A magazine called The Spotlight - what we'd now call an alternative newsweekly - published in 1964 an interview with an anonymous female "operative" who had one hell of a story to tell. Her claim was the she, two other men and E. Howard Hunt arrived in Dallas early on the morning of November 22, 1963. On the way Hunt had told them they were one of three "shooter teams" who were going to "take down someone very important." When the team arrived at their hotel in Dallas to prepare, Hunt dropped the bomb: It was going to be the President.

The woman freaked but showed no outward sign, lest she be killed. Not long afterwards she used her covert skills to slip away and into hiding.

Hunt sued the magazine for libel and defamation of character.

And he LOST, on both counts. Why this - absolute, incontrovertible proof of the conspiracy, in a court of law no less, three years before Garrison - has never been widely reported is simply mind-blowing.

And the cheap shot at Garrison was silly. Much of what Bobby Kennedy suspected Garrison later proved in court. So how was he a fraud?

An added requirement - at the end of the video, the dog's owner must devise and then film a highly creative method of

KILLING IT

.

Oh don't I know it.

The irony is that one of the aforementioned family members was grateful for what "Uncle Joe's" armies did to the Germans, making his job a helluva lot easier (Stars and Stripes covered the progress on the Eastern Front). The other family member, stationed in Bavaria with the rest of Company E of the 101st Airborne, was a little miffed, as were his comrades. He and they felt they'd earned the right kick Hitler's ass in a very up-close and personal way.

Yes...THAT Company E. The reason he's not in Ambrose's book or the HBO miniseries is because he told the research assistant who called him that he didn't want to relive the war, thank you very much.

But it was the Soviets who won the war in Europe. They chewed up 200 divisions of the Wehrmact. When the Allies landed at Normandy they faced 80 divisions. Furthermore, Hitler was so obsessed with destroying the Communists that he sent the absolute cream of his various armed forces (especially the SS shock troops and Panzer Grenadiers) into Russia. The Allies faced few such elites.

Near the end of the war in the Pacific, Soviet paratroopers went through the Japanese Kanto Army (a battle-hardened army in China) like it wasn't even there. Had there been no atomic bombs, I'm quite sure they would have made short work of the portion of Japan they invaded.

Sorry.

According to the LW, her sister started as a police officer and then voluntarily switched to being a deputy sherrif and hence a jail guard (by the way, most sherrif's departments do it this way - it's a seniority thing). No self-respecting cop I know of - and I've known a few over the years - would consider such a switch for even a minute. Most cops hold guards in contempt (rightfully so, in my opinion), and get furious if one makes an arrest off-site and starts giving them that "I'm a peace officer" shit. So this lady obviously craves the kind of power that only a jail or prion environment can provide, and that doesn't bode well.

Cops are much, much different today than they were when I was a kid growing up in a working-class town in the 70s and early 80s. Every time a cop came on campus when I was in junior high school and high school, some wise-ass or two would chime in with "Hey, I smell bacon. Anybody else smell bacon?" What did the cop do? Smirked, rolled their eyes and kept right on going. They had enough pride, self-respect and - most importantly - perspective to realize that what comes out of the mouth of a thirteen-year-old isn't worth a moment of their time. I somehow doubt that a modern cop would be so sanguine. And that's the problem.

Modern cops, far more than ever before, really do see every "civilian" (and what an insult that is to our armed forces - I'd like to see a cop talk that shit around a Marine) as a "perp." They're taught in the academy exactly the wrong thing: That everybody has done something, and just hasn't been caught. I can't imagine a person with power having a worse attitude.

I agree with others here who have written that those who want to be cops for the sake of the power need to be weeded out, either in the application process or in the academy. We just don't want that kind of person carrying a badge and a gun.

Thanks.

...the last time the times they were a changin' all that was necessary to stop the change was four assassinations and two official campus massacres. I don't doubt that such long knives will be unsheathed again.

This story is entirely too important for cute little editing tricks and effects. I don't watch these to be entertained, I watch to learn what a disaster we've unleashed in Iraq.