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Liberty and Power

  • Jun 23, 2004

    The New IRS

    by Liberty and Power

    In yesterday's McBlog, I posted the observation,"The IRS seized Tax Rebel Larken Rose's computers over a year ago, but have apparently been unable to find any actual tax violations to charge him with during all this time. Now, suddenly, after more than a year of scrying, the IRS suddenly claims to have found `kiddie porn' on these machines." As well as expanding their jurisdiction to include disclosures of child pornography, the IRS s
  • Jun 23, 2004

    Iraq at a Crossroads

    by Liberty and Power

    As we approach the U.S."hand-off" of power in Iraq to the Iraqi interim government I thought it might be useful to blog a bit more objectively about what probably will happen, rather then what we'd all like to see happen.

    OK, we're not leaving anytime soon. Bush isn't leaving because he can't, and Kerry wouldn't leave because as much as the left wants him to be a peace candidate, no one wants the"instability" that mainstream analysts and foreign policy armchair quarterbacks predict would

  • Jun 21, 2004

    Deadwood

    by Liberty and Power

    I just got around to watching the season finale of Deadwood and the season premiere of Six Feet Under, thanks to Comcast's very cool"On Demand" feature. My cable went out a week ago Sunday when both aired for the first time.

    Both were excellent, though the Deadwood episode was in a league of its own. Probably the best hour of television I've seen in a very long time. The scene with Swearengen and the Reverend, followed up b

  • Jun 21, 2004

    This Perfect Day Arrives

    by Liberty and Power

    If you thought the Bush administration couldn’t get worse, you’re in for a surprise. It’s about to launch a national mental-illness screening/treatment program modeled on a Texas scheme that is spending a fortune in tax money handing out powerful drugs and which has been under suspicion of corruption involving—what else?—drug companies. (The w
  • Jun 17, 2004

    WWRD?

    by Liberty and Power

    I am doubtless blinded by ideology, but it seems to me that the case for war in Iraq doesn't come off any better when stated forthrightly by an advocate of that war than it does when I viciously caricature it:

    Bush faced two realities: He was not dealing with a nation state that could be defeated by military force, and his attackers could not be deterred by fear of retaliation -- they had to be arrested and incarcerated for

  • Jun 17, 2004

    Osama and Saddam, Yet Again

    by Liberty and Power

    For many months now, a debate has raged about the possibility of links between Saddam Hussein's regime and Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. I doubt that this debate will be ended any time soon, but I do think that the evidence offered up till now has been tenuous and speculative at best; if such a formal link had been documented in the days leading up to the US invasion, it would have impacted considerably on my own views of that campaign, even if it would never have altered my

  • Jun 16, 2004

    Sheets of Philadelphia

    by Liberty and Power

    I've always been troubled by Ronald Reagan's decision to open his 1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Philadelphia is really only known for one thing -- the murder of three civil rights workers there in 1964. I've never heard a satisfactory explanation for why the Reagan campaign chose Philadelphia as its kickoff stop. In a well-written, critical-but-not-sneering column, William Raspberry again
  • Jun 16, 2004

    Ronnie II vs. Bush II

    by Liberty and Power

    On Friday, as part of a flawless funeral for Ronald Reagan that ended in a touching California sunset awash in Nancy's tears, I have to say that I was very moved by the various eulogies I heard throughout the day. Still, the most pointed political criticism came from Ron Reagan Jr.. I noticed it when he first said it... and I'm glad others are noticing it all over the media:

    Dad was also a deeply, unabashedly relig