Rain Storm -- an online journal of opinion and culture

For the record, I have the utmost respect for all young men and women who have the courage of their convictions to enlist and serve in the armed forces. I just don’t recommend it like I used to, before BushCo and especially Rumsfeld ruined my beloved Army. Like Joe, the Army was one of the best things that ever happened to me. But until it comes under new management, I won’t recommend it to my kids or grandkids. This administration squanders the lives of our young warriors in a futile quest for American empire, the neocons’ wet dream. I’m not anti-military, nor am I anti-war (sorry, Deanna and Jen). I believe in the concept of Just War, and until that principle is restored as part of our foreign policy, and until the lunatics are returned to the asylum, I won’t encourage youngsters to join the military.

Local police and FBI officials said they expect the transfer of between 10,000 and 20,000 troops to Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas, to bring more members of the Folk Nation gang into contact with a criminal group that is already well-established in the area, Barrio Azteca.

"What we have started looking at is which military units are going to be moving to El Paso," an FBI agent there, Andrea Simmons, said in an interview. "There is a potential for more gang activity, whether it be soldiers, or dependents and families of soldiers."

Ms. Simmons said some gangs actually direct members to join the military to learn how to handle weapons. "The intelligence that we have thus far indicates that they may try to recruit young people who have clean records and encourage them to keep their record clean to get into the military. They would get great weapons training and other types of training and access to weapons and arms, and be able to use that knowledge," she said. "They're taking training that is great and very altruistic and turning around and using it for criminal activity."

Ms. Simmons said Folk Nation, which was founded in Chicago and includes several branches using the name Gangster Disciples, has gained a foothold in the Army. "The Folk Nation has a presence with the military and/or their dependents," she said.

One FBI official, Jeremy Francis, told an El Paso television station, KFOX, that law enforcement had identified at least 80 people with military connections who had committed gang-related crimes. He said about 800 have some allegiance to Folk Nation.

The executive director of the National Major Gangs Task Force, Edward Cohn, said those numbers do not come as a shock. "People are initially surprised that there are gangs in the military, but really it shouldn't be a surprise," he said. "For somebody to believe there are no gangs in the military would be very naive."

Mr. Cohn also said some gang members refine their techniques in the Army. "There is a sophistication there," he said.

An analyst of extremist groups for the Anti-Defamation League, Mark Pitcavage, said the military and the gangs both recruit from the same strata of society. (emphasis added)

(AP ) Washington DC: Key provisions of the U.S. Declaration of Independence are currently under review by the Bush administration, according to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"We are studying the document with an open mind and absolute respect for the authors' intent." he announced today in a morning press conference. "Let me assure you that this President considers the Declaration of Independence to be the very bedrock of American democracy. However, given the seriousness of the threats facing our nation today, it would be a forfeiture of our duty not to reconsider some of its more outmoded provisions."

I don't necessarily subscribe to all Creationist theories, but I do take Genesis literally. And I believe the commonly taught theory of evolution is a total crock.

Hovind, who runs the Creation Science Evangelism ministry from Pensacola, Fla., says the whole Bible is literally true and that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. While that may seem par for the creationist course, Hovind also sells anti-Semitic books like Fourth Reich of the Rich and has recommended The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a book blaming the world's problems on a Jewish conspiracy.

Environmentalism and income taxes, Hovind says, are designed to destroy the United States and "bring it under Communism." "Democracy," he says, "is evil and contrary to God's law."