Posts by Russell Brown
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That Johan Norberg/Cato review of Klein's book shoots itself in the foot quite amusingly.
Klein's analysis is hopelessly flawed at virtually every level. Friedman's own words reveal him to be an advocate of peace, democracy, and individual rights. He argued that gradual economic reforms were often preferable to swift ones and that the public should be fully informed about them, the better to prepare themselves in advance. Further, Friedman condemned the Pinochet regime and opposed the war in Iraq.
And I hear he was kind to animals as well ... But his "condemnation" of Pinochet was a long time coming and he defended his relationship with the dictator by insisting that if Allende had been allowed to stay in office there would eventually have been worse abuses.
Norberg's fanboy gushing gives way to plain historical ignorance:
Klein's historical examples also fall apart under scrutiny ... She also argues that Thatcher used the Falklands War as cover for her unpopular economic policies, when actually those economic policies and their results enjoyed strong public support.
That's hilarious. Early in 1982, Thatcher's government and its policies were deeply unpopular -- she was widely expected to lose the general election. The recovery of her fortunes was a direct result of her handling of the Falklands War.
I suppose it might be an excuse that Norberg was only nine years old at the time, but it's very hard to take anything else he writes seriously.
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Now they've stacked Justice to the railings with nutjobs and clones. They've near broken the military, blackwater's building an air force. They're running two wars on the credit card, same time as cutting taxes and is there oversight on war profiteering? Is there fuck. They're torturing people and saying it's probably legal, as long as the main intent is not to cause pain. But Clinton was a parser, and that was bad. Bastard.
Awesome.
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back then the great civilisational clash was with "confucianism" not "islamofascists".
It certainly was. A fair chunk of the wingnut bestsellers published by Regnery up till 2001 had the China threat as their theme. The ease with which they all moved over to the Islamist threat is quite remarkable.
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And in a piece (not online) in The Straits Times earlier this year McCain continued the same 'ring China' argument as a way to 'contain' her. It's not over yet.
He's either as mad as the rest of them or simply doesn't understand. Maybe he can't find it on a map......
As Josh Marshall pointed out recently, there's a reason for that.
McCain's chief foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, is a full-blooded neocon. As the creator of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, buddy of Chalabi, etc, he was in the Iraq project all the way.
Teh stupid lives.
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I cannot express in words the astonishment at how different the world seemed - ohmigod, the colours! The clarity!
I'm going the other way these days. I'm the only member of the family without spectacles, but I have to get everyone else to read the small print on things.
Those reading glasses I never really needed get more use these days ...
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"Israeli-aligned neocons" -- I would call them Likud-aligned.
True. I guess you could say "Likudnik" is indeed shorthand for for the former.
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I had to go back and check your email updates from a year ago -- man, you did a good job of staying outwardly busy and composed while the worst of prospects loomed.
Well done to all of you for coming through a challenging year -- you're quite a family.
So do I get to meet His Bobness next week?
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FWIW Greg Palast says you can read the approach of the iraq occupation as a competition between the shiny neocon type after the free market paradise and the US oilmen who would be happy to pillage but are content with the whole thing being a roiling mess.
But as Chait points out, the neocons aren't really very economically focused: they're about the projection of taxpayer-funded force. He holds that they're less amenable to corporate interests than every other kind of conservative.
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That document is bizarre -- page 12 -- "Pave the way for the creation of a new military service -- U.S. Space Forces".
Oh yeah -- the space stuff is awesome. Or possibly pathological.
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Another NZ First donation questioned
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4637456a6160.html .The Standard has unpicked that one: the deposit of $19,998 is almost certainly not for one cheque (which would have to have been declared under the old rules) but two (which wouldn't).
So no actual lawbreaking: just more great steaming piles of hypocrisy.
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