Category Archives: Republicans

Update II: To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question)

Iraq, John McCain, Just War, Neoconservatism, Republicans, Terrorism, The Military

The excerpt is from this week’s column,“To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question),” now on Taki’s Magazine:

“…torturing the torture issue has thrown the country off-scent, to the great advantage of the puppet masters.

The torture kerfuffle is secondary to – and subsumed within – the broader category of an unjust war, waged by George Bush with Democratic assent. Talk about a bipartisan effort; a pox on both Houses!

You can make the case for harsh interrogation techniques in desperate, dire circumstances. But how on Earth do you justify lugging an army across the ocean to occupy a third-world country that is no danger to you and has not threatened you? You don’t, and you can’t.

Forgotten in the faff over “enhanced interrogation” tactics is the invasion of Iraq. Of this war crime, most Democrats are as guilty as Republicans. The torture fracas is like manna from heaven for both parties and their media lapdogs, who cannot be coaxed out of a coma.

Whether to bug Zubaydah’s cage or not: This is a limited, small, relatively safe distraction that allows complicit journalists, jurists, politicians and pointy heads to skirt the real issue – the need to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Kerry for invading Iraq.”

Read the complete column, “To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question).”

Update I (April 24): Some of you have asked about Abu Ghraib. The thesis of the column applies equally to the “GI JOE MEETS GI HO” episode. Get them all on the prosecution of an unjust and illegal war. Incidentally, it goes with out saying that a pox ought to be visited on both Houses—Congress and the Senate.

Update II (April 25): A note to the neoconservatives who frequent this site, and post their ill-formulated fulminations vis-a-vis the war on Iraq: That war is not going to be adjudicated again here, not ever. I chronicled the invasion of Iraq at great length, applying fact and every ounce of reason in my possession to repudiate and denounce that war crime. The case is closed! Neoconservative ideologues stand in the dock for aiding and abetting a war crime. The lazy neoconservative can read my archive on the topic. While I can imagine these ideologues urgently need to make peace with their maker, or consciences, for their role in a crime of such moral and material magnitude, they will not do so on my private property!

The “Don’t Tread On Me” Tradition Is Back!

Federal Reserve Bank, Liberty, Neoconservatism, Old Right, Political Philosophy, Republicans, Ron Paul, Taxation, Terrorism, War

Or so says Richard Spencer, editor of Taki’s Magazine, in the fabulous article: “Are the Tea Parties Radical and Paranoid Enough?”

In the tea party protest Spencer attended he saw ample signs of the Old Right rising. This recrudescence took the form of fewer “bloviations about the war on terror,” and more “Abolish the Federal Reserve!” and “Republicans + Democrats = National-Socialism” signs. “[O]nly two or three blue-blazer-and-kakis Frumbots” loitered around aimlessly.

Sweet.

Writes Richard: “There’s no question that the Republicans would love to co-opt the Tea Party movement to strengthen their prospects in 2010, but my sense last night was that the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ crowd might be a bit too radical to be neutralized and Republicanized easily.”

Read the rest on Taki’s.

The "Don’t Tread On Me” Tradition Is Back!

Federal Reserve Bank, Liberty, Neoconservatism, Old Right, Political Philosophy, Republicans, Ron Paul, Taxation, Terrorism, War

Or so says Richard Spencer, editor of Taki’s Magazine, in the fabulous article: “Are the Tea Parties Radical and Paranoid Enough?”

In the tea party protest Spencer attended he saw ample signs of the Old Right rising. This recrudescence took the form of fewer “bloviations about the war on terror,” and more “Abolish the Federal Reserve!” and “Republicans + Democrats = National-Socialism” signs. “[O]nly two or three blue-blazer-and-kakis Frumbots” loitered around aimlessly.

Sweet.

Writes Richard: “There’s no question that the Republicans would love to co-opt the Tea Party movement to strengthen their prospects in 2010, but my sense last night was that the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ crowd might be a bit too radical to be neutralized and Republicanized easily.”

Read the rest on Taki’s.

Update III: The Real Tea Party Movement (Go Home Republicans!)

Classical Liberalism, Constitution, Federalism, Founding Fathers, Republicans, Taxation

“The Founders were Lockean liberals who believed that we had natural rights and could combine to delegate certain powers to the government such as self-protection. But in natural law, no man can steal from another so you can’t delegate that power to the government and create a welfare state. Similarly, the people don’t have the right to counterfeit, so they can’t delegate that power to the Federal Reserve. And the people do not have the right to rule the world, so they can’t delegate to the government the right to create a global military empire.”

The Founders were not anarchists but they still had a dim view of taxes. To tax people for purposes other than core government functions is theft and tyranny. Jefferson said that in his own words in his First Inaugural.”

The excerpt is from my WND interview with James Ostrowski, tea party organizer and author of the manifesto, “How We Can Win the Second American Revolution Without Firing a Shot.”

Update I (April 18): if you missed the column on WND, you can catch it each and every week on Taki’s Magazine, where the reading, overall, is really really good. Read “The Real Tea Parties,” NOW on Taki’s Magazine.

Update II : The absolute imperative of denouncing the GOP was the theme of my interview with Jim Ostrowski. Is my wish coming true? I hope so. Rep. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina was booed off the stage he tried to occupy.

“Barrett faced the ire of the tea party protesters because of his vote last year for the $700 billion,” reports the Huffington Post.

Here’s the clip. “GO HOME” the crowd cries. The Republican knave tries to galvanize the crowd with the “our men and women in the military” mantra. But all he gets is: “GO HOME, GO HOME, GO HOME, too late, too late, boo, boo.” Love the fury.

Update III: In her syndicated column, Michelle Malkin, the only real fiscal conservative among Republican pundits, documents the extent of the revulsion GOPiers (including those who appeared with Sean Hannity) have inspired among tea party goers:

“If only the condescending cable TV anchors at CNN and MSNBC had paused from wallowing in gutter puns about tea bags, they might have reported an even more significant phenomenon: Tea Party protesters were as vocal in their criticism of Republicans as they were of Democrats. In Salt Lake City, Utah, a crowd of 2,000 repeatedly booed GOP Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, who both supported the $700 billion TARP bailout, and protested GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman’s decision to accept $1.6 billion in porky stimulus funds.”…

Read on.