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Via Hetty Litjens, a group called West Point Graduates Against the War has some provocative quotes from Dwight D. Eisenhower.

From a 1953 press conference:

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war.

From a 1954 speech:

Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels — men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

In a 1949 speech, he seemed to foresee the choices we would be asked to make today:

If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They’ll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government.

Looking for verification of these quotes, I found others that seem appropriate to the present day.

As it is an ancient truth that freedom cannot be legislated into existence, so it is no less obvious that freedom cannot be censored into existence.

The current administration has never been very good with the ancient truths. Bush and Rumsfeld should have heeded this warning before invading Iraq:

When you appeal to force, there’s one thing you must never do — lose.

No, I don’t think he’s saying you keep pouring lives and money into a hopeless situation. Rather, it is the too-ready appeal to force that creates hopeless situations.

As the neocons try to pin all the blame on Iraq on incompetent execution, even while they spin out new war fantasies, maybe they should listen to this homespun wisdom:

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.

With Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, DeLay, Foley, Hastert, Haggard and many other GOP heavyweights disgraced and discredited, the Republican Party could use some better role models. I respectfully nominate Mr. Eisenhower.

Via Atrios, who says “This is barely satire,” this post-election report from The Onion:

Republican officials are blaming tonight’s GOP losses on Democrats, who they claim have engaged in a wide variety of “aggressive, premeditated, anti-Republican campaigns” over the past six-to-18 months. “We have evidence of a well-organized, well-funded series of operations designed specifically to undermine our message, depict our past performance in a negative light, and drive Republicans out of office,” said Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, who accused an organization called the Democratic National Committee of spearheading the nationwide effort. “There are reports of television spots, print ads, even volunteers going door-to-door encouraging citizens to vote against us.” Acknowledging that the “damage has already been done,” Mehlman is seeking a promise from Democrats to never again engage in similar practices.

Yes, it’s a joke.

From CNN:

Paul Mauriat, a French conductor whose arrangement of “Love is Blue” topped U.S. charts in the 1960s and who garnered a large following in Japan, has died. He was 81.

Mauriat’s recording of the song was a big hit in 1968. It was an off-beat hit for the days of guitar bands, starting with the harpsichord and strings intro.