Tuesday, May 31, 2011

"Obamamania": Barack Obama: A Neocon in sheep’s clothing

"Obamania" has been downgraded to "Obamanic depression."

Did Obama the Great Changer give America the debate it wants and needs on the subject of this invasion of privacy? Did he listen to his own constituents, many of whom expected the Democratic wunderkind to end this draconian trend toward tyranny? Of course not. In fact, at the eleventh hour, just minutes before the highly controversial Patriot Act was set to succumb to a much-deserved demise, Obama, who once challenged us to have the audacity to hope, signed the legislation for another four years with his autopen while away in France.

The Neoconservative Philosophy

Although it had been in circulation for decades, it was only during the tenure of our last President that the term “neoconservatism” really gained traction. It is a funny thing, this word, for while it was a Jewish intellectual, Irving Kristol, who first coined it, those to whom it was ascribed would alternately embrace it or, which was more frequently the case, eschew it as “anti-Semitic.”

Whether “anti-Semitism” is or ever was a meaningful concept is a matter with which we needn’t concern ourselves. What we know is that it is commonly equated with anti-Jewish animus. The point I wish to make here is that not only is it illegitimate to view the word “neoconservatism” as the function of this sort of animus, but it is wrong to think that it is a pejorative term of any sort.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Obama: Regime-Changing Neocon?

Everyone was so focused on the part of President Obama’s Middle East speech about a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders that his transformation into a democracy-spreading, regime-changing neocon was missed. He proclaimed the goal of American foreign policy in the Middle East is “to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy.” Those are more polite words for incremental regime changes of all the undemocratic governments.

The beginning of President Obama’s term was marked by a concerted effort to convince the Iranian regime that the U.S. does not seek its removal. An “outstretched hand” was offered to rogue states and funding was cut to organizations undermining the Iranian regime. The Obama administration reversed course over time, especially since the advent of the Arab Spring. Human rights was always vocally supported, but not in such a loud fashion. Now, policy is being overhauled to make promoting freedom its central component. What a George W. Bush thing to do.

Take off those rose-colored glasses, neocons

The latest argument about the Mideast from those reformed-lefties-turned-Republicans is that the so-called "Arab Spring" was a logical and positive outgrowth of the invasion of Iraq by George H.W. Bush's idiot son.

This is nonsense. Citizens of Muslim nations were rising up and replacing their governments long before the membres of the dreadful Bush family started screwing up the Mideast.

The obvious example is the Iranian revolution of 1979. That didn't work out too well. The liberated iranians took advantage of their newfound freedom to persecute and liquidate followers of minority religions such as Baha'i.

Yet the nutty neocon crowd insists it will be different this time.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Conservatives don't be decieved by the NeoCon agenda!

Okay, I am quite upset that we got Conservatives that are deceived by the RINO, so called Conservative NeoCons! I am shocked that we have allowed the true Conservative movement get highjacked by these frauds and NWO puppets!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45JSYIuTk0Y&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0N0iqUiaTs&feature=player_embedded

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Barack Obama: Neoconservative crusader

Adopting the crazed and crusading words of Mr. Bush and the Neoconservatives, Obama began his Middle East speech by saying “we know our own future is bound to this region,” and proceeded to instruct the Islamic world that, because this is true, Muslims must become just like us — or else. From there on, Obama signals his and our political elite’s disdain for Americans and assumes a mantle of interventionism much more encompassing than anything ever worn by the lamentable Woodrow Wilson.

In his arrogance, Obama condemns “the relentless tyranny of governments that deny their citizens dignity” and argues that “[i]n too many countries, power has been concentrated in the hands of too few,” referring in each case to Arab dictators. He seems unaware that he also described a U.S. government that, under both parties, has for thirty years denied its own citizens dignity at every turn:

Netanyahu Sets Limits for Obama

Neocon Influence

The neoconservatives who remain very influential in Washington are already lining up behind Netanyahu and against Obama. For instance, the Washington Post, which has become the neocons’ flagship newspaper, blamed Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the current diplomatic crisis.

While acknowledging that Obama’s reference to the 1967 borders didn’t deviate much from previous U.S. policy, a Post editorial still faulted the President for stating the position without first gaining Netanyahu’s approval.

“Mr. Netanyahu had not yet signed on, and so Mr. Obama’s decision to confront him with a formal U.S. embrace of the idea, with only a few hours’ warning, ensured a blowup,” the Post’s editors wrote, adding:

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Adventures in Neocon Land

My malaise risked transformation into something more severe as I watched the shameful celebrations and media gloating after the bin Laden assassination. Then comfort came from an unlikely source.

I found myself on a televised opinion panel for "likely Republican primary voters." The experience alternated between horribly frustrating and incredibly amusing, as you might expect it would. In the end, however, my adventure in Neocon Land was strangely enlightening, and even a little bit encouraging. If nothing else, it provided an opportunity to learn to tie, and to sport, my brand new Mises-crest bow tie.

We’re All Neocons Now

In an appearance on Greg Gutfeld’s “Red Eye” late night Fox News panoply of buffoons, neocon Godfather Bill Kristol exulted in President Barack Obama’s conversion to the “democracy”-promotion foreign policy championed by the Bush administration, reports the Daily Caller:

“Gutfeld asked Kristol how he felt about Obama coming to him for help (reportedly the president had met with him and others prior to his Monday night address). ‘He didn’t come to me for help, of course,’ Kristol said. ‘I’m not going to acknowledge that. He came to me to make sure I was supporting his sound policies. Of course, since his sound policies are more like the policies people like me have been advocating for quite a while, I’m happy to support them. He’s a born-again neo-con…. What’s the joke – they told me if I voted for McCain, we’d be going to war in a third Muslim country? I voted for McCain and we’re doing it.”

Friday, May 20, 2011

Obama the Neocon?

As John [Podhoretz] and Jonathan [Tobin] have already noted, today’s speech at the State Department marks Barack Obama’s emergence as a full-fledged, born-again neocon firmly in the George W. Bush mold. . . .

Obama, like Bush, is a neocon because he has been mugged by events—in his case by the Arab Spring which has exposed the fragility of dictatorships that he once thought, in the fashion of his predecessor’s father, George H.W. Bush, he could make deals with.

Gone now is the apologetic tone of Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo, where he denied that America was “at war with Islam”; proclaimed, in light of Iraq, that “no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other”; and even tried to make amends for the U.S. role in the overthrow of the Mossadeq government in Iran in 1953.

Barack Obama, Neocon?

President Obama delivered a speech on the Middle East at the State Department today. If one takes it seriously, it signified--with one key exception--Obama's transformation into a virtual clone of his predecessor. President Bush's democracy agenda, which Obama once scornfully rejected, has now been adopted as Obama's own:

The status quo is not sustainable. Societies held together by fear and repression may offer the illusion of stability for a time, but they are built upon fault lines that will eventually tear asunder. ...

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Bush/Obama: New State Dep’t spokesperson has goldplated neocon pedigree

PJ Crowley is gone as the spokesman at State, for his unconsidered remarks about the persecution of Bradley Manning, and who is replacing him, reportedly a longtime State staffer named Victoria Nuland, a former Cheney aide who happens to be married to neocon Rob't Kagan.

"Toria is very skilled and talented and will do very well here," one denizen of the State Department's "executive level" seventh floor said, noting that given Nuland's ties to GOP circles - her husband is Brookings foreign policy scholar and Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan, and she previously served as an adviser to Cheney -- "who better...to aggressively defend the Administration's foreign policy?"

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Neocon Ben Stein Steps to the Plate to Defend Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Stein's defense of Kahn seems to be that the maid might be a loony. It seems Stein has had all kinds of troubles with hotel maids. He writes:

People accuse other people of crimes all of the time. What do we know about the complainant besides that she is a hotel maid? I love and admire hotel maids. They have incredibly hard jobs and they do them uncomplainingly. I am sure she is a fine woman. On the other hand, I have had hotel maids that were complete lunatics, stealing airline tickets from me, stealing money from me, throwing away important papers, stealing medications from me. How do we know that this woman's word was good enough to put Mr. Strauss-Kahn straight into a horrific jail? Putting a man in Riker's is serious business. Maybe more than a few minutes of investigation is merited before it's done.

Where the hell is Stein staying? I think there is more of a chance to come acroos one of Tyler Cowen's unlikely hotels where the hotel web sites don't include numbers to the hotels.

202. The Truth About Neocons

From Lenin and Leo Stauss to Murdoch and Gen. Petraeus, neoconservatives are all about who shall rule, concludes Chris Manion.

Focused on power and unlimited government, neocons seek control, broaden war, spread corruption, bomb cities, kill randomly, and plan on co-opting the Tea Partiers into liars like themselves.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A Strange Comfort for a Former Neo-con

My awakening took place in 2007 when this "odd little man" was first brought to my attention by a friend on the internet. From then on I have been sold out to Liberty, much to the chagrin of many of my neo-con family and 'left leaning' friends. They no longer know what to make of me. And I find this strangely consoling. The false Left-Right divide has the same problem trying to figure out Ron Paul - the man who I first described as strange!

It strikes me as odd that when RP is discussed in neo-con haunts - places like the 912 project, fox news blogs and redstate - his Liberty positions in economics are praised, while his foreign policy is described as anything from too simplistic to foolish and dangerous. Yet at the very same time, one can go to the Huffington Post, or some forum run by MSNBC, and find people giving a polite nod to RP's Liberty stance on foreign policy, while decrying Liberty in its domestic forms, describing them as anything from too simplistic to foolish and cruel.

There is only one conclusion I can draw from this duplicity: Perhaps it is Ron Paul who is sane, and all his critics who are mad, in various ways.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Neo-Cons Drag Out New Horse to Go After Ron Paul

The Hill's Bernie Quilgley says that Lew Lehrman could be the "dark horse" Republican presidential candidate.

Quigley tells us to think of Lehrman as the "thinking man's Ron Paul". This would seem an odd way to contrast Lehrman from Dr. Paul, since Dr. Paul is a medical doctor and has written more books than most likely all the other presidential candidates combined. Many of Dr. Paul's books delve into the intricacies of economics and quote such heavy weights as Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard and Freidrich Hayek. Anyone buying Dr. Paul books with the discussion it contains about the thinking of Mises, Rothbard and Hayek isn't likely to be a non-thinker who is going to follow up a Ron Paul book with a Dr. Seuss, Cat in the Hat, book.

But the oddity of championing Lehrman over Dr. Paul goes away when you realize Quigley is talking code. You see, Lehrman was on the Board of Directors of that wonderful, now defunct. organization that Bill Kristol ran, Project for the New American Century. You know, that group that wanted to do that real cerebral thing and bomb the hell out of most of the Middle East. Other cerebral members of PNAC included Don Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. Bottom line, Lehrman is an insider.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

McCain’s Rejection of Torture Puts Brakes on Neocon Assault

We heard from Marcy that John McCain had a decent op-ed today in the Washington Post, denouncing torture and laying out the facts on the role of torture. He affirmed that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed lied under torture about key facts related to the courier which harbored bin Laden, and he also provided more information on subsequent intelligence from other sources, none of which, he says, was gained through torture.

But he didn’t stop there. McCain took to the Senate floor and spoke for 20 minutes on the same subject today. He criticized sharply the stance that torture yields good intelligence, and added that it harms our effort in both counter-terrorism and the greater Muslim world

Thursday, May 12, 2011

How Perpetual War Became U.S. Ideology

But are neoconservatives and liberal interventionists really so different? Neoconservative bastions like the Weekly Standard, Commentary, and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies are passionate advocates of spreading American values. In Iraq, the toppling of Saddam Hussein and discovery that there was no WMD program to speak of were both accomplished in the first weeks of the war and with a relative handful of American casualties. If these had been our chief concerns we would have left immediately; the apparent U.S. goals in staying on so many years were democracy promotion and nation-building, both ideals the neoconservative White House leadership shared with liberal interventionists.

Further, while neocons are doubtless less patient than liberal interventionists when it comes to exhausting diplomatic options and achieving international consensus, what does it really matter if the end result is the same either way: military action.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

David Frum and the Winds of War

According to Frum, “Because the U.S. presence in Afghanistan requires cooperation from Pakistan, the Afghanistan mission perversely inhibits the United States from taking more decisive action against Pakistan’s harboring of terrorism.” The US has got it “upside down,” he says: Pakistan is the real Enemy. He then goes into a laundry list of aggressive actions he would like us to engage in, including US military action to “disable” Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

This last is particularly crazy, even for a dyed-in-the-wool neocon like Frum: does this born again “moderate” Republican really want to start a war – bound to go nuclear – with Pakistan? He just can’t understand why the Obama administration doesn’t do its duty and risk turning Central Asia into a radioactive wasteland:

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Obama Gives Up the Fake "Hope and Change" Act ... And Adopts the Neocon FEAR Playbook

I - like most Americans - am relieved that the trickle-down emotion du jour has shifted from fear to hope. It feels nicer.

But it is no more real than switching from watching the tv from the horror channel to the feel-good-movie channel.

They are both fiction. Neither the Neocons or Neolibs deliver on their promises.

The Neocons drummed up fear of terrorists, but actually made America less secure, and stomped on our liberties in the process.

The Neolibs promised hope, but gave none ...

Monday, May 09, 2011

Neocon WorldNetDaily "Focus" Group says, Herman Cain won GOP debate, Santorum second.

[ wonder who made up their "focus" group? George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, etc?

In WorldNetDaily's case, I think they actually meant two words, the second being "us" and the other not appropriate for this page.]

Herman Cain, who barely ranked in public-opinion polls among the Republican presidential challengers before tonight's televised debate in South Carolina, wowed a focus group of likely GOP voters assembled by pollster Frank Luntz.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Sarah Palin: Neocon no more?

Sarah Palin has split with the neoconservative foreign policy strategists who had been advising her since she became the GOP's vice presidential candidate in 2008. Orion Strategies' Randy Scheunemann and Michael Goldfarb had helped Palin craft speeches advocating the aggressive use of U.S. military power abroad — an approach her new adviser, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Schweizer, views more skeptically. Is Palin really dumping neoconservatism for the more pragmatic, mainstream foreign policy she outlined in a speech this Monday?Yes, but it won't do her any good: "Just as she has become irrelevant, Sarah Palin has started staking out less absurd foreign policy positions," says Daniel Larison at The American Conservative. And her more cautious approach, reflected in her opposition to U.S. involvement in the campaign against Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, definitely seems more to the liking of the rank-and-file Republicans she's courting. But abruptly changing course the minute she changes advisers doesn't inspire confidence that she's thinking for herself."Palin and Libya"This signals a wider split in the GOP: Palin's transformation might be a sign of "an honest-to-goodness split" among Republicans over foreign policy, says Jonathan Bernstein at The Washington Post. The battle for the GOP presidential nomination is usually about who's toughest, but this time around, the isolationist, anti-neocon faction — which in 2008 consisted only of Ron Paul — will be "generously represented in GOP debates." And Palin's defection might be "something that actually matters," because she'll be a "significant voice" if she runs."Neocons on the defensive"Calm down. Palin is not going soft: Neocon is just a word, says J.E. Dyer at Hot Air. What Palin's really doing here is spelling out a doctrine on the use of force, and she's saying we must only fight when our interests are at stake, and when we have clear objectives. She's really just moving closer to Ronald Reagan's approach, which was careful, but far from wimpy. "Palin apparently recognizes the need to talk about fundamentals — and love her or hate her, I don't see anyone else out there doing it.""Palin outlines doctrine for use of force, picks new foreign policy adviser"

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Palin's Lack Of Expertise Slowly Dawns On Her Defenders

Remember the halcyon days when Sarah Palin was parroting the talking points of the neocon foreign policy advisors airlifted into the McCain campaign and remaining with her thereafter? It was an article of faith among conservatives, and especially neoconservatives, that Palin was a brilliant and thoughtful leader. Any notion to the contrary was the creation of a liberal media plot and fanned by the flames of coastal snobbery. The peak moment of the campaign came when Jennifer Rubin wrote a lengthy story in Commentary singling out the Jews, in particular, for their intellectual disdain of Palin. Rubin attributed this "anti-Palin fever" to, among other things, Jewish credentialism and intellectual snobbery.

That story appeared a year and a half ago, when Palin appeared like a plausible Republican nominee, and thus a useful electoral vehicle. Since then, a few things have changed. Palin has parted ways with her neoconservative advisors, has begun listening to the more Realist Peter Schweitzer, and is now sounding a distinctly non-neocon line (“We can’t fight every war, we can’t undo every injustice in the world.")

Friday, May 06, 2011

Palin Kicks Out Neocon Advisers

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has removed two influential neo-conservative advisers from her inner circle and replaced them with people who have a more pragmatic view towards American foreign policy.

The advisers, Orion Strategies’ Randy Scheunemann, the former executive director of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, and Michael Goldfarb, a former reporter and protege of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, have been shaping Palin’s conconservative foreign policy stance since she ran as John McCain’s running mate in 2008, reports Politco.com. The two left her PAC on good terms, Palin aide Tim Crawford told the online paper.

Replacing Scheunemann and Goldfarb is Peter Schweizer, a writer and fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution who blogs regularly at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Peace. “Schweizer has articulated a more skeptical view of the use of American force and promotion of democracy abroad,” Politico noted.

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Sarah Palin: Neocon no more?

Sarah Palin has split with the neoconservative foreign policy strategists who had been advising her since she became the GOP's vice presidential candidate in 2008. Orion Strategies' Randy Scheunemann and Michael Goldfarb had helped Palin craft speeches advocating the aggressive use of U.S. military power abroad — an approach her new adviser, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Schweizer, views more skeptically. Is Palin really dumping neoconservatism for the more pragmatic, mainstream foreign policy she outlined in a speech this Monday?

Yes, but it won't do her any good: "Just as she has become irrelevant, Sarah Palin has started staking out less absurd foreign policy positions," says Daniel Larison at The American Conservative. And her more cautious approach, reflected in her opposition to U.S. involvement in the campaign against Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, definitely seems more to the liking of the rank-and-file Republicans she's courting. But abruptly changing course the minute she changes advisers doesn't inspire confidence that she's thinking for herself.
"Palin and Libya"

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Palin splits with neocon advisers

Sarah Palin has parted ways with the neoconservative foreign policy advisers who had been writing speeches and advising her on policy since she joined the McCain campaign.

An aide to Palin, Tim Crawford, confirmed that Orion Strategies' Randy Scheunemann and Michael Goldfarb are no longer working for her PAC. They parted, both sides said on good terms.

"Randy flat out said, 'We can't give you the time,'" Crawford said.

"I very much enjoyed my time working with Governor Palin and wish her and her family all the best," Scheunemann said in an email. "If she decides to run for any office again, she will be a formidable candidate."

Crawford said they've been replaced by Peter Schweizer, a writer and fellow at the Hoover Institution who blogs regularly at Andrew Breitbart's Big Peace.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Obama Gets Osama

In his memoir Decision Points, Bush recalled how he began making that turn shortly after the 9/11 attacks at the advice of arch-neocon Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who “suggested that we consider confronting Iraq as well as the Taliban” in Afghanistan.

The reality, however, was that the neocons, who saw Iraq as a more serious threat to Israel, and the oil men of the Bush administration, who lusted after Iraq’s petroleum reserves, persuaded Bush to concentrate more on getting rid of Saddam Hussein than Osama bin Laden. Bush’s team told the American people that Hussein had WMD which he might give to al-Qaeda.

Monday, May 02, 2011

Will China Be Number One?

Back before 9/11, China was, of course, the favored future uber-enemy of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and all those neocons who signed onto the Project for the New American Century and later staffed George W. Bush’s administration. After all, if you wanted to build a military beyond compare to enforce a long-term Pax Americana on the planet, you needed a nightmare enemy large enough to justify all the advanced weapons systems in which you planned to invest.

As late as June 2005, neocon journalist Robert Kaplan was still writing in The Atlantic about “How We Would Fight China,” an article with this provocative subhead: “The Middle East is just a blip. The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was.” As everyone knows, however, that “blip” proved far too much for the Bush administration.