Digby discovered an amazing thing – the New York Times actually looked and found that some of the groups complaining about being targeted by the IRS, were heavily involved in politics.

They also found out that the questionnaire with all of the ‘strange requests’ was developed from court decisions involving 501(c)(4) applications, and not a random fishing expedition.

I was personally gratified that the individual who was in charge of the process back in 2000 had the same low opinion of the IG’s report that I did. The IG seemed to think all he had to look at was what happened to tea party groups, rather than the entire process.

One thing we still don’t know is what the entire list of names to watch for looked like. It has been implied, but not confirmed that the listing wasn’t limited to tea party et al., but contained other keywords that aren’t associated with ‘conservative’ groups.

Duncan noted a New York Times piece about a program to update hundreds of tactical nuclear bombs that were created to counter the assumed Soviet forces superiority in an attack on NATO.

These weapons shouldn’t be upgraded, they should be dismantled. First off, they don’t need to be all that accurate, they are bloody nuclear weapons. Close counts with nuclear weapons, OK? But, a potentially bigger problem is that they are small, relatively speaking, and I have lost all confidence in the ability of the current US military to keep track of nuclear weapons.

We don’t need them, so we should get rid of them to make the world safer. Even without these weapons, we still have more than enough nuclear weapons to wipe out all life on earth. Use the money for something more useful, like a pay raise for the troops so they don’t qualify for food stamps.

This is a picture from one of the columbariums at the Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place of many of those who served the United States since the middle of the 19^th century.

That is my Father’s marker. He didn’t know those located around his marker, but they all shared service to their country as part of their life.

The country continues to ask for service and people still respond to that call. As you think about the sacrifices represented by Arlington and other cemeteries, ask yourself if you have done what you could to prevent misuse of the willingness of some to serve.

It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.