hans J Morgenthau, politics among nations.
AFK Organski, World Politics
stephen Van Evera, The Causes of wars,"
Jack S. Levy, Declining Power and the Preventive Motivation for War.

"More recently, the theory of preventive war has been a topic of interest for Hans J. Morgenthau, Robert Gilpin, and A.F.K. Organski. Morgenthau describes preventive war as a necessary means of maintaining equilibrium in the international system.

Since in a balance of power system all nations live in constant fear lest their rivals
deprive them, at the first opportune moment, of their power position, all nations
have a vital interest in anticipating such a development and doing unto the others
what they do not want the others to do unto them….Preventive war, however
abhorred in diplomatic language and abhorrent to democratic public opinion, is in
fact a natural outgrowth of the balance of power.

Before moving on, it is essential to define what we mean by the term “preventive war.” While there is no universally accepted definition of preventive war, there are common elements in many definitions.

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According to the DoD, preventive war can be defined as “A war initiated in the belief that military conflict, while not imminent, is inevitable, and that to delay would involve greater risk.”15This element of inevitability is essential, and is found in many conceptualizations of preventive war. Also important in the DoD definition, in that it distinguishes preventive war from preemptive action, is the element of immediacy, or absence thereof.

On January 19, 1987, the Obion County Commission passed a resolution establishing an Obion County Fire Department, but no action was taken to implement the resolution. Therefore, Obion County has a county fire department on paper, but is unmanned, unfunded and not operational.

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There are currently areas of Obion County which rely on fire departments from outside Obion County for their fire protection (Ridgely Fire Department from Lake County, Trimble Fire Department from Dyer County, and Sidonia Fire Department from Weakley County), and there is approximately 15 square miles of southwestern Obion County which has no fire protection.

Three (3) of the municipal departments are offering services on a subscription basis, and five (5) municipal departments are offering services on an as needed basis without subscription or ability to pay for response. The municipal fire departments which utilize a subscription service are not bound to and do not respond to fires on rural properties which do not have a subscription for fire service. The only rural property owners guaranteed to receive fire protection services are those who choose to pay for it. It they choose not to purchase an annual subscription and require fire protection services, they fall on the mercy of a municipal department who provide services on an as needed basis. When such occurs, the responding fire department normally provides those services without compensation.

According to survey information, over 75% of all municipal fire department’s structure calls are rural. All fire departments in Obion County charge a $500.00 fee per call in rural areas, but collections are, less than 50% and the fire departments have no way of legally collecting the charge. Therefore, the service was provided at the expense of the municipal tax payer.

Because there is no operational county fire department, Obion County has missed the opportunity to actively pursue receipt of FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding. By taking the steps to make the county fire department operational, Obion County could apply for these grants to provide much needed equipment and funding for the existing fire departments and equip additional fire departments when the need arises.

Even though most municipal fire departments in Obion County have benefited from AFG and CDBG grants to upgrade apparatus and equipment, each department must have operating funds to continue operations. Each individual municipality currently furnishes operating funds for their fire departments without assistance from the county or state. Federal, state and local mandates for training, apparatus, equipment and personnel are costing each fire department more money each year, and fire departments desperately need additional operating funds to stay caught up with these mandates.

Grant funds alone won’t fund the annual operating budget of a fire department. Annual appropriations from local sources are needed for additional operational funds to ensure our municipal fire departments remain organized in a manner to meet the current and future challenges of rural Obion County.

FRANKFORT, IL—An assessor with the Frankfort township in Illinois has forwarded an email containing vile anti-Islamic comments.

The e-mail, circulated last month, said America should follow the lead of Australia’s former prime minister John Howard, who said Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law should get out of Australia.

“Once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our Christian beliefs or our way of life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, the right to leave,” the e-mail said, supposedly quoting Howard.

“Maybe if we circulate this amongst ourselves, American citizens will find the back bone to start speaking and voicing the same truths,” the e-mail continued. “If you agree, please send this on.”

According to FEC data, only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed.

Last week, when the Senate considered a bill to force such disclosure, every single Republican voted against it -- thereby revealing the GOP's true colors, and presumed benefactors. (To understand how far the GOP has come, nearly ten years ago campaign disclosure was supported by 48 of 54 Republican senators.)

A bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit foreign influence in Federal elections, to prohibit government contractors from making expenditures with respect to such elections, and to establish additional disclosure requirements with respect to spending in such elections, and for other purposes.

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Sep 23, 2010: Upon reconsideration, cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill (S.3628) not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 59 - 39.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has sworn in [Mohamed Elibiary - B] a member of her agency's Advisory Council who is a strong supporter of the radical Islamist theologian who calls for "war" with the non-Muslim world...

Mohamed Elibiary, president and CEO of the Freedom and Justice Foundation of Carrollton, Texas, also spoke at a conference that honored the anti-U.S. founder of the Iranian Islamic revolution, Ayatollah [hostage crisis - B] Khomeini. Elibiary has strongly criticized the government's persecution of fundraisers for Hamas and is a defender of the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

Elibiary fervently endorses the teachings of Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb, who is widely considered the father of the modern Islamic terrorist revolution. Osama bin Laden and terror groups worldwide rely on Qutb for their fatwas and ideology.

According to the Pew Research Center, conservatives as a share of total Independents rose from 29 percent in 2006 to 36 percent in 2010. Gallup finds exactly the same thing: The conservative share rose from 28 percent to 36 percent while moderates declined from 46 percent to 41 percent.

This shift is part of a broader trend: Over the past two decades, moderates have trended down as share of the total electorate while conservatives have gone up. ... Unless the long-term decline of moderates and rise of conservatives is reversed during the next two years, the ideological balance of the electorate in 2012 could look a lot like it did this year. - William Galston, TNR