at Taylor's orders, finally breaks him. When Paine breaks, he breaks totally, and though Smith can't hear it (because he has by then lost consciousness), Smith has won a complete victory.

=== The Cocktail Circuit ===
Capra also displays his utter contempt for the "Washington Cocktail Circuit." Susan Paine moves in that circuit, and her own behavior is a prize example. In Capra's opinion, women like Susan Paine are little better than prostitutes, using their attractiveness as a weapon for political advancement, either their own or that of the men who keep them. But even Susan Paine is an excusable example; the bevy of female hangers-on to Jim Taylor behave in a manner that is almost laughable, as when they all squeal with delight after Jim Taylor shows them some flashy [[jewel]]ry.

Clarissa Saunders is, of course, the anti-type of Susan Paine. As the film begins, she is a cynical player. As she explains to Senator Paine:{{cquote|When I first came to this town, my eyes were big blue question marks. Now they're big green dollar marks.}}

But by film's end, Jefferson Smith's simple decency has won her affection and her loyalty. Curiously, Susan Paine is absent from the second half of the film, as she has clearly gained nothing.

== Erratum ==
Senator Paine, in the heartbreaking session with Senator Smith in Paine's office, tells Smith that "thirty years ago, I had your ideals; I was you." This is inconsistent with the repeated assertions, elsewhere in the film, that Joseph Paine had been a Senator for ''twenty'' years, and that Jim Taylor had given him his start in politics by "pick[ing] [him] out of a hole in the wall and building [him] up to ''look'' like a Senator." (Thus Paine's career in politics began with his election to the Senate and ''not'' with any election, ten years earlier, to the House of Representatives.) This is also inconsistent with Smith's probable age, which was likely the same age as that of the actor, [[James Stewart]], who portrayed him. This is most likely a script editing mistake, the one reference to the span of Paine's career that the editorial department did not catch before shooting.

== Likely true-life analogues ==
The party to which Senators Smith and Paine most likely belong is the [[Democratic Party]]. Senator Paine's fellow Senators frequently joke about "seeing him in the [[White House]], and at the time, the [[Republican Party]] stood almost no chance of electing anyone President.

The State that Senators Smith and Paine represent is most likely either [[Colorado]] or [[Wyoming]]. Clarissa Saunders, on first meeting Smith, observes tartly that the "custom of the prairie" might or might not be "to take French leave." Smith also brings a flock of carrier pigeons to Washington, and he describes to Susan Paine that after he released one, it was "probably over Kentucky" by the time he gives that description. [[Kentucky]] lies in an almost direct line of flight between the [[District of Columbia]] and the State of [[Colorado]], and [[Wyoming]] lies to Colorado's immediate north. In addition, Colorado and Wyoming both suit all the requirements that the story calls for: several [[mountain]]ous regions, [[forest]]s, and creeks, any one of which could have been the "Willett Creek" described in the film as the proposed location for a National Boys' Camp.

The name given to the capital city (Jackson City) provides no clue, except that Jackson Hole is the name of a prominent location in Wyoming.

The Boy Rangers are, of course, modeled loosely on the [[Boy Scouts of America]], though as described in the film, the Boy Rangers are more likely to be an American-only movement and not the offshoot of an international youth movement that had its roots in the [[United Kingdom]], as the Boy Scouts are.

== Reception ==
The film's premier (October 17, 1939) took place in [[Washington, DC]]. Several politicians of both political parties attended. Halfway through the screening, all of them walked out in indignation.

Officials of the [[Soviet Union]] scornfully observed that the film was unrealistic, not on account of the disreputable behavior of the politicians in the film, but rather on account of the spectacle of Jefferson Smith surviving long enough to break Joseph Paine's spirit and cause him to attempt [[suicide]] and then to make a full confession.

Visitors to the actual galleries of the Senate have frequently commented that the actual Senate appears exactly as depicted in the film. [[Robert Osborne]] has frequently reminded viewers of [[Turner Classic Movies]] that [[Columbia Pictures Corporation]] built exact replicas of the Senate chamber, galleries, and cloakroom, correct to the last detail.

As of September 8, 2009, it is ranked #97 in the IMDb top 250 list.<ref>http://imdb.com/chart/top?tt0031679 IMDb Top 250</ref> However, its overall popularity has advanced by 211 percent over the preceding week. The strength of the [[Tea Party Movement]] might be provoking this heightened interest.

== Nominations ==
Claude Rains received an [[Academy Award]] nomination, in the category of "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role," for his performance in the role of Senator Joseph Paine.

== Allusions to this work by other works ==
In 1977, American International Pictures released a film, ''Billy Jack Goes to Washington'', in which a recurring character named Billy Jack ([[Tom Laughlin]]) essentially reprised the Jefferson Smith role, while adding the theme of Native-American advocacy to the original themes of the 1939 film.<ref name=amg>See the AllMovie profile.</ref>

In 1947, H. C. Potter produced a film titled ''The Farmer's Daughter,'' in which a young Swedish girl challenged a corrupt political machine, ran for election to the House of Representatives, and won.<ref name=amg/>

More recently, in 1993, Ivan Reitman produced a film, ''[[Dave]]'', in which the [[President of the United States]] fell ill from a stroke, and his cold-hearted chief of staff selected an exact look-alike to replace him.<ref name=amg/> Dave, the title character, surprises everyone by actually trying to govern, and in the end makes a climactic address to a joint session of Congress in which he denounces his thoroughly corrupt chief of staff and then simulates having a stroke of his own to end the imposture and force the country to select another President. Along the way, he wins the heart of the President's wife, and after he returns to his home town and announces his candidacy for the office of mayor, the former First Lady tracks him down with a clear object of matrimony.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[category:movies]]

Glasgow

2010-05-03T22:30:02Z

Hopefiend: Reverted vandalism by User:TorranceK

[[Image:Glasgow Coat of Arms.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Glasgow's Coat of Arms c.1866]]
'''Glasgow''' is the largest city in [[Scotland]]. Founded by its patron saint [[Kentigern]] (or [[Mungo]]) around 540 AD it stands on both sides of the River Clyde.

The official motto of the city is ''Floreat Glasgua'' ("Let Glasgow Flourish"), a shortened version of the inscription on a bell that was made for the Tron Kirk on Trongate in 1637. The steeple still exists as part of the Tron Theatre. The inscription read: ''Lord, let Glasgow flovrichse throvgh the preaching of thy word and praising thy name.'' In 1663 the motto became: ''Lord, let Glasgow flourish through the preaching of thy word'' and in 1699 this was shortened to its current version.

The population of the city itself has declined from over a million inhabitants in the pre [[World War II]] era to around 600,000 today. However the population of the Greater Glasgow conurbation is approximately 2.3 million, roughly half the population of [[Scotland]].

Inhabitants of Glasgow are called Glaswegians but are often referred to by other Scots as "Keelies" or "Weegies".

== Buildings ==

Glasgow has many fine public buildings, notably Glasgow Cathedral, a large [[Gothic]] edifice, the City Chambers, [[Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery]], the Great Eastern Hotel, the [[University of Glasgow|University]] at Gilmorehill, the Armadillo designed by [[Norman Foster]], the School of Art designed by [[Charles Rennie Mackintosh]] and the Beresford Hotel, an art deco building on Sauchiehall St. The Beresford Hotel has now been converted to apartments having previously been a Bachelor Officer's Quarters for the US military during WWII, a second period as a hotel, the headquarters of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in Scotland and a student Hall of Residence (Baird Hall) for the University of Strathclyde

Despite a long and proud industrial heritage Glasgow is studded with green spaces and recreation grounds (the name Glasgow comes from the Brythonic ''glas cau'' for "green hollow"). The slums of the industrial era have now been cleared and regenerated with many fine new dwellings and green spaces.

The poet [[Sir John Betjeman]] described Glasgow as the "finest Victorian city in the world".

== History ==

The site of the founding of St Mungo's church by the Molendinar Burn, a stream which flows into the [[River Clyde]], is now the site of Glasgow Cathedral. <ref>http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/AboutGlasgow/History/Earliest+Beginnings.htm</ref>
[[Image:uk-glasgow.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Glasgow and the River Clyde viewed looking east]]
Glasgow is famous for shipbuilding - the [[Queen Mary]], the [[Queen Elizabeth]], the [[Queen Elizabeth 2]] and the [[Lusitania]] are just some of the famous vessels which were "Clyde-built". Other industries include [[whisky]] distilling.

== Education ==

Glasgow has three universities - the [[University of Glasgow]] founded in 1451, the [[University of Strathclyde]], the former Royal College, which was raised to university status in 1965 and [[Glasgow Caledonian University]], previously Glasgow College of Technology, which has been a university since 1992.

== The People ==

Glasgow's population consists mainly of Lowland Scots, Gaels from the [[Highlands]] and [[Hebrides]] and the descendants of immigrants from [[Ireland]]. The early twentieth century saw arrivals from [[Italy]], [[Russia]], [[Lithuania]] and [[Poland]]. Some of these immigrants from Eastern Europe were [[Jews]] escaping pogroms but many came to work in the coalmines and steelworks in and around the city. The latter half of the twentieth century saw a new wave of immigration from [[India]] and [[Pakistan]]. With the recent accession of Poland to the [[European Union]] the city has played host to many young Poles seeking work in the city.

==Sport and Religion ==

Football and religion are normally seen as being inseparable in Glasgow. Scottish Football has for decades been dominated by two Glasgow clubs; [[Glasgow Rangers FC]] and [[Celtic FC]] (often erroneously called Glasgow Celtic). These are the two clubs with the strongest links to the religious community. Rangers predominantly draw their support, and until the 1980's their players, from members of the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] churches while Celtic historically draw their support from the [[Roman Catholic]] community. Due to the fixture scheduling of the [[Scottish Premier League]] the two teams meet each other at 4 times a year. <ref>http://www.scotprem.premiumtv.co.uk/page/FixturesandResults/0,,10002,00.html</ref>

== Politics ==

Due to its heavy working class culture and tradition of heavy industry Glasgow has always been associated with [[socialism]] and until the late 1940s was the heartland of the [[Independent Labour Party]]. The [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] also had a notable following in the city. All MPs currently returned to the UK Parliament represent the Labour Party. The last Conservative to represent a Parliamentary seat in Glasgow was Teddy (later Sir Teddy) Taylor who represented Glasgow Cathcart from 1964 to 1979 when he lost he seat to [[John Maxton]]. This was the only Conservative loss in the 1979 election and fore-shadowed the collapse in support of Conservatism throughout Scotland during the premiership of [[Margaret Thatcher]].

In the Scottish Parliament all 9 of the 10 Constituency MPs represent the Labour Party. The only non-Labour MSP is the Scottish National Party's [[Nicola Sturgeon]] in Glasgow Govan. The Proportionately Elected Regional List MPs for Glasgow comprise four from the [[Scottish National Party]], one from the [[Liberal Democrats]], one from the [[Green Party]] and the Conservative, [[Bill Aitken]].<ref>http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/YourCouncil/Elections_Voting/Election_Results/ElectionScotland2007/SPElectionResults.htm</ref>

These elections for the Scottish Parliament were held on 3rd May 2007.

== Customs, Leisure and Culture ==

The city has a number of fine museums and galleries, notably the [[Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery]], the [[Burrell Collection]] in Pollok Park and the Museum of Religious Life which is situated in Provand's Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow.

The Theatre Royal in Hope Street is the home of Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has its home at the Royal Concert Hall in Buchanan Street. The Henry Wood Hall in Claremont Street is the base of the The Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Scottish Television and BBC Scotland both have studios on the south bank of the Clyde at Pacific Quay.

An annual event for the city is the ''Pride Scotia'' festival (colloquially called "Glasgay") organised by the city council for homosexuals, lesbians, bi-sexuals and transsexuals from Glasgow and farther afield. In 2006 it was the source of some controversy when several of the city's firefighters were disciplined for refusing to distribute fire safety leaflets to marchers in the event's parade. <ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/firefighters/story/0,,1862956,00.html</ref> . Despite the concerns of the [[Roman Catholic]] [[Archbishop of Glasgow]] the left leaning local media supported the actions of [[Strathclyde Fire and Rescue]], the men's employers.

== Language ==

The official language is [[English]] although many of the city's inhabitants (traditionally the working class) employ the Glaswegian dialect which is a variant of [[Scots]]. This is sometimes colloquially known as the "Glesga Patter".

The ancient Celtic language [[Gaelic]] can often be heard in Glasgow, particularly in the West End where there is a sizable community from the [[Hebrides]].

With the recent wave of immigration from eastern Europe it is not unusual to hear the Polish tongue being spoken around the city.

== Famous Glaswegians ==

* [[Billy Connolly]] (Comedian and Actor)
* [[Charles Rennie Mackintosh]] (Architect)
* Sir William Burrell (Businessman, Philantropist who donated The [[Burrell Collection]] to the City)
* [[Gordon Jackson]] (Actor, The Great Escape, Upstairs Downstairs, The Professionals)
* [[Robbie Coltrane]] (Actor, Hagrid in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' films)
* Billy Boyd (Actor, [[Pippin Took]] in the [[The Lord of the Rings film trilogy|''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]])
* Jack McLean (journalist, author)
* Gerry McNee (journalist - "The Voice of a Football")
* Alan Cumming (actor)
* Ian and Janette Tough aka [[The Krankies]] (comedy duo),
* Johnny Beattie (Shakespearean actor)
* Frankie Miller (rock singer)
* Jim Kerr (rock singer with [[Simple Minds]])
* Stanley Baxter (comedian)
* Lulu (singer)
* Ian Brady (moors murderer)
* Andrew Agnew (Action Film Actor)
* [[Jerry Sadowitz]] (magician)
* Mark McManus (actor)
* Rikki Fulton (Comedian, half of the Francie & Josie comedy duo and creator of Rev I. M. Jolly)
* [[Angus Lennie]] (actor - ''The Great Escape'' and ''Crossroads'')
* [[John Martyn]] ( singer/songwriter)
* [[Claire Grogan]] (actor and singer)
* Pastor [[Jack Glass]] (preacher and ecumenist)
* [[Sir Alex Ferguson]] (football manager - [[Manchester United F.C.]])

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

[[Category:Scottish Cities and Towns]]

Rahm Emanuel

2010-05-03T22:28:58Z

Hopefiend: Reverted vandalism by User:TorranceK

'''Rahm Emanuel''' (b. 1959) is a powerful Democrat who is Chief of Staff to President [[Obama]]. [[File:Rahm Emanuel.jpg|thumb|200px|Rahm Emanuel]] He represented [[Illinois]]' 5th Congressional District in the House of Representatives 2003-2008. As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he took credit gaining a majority for the first time since 1994. He became a top leader as Chairman of the Democratic Caucus in the House. A member of a prominent Jewish family, Emanuel is an enthusiastic defender of [[Israel]]. He was blasted by leftists for his staunch support of the war in Iraq. He was neutral during the 2008 primaries, but when Obama was elected president he immediately appointed Emanuel Chief of Staff. Wearing many hats, Emaneuel took charge of planning, appointments and operations for the incoming [[Obama Administration]].

Illustrating Emanuel's penchant for exploiting crises for political gain, he remarked, "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste; they are opportunities to do big things." <ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeA_kHHLow Rahm Emanuel]YouTube- you never want a serious crisis video</ref><ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122721278056345271.html?mod=googlenews_wsj]</ref>

==Background==

Emanuel is the son of a prominent physician, Dr. Benjamin M. Emanuel; the father was born in Jerusalem. Emanuel has a bachelor's degree from [[Sarah Lawrence College]] (1981), and a master's degree in speech and communication from [[Northwestern University]] (1985). Emanuel and his wife Ann have three children.

==Obama White House==

In the White House Emanuel's aggressive demands for a stimulus package won passage of the liberals' [[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009|$789 billion bill]] in February, but alienated Republicans (only three of whom voted for it). His seizure of control of the Census Bureau from the Commerce department led Senator [[Judd Gregg]], a leading Republican, to reverse himself and reject the job of Secretary of Commerce. Emanuel released control of the census to head off complaints of political interference. Emanuel also ran roughshod over the Secretary of State, vetoing her choice for a senior aide.

In President Obama's first year Emanuel was considered to be the most powerful White House chief of staff in decades.

==Emanuel's role in the sublime lending crisis==

Emanuel was appointed to the board of scandal-plagued quasi-governmental mortgage giant Freddie Mac by President Clinton. <ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122610420534009957.html</ref><ref>[http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6201900&page=1 Emanuel Was Director Of Freddie Mac During Scandal], ABC News,
November 7, 2008.</ref> While Emanuel was on the board, Freddie Mac misreported its net income in 2000 by 30.5 percent, in 2001 by 23.9 percent and 2002 by 42.9 percent according to the SEC. Freddie Mac's failure is regarded as one of the precipitating events of the [[Financial_Crisis_of_2008#2008_crises| Financial Crisis of 2008]].

==Congressional leadership position==

Emanuel served in Congress 2002-2008 from the North Side of Chicago. Among Democrats in the House, he was squarely in the middle in his votes on social, economic and foreign policy issues. His aggressive in-your-face style alienated his opponents, but Emanuel took charge of the 2006 election for House Democrats, and secured major gains, giving the Democrats a majority for the first time since 1994, and propelling Emanuel to a top leadership role.

==Clinton White House==

He worked in the [[Bill Clinton]] White House from 1993-1998, first serving as Assistant to the President for Political Affairs, and then Senior Adviser to the President for Policy and Strategy. He was demoted at the behest of [[Hillary Clinton]] after complaints from other staffers. Ironically, as Obama Chief of Staff, Emanuel was now in a position to overrule Hillary Clinton when she attempted to hire another former Clinton White House staffer, Sidney Blumenthal.

Leaving the White House staff, he became wealthy as an investment banker in Chicago, 1999-2002. Emanuel had no previous investment banking experience.

==See also==
* [[Obama Administration]]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Former United States Representatives]]
[[Category:Obama Administration]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emanuel, Rahm}}

Leslie Groves

2010-05-03T22:27:51Z

Hopefiend: Reverted vandalism by User:TorranceK

Leslie Groves was a U.S. Army general who built the Pentagon building, then directed the [[Manhattan Project]] that built the [[atomic bomb]] during [[World War II]].

Groves hired [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] as scientific manager under Groves' supervision. Later, Groves testified for Oppenheimer in opposition to revocation of his security clearance by Congress. Congress revoked Oppenheimer's security clearance anyway.

==Further reading==
* Leslie R. Groves. ''Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project'' (1962) [http://www.amazon.com/Now-Can-Told-Manhattan-Paperbacks/dp/0306801892/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227182231&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search], his memoir
* Robert S. Norris. ''Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project's Indispensable Man'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Bomb-Manhattan-Projects-Indispensable/dp/1586420674/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227182231&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]

[[category:United States History]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Groves, Leslie}}

Orans

2010-05-03T22:26:27Z

Hopefiend: Reverted vandalism by User:TorranceK

The '''Orans''' (Latin for ''[[praying]]'') is the name of the attitude of prayer in which the arms are upraised and the palms facing up, with the [[elbow]]s bent inwards. Though much associated with [[Christian]]s, this position was used by [[Pagans]] and [[Jew]]s before [[Christ]] as well as Christians. It is depicted numerous times in the Roman catacombs.

Orans also may refer to a female figure with her arms upraised, which is thought to symbolize the soul, either in departure from the body or in prayer for those on earth. <ref>http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11269a.htm</ref>

=References=
<references/>

[[Category:Religion]][[Category:Christianity]]

Power rule

2010-05-03T22:25:27Z

Hopefiend: Reverted vandalism

The power rule allows one to calculate the derivative of a power of a function in terms of the derivative of the function itself. The power rule states that

<math> \frac{d}{dx} (x^n) = nx^{n-1} </math>

for all integers <math> n </math>. This rule is useful when combined with the [[chain rule]]. As an example we can compute the derivative of <math> f(x) = (\sin(x))^n</math> as

<math> f'(x) = \frac{d}{dx} (\sin(x))^n = n(\sin(x))^{n-1}\cos(x) </math>

[[Category:Mathematics]]

Sarah Palin

2010-05-03T21:39:35Z

Hopefiend: Large crowds are not unusual on book signing tours; large crowds would not have been unusual for the venues in which she held the book signings either; fixed typo

{{Officeholder
|name=Sarah Palin
|image=Sarah Palin.jpg
|party=[[Republican]]
|spouse=[[Todd Palin]]
|religion=Christian
|offices=

{{Officeholder/governor
|state=Alaska
|terms=December 4, 2006 - July 26, 2009
|preceded=[[Frank Murkowski]]
|former=n
|succeeded=[[Sean Parnell]]
}}
}}

'''Sarah Louise Heath Palin''' (pronounced pay'-lynn) (born February 11, 1964) is a [[conservative]] [[Republican Party|Republican]] who served as the 11th [[Governor]] of [[Alaska]] from 2006 through 2009. She is the youngest person to hold this office as well as the first woman to do so in the state's history. On July 3, 2009 Palin announced that she would resign as Governor of Alaska. <ref>http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/palin_not_running/2009/07/03/231789.html</ref> Executive power was transferred to [[Lieutenant Governor]] [[Sean Parnell]].
Palin was Senator [[John McCain]]'s Vice Presidential running mate in the [[2008 Presidential Election]]<ref>[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/palins_vp_selection_speech.html Acceptance Speech by Palin]</ref>, and the first woman to appear on a Republican Presidential ticket.

She brought a [[populism|populist]] image and a record of cutting wasteful spending and reforming government to McCain's ticket. In the summer of 2007, she was the most popular governor in America, after cutting 13% of [[Alaska]]'s budget.<ref>http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/851orcjq.asp</ref> She is strongly [[pro-life]] and a prominent spokesperson for [[special needs]] children. She favors more competition in health care, and pushed for abolishing the [[certificate of need]] regulations that interfere with opening new medical clinics.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090403253.html?referrer=emailarticle</ref>

Married for 20 years, Sarah Palin's husband was a member of the United Steelworkers Union and her eldest son (of five children) is in the [[United States Army]], having served in Iraq. In an appearance on August 30, 2008 in Washington, Pennsylvania, she was greeted by a surprisingly large crowd as she promoted the new McCain-Palin ticket.

Her memoir ''[[Going Rogue]]'' was published in November 2009, with Palin drawing large crowds to book signing occasions around the country. She comments regularly on public affairs through her Facebook page, criticizing the "death panels" of the health care reform program, and praising President Obama's pro-war speech upon receiving the Nobel Peace prize in Dec. 2009. She will appear on the [[Fox News Channel]] programming on a regular basis as part of a multi-year deal. <ref>http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/sarah-palin-to-contribute-to-fox-news/?scp=2&sq=Palin&st=cse</ref>

==Personal Background==
[[Image:Sarah Palin Todd Trig.jpg|thumb|right|250px|In this April 23, 2008 file photo, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, left, and her husband, Todd Palin, hold their baby boy Trig in Anchorage, Alaska. 
''Photo courtesy of Newsmax.com'']]

Palin arrived in Alaska with her family in 1964, when her parents came to teach school in Skagway. Palin attended Wasilla High School where her extracurricular activities included captaining the basketball team which went on to win the state championship <ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122108935141721343.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Obama Can't Win Against Palin] Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2008</ref> after graduating in 1982. She went on to college, after attending several institutions she received a bachelor of science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987.

She worked in the media and the utility industry before beginning her public service 14 years ago.

Over the course of her 44 years in Alaska she has lived in Skagway, Eagle River and Wasilla. To earn money for college, Palin entered beauty pageants.

She is married to [[Todd Palin]], part Yupik [[Eskimo]], who is a lifelong Alaskan, formerly worked at a non-management union job in the oil industry, and also as a commercial salmon fisherman. He is a four-time champion of the Iron Dog, the world's longest snowmobile race.

Sarah Palin is a [[Labor union | union]] member, a [[moose]] hunter and holds a membership in the [[NRA]].<ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/29/mccain-to-name-running-mate-on-friday/ McCain Names Alaska Gov. Palin as Running Mate] Fox News, August 29, 2008</ref> Todd and Sarah have five children together: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig.

Palin has been widely praised among conservatives for acting on her [[pro-life]] beliefs in the case of her youngest son, Trig, who was diagnosed with [[Down syndrome]] in the fourth month of her pregnancy. After researching the condition, she and her husband agreed to continue to pregnancy:
: "[My husband Todd said,] we shouldn't be asking 'Why us?' We should be saying 'Well, why not us?' We've both been very vocal about being pro life. We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential. I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection. Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?" <ref>http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2008/05/gov-sarah-palin.html</ref> <ref>[http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=29242 Canadian Doctors 'Fear' Sarah Palin's Choice May Start a Trend] Catholic Online, September 11, 2008</ref>

Trig was born on April 18, 2008, four months before his mother was announced as the vice-presidential candidate. Palin wrote:
:"This new person in your life can help everyone put things in perspective and bind us together, and get everyone focused on what really matters ... Those who love him will think less about self and focus less on what the world tells [us] is 'normal' or 'perfect.'"<ref name="people">[[People magazine]]</ref>

:"It's a sign of the times to be able to do this," she said. "I can think of so many male candidates who watched a families grow while they were in office. There is no reason to believe a woman can't do it with a growing family. My baby will not be at all or in any sense neglected."<ref>Alaska governor balances newborn's needs, official duties [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-05-10-4082128881_x.htm]</ref>

Palin's older son, Track, serves in the U.S. Army, and was deployed to [[Iraq War|Iraq]] in September 2008. Palin says, "I'm proud of him but I worry."

In September of 2008, Palin announced that her daughter Bristol was five months pregnant. After having been given the choice, Bristol bravely chose to keep the child. Palin stated "We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents."<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080901/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin_daughter Palin says 17-year-old daughter is pregnant]</ref> Bristol has since gone on to promote abstinence as a realistic choice for teenagers, stating, "[A]bstinence is the only way you can effectively, 100% foolproof way you can prevent pregnancy."<ref>http://www.lifenews.com/nat5025.html</ref>

[[Image:Palin Family..jpg|thumb|left|Palin family members at the announcement of Palin's vice presidential selection, August 29, 2008. From left: Todd, Piper, Willow, Bristol, and Trig.]]

==Political Career==
Palin was elected to two terms on the Wasilla City Council, and then two terms as the Mayor / Manager of Alaska's fastest growing community (Population: 5400 in 2000)<ref>[http://wasilla.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm Wasilla Population and Demographics]</ref>. During her time as mayor, Palin hired a Washington lobbying firm to help secure $8 million in congressionally directed spending projects, otherwise known as earmarks.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-31-palin-bridge_N.htm Palin backed 'bridge to nowhere' in 2006]</ref> Ms. Palin's leadership qualities were recognized when she was elected as President of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. In 2002, she ran for Lieutenant Governor, but came in second in a four-way race. Later that year, when [[Frank Murkowski]] resigned his [[Senate]] seat to become [[governor]], she interviewed for the opening. Instead, Murkowski appointed his daughter to the seat. From there, she went on to run for governor and won, becoming the first female governor of Alaska and its youngest.

In 2003, then-Governor Mukowski appointed Palin to serve as Panel Ethics Commissioner of Alaska's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates Alaska's [[non-renewable energy|non-renewable]] resources: [[oil]] and [[gasoline|gas]]. She resigned in 2004 as a protest over the "lack of ethics" of fellow panelists who had ignored her complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest. In a similar vein, Palin took a great political risk by revealing that Randy Reudrich, chairman of the state Republican party, was doing political business on state time. She did this to fulfil a [[conflict of interest]] statement that required her to report such things; to omit the revelation would have been dishonest. But it turned out that this action endeared her to the people of Alaska.<ref>[http://churchformen.blogspot.com/2008/09/people-around-world-are-asking-who-is.html Sarah Palin, a friend of mine] </ref>

To help cultivate influence and political clout in the state, Palin served from 2003 - June, 2005 as one of three directors of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.", a 527 group that raised funds from corporate donors.<ref>[http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/01/palin_was_a_director_of_embatt.html#more Palin Was a Director of Embattled Sen. Ted Stevens's 527 Group]</ref> The stated purpose of the group is, "To increase the number of Republican women in elected offices and in appointed governmental and political positions, including advisory and regulatory commissions through training and education."<ref>[http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/ted_stevens_excellence_in_public_service_inc.asp Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.]</ref>

She ran for Governor in 2006 on a clean government platform, and accomplished a political rarity in defeating the incumbent Governor [[Frank Murkowski]] in his own Republican primary. Palin went on to defeat former Governor [[Tony Knowles]] in the general election.

She has also served on the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. She was named one of Alaska's "Top 40 Under 40", Alaska's Public Works "Person of the Year", and was recently inducted into the Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society at Alaska Pacific University.

Palin has served on numerous boards and commissions throughout the State, and stays active as a marathon runner, sports team mom, hockey manager and school volunteer. A lifetime member of the [[NRA]], she enjoys hunting, fishing, and Alaska history. <ref>http://gov.state.ak.us/bio.php Alaska Governor Sarah Palin</ref>
===Resignation===
In July of 2009, Governor Palin shocked Alaska and the nation with her announcement that she would resign her office effective July 26, 2009. She explained:
{{Cquote|My choice is to take a stand and effect change – not hit our heads against the wall and watch valuable state time and money, millions of your dollars, go down the drain in this new environment. Rather, we know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time, on another scale, and actually make a difference for our priorities – and so we will, for Alaskans and for Americans.<ref>[http://www.gov.state.ak.us/exec-column.php Executive Column: Palin's resignation announcement]</ref>}}

==Record as Governor==
===Energy and Oil===

A strong supporter of harnessing [[oil]] and natural [[gas]] resources, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) in March 2007, which would be the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope.<ref>http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/29/palin-alaska-gasline-inducement-act-nears-completi/</ref> It received bipartisan support and was signed into law by Governor Palin in June. In August of 2008 she signed legislation giving state authority to award TransCanada Corp a license to build and operate a multibillion-dollar pipeline to ship natural gas from the North Slope.<ref>http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=2e84b1e8-9a4a-4558-ad05-21b517c50fae</ref> As Governor, Palin created a new subcabinet that develops policies to reduce greenhouse gases and help the state adapt to [[climate change]]. She supports oil production in ANWR, connecting it with national security.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GE11URmmnc</ref>

In 2007, over the objections of oil companies, Palin worked with the Alaska state legislature to approve a major increase in taxes on the oil industry. <ref>[http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008103325_alaskatax07.html Windfall tax lets Alaska rake in billions from Big Oil]</ref> The state then gave Alaskans a $1200 check to pay for increased gas prices, using the increased revenues from the tax.<ref>[http://hotair.com/archives/2008/08/11/palin-backed-alaskan-windfall-profits-tax/ Palin backed Alaskan windfalls-profit tax]</ref>

Palin also announced on May 21, 2008 that the state would challenge a recent listing of [[polar bears]] as a threatened species as she and other Alaska elected officials feared such a listing would cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts. Palin's belief is that there is not enough evidence to support a listing, asserting that polar bears are well-managed and their population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation.

As governor of Alaska in Jan. 2009, Palin announced support for [[Alternative energy]] programs as she proposed a statewide energy plan that called for 50% of Alaska's power to be generated by renewable resources by 2025.<ref> Dan Joling, "Palin unveils state energy goals," [http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/657216.html ''Anchorage Daily News'' Jan. 16, 2009]</ref>

===State Economy===
[[Image:Govp_2008stos_large.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Gov. Sarah Palin delivering her 2008 State of the State address]] At first, Palin supported the Gravina Island Bridge Project, otherwise known as the "Bridge to Nowhere". In September 2006, during a stop in [[Ketchikan]] as part of her gubernatorial campaign, Palin stated, "OK, you've got Valley trash standing here in the middle of nowhere," Palin said, according to an account in the Ketchikan Daily News. "I think we're going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project."<ref>[http://www.adn.com/sarahpalin/story/511471.html Palin touts stance on 'Bridge to Nowhere']</ref> The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan, on Revillagigedo Island in southern southeast Alaska, to its airport on nearby Gravina island. The Anchorage Daily News also quoted her in an October, 2006 article as saying yes, she would continue state funding for the bridge because she wanted swift action on infrastructure projects. "The window is now while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist," she said.<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_bridge_to_nowhere;_ylt=Am.NkRx1mLWk9A34FLhn8IADW7oF Critics: Palin used 'Bridge to Nowhere' for gain]</ref> Palin announced her opposition to the project in a 2007 press release.

She has stated her opposition arose because of the excessive amount of pork-barrel spending in the project, and that she would not fund the $329 million that was short for the budget.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/22/alaska.bridge.ap/</ref> This reversal cost her the support of prominent Alaskan Republicans like Former state House Speaker Gail Phillips, who said, "You don't tell a group of Alaskans you support something and then go to someplace else and say you oppose it". Palin instead said that the best option would be to upgrade the ferry system. However, the money that was retained from the earmark was not used for the ferry system, but was spent building a road on Gravina Island that links to the site of the canceled bridge.<ref name="bridge">http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN3125537020080901 Palin "bridge to nowhere" line angers many Alaskans</ref>

Prominent Alaskan politicians criticized Palin for not "giving back" money earmarked for the project. These critics included her Republican campaign coordinator in Ketchikan, who stated that "She said 'thanks but no thanks,' but they kept the money".<ref name="bridge" /> However, state governments do not "give back" money in the manner proposed.

Three times during Palin's time as mayor, earmark funding for projects in Wasilla were noted in [[John McCain]]'s list of "objectionable" spending in 2001 and 2002. McCain's list of spending approved without normal budget scrutiny identified a $500,000 earmark for a public transportation project in the city and a $1 million earmark for an emergency communications center while $450,000 was set aside for an agricultural processing facility.<ref>[http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-earmarks3-2008sep03,0,6145252.story McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin]</ref> Palin, of course, as mayor of a small town had no ability to put these items in a Congressional bill, but her town did benefit from earmarked spending given to Alaska.

=== Foreign Policy ===
[[Image:Ftwainwright_govp_05s.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Governor Sarah Palin visits Strykers at Fort Wainwright, where she is briefed on how the troops are trained and what the training grounds provide.]]
Palin served as Commander in Chief of the Alaska Army [[National Guard]]. In 2007 she visited troops in [[Germany]] and [[Kuwait]]. According to Major General Craig E. Campbell, the adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard who commands the roughly 3,800 state militia members, the Alaskan governor is not in the site's chain of command and has no authority over its operations. He told the Associated Press on August 31st that he and Palin play no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. He went on to state that the entire operation is under federal control.<ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/31/ap/politics/main4401854.shtml GOP Cites Palin's Skill, But How Relevant Is It?]</ref>

During her first major interview, with ABC's [[Charlie Gibson]], Gibson asked Palin if she agreed with the "[[Bush Doctrine]]". Palin responded, "In what respect, Charlie?" Gibson followed, "What do you interpret it to be?" Palin answered with another question, "His world view?" Gibson still refused to answer directly but instead stated it was the doctrine Bush had proposed in September of 2002, before the Iraq war. Palin gave a response concerning Bush's attempt to eradicate Islamic extremism. Gibson then explained that the Bush doctrine refers to the right of anticipatory defense, a right to a [[Preemptive war|preemptive]] strike against any country that we think is going to attack us. <ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpJsQch9uZo Asked about the Bush Doctrine...Palin is Clueless]</ref> What Gibson did not point out is that he himself once gave a definition of the "Bush doctrine" (a concept made up by the press that has no clear definition) that was similar to Palin's answer. Indeed it has been pointed out since that there are actually four different versions of what the Bush doctrine is and the term and meaning changes over time and place.<ref>http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/12/palins-definition-of-bush-doctrine-hits-the-gibson-mark/</ref>

===Legislature Investigation===
In August of 2008, the [[Alaska]] state legislature began an investigation of Palin and her staff for potential abuse of power in regards to a firing of Commissioner of Public Safety Walter Monegan. Legally, Palin could dismiss Monegan at any time as he serves at the pleasure of the governor. Monegan was dismissed from his position in July of 2008, which Palin's political opponents claim was due to Monegan's refusal to fire trooper Mike Wooten, Palin's former brother-in-law who had a history of complaints including tasering his 10 year old stepson.<ref name="pc">http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212168861.shtml</ref> Palin says she released Monegan due to differences on budgeting. In an interview Monegan said that he was never told specifically by Sarah Palin to fire the state trooper Mike Wooten. <ref name="pc" />

Palin has denied the charges and, as is customary, the State of Alaska has hired a lawyer to represent her office in the investigation. August 25th, the Legislative Council voted 12-0 to hire Hollis French as the investigator. <ref>[http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=59d_1220063478 Investigation into Governor Sarah Palin's abuse of powers] CBS 11, August 30, 2008</ref> The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 and the House Judiciary Committee voted 7-0. The State's attorney released this statement:<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cvn_palin_troopergate Palin hires attorney for Troopergate investigation]</ref>

:The governor of every state gets legal counsel and this attorney is part of a weeks-old effort to provide this governor defense in a series of outlandish politically motivated charges. This legal defense is neither new nor uncommon nor at all political. It is a matter of her job and is not recent and it is not related to her selection on the McCain-Palin ticket.

The McCain campaign came out with a picture that includes three lead state Democratic legislators investigating the Branchflower probe, known as ‘Troopergate'. The photo shows the three of them at [[Obama]] headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska in July. The McCain campaign said the whole investigation is politically tainted and compromised. Republican Rep. John Coghill of North Pole called on managing investigator, legislator French to step down from the probe, saying he no longer had confidence in his objectivity. "These statements cause me to think that the report is already written even though the investigation is only just begun and the most important witnesses have not even been interviewed,” Coghill wrote in a letter calling for French’s replacement. “The investigation appears to be lacking in fairness, neutrality and due process.” <ref>[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2078644/posts McCain Camp has pictures of "troopergate" investigators at Obama Headquarters] FreeRepublic.com, September 9, 2008</ref> Democratic State Senator Kim Elton, head of the legislative council overseeing the investigation, said the decisions made by Sen. Hollis French "have been appropriate, bipartisan ... and unchallenged" and that French has called the comments he made last week "regrettable".<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/08/palin.investigation/ Head of Palin trooper probe will stay, lawmaker says]</ref> Lawyer Thomas Van Flein called the investigation "unlawful and unconstitutional" and said the man hired to run it, former prosecutor Stephen Branchflower, has a conflict of interest because he is a friend of the fired commissioner. <ref>[http://www.adn.com/troopergate/story/522488.html Palin's attorney calls investigator biased] Ap, September 11, 2008</ref>

The investigation issued its report for the Alaska State Legislative Council on October 10, 2008, concluding that Monegan's refusal to fire the trooper was not the sole reason he was dismissed, but was likely a contributing factor. The author of the report, Stephen Branchflower, focused on two questions of the inquiry: did Palin fire Walt Monegan improperly, and was the firing solely because of his refusal to fire her ex brother-in-law. "Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired," Branchflower wrote.<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4998X420081011</ref> Based on this, Branchflower claims that "I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act."<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/DOWNLOAD.pdf Page 8</ref>

In accordance with the second question the report focused on, Branchflower wrote, "I find that, although Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety," Branchflower wrote. The second finding of the report reads: "In spite of that, Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads." Branchflower also dismissed the Palins' assertions that they were afraid of Wooten because of threats they said he made. "Such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins' real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons," he wrote. <ref>http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10692757?source=most_viewed</ref> A preemptive response to this report was issued by the McCain/Palin campaign on October 9th, in which the campaign's own investigation concluded that Palin "acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan".<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE4998X420081011</ref>

In the end the "October Surprise" predicted by the head of the commission came to pass. Although the commission was asked not to release its findings until after the election to avoid political posturing, they refused to do so. Apart from tarring and feathering Palin, the report made no recommendations for any further inquiries or punishment, as it was understood that there was no case to do so. No direct reports of Sarah Palin abusing her power were ever produced or asking for the official to be fired were ever produced, but that didn't stop the report from drawing its conclusions based upon conjecture without evidence. Indeed, after the hoopla over the report subsided, the state personnel board released its finding that exonerated her of any wrongdoing.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081104/ap_on_el_pr/palin_troopergate</ref>

==Vice Presidential Candidate==

[[Image:Mccainpalin.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Sarah Palin vice presidential announcement, 08/29/08.]] On August 29, 2008, Palin was announced to be the Vice Presidential nominee for Republican Senator John McCain <ref>http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/sarah_palin_vp/2008/08/29/126138.html</ref>. The selection was a surprise, as those in the media were expecting [[Minnesota]] Governor [[Tim Pawlenty]] or former [[Massachusetts]]'s Governor [[Mitt Romney]]. Palin adds youth and executive experience to the ticket. She is the second female Vice Presidential candidate of a major party in U.S. history and the first one on a Republican ticket. The first was [[Geraldine Ferraro]], who the Democratic Party put on the ticket under [[Walter Mondale]] in 1984.

Palin's speech before the Republican convention on Wednesday, September 3rd was watched by over 40 million people. She had as many people turn in to see her as watched Obama's acceptance speech on the final day of the Democratic convention. Palin has also been attacked by the press on a level not seen since [[Dan Quayle]], although she ultimately handled it much better.
===Democrat Responses===
In a possible problem for the Democratic ticket, a majority of people believed that the press was trying to hurt Palin<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/story/rasmussen/20080904/pl_rasmussen/palinmedia20080904;_ylt=AqErk__wZIKdoVvqUXdr44Nh24cA</ref> and that type of unwarranted attack could have backfired into more support for the McCain/Palin ticket especially with unaffiliated voters believing the press is purposely attacking Palin by a 49% to 32% margin.

Many Democrats had advised the Obama campaign to ignore Palin, fearing that emphasis on her inexperience will backfire against Obama himself.<ref>[http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/capital/2008/09/05/tips-for-obama-ignore-palin-dis-mccain Matt Coopoer, "Tips for Obama: Ignore Palin, Dis McCain," Sept. 5, 2008, ''Conde-Nast Portfoloio.com'']</ref> She participated in a debate with the Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden on October 2, 2008, ending up being declared the winner by most credible news sources that are not influenced by liberal bias. Palin "kept Joe Biden on the defensive" and "ended up dominating [the debate]".<ref>http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14234.html</ref>

During a campaign event in [[Virginia]], Barack Obama said of the McCain/Palin ticket's similar policies, "...You can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig."<ref>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94481288</ref> Given the fact that she's stated "The difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull (is) lipstick" and the fact that only a female candidate would wear lipstick, the McCain camp released a web ad implying that the comment was targeting Governor Palin. The ad featured video clips of Gov. Palin convention speech, Obama's remarks at the campaign event, and a clip of Katie Couric commenting on pervasive sexism in the campaign. After extensive discussion in the news media, the ad was removed from McCain's website and other video sites following a copyright claim by CBS news. <ref>[http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/CBS_takes_down_McCain_webad_suggests_its_misleading.html?showall]</ref>

Palin is a lightning rod to the established [[liberal]] women's movement. She, like many high profile conservative females, has taken much abuse from the left. Palin has been forced to set up a legal defense fund to help pay for fees related to an onslaught of ethic complaints, which are always frivolous. <ref>[http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/18738 Palin blasts Obama administration: Government wants to "control the people"] CNN</ref> Because she is retiring from being governor of Alaska, the anti-American liberals pat themselves on the back in glee. Liberals still fail to understand that she is ''the'' typical conservative that the majority of Americans identify with. Her principles and her outlook on Americanism is a model for all future leaders.

Palin said of the people who have filed the complaints:
{{cquote| '''Those are the folks who want to tell me, they want to tell you, to sit down and shut up. We will not do that. I just can't, because I love my state. I love my country.''' }}

===Impact on Ticket===

In the run-up to the Vice-Presidential debate on October 2, 2008, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center attempted to measure the degree to which Palin impacted the GOP ticket positively or negatively in September.<ref>http://people-press.org/report/456/obama-regains-lead</ref> The survey compared the answers to two identical questions about her qualifications and overall favorable/unfavorable rating between polls taken in early and late September. The results show that public opinion of Palin has fallen significantly since the Republican convention, particularly in the public's opinion of her qualification to be Vice President. Faced with a barrage of negative press attacks after her nomination, some prominent Republicans like [[Mitt Romney]] believe that the isolation of Palin from the media in September was a mistake, and are calling for an increase in unscripted encounters with the press and public to counter that perception. According to Romney, "Holding Sarah Palin to just three interviews and microscopically focusing on each interview I think has been a mistake. I think they’d be a lot wiser to let Sarah Palin be Sarah Palin. Let her talk to the media, let her talk to people." <ref>http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/09/30/doubts-about-palin-grow-even-among-conservatives/</ref> Exit polling from the election itself had the final say on the matter of her impact on the ticket. For those who considered her nomination on the ticket to be unimportant, 57% voted for Obama. For those who considered her nomination to be important, 53% voted for Obama, thereby showing a positive overall impact on the ticket. Considering that exit polling tilts Democratic, the actual impact may have been greater.

When asked during an interview with liberal media pundit Katie Couric what newspapers and magazines Palin read (a classic [[Liberal trap]]), Palin fumbled and was unable to name any particular news source because of the side-swipe. This added fuel to charges that she was not qualified to run for Vice President, when in fact she was clearly qualified by her service as governor. Palin charges back at Couric and other liberal media attacks in her book [[Going Rogue]].

==Palin in 2012==
Palin is a celebrity with a large, enthusiastic base on the right that is ready to work for her in Republican primaries. She has been coy about announcing plans for 2012, but she is well positioned for a presidential run, assuming she can raise the $50+ million required to campaign effectively. Given her personal charisma and Reagan-esque connection with average, conservative Americans, she may be able to pull off a resounding victory. <ref>[http://www.capitalcityweekly.com/stories/120308/new_363163237.shtml Sarah Palin hits Republican talking points while stumping in Georgia]</ref>

==SarahPAC==

On January 27, 2009 Palin formed the political action committee (PAC) SarahPAC. The organization supports "energy independence and reform" and will endorse candidates who "share Governor Palin’s ideas and goals." <ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=azCCxotgdG1E&refer=home</ref>

==Beliefs==
Palin filled out a policy questionnaire for the Eagle Forum Alaska during her 2006 gubernatorial race. One question asked, "Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?" Palin responded, "Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support." Yet [[public schools]] still resist teaching abstinence and instead promote sexual behavior by teenagers.

Another question asked, "Are you offended by the phrase 'Under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?" Palin replied, "Not on your life. '''If it was good enough for the founding fathers''', it's good enough for me and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance."

Many liberals ignorant of the history of "under God" have tried to ridicule Palin's remark, even calling her an "idiot" for it.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2008/sep/01/week</ref><ref>The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892, and George Washington's phrase "under God" was added to it in June 1954.</ref> In fact, the origin of the phrase "under God" is the General Orders of [[George Washington]] on July 2 and 9, 1776: "The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army" (July 2); "the peace and safety of the Country now depends, under God, solely on the success of our arms" (July 9).<ref>http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/264xqezm.asp?pg=2</ref> George Washington was indeed a [[Founding Father]], and the Founding Fathers made no secret of their Christian faith and unfailing belief in God in the [[Declaration of Independence]] and later writings.

Palin also believes that students need to learn of the controversy surrounding the [[Theory of evolution|Theory of evolution]], and that discussing Creationism should not be banned from schools. During the 2006 campaign for the Alaskan Governorship, Palin was answering a question from the moderator near the conclusion of Wednesday night's televised debate on KAKM Channel 7 when she said, "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both."<ref>http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/elections/story/8347904p-8243554c.html</ref> She later clarified her position by stating "I don't think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn't have to be part of the curriculum." She added that, if elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state's required curriculum. As of September 2008 she has kept that pledge.

In an example of liberal mockery, the [[Huffington Post]] attempted to make light of Sarah Palin's creationist beliefs, highlighting the creationism belief that [[dinosaur|dinosaurs]] and man coexisted.<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/palin-claimed-dinosaurs-a_n_130012.html</ref> [[Saturday Night Live]] likewise did a skit in which they had her refer to the Museum of Natural History as "that evolution museum".

==Church Life==
[[Image:Palin.JPG|thumb]]
Sarah Palin was baptized as a [[Roman Catholic]] and, at age 12, she was rebaptized in the Wasilla Assembly of God church. <ref>{{cite web
|accessdate=2008-08-30
|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-mccainveepbio30-2008aug30,0,2159346.story
|title=Palin has risen quickly from PTA to VP pick
|author=Decker, Cathleen and Michael Finnegan,
|work=Los Angeles Times
|date=August 30, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| last = Gorsk| first = Eric
| url = http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g4-w_DCWffagBaQb8Il9a0R2hkPAD92SL7E00
| title = Evangelicals energized by McCain-Palin ticket
| publisher =Associated Press
| date = 2008-08-30
| accessdate = 2008-08-30}}</ref>

Palin attends the Wasilla Bible Church<ref>{{cite web |first=David |last=Pepper |title=Regarding Governor Palin: A Letter from Pastor David Pepper |url=http://churchontherockak.org/Regarding-Sarah-Palin.html |publisher=Church on the Rock |accessdate=2008-09-04}}</ref>, an independent congregation,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wasillabible.org/faq.htm |title=Wasilla Bible Church FAQ |accessdate=2008-09-05 |work= |publisher= |date= }}</ref><ref name="miller">Lisa Miller and Amanda Coyne. "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/156679 A Visit to Palin's Church: Scripture and discretion on the program in Wasilla]." ''Newsweek''. Sept. 2, 2008.</ref> when at home and attended the Juneau Christian Center when in Juneau as governor.<ref>{{cite web |title=Statement Concerning Sarah Palin |url=http://www.jccalaska.com/images/10000/3000/582JU/user/palin.htm |publisher=Juneau Christian Center |date=2008-09-03 |accessdate=2008-09-04}}</ref>

==Popularity==
Palin earned the highest TV ratings at the Republican convention when she spoke, even surpassing McCain's acceptance speech, and nearly matched Obama's acceptance speech<ref>http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/palin-triggers-rnc-ratings-spike/</ref>, gaining unprecedented attention. Likewise her Vice Presidential debate with [[Joe Biden]] had more viewers than any of the three debates between McCain and Obama.<ref>http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14201.html</ref> Also, her brief appearance on Saturday Night Live in October 2008 gave the show its highest ratings in 14 years, and was actually the third highest ranked show for the week based on the number of people who tuned in originally to watch her, 17 million, even though it ran at midnight in the East Coast Market.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/20/ustelevision-tvratings</ref>

==Publications==

Sarah Palin's [[memoir]], published by HarperCollins: ''[[Going Rogue: An American Life]]'' (November 2009)<ref>[http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/2009/10/01/amazing-palin%E2%80%99s-book-number-one-on-both-amazon-and-barnes-unprecedented/ Amazing: Palin’s book number one on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble bestseller list, Audacity of Hypocrisy, October 1, 2009]</ref><ref>Rush Limbaugh. [http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_111709/content/01125120.guest.html Rush Interviews Governor Sarah Palin], ''RushLimbaugh.com'', November 17, 2009.</ref><ref>Robert Shaffer. [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/17/ap-turns-heads-devoting-reporters-palin-book-fact-check/ AP Turns Heads for Devoting 11 Reporters to Palin Book 'Fact Check'], ''FOXNews.com'', November 17, 2009.</ref> ISBN 0061939897
Palin has decided that her book royalties will be donated to families of Ft. Hood victims. ''"I'm joining the efforts of many others by donating my royalties from the book sales during our stop at Fort Hood to the families of the victims whose lives have been forever changed by the tragic events."''

{{conservatism}}

==References==

{{reflist|2}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.gov.state.ak.us/ State of Alaska - Governor Sarah Palin Official Website]
*[http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=864bb9006da3f010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD National Governor's Association - Alaska Governor Sarah Palin]
*[http://votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=27200 Project Vote Smart - Governor Sarah H. Palin]
*[http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm Sarah Palin On the issues]
*[http://parentingfreedom.com/2008/09/03/sarah-palin-mother-and-first-female-vice-president-pictures-children-parenting/ Sarah Palin: Mother and First Female Vice President], ''Parenting Freedom'', September 03, 2008
*[http://churchformen.blogspot.com/2008/09/people-around-world-are-asking-who-is.html Sarah Palin, a friend of mine]
*[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDE3MmE5MDVmMGM1YjQ2NmVhMjJkN2I2ZTcxMzhlNjU=&w=MA== I Still Hate You, Sarah Palin] National Review Online

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palin, Sarah}}
[[Category:Alaska Governors]]
[[Category:Republican Governors]]
[[Category:United States Mayors]]
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Stephen Hawking

2010-05-03T21:28:32Z

Hopefiend: Cleaned up; will eventually expand

[[Image:Bvfgdtre.jpg|right|thumb|Stephen Hawking]]
'''Stephen Hawking''' is a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[physicist]] and [[author]]. He was born on January 8, 1942.

Despite suffering from [[Motor Neurone Disease]] for most of his adult life he has written books popularizing [[science]]. His most famous books are ''[[A Brief History of Time]]'', ''[[Black Holes and Baby Universes]]'' and ''[[The Universe in a Nutshell]]''.

Hawking is credited with the development of the [[Big Bang]] Theory of the [[creation]] of the [[universe]]. He theorized that information can escape from a [[black hole]] in the form of [[Hawking Radiation]] wherein virtual dual particles will came close to the [[Event Horizon]] of a [[black hole]]. One half of the virtual dual particle will escape the pull of gravity, taking with it the information of the second virtual particle. It is thought that this eventually will cause the evaporation of the [[black hole]]<ref>http://library.thinkquest.org/C007571/english/advance/english.htm</ref>. He is also credited with advancing the understandings of [[black holes]]. Since 1979 he has been the [[Lucasian Professor of Mathematics]] at [[Cambridge University]], a post once held by [[Isaac Newton]] and [[Paul Dirac]].<ref>[http://www.hawking.org.uk Stephen W. Hawking's webpages]</ref>

Stephen Hawking combines his research with family life and acts to popularize science. He has appeared on [[The Simpsons]] and [[Star Trek|Star Trek: The Next Generation]] [[TV]] shows and contributed vocals through his speech synthesizer to the [[Pink Floyd]] album [[The Division Bell]] on the track [[Keep Talking]].

Hawking has been divorced twice.<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1531891/Hawking-and-second-wife-agree-to-divorce.html</ref>

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Physicists|Hawking, Stephen]]

Weather Underground

2010-05-03T21:05:39Z

Hopefiend: Fixed typos

[[File:1970 FBI poster.JPG|right|thumb|350px|]]
The '''Weather Underground Organization''' (('''WUO'''), or '''Weathermen''' is a [[leftist]] [[terrorist]] organization now possibly inactive. <ref>[http://www.attacreport.com/ar_terror/tframe.php?region=namerica&group=wuo ATTAC Report]</ref> Since its inception the Weather Underground identified its fundemental strategic thesis with the [[Maoist]] Chinese. In its initial ideological statement, ''You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows,'' the objective of wealth redistribution was put forward to justify revolutionary violence:
{{Cquote|It is the oppressed peoples of the world who have created the wealth of this empire and it is to them that it belongs; the goal of the revolutionary struggle must be the control and use of this wealth in the interests of the oppressed peoples of the world. It is in this context that we must examine the revolutionary struggles in the United States.<ref>Foreign Influence - Weather Underground Organization (WUO). FBI Chicago Field Office Report, August 20, 1976,
[http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1c.pdf ''Influence of China''], Page 143 in original (p. 31 pdf).</ref>}}

__TOC__

==Revolution==

According to the traditional [[Soviet]] sponsored [[Lenin]]ist model, the [[proletariat]] is the main revolutionary force, and [[national liberation movement]]s become its allies. According to [[Maoist]] inspired Weathermen, however, the revolutionary national movements were proletarian revolutions in their own right against the world imperialist class, and provided the leadership in the worldwide anti-imperialist revolution.<ref>[http://www.archive.org/details/TheWayTheWindBlewAHistoryOfTheWeatherUnderground ''The Way The Wind Blew: A History Of The Weather Underground,''] Ron Jacobs, Verso, 1997, p. 81 ISBN: 1-85984-167-8 </ref>

==Greenwich Village bomb factory==
[[Image:Deathpigs.jpg|right|thumb|350px|The words "Death to Pigs" were written on a wall in the blood of Manson Family victims; the WUO and Manson Family had a shared politcal vocabulary<ref>For more on the Marxist concept of a "shared political vocabulary" see ''Reclaiming Revolution: history, summation & lessons from the work of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM)'', Spring 2004, Edited by [[Van Jones]] ''et al'', [http://www.capitalresearch.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/stormsummation.pdf p. 9 pdf].</ref> as well as advocacy of illegal drug use, violence, and killing.]]
Their ideology was explicitly [[communist]] and [[Revolution|revolutionary]]. In one famous incident, several members were killed in the "Greenwich Village Explosion", in which three bomb-makers immolated themselves <ref>[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/terrorists/brinks/1.html Court TV – Crime Library: Terrorists, The Weather Underground] </ref> preparing for a [[terrorist]] attack on [[Fort Dix]]. Other members, [[Cathy Wilkerson]] and [[Kathy Boudin]],
survived and were defended by [[National Lawyers Guild]] <ref>[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7494 NLG: The Legal Fifth Column], By Jesse Rigsby, ''FrontPageMagazine.com'', April 25, 2003. </ref> members. Kathy Boudin later received a 20-years-to-life sentence for her role in the 1981 Weatherman Nyack, New York Brinks armored truck robbery which resulted in the murders of two policemen and an armored truck security guard. <ref>[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/terrorists/brinks/15.html Court TV – Crime Library: The Brinks Robbery of 1981] </ref>

At a 1969 "War Council" in [[Flint]], [[Michigan]], spokeswoman [[Bernardine Dohrn]] gave her most memorable and notorious speech. Holding her fingers in what became the Weatherman "fork salute," she said of the bloody murders recently committed by the [[Charles Manson|Manson Family]] in which the pregnant actress Sharon Tate and a Folgers Coffee heiress, and several other inhabitants of a Benedict Canyon mansion were brutally stabbed to death,<ref>[http://www.crimeshots.com/Carnage69.html Manson Family Carnage]</ref>
{{cquote|'''Dig it! First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim's stomach! Wild!"'''}}

==Barack Obama and the Weather Underground==
[[File:Youngobama2.jpg|320px|thumb|left|'''Dr. Quentin Young (left) is personal physician to [[Barack Obama]] (right) and [[Bernardine Dohrn]] (not shown)'''. Dr. Young was reimbursed by the [[KGB]] after he paid rent in advance on a storefront he used to treat injured rioters during the disruptions of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.<ref>[http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/Transcript_May_22_edited_version.pdf ''The Stealth Candidate''], Transcript, Cliff Kincaid and Herbert Romerstein, May 22 2008, p. 16.</ref><ref>House Committee on Un-American Activities, ''Subversive Involvement in Disruption of 1968 Democratic Party National Convention'', and ''Hearings Before the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities of the United States'' Senate. Ninety-
Fourth Congress. First Session. Volume 6. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 1976, Exhibit 68-13., cited in ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection'', Cliff Kincaid and Herbert Romerstein, usasurvival.org</ref> The ringleaders, principally [[Weather Underground]] terrorists, received urban guerrilla warfare training in Cuba from the [[DGI]] prior to the attacks.<ref>[http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/Cuban_DGI.pdf Final Talk to the Fourth Contingent, Julian Rizo DGI.]</ref> ]]
In 1995 a cadre of like minded individuals gathered in the home of [[Weather Underground]] (WUO) [[terrorist]]s [[Bernardine Dohrn]] and [[William Ayers|William "Bill" Ayers]]. According to Dr. [[Quentin Young]], "I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers' house to learn that [[Alice Palmer]] was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress." Dr. Young, a longtime friend of the Ayers' and [[President Obama]], put up the money in 1968 to pay for the office that organized a riot in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. [[Carl Davidson]] of [[Progressives for Obama]] was told by [[Fidel Castro]] in March 1968 that Castro believed the United States was ready for [[revolution]]. Several [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS) and WUO cadre trained in Cuba prior to the insurgency. The FBI summarized the situation:
{{Cquote|Rarely has any city been threatened all at one time with an invasion of 100 to 200 thousand dissidents - plots to [[assassin]]ate [[government]]al dignitaries and prominent individuals; intentions to instigate major riots in varied ways; widespread [[sabotage]] of communication, transportation and electrical systems- proposals to pour [[hallucinogen]]ic [[drugs]] into the water supply; clandestine shipments of [[arms]] and [[ammunition]] into the city for use in sniper activities - and myriad forms of [[guerrilla warfare]].<ref>Declassified U.S. Government intelligence information regarding the communist and foreign connections of the Weather Underground. Presented as evidence, on the agreement of the prosecution and defense counsel, in the trial of W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller, p.10.[http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/Declassified_docs.pdf ]</ref>}}
One veteran of the guerrilla warfare training in Cuba was Obama's host, [[Bernardine Dohrn]]. Young met with Dohrn after her return,
{{Cquote|Bernardine went down there already influenced by Cuba and in a state of romantic anticipation. She was at the top of her thermometer going down. I talked to her, sort of debriefed her, when she came back."<ref>Georgie Anne Geyer and Keyes Beach "Cuba: School for U.S. Radicals", ''Chicago Daily News/Chicago Sun-Times'' five part series October 1970, excerpted in [http://foia.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=/weather/weath1c.pdf FBI file Weather Underground Organization (Weatherman),] Part 1c pp. 5-7 pdf (113-115 in original). [http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/clandestine-agents-of-the-cuban-government-ayers-dohrn-myers/]</ref>}}

Dr. Young related Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer was choosing then Chicago city councilman [[Barack Obama]] as her successor.<ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html Obama once visited '60s radicals.], Ben Smith, Politico, February 22, 2008.</ref> Palmer once served on the executive board of the [[U.S. Peace Council]], a [[KGB]] front organization<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=_PZy-U7G2EMC&pg=PA111&dq=U.S.+Peace+Council%2Bkgb&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q=%22U.S.%20Peace%20Council%22&f=false The Apocalyptic premise : Nuclear Arms Debated], By Ernest W. Lefever, E. Stephen Hunt, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C., 1982, pp. 127-137.</ref> that actively opposed President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s defense program. Palmer wrote a report on her visit to [[Moscow]] for the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) published by the CPUSA's ''[[People's Daily World]]''. In the twilight of the Soviet regime Palmer wrote, "Like the Reagan administration, the Soviets talk of increasing productivity among workers and curbing waste...but the Soviets' do not link these issues with ruining the living standards of human beings."

[[Image:Features ayers1.jpg|200px|thumb|right|'''Obama served on the Board of the Woods Fund of Chicago with [[Weather Underground]] [[terrorist|terrorist group]] co-founder Bill Ayers'''<ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1a.pdf FBI file Weather Underground]</ref> '''at the time this photo appeared of Ayers stomping the American flag''' in ''Chicago Magazine'' in 2001. Ayers, Obama's boss at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, contributes to Obama election campaigns and hosted an important fundraiser in Obama's early career to meet and greet Ayers contacts.]]

Ayers and Dohrn took credit, and have never denied responsibility for a series of [[terrorist]] bombings which included the [[U.S. Capitol]], the [[Pentagon]] and the [[State Department]]. The reopening of a [[cold case]] [[homicide]] investigation of a [[San Francisco]] police officer was urged by the San Francisco Police Officer's Association in March 2009.<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/12/BATK16DHA4.DTL&hw=ayers&sn=001&sc=1000 S.F. police union accuses Ayers in 1970 bombing], Demian Bulwa, ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' March 12, 2009.</ref> An FBI informant who infiltrated the [[WUO]]<ref>''Bringing down America : an FBI informer with the Weathermen'', by Larry Grathwohl, Frank Reagan, 1976. [http://www.alibris.com/search/books/qwork/810451/used/Bringing%20down%20America%20:%20an%20FBI%20informer%20with%20the%20Weathermen]</ref> and was close to Ayers reported an exchange he had with Ayers about a prospective bombing:
{{QuoteBox|INFORMANT: We'll blow out the Red Barn restaurant. Maybe even kill a few innocent customers — and most of them are black. 

AYERS: We can't protect all the innocent people in the world. Some will get killed. Some of us will get killed. We have to accept that fact.}}
Ayers and Dohrn were not prosecuted because of tainted evidence gathered by the [[FBI]]. Assistant Director of the FBI [[Mark Felt]], also known as “Deep Throat” in the [[Watergate Affair]],<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB156/ Nixon and the FBI: The White House Tapes], National Security Archive, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.</ref> was prosecuted and convicted for civil rights violations of Jennifer Dohrn, Bernardine’s sister, while tracking the terrorist pair. Ayers boasted in his book that he was "guilty as hell, free as a bird," and Felt was pardoned by President [[Ronald Reagan]] who noted Felt followed procedures he believed "essential to keep the Director of the FBI, the [[Attorney General]], and the [[President of the United States]] advised of the activities of hostile foreign powers and their collaborators in this country.<ref>[http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/41581d.htm Statement on Granting Pardons to W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller], April 15, 1981.</ref><ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/01/us/two-top-fbi-officials-cleared.html Two Top F.B.I. Officials Cleared], [[New York Times]], December 1, 1983.</ref>

Ayers, Dohrn and Barack Obama's relationship went back several years and they were lending their notoriety among [[radical]] [[leftist]]s to launch Obama's career as Palmer's successor. Ayers' and Dohrn's first book written with [[Prairie Fire Organizing Committee|Jeff Jones]], the title ''Prairie Fire'' is taken from the sayings of [[Chairman Mao]]'s ''Little Red Book'', [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/] "a single spark can set a prairie fire"," announces, {{cquote|we are communist men and women.<ref>Harvey Klehr, ''Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today'' (Transaction Books, New Brunswick, 1988), 109.</ref> }}
Co-author and co-Weather Underground founder Jeff Jones<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106653 ''Obama's 'green jobs czar' worked with terror founder] Van Jones served on board of activist group where ex-Weatherman serves as top director'', By Aaron Klein, [[WorldNetDaily]], August 13, 2009.</ref> worked for several years with [[Obama administration]] Green Czar [[Van Jones]], another self-described communist arrested in the aftermath of a deadly riot. Like [[Frank Marshall Davis]], there is no indication Ayers, Dohrn, Jeff Jones, Dr. Young, [[Anita Dunn]], or other close associates of Obama have renounced their faith in what [[Allen Weinstein]] describes as "a murderous and discredited ideology."

Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 and served there for the next eight years.

President Obama is the first person having ties to a known former terrorist to gain control over America's nuclear weapons.<ref>http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/7127</ref><ref>http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/26/obama-associate-bill-ayers-unrepentant-for-acts-of-terror/</ref> Author and blogger Jack Cashill requisitioned a comparison of the writing style of [[Bill Ayers]]' 2001 memoir, ''Fugitive Days'', with Barack Obama's earlier 1995 book, ''Dreams From My Father'', and came to the conclusion that Obama's former boss Ayers may have ghostwritten Dreams.<ref>www.cashill.com, ''Who Wrote “Dreams From My Father"?'', by Jack Cashill, October 9, 2008, retrieved on 10/16/2008 [http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/who_wrote_dreams_from.htm] Cashill states that a computer comparison of Obama's so-called autobiography with that of the terrorist Bill Ayers, supports the theory that Ayers actually wrote parts of Obama's book; also he wrote "None of this, of course, proves Ayers' authorship conclusively, but the evidence makes him a much more likely candidate than Obama to have written the best parts of Dreams". "In assessing the signature of sample passages from Dreams," the experienced analyst found "a very strong match to all of the Ayers samples" that he processed. He did not address the possibility that Ayers had plagiarized from Obama's earlier book. A philosophy professor from England disagreed.[http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=77815]</ref> Ayers confesses to violent acts, planting bombs, says he has no regrets and feels he "should have done more."<ref>[http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/7127]</ref>

==Profile==
[[Image:Wuodec3.jpg|right|thumb|350px|First page of WUO Declaration of a State of War with Amerika issued by [[Bernardine Dohrn]], May 21 1970.<ref>FBI file, [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_Declaration_of_a_State_of_War Weather Underground Declaration of a State of War]</ref> Dohrn was instrumental in launching the career of Chicago City Alderman [[Barack Obama]], later elected President of the United States.]]
'''Founding/Supervisory Organizations:'''
*Cuban [[General Directorate of Intelligence]] (DGI)
*Communist Czechoslovakia
*Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (OSPAAL)
*[[Communist Vietnam]]
*[[National Lawyers Guild]] (NLG)
*[[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS)

'''Supporting Organizations:'''
*Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP)
*[[Workers World Party]] (WWP)
*[[Youth International Party]] (YIP) <ref>[http://www.jbs.org/node/735 Propagandizing the Police], By William Norman Grigg, ''New American'', 1999-11-08.</ref>

Type of Organization: Terrorist/revolutionary

Location: United States

Ideological cover: Openly [[Marxist-Leninist]]

Activities: Urban guerrilla warfare; bombings; [[assassination]]s; riots; armed robbery; prison organizing; prison breaks

Target countries: [[United States]]

Status: Inactive

'''Assisted Organizations:'''
*[[American Indian Movement]] (AIM)
*Black Guerrilla Family (BGF)
*[[Black Liberation Army]] (BLA)
*[[Black Panther Party]] (BPP)
*[[Armed Forces of National Liberation]] (FALN)
*Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP)
*Republic of New Africa (RNA)
*[[Workers World Party]] (WWP)

'''Derivative/Controlled Organizations:'''
*Black Guerrilla Family (BGF)
*Black Liberation Army (BLA)
*[[John Brown Anti-Klan Committee]] (JBAKC) <ref>[http://nobsopus.blogspot.com/1983/11/armed-resistance-unit-bombs-us-capitol.html Armed Resistance Unit Bombs US Capitol], ''Death To The Klan'', Winter, 1984, No. 3.</ref>
*[[Prairie Fire Organizing Committee]] (PFOC)
*[[Symbionese Liberation Army]] (SLA)
*[[Youth International Party]] (YIP)

==See also==
*[[Bill Ayers]]
*[[Communist front]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==

[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Terrorist.html#Weathermen wolrdstatesman.org] Weathermen (Weather Underground Organization)

[[Category:Subversive Organizations]]
[[Category:Terrorist Organizations]]
[[Category:Terrorists]]
[[category:New Left]]

Uncyclopedia

2010-05-03T21:03:03Z

Hopefiend:

'''Uncyclopedia''' is supposedly a parody encyclopedia created in January 2005.<ref>http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/discover-interview/the-brains-behind-uncyclopedia</ref> It now has over 25,000 articles. Popular topics parodied include [[Global warming]], [[Evolution]] and [[Creation]], the [[Bush]] administration, [[Conservapedia]], and popular culture. A recurring joke on the site is making up [[Oscar Wilde]] quotes as well as quotes by Chuck Norris, Captain Obvious, Kanye West, and Russian Reversals.

Uncyclopedia, despite being a parody of [[Wikipedia]], supports much of the same material that Wikipedia does. It is hosted by [[Wikia]], [[Jimbo Wales]]' for profit webhost. Its lack of standards results in an obviously liberal stance, and much of their "humor" is directed at Christian and Conservative values. In particular, their article on Conservapedia is composed mostly of hate speech, labeling Conservatives as "retards". In addition, they attack creationism using a "pro-creationist" article, which mocks creationism by phrases like "evolution will get you sent straight to hell" and "Darwin was a **** Satanist".

Uncyclopedia is far from family friendly; it contains many offensive words and images in its articles. Shortly after [[Jerry Falwell]] died (15th May, 2007), Uncyclopedia presented an article with the following highly offensive statements:

{{QuoteBox|'''BREAKING NEWS!''' 
'''Jerry Falwell has died.''' 
'''DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD, THE WITCH IS DEAD, THE WITCH IS DEAD, DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD, THE MEAN OL' WICKED WITCH IS DEAD!'''}}

{{QuoteBox|Dr. (it is a little known fact that he earned six PhDs) Jerry Fartwell (born: Breadline Era, died: Nappy Headed Imus Era) was a fat [obscenity deleted] bastard and famous mongoloid who reinstituted the hangman's noose in Lynchburg, Virginia (1956).}}

'''''Update'':''' Uncyclopedia finally deleted the Jerry Falwell article on 10th November, 2007.<ref>http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=delete&user=&page=Jerry_Falwell</ref>

Uncyclopedia also has an article labeled "Bad Right Wing Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense".<ref>http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Uncyclopedia:Bad_Right_Wing_Jokes_and_Other_Deleted_Nonsense</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Wikis]]

Liberal

2010-05-03T16:27:41Z

Hopefiend: Put listy intro into subsection

[[Image:Liberal Brain.jpg|thumb|450px|top|<center>A satirical conception of the liberal brain.</center>]]

A '''liberal''' (also '''leftist''') is someone who rejects logical and biblical standards, often for self-centered reasons. There are no coherent liberal standards; often a liberal is merely someone who craves attention, and who uses many words to say nothing.<ref>As one liberal website candidly observes, "Obama is a shallow narcissist, not a believer in any cause higher than himself. Every American president has had a healthy ego, but none has ever been as purely motivated by vanity as the childishly self-loving [[Barack Obama]]."[http://www.opednews.com/articles/Barack-Obama-s-ego-driven-by-Christopher-Calder-091210-804.html]</ref> Liberalism began as a movement for individual liberties, but today is increasingly [[statist]] and, as in Europe, [[socialist]]ic.
==Liberal beliefs==
A liberal generally supports many of the following political positions and practices:

* Taxpayer-funded and/or legalized [[abortion]]
* [[Censorship]] of teacher-lead [[prayer]] in classrooms and school sponsored events
* Support for [[gun control]]
* Support of obscenity and pornography as a [[First Amendment]] right<ref>The [[Warren Court]], led by [[liberal]] Justices [[William O. Douglas]], [[Hugo Black]], [[Abe Fortas]], [[William Brennan]] and Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]] issued 36 decisions granting [[First Amendment]] rights to obscenity and pornography. These decisions remain fully supported by liberals today.</ref>
* [[Income redistribution]], usually through progressive taxation
* Government-rationed medical care, such as [[Universal Health Care]]
* Taxpayer-funded and government-controlled [[public education]]
* The denial of inherent [[gender differences]]
* Insisting that men and women be placed in the same jobs in the [[military]]
* Legalized [[same-sex marriage]]
* Implementation of [[affirmative action]]
* [[Political correctness]]
* Support of [[labor union]]s
* Teaching acceptance of promiscuity through sexual "education" rather than teaching [[abstinence]] from sex.<ref> [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286671,00.html Democrats Aim To Kill Abstinence-Only Program Funding], [[Fox News]], Monday, June 25, 2007</ref>
* A "[[living Constitution]]" that is reinterpreted as liberals prefer, rather than how it was intended
* Government programs to [[rehabilitate criminals]]
* Abolition of the death penalty
* [[Environmentalism]]<ref>[[Greenpeace]], for example.</ref>
* [[Disarmament treaties]]
* [[Globalism]]
* Opposition of the [[Bible]].
* Opposition to an interventionalist American foreign policy <ref>Stefaan Walgrave and Joris Verhulst, [http://nicomedia.math.upatras.gr/conf/CAWM2003/Papers/Verhulst.pdf The February 15 Worldwide Protests against a War in Iraq: An Empirical Test of Transnational Opportunities. Outline of a Research Programme](PDF).</ref>
* Opposition to full private property rights<ref>For example, the liberal wing of the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] issued the 5-4 [[Kelo v. City of New London]] decision authorizing the taking of private property by government in order to give the property to another private entity rather than convert it to a public use.</ref>
* Reinstating the [[Fairness Doctrine]]
* In 2005, it was reported by CBS News that [[Theory of evolution and liberalism|liberals were the most likely supporters of the theory of evolution]]. The theory of [[evolution]] is a key component of [[atheistic]] ideologies in the [[Western World]].
* Opposition to domestic wire-tapping as authorized in the [[Patriot Act]]
* Calling anyone they agree with a "professor" regardless of whether he earned that distinction based on a real peer review of his work (see, e.g., [[Richard Dawkins]] and [[Barack Obama]]).
* Opposition of [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]], a major part of the [[War on Terrorism]].
* "The long romance of Western leftists with some of the bloodiest regimes and political movements in history is a story not told often enough ...."<ref> [http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc0605bt.html Dupes by Bruce S. Thornton], City Journal - 5 June 2009</ref>

==Liberals and Uncharitableness==
[[Image:228130875 35181424e3.jpg|thumb|right|175px|[[United States|American]] liberals give less to charity than American conservatives.<ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html</ref> In addition, [[per capita]] [[atheism|atheists]] and [[agnosticism|agnostics]] in the United States [[Atheism and Uncharitableness|give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists]].[http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/102-atheists-and-agnostics-take-aim-at-christians][http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3647/is_200310/ai_n9340592/][http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=2682730&page=2] ]]
''For more information please see'': [[Liberals and uncharitableness]]

In March of 2008, [[George Will]] wrote at [[RealClearPolitics]] concerning the [[United States]]:
{{cquote|Sixteen months ago, Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at [[Syracuse University]], published "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism." The surprise is that liberals are markedly less charitable than [[conservative]]s....

If many conservatives are liberals who have been mugged by reality, Brooks, a registered independent, is, as a reviewer of his book said, a social scientist who has been mugged by data. They include these findings:

-- Although liberal families' incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household ($1,600 per year vs. $1,227).

-- Conservatives also donate more time and give more blood.<ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html</ref>}}
[[Atheism|Atheists]] and [[agnosticism|agnostics]] often reject [[Bible|biblical]] [[morality]] (and therefore [[conservative Christianity]] ) and hold to [[moral relativism]].<ref>http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=152</ref> Therefore, it is not surprising that [[per capita]] atheists and agnostics in [[United States|America]] [[Atheism and Uncharitableness|give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists]].[http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/102-atheists-and-agnostics-take-aim-at-christians][http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3647/is_200310/ai_n9340592/][http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=2682730&page=2]

== Liberal politicians and uncharitableness ==
The political magazine the [[American Spectator]] featured an article which focused on [[liberal politicians and uncharitableness]] and the article exposed the hypocrisy of the liberal politicians it featured.<ref>http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1c5_1238044128&c=1</ref>

In addition, [[Barack Obama]] has been criticized concerning [[Barack Obama and uncharitableness|his charitable giving]].

==Liberals and Superstition==
[[Image:2384975035_230a0eac30.jpg‎‎|thumb|right|150px|The [[Wall Street Journal]] reported: "A comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that [[Conservative Christianity|traditional Christian religion]] greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of [[astrology]]. <ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html</ref>]]
In September of 2008, the [[Wall Street Journal]] reported:
{{cquote|The reality is that the [[New Atheism|New Atheist]] campaign, by discouraging [[religion]], won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith -- it's what the empirical data tell us.

"What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that [[Conservative Christianity|traditional Christian religion]] greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of [[astrology]]. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians....

This is not a new finding. In his 1983 book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener," skeptic and science writer Martin Gardner cited the decline of traditional religious belief among the better educated as one of the causes for an increase in [[pseudoscience]], cults and superstition. He referenced a 1980 study published in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer that showed irreligious college students to be by far the most likely to embrace paranormal beliefs, while born-again Christian college students were the least likely.<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html</ref>}}

== Liberalism in North America today ==
[[Democrats]] and many media outlets in the [[U.S.]] are often [[liberal]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mrc.org/biasbasics/biasbasics1.asp|title=Media Bias basics|publisher=Media Research Center}}</ref>
*Some argue that liberals typically support economic policy similar to that of [[fascism]]. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://fora.tv/2008/01/30/Liberal_Traits_of_Fascism|title=Video discussion about how modern liberalism is actually fascist by author Jonah Goldberg.}}</ref>

* Liberals claimed a monopoly on [[compassion]], [[decency]], and [[social justice]] (as defined by themselves), posing as the sole defenders of [[civic virtue]] against a horde of backwoodsmen, racists, and religious fanatics. [http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/the_disgrace_of_liberalism.html]

<blockquote>
''There's another goal, from my point of view, which is to try to lay the groundwork for a radical political force which would conceive of itself as distinctly to the left of moderate, reformist American liberals. And that has two aspects. One is to try to change that liberalism, to transform it by analysis, critique, and activism; the second is to build a radical movement which would be an autonomous force in its own right, which would be distinct from the traditional American liberal consensus. This radical part of the program involves not simply supporting the liberal students against conservative students and conservative professors, but trying to act on them, to push them to the left. It also involves trying to find and support, even trying to help create, networks of radical students in law school and of radical professors around the country — students and teachers who see themselves as wanting to go a lot further than most people want to go.'' <ref> [http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=liberal+teachers&fr=yfp-t-501&fp_ip=MX&u=duncankennedy.net/documents/Liberal%2520Values%2520in%2520Legal%2520Education.pdf&w=liberal+liberals+teachers+teacher&d=BNZFhPReRjC1&icp=1&.intl=us Liberal Values in Legal Education] Duncan Kennedy (professor at Harvard Law School)</ref>
</blockquote>

===Liberal Rankings of Congress Members===

The National Journal compiles the votes of each congress member each year and uses the information to create rankings<ref>http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/index.htm</ref> of how liberal each member of the United States [[Congress]] is. In addition to showing the voting records of each member and given an overall all ranking of liberalness, the National Journal also ranks congress members by liberalness in the areas of social, economic, and foreign policy.

==Liberalism in Europe today==

In Europe, on the other hand, parties that call themselves ''liberal'' are moderate in outlook, ranging from centre-left to centre-right, promote typically economic and business freedom. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe<ref>http://www.alde.eu</ref> is a party of the European Parliament that represents most ''liberal'' parties from European countries. Similar policies are promoted by many ''liberal'' parties throughout the world,<ref>http://www.liberal-international.org/</ref> such as the Liberal Party of Australia.<ref>[http://www.liberal.org.au/]</ref>

Trade unions and socialist parties often criticize politicians for promoting lower taxes on business, or more flexible hiring and firing laws, by calling them "liberals" or [[neoliberal|neoliberals]]. Thus, just as in the US, "liberal" may occasionally be used as a term of abuse. But when someone is called "liberal" in Europe, it has an entirely different meaning than in the US. In fact, the US meaning of liberal is more similar to the politics of European [[socialist]] or [[social democracy|social democratic]] parties.<ref>[http://www.pes.org]</ref>

==Historical Liberalism ==
In history, the word "liberal" has meant different things at different times, and was associated with individual liberty in prior centuries. In the postwar period, liberals supported government intervention in the economy and welfare state policies, as well as peaceful coexistence with the communist block, which are not liberal policies in the sense of classical liberalism. After the end of the cold war, with the demise of socialism and communism, many liberals embraced some ideas from economic neo-liberalism, and coined it the "Third Way". In the area of national security and foreign policy liberals in the [[U.S.]] failed to define a consistent stance, even after the events of 9/11 and the beginning of the war in Iraq. Liberals generally support affirmative action, gay marriage, and abortion.<ref>"Political liberals tend, for whatever reason, to be ardent supporters of both gay rights and pro-choice programs." Greenberg and Bailey [http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Bailey/Greenberg-Bailey/Homosexual%20Eugenics.pdf] </ref>

==Original meaning: Classical Liberalism==
Liberalism is a political philosophy with freedom as its core value. The term was originally applied to supporters of individual liberties and equal rights, but, in America, the term has come to represent a movement of social change that often conflicts with [[conservative]] values such as moral values and tradition.

See [[Classical Liberal|Classical Liberalism]]. Compare [[Libertarianism]].

==Alternative meanings of 'liberal'==

One definition of liberal is anything that is not conservative. For example, the American Heritage Dictionary includes this definition of "liberal":<ref>Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/liberal</ref>
* Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas ...

==Liberal Organizations ==
*[[AARP|AARP - American Association of Retired People]]
*[[ACLU|ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union]]
*[[AFL-CIO|AFL-CIO - American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations]]
*[[Amnesty International|AI - Amnesty International]]
*[[Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism]]
*[[Democratic National Committee]]
*[[Greenpeace]]
*[[NARAL|NARAL - National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League]]
*[[NAACP|NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]]
*[[National Committee for an Effective Congress]]
*[[National Education Association]]
*[[National Organization of Women]]
*[[Planned Parenthood|Planned Parenthood Federation of America]]
*[[Progressives for Obama]]
*[[Rainbow/PUSH Coalition]]
*[[MoveOn.org]]
*[[A.N.S.W.E.R.]]
*[[U.S. Peace Council]]
Source: [http://www.politixgroup.com/lo.htm The Politix Group]

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

==See Also==

* [[Conservapedia:Articles about liberals|Articles about liberals]]
* [[Classical liberal]]
* [[Drinking Liberally]]
* [[Godless liberal]]
* [[Last wordism]]
* [[Essay:Liberal celebrity obsession|Liberal celebrity obsession]]
* [[Essay:Liberal Behavior on Conservapedia|Liberal Behavior on Conservapedia]]
* [[Liberal Christianity]]
* [[Liberal Democrats]]
* [[Liberal Elite]]
* [[Essay: Liberal Falsehoods|Liberal Falsehoods]]
* [[Liberal Fascism]]
* [[Liberal friendship]]
* [[Liberal Gloss]]
* [[Liberal grading]]
* [[Essay:Liberal hysteria|Liberal hysteria]]
* [[Essay:Liberal Intellectualism|Liberal Intellectualism]]
* [[Liberalism and art]]
* [[Liberal labels]]
* [[Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right|Liberal Lies About the American Right]]
* [[Liberal logic]]
* [[The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness|Liberal Mind]]
* [[Liberal Party]]
* [[Liberal supremacist]]
* [[Massachusetts liberal]]
* [[Progressives]]

==Further Information==

* [[Conservative Links]]

{{liberalism}}

[[Category:Political Ideologies]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category: Liberals]]

Adolf Hitler

2010-05-03T16:26:13Z

Hopefiend: Racial supremacy can be covered on Racism

[[Image:Hitler7.JPG|right|300px|thumb|The [[Evolution|evolutionary]] [[racism|racist]] Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.]]
'''Adolf Hitler''' was the Austrian-born Chancellor and President of [[Germany]] from January 30, 1933 until his death on April 30, 1945. He was also the leader (German: ''Der Führer'') of the [[National Socialist German Workers Party]] (''National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'', or [[Nazi]] Party) which gained political power through threat, intimidation, and outright violence throughout Germany in the aftermath of the [[First World War]]. Adolf Hitler was an [[Evolution|evolutionary]] [[racist]].<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=268</ref> Hitler’s policies and beliefs resulted in the [[Genocide|mass extermination]] of the [[Jews]], [[Gypsies]], and other peoples he considered “[[Racism|inferior]]” throughout central and eastern [[Europe]] and were directly responsible for the outbreak of [[World War II]], which caused the deaths of untold millions on and off the battlefield and ended only after Hitler's [[suicide]] in his Berlin bunker.

==Early life==
[[File:Hitler Roses.jpg|thumb|Roses by Adolf Hitler.]]
Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, [[Austria]]. Hitler's father, Alois (born 1837), was a customs official who was himself born illegitimate, carrying for a time his mother's name, Schicklgruber. By 1876 he had his baptismal entry corrected in his church records, establishing his father as Johan Heidler, which was altered slightly to Hitler.

When his father retired the family moved to Linz, Austria, where it remained a favorite for young Adolf for the rest of his life, and where he gave his wish to be buried. When Alois died in 1903 he left enough of a pension to support his wife and children; Adolf would take his and live off of it in Vienna after leaving school, dreaming of becoming an artist. Although somewhat competent as a painter of landscapes and architecture, his renderings of humans were considered “lifeless” and “crude” by the standards of the Academy of Fine Arts, and his application was rejected twice. Remaining in [[Vienna]], he moved from one cheap flop house to another, painting postcards and advertisements to earn a meager living after his allowance had dried up. By then he had developed traits which characterized his life as a whole: secretiveness, loneliness, a Spartan mode of everyday life, and a hatred of the cosmopolitan, multinational character that was the makeup of Vienna. ''He never sought a proper job or regular employment. Instead he immersed himself in the works of [[Hegel]], [[Nietzsche]], and the anti-Semitic writings of the Englishman Houston Stewart Chamberlain. He loved the operas of Wagner, and the stories of the Nordic Gods... In early 1910, he entered a shelter for the homeless, populated in the main by poor Jews, on Meldemenstrasse, and was eating at soup kitchens. By this time he had pawned all his belongings. '' <ref> [http://socyberty.com/history/young-adolf-the-adolescent-hitler-and-beyond/ Young Adolf: The Adolescent Hitler and Beyond.] </ref>

==Who And What He Was==
[[Elie Wiesel]] wrote famously, and most eloquently about Hitler in 1998:
<blockquote>At the same time that he terrorized his adversaries, he knew how to please, impress and charm the very interlocutors from whom he wanted support. Diplomats and journalists insist as much on his charm as they do on his temper tantrums. The savior admired by his own as he dragged them into his madness, the Satan and exterminating angel feared and hated by all others, Hitler led his people to a shameful defeat without precedent. That his political and strategic ambitions have created a dividing line in the history of this turbulent and tormented century is undeniable: there is a before and an after. By the breadth of his crimes, which have attained a quasi-ontological dimension, he surpasses all his predecessors: as a result of Hitler, man is defined by what makes him inhuman. With Hitler at the head of a gigantic laboratory, life itself seems to have changed.</blockquote>

<blockquote>How did this Austrian without title or position manage to get himself elected head of a German nation renowned for its civilizing mission? How to explain the success of his cheap demagogy in the heart of a people so proud of having inherited the genius of a Wolfgang von Goethe and an Immanuel Kant?</blockquote>

<blockquote>Was there no resistance to his disastrous projects? There was. But it was too feeble, too weak and too late to succeed. German society had rallied behind him: the judicial, the educational, the industrial and the economic establishments gave him their support. Few politicians of this century have aroused, in their lifetime, such love and so much hate; few have inspired so much historical and psychological research after their death. Even today, works on his enigmatic personality and his cursed career are best sellers everywhere. Some are good, others are less good, but all seem to respond to an authentic curiosity on the part of a public haunted by memory and the desire to understand.</blockquote>

<blockquote>We think we know everything about the nefarious forces that shaped his destiny: his unhappy childhood, his frustrated adolescence; his artistic disappointments; his wound received on the front during World War I; his taste for spectacle, his constant disdain for social and military aristocracies; his relationship with [[Eva Braun]], who adored him; the cult of the very death he feared; his lack of scruples with regard to his former comrades of the SA, whom he had assassinated in 1934; his endless hatred of [[Jews]], whose survival enraged him — each and every phase of his official and private life has found its chroniclers, its biographers.</blockquote>

<blockquote>And yet. There are, in all these givens, elements that escape us. How did this unstable paranoid find it within himself to impose gigantic hope as an immutable ideal that motivated his nation almost until the end? Would he have come to power if Germany were not going through endless economic crises, or if the winners in 1918 had not imposed on it conditions that represented a national humiliation against which the German patriotic fiber could only revolt? We would be wrong to forget: Hitler came to power in January 1933 by the most legitimate means. His [[Nationalist Socialist Party]] won a majority in the parliamentary elections. The aging [[Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg]] had no choice but to allow him, at age 43, to form the new government, marking the end of the Weimar Republic. And the beginning of the [[Third Reich]], which, according to Hitler, would last 1,000 years.</blockquote>

<blockquote>From that moment on, events cascaded. The burning of the [[Reichstag]] came only a little before the openings of the first concentration camps, established for members of the opposition. Fear descended on the country and squeezed it in a vise. Great writers, musicians and painters went into exile to France and the U.S. Jews with foresight emigrated toward Palestine. The air of Hitler's Germany was becoming more and more suffocating. Those who preferred to wait, thinking that the Nazi regime would not last, could not last, would regret it later, when it was too late.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The fact is that Hitler was beloved by his people — not the military, at least not in the beginning, but by the average Germans who pledged to him an affection, a tenderness and a fidelity that bordered on the irrational. It was idolatry on a national scale. One had to see the crowds who acclaimed him. And the women who were attracted to him. And the young who in his presence went into ecstasy. Did they not see the hateful mask that covered his face? Did they not divine the catastrophe he bore within himself?<ref name="time">http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/hitler.html</ref></blockquote>

[[Image:Cupid Complaining to Venus by Lucas Cranach.jpg|120px|left]]''One of the best-loved paintings in the National Gallery - an exquisite vision of Venus and Cupid by the greatest artist of the Reformation - once belonged to Hitler, it has been revealed. New evidence has come to light that Lucas Cranach's Cupid Complaining to Venus, currently on loan to an exhibition in Bristol, hung on the sitting-room wall of his flat in Munich.'' <ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/mar/28/art.secondworldwar Hitler owned painting now in National Gallery]</ref>

{{Clear}}

===War===
[[Image:Hitler munich1914.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Hitler in the crowd in Munich, 1914, reacting to the news of Germany's entry in the First World War.]]
By 1913 Hitler was in Munich, Germany, with war clouds on the horizon. Classified as unfit for service in the Austrian army (possibly by faking, as he did not like the thought of serving Austria) in 1914, he volunteered for the German army, joining the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, greeting the war with enthusiasm, and finding the military discipline and comradeship satisfying. He served during the entire [[First World War]] as a messenger carrying dispatches between units, and often at the front lines under fire; he was wounded in 1916, and gassed in 1918. His bravery during this time earned him the [[Iron Cross]], 2nd Class, in December, 1914, and in August 1918 he was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st Class – a rare decoration for a corporal. But the gassing would take him out of the war and into a hospital, where he would be told the heart-wrenching news of Germany’s defeat the following November.

==Path to power==
After the war ended, Hitler's future seemed uncertain. There was much discontent among demobilized veterans because of the lack of employment. The German military had felt it had not been defeated; indeed, the German Army stood on foreign soil when the Armistice was signed November 11, 1918 and not a square inch of German soil had been occupied. This was despite the fact that the German Army's strongest position, the Hindenburg line, had been broken by the Allies, and the German Army itself was in full retreat. However, the Army felt they had done their job, and the nation had been "stabbed in the back" by a gang of traitors who sought to lay hands on the Fatherland. The "myth" that Germany had been defeated was the "big lie" Hitler spoke of, as if repeating it often enough would cause people to believe it.

After his discharge from the hospital, Hitler acted as an army political agent, assigned in Munich to gather information on the various political parties which had spring up amid the social chaos following Germany’s defeat. In September, 1919, he was given orders to investigate the relatively-minor German Workers’ Party (''Deutsche Arbeiterpartei''); intrigued by the party’s apparatus and its racial, pan-German nationalism, he joined, becoming its 55th member; he left the army soon after and devoted himself to improving the party’s propaganda, as well as his own position within.

Conditions in Germany fostered the development of the party. Economic woes brought widespread discontent, added to the furor surrounding the loss of the war and the harsh terms heaped upon Germany by the Allied Powers in the Versailles Peace Treaty. Bavaria’s traditional separatism from the central government in Berlin made current conditions especially sharp, and Hitler was savvy enough to take full advantage of them. When he joined, he found the party ineffective in leadership and uncertain as to its aims; he accepted the party program, but regarded it as a means to an end. He caused friction with other members of the party, and their attempts to control him caused a threat of resignation; realizing that the future of the party now depended on Hitler, who clearly had a talent of organization, fund collecting, and above all, speaking, they declined to accept it; from July, 1921 Hitler was regarded as the party leader with nearly unlimited power. From his party newspaper, ''Völkischer Beobachter'' (“Popular Observer”), he spewed out endless propaganda. His meetings where he spoke grew from handfuls to hundreds, and then on to thousands. A man of charismatic personality, he quickly attracted a circle of loyal and devoted followers: Julius Streicher, Alfred Rosenberg, Hermann Göring, and Rudolf Hess.

Munich was also a gathering place for former servicemen dissatisfied with conditions in the country; members of the Freikorps, which had been organized after the war from army units that refused to return to civilian life; and those civilians who plotted against the republic. Many of these men joined the Nazi Party. Among them was a staff member of the district command who had joined the German Workers’ Party before Hitler, Ernst Röhm, a pudgy man with a scared face who saw his own ambition in helping further Hitler’s rise within the party. Röhm recruited what came to be known as the “Brown Shirts”, the violent squads used to attack socialists and communists, and to protect party meetings whenever Hitler was speaking. By 1921 they were organized into a private army called the ''Sturmabteilung'', abbreviated to S.A.

==The Beer Hall Putsch==
Germany in 1923 was marked by social and political unrest caused by hyperinflation. In this time Hitler was able convince [[Erich Ludendorff]], an accomplished general and leader of the German forces in the first World War, to join him in a coup d'etat (''Putsch'' in German). When Hitler learned that the nationalist prime minister of Bavaria was giving a speech to 3000 officials in one of Munich's biggest beer halls (the Haufbrau Haus), he ordered his paramilitaries to surround the building. Hitler went inside and took the prime minister hostage, announced a revolution, and attempted to convince him to join the coup against Berlin and become member in his new administration. The Bavarian prime minister agreed under pressure, but informed the nation via radio later that night that he did not support Hitler. The prime minister also informed the federal government in Berlin; the putsch had begun to fail.

The next morning, 9 November 1923, Hitler and Ludendorff were marching with approximately 2000 partly armed supporters through Munich in a show of strength to regain the momentum. In the ensuing fight between Hitler's marchers and a cordon of police and army units at least 14 Nazi supporters and three policemen were killed and hundreds wounded. Ludendorff handed himself over to the authorities, while Hitler fled soon after the fighting began. Hitler was arrested a few days later at a friend's house, were had been in hiding since the failed coup. Ludendorff was acquitted of all charges, while Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in prison (he would do eight months). <ref>http://history1900s.about.com/cs/thirdreich/a/beerhallputsch_2.htm</ref><ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/putsch2.htm</ref> The Bavarian prime minister, who foiled the plan, was killed in 1934 in the "Night of the Long Knives".

===''Mein Kampf''===

Hitler had his inner circle as frequent visitors in his prison cell, which was made more comfortable due to his celebrity. While there, he dictated to Rudolf Hess the first volume of ''Mein Kampf'' (“My Struggle”), his political autobiography and a compendium of his many ideas.

Hitler believed in the inequality of the races, nations, and individuals as part of the natural order of mankind, and chief among them was the exalted “Aryan race”, and the greatest of the Aryans were the Germans. It was the German, according to Hitler, that gave the world civilization and the arts; to safeguard the German people as a race (the “Volk”), they would need to be united under a single leader (the Führer), where they would be protected from their three principle enemies: Marxism, which included social democracy as well as communism; democracy and its mob-rule, as shown by the failings of the Weimar Republic; and above all what Hitler called the poisoners of humanity, the Jews. “Rational anti-Semitism must lead to systematic legal opposition,” he wrote in 1919. “Its final objective must be the removal of the Jews altogether.” In Mein Kampf, he told the world that the Jew was the “destroyer of culture,” “a parasite within the nation,” and “a menace.”

From "My Struggle":
{{cquote|The Jew "... he blares out his merits to the rest of the world until people really begin to believe in them. Anyone who does not believe in them is doing him a bitter injustice. In a short time he begins to twist things around to make it look as if all the injustice in the world had always been done to him and not the other way around." <ref> [http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/mkv1ch11.html Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.]</ref> }}

{{cquote| Hitler portrays Jews as leaders in politics and banking, both groups seeking to strengthen their cause, [[Zionism]], to ensure Jewish domination. From his Social Darwinist perspective, Hitler perceived a racial war as inevitable and he sought to halt the "[[Jewish]] drive towards world conquest"... As Berlin collapsed around him, Adolf asserted: "Out of the ruins of our towns and monuments hatred will grow against those finally responsible for everything, International Jewry." <ref> [http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=32043&amid=30237234 Mein Kampf – The Text, its Themes and Hitler’s Vision] Robert Carr dissects a book frequently referred to but seldom read. </ref>
}}

==Rebuilding the Nazi Party==
[[Image:Hitler.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Hitler speaking; he would often employ physical gesturing to emphasize a point.]]
[[Image:Hitler-3.jpg‎ |right|200px|thumb|Hitler in car, saluting passing S.A. at one of many parades.]]
Internal dissension within the party caused it to languish while Hitler was in prison. When he was released he saw difficulties in the country that had not existed before the Putsch, namely currency reform that brought economic stability, and the scaling back of the war reparations as a result of the Dawes Plan. Hitler was also forbidden to speak in public, which remained in force until 1928; however, he wasn’t about to stop his rebuilding of the party nor of his re-establishing his own position within it as leader, despite Gregor Strasser’s opposition in northern Germany. By 1927 the number of Nazis was in the hundreds of thousands.

A new period of political and economic instability with the onset of the Great Depression which threw millions out of work in Europe and North America. To campaign against the [[Young Plan]] (a second renegotiation of war reparations payments) Hitler made an alliance with one of Germany’s leading nationalists, Alfred Hugenberg, whose newspapers enabled Hitler to reach a national audience for the first time. The alliance also had another advantage: it enabled him to seek support from many in business and industry who controlled funds going into politics, and who themselves were desirous of seeing Germany under the control of a strong anti-Soviet and anti-Communist regime. The subsidies Hitler received placed the Nazy Party on a strong financial footing, enabling him to make his emotional appeal to the lower middle class and the unemployed in his faith that Germany would recover from its suffering and be a great nation once more. The alliance with the industrialists also demonstrated another aspect of Hitler, a skill of effectively using those that would use him, which many would discover when it was too late.

The electoral strength of the Nazis grew during the Depression, as unceasing propaganda accused the government of failing to improve conditions for the working man. By the fall of 1930 the Nazis captured more than 18 percent of the vote, compared to just 2.6 percent in 1928. Hitler captured 36.8 percent of the vote when he opposed Paul von Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential election; his mass following put him in such a strong position that he entered a series of closed-door intrigues with Franz von Papen, Oskar Hindenburg, and Otto Meissner, all sharing a fear and loathing of a communist government. Despite the party losing votes in the November, 1932 election, Hitler insisted on nothing less than the office of chancellor for himself. For him, it was all or nothing. Hindenburg offered it to him on January 30, 1933.

==In power==
Almost immediately, Hitler established himself as dictator. Less than a month after taking office, on February 27 the Reichstag building was set on fire under mysterious circumstances (but officially blamed on a feeble-minded Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe); Hitler soon after succeeded in getting several decrees passed removing much of the guarantees of freedom in the name of state security, and which also allowed an intensified campaign of violence against dissidents. Incredibly, in a special election set in those conditions on March 5, the Nazis pulled 43.9 percent of the vote. On March 21, the new Reichstag assembled at the Potsdam Church, as much a show of unity between the old guard under Hindenburg and the Nazis as it was a show of peace. Two days later the Enabling Act was passed, giving Hitler full powers; with the exception of the Nazis, all other political parties, including those which had helped pass the Enabling Act, ceased to exist within three months. Many of their leaders were tossed in concentration camps.

===Night of the Long Knives===
[[Image:HitlerRohm1933.JPG|right|200px|thumb|Hitler with Ernst Röhm in 1933]]
Hitler, however, did not wish to start an immediate revolution. He still needed the support of the one agency he needed to implement his ideas: the army. But he did have one growing problem that was a thorn in the army’s side, the million-plus men of the S.A. and their leader, Ernst Röhm, who wanted nothing less than the merger of the S.A. into the army, with himself in overall command. At first, Hitler tried getting Röhm’s support by persuasion, but Hitler’s inner circle was for removing him by any means possible. On June 29, 1934, Hitler ordered a purge, flew towards a resort near Munich where a number of S.A. leaders were vacationing, and had them all arrested; many would be shot without trial. Refusing to shoot himself when offered, Röhm was killed in his cell at Dachau, his last words, ironically, “Mein Führer, mein Führer!” <ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/roehm.htm</ref><ref>http://www.adolfhitler.ws/lib/nsdap/Rohm.html</ref><ref>http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/nazi/innenpolitik/roehm/index.html</ref>
On July 13, Hitler gave speech in the Reichstag, announcing that some seventy-four individuals had been shot for threatening the stability of the Reich.
:''"If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this: In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people…It was no secret that this time the revolution would have to be bloody; when we spoke of it we called it 'The Night of the Long Knives.' Everyone must know for all future time that if he raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot." ''
Hitler also used this event to settle his account with other opponents, such as Georg Strasser, who stood for a more socialist and less racist national socialism, and the former Bavarian prime minister who foiled the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. Satisfied that the S.A. leadership was thoroughly broken up (thousands of S.A. members were either arrested or killed that night), the army approved of Hitler’s actions. Hindenburg died a few days later on August 2, and Hitler merged the office of president with the chancellorship, and with it the supreme command of the German armed forces. During this time the world was slowly recovering economically from the Depression, but it quickened in Germany, coincidently with Hitler’s rise to power. Taking credit for the recovery made him very popular, bringing him a 90 percent approval rating in a voter plebiscite that year.

===Beginnings of expansion===
In matters of state, the running of domestic affairs was left to subordinates, which was something Hitler had little attention for. Foreign policy always peaked his interest, in so much as to the advantages of a “Greater Germany”, which was his chief ambition. The first part of realizing this, according to ''Mein Kampf'', was to be a reunion of the German peoples within Europe; the second would be an expansion of Germany to the east (lebensraum). Expanding would mean a renewed conflict with the Slavic peoples, whom Hitler intended to serve as slaves to the “New German Order.” To follow through on his ambitions, he would have to remove Poland and the Soviet Union as countries; France also would have to be stabilized in the west, as she was Germany’s enemy for more than a century. He counted as possible allies Italy, with its fascist government under [[Benito Mussolini]], and Britain, whom he regarded as having a similar, Teutonic heritage.
[[Image:Hitler6-thumb.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Hitler with his dog, Blondie.]]
Before any of his ambitions could take place, there was one thing he detested which needed immediate removal: the restrictions placed upon Germany by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. Posing as a man of peace to allay suspicions, he insisted that he was a champion of Europe wishing only for the removal of the inequalities leveled by the treaty, and posturing as a shield against Bolshevism. In October, 1933, he had Germany withdraw from the [[League of Nations]]. The following January he signed a non-aggression treaty with Poland. His individual repudiations of parts of the treaty were followed by offers of negotiations for new agreements, while maintaining Germany’s limited ambitious nature.

While this was going on, Germany was steadily building up the armed forces. Rigorous training using wooden guns and trucks marked as “tanks” got needed battlefield training for officers. Potential fighter pilots began their training in gliders at public demonstrations – Germany, under terms of the treaty, was not allowed an air force – and later they would fly in new civilian stunt planes and transports, which on the drawing board were designed to be rapidly turned into fighters and bombers. Conscription was introduced in January, 1935, and in June of that year Hitler successfully signed a naval treaty with Britain, giving him rights to a respectable navy; but even while the ink was drying, Germany was secretly building a large U-boat fleet.

The matter of reuniting the German peoples came into being in July, 1934, and here Hitler overreached. German organizations were covertly aiding Austrian Nazis in the overthrow of their government, culminating in an attempted revolt as well as murdering Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. When the attempt clearly failed, Hitler denied involvement. In January, 1935, a plebecite was introduced in the Saarland; more than 90 percent voted to return the territory to Germany. Then in March, 1936, came his greatest slap to the Versailles Treaty: against the advice of his generals, and in open defiance of France and Britain, he ordered troops into the demilitarized Rhineland. Germany was once again becoming the leading power in continental Europe. By October, 1936, Germany had signed an alliance with Italy, proclaiming a “Rome-Berlin axis,” followed by the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan. All three countries would sign a single, mutual alliance pact, the following year.

===Health care in Nazi Germany===

According to Michael H. Kater "physicians became Nazified more thoroughly and much sooner than any other profession, and as Nazis they did more in the service of the nefarious regime than any of their extra-professional peers."<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=lDMIHDTLEN4C&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=Reich+Minister+of+the+Interior%2Bhealth%2Bcivilian+patient&source=bl&ots=2lLhun_7PE&sig=olfzxYKJAswVjjIEqjBcZPKhCXM&hl=en&ei=3D2MSsrZAZGeMLeq7JMO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#v=onepage&q=&f=false Doctors Under Hitler] By Michael H. Kater, pp. 4-5.</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=NnPBlkKk8AQC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=physicains+became+nazified+much+thoroughly+and+sooner&source=bl&ots=sWUPklUojC&sig=fAJrGFwHYn-0gJDKPWLERHikAY4&hl=en&ei=GUaMStjmKIfaNb66rZMO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false Atrocities on trial: historical perspectives on the politics of prosecuting war crimes]
By Patricia Heberer, Jürgen Matthäus], p. 110.</ref><ref>[http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/bulletin_of_the_history_of_medicine/v073/73.1marrus.html The Nuremberg Doctors' Trial in Historical Context] Michael Robert Marrus, Bulletin of the History of Medicine,Volume 73, Number 1, Spring 1999, pp. 106-123, E-ISSN: 1086-3176 Print ISSN: 0007-5140 [http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Moral%20Issues%20in%20Medicine/Human%20Experimentation/Nuremberg%20Doctors%27%20Trial.html]</ref> After 1933, physicians joined the Nazi Party in greater numbers than did any other profession. By 1935, almost a third of the non-Jewish German physicians belonged to the Nazi Party. From 1925 to 1944, the per cent of doctors in the party was almost three times as high as in the population as a whole. <ref>Michael H. Kater, ‘’The Nazi Party: A Social Profile of Members and Leaders 1919-1945’’. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983.</ref>

The National Association of Sickness Fund Physicians [http://healthcare-economist.com/2008/04/24/health-care-around-the-world-germany/] was established in 1933 as a national bargaining unit to replace the numerous, more local, associations with which sickness funds had negotiated in the past. Thus, several thousand sickness funds were forced to deal with a single organization, or [[single payer]], that held a legal monopoly over medical services. The drive by the medical profession to transform the organization and delivery of [[health care]] services from self-governing sickness funds to physician-controlled services was complete.<ref>[http://www.ajph.org/cgi/reprint/76/1/78.pdf Social Medicine vs Professional Dominance: The German Experience], Donald W. Light, PhD, Stephan Liebfried, PhD, and Floran Tennstedt, PhD.</ref>

==Anschluss==

Removed from their offices in January 1938 were Hjalmar Schacht (economic ministry); Werner von Fritsch (soldiers’ representative); and Konstantin von Neurath (foreign office); the reason being was they were not fully accepting of Nazism. Beginning his plans of German conquest, he started with Austria. Kurt von Schuschnigg, the Austrian chancellor, was invited to Berchtesgaden in February, where he was browbeaten and forced to sign an agreement placing Austrian Nazis in the government. When Schuschnigg resisted and announced a plebiscite for Austrian voters concerning independence, Hitler ordered German troops into Austria, completely taking over the country within days. His return to Vienna was in triumph; enthusiastic crowds greeted him by the tens of thousands, in sharp contrast to the scenes of privation he had gone through there in his youth. Austria was annexed (Anschluss) to the Reich a short time later.

While the Anschluss was going on, Hitler was speaking in friendly terms with Czechoslovakia; nearly as soon as Austria ceased to exist, Hitler proceeded with his plans against the Czechs. The northwestern region of Czechoslovakia was the Sudetenland, inhabited by a German minority, and the leader of them, Konrad Henlein, was instructed to make impossible demands for those Germans on the Czech government. In the interest of preventing a general war (which Hitler wanted), Mussolini and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain concluded a peaceful agreement in Munich on September 30, giving Hitler the Sudetenland without firing a shot. Chamberlain would return to Britain, waving the agreement signed between himself and Hitler, declaring it to be “peace for our time”, but his act of appeasement would ensure the peace would last only a few more months. Despite assurances that the Sudetenland was his last territorial demands, “Czechia”, as the remainder of Czechoslovakia was called, became a German protectorate on March 15, 1939, when Hitler ordered it occupied. Just over a week later, Lithuania was forced to cede to Germany the territory of Memel (Klaipeda), on the border of East Prussia.

==Poland==
Poland’s turn was next, and listening to the rumblings was France and Britain, which signed guarantees of mutual assistance to the Polish nation should it be attacked by Germany. Hitler also signed pacts: a “Pact of Steel” with Italy, strengthening the alliance between Rome and Berlin, and then a treaty that caught many off-guard: a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union on August 23. A secret clause in the pact allowed for the simultaneous invasion of Poland, and the division of the country in the center from north to south. Poland was invaded on September 1; two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany.

Hitler assumed his own war strategy. Poland was conquered within weeks, and when a desired peace accord with Britain failed to materialize, he ordered the army to prepare for a western offensive. Norway was invaded and occupied, forestalling a British move on that country; Denmark was occupied by April, 1940. Hitler than adopted General Erich von Manstien’s plan for an offensive against France itself, which would move through neutral Belgium’s Ardenne Forest on May 10, taking that country as a matter of convenience, as well as avoiding the static fortifications of France’s Maginot Line. The German forces, extremely successful in their operations, reached the coastal ports on the English Channel in 10 days; Holland and Belgium both surrendered within days. But south of Dunkirk was where the army was ordered to halt. Hitler had hoped even at this stage in the battle that Britain would commit to peace; instead, the halting of the German army allowed the British to remove 170,000 fighting men.

On June 10, Italy entered the war as German tanks were sweeping across northern France. Hitler signed an armistice with France on June 22, the signing taking place in the same rail car at the same site where the Germans surrendered in 1918.

Having failed in getting the British to sign an armistice, Hitler prepared his forces for “Operation Sea Lion,” the invasion of Britain. However, the Luftwaffe was defeated in its attempt to gain air superiority over British airspace, also known as the Battle Of Britain, which forced the permanent postponement of Sealion.

Facing the failure of the British to give in, Hitler started to prepare to double-cross his erstwhile partner in the Poland conquest, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. Then Mussolini invaded Greece, got bogged down in the Balkans, and the threat loomed that he would lose his whole army there. Hitler found it necessary to come to his aid, while at the same time taking direct control of Yugoslavia in the wake of the overthrow of the pro-Nazi government.

==Barbarossa==
The attack on Soviet Russia began June 22, 1941. Rapid in its advancement, the German army captured a large swath of territory between the Baltic and Black seas, and captured close to 3,000,000 prisoners. But Hitler, already micro-managing military operations, became overbearing to his generals; he preferred to go after many targets, while his generals argued for a single objective. A few miles in front of Moscow, the German army was halted by a Russian offensive in December, as well as something he had absolutely no control over: the severe Russian winter.

In the lands already occupied by German forces, S.S. chief Heinrich Himmler was preparing the ground for Hitler’s new German order. Expelling the Jews from Germany was the first step, and this was carried out by laws and decrees beginning in 1933; the Germans would switch to outright force in 1939, as Jews were first deported en-masse to Poland, then walled into ghettos after the occupation began. By 1941, a policy crafted under S.S. general Reinhard Heydrich had changed expulsion for extermination in what was called "a final solution to the Jewish question" (''die Endlösung der Judenfrage''). The system of concentration camps was supplemented by the creation of specialized killing centers in the occupied countries, especially in Poland, where camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzac “processed” thousands of victims daily. Some six million Jews died during what was called the [[Holocaust]], as well as an additional five million Slavs, Gypsies, the handicapped, the aged, and many others that the Nazis considered “subhuman” in accordance with German racial policies.<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/burns.htm</ref>

==Beginning of the end==
[[Image:Adolf_hitler6.jpg‎ |right|200px|thumb|Hitler in 1944, by now looking tired and strained.]]
Hitler grew increasingly strained by the end of 1942, depending on large amounts of drugs supplied by his physician, Theodor Morell, as a result of the twin defeats of El Alamein (which he lost the bulk of his Afrika corps to British general Montgomery), and Stalingrad (where he lost an entire army of 250,000 men to the Russians). He spent more time in his headquarters in East Prussia, and his time in the public eye ceased to exist. He refused to visit bombed German cities, and, as with Stalingrad, refused to allow German armies to withdraw from the battlefield when the situation was lost. Still, he could make stunning, decisive decisions when called for, such as the commando raid that resulted in the rescue of Benito Mussolini from Italian partisans in July, 1943.

But the defeat of Germany in the war was looming closer. Hitler’s relations with his leading commanders grew strained, the more so as he allowed units of the S.S. to take positions traditionally held by the army. The line at the eastern front was slowly being pushed back by the Soviets, while in the Atlantic his U-boats campaign had faltered. German cities were constantly being bombed, and a successful invasion on the Normandy coast of France in June, 1944 marked the beginning of the end.

===Assassination attempt===
[[Image:NWT Hitler dead.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Hitler's death as covered by the ''New York Times'', May 2, 1945.]]
Seeing Germany’s chances of surviving the war were desperate, a group of officers plotted to assassinate Hitler, planning several attempts in 1943-44, but nearly successful on July 20, 1944, when a bomb hidden in a briefcase by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg went off under a table that Hitler and others were leaning over; four were killed outright, several suffered injuries, but Hitler escaped relatively unharmed (the bomb itself was set down away from Hitler behind a solid oak table leg, saving him). The conspirators were quickly rounded up; Stauffenberg was shot. The remainder were put on show trials and condemned to hang on meat hooks with piano wire. It was said that Hitler enjoyed watching film of their executions. As a result of the bomb, Nazi members were employed at key positions within the army, removing any trace of the army’s independence.

Within months nearly all of the territory occupied by Germany was now in Allied hands. A last offensive in December, 1944 to take the port of Antwerp, Belgium, failed. Hitler had by them grown ill; his hopes for a German victory bordered on the fantastical and the imagination. By January, 1945 he had moved into his command bunker in Berlin, where he gave orders deploying fictional divisions to counter the ever-closer Soviets. When all seemed lost, he gave out his final orders: first, appointing Admiral Karl Dönitz as head of the state and his successor, and Josef Goebbels as chancellor; and second, dictating his last political will which was an attempt to justify his life’s work.

On April 29, he committed the one truly-chivalrous act of his life: he married Eva Braun, his long-time mistress. After retiring to his room in the bunker the next day, Eva took poison, and Hitler put a bullet in his head. In accordance with his wishes, both bodies were burned. His Third Reich would outlive him for another week.

[[Elie Wiesel]] wrote the following in [[Time Magazine]] regarding Hitler:
{{cquote|Adolf Hitler or the incarnation of absolute evil; this is how future generations will remember the all-powerful Fuehrer of the criminal Third Reich. Compared with him, his peers [[Mussolini]] and [[Franco]] were novices. Under his hypnotic gaze, humanity crossed a threshold from which one could see the abyss. "Before Hitler, we thought we had sounded the depths of human nature," argues Ron Rosenbaum, author of "Explaining Hitler." "He showed how much lower we could go, and that's what was so horrifying. It gets us wondering not just at the depths he showed us but whether there is worse to come. The power of Hitler was to confound the modernist notion that judgments about good and [[evil]] were little more than matters of taste, reflections of social class and power and status. Although some modern scholars drive past the notion of evil and instead explain Hitler's conduct as a reflection of his childhood and self-esteem issues, for most survivors of the 20th century he is confirmation of our instinctive sense that evil does exist. It moves among us; it leads us astray and deploys powerful, subtle weapons against even the sturdiest souls." <ref name="time" />}}

==Hitler and the Theory of Evolution==
''For more information please see:'' [[Evolutionary racism]]

[[Image:Hitlerrisetopower.jpg|right|225px|thumb]]
The staunch [[evolution|evolutionist]] Stephen Gould admitted the following:
{{cquote|[[Ernst Haeckel|[Ernst] Haeckel]] was the chief apostle of evolution in [[Germany]].... His evolutionary racism; his call to the German people for racial purity and unflinching devotion to a "just" state; his belief that harsh, inexorable laws of evolution ruled human civilization and nature alike, conferring upon favored races the right to dominate others; the irrational mysticism that had always stood in strange communion with his brave words about objective science - all contributed to the rise of Nazism. - Stephen J. Gould, "Ontogeny and Phylogeny," Belknap Press: Cambridge MA, 1977, pp.77-78).<ref>http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/social.html</ref>}}

In regards to evolutionary racism, Hitler wrote the following in his work ''[[Mein Kampf]]'':
{{cquote|The Germans were the higher race, destined for a glorious evolutionary future. For this reason it was essential that the [[Jew]]s should be segregated, otherwise mixed marriages would take place. Were this to happen, all nature’s efforts “to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being may thus be rendered futile.”<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1675</ref>}}<ref>[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601.txt ''Mein Kampf,'' from Project Gutenberg Australia]</ref>

Hitler also wrote in ''Mein Kampf'':
{{cquote|The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel, but he, after all, is only a weak and limited man; for if this law did not prevail, any conceivable higher development (Hoherentwicklung) of organic living beings would be unthinkable.<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=268</ref>}}

Dr. Robert E.D. Clark wrote in his work ''Darwin, Before and After'' the following regarding Hitler and the theory of evolution: “Adolf Hitler’s mind was captivated by evolutionary teaching — probably since the time he was a boy. Evolutionary ideas — quite undisguised — lie at the basis of all that is worst in Mein Kampf — and in his public speeches”.<ref name="courier">http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/the_holocaust_why_did_it_happen</ref>
[[Image:5712dawkins.jpg|alt=Richard Dawkins|right|thumbnail|200px|[[Richard Dawkins]] is a prominent [[atheism|atheist]] and [[evolution|evolutionist]]. [[Richard Dawkins]] stated in an interview: “What’s to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn’t right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question."<ref>http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/richard-dawkins-the-atheist-evangelist</ref> ]]
Richard Hickman in his work ''Biocreation'' concurs and wrote the following:
{{cquote|It is perhaps no coincidence that Adolf Hitler was a firm believer in and preacher of evolutionism. Whatever the deeper, profound, complexities of his [[psychosis]], it is certain that [the concept of struggle was important for]. . . his book, Mein Kampf clearly set forth a number of evolutionary ideas, particularly those emphasizing struggle, survival of the fittest and extermination of the weak to produce a better society. <ref>http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v08n3p24.htm</ref>}}

Noted evolutionary [[anthropology|anthropologist]] Sir [[Arthur Keith]] conceded the following in regards to Hitler: “The German Fuhrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practices of Germany conform to the theory of evolution”.<ref name="courier" />

[[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning author [[Marilynne Robinson]] wrote the following regarding Hitler's racism in the November 2006 issue of ''[[Harper’s]]'' magazine:
{{cquote|While it is true that persecution of the Jews has a very long history in [[Europe]], it is also true that science in the twentieth century revived and absolutized persecution by giving it a fresh rationale — Jewishness was not religious or cultural, but genetic. Therefore no appeal could be made against the brute fact of a Jewish grandparent.

[[Richard Dawkins|[Richard] Dawkins]] deals with all this in one sentence. Hitler did his evil "in the name of ... an insane and unscientific [[eugenics]] theory." But eugenics is science as surely as totemism is religion. That either is in error is beside the point. Science quite appropriately acknowledges that error should be assumed, and at best it proceeds by a continuous process of criticism meant to isolate and identify error. So bad science is still science in more or less the same sense that bad religion is still religion. That both of them can do damage on a huge scale is clear. The prestige of both is a great part of the problem, and in the modern period the credibility of anything called science is enormous. As the history of eugenics proves, science at the highest levels is no reliable corrective to the influence of cultural prejudice but is in fact profoundly vulnerable to it.

There is indeed historical precedent in the [[Spanish Inquisition]] for the notion of hereditary Judaism. But the fact that the worst religious thought of the sixteenth century can be likened to the worst scientific thought of the twentieth century hardly redounds to the credit of science.<ref>http://solutions.synearth.net/2006/10/20</ref><ref>http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/someone-finally-said-it-dawkinss-hysterical-scientism/</ref>}}

[[Evolution|Evolutionist]] and [[atheism|atheist]] [[Richard Dawkins]] stated in an interview: “What’s to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn’t right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question."<ref>http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/richard-dawkins-the-atheist-evangelist</ref> The interviewer wrote, regarding the Hitler comment, "I was stupefied. He had readily conceded that his own [[philosophy|philosophical]] position did not offer a rational basis for moral judgments. His intellectual honesty was refreshing, if somewhat disturbing on this point."<ref>http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/richard-dawkins-the-atheist-evangelist</ref>

== Adolf Hitler and Abortion ==

''For more information see:'' [[Abortion and Adolf Hitler]]

In 1942 Adolf Hitler declared:
{{cquote|In view of the large families of the Slav native population, it could only suit us if girls and women there had as many abortions as possible. We are not interested in seeing the non-[[German]] population multiply…We must use every means to instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have several children, the expenses that they cause and the dangerous effect on woman's health… It will be necessary to open special institutions for abortions and doctors must be able to help out there in case there is any question of this being a breach of their professional ethics. <ref>http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07090708.html</ref>}}

== External links ==
[[File:Hitler Siegestor Munich Victory Gate.jpg|thumb|Watercolor of the Arch of Triumph in Munich by Hitler.]]
*[http://www.eucontest.org/go.php?pdf=www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%201994.pdf Extracts From Mein Kampf by Hitler]
*[http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/ Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.] Full text.
*[http://www.snyderstreasures.com/pages/hartworks.htm Adolf Hitler ORIGINAL Watercolor Artworks.]

==Further reading==
*[http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/medical.htm STATE MEDICAL SERVICES OF THE THIRD REICH], FROM THE OPENING STATEMENT BY TELFORD TAYLOR, Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. Nuremberg, October 1946–April 1949. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O, 1949–1953.] Retrieved from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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

==Sources==
*[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/hitler-adolf/oss-papers/text/profile-index.htmlA Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler, His Life and Legend], Walter C. Langer, Office of Strategic Services, Washington, D.C.

{{DEFAULTSORT: Hitler, Adolf}}

[[Category:Dictators]]
[[Category:Atheists]]
[[Category:Mass Murderers]]
[[Category:Nazis]]
[[Category:Evolutionists]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]
[[Category:Anti-Semitism]]
[[Category:German History]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Evolutionary Racists]]

Wikipedia

2010-05-03T16:23:13Z

Hopefiend:

[[Image:Wpp.png|thumb|right|[http://www.wikipedia.org Multilingual Wikipedia home page]]]
'''Wikipedia''' is a online [[encyclopedia]]<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4840340.stm</ref> written and edited by an ''ad hoc'' assemblage of anonymous persons who are mostly, according to the ''Register'' (UK)<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/mar/08/media.comment</ref><ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/sanger_forks_wikipedia/</ref>, teenagers and unemployed persons. In 2008, the ''American Journalism Review'' declared concerning Wikipedia:
{{cquote| "An even more blunt assessment appears in the encyclopedia's "Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia" posting: "We do not expect you to trust us. It is in the nature of an ever-changing work like Wikipedia that, while some articles are of the highest quality of scholarship, others are admittedly complete rubbish." It also reminds users not to use Wikipedia as a primary source or for making "critical decisions."<ref>http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4461</ref>}}
The project was initiated by two [[atheism|atheists]]: [[entrepreneur]] [[Jimmy Wales]] and [[philosophy]] [[professor]] [[Larry Sanger]] on January 15, 2001. Despite its official "neutrality policy," [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia|Wikipedia has a strong liberal bias.]] In his article entitled ''Wikipedia lies, slander continue'' [[journalism|journalist]] [[Joseph Farah]] stated Wikipedia "is not only a provider of inaccuracy and bias. It is wholesale purveyor of lies and slander unlike any other the world has ever known."<ref>http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83640</ref> Mr. Farah has repeatedly been the victim of defamation at the Wikipedia website.<ref>http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83640</ref> Wikipedia has millions of entries on topics ranging from an explanation for "duh"<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duh (only after Conservapedia criticized the entry on the English word "duh" did Wikipedia eventually remove it)</ref> to singles by obscure rock bands<ref>such as ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honk_If_You_Love_Fred_Durst Honk If You Love Fred Durst]'' (accessed April 1, 2007)</ref> to arcane British nobility.<ref>Part of the article about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Liddell Henry Liddell], a 19th-century Vice-chancellor of Oxford University and author, includes that his grandfather was the youngest son of the 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and that his daughter was the child ''Alice in Wonderland'' was written for (accessed April 1, 2007)</ref> There are editions of Wikipedia in 250 languages, and 130 have more than 1000 articles.<ref>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias List of Wikipedias - Wikimedia], accessed April 1, 2007.</ref> After about four years Wikipedia had about 450,000 entries,<ref>Aaron Weiss, The Unassociated Press, N.Y. Times, Feb. 10, 2005, at G5.</ref> and after six years it had about 1.7 million entries.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics English Wikipedia statistics] accessed April 1, 2007</ref>

==Origins==

Initially, Wikipedia was hosted on servers operated by Bomis, Inc., a company that also sold pornographic pictures.<ref>Martin Hickman and Genevieve Roberts, "WIKIPEDIA," The Independent (London) p. 12 (Feb 13, 2006)</ref> In 2003, Jimbo Wales founded the Wikimedia Foundation to oversee the day-to-day operations of Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides support for Wikipedia and other similar projects,<ref>[http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home Wikimedia Foundation] accessed April 7, 2007</ref> and also the free MediaWiki software that runs Wikipedia and Conservapedia.<ref>[http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki home] accessed April 7, 2007</ref>

==Economics==

Though Wikipedia is non-profit, the [[Wikia]] project of its co-founder is very much for-profit and has raised millions of dollars in investments. Already Wikipedia has been criticized for favoring Wikia. When Wikipedia community voted 61-39% percent to treat all links to other sites equally by removing nofollow (Google-ignored) tags for all of them, the Wikipedia co-founder overruled this decision and Wikipedia now favors Wikia in its treatment of nofollow tags.<ref>http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/28/wikipedia-special-treatment-for-wikia-and-other-wikis/</ref>

''The Register'' said:<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/sanger_forks_wikipedia/</ref>
:Wikipedia has tried to balance the Utopian goal of "an encyclopedia anyone can edit" with the more utilitarian goal of "a website anyone would want to read". With over a million articles, and a rulebook almost as dense, Wikipedia has demonstrated an insatiable desire to participate, create lists and generate procedures. The result is a huge silo of recorded trivia, and perhaps the world's largest, most distributed bureaucracy - mostly manned by a casual staff of teenagers and the unemployed.

==Quality==
''In other words—and this is the rock-solid principle on which the whole of the Corporation’s Galaxywide success is founded—their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.''
—Douglas Adams

Wikipedia, which is written by anyone, still struggles to solve the need for traditional quality controls characteristic of conventional [[encyclopedia]]s. The self-policing practices has produced results and accuracy far better than originally expected. But still the lack of consistency and uniform supervision leaves an ever present shadow over any given piece of information. It has come to receive high grades for accuracy, but still many in the [[academy]] insist that it is unreliable source for [[research]] and an unacceptable reference in many classrooms. Perhaps these reactions are inevitable. Nevertheless, Wikipedia steers people to original [[source material]], and with the use of [[hyperlink]]s and [[search engine]]s, it has become the most widely used intermediary [[reference]] tool on the [[Internet]].

==[[Liberal bias]]==
Wikipedia shows a systematic bias in that tiny proportion of articles which treat controversial issues. It ignores its own [[NPOV]] policy when it allows contributors to "delete well-referenced information" merely because it comes from a [[scientist]] who holds a [[minority view]]. It would only be a violation, if the article used the information to give a false impression of the proportion of scientists adhering to that view, but liberals use "[[undue weight]]" like a sledge hammer. They are either unaware or unconcerned about their bias.

This is not surprising, given this [[Zogby]] poll:

While 97% of [[Republican]]s surveyed said the media are [[liberal]], two-thirds of [[political independent]]s feel the same, but fewer than one in four independents (23%) said they saw a "conservative bias". [[Democrat]]s, while much more likely to perceive a conservative bias than other groups, were not nearly as sure the [[media]] was against them as were the Republicans. While Republicans were unified in their perception of a [[left-wing]] media, just two-thirds of Democrats were certain the media skewed [[right-wing|right]] – and 17% said the bias favored the left.

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1262

==Scandals and decline==

[[Image:Wikipedia scandals.jpg|thumb|450px|right|Decline in Wikimedia Foundation donations.<ref>[http://centiare.com/Wikipedia_scandals Wikipedia scandals]. Retrieved from centiare.com October 10, 2007.</ref> Graph courtesy [http://www.centiare.com/Directory:Gregory_J._Kohs Gregory Kohs]. Used with Permission.]]The cumulative effect of multiple scandals and revelations has led to declining activity on the English Wikipedia. The rate of new account creation peaked in early 2007 and has declined ~30% since. Overall editing activity showed a steady decline beginning in February 2007. An independent analysis reported, "The rate at which edits were being made to Wikipedia articles appears to have peaked in February to April 2007 and declined since. This decline is unprecedented in Wikipedia's history.... Though it may be purely coincidental, this time frame also corresponds to the Essjay controversy appearing in the press."<ref>[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-October/033661.html Statistical Decline of the English Wikipedia], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dragons_flight/Log_analysis Dragons flight/Log analysis], October 9, 2007.</ref>

Even after the hoax was revealed of high level intimates promoted by the Wikimedia Foundation as experts in fields that they were not, to persuade college professors to allow students to cite Wikipedia as a reliable source, and entrusted with the ability to invade users privacy which could affect, in their words, "life and death," Wikipedia still appealed to students with a Jim and Tammy Faye Baker-style fundraising slogan across one million project space pages that read, "OMG! Wikipedia is gone! I’ll flunk my exams!" [http://whygive.wikimedia.org/2007/11/24/omg-wikipedia-is-gone-ill-flunk-my-exams/]

==False claim about Brent Bozell==

In March 2007, Brent Bozell described this falsehood in Wikipedia:<ref>http://www.creators.com/opinion/brent-bozell/not-your-father-s-encyclopedia.html</ref>

:The other day, Bernie Goldberg emailed me, upset. He pointed me to his Wikipedia entry. To read what was written was to conclude that apparently I must hate his guts. But we are friends. He is a man for whom I have profound respect, professional and personal. He knew there was foul play.

:Right there on the screen, under the heading "Criticism," it stated that I had attacked him, "claiming that Goldberg merely lifted material he had been producing for years, and only published the book because he had an ax to grind with his former employers and was attempting to make a 'quick buck,' noting that Goldberg never mentioned the alleged liberal bias of the media until it was 'convenient' and 'profitable' for him to do so." ...

:In fact, those words have never been uttered by me. The accusation would be false. Back in 1996, Goldberg used the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal publicly to castigate his own network for its one-sided oafish bashing of Steve Forbes. It was anything but "convenient" or "profitable" for him. It ruined his friendship with Dan Rather and put him on a path to the outer fringes of CBS "News. Ultimately, it ruined his newscaster career.

:My attorney contacted Wikipedia by email demanding the removal of this false entry. No response. So we edited out the offensive material ourselves, after which in writing counsel alerted Wikipedia to the legal action that might befall them should this be repeated. Here's full disclosure, Wikipedia-style: You can see how each article is altered, sometimes hour by hour, in its "History" section. But there is no mention of the attorney's complaints. In the Goldberg article's history, an editor simply now scolds: "Bozell's article is a mock-jealous swipe at Goldberg's opportunism. PLEASE REREAD IT." (Capitals theirs.)

:Goldberg and I are not alone. The website Conservapedia.com has a [[Bias in Wikipedia|long list]] of 41 allegations of bias and factual errors at Wikipedia. You can add to that the problem with the credentials of its staff. One of its editors, named only "Essjay" online and described on his user profile "as a tenured professor of religion at a private university with expertise in canon law," was recently exposed as a 24-year-old college kid in Kentucky. He resigned in disgrace — even though Wikipedia tried to retain him, claiming he'd edited thousands of articles with flair.

Instead of apologizing to Brent Bozell, '''Wikipedia instead says "Bozell points to Conservapedia as a resource that documents Wikipedia's faults in this regard, presumably holding it as a more authoritative reference less vulnerable to vandalism."'''<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Bozell accessed April 1, 2007</ref>

==Rewriting its own history==

The Associated Press and others credit Larry Sanger as the co-founder of Wikipedia.<ref>http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2007/mar/25/032502465.html
</ref> But the Associated Press quotes Jimmy Wales as denying it:<ref>''id.''</ref>

:"When you write this up please do not uncritically repeat Sanger's absurd claim to be the co-founder of Wikipedia."

:"I know of no one who was there at the company at the beginning who would think it anything other than laughable," he added. This is an interesting comment, considering that Larry Sanger takes credit for coining the name, "Wikipedia."<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales/Archive_20#Sorry.2C_Jimbo.2C_but_not_buying_it. User talk:Jimbo Wales/Archive 20, Larry Sanger 03:26, 5 March 2007 (UTC)]</ref>

:"I am not bent out of shape about it," he wrote. "The facts are on my side, which is why I bother so little about it."

According to the Associated Press, Jimmy Wales "has repeatedly tried to address this - even going so far as editing his own Wikipedia biography to tone down credit for Sanger. Such autobiographical contributions are frowned upon in Wikipedia's community, and Wales apologized after his changes were noticed and publicized by blogger Rogers Cadenhead in 2005."<ref>''id.''</ref>

Jimmy Wales has admitted that certain administrators, contrary to their own rules, have at times completely removed editing evidence.

== Seigenthaler scandal ==

In early October 2005 a prominent and respected journalist [[John Seigenthaler Sr.]], contacted Wikipedia founder [[Jimmy Wales]] about false and libelous content in his biographical entry. Essjay, a 24 year old Wikipedia Administrator who was advancing rapidly in the organization, was dispatched to handle the situation.<ref>[http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=User:Essjay/Letter User:Essjay/Letter]. Retrieved from WikiTruth, November 3, 2007.</ref> An anonymous contributor added to Seigenthaler's biography the previous May,
:"John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General [[Robert Kennedy]] in the early 1960s. For a short time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both [[John F. Kennedy|John]], and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven," and "John Seigenthaler moved to the [[Soviet Union]] in 1971, and returned to the [[United States]] in 1984. He started one of the country's largest public relations firms shortly thereafter."

Wales told Seignethaler that Wikipedia is "accountable" and corrects mistakes immediately, but that the internet service provider of the anonymous user probably would not be helpful in identifying who placed the content.<ref>[http://www.journalism.org/node/1673 Seigenthaler's Op-Eds], October 1, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org November 12, 2007.</ref> Accountability activist Daniel Brandt, a victim of a spurious biographical entry by Wikipedia Administrators, identified the place of employment of the anonymous user, and from there the person accountable was identified.<ref>http://www.journalism.cf.ac.uk/2006/online/index.php?id=parse-195-0-0-251&article=336&author=India+Camm</ref>

Seigenthaler returned to the editorial pages of ''USA Today'' from which he retired as its first editorial manager to write an Op-Ed piece critical of Wikipedia and the threat it poses to free speech due of its overt provocation of government regulation, its irresponsible self regulation and lack of accountability.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm A false Wikipedia 'biography'], By John Seigenthaler, ''USA Today'', 11/29/2005.</ref>

=== CNN interview ===

On December 5, 2005 Wales and Seigenthaler appeared on [[CNN]]. An exchange between CNN moderator [[Kyra Phillips]] and Wales went like this:
{{Cquote|PHILLIPS:...I ran my name. I was shocked to see what was under my name. ...I'm telling you right now, Jimmy, that's not how I want people to see me and understand me. And what I'm about and what I write about in my interviews, et cetera. So, you know, it's not just individuals like John, but me and many other people, that just have concerns that this is creating gossip that can be very harmful. And people go to these sites thinking that this is the truth.}}
{{Cquote|WALES: Well, I mean, I think the real key is that the site matures over time, the -- all of the articles are edited over and over and over, and improved. Anyone's free to contribute. You're free to go and contribute.}}

This in fact is not the case. Phillips was not free to remove objectionable content within her biographical entry, as Daniel Brandt at that exact moment was discovering. Not four days prior, Wales told ''Editor & Publisher'' magazine regarding Brandt's objections to a false Wikipedia biography created by Wikipedia Administrators about him, "I find it hard to take him very seriously at all," and libelous slanders remained in Brandt's biography for a year and half. Wales told CNN, "we are very, very responsive to complaints and concerns."

Seigenthaler told the audience "with accountability comes credibility" and expressed fear that, "I'm afraid we're going to get regulated media as a result."<ref>http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/05/lol.02.html</ref>

On December 9, Seigenthaler appeared on C-SPAN's ''Washington Journal'' with Brian Lamb and articulated his concern that members of Congress or other powerful figures in government may likewise be targeted. On November 2, 2006, days before the mid-term Congressional elections, an anonymous IP address traced to the ''[[New York Times]]'' changed [[U.S. House of Representatives]] [[Majority Leader]] [[Tom DeLay]]'s Wikipedia biographical entry from "a prominent member of the [[Republican Party]]" to "Grand Dragon of the Republican Party."<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tom_DeLay&diff=prev&oldid=85320018 Wikipedia/Tom DeLay, Revision as of 20:19, 2 November 2006, IP 199.181.174.146]</ref><ref>[http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/name2ip.php?orgname=New+York+Times&location= WikiScanner]</ref>

Seigenthaler wrote a more expansive column in the ''The Tennessean'' after the November 30 ''USA Today'' piece appeared,
{{Cquote|a sudden stream of invective — homophobic, anti-Semitic and racist — spilled, as if from a sewer, onto the Wikipedia page under my name. ..It identified me as ...a "Nazi," "fascist-oriented" ....murderer ...there also was the profile picture of Adolf Hitler over the caption, "Press photo of Seigenthaler." The accompanying line: "He is secretly responsible for killing all the Jews." }}

=== Accountability and Section 230 ===
[[Image:Wikifascists.JPG|thumb|275px|right|From Wikipedia Watch. [http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/] The inscription reads, ''"Two wikifascists find someone without a biography."'']]
Upon his retirement from ''USA Today'', Seigenthaler founded of the First Amendment Center, an organization dedicated to a national dialogue about [[First Amendment]] rights and values. Seigenthaler criticized passage of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 states that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker." Unlike print and broadcast companies, internet service providers (ISP's) cannot be sued for disseminating defamatory attacks on citizens posted by others. Seigenthaler noted [[Jimbo Wales]] told [[Brian Lamb]] in a [[C-Span]] interview that Wikipedia is accountable and that mistakes are corrected within minutes, but the false information remained in Seigenthaler's biography for five months. Seigenthaler concluded,
{{Cquote|And so we live in a universe of new media with phenomenal opportunities for worldwide communications and research — but populated by volunteer vandals with poison-pen intellects.<ref>A false Wikipedia 'biography', By John Seigenthaler, ''USA Today'', 11/29/2005.</ref>}}

In the case of ''Zeran v. AOL'', Zeran sued AOL for refusing to screen and remove defamatory messages, even after Zeran notified the ISP of their existence. The lower court ruled for the service provider and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the decision, noting that the intent of Section 230 was to (1) remove incentives on service providers to restrict speech on the Internet and (2) encourage self regulation by service providers.<ref>http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=916529</ref><ref>http://www.adl.org/Civil_Rights/newcyber.pdf</ref>

An American citizen who posts material on the Internet that is illegal in a foreign country could be prosecuted if he subjected himself to the jurisdiction of that country. Internet users who export material that is illegal, that is to say, post material that is accessible and illegal in some foreign countries may be subject to prosecution in that country. However, under American law, the United States will not extradite a person for engaging in a constitutionally protected activity even if that activity violates a criminal law elsewhere.<ref>http://www.rjayco.com/obrien/nazism.pdf</ref>

=== Essjay given oversight ===
:''See Main article: [[Wikipedia:The Essjay scandal]]

Essjay wrote a professor to persuade her to allow her students to use Wikipedia as a viable source of information and posted a verbatim copy of the email for others to use. Essjay stated, "I was the administrator who deleted the inappropriate revisions when Mr. Seigenthaler contacted our founder, [[Jimmy Wales]]; it is quite unfortunate that a relatively minor issue on a relatively minor figure has provided so much negative publicity.<ref>[http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=User:Essjay/Letter User:Essjay/Letter]. Retrieved from WikiTruth, November 3, 2007.</ref> Seigenthaler noted in his Op-Ed piece, "The motive for the salacious stuff directed at me is reasonably obvious," and quoted some comments, "We all at Wikipedia think he (Seigenthaler) is a horrible, stupid p...k for complaining about small inaccuracies in his biography."<ref>[http://www.journalism.org/node/1673 Seigenthaler's Op-Eds], October 1, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org November 12, 2007.</ref>

Others said, "Mr. Seigenthaler's attitude and actions are reprehensible and ill-formed," and “if there is an error whether large or small, he can correct it.” This again, was not true. Even prior to the Wikipedia policy, '''Biographies of Living Persons''', [[conflict of interest]] restrictions existed on the subject of an article editing their own entry. Another wrote: "Rather than fixing the article himself, he made a legal threat."<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/12/bias_sabotage_haunt_wikipedias_free_world/?page=3</ref>
[[Image:Seigraph.gif|400px|thumb|right|The Seigenthaler scandal was viewed as "the best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia" as curiosity seekers to view the [[misinformation]] skyrocketed Alexa rankings.]]
Despite the damage to an innocent person and divulgence of Wikipedia's precarious claim as a viable source, the Seigenthaler scandal was viewed as a triumph and considered "the best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia,"<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:John_Seigenthaler,_Sr.#The_best_thing_that_ever_happened_to_Wikipedia Talk:John Seigenthaler Sr.#The best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia], retrieved 23 March 2007.</ref> catapulting it into a top ten most visited website as curiosity seekers responded to the negative publicity.<ref>[http://wikipediareview.com/lofiversion/index.php?t1100.html Wikipedia: A Nightmare Of Libel and Slander], Joel Leyden, Israel News Agency, 8 May 2006.</ref>

The scandal was originally billed as a "hoax", then "controversy," then downgraded to "incident," and now re-upgraded to "controversy," evidently in response to criticism. The Wikipedia entry on "Seigenthaler controversy" contains [[disinformation]], making the claim, "After the incident, Wikipedia took steps to prevent a recurrence, including barring unregistered users from creating new pages." No actions were ever taken to require disclosure of the real life identities of contributors. Barring unregistered users from creating new pages had nothing to do with the Seigenthaler scandal--the page already existed when an anonymous IP added the false information. Registration of accounts requires no accountability of the real life identity of the contributor. Indeed many experienced Wikipedia editors and Administrators have dozens of registered accounts, called "sockpuppet accounts." Protecting the identities of anonymous high-level Administrators has always been more of a priority to the WikiMedia Foundation than the propagation of false information about real life persons whose identities are known. Wales was asked by ''BusinessWeek'' magazine, “Why do you feel it is important to allow contributors and site administrators to remain anonymous?” Wales responded, “there are definitely people working in Wikipedia who may have privacy reasons for not wanting their name on the site….there are lots of reasons for privacy online that aren’t nefarious.”<ref> http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051214_441708.htm</ref> In the Seigenthaler case, it was the odd circumstance that a victim of false information had a large enough platform to respond, coupled with the welcome fact that the victim fundamentally opposes government regulation of internet speech.

Wikipedia's "Seigenthaler controversy" also states, "The Foundation added a new level of "oversight" features to the MediaWiki software,[12] accessible as of 2006 to around 20 experienced editors nominated by Wales,"<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seigenthaler_Sr._Wikipedia_biography_controversy#Wikimedia_Foundation_reaction Seigenthaler controversy#Wikimedia Foundation reaction].</ref> one of whom was Essjay.

This ban on anonymous page creation “reform” was abandoned less than two years later as Wikipedia's usage and ratings slumped in the wake of yet more scandals and questions about Wikipedia's culture, core content policies, and endemic lack of accountability.<ref>http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/084292.html</ref>

==Brandt / Berlet feud==
:''See Main article: [[Wikipedia:The Daniel Brandt controversy]]
An ugly far-left sectarian dispute<ref>[http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/wilcox/5.html Laird Wilcox], ''The Watchdogs: A Close Look at Anti-Racist "Watchdog" Groups'', Second Edition, Part 2, Editorial Research Service, 1999, p. 21. ISBN 0-993592-96-5.</ref> reared its head in 2005 with disastrous consequences for the site's credibility. The feud had been dormant for many years until the need to elevate a “controversial and notable expert” above the level of “partisan and extreme” defined by its own policies became apparent which would have precluded the so-called “expert” as "a source for anything other than himself,” as Wikipedia's ever fluid policies dictate.

Daniel Brandt, founder of Namebase,<ref>http://www.namebase.org/</ref> Google Watch, and Wikipedia Watch, removed [[Chip Berlet]] from his Board of Advisors in 1991 when Berlet refused to sit on the same Board which included Fletcher Prouty." Prouty, a retired Air Force colonel whose intelligence career stretched back to accompanying President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] to the [[Teheran conference]], was allegorically portrayed as the mysterious “Man X”<ref>[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/lfprouty.htm Leroy Fletcher Prouty, Jr., Colonel, United States Air Force], [[Arlington National Cemetery]] Website, Retrieved November 4, 2007.</ref> by [[Donald Southerland]] in [[Oliver Stone]]'s film, [[JFK]]. A Brandt biographical page was created using Berlet as the source for unsavory attacks on Brandt. Brandt describes himself as an "accountability activist"<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/04/your_take_roundupbelievers_neg.html Believers, Negativists Debate Wikipedia’s Trustworthiness], by Mark Glaser, 20 April 2006. Retrieved from pbs.org October 29, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Brandt Wikiquote/Daniel Brandt#Sourced]</ref> and claims he originally began working with Wikipedia editors in good faith during October 2005 but any biographical information he revealed was spun against him to depict him in a negative light. Brandt states,
{{Cquote|I soon realized that it was also about Berlet, who was still bent on undermining me. Berlet was using Wikipedia as part of his political agenda, and he was successful in this.<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=5641&pid=21441&mode=threaded&show=&st=0&#entry21441</ref>}}
Berlet's biography underwent an extensive revision with most of the substantive NPOV criticism cut out. The revising editor commented, "I kept Daniel Brandt, not because I feel he's a credible source, but because there's so little published criticism of Berlet, that I felt I had to retain something."<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Chip_Berlet&diff=prev&oldid=9161554 Chip Berlet/Talk, SlimVirgin 00:19, 7 January 2005].</ref> This is an extraordinary statement and raises the question why the same high-level Administrator and author of several of Wikipedia's core content and citation policies, including '''Wikipedia:Reliable Sources''' and '''Wikipedia:Biographies of Living Persons''' ('''BLP'''),<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&diff=31947681&oldid=31753956</ref> would use a source she did not consider credible.

===Biographies of living persons===

Wikipedia:Biographies of Living Persons (WP:BLP) policy did not come into being because of the [[Seigenthaler scandal]], but rather over the Brandt controversy, as the originating editor noted in an edit summary.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&diff=31947681&oldid=31753956</ref> Brandt requested Wikipedia delete his biographical entry, and ceased working with editors he suspected of working to further the propagation of false information about him.

''Editor & Publisher'' magazine bills itself as the nation’s oldest trade journal serving the newspaper industry with roots dating back to 1884. Wikipedia founder [[Jimmy Wales]] responded to questions from ''Editor & Publisher'' in a prepared statement on December 1, 2005 about Daniel Brandt saying,
{{Cquote|I don't regard him as a valid source about anything at all<ref>[http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/article_brief/eandp/1/1001612839 Wikipedia Founder, Readers Respond to Seigenthaler Article], Jay DeFoore, ''Editor & Publisher'', December 01, 2005.</ref>}}

Wales comments added '''undue weight'''<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:UNDUE#Undue_weight</ref> ('''WP:UNDUE''') to criticism of Brandt when placed within his biographical entry. Brandt demanded accountability from the army of unidentified Wikipedia Administrators furthering [[Chip Berlet]]'s agenda to destroy Brandt's credibility, and elevate Berlet's own as a Wikipedia "expert."
[[Image:294577483 90fd22f5cd m.jpg|thumb|300px|right|From '''WikiTruth''', the inscription reads, 
"''The Big Bad Brandt is Gonna Getcha!'']]
Brandt became known as the scourge of the Wikipedia Admin community. WikiTruth says in its ''Brandt the Boogeyman'' entry,
{{Cquote|he dates back to a time when people would look up facts in books and would verify information without just doing a copy and paste from an AP news article and thinking they were done. He compares writing styles, he calls government agencies, and he writes letters. And when he's done, he tends to know. Or at least, he knows where he stands in terms of information. He's rather tenacious about getting stuff right.

Wikipedia, of course, doesn't do this much at all: depending on the day, they'll laud a link to a website as being absolutely useless (it's on the WEB, of course) and then the next minute link to a different website to back a "fact" up. Citing books and printed materials is often a no-go, because nobody can read the original citation, so it gets swept away as well. Really, you have no idea what's good and what's bad, and it's all one big happy soup-hug.

Therefore, guys like Daniel Brandt are horrible for Wikipedia: he researches. He finds laws that pertain to situations. He asks the tough questions that could upset the whole Wiki-cart.}}

==The Wordbomb Saga==
[[Image:Patrick byrne overstock small.jpg|thumb|right|Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne [http://www.overstock.com/Patrick-Byrne-and-naked-short-selling/7371/static.html]]]
One of Wikipedia’s most bitter and drawn-out disputes, chronicled in ''The Register,''<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/06/wikipedia_and_overstock/</ref> centers around the assertion by representatives of Overstock.com<ref>http://www.overstock.com/community</ref> that a [[Mainstream media|mainstream financial journalist]] Gary Weiss had been editing Wikipedia to impose his point of view on a series of articles relevant to the company. Weiss was once a reporter with BusinessWeek, in 2007 became a columnist with Forbes, and had for over 10 years been posting under fake names to confuse, distort, hijack Usenet groups, stock message boards, and Wikipedia, to prevent the public from understanding criminal activity.<ref>http://www.deepcapture.com/gary-weiss-scaramouch-psychopath/</ref> Weiss was notorious around the Internet for his public feud with Overstock<ref>http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2007/05/overstockcoms-ethical-dilemma.html</ref> and its CEO Patrick Byrne,<ref>http://allantyoung.com/2008/09/22/patrick-byrne-vindicated/</ref> ridiculing their campaign against the controversial practice of [[Naked Short Selling]].

In 2006, Judd Bagley, an ally of Overstock’s Patrick Byrne having interviewed the CEO for a personal project, began editing Wikipedia to counter what was perceived to be a skewed representation of Naked Short Selling and Overstock.com. He was swiftly dispatched by influential Wikipedia administrators.

Shortly after, Bagley became Overstock’s Director of Communications, and embarked on an aggressive campaign to publicize the dispute on various websites, aiming to expose the administrators he held responsible for protecting Weiss. Using the moniker “Wordbomb”, Bagley presented evidence<ref>http://antisocialmedia.net/final-word-on-weiss/</ref> suggesting that not only was Gary Weiss editing Wikipedia using the name “User:Mantanmoreland“,<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mantanmoreland</ref> but that he was operating other accounts to manipulate consensus and protect his interests in the dispute. Mantanmoreland violated Wikipedia policies against Conflict of Interest and No Self Promotion by creating an article about himself.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gary_Weiss&diff=prev&oldid=48341962</ref> Bagley proved Weiss had edited Wikipedia from one of two main IPs used by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC),<ref>http://www.dtcc.com/about/business/index.php</ref> the organization charged with settling about a quadrillion stock trades each year. The DTCC is also the organization Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne said acts an enabler of perpetrators of illegal naked short selling of many public companies.<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=10360&view=findpost&p=36485</ref>

Wikipedia responded to Bagley’s campaign in typical schoolyard fashion. The dispute was escalated by a small clique of powerful Wikipedians who seemed less interested in the truth of Bagley’s assertions, and more concerned with attacking perceived threats to the status quo at Wikipedia. With the approval of [[Jimbo Wales]], administrators sided with “Mantanmoreland” / Gary Weiss, and anointed Bagley / Wordbomb an “Enemy Of The Wiki” who needed to be silenced — a “stalker” and a “harasser” for publicizing the details of the person who had been editing relevant articles on Wikipedia, and the people who had been stopping him from doing the same.

For nearly two years, Bagley’s name was invoked to inspire paranoia in the Wikipedia Admin Community to keep questioning editors in line. It became a textbook case for analysis of the intense [[group-think]] Wikipedia has become notorious for.
[[Image:Judd bagley overstock.jpg|thumb|left|175px|Judd Bagley was made a target at the highest levels of Wikipedia and became a victim of a global [[witchhunt]] by the Wikipedia Admin Community for daring to expose an unholy alliance of abuse and [[corruption]] on [[Wall Street]] and in the Wikipedia cabal. [http://antisocialmedia.net/] ]]
Bagley was repeatedly disparaged<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=15897</ref> by a cabal of out-of-control administrators such as Guy Chapman, who denounced Bagley as “lunatic” and “evil” when it suited. UK Wikimedia representative David Gerard banned an entire area of Utah to prevent Bagley raising his issues and made personally disparaging remarks.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:David_Gerard/archive_5#User:204.15.84.2</ref> Wikipedia Arbitrator Fred Bauder claimed that Bagley’s blog AntiSocialMedia.net showed “moral depravity”<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Proposed_decision&diff=158954587&oldid=158809362</ref> for challenging the Wiki-elite. Administrator Phil Sandifer dismissed Bagley in highly personal and offensive language while boasting<ref>http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/083509.html</ref> that he himself had become a “powerful and trusted administrator on the 9th biggest website in the world.”

Other editors who raised Overstock’s quite legitimate complaints were banned as proxies of Judd Bagley. Paranoia had taken such a hold that editors with productive records from all over the US, and as far afield as Europe and Asia found themselves accused of being Bagley. When the editor Cla68<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Mantanmoreland/Evidence#Evidence_presented_by_Cla68</ref> questioned the issue of Gary Weiss editing Wikipedia, he was swiftly blocked by administrator Durova on the orders of Jimbo Wales who wrote,<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Gary_Weiss&diff=165916446&oldid=165916313</ref> “Durova and Guy have my full support here. No nonsense, zero tolerance, shoot on sight. No kidding, this has gone on long enough”.

A study<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SirFozzie/Investigation</ref> undertaken by concerned administrators into the editing patterns of “Mantanmoreland” came to fruition. Despite the “Mantanmoreland” account ceasing edits on Overstock / Naked Short Selling articles in September 2007, the study revealed evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the same person had been operating several accounts to “control” articles. Thus affirming Bagley’s claims.

More worryingly for good faith Wikipedians was the revelation<ref>http://www.wikback.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2762#Post2757</ref><ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/01/wikipedia_and_naked_shorting/print.html</ref> that [[Jimbo Wales]], alongside leading administrators, had considered that this person was almost certainly Gary Weiss in a private discussion as long ago as September 2007 (the same month the “Mantanmoreland” account quit editing the relevant articles). Meaning that behind the scenes, they were admitting that Bagley was probably right all along, yet in public were vilifying or blocking anyone who publicly stated so.

After the [[financial meltdown of 2008]], the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] issued directives aimed at curbing abusive naked short selling.<ref>[http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20090728_SEC_short-selling_rule_is_permanent.html]</ref> Patrick Byrne has been widely recognized as in the forefront of the movement aimed at curbing such abuses.<ref>http://www.investigatethesec.com/drupal-5.5/?q=node/425</ref>

==Michael Moore==
[[Image:Moorecagan.JPG|right|thumb|200px|Moore with [[Leslie Cagan]] [[United For Peace and Justice]] [http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=629] ]]
The website MichaelMoore.com, dissatisfied with a Wikipedia editor's edits to ''[[Sicko]]'', published an image of a Wikipedia user on its main page. This was combined with links to edit both ''Sicko'' and the editor's user page.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Proposed_decision#Michael_Moore] Several Wikipedia editors and Administrators regarded this action on the part of [[Michael Moore]]'s official website as an egregious violation of a well publicized ruling to protect Wikipedia editors from outside harassment. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Evidence#Michael_Moore][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Evidence#Michael_Moore_2] The consensus, per Wikipedia's policy was to remove links from Wikipedia to Michael Moore's attack site which was urging vengeance and reprisals against an editor who posted criticism of Moore's film.

In Arbitration, Wikipedia's internal policy making and dispute resolution arm, the Arbitration chairman publicly admitted,
{{Cquote|No question it contained an attack, including a link to edit our user's page. The problem is that many of us like Michael Moore very much and don't care much for the viewpoint of the user involved. Applying our policy in a rote manner (Without consideration of '''the unwritten rule that we support prominent subjects that we like''') yields removal of the link (At least while it contained the personal attack).<ref>Wikien-1 [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082980.html Harassment sites], Fred Bauder, Sun Oct 14 19:03:28 UTC 2007.</ref>}}

Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View (NPOV), laid down by founder [[Jimbo Wales]] allegedly is "absolute and non-negotiable."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#_note-0] The ArbCom chairman further stated, "Obviously we need to make an exception for prominent people whose viewpoint we support." [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082987.html] When asked, "How, then, is this remotely compatible with NPOV?", the ArbCom chairman responded, "Not at all." [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082993.html] The editor whom Michaelmoore.com was urging its viewers to attack and harass is described as "a Fellow at the [[American Enterprise Institute]], a [[conservative]] [[think tank]]."[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/083230.html]

==Sinbad hoax==
On March 16 2007, Wikipedia entry on the 50-year old entertainer Sinbad, born David Adkins, states: "He succumbed to a fatal heart attack on the morning of March, 14, 2007." This hoax was widely reported in the media<ref>http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2891&iArticleId=3734818</ref>.

==Rutgers-Ivy League hoax==
A Wikipedia entry falsely stated that Rutgers was once invited to join the Ivy League. Although that false statement was eventually removed from Wikipedia, it was not removed before the ''Daily News'' relied on it in this story:

:You don't have to define your college with your football team, but Rutgers long ago decided to give it a try. Back in 1954, when it was considered a 'public Ivy,' Rutgers might have joined the fledgling Ivy League and altered its destiny. But the school declined the offer - arguably the dumbest mistake in its history. Ever since then, Rutgers has scrambled to prove itself worthy of playing football with the big boys."<ref>Bondy, Filip. "They Can Finally Say They Belong Here", New York Daily News, 2006-11-10, p. 92. Retrieved on 2006-12-13.</ref>

==Barbara Bauer vs. Wikimedia Foundation==
Wikimedia Foundation is one of 17 defendants in a lawsuit suit filed in New Jersey, by Barbara Bauer and her literary agency. Her Wikipedia article was deleted on March 25, 2007 by Wikipedia administrator Doc Glasgow as a "bloody disgrace".<ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauertc.html</ref><ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauertc.html</ref><ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauert1.html</ref><ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauert2.html</ref>

==GFDL License Issue==
Wikipedia's practice of complete deletion of articles<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Brian+Peppers</ref> without reference to the original article, the author(s)/publisher(s) of the article, and the history and title(s) of the article, including modification history, description and appropriate dates, is a direct violation of at least GFDL version 1.2. Additionally, the GFDL License states that if the article/document contains Copyright notices, that said notices must be preserved at all times. If those notices are removed, then they are in violation of Copyright Law, as well as the terms of the GFDL license. Furthermore, the question of them removing anything outright at all comes into quite a grey area. If one reads the GFDL License literally, then it implies that once the article document is posted, it is in distribution, and technical measures are not allowed to be taken to prevent the use of the document in question, and that no other conditions whatsoever can be added by you to those of the GFDL license.<ref>http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=Wikipocalypse:GF'DL</ref><ref>http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html#TOC1</ref>

==See also ==
*[[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia]]
*[[Previous Breaking News/Wikipedia|Articles about '''Wikipedia''' from previous "Breaking News"]]
*[[Essay:The Protocols of Ritual Defamation]]
*[[Wikipedia prejudice and KAL 007]] (Wikipedia deletion material related to [[New World Order]] and [[Larry McDonald]], touching [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]])

==Further reading==
*[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/21/conservatives-miss-wikipedias-threat/ SHEFFIELD: Conservatives miss Wikipedia's threat] by [[Washington Times]], August 21, 2008
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/06/wikipedia_and_overstock/print.html Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain], By Cade Metz, ''The Register'', 6th December 2007.
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/15/wikipedia_can_damage_your_grades/ Avoid Wikipedia, warns Wikipedia chief - It can seriously damage your grades] by Andrew Orlowski, ''The Register'', June 15, 2006
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/18/wikipedia_quality_problem/ Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems] by Andrew Orlowski, ''The Register'', October 18, 2005
*[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia Who Writes Wikipedia?] by Aaron Swartz, 2006

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

==External links==
*[http://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]
*[http://www.geocities.com/berlet_archive/virgin.htm Article: Chip Berlet, SlimVirgin, and Wikipedia]
*[http://www.wikitruth.info/ Wikitruth]
*[http://www.citizendium.com Citizendium(Beta)]
*[http://www.wikipedia-watch.org Wikipedia Watch]
*[http://wikipediareview.com/ Wikipedia Review]
*[http://www.mises.org/story/2704 Wikipedia: What Is It Good For?], By Dick Clark, 9/19/2007. Retrieved from The Ludwig von Mises Institute, http://www.mises.org/ November 5, 2007.

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