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Liberty and Power

  • May 27, 2004

    Read the Constitution

    by Liberty and Power

    I hope this won’t make me sound like a fan of George W. Bush, but here goes anyway. I am sick of columnists and others reminding us that Al Gore won the"popular vote.” It’s irrelevant! (See Maureen Dowd for an example.) If the national popular vote had mattered, Bush could have run up his margins in Texas and his other safe states. But he didn’t because it would have been wasted time and money. Why? Because the Constituti
  • May 26, 2004

    Now I Get It

    by Liberty and Power

    Conservatives are mad that the news media and Iraq-war critics focus on the bad news—abuse of detainees, bombings of wedding parties, and the like—while overlooking the good news—U.S. troops' building schools and hospitals. I get it: the good news is the extension of the welfare state to Iraq. Whoopee!
  • May 26, 2004

    Damning With Grammar

    by Liberty and Power

    Never mind the silly attempt to resurrect the Soviet-style planned economy (Jesus, is the body even cold yet?). That's a different post.

    What if instead of this, Matthew Yglesias, at the end of a post commenting on Hilter's notable highway construction and punctual public transportation," conceded" that,"on the other hand, millions of Jews got themselves killed in Hitler's various schemes."

    Yeah. We'd be rev

  • May 26, 2004

    Kush and Berry

    by Liberty and Power

    I have a forthcoming article in The Free Radical entitled"Bush Wins!," which I'll be delighted to share with my L&P audience after it is published. The gist of the article is expressed in its conclusion:

    Other things being equal, voters are not going to choose Kerry, when they’ve already got in Bush a Republican dedicated to all the conventional Democratic planks: an expanding welfare state, budget deficits, and a war abroad. A
  • May 26, 2004

    Don't Destroy Abu(se) Ghraib

    by Liberty and Power

    President Bush should not authorize the U.S. military to destroy Abu Ghraib prison, site of U.S. abuses against Iraqi detainees (that we know). Why not? Because it is not Bush's to destroy. Let the Iraqis decide what to do with it. And then let them do it. Maybe someone will buy it and convert it into a museum of state horrors for all to see. At any rate, it's not"our" decision, even if the Iraqi"government" the UN creates says it is. What should the U.S. do? Give the keys to some
  • May 26, 2004

    Cos history and causality

    by Liberty and Power

    Two additional thoughts worth noting on Jonathan's post below. First, Clarence Page refers to the reaction to Cosby's speech as BPC -- black political correctness. Page notes that it's nothing new for Cosby.
    Cosby was saying the same thing backstage when I interviewed him during my college days. It was 1968, but he didn't want to talk about black power, Black
  • May 25, 2004

    Bill Cosby and the Problem of Black Dissent

    by Liberty and Power

    As many blog subscribers may have read, Bill Cosby addressed a NAACP dinner and took the African American community and its so-called leaders to task for failing to speak out against the ghettoization of language, schooling, and the general deterioration of bourgeois values once considered valuable in the"uplift" of black individuals. The response to his comments--clearly within the mainstream of African American opinion judging by polls--was fierce. How DARE he say such things in a public forum
  • May 25, 2004

    The President's Speech

    by Liberty and Power

    Last night, George W. Bush’s speech on Iraq at the Army War College was designed to show that the president has a definite plan for Iraq’s future. But the lack of details provided about the imminent transfer of “full sovereignty” to the Iraqis indicates quite the opposite and that the word “full” should be changed to “minimal.” The only new detail provided was the symbolic fluff of pledging to destroy the Abu Ghraib prison, which will do little to repair the monumental damage to the coalition
  • May 24, 2004

    Aggressive tactics will get the U.S. Nowhere

    by Liberty and Power

    In guerrilla warfare, more so than set piece battles among conventional armies, winning popular support in the target country and retaining it at home is vital.

    Agressive tactics, such as those noted by Keith, are not only immoral, but ineffective. The U.S. government would be better off if it said:"Yes, we screwed up and hit a wedding party. We're very sorry and we'll compensate the victims." But in government, used to dealing with people on the basis of coercion, the hope that it woul

  • May 24, 2004

    Marshalling Resources

    by Liberty and Power

    Okay, so here's a hypothetical scenario. Let's say you live in a state that's been through hard times. The federal government comes to you and tells you,"Price no object." They're going to send you whatever you need to get yourself back on track. For the first three months, the government doles out $8.2 billion in contracts. An additional $10.5 billion is coming this summer. It's the biggest news in urban renewal since LBJ's War on Poverty. And the whole thing is going to be paid by the

  • May 24, 2004

    What Doom Will Look Like This Time Around

    by Liberty and Power

    Ron Bailey, the Science Editor of Reason Magazine, has an excellent review of Paul Ehrlich's new book, written with his wife, Anne, One With Ninevah in the May 20th Wall Street Journal, entitled"What Doom Will Look Like This Time Around."'

    Ehrlich has an unbroken record since 1968 of being wrong about all of his predictions of"Doom and Gloom," He is, of course, a hero of the Environmetnalist movement and has received numerous awards including a MacArthur"genius" Prize.

  • May 24, 2004

    What is a Wedding Singer Doing at a Safe House?

    by Liberty and Power

    This Sunday once again marked an extremely bad day for those who support the war in Iraq. Yet another 60 Minutes interview, this time with retired General Anthony Zinni, highlighted the total incompetence with which the Bush Administration has pursued Woodrow Wilson’s dream of a world made safe for democracy. The last time we did this the world got Hitler and Stalin, what will it get this time?

    Also, a

  • May 23, 2004

    Sontag on the Abu Ghraib Pictures

    by Liberty and Power

    In the comments section of my prior post there is supposed to be a link to a NYT Magazine article. The article in question is a piece by Susan Sontag on the Abu Ghraib pictures. Normally, Sontag is too over the top for me, but this piece is about right. What's most interesting is her discussion of the way in which digital technology and the net has changed the kinds of things soldiers can do. They are

  • May 23, 2004

    "When Greenspan Really Gets Going"

    by Liberty and Power

    Gerard Baker has a satirical pice in the Financial Times of May 19th. It is listed as an article dated March 27th, 2026, in which Alan Greenspan celebrates his 100th birthday and appoinment to an 11th term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

    A quote attributed to Greenspan is indicative of how the Chairman can appear to be all things to all people, and remains the great obfuscator:

    "There is proliferating evidence that centenarian policymaking is producing markedly s

  • May 23, 2004

    "Congress Must Curb A Runaway Executive"

    by Liberty and Power

    Leon Fuerth, a former national security adviser to vice-president Al Gore, and a research professor of international affairs at the George Washington University, has an interesting article in the Financial Times May 19th.

    He points out that the prisoner abuses in Iraq are not a mere anomoly, but, like much of the actions of the Bush administration, an example of the growig power of the Executive branch of government. Fuerth calls for the Congress to once agin reassert itself into