This and other articles on propaganda are available at Mind Your Noodle

On Monday, December 5th, 2005 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave a speech at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced Studies.

The goal of this speech was rather direct, especially for Rumsfeld, who often requires an interpreter so that the rest of us can understand what he's really saying most of the time.  Rumsfeld broke from character a little to ensure the public that things in Iraq are going great, despite the negative poll numbers caused by all the "pessimistic... elites in our country."

Back in the day, by cracky, this here country was a young trend setter.  A real go-getter.  A risk taker.

When the United States organized as a representative democracy in the late eighteenth century, it was a radical idea.  The governments of the ancient world hadn't exactly demonstrated the long-term stability of the system (see Caeser, Rubicon, etc.), and there was a strong expectation that you couldn't keep the rabble in place without a few royals to manage the show -- a proposition many on the right would still endorse.

But those know-it-all, overeducated upstarts that we now call the founding fathers took it on themselves to turn this whole country into a big experiment in personal freedoms. It wasn't just the pretty pillars and white stonework of their architecture that they lifted from Athens, they also decided to borrow that democracy thing.  Only, when it came right down to it, America was bigger than a city and direct democracy seemed more than a little unworkable.  Plus, the rabble did seem a little, um, rabbly to these gentleman planters.  So they grafted on a little Rome, seasoned with a bit of English councils, and tah dah -- a liberal democracy, or what in America passes for a "republic."

Compared to monarchy, it's one heck of an improvement.  But is it the be-all, end-all of governments?  Is this really the best we can do?

3... 2... 1... Blastoff!

Months in the making. Blood. Sweat. Tears.

But now we’re here and we are ready to ROCK!

But who are we? We’re Al Rodgers, ColdFusion04, Devilstower, Hermod, Sdf, Bill Hare, Drew Johnston, mcjoan, SusanG, Bob Kendall, Frederick Clarkson, NYBri, Btyarbro, Georgia10, S. M. Dixon, Myself, and the soon-to-be Cortex community!

Together we will fight against the forces of evil, and injustice and for the progressive ideals of Jefferson, Adams, Paine, Madison, Allen, and Franklin.

These men founded a Progressive Nation. They were America’s Founding Fathers -- a group of the staunchest progressives in our nation's history -- men of enlightenment, ardent supporters of church/state separation with a fervent passion for decentralization of power and freedom of expression. So too were the founding documents they authored and the principles by which they acted.

In recent years, many Americans have come to forget these facts. Political Cortex is here to remind them.

But we can’t do it alone. This will require the unified voice of millions. And as that voice grows throughout the web and across the nation, the Cortex will be here to offer new light and pioneering ways to augment that collective voice.