Terrorists and Secessionists

“The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government.”

“My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.”

Sound like Rev. Wright? Bill Ayers? Try Joe Vogler, the founder of the Alaskan Separatist Party that Todd Palin was a member of for 6 to 7 years. The AIP founder made the comment in 1991, in an interview that’s now housed at the Oral History Program in the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Two years later, Vogler was scheduled to denounce America as a tyranny before the U.N. His sponsors? The Islamic Republic of Iran. But before he took the world stage, he was killed by a fellow seccessionist. Here’s another quote from Vogler:

“And I won’t be buried under their damn flag… I’ll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.”

Vogler advocated renouncing allegiance to the United States. In the course of denouncing Federal regulation over land, he said:

“And then you get mad. And you say, the hell with them. And you renounce allegiance, and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life to Alaska.”

This is the same group Sarah Palin recorded an address for the convention, saying “Keep up the good work”, and now she’s complaining about Obama “palling around” with Ayers. By “palling around”, she of course means being a part of a mainstream (not “radical” as falsely stated by a McCain ad) education committee supported by a Republican governor, with local civil leaders on the board, which included Ayers as well as a former Nixon administration official who has contributed to McCain’s campaign.

Let’s compare these to the infamous Rev. Wright quotes:

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003 sermon. “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda’s attacks because of its own terrorism.

“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he told his congregation.

Well, John Kerry’s 1989 Committe report concluded that members of the U.S. State Department “provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking… and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers.” And I’ve heard the conservative mantra of “…then build bigger prisons.”

Wright accuses people who say “God Bless America” as worshipping country over God. I’ve been told this is unchristian. I find it to be uniquely Christian. Before Constantine fuzed Orthodox Christianity into the Eastern Roman Empire, Christians were unique among their fellow Jews and Romans in refusing to ally themselves with either the authorities of Rome or Judea. Most religious people today make the mistake of combining the two and kids are even forced in our schools to “pray” to the idol of Lady Liberty with their hands over our hearts in the droning chant typical of brainwashing. Vogler though, along with those who follow him, only wish to replace the American flag with the Alaskan one, even if it means getting founding from Iran to denounce America as a tyrany before the U.N. Considering the historic injustice perpetuated on African Americans, it’s no surprise to me that there are “black separatist” groups. But the idea that Palin’s husband wants Alaska to separate when his wife is taking in all these huge Federal earmarks is ridiculous.

The references to Hiroshima, Palestinians, and South Africa will no doubt piss off conseravtives, but I find these controversies far more open to interpretation than most of the stuff I read from the conservative Human Events newsletter. He’s obviously a conspiracy theorist. But unlike the author of the bestselling book “Obama Nation,” who thinks the Bush Administration caused 9/11, at least Wright is fighting against the side he believes to be perpetrating mass injustice on the population.

Anyone who watched or read Obama’s speech about “A More Perfect Union” knows that he has a completely different worldview than Wright:

“On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

“I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.”

“But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.”

……

“But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.”

Do you think the AIP does charity work? Somehow I doubt it. Here’s the full speech:

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/03/18/text-of-obamas-speech-a-more-perfect-union/?mod=googlenews_wsj

Maybe this seems to be too far a reach since this is the Vice President’s husband, not the President. But the problem with this objection is McCain could die while in office. If McCain croaks, Palin will be president, and there is a good chance that Todd could become the “shadow president”, just as some have referred to him as the “shadow governor”. The latest ethics panel that found Sarah Palin violated ethics laws and abused her power as governor also pointed out that Todd was heavily involved. An article from globeandmail.com says:

>According to those close to the administration, he attending meetings, sat in on interviews, made phone calls to lawmakers to express his support for his wife’s issues and was copied in on staff e-mails.

>He has been referred to as the “shadow governor” and The New York Times reported that his constant involvement in state business prompted some of the staff in the governor’s office to begin asking, “What would Todd do?” when faced with decisions that would affect his wife’s agenda.

This is not something from the distant past either. Max Blumenthal writes:

“Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin’s political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. “Her door was open,” says Chryson — and still is.”

“Palin backed [former Alaska Independence party chairman, Mark] Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution’s language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as “Black Helicopter Steve,” to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. “Every time I showed up her door was open,” said Chryson. “And that policy continued when she became governor.” …

Chryson further streamlined the AIP’s platform by softening its secessionist language. Instead of calling for immediate separation from the Uni ted States, the platform now demands a vote on independence. Yet Chryson maintains that his party remains committed to full independence. “The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world,” Chryson exclaimed. “And Alaska is not the only place that’s about separation. There’s at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States.”

Even Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley and author of “Thank You for Smoking”, has written an article denouncing Palin and arguing for the “conservative case for Obama”.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/aip_founder_professed_hatred_f.php

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/he_lied_about_bill_ayers.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081010.CAMPAIGNPALIN10/TPStory/International

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27105917/
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-10/the-conservative-case-for-obama

O’Reilly and Fannie Mae

This is pretty funny. O’Reilly is so obsessed with trying to blame everyone that he goes freaking ballistic when he finds out there’s nothing about Fannie Mae he can pin on Barney Frank, so instead he tries to take another route that has nothing to do with regulation and just blame Frank for supposedly encouraging people to buy their stock even though he specifically said it was a bad investment.

Here’s what O’ Reilly said a couple of days ago:

“Most talk radio is conservative dominated ideologues, or kool-aid drinking idiots. Idiots. Screaming at you “This is socialism, this is this this is that””It’s Clintons fault, it’s Clinton’s fault.” It’s Clinton’s fault? Clinton hasn’t been in office in 8 years.

It’s Bush’s fault, it happened on Bush’s watch. He could’ve prevented this. He could’ve gone easily and said Merrill Lynch is dealing in bad paper he could’ve said that.Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac they’re dealing in bad paper, so you the investor, don’t invest in those companies. You think they would’ve continued to deal in bad paper? No they would not!

But let’s get back to this talk radio stuff. These idiots are misleading you they’re lying to you They’re rich, these guys, Big cigars, all of that! Private jets, “Oh yeah, my private jet!”And they’re saying “No bailout, no no uh uh no way”Hey! You’re going to get it, not them. That foreign investment pulls out, we are toast. And they’ll pull out if that bailout doesn’t happen. Are you getting the message here? Walk away from these liars, these right wing liars. Walk away from them, they’re not looking out for you!

I don’t even want to talk about the far left Barney Frank? Disgusting! Pointing fingers? It’s you you big fat toad, YOU!Frank!You!Dodd, sittin’ there [incomprehensible impression of Dodd] It’s you Dodd, you! You knew! I swear to god, if they were in this room right now, I would hit them. Dodd and FrankThe house finance and senate finance. They knew!

Don’t point a finger at anybody, I’ll break that finger off! So you got corruption on the right, and corruption on the left. And who gets it? You get it, you, the hardworking person
The next politician that gets up their and points a finger, I’m go after them myself Shut up! Fix it! These are people’s livesI got enough money in the bank. Unless a bank fails, I’m fine. But you’re probably not fine. I’m lucky.

I’m tired of these charlatans on both sides. Lying to you, because they’re ideological kool-aid drinkers or corrupt toadsAnd I’m talkin to you Barney FrankWho’s the guy who was saying, “If you don’t lend money to poor people you’re a bigot”Who was saying that barney, WHO?![pause] I gotta take a break.”

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Bill has gone way too far in the blame game in my opinion. Does he really think Bush saw this coming? Bush is an idiot. I don’t even think Cheney saw this coming. No one did, except the guys who ran the housing prices high and then got out. I’m sure they knew what they were doing. But other than that, it’s the philosophy of deregulation that is to blame rather than people. But of course Conservatives don’t want to hear that, so they’ll just blame the government and say a badly-run Republican government only proves the Conservative/Neo-Con philosophy has been right all along. This is the response he got from conservative radio host Mark Levin:

“And I’m not talking to some of you backbenchers, and you know who I mean,” said Levin. “These blowhards. You get arrogant, stupid people who get paid a lot of money to be on radio and TV to be arrogant and stupid. And one of them, one of them is on the Fox News Channel, my favorite cable channel. And he has a fledgling radio show that has no ratings, and he’ll be off radio soon because he’s a failure. It’s the non-factor: Bill O’Reilly.

“And he is no conservative,” said Levin. “He’s another mainstream, moron, phony journalist. That’s what he is. And, oh, jealous like hell of Rush Limbaugh. Did you notice that? The cigar and the airplane? Let me tell you something else, jerk. You can’t hold a candle to him.” Your ratings suck.”

“You paid more in hush money for your little phone sex than I’ve ever earned.”

A veteran T.V. journalist actually lost his job for pointing out O’Reilly’s phone sex case to those awarding O’Reilly an Emmy:

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/27/barry-nolan/

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Congressman Frank was asked about Freddie and Fannie on July 14, 2008:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/10/03/world-war-iii-barney-frank-vs-bill-oreilly/#more-33396

REP. BARNEY FRANK, D-MASS.: I think this is a case where Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound, that they are not in danger of going under. They’re not the best investments these days from the long-term standpoint going back. I think they are in good shape going forward.

They’re in a housing market. I do think their prospects going forward are very solid. And in fact, we’re going to do some things that are going to improve them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O’REILLY: Well, obviously, that statement turned out not to be true.

Joining us now from Washington is Congressman Frank. And we appreciate you coming in, being a standup guy, but shouldn’t everybody in the country be angry with you right now?

FRANK: No. You’ve misrepresented this consistently. I became chairman of the committee on January 31st, 2007. Less than two months later, I did what the Republicans hadn’t been able to do in 12 years — get through the committee a very tough regulatory bill. And it passed the House in May.

I’ve always felt two things about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that they had an important role to play, but that the regulations should be improved.

Now from 1995 to 2006, when the Republicans controlled Congress and we were in the minority, we couldn’t get that done. Although in 2005, Mike Oxley, of Sarbanes-Oxley fame, a pretty tough guy on regulation, did try to put a bill through to regulate Fannie Mae. I worked with him on it. As he told The Financial Times, he thought ideological rigidity in the Bush administration stopped that.

But the basic point is that the first time I had any real authority over this was January of 2007. And within two months, we had passed the bill that regulated.

O’REILLY: OK. And that’s true, all of that is true.

FRANK: And then also, one other point: The Senate was dragging its feet, as often happens. And in January of 2008, I asked Secretary Paulson to put in the stimulus bill. So, the earliest chance I got to put tough regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we did it.

O’REILLY: All right, that’s swell. But you still went out in July and said everything was great. And off that, a lot of people bought stock and lost everything they had.

FRANK: Oh, no.

O’REILLY: And — yes, oh yes. Oh, yes.

FRANK: I said it wasn’t a good investment. Please stop yelling.

O’REILLY: Don’t give me any of that, we just heard the words. What are you…

FRANK: That’s wrong.

O’REILLY: You didn’t say that? You want me to play it again for you?

FRANK: You didn’t listen to it.

O’REILLY: No, I listened to every word you said. And I have the transcript right here.

FRANK: No, and I said it wasn’t a good investment.

O’REILLY: Yes, you said going forward, we’re going to be swell.

FRANK: No, I didn’t say swell. Excuse me, Bill.

O’REILLY: Look, from August ‘07 to August ‘08.

FRANK: Excuse me, Bill.

O’REILLY: Don’t — look, stop the B.S. here. Stop the crap! From August ‘07 to August ‘08…

FRANK: You know, here’s the problem going on your show…

O’REILLY: …under your tutelage, this industry…

FRANK: Here is the problem going on your show.

O’REILLY: …declined 90 percent. 90 percent.

FRANK: Yes, but…

O’REILLY: Oh, none of this was your fault! Oh, no. People lost millions of dollars. It wasn’t your fault. Come on, you coward! Say the truth.

FRANK: What do you mean coward?

O’REILLY: You’re a coward. You blame everybody else. You’re a coward.

FRANK: Bill, here’s the problem with going on your show. You start ranting. And the only way to respond is almost to look as boorish as you. But here’s the facts. I specifically said in the quote you just played that I didn’t think it was a good investment. I wasn’t telling anybody to buy stock. I said it wasn’t a good investment.

Secondly, I wasn’t presiding idly over this. I was trying to get the regulations adopted. We got them adopted in May.

O’REILLY: Look, bottom line is you’re there two years. Bottom line is stock drops 90 percent.

FRANK: Yes.

O’REILLY: In any private industry, you’re out.

FRANK: We couldn’t get…

O’REILLY: In any private concern, you’re out on your butt. But not here in the federal government.

You can come in and make every excuse in the world.

FRANK: I’m not making excuses.

O’REILLY: Blame everybody else in the world and then call me boorish.

FRANK: I’m not going to be bullied by your ranting. You can rant all you want, you’re not going to shut me up! The problem was that we passed in 1994, in fact.

O’REILLY: Now we’re back to 1994. This is bull. This is why Americans don’t trust the government.

FRANK: No, this is why your stupidity gets in the way of rational discussion.

The fact is it was 1994 that we passed a bill to tell the Fed to stop the subprime lending. We tried to get them to do it. The first time we were in power again in 2007, we passed the bill to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

So during the two years I was there…

O’REILLY: Look, Congressman, you tried to put a happy face on this in July.

FRANK: I’m not putting a happy face on anything.

O’REILLY: You tried to — and now you won’t take the.

FRANK: No.

O’REILLY: Look, at least Cox is man enough.

FRANK: I said….

O’REILLY: At least Cox is man enough to say he screwed up. You’re not.

FRANK: Hey, Bill. This manliness stuff is very unbecoming from you. I don’t see any…

O’REILLY: Cox is man enough to say he screwed up. You’re not.

(CROSSTALK)

FRANK: You think toughness is yelling and ranting and trying to bully. It’s not going to work with me. The fact is in the very quote you played, I said it’s not a good investment. I tried to get the regulations adopted.

O’REILLY: You said going forward, it’s going to be swell. And people under that bought stock in that, thought it was a good investment.

FRANK: I didn’t say swell. I didn’t say swell. No, I said in fact in that quote that you played and didn’t listen to because you’re busy ranting that it’s not a good investment. I said that at the time. I did think we were going to improve things going forward. Yes, we had some things that needed improvement.

O’REILLY: All right, you want to — here, let me read you your quote here. OK? OK? “I do think the prospects going forward are very solid.”

FRANK: But that’s not the part about it not being a good investment.

O’REILLY: Now, people bought stock when you said that.

FRANK: You are distorting it. Bill, you’re lying by your words.

O’REILLY: This is what you said.

FRANK: What about the part where…

O’REILLY: Not lying. And I played it and I read it.

FRANK: What about the part where I said it wasn’t a good investment?

O’REILLY: You said it’s not the best right now, but going forward this is going to be solid.

FRANK: Right…

O’REILLY: People lost millions.

FRANK: I didn’t say solid, I didn’t say swell. You distort consistently. And you think ranting and raving…

O’REILLY: All right.

FRANK: …you don’t want to talk about 1994, like no history is relevant. The fact is that you had a problem with an administration — conservative.

(CROSSTALK)

O’REILLY: I know, it’s all the conservatives, it’s all the Republicans and not you.

FRANK: Oh, come on.

O’REILLY: None on you. That’s a joke.

FRANK: You won’t have a rational discussion.

O’REILLY: That’s a joke.

FRANK: The joke is to think I could have a rational discussion with you. You’re ranting.

O’REILLY: No, the joke is both parties are at fault, as I stated. But one guy Cox says yes, I screwed up.

FRANK: That’s a totally different issue.

O’REILLY: And one guy Frank says it’s everybody else’s fault.

FRANK: No, I didn’t say it was everybody else’s fault.

O’REILLY: It’s your fault.

FRANK: You are the most — you don’t listen at all, or maybe you are listening or you’re too dumb to understand.

O’REILLY: I am too dumb, Congressman.

FRANK: The fact is that in — yes.

O’REILLY: No, you hit it, I’m too dumb. You’re the brilliant guy.

FRANK: In 2007.

O’REILLY: You’re the brilliant guy who presided over the biggest financial collapse in federal history.

FRANK: Oh, no, no, no.

O’REILLY: So you’re the — I’m the dumb guy. You’re the brilliant guy.

(CROSSTALK)

FRANK: Under the Bush administration…

(CROSSTALK)

FRANK: And the fact is…

O’REILLY: Congressman, thanks very much. We got to run.

Putting Politics Ahead of Country

Ok, so McCain “suspended his campaign”, consisting of moving his appearance on David Letterman to a piece with Katie Couric. (McCain insiders say they are looking for another way to suspend the campaign; William Kristol has also called for a second suspension.) The rest of his campaign continued attacking Obama and McCain very slowly made it back to Washington to “lead” on the crisis even though he admitted he had not read the 3-page report on the crisis even after several days. Before he got there, we heard word that they discussions were going good, but soon after McCain got there, House Republicans rebelled. We know that Obama talked during the meeting and McCain didn’t. House Republicans tried to force Democrats to accept the elimination of the capital gains tax (which of course has nothing to do with the crisis) or watch the economy go into a downward spiral, which is pretty much like the cops joining the rioters they’re supposed to bring down and adding in their own demands. So the deal failed. The Dow fell about 780 points and the S&P dropped 8% (as a side note, we all know Phil “America are whiners” Gramm, but McCain’s other economist is Kevin Hassett, who wrote DOW 36,000 right before the Dot Com bubble burst). Now Republicans are blaming the failed vote on Nancy Pelosi giving a speech in which she said the problem was due to a failed economic philosophy of “anything goes” and McCain is blaming Obama and the Democrats for “putting politics ahead of country.”

Noah Millman writes:

> There are lots and lots of reasons not to like this bill. But most of those reasons are Democratic talking points. The GOP alternative proposal was borderline illiterate.

> I’m writing this in haste, without a lot of reflection. But the whole way this has played out has been something of a watershed moment for me. There is only one party in Congress that thinks we are in a financial crisis, only one party in Congress with a functioning leadership.

http://theamericanscene.com/2008/09/29/bluff-called

Megan McArdle writes:

> A journalist friend who spends way more time on politics than I do suggests that if the Democrats cave and include a capital gains tax, it will probably pass–but puts the odds of the Democrats caving at slim to none, since they can now blame any resulting crash on the Republicans.

> I didn’t think it was possible to be more disgusted with politicians than I usually am, but I find it impossible to express the seething contempt that I feel at this kind of opportunism. I don’t mind when they screw with the normal operation of the economy for venal personal gain. But risking a recession in order to get a cut in the capital gains tax? Letting it tank because you can always blame it on the Republicans?

http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/so_what_happens_now.php

From Justin Fox, regarding House Republicans’ plan:

>…that of the House Republican Study Committee, seems to be a joke. It calls for a two-year suspension of the capital gains tax to “encourag[e] corporations to sell unwanted assets.” But the toxic mortgage securities clogging up bank balance sheets are worth less now than when they were acquired. Meaning that no capital gains tax would be owed on them anyway. If you repealed the tax, banks would have even less incentive to sell them because they wouldn’t be able use the losses to offset capital gains elsewhere. Seriously, where do these people come up with this stuff?

Bail Out Graph

The Lies of Palin

“Palin could not have asked her girls for permission to accept McCain’s veep offer if she also says she accepted the offer unblinkingly and right away. Palin did fire a police chief even as she insisted to a reporter she hadn’t. She did violate the confidential medical records of Mike Wooten. She hasn’t met with any trade missions from Russia. She does not have any gay friends that anyone can find. She did not oppose the Bridge to Nowhere. She did not sell that plane on eBay. Her Teleprompter did not fail in her convention speech. Alaska’s state scientists did not conclude that polar bears were in no danger. She did deny publicly that humans had anything to do with climate change.

“Alaska does not provide “nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy,” as she claimed. The gas pipeline she touts as her major “mission accomplished” has not broken ground and may never do so. She did not take a pay-cut as mayor of Wasilla. And on and on. Anyone with Google can check all of these out. Including reporters.”

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/the-odd-lies–5.html

Libertarianism vs. Neo-Conservatism

I’ve heard a couple of people I know on the right describe their beliefs as “Libertarian”, but the policies they support seem to me to be a lot closer to Neo-Conservatism. There is a big gulf between Ron Paul and John McCain, so I decided to make a chart, so people know the difference:

· Libertarians are uber-doves. Neo-Cons are uber-hawks.
· Libertarians fear our government. Neo-Cons fear foreign governments.
· Libertarians are for isolationism. Neo-Cons are for expanding the empire.
· Libertarians believe we should not have entered the Second World War. Neo-Cons blame the Left for losing the Vietnam War.
· Libertarians are for getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Neo-Cons are for going into Iran and Georgia.
· Libertarians are obsessed with civil liberties. Neo-Cons are obsessed with demonizing Communism, despite the fact that their intellectual father, Irving Kristol, was a former Trotskyist.
· Libertarians inherited their tolerance for sexual taboos from Robert Heinlein and the hippie movement. Neo-Cons are 60s reactionaries who believe homosexuality and pornography brought down the Roman Empire.
· Libertarians are for ending the war on drugs. Neo-Cons believe the border patrol should shoot Mexican drug smugglers on sight while protecting inflated drug prices so that it can be used to fund an illegal war in Nicaragua or support Afghani poppy-growers.
· Libertarians are against sending foreign aid to Israel, along with every other country. Neo-Cons are for destroying any probable future threat to Israel.
· Libertarians are for completely opening the borders. Neo-Cons are for building a giant wall along the border and financing a mass relocation of illegal aliens.
· Libertarians believe it should be legal to burn the flag. Neo-Cons believe it’s un-American to not wear a flag pin made in China.
· Libertarians follow the Austrian school of economics based on Carl Menger’s Prinicples of Economics. Neo-Cons follow Supply Side economics based on a line graph Arthur Laffer scribbled on a napkin for Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
· Libertarians believe in balancing the budget and want to go back to the gold standard, which would entail a massive gold buying program that would cause the value of the dollar to fall and the price of gold to rise, amounting to a massive transfer of wealth from the United States to those who own gold. Neo-Cons believe tax cuts increase government capital and spend more than Libertarians or Liberals on military budgets.
· Libertarians are hard-line economic Darwinists who would allow the banks to fail despite the financial consequences. Neo-Cons are corporate socialists who want to bail out all of Wall Street but allow the lax regulation that helped cause it to continue unabated.

Here’s a quick list of priorities for the four political positions:
Liberal: Save lives (capital punishment, etc.), help the poor, save money, defeat evil
Conservative: Save lives (pro-life, etc.), save money, defeat evil, help the poor
Libertarian: Save money, save lives, help the poor, defeat evil
Neo-Conservative: Defeat evil, save lives, help the poor, save money

“[Conservatism] is so influenced by business culture and by business modes of thinking that it lacks any political imagination, which has always been, I have to say, a property of the Left…. What’s the point of being the greatest, most powerful nation in the world and not having an imperial role? It’s unheard of in human history. The most powerful nation always had an imperial role…. [Previous empires were not] capitalist democracies with a strong emphasis on economic growth and economic prosperity…. It’s too bad, I think it would be natural for the United States… to play a far more dominant role in world affairs. Not what we’re doing now but to command and to give orders as to what is to be done. People need that. There are many parts of the world—Africa in particular—where an authority willing to use troops can make a very good difference, a healthy difference…. [But with public discussion dominated by accountants] there’s the Republican Party tying itself into knots. Over what? Prescriptions for elderly people? Who gives a damn? I think it’s disgusting that… presidential politics of the most important country in the world should revolve around prescriptions for elderly people. Future historians will find this very hard to believe. It’s not Athens. It’s not Rome. It’s not anything.” -Irving Kristol, Father of Neo-Conservatism and William Kristol

“The hard part of the supply-side tax cut is dropping the top rate from 70 to 50 percent—the rest of it is a secondary matter. The original argument was that the top bracket was too high, and that’s having the most devastating effect on the economy. Then, the general argument was that, in order to make this palatable as a political matter, you had to bring down all the brackets. But, I mean, Kemp-Roth was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate.” -David Stockman, Ronald Reagan’s budget director

“None of us really understands what’s going on with all these numbers…” -David Stockman

“Do you realize the greed that came to the forefront? The hogs were really feeding. The greed level, the level of opportunism, just got out of control. [The Administration’s] basic strategy was to match or exceed the Democrats, and we did.” -David Stockman

“Mr. David Stockman has said that supply-side economics was merely a cover for the trickle-down approach to economic policy—what an older and less elegant generation called the horse-and-sparrow theory: If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.” -John Kenneth Galbraith, economist

“The extreme promises of supply-side economics did not materialize. President Reagan argued that because of the effect depicted in the Laffer curve, the government could maintain expenditures, cut tax rates, and balance the budget. This was not the case. Government revenues fell sharply from levels that would have been realized without the tax cuts.” – Karl Case & Ray Fair, Principles of Economics (2007), p. 695

“You know, Paul, Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter. We won the mid-term elections, this is our due.” -Dick Cheney

“It is also a fact that our tax cuts have fueled robust economic growth and record revenues.” -George W. Bush

“You are smart people. You know that the tax cuts have not fueled record revenues. You know what it takes to establish causality. You know that the first order effect of cutting taxes is to lower tax revenues. We all agree that the ultimate reduction in tax revenues can be less than this first order effect, because lower tax rates encourage greater economic activity and thus expand the tax base. No thoughtful person believes that this possible offset more than compensated for the first effect for these tax cuts. Not a single one.” -Andrew Samwick, Chief Economist on Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2003-2004

Recent Interview With McCain on 60 Minutes:

Pelley: “In 1999 you were one of the senators who helped pass deregulation of Wall Street. Do you regret that now?”

McCain: “No, I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/opinion/22krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin