What happens when these guys come home?

Iraqslogger, which has consistently scooped traditional media on Iraq news, hasn't verified the origin of this Youtube video, last we heard, but stay tuned because Americans ought to know the monsters we may be creating in our own citizens, who will be coming back to American society.

Go here for a transcript of the worst of the tape but be forewarned it's not for the squeamish. We discourage watching the video unless you have a strong tolerance for base cruelty.

The nexis becoming clearer

The Chicago Tribune has published a thorough two-parter on the history of the nuclear industry. It's a fabulous backgrounder for anyone interested in Oyster Creek to file to Favorites.

As Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and nominally his boss, are now on trial for outing, nominally, CIA NOC Valerie Plame, it's a worth remembering that a week after Robert Novak's first story outing Plame, he wrote a second one specifically outing the CIA cover company she worked for: Brewster Jennings. Reports I've seen say Brewster-Jennings was tracking those lose nukes America gave to three dozen countries.

Isn't it handy now that Dick Cheney and George Bush have sent two battleships to Iran's coast and prepares to send a third, Brewster Jennings is in no position to dispute their claims that one crazed Iranian leader (democratically elected) wants to use the uranium we, presumably, gave him to build bombs?

As this story well describes, if Iran has nuclear bomb dreams, it wouldn't be the first. And others' plans were diffused without battleships.

From the mouths of babes

This is the best State of the Union response.

Magnetic "Student Driver" stickers would help

The deadly Jan. 10 car crash in Freehold Township that involved a car full of teenagers has everyone talking about whether 17-year-olds should drive -- to school, or at all. The Asbury Park Press poll was consistently at about 70 percent of readers feeling New Jersey shouldn't issue driver's licenses to people under age 18.

How is 17 and 18 so different, though? Learning is learning, at whatever age. I see 40-year-old soccer moms do stupid stuff on the road. I've seen an executive-looking guy on the Turnpike eating breakfast with a fork while driving! At least at 17, a parent can take away the keys or some other consequence. I'll bet the suit is still forking down his bacon and eggs tomorrow.

What would help my teens most would be if the school gave the kids magnetic "Student Driver" bumper stickers when it issues the card for passing the book test. It's difficult to teach teens how to drive well when they are afraid to practice because they are intimidated by tailgaters and honkers. And when they see hypocritical grownups, what do they learn about driving in New Jersey?

The 7 Wonders of New Jersey

What do you make of Google map maven Juan Taylor's picks for most noteworthy places in New Jersey?: Ellis Island, the Pine Barrens, Sandy Hook, Seaside Heights beach and boardwalk, Grounds for Sculpture Art Park, Wildwood boardwalk and the Garden State Parkway (yikes!)

Quite a tangled web

Professional political leech Richard Carver, board president of the Fellowship Foundation, seems to have been fired as board chairman of Competitive Technologies Inc. (AMEX: CTT). My take on the Fellowship, which sponsors the annual National Prayer Breakfast for the Washington power elite, is that it's a shadow State Department run by would-be theocrats -- Christianists and Zionists -- apparently at times with foreign-affairs power seemingly equal to the State Department.

What this may have to do with New Jersey is that the Stevens Institute in Hoboken last summer signed an exclusive contract with CT to commercialize its intellectual work:
Did institute officials know of CT board leadership's connections, and did it/does it want Carver to have access to this intellectual property? Should we be relieved at the loss of someone with Carver's neocon stripes, or should we worry he just wasn't neocon enough for someone? Could it just be it was recognized that in today's dangerous economy, the company may need to actually make money instead of being a political play toy? Ah, for the ears of the flies on the CT's glass-office walls ...

Forbes magazine had a bio on the Peoria, Ill., lumber-store king awhile back. Missing was the fact he also was a longtime trustee at Bradley University but seems to have been canned there, too.

Wayne Madsen's Jan. 19-21 report gave the intriguing details of the CT boardroom showdown.

Wall Street and Technology hones in on CT's contract wtih Avaya (nee AT&T, right?). I suspect some Fort Monmouth contractors have an inside track on that project.

Religion reporter Jeff Sharlet enlightened us with interesting articlefor Harper's magazine in 2003 after he spent some time living at Carver's Fellowship Foundation. Read Sharlet's ongoing observations of religion and politics at his blog and at his website, Killing the Buddha .

Egads! Another imposter journo

Your crocuses aren't blooming because of global warming. Nah! It's just one of His miracles to tell us God loves ExxonMobil best of all .

I wonder, did "former journalist" Marc Morano acquire his climatology credentials from the same illustrious source as his "journalism" credentials? Maybe John Aravosis should look into Morano's extracurricular activities, as he did when "journalist" boy wonder Jeff Gannon, nee James D. Guckert, didn't add up in the White House briefing room.

ConWebWatch was onto Morano's sudden new "expertise" this rip last summer.