Hawks seek to dial up terror war: The Pentagon's neocon hawk Richard Perle and former Bush speechwriter David Frum have delivered their new publication, End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror, to the White House. As the Telegraph (UK) reports, the document demands "regime change in Syria and Iran and a Cuba-style military blockade of North Korea backed by planning for a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear sites. The manifesto, presented as a 'manual for victory' in the war on terror, also calls for Saudi Arabia and France to be treated not as allies but as rivals and possibly enemies."

Hijacking "Him": Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-director of the Servant Leadership School in Washington DC, writes on the hijacking of Christianity by warmongers and empire builders: "Was not 'His' message a direct challenge to empire--in his day the Roman Empire and religious and civil collaborators in the Roman occupation? Isn't that why the religious and civil authorities put their heads together and ended up torturing and executing him? Had Jesus allowed himself to be co-opted by the empire and its Quislings, had he chosen to divorce his nonviolent but challenging vision from the politics of the day, he could have died peacefully in his bed--as did the leaders of the institutional church in Nazi Germany." He ends with the powerful words of Bishop Peter Storey of South Africa:

I have often suggested to American Christians that the only way to understand their mission is to ask what it might have meant to witness faithfully to Jesus in the heart of the Roman Empire. Certainly, when I preach in the United States I feel, as I imagine the Apostle Paul did when he first passed through the gates of Rome--admiration for its people, awe at its manifest virtues, and resentment of its careless power.

America's preachers have a task more difficult, perhaps, than those faced by us under South Africa's apartheid, or by Christians under Communism. We had obvious evils to engage; you have to unwrap your culture from years of red, white, and blue myth. You have to expose and confront the great disconnect between the kindness, compassion, and caring of most American people and the ruthless way American power is experienced, directly and indirectly, by the poor of the earth. You have to help good people see how they have let their institutions do their sinning for them.

This is not easy among people who really believe that their country does nothing but good. But it is necessary, not only for their future, but for us all. All around the world there are those who believe in the basic goodness of the American people, who agonize with you in your pain, but also long to see your human goodness translated into a different, more compassionate way of relating with the rest of this bleeding planet.

Willie writes tune for Dennis: Willie Nelson, a longtime supporter of presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, has written a new song for the campaign. The song, to be performed at a January 3 fundraiser in Austin, TX, repeats this refrain: "And the bewildered herd is still believing / Everything we've been told from our birth / Hell they won't lie to me / Not on my own damn TV / But how much is a liar's word worth / And whatever happened to peace on earth?"

On Hope: In his latest book, Hope Dies Last, Studs Terkel writes, "Hope has never trickled down. It has always sprung up." Subtitled "Keeping the Faith in Troubled Times," it's a excellent book, featuring interviews with dozens of famous (Dennis Kucinich, Francis Moore Lappe, Pete Seeger, Tom Hayden) and lesser known individuals (Voices in the Wilderness founder Kathy Kelly, Chicago alderwoman Helen Schiller, former UFW organizer and SEIU VP Eliseo Medina). Terkel writes, "Activists have always battled the odds. But it's not a matter of Sisyphus rolling that stone up the hill. It's not Beckett's blind Pozzo staggering on. It's more like a legion of Davids, with all sorts of slingshots. It's not one slingshot that will do it. Nor will it happen at once. It's a long haul. It's step by step. As Mahalia Jackson sang out, 'We're on our way'--not to Canaanland, perhaps, but to the world as a better place than it has been before." Buy it here (or order it from the struggling St. Paul independent bookstore Ruminator) and read excerpts here. (Thanks for the Xmas gift, Mom.)

"Hippie Deannies Go Home!" No caption needed for this photo, although Atrios offers a commendable attempt.