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Liberty and Power

  • Oct 4, 2004

    Madness Below, Sanity Above

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    In South Korea, protestors are taking to the streets and clashing with cops. (See here and here.) What's the reason for all this anti-state activity? The protestors want to stop the government from repealing a law
  • Oct 4, 2004

    The Final Frontier?

    by Liberty and Power

    Reader Daniel Schmutter wrote in to point out the significance of this early entry in non-governmental space flight. As government programs go, I've always been more at peace with the space program than, say, agriculture subsidies or social"security." But really, this too should be privatized, and the argument that space exploration cannot possibl
  • Oct 4, 2004

    Blacks versus the New Deal (Part II)

    by Liberty and Power

    As promised, I am posting another one of the anti-New Deal cartoons of the mysterious “L. Rogers" from The Chicago Defender. This one is from April 21, 1934. Although the NRA is in the title, the main focus is on the negative impact of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration on blacks. The Defender was the leading black newspaper in the United States.

  • Oct 4, 2004

    Neocon Newbie

    by Liberty and Power

    I have to agree with William Safire in his NY Times essay today,"Kerry, Newest Neocon" (and, by implication, with Jason Pappas as well). Safire tells us that Kerry's statements during last week's foreign policy debate with President Bush were the essence of"hawkish" neoconservatism. T

  • Oct 2, 2004

    One Long Reaction Shot

    by Liberty and Power

    I did not intend to watch the debate because frankly I am so sick of both of their faces and the lying blather that comes out of their mouths. However, I sat down to do a little channel surfing and came across CSPAN 2’s coverage, which featured a split screen focused solely on both podiums. In essence the debate on this venue was entirely composed of reactions shots. It quickly became clear why the campaigns did not want the public to view the facial expressions and body language of the candidat
  • Oct 1, 2004

    A Contrarian Thought

    by Liberty and Power

    Like most of the pundits and experts, a colleague of mine this morning shared the view that Bush came across as defensive, rather simple minded, and silly in his reactions and body language. My first, personal, instincts, are to agree with that assessment.

    But there's one small problem here - we've seen this from Bush before. We've seen the short, direct answers. We've heard the folksy tales about praying with people and rolled our eyes. We've heard him call people"Vladimir" with a kin

  • Oct 1, 2004

    Kerry on Style, Both Lose on Substance

    by Liberty and Power

    Kerry definitely won the debate by theatrical criteria. He looked and sounded better. Bush, as nearly universally acknowledged by now, looked and sounded terrible. He should have spent the day sleeping instead of hurricane-politicking in Florida.

    On substance, I flunk them both. Bush was pitiful at defending his record in Iraq. He could hardly attempt it with a straight face. All he could say is that it's hard work and good people are working hard. Yawn.

    All Kerry really promised is

  • Oct 1, 2004

    The Debate

    by Liberty and Power

    Al Gore wrote in the NYT the other day that this election shouldn't be about which candidate you'd like to have a beer with. Which is good, because I'd rather regrout my bathtub than tipple with either. George Jean Nathan said"I drink to make other people interesting." But drinking enough to make the candidates interesting could get you hospitalized.

    But I watched the debate. And Kerry not only won on points, he won the personality contest. Bush started out shockingly coherent. But

  • Oct 1, 2004

    Bush/Kerry Debate

    by Liberty and Power

    According to a Gallop poll on who won the first Presidential election debate: Kerry, 53%; Bush, 37%. The single best commentary I've read on last night's Kerry/Bush debate is Justin Raimondo's wrap-up entitled"Kerry Cleans the President's Clock: Bush got his head handed to him \x{2013} but why does Kerry want to flatten Fallujah?" Thomas Knapp's an
  • Oct 1, 2004

    Kerry's Army?

    by Liberty and Power

    Senator Kerry wants to enlarge the army by 40,000 troops to"win' the war in Iraq. Where will he find them?

    Today's New York Times reports that the Army is already planning to lower standards in order to try to fill its existing quotas of 20-30,000 troops, in the face of complaints from soldiers about pressure being used to try to keep them in the armed forces: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/01/politics/01recruit.html?hp
  • Oct 1, 2004

    Imperial Corporate Welfare

    by Liberty and Power

    As Washington DC politicians negotiate with the Major League Baseball cartel about a new team for the digestive bowel of the Empire, offering bonds and taxes for a $440 million new stadium, the Pentagon plays its own version of Corporatist fraud, let's call it"Cheney Ball."

    Charles Lewis' Center for Public Integrity continues to expose the billions of fraud, as detailed in a recent report: http://www.publicintegrity.org

    Sinc
  • Sep 30, 2004

    A Voice of Sanity in Washington

    by Liberty and Power

    Let's consider the recent evidence on sports stadiums. More and more people are starting to sit down and realize that, as nice as it is to have a sports team in their hometown, they certainly do not want to pay obscene amounts of money to subsidize them. And teams have basically been in a less powerful position to push cities around on this matter because the market in professional sports is glutted and there is growing evidence that (surprise) large publicly funded stadiums, like most governm
  • Sep 30, 2004

    Cultural Relativism 1, Justice 0

    by Liberty and Power

    Stories like this never fail to make angry - and my anger at the perpetrators is almost matched by my anger at their academic enablers, in my office and in yours.

    By the way, this is my first attempt at the linking method Chris recommended I use for NYT stories. If it doesn't work, someone let me know.

    UPDATE: Some have questioned my assertion a

  • Sep 30, 2004

    What I'd Like John Kerry to Say

    by Liberty and Power

    We all know what a disaster our intervention in Iraq has been. We went in under false pretenses to attack a dictator primarily so that our president could work out some psychological issues with his father and satisfy his family's long standing ties to the Saudi's. At best the administration aggressively inflated innuendo to fact in order to make a case they thought was the right one; at worst they flat out lied to us.

    Still, what's done it done. We're in this mess, and I have a solutio