Category Archives: Republicans

The Terrible Troika’s Advisers

Bush, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Neoconservatism, Propaganda, Republicans, War

The empire is bankrupt and in the throes of death. Its operatives are writhing with it, hanging onto the last shreds of the gory glory that came with directing American Manifest Destiny abroad. Unstable systems and people are most dangerous before dissolution and collapse.

This is why the advisers behind at least one of the presidential wannabees should be of interest.

But first, if you missed the primitive, atavistic utterances made by the terrible troika in Arizona with respect to Syria and Iran, here they are, excerpted in this Guardian post titled, “prolific proliferators of confusion.”

Except that there is nothing confused about the blood that’ll flow if one of these losers ascends to the executive throne. The Romney-Santorum-Gingrich bellicosity rivals Bush’s. The absence of any learning curve extends, seemingly, to their receptive audience, which applauded their every promise of action abroad.

Any criticism The Terrible Troika levies at Obama is for “showing weakness by not leading the allied air campaign in Libya, where the U.K and France played prominent roles, and not being tough enough on Iran to stop its nuclear-weapons efforts.”

More wars is what we’ll net with the three crappy candidates.

Romney’s Team sports these neoconservative heavy hitters:

Cofer Black, a former head of Central Intelligence Agency’s counterterrorism center and executive of the security firm Blackwater, now Xe Services; Meghan O’Sullivan, a Bloomberg View columnist and former White House official who oversaw Iraq and Afghanistan policy; Eliot Cohen, director of the Strategic Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a former counselor at Rice’s State Department; Dov Zakheim, the former Pentagon comptroller; and John Lehman, Ronald Reagan’s Navy secretary.

And “Robert Joseph, a White House National Security Council aide during Bush’s first term and later a State Department official.”

Mitt Falls Off the ‘Conservative’ Wagon Again

Economy, Elections, Political Economy, Republicans, Ron Paul

Conspicuous by its absence from the Republican wrestling smack-down tonight was mention of Mitt Romney’s neo-Keynesian slip the other day.

Mitt Romney said Tuesday that cutting spending slows growth in the economy — a rhetorical slip more akin to an argument a Democrat might make than a Republican.
Speaking in Shelby Township, MI, the former Massachusetts governor took a question about the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission empaneled by President Obama to address the nation’s deficit and debt issues. In his response, he said that addressing taxes and spending issues are essential.
“If you just cut, if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy,” he said in part of his response. “So you have to, at the same time, create pro-growth tax policies.”

What next? An admonition about the government’s need to stimulate demand? (Read more about Romney’s economics here.)

Other than Ron Paul’s undignified venture into the wrestling ring (he called Rick Santorum fake in a new ad), was there anything worth discussing?

Romney & Santorum’s Synophobia

China, Debt, Elections, Propaganda, Republicans, Russia, Trade

“China was America’s second-largest trading partner behind only Canada,” reports The New Republic. “It accounted for 13.6 percent of all trade. In other words, billions upon billions of dollars are at stake,” if Romney acts on his bellicosity, as he promised to.

The Republican presidential hopeful sounds more like a card-carrying union member than a former CEO when he outlines his White House agenda for China, urging tariffs and downplaying the threat of a trade war. He extended his tough talk recently to the pages of The Wall Street Journal in a piece epitomizing the protectionist rhetoric he’s deployed for much of his presidential campaign.
“Unless China changes its ways, on day one of my presidency I will designate it a currency manipulator and take appropriate counteraction,” Romney wrote. “A trade war with China is the last thing I want, but I cannot tolerate our current trade surrender.”

Here’s another pesky details TNR omits conveniently: China is also our largest creditor.

Just to keep purchasing greenbacks, China is inflating its own money supply. Moreover, inflation in China and the attendant price hikes — brought about because of the debased dollar — could threaten the stability of a country that has “moved more people out of poverty in the shortest amount of time in the history of the planet.”

We owe them!

Sen. Rick Santorum is even crazier when it comes to our Chinese enablers:

“You know, Mitt,” said Santorum during The Washington Post/Bloomberg Republican presidential debate, “I don’t want to go to a trade war. I want to beat China. I want to go to war with China and make America the most attractive place in the world to do business.”

Newt is almost as nutty on this front as his two rivals, adding Russia to America’s enemy equation, and threatening cyberwar against Moscow and Beijing. Maybe cyber-warfare is Gingrich’s idea of a preemptive strike.

Paul Babeu Is a Patriot (and a Babe)

Homosexuality, IMMIGRATION, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Republicans

Paul Babeu, writes the Washington Watcher at VDARE.COM., “has always said exactly the right thing about immigration—both legal and illegal. Unlike most politicians, he seemed to have a real grasp of the issue beyond just saying ‘I oppose amnesty and want to secure the border.'”

I’d be far less guarded about Babeu, who has also recently reiterated his fidelity to Ron Paul libertarianism with respect to gay marriage. Babeu, “Pinal County Sheriff and Republican primary candidate for Arizona’s 4th Congressional District,” is being slandered in the liberal pulp and pixelated press because a jilted lover (Babeu is gay) is spreading unverified stories about him, tales these outlets are only too pleased to propagate.

The Phoenix New Times is a far Left Open Border rag that has often made dishonest accusations against Arizona patriotic immigration reformers. (Including, repeatedly, VDARE.com). Its article about Babeu is filled with interviews with various immigration lawyers who served up lines about how it was all is indicative of an “atmosphere that’s been created politically in this state, so that if you get angry at someone who is Hispanic, you immediately jump down to the level of threatening to deport him” blah blah.

[VDARE.COM]

“Babeu’s acknowledgment that he is gay came after a story in the Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly magazine that quoted a former lover as saying Babeu threatened his immigration status if he revealed their relationship. Babeu denied claims he tried to threaten the man, a former campaign volunteer. He said the accusations were an attempt to hurt his political career. The legal status of the man, identified only as Jose by the New Times and Babeu, was unclear. His lawyer said he was unavailable for comment but might be available in a few days.” (HuffPostPolitics)

Comparisons to the Anthony Weiner worm are being made. The latter is married. Babeu is single.

I guess I would question the wisdom of engaging in an affair with the wrong man, but when it comes to affairs of the heart, who among us has not similarly stumbled? The fact that Babeu is the consummate macho, disciplined and dedicated ex-military man might have contributed to the pressures of reconciling the personal and the public. Such stressors lead to mistakes.