Libertarian Sunday

Good Morning. Yesterday's blog at Air America Place was a retrospective on the Challenger Disaster....so your Libertarian Fix is here today! Let's get right into the warron terra....there's an interesting column by Paul Craig Roberts that illustrates what I've been saying for years. The vast majority of the American Electorate is dumber than a box full of hair.

Two recent polls, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll and a New York Times/CBS News poll, indicate why Bush is getting away with impeachable offenses. Half of the US population is incapable of acquiring, processing and understanding information.

Much of the problem is the media itself, which serves as a disinformation agency for the Bush administration. Fox "News" and right-wing talk radio are the worst, but with propagandistic outlets setting the standard for truth and patriotism, all of the media is affected to some degree.

Despite the media’s failure, about half the population has managed to discern that the US invasion of Iraq has not made them safer and that the Bush administration’s assault on civil liberties is not a necessary component of the war on terror. The problem, thus, lies with the absence of due diligence on the part of the other half of the population.

Consider the New York Times/CBS poll. Sixty-four percent of the respondents have concerns about losing civil liberties as a result of anti-terrorism measures put in place by President Bush. Yet, 53 percent approve of spying without obtaining court warrants "in order to reduce the threat of terrorism."

Why does any American think that spying without a warrant has any more effect in reducing the threat of terrorism than spying with a warrant? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Bush is disobeying, requires the executive to obtain from a secret panel of federal judges a warrant for spying on Americans. The purpose of the law is to prevent a president from spying for partisan political reasons. The law permits the president to spy first (for 72 hours) and then come to the court for permission. As the court meets in secret, spying without a warrant is no more effective in reducing the threat of terrorism than spying with a warrant.

Instead of explaining this basic truth, the media has played along with the Bush administration and formulated the question as a trade-off between civil liberties and protection from terrorists. This formulation is false and nonsensical. Why does the media enable the Bush administration to escape accountability for illegal behavior by putting false and misleading choices before the people?

The LA Times/Bloomberg poll has equally striking anomalies. Only 43 percent said they approved of Bush’s performance as president. But a majority believe Bush’s policies have made the US more secure. (Continued...)

Ah, but there's more. After the recently broken scandal about the US kidnapping the wives and children of insurgents that they are trying to capture, and using them as lures, it's becoming increasingly difficult to support the troops.

Joel Stein is a mainstream columnist for the LA Times. He recently caused a stir when he uttered something almost unspeakable: he doesn’t support the troops. Well neither do I, and here’s why.

They’re Killers

The soldiers sent to Iraq are killers. We can argue until we’re blue in the face about whether those Iraqis need killing. Maybe they do and maybe they don’t. But I don’t want anybody killed, so I don’t support the troops. Don’t mistake me for some kind of pacifist. I’d probably be fine if our military was rounding up child molesters and shooting them, for example. But as long as the armed forces are killing women and children and so many unidentified men, I don’t want anything to do with them.

They’re Meddlesome

The soldiers were sent to Iraq to replace its government. I am no fan of any government, and Hussein’s dictatorship was an example of the worst kind. But getting rid of an Iraqi dictatorship just to replace it with a government that suits us is meddlesome. It’s the opposite of minding our own business. I suppose some folks are happy to have our soldiers dying in the streets of Baghdad so that the Iraqis can vote. But I don’t vote here in the USA, so why would I want to send my neighbors to die in the Middle East so that Arabs can vote? I wouldn’t and I don’t. (Continued...)

If you're like me, and have never put one of those ribbons on your car...there is an alternative. Carry a Big Sticker has these nice black ribbons., and one of my friends at Air America Place clued us in on these really neat "Question War" stickers. They'll look real nice right next to this sticker.