Is the VP part of the Executive Branch???

Well, originally he was not and he was part of the Legislative Branch of government.   Iowa Voice has got a great post about how Cheney was right to say he is not part of the Executive Branch.  I know this will get the left riled up, but facts are facts and you can not change history just to have it got you own way.   Just liek how we live in a Democratic Republic, not  true Democracy as many people think.  We elect peope to caste voted for us and if we don’t like what they voted for, we elect someone else.  People should really get a hold of ther Constitution and read it, and also read about our history, instead of watching American Idol and the other crap that is on the TV now a days.  Watch Shark Week or the History Channel, who is going to care who wins American Idol in 10, 15 years from now????  Always keep your mind thinking and learning, it will help keep you healthier and live a better life.  You mental abilities will last longer also.  Enough of the Public Announcement.

Once Again, Cheney Is Right

I don’t know how many times I have to say it, how many times I have to prove it, but once more for all you libs who THINK you know the Constitution, but don’t: the Office of the Vice President is NOT primarily a part of the Executive Branch. It’s mainly part of the Legislative Branch, and 200 years of history and precedent back this up.

The ONLY Constitutional duties the Vice President has is to preside over the Senate and to count the electoral ballots when they are presented to the Senate. That puts his office firmly in the legislative branch, and this was a view that was firmly held by nearly every Vice President before the second world war.

After the war, however, the Vice President was given some Executive Branch duties. With the sole exception being the 25th Amendment, these duties were not given to him by making changes to the Constitution; instead they were given to him by Executive Order and Congressional legislation. Such duties were to attend Cabinet meetings, being part of the NSA, etc. Things like that.

Contrary to what most people believe, the office was not created to take over should something happen to the President. Although there was interpretation to that effect by some who played a part in drafting the Constitution, it didn’t explicitly say so in the actual document, only going so far as to say that if something should happen to the President or if he couldn’t exercise the powers and duties of his office, then “the same shall devolve on the Vice President”. And those words are what created a lot of problems. Did it mean that the powers themselves devolved on him, or the office and all that came with it? Was he only an “acting President” until a special election, or was he President in his own right, entitled to four years of his own? Or was it a little of both?

All of this didn’t get officially settled until the 25th Amendment, as I already mentioned, and parts of the 20th Amendment. The sole reason for the Office of the Vice President was to provide for a method of election that would overcome local loyalties. Meaning, if every elector could vote for whoever they wanted, then they would vote solely for people from their own state. By requiring that two choices be made, and that one of them not be a person from their state, they would overcome that. The most popular second choice would, in fact, be the most popular choice overall. This way, a person would have to be well-known across the nation, and it would prevent the larger states from being the ones constantly electing the President.

In Madison’s notes, it was expressly said that “such an officer as vice-President was not wanted. He was introduced only for the sake of a valuable mode of election which required two to be chosen at the same time.” There was no need, really, to make the runner-up anything at all, and that fueled a lot of debate…which still continues on to this day.

Which brings us to how the precedent of the Vice President succeeding to the Presidency was established, and how people got it in their heads that the Vice President is part of the Executive Branch. When William Henry Harrison died in office (the first President to do so), his Vice President, John Tyler, successfully argued that he became President in his own right, not just an ‘acting President’, there to serve out the remainder of Harrison’s term. And that precedent stuck with us until formally established in the 25th Amendment (and part of the 20th Amendment, I suppose).

Because people assume that this was the way it always was, and that it’s the way the framers intended it, they wrongly believe that the Vice Presidency is part of the Executive Branch alone.

I couldn’t care less what people think of Cheney or Bush, but it’s dangerous to start rewriting history and precedent to suit your agenda. If you think you know the Constitution but you’re one of these people saying this stuff, I strongly encourage you to read it AND the materials that most scholars look at, namely the Madison notes and the Federalist Papers. They give the “story behind the story”, and they were written by people who were there, and knew what the intentions were behind every single word.

Killer Badgers in Iraq

Maybe we can send in Dhimmi Carter with his killer rabbit and take out all of the terrorists also.

This has got to be the funniest story of the day, killer badgers and snake eggs, and killer squirrels.  This is just too funny to not post about.

The latest Iraqi conspiracy theory: Killer British badgers

….

The result? Many residents of the southern city of Basra have convinced themselves that the British Army has loosed savage cattle-eating badgers onto its unsuspecting populace as a final gesture of ill intent before it departs the city later this summer.

Throw in, for good measure, the fervent belief that British soldiers have planted snake eggs in waterways and unleashed bomb-sniffing dogs purposefully infected with rabies.

All three stories have been manufactured by Iraq’s tireless rumor mill, the only machine here seemingly capable of functioning day and night without need of electricity or generators.

Iran has gotten in on the act as well, claiming that Western forces have been fitting Iraqi squirrels with miniaturized surveillance devices and sending them scurrying across the border to spy.

"In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran’s borders," IRNA, the Iranian state-sponsored news agency, reported. "The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services."

IHT

Almost forgot to give the H/T to the Jawa Report

Dhimwit of the Month

June’s Dhimwit of the Month award goes to Ann Holmes Redding.  Who says she is a Muslim and a Christian, which makes no sense to me.

dhim·mi (dm or zm) – A Qur’anic term that refers to a subjugated non-Muslim person living in a society dominated by Muslims.  Second-class status is confirmed by the legal system and dhimmis do not share the rights of their Muslim rulers.  (ex. of use: "Hey Jimmy, if you want to be a dhimmi, then you’d better learn how to shimmy.")

dhim·wit (dmwt ) – A non-Muslim member of a free society that abets the stated cause of Islamic domination with remarkable gullibility or guile.  A dhimwit is always quick to extend sympathy to the very enemy that would take away his or her own freedom (or life) if given the opportunity.

June 2007 Dhimwit: Ann Holmes Redding

Episcopal Priest" Ann Holmes Redding
(she just wants her belly scratched)

All dog owners can tell you that there are times when the furry, little mooch just wants attention.  Sometimes they’ll get it by hopping up on the sofa and shoving a wet nose in your ear.  Other times, they might lie on their back directly in front of you, looking as pathetic as possible until you reach down and rub their belly.

This month, former alcoholic and admitted co-dependent, Ann Holmes Redding, is in doggie heaven.  The so-called Episcopal priest (and we use the term loosely – even by Episcopalian standards) decided to invent a new religion… one that garners her plenty of attention.  She calls herself both a Muslim and a Christian, and the national media is lining up at the door to get a piece of this freak show.

Now, keep in mind that declaring membership in two religions isn’t like supporting the Mets and the Jets in September.  The central doctrine in Christianity is the divinity of Jesus.  Yet, the Qur’an scoffs at this and plainly states that "God has no partners" (and that Christians are "cursed" for thinking otherwise)  Other logical contradictions between the religions abound (such as the not-so-subtle issue of whether one’s enemies should be forgiven or beheaded).  So how does Ms. Redding reconcile all of this?

Well, the details are a bit sketchy.  In fact, one gets the impression that it’s best not to ask too many questions, since answering one only seems to raise several others. 

On the issue of the divinity of Jesus, for example, Ms. Redding claims that he is divine in the same way that "all humans are related to God." Although having a nice esoteric ring, this pearl of wisdom actually opens up an even larger can of worms since neither Christianity nor Islam teach the divinity of God’s creation.  (Perhaps she is also a Hindu…?)

But Ms. Redding sees no obligation to provide real answers to real questions.  In a Seattle Times interview (in which she revealed an obvious disdain for "white people", she said that her new faith "wasn’t about intellect," but rather the "calling of the heart."  In this tradition, logical flaws are to be ignored rather than resolved.

In fact, Ms. Redding, who appears to have only a vague understanding of Islam, merely "reconciles" Christianity and Islam by ignoring the details of each, which leaves nothing more than hollow vocabulary.  In the real world, one cannot be both a Muslim and a Christian, even if one is perfectly free to call oneself whatever one likes based on feelings.

Of course, that’s as long as one lives in a Judeo-Christian based society, which afford the philosophical luxury of usurping fact for feeling as a personal choice.  If Ms. Redding were a cleric in Saudi Arabia, however, then she would soon be feeling something sharp along the back of her neck.

Frankly speaking, Ann Holmes Redding is what happens when people don’t have to work for a living.  Whether it is the idle rich, the idle welfare class, or the idle clergy, bad things happen when people have too much time on their hands and no incentive to be productive.

In this case, the nonsensical ramblings of a racially-biased, attention-seeking "priest" continue to be subsidized by the very Episcopalians whose religion she is undermining…

Hmmm… 

Perhaps we should have aimed a bit higher with our Dhimwit honor this month.

Follow Up: A week after posting this, the Episcopal Church did vote to suspend Ms. Redding for a year, giving her time to decide on what she wants to be.

Religion Of Peace

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Detailed pictures of Earth

These spectacular images are the most detailed pictures of Earth ever seen.

The clear images, released by NASA, were pieced together from observations taken from a satellite of the land surface, oceans, sea ice and clouds.

Daily Mail

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Image of the Day

Heavy Metal Thunder

Straight out of Thunderbirds, the first of two enormous vehicles for transporting telescopes has become operational, seen here in an artist’s depiction.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in Chile will consist of 66 telescopes, designed with configurability in mind. To that end, the gigantic ALMA antenna transporter is required to move the 126.7-ton (115-metric ton) antennas and position them accurately within tenths of inches of their targets.

The giant "truck" possesses 28 tires. It measures 32.8 feet (10 m) wide, 65.6 feet (20 m) long and 19.7 feet (6 m) high, weighs 143 tons (130 metric tons) and has as much power as two Formula 1 engines.

The ALMA international observatory is currently undergoing construction on the high-altitude Chajnantor site in Chile, composed initially of 66 high-precision telescopes, operating at wavelengths of 0.3 to 9.6 mm. The ALMA antennas will combine electronically, and provide astronomical observations equivalent to a single large telescope of tremendous size and resolution. ALMA will be able to probe the universe at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths with accuracy up to ten times better than the Hubble Space Telescope. It will also complement images made with European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer.

The telescopes can be moved across the high-altitude desert Chajnantor plateau, covering antenna configurations from 164 yards (150 meters) to 9.3 miles (15 kilometers). Changing the relative positions of the antennas will act like adjusting the zoom lens on a camera.

To do so, the transporters must climb from an altitude of 9514 feet (2900 m) to (16404 feet) 5000 m with their loads, utilizing two 500 kW diesel engines. Driving to the base camp involves special care, as driving the road downhill required a special brake system. As the transporters will be operated at an altitude with reduced oxygen levels, safety devices had to be installed to protect both personnel and equipment.

At the high altitude site of 5000 m, the two engines will lose about half of their power because of the lower oxygen content. The ALMA transporters will be capable of moving at the speed of 12.4 mph (20 km/h) when empty and 7.4 mph (12 km/h) when loaded with an antenna. The transporters can be driven from the cabin like a truck, or controlled from a portable instrument panel like a toy car.

Space.com

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Oh my God it coming right at us, Shoot it

Oh my God, the world is coing to an end because of all the hurricanes that are happening.   Oh, wait a minute, it is only the 3rd named storm and it is a tropical storm. 

I guess Manbearpig is getting more elusive than ever.   If you ever see Manbearpig, please call the Goracle.

000
WTNT33 KNHC 311431
TCPAT3
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM CHANTAL ADVISORY NUMBER   3
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL   AL032007
1100 AM EDT TUE JUL 31 2007

…CHANTAL STRENGTHENS…BUT HEADED FOR COOLER WATERS…

AT 1100 AM EDT…1500Z…THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM CHANTAL WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 40.2 NORTH…LONGITUDE 62.7 WEST OR ABOUT 305
MILES…495 KM…SOUTH OF HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA AND ABOUT 660 MILES…
1060 KM…SOUTHWEST OF CAPE RACE NEWFOUNDLAND.

CHANTAL IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 29 MPH…46 KM/HR
…AND THIS MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE WITH SOME INCREASE IN
FORWARD SPEED TODAY AND TONIGHT.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED TO NEAR 50 MPH…85
KM/HR…WITH HIGHER GUSTS.  LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS FORECAST
DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS AND CHANTAL COULD LOSE TROPICAL
CHARACTERISTICS TONIGHT OR ON WEDNESDAY.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 175 MILES…280 KM
FROM THE CENTER.

THE ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 999 MB…29.50 INCHES.

REPEATING THE 1100 AM EDT POSITION…40.2 N…62.7 W.  MOVEMENT
TOWARD…NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 29 MPH.  MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…50
MPH.  MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…999 MB.

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT
500 PM EDT.

$$
FORECASTER BLAKE

NOAA

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The World that Works II

I don;t know if Iposted the World That Works I, I think I did though, But Newt Gingrich has got to be one of the best minds in the conservative cause today.  He makes it so easy, and says it in a way that the average person can unserstand also.  This is via Newt’s Winning The Future email.

….

Meanwhile, back at Disney World, as I wandered around with Maggie and Robert, I was reminded once again of the world that works and the world that fails.

Disney works. It works because it’s focused on the customer. It works because every person it hires is trained to serve the customer, creating a happy experience, being positive and making sure that all the young people have a good time. And, of course, if the young people have a good time, then Grandpa does pretty well too.

So what is the difference between Disney World and a Detroit public school system that only graduates 21% of incoming freshmen on time? Or a Washington, D.C., school system that not only can’t tell you how many students are enrolled but also can’t tell you how many teachers are being paid?

What is the reason Disney works but the federal government can’t meet the demand it itself created for passports for its citizens? And can’t help successfully rebuild New Orleans a full two years after the disaster that destroyed it?

As I walked around that, happy, functioning, efficient place, my conclusion was that the difference between Disney World and the federal government is that there are certain, basic principles that Disney understands.

Disney understands that you first have to have a market. There has to be a customer. And the customer has to be at the center of what you’re doing.

Then you have to have a budget for investments so that you have the right technology and can take advantage of the right opportunities.

And you have to evolve constantly. The Disney of 1955 is not the Disney of 2007.

And finally, you have to be willing to listen carefully to your customers and your employees.

Government bureaucracies today do none of those things. We have obsolete, paper-based bureaucracies that don’t take care of their employees and don’t teach their employees to take care of citizens. The result is not a happy, functioning, efficient place. The result is a mess.

I will leave you today with this suggestion: The next time you get a chance to visit the world that works — at Disney World or anywhere else — look around and say to yourself, "There is no reason we can’t take these principles and apply them in Washington, in our state capitals, city councils and school boards."

This basic fact — that we can take the principles that work so well in the private sector and apply them to how we govern ourselves — is why I founded American Solutions. Our belief is that politics can and should take second place to meeting the challenge of restoring basic American principles to government. We have to have a fundamental approach to thinking through what we’re doing before we worry about the politics of what we’re doing.

And I hope that you get a chance, sometime in the near future, to visit a place that works, and ask yourself the same question I did: If they can do it, why can’t our government?

I also likke Newt’s idea about havinf real debates, not the sound bite offering that the MSM have.

….

Regular readers of "Wining the Future" will remember back in February when former New York Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo and I debated at historic Cooper Union in New York City.

Cooper Union was the site of a speech by Abraham Lincoln that arguably made him President. Gov. Cuomo and I appeared there for a different reason: to show that it was possible for leaders from opposing political parties to have a thoughtful and civilized conversation about the future of America — and that it could be done without the long list of rules political consultants insist upon. In fact, there were no rules. We each spoke for 30 minutes. Then, Tim Russert from NBC News posed challenging questions to each of us, which produced a substantive issue-driven exchange.

Just before the debate at Cooper Union, I was walking in mid-town Manhattan and ran into former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R). I told him I was going to issue a challenge to all the presidential candidates to join me in trying to restore dignity and sanity to our election process.

I told Mayor Giuliani that I would ask candidates to take this pledge:

"If I receive my party’s nomination for President of the United States, I pledge to participate in nine, 90-minute dialogues in the nine weeks before the general election with my opponent. In the Lincoln-Douglas style, I will agree to debate my opponent with only a time-keeper and to insist upon no rules. I understand it will be just me and my solutions and my opponent with theirs."

Major Giuliani accepted right there, on the sidewalk of the city he transformed. Also, on September 25, he will be appearing at Cooper Union.

I’ve had some tough things to say about our presidential election process and how it diminishes the good men and women who are forced to jump through its hoops. But this is one example of a candidate who is doing it right, for the good not just of himself and his candidacy but of the entire country. Congratulations, Mayor Giuliani.

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Alaskan Republican under investgation

If the accusations are true in the case of Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Don Young, they should be sentenced to the law of the land.  There is too much of this kind of crap going on in Washington.  We need to get the laws of earmmarks changed so the lobbyists and Senators do not get money for their dealings.  This is not just a Republican problem, it is a b-partisan problem and needs to be stopped.  These Senators and Representatives are taking our hard earned money and giving it to friends in excvhange for donations and various other nefarious work.  It has got to stop and we need to clear out all those who use their positions to fleece the American Public.

FBI searches Sen. Stevens’ Alaska home

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Federal agents with cameras searched the home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens amid questions about an oil company official’s involvement in a 2000 renovation project that doubled the home’s size, law enforcement officials said.

Stevens, 83, is under a federal investigation for his connections to Bill Allen, founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

Allen was convicted earlier this year of bribing state lawmakers. He also oversaw the renovation of Stevens’ home in the ski resort community of Girdwood, contractors involved in the work say.

Agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service started their search at the senator’s home Monday afternoon, said Dave Heller, FBI assistant special agent. He said he could not comment on the nature of the investigation.

About 15 agents took photos and video, climbing onto the roof at one point. They later carried out a garbage bag full of unidentifiable materials and loaded it into a van. The curtains were drawn during most of the search.

A law enforcement official familiar with the case confirmed the raid on Stevens’ home was focused on records related to the ongoing VECO investigation. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

An e-mail statement issued by Stevens through his Washington, D.C., spokesman said federal agents had alerted his attorneys that they wanted to search his home.

Stevens said the interests of justice would be best served if he commented after the investigation.

"I continue to believe this investigation should proceed to its conclusion without any appearance that I have attempted to influence its outcome," Stevens said. "The legal process should be allowed to proceed so that all the facts can be established and the truth determined."

Located 40 miles south of Anchorage, Girdwood is nestled in a valley next to Mount Alyeska and has evolved from a gold mining town into Alaska‘s only year-round resort community.

The Justice Department’s probe into Allen’s relationships has led to charges against state lawmakers and contractors. Last year, FBI raids on the offices of several Alaska lawmakers included Stevens’ son, former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens.

Neither the U.S. senator nor his son has been charged.

Stevens has served since 1968 and is Alaska’s most powerful elected official, responsible for bringing billions in federal dollars to a state that lacks infrastructure, from road money to basic sewer and water systems in remote villages. Anchorage’s international airport is named for Stevens, and he has faced only token opposition in recent elections.

Alaska’s only U.S. representative, Don Young, also is under federal investigation as part of an on-going corruption probe, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press last week, commenting only on condition of anonymity. Part of the Young investigation involves his campaign finance practices, the law enforcement official said.

Yahoo News

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KosKids are hoping for defeat in Iraq

What person actually wants thier country to loose a war, other than the people in Germany during WWII.  The Koskids are just hoping that we loose the War in Iraq, along with all the Defeatocrats Presidential nominees. I think nothing says it morethan "A "victory" in Iraq would be a disaster for USA"

Shell Shocked By Surge Success

The big story out there right now is how the Left has been completely blindsided by the success of the Iraq Surge under the leadership of General Petraeus. At the present moment they are in a state of shock and haven’t yet come up with a way to react. Yes, the Left have completely invested themselves in DEFEAT and now the success of the surge is sawing off the limb they have climbed out on. One big indicator of the success of the surge is this New York Times Op-Ed ARTICLE titled, "A War We Just Might Win." Written by Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution, it explains how it looks like the surge in Iraq seems to be working. Of course, any idea that we might be winning in Iraq enrages the Left as you can see in this Daily KOs KOmmie THREAD titled, "I Spent a Week in Iraq and Now I’m an Expert." The whole purpose of that post is to denigrate the O’Hanlon and Pollack article. Nice try, KOmmies, but the "sad" fact for you is that the surge IS working. The limb you and the Democrat Party climbed out on is being sawed off by the surge’s success. So let us now watch the KOmmies deny surge success reality in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, who can scientifically measure the success of the surge by observing the increasingly glum look on the face of Dingy Harry, is in the [brackets]:

I Spent a Week in Iraq and Now I’m an Expert

[I Spent a Week With My Head in the Ground and Now I'm a KOmmie.]

Don’t believe these charlatans like O’Hanlon, Graham, Malkin, McCain, or Lieberman. They are ignorant and have no frames of reference on which to build their assertions concerning Iraq.

[Please don't believe the FACTS of the surge's success as they come out. We NEED for there to be defeat. And now on to the other KOmmies invested in DEFEAT...]

This is a RIGHTEOUS diary and I am 100% behind your anger, palpable as I read it. Thank you for doing a genuinely classy and to-the-point job of showing these charlatans to be assholes.

[I am 100% behind your anger over the success of the surge.]

A "victory" in Iraq would be a disaster for USA

[Wrong. A victory in Iraq would be a disaster for the Democrats.]

The only people who benefit from this insanity are employees inside the military industrial complex, the military industrial ENTERTAINMENT complex and graduates of elite foreign policy colleges at which Pollack and O’Hanlon are employed. Any average American supporting this nonsense is no different than a battered wife who refuses to see she’s being abused.

[Hmmm... It appears that the prospect of victory in Iraq is making you VERY nervous.]

So, for America’s safety and security, I’m happy that Bush has been defeated in Iraq.

[Don't count your defeat chickens before they hatch.]

I was in Kansas City once for a few hours, on my way across country. I did my laundry there & spoke with a local. So I must be an expert. I also drove across the Texas panhandle, & saw Paper Moon in Salina while our car was being repaired, so I know all about day to day life there.

[I visit KOmmieland and DUmmieland on a daily basis so I know all about where you clowns are coming from...and where you're going to---over the edge along with the rest of the Democrat Party due to the success of the surge.]

What Is The Surge?

[That thing causing the gloomy look on Dingy Harry's face.]

I am also concerned about the public knowledge of and perception of the surge itself.

[A KOmmie sweating over the perception that the surge is SUCCEEDING.]

I’m concerned because, as I’m sure you noted as well, that the surge was designed to create an ‘artificial’ sense of success and to sway public thinking on the war.

[Surge success is giving this KOmmie severe heartburn.]

I know most folks out there are learning what the surge means in real terms now. And, should be prepared for the report coming out in September.

[Be prepared for the terrible news of surge success in September.]

DUmmie FUnnies

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Russia Falling into Fascism

Russia has fallen back into a dictatorship and fascist ways.  Putin has organized youth groups, Nashi", meaning "Ours".  These groups remind me of the youth groups of the Nazis.  They are given a tainted view of history that makes Stalin into a hero and forgets to mention his atrocities that purged many Russians.  He should not be someone to worship, he should be someone reviled at his heavy-handed ways against his opposition.   Putin is acting a very similar wayas Stalin did, he has harrassed and intimidated all of his opposition, and the youth groups are at the head of the people instituting this harrassment.  The police are doing nothing about thier intimidation of foreignors and oppostion od Putin.   We should look at this very carefully and not let Putin reincarnate the USSR or something similar to Nazi Germany.

Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp

Remember the mammoths, say the clean-cut organisers at the youth camp’s mass wedding. "They became extinct because they did not have enough sex. That must not happen to Russia".

Obediently, couples move to a special section of dormitory tents arranged in a heart-shape and called the Love Oasis, where they can start procreating for the motherland.

With its relentlessly upbeat tone, bizarre ideas and tight control, it sounds like a weird indoctrination session for a phoney religious cult.

But this organisation – known as "Nashi", meaning "Ours" – is youth movement run by Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin that has become a central part of Russian political life.

Nashi’s annual camp, 200 miles outside Moscow, is attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters and involves two weeks of lectures and physical fitness.

Attendance is monitored via compulsory electronic badges and anyone who misses three events is expelled. So are drinkers; alcohol is banned. But sex is encouraged, and condoms are nowhere on sale.

Bizarrely, young women are encouraged to hand in thongs and other skimpy underwear – supposedly a cause of sterility – and given more wholesome and substantial undergarments.

Twenty-five couples marry at the start of the camp’s first week and ten more at the start of the second. These mass weddings, the ultimate expression of devotion to the motherland, are legal and conducted by a civil official.

Attempting to raise Russia’s dismally low birthrate even by eccentric-seeming means might be understandable. Certainly, the country’s demographic outlook is dire. The hard-drinking, hardsmoking and disease-ridden population is set to plunge by a million a year in the next decade.

But the real aim of the youth camp – and the 100,000-strong movement behind it – is not to improve Russia’s demographic profile, but to attack democracy.

Under Mr Putin, Russia is sliding into fascism, with state control of the economy, media, politics and society becoming increasingly heavy-handed. And Nashi, along with other similar youth movements, such as ‘Young Guard’, and ‘Young Russia’, is in the forefront of the charge.

At the start, it was all too easy to mock. I attended an early event run by its predecessor, ‘Walking together’, in the heart of Moscow in 2000. A motley collection of youngsters were collecting ‘unpatriotic’ works of fiction for destruction.

It was sinister in theory, recalling the Nazis’ book-burning in the 1930s, but it was laughable in practice. There was no sign of ordinary members of the public handing in books (the copies piled on the pavement had been brought by the organisers).

Once the television cameras had left, the event organisers admitted that they were not really volunteers, but being paid by "sponsors". The idea that Russia’s anarchic, apathetic youth would ever be attracted into a disciplined mass movement in support of their president – what critics called a "Putinjugend", recalling the "Hitlerjugend" (German for "Hitler Youth") – seemed fanciful.

How wrong we were. Life for young people in Russia without connections is a mixture of inadequate and corrupt education, and a choice of boring dead-end jobs. Like the Hitler Youth and the Soviet Union’s Young Pioneers, Nashi and its allied movements offer not just excitement, friendship and a sense of purpose – but a leg up in life, too.

Nashi’s senior officials – known, in an eerie echo of the Soviet era, as "Commissars" – get free places at top universities. Thereafter, they can expect good jobs in politics or business – which in Russia nowadays, under the Kremlin’s crony capitalism, are increasingly the same thing.

Nashi and similar outfits are the Kremlin’s first line of defence against its greatest fear: real democracy. Like the sheep chanting "Four legs good, two legs bad" in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, they can intimidate through noise and numbers.

Nashi supporters drown out protests by Russia’s feeble and divided democratic opposition and use violence to drive them off the streets.

The group’s leaders insist that the only connection to officialdom is loyalty to the president. If so, they seem remarkably well-informed.

In July 2006, the British ambassador, Sir Anthony Brenton, infuriated the Kremlin by attending an opposition meeting. For months afterwards, he was noisily harassed by groups of Nashi supporters demanding that he "apologise". With uncanny accuracy, the hooligans knew his movements in advance – a sign of official tip-offs.

Even when Nashi flagrantly breaks the law, the authorities do not intervene. After Estonia enraged Russia by moving a Sovietera war memorial in April, Nashi led the blockade of Estonia’s Moscow embassy. It daubed the building with graffiti, blasted it with Stalinera military music, ripped down the Estonian flag and attacked a visiting ambassador’s car. The Moscow police, who normally stamp ruthlessly on public protest, stood by.

Nashi fits perfectly into the Kremlin’s newly-minted ideology of "Sovereign democracy". This is not the mind-numbing jargon of Marxism-Leninism, but a lightweight collection of cliches and slogans promoting Russia’s supposed unique political and spiritual culture.

It is strongly reminiscent of the Tsarist era slogan: "Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationality".

The similarities to both the Soviet and Tsarist eras are striking. Communist ideologues once spent much of their time explaining why their party deserved its monopoly of power, even though the promised utopia seemed indefinitely delayed.

Today, the Kremlin’s ideology chief Vladislav Surkov is trying to explain why questioning the crooks and spooks who run Russia is not just mistaken, but treacherous.

Yet, by comparison with other outfits, Nashi looks relatively civilised. Its racism and prejudice is implied, but not trumpeted. Other pro-Kremlin youth groups are hounding gays and foreigners off the streets of Moscow. Mestnye [The Locals] recently distributed leaflets urging Muscovites to boycott non-Russian cab drivers.

These showed a young blonde Russian refusing a ride from a swarthy, beetle-browed taxi driver, under the slogan: "We’re not going the same way."

Such unofficial xenophobia matches the official stance. On April 1, a decree explicitly backed by Mr Putin banned foreigners from trading in Russia’s retail markets. By some estimates, 12m people are working illegally in Russia.

Those who hoped that Russia’s first post-totalitarian generation would be liberal, have been dissapointed. Although explicit support for extremist and racist groups is in the low single figures, support for racist sentiments is mushrooming.

Slogans such as "Russia for the Russians" now attract the support of half of the population. Echoing Kremlin propaganda, Nashi denounced Estonians as "fascist", for daring to say that they find Nazi and Soviet memorials equally repugnant. But, in truth, it is in Russia that fascism is all too evident.

The Kremlin sees no role for a democratic opposition, denouncing its leaders as stooges and traitors. Sadly, most Russians agree: a recent poll showed that a majority believed that opposition parties should not be allowed to take power.

Just as the Nazis in 1930s rewrote Germany’s history, the Putin Kremlin is rewriting Russia’s. It has rehaabilitated Stalin, the greatest massmurderer of the 20th century. And it is demonising Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first democratically-elected president. That he destroyed totalitarianism is ignored. Instead, he is denounced for his "weak" pro-Western policies.

While distorting its own history, the Kremlin denounces other countries. Mr Putin was quick to blame Britain’s "colonial mentality" for our government’s request that Russia try to find a legal means of extraditing Andrei Lugovoi, the prime suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

Yet the truth is that Britain, like most Western countries, flagellates itself for the crimes of the past. Indeed, British schoolchildren rarely learn anything positive about their country’s empire. And, if Mr Putin has his way, Russian pupils will learn nothing bad about the Soviet empire, which was far bloodier, more brutal – and more recent.

A new guide for history teachers – explicitly endorsed by Mr Putin – brushes off Stalin’s crimes. It describes him as "the most successful leader of the USSR". But it skates over the colossal human cost – 25m people were shot and starved in the cause of communism.

"Political repression was used to mobilise not only rank-and-file citizens but also the ruling elite," it says. In other words, Stalin wanted to make the country strong, so he may have been a bit harsh at times. At any time since the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism in the late 1980s, that would have seemed a nauseating whitewash. Now, it is treated as bald historical fact.

If Stalin made mistakes, so what? Lots of people make mistakes.

"Problematic pages in our history exist," Mr Putin said last week. But: "we have less than some countries. And ours are not as terrible as those of some others." He compared the Great Terror of 1937, when 700,000 people were murdered in a purge by Stalin’s secret police, to the atom bomb on Hiroshima.

The comparison is preposterous. A strong argument can be made that by ending the war quickly, the atom bombs saved countless lives.

Franklin D Roosevelt and Harry Truman-may have failed to realise that nuclear weapons would one day endanger humanity’s survival. But, unlike Stalin, they were not genocidal maniacs.

As the new cold war deepens, Mr Putin echoes, consciously or unconsciously, the favourite weapon of Soviet propagandists in the last one.

Asked about Afghanistan, they would cite Vietnam. Castigated for the plight of Soviet Jews, they would complain with treacly sincerity about discrimination against American blacks. Every blot on the Soviet record was matched by something, real or imagined, that the West had done.

But the contrasts even then were absurd. When the American administration blundered into Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of people protested in the heart of Washington. When eight extraordinarily brave Soviet dissidents tried to demonstrate in Red Square against the invasion of Czechoslovakia, in 1968, they were instantly arrested and spent many years in labour camps.

For the east European countries with first-hand experience of Stalinist terror, the Kremlin’s rewriting of history could hardly be more scary. Not only does Russia see no reason to apologise for their suffering under Kremlin rule, it now sees the collapse of communism not as a time of liberation, but as an era of pitiable weakness.

Russia barely commemorates even the damage it did to itself, let alone the appalling suffering inflicted on other people. Nashi is both a symptom of the way Russia is going – and a means of entrenching the drift to fascism.

Terrifyingly, the revived Soviet view of history is now widely held in Russia. A poll this week of Russian teenagers showed that a majority believe that Stalin did more good things than bad.

If tens of thousands of uniformed German youngsters were marching across Germany in support of an authoritarian Fuhrer, baiting foreigners and praising Hitler, alarm bells would be jangling all across Europe. So why aren’t they ringing about Nashi?

• Edward Lucas is author of the forthcoming The New Cold War And How To Win It.

Daily Mail

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