The Adventures Of America’s Alinskyites in Egypt

Barack Obama, Bush, Democracy, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Media, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism

The following is excerpted from my latest column, “The Adventures Of America’s Alinskyites in Egypt.”:

“The Egyptian Justice Ministry, under the authority of the military council, has detained and indicted 19 American democracy activists. To listen to the malfunctioning media stateside, however, the Egyptians are being petty, picking a fight with their American benefactors for “operating in Egypt without a license.”

Or, if you want ‘expert’ opinion, courtesy of Politico.com, the Egyptian plan to prosecute these ‘Americans and two dozen others’ ‘is more over the future of U.S. aid to Egypt and who controls it.’

Among the Americans detained in Egypt is Sam LaHood—son of Ray LaHood, the Obama administration’s secretary of transportation and a former Republican congressman from Illinois.

Try as it did to obfuscate Egypt’s allegations against LaHood, the New York Times was forced to mention the military-led government’s suspicion that LaHood’s organization had been funneling funds through Washington ‘to stir unrest in the streets’ of Cairo. The Gray Lady nevertheless attributed this preposterous figment of the Arab imagination to an ‘escalating drumbeat of anti-American statements’ in Egypt.

LaHood fell under suspicion in his capacity as head of the International Republican Institute (IRI). And, wouldn’t you know it, he was working alongside the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Freedom House—described by the Times as ‘a Washington-based group that promotes democracy and open elections.’ Also arraigned were the director of the NDI and one ‘Patrick Butler, vice president of programs at the DC-based International Center for Journalists.’

The IRI and the NDI are excrescences of the Republican and Democratic parties respectively.

Yes, on the foreign-policy front, not much distinguishes America’s duopoly. Republicans and Democrats work in tandem, Saul-Alinsky style, to bring about volcanic transformation in societies that desperately need stability. …

Dr. Ron Paul excepted, conjuring up new missions abroad is a project shared by the incumbent president and his Republican rivals.

To cap it all, the troublesome meddling is paid for by the unsuspecting, overburdened American taxpayer. …

The hypocrisy in all this is that we Americans do not live under the Athenian democracy seemingly promoted abroad. On the contrary, we the people labor under a highly evolved technocratic, militarized Managerial State, which is far more efficient in encroaching on its citizens than are the tin-pot dictators, who’ve been built-up into mega-monsters in infantile, Disneyfied minds.

… Were Americans to run riot, as the spirited Egyptians have done pursuant to the Port Said stampede, they’d probably come face-to-face with the Military. In contravention of The Posse Comitatus Act—and in furtherance of freedom, of course—the 2006 version of The National Defense Authorization Act allowed the Armed Forces to ‘restore public order’ during “major public emergencies.”

Read the complete column, “The Adventures Of America’s Alinskyites in Egypt.”

Support this writer’s work by clicking to “Recommend,” “tweet” and “Share” the “Paleolibertarian column” on RT and “Return To Reason” on WND.

UPDATED: The Price Of Independence: Typical Anecdote (Patrons Anon)

Ilana Mercer, IlanaMercer.com, Journalism, libertarianism, Liberty, Media

The front-page’s “Be-a-Patron” post has been updated with an anecdote that gives a sense of what writing outside the accepted orthodoxy is like. It’ll also give you a laugh.

I am forever being peppered with patronizing notes from readers—hardly patrons, for a patron is “one that supports, protects, or champions; a sponsor or benefactor.” This persistent condescension (usually from older, authoritarian males, some in position of influence) necessitates that I remind reality bound readers of the following: The age of the Internet guarantees the futility of energetic efforts to marginalize myself and others, who like me, write outside the orthodoxy. In my case, for almost two decades.

A recent exercise helped me to appreciate just how much the libertarian establishment, much like its mainstream cohort—and in desperation to sustain its sinecured monopoly over the marketplace of ideas—will forever opt for the “statist quo” (to use a Jeff Tuckerism), in the face of popular trends to the contrary.

I was asked to attend a workshop and deliver an address at a local chapter of a property rights organization. Closer to the time, however, I was informed that I had been dropped in favor of an individual from a well-heeled think tank. You see, this writer is an independent, one-woman band, whose fidelity is to the truth alone. As such, or so I was told, I lacked name recognition. Since I had never heard of the individual who was to fill my much-smaller shoes, I did a few Internet searches. I discovered that the group had opted for establishment, not for name recognition.

GOOGLE threw up 245,000 results for the establishmentarian to my name’s 1,310,000 results.
FACEBOOK had me at 2870 Friends. Mr. Establishment was stuck at … 4.
MY BOOK’S FACEBOOK FAN PAGE garnered 394 Likes; Mr. Establishment’s Author Page had all of 25 Likes. Amazon was as dismally populated.
TWITTER: Mr. Name Recognition had 67 followers to my modest 498.
WND & RT, as mentioned, carry my weekly column. They rank, respectively, 2,943 and 1,280 on the WWW by Alexa, the premier website ranking site. I presume that Mr. Establishment produces the occasional ponderous, desiccated, extremely well-concealed position paper. If so, he does it on a site that ranks 47,094th on Alexa.

How long can these Beltway based think tanks and their patrons delude themselves about their reach or appeal? They excite as much passion as a wet blanket during the perennial, Washington State power outage.

ALL IN ALL, patrons are preferable to the patronizing. I thank my patrons—you know who you are.

(A message to Myron: As you know, kvetch, kvetch, I maintain all my websites and social-media forums; do all the data imputing, Comments Section editing and posting, and necessary site backups, in addition to the daily articles and blog writing. I’ll spare you details of the cleaning, cooking, house and parrot upkeep—to say nothing of the 12 mile per-week running habit. This is just to say that I promise to post on BAB images of our fabulous get-together and donor’s dinner. You are and have been a pal and a patron for years. You and your daughter are a delight.)

UPDATE (Feb. 10): Myron: I didn’t mention your lovely daughter’s name—and not because I forgot it in my dotage. Rather, this animated fabulous girl might be tainted or endangered for her association with you and me. (I’m being funny, of course.)

UPDATED: Hopeless Politics (Alarming Poll)

Democracy, Elections, Politics, Republicans, Ron Paul

I scanned a few headlines for coverage of Ron Paul’s showing in yesterday’s Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri presidential contests, but could find no mention of the man who placed second in Minnesota. Skim this New York Times page. The Congressman from Texas is absent from the report. (And some have argued with me over the utter corruption and cretinism of the American media, although, given that the lead doesn’t even contain the contested states, I suspect that idicoracy more than ideology is at play here). Finally, while Rick Santorum swept these states, they “were essentially nonbinding straw polls.”

Buried on the PBS News Hour’s page is one line to the effect that “Texas Congressman Ron Paul finished second in Minnesota, third in Missouri and last in Colorado.” No more.

The matter of low turnout interests me more. “One of the big losers was GOP turnout, which was down in every state, compared to four years ago,” observes The Guardian. “The ratio of turnout from 2012 to 2008 in both counties were in the bottom quarter of all counties in Iowa. Had turnout in either county been at the same level relative to 2008 as the average county, Romney’s less-than-100 vote loss would have been turned into a win.”

Perhaps voters who poured their heart and soul into Tea-Party politics have prefigured that the nature of American politics is such that even if their candidate wins, nothing will change in their lives or in the politics. It is amazing that in the face of hopelessness—growing economic misery commensurate with the assurances of trillions more in debt—the only shot across the bow comes from the confused and revolting Occupy Wall Street Movement. Or “Freak Street.”

Promises by the presidential contender to repeal all the unconstitutional legislation the incumbent has passed are just that: promises that can never be fulfilled. The fact that presidents come and go and leave in their wake such devastation—essentially trashing the office and the country—demonstrates the reality of power without limitation. Since the Constitution is a dead letter, the political process consists in each faction passing its unconstitutional infractions into law, as the other gang guarantees repeal.

“The Democratic and Republican parties each operates as a necessary counterweight in a partnership designed to keep the pendulum of power swinging in perpetuity from the one set of colluding quislings to the other, and back.”—ILANA (January 15, 2010)

“No sooner do the Republicans come to power, than they move to the left. When they get their turn, Democrats shuffle to the right. At some point, McCain reaches across the aisle and the creeps converge.”—ILANA (January 15, 2010)

UPDATE: (Feb. 9): “Obama would defeat all of the four Republicans if the election were held today, but Ron Paul fares the best against the incumbent. Obama leads Paul 44 percent to 40 percent, with 16 percent undecided,” says a “WND/WENZEL POLL.”

TELL ME the generic Republican isn’t stupid:

“In every case except the match-up against Ron Paul, more than 20 percent of Republican voters said they are more likely to support Obama than the Republican challenger. And Ron Paul is close, as 19 percent of Republicans said they are more likely to support Obama than Paul.”

A hopeless polity.

UPDATED: More Reasons to Secede From The Pundit Pantheons of Fox, MSNBC and CNN

America, Israel, Journalism, Media, Pseudo-intellectualism, Russia

Guests who’ve been invited onto the typical American vanity-TV news show must invariably kiss the ring of the ego in the anchor’s chair. The grateful guest will typically offer up platitudes such as, “Only you do so and so,” “Your shows is the only show that, blah, blah,” and, “If not for you, blah, blah.” It seems to be expected—and is a good practice if a commentator seeks membership in the pundit pantheons of Fox, MSNBC and CNN.

Today, in furtherance of freedom (NOT), Freedom Watch featured the “liberventionists” Neal Boortz, who is a “a statist, not a libertarian.” Anything Boortz supports is usually an indication to the contrary. Boortz is also Sean Hannity’s favorite libertarian, a credibility that seems to stand him in good stead with Fox News’ libertarian producers.

So does Stephen Moore of the “War Street Journal” carry the Hannity stamp of approval. He too appeared in furtherance of freedom on Freedom Watch today. No wonder Moore, like Boortz, is Hannity’s in-house freedom fighter. One of Moore’s books was “Bullish on Bush: How the Ownership Society Is Making America Richer.” But that’s no indictment among America’s incestuous teletwits. (“Bush’s bailout society” was an instantiation of the principles upon which “Bush’s ownership society” was founded: credit for those who are not creditworthy.)

To continue the theme of “Closing The Door On Closed, Cloistered American Media,” contra American media, RT draws on a large sample of opinion for its commentary; Left, Right, libertarian; orthodox and unorthodox. It seems to achieve this by avoiding the anointing that goes on in American TV studios, where pundits are picked from among powerful, well-funded, mainstream think tanks, editorial newsrooms, Internet sites, or presidential, congressional and other government staff. The TV tarts who flock to DC or New York to hang around the major studios, and in the fullness of time inflict their insufferable stupidity on us—they have agents, no less (or Fortune 500 fathers, or both).

By embracing Skype, RT also reaches out to different, interesting individuals whose mission is not to make their home close to a major TV studio with the hope of being “discovered” by the dumbos on Fox, MSNBC or CNN.

UPDATE (Feb. 8): Sure, Myron; RT has plenty blind spots. The American moron media, by contrast, is one big, banal, unquestioning blind spot, chockablock with unrealistic rah-rah for America.

When last did you hear an interesting, original thought on MSM America? And American journalism has become mostly bad. Take, for example, the segment on Fox Business about the H1-B tiff with Obama. Not a word did the ego in the anchor’s chair devote to the debate (pro and con) surrounding the Visa. All he wanted to extract from his guest was that the Obama exchange on Google Plus was staged. That’s not journalism. It’s a partisan perversion thereof. Repulsive.

And, Myron, do follow some of the links provided, and you’ll see that RT gives voice to some fascinatingly bright Israelis (some generals) with whom you and I would not always agree. But, wow, are they brilliant, original and well-informed in their approach to the disputes and wars in which they have fought so valiantly. Click around RT’s Israel coverage, Myron, and you’ll see that, while it is much like CNN in its pro-Palestinian bent, RT showcases some magnificent Israelis who do Jews proud.

RT journos are intellectually curious—as you naturally are—as opposed their dim counterparts (can you say Dana Perrino?) in the American media.