Category Archives: Terrorism

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.

Top House Democrat Dumbfounded By Report On 'Right-Wing Extremism'

Fascism, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Military, Propaganda, Terrorism

By now most of you will have heard that, as the Washington Times divulged, the Department of Homeland Security, headed by Janet Napolitano, “issued April 7 a nine-page document titled ‘Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.'”

Rightwing extremism,” the report said in a footnote on Page 2, goes beyond religious and racial hate groups and extends to “those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.”

“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” said the report, which also listed gun owners and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as potential risks.

To one Democrat’s credit, he protested. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top House Democrat with oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, demanded that “Homeland Security officials explain how and why they wrote the report and whether it poses any threat to civil liberties.”

“As I am certain you agree, freedom of association and freedom of speech are guaranteed to all Americans – whether a person’s beliefs, whatever their political orientation, are ‘extremist’ or not,” Mr. Thompson said.

Everyone is up in arms about the libel this is to army men. What about to immigration patriots? Second Amendment defenders? Limited government crusaders? Tax protesters?

Every time, someone cries “the children; we’re saddling our children with debt, ” I cringe. F-ck the children. What about We the Workings Stiffs? I’m beginning to feel the same about “our men and women in the military” mantra. The military is not more deserving than the rest of us.

One more thing: The report was commissioned during the administration of President George W. Bush and completed by his worthy successor.