President John McCain: A Military “Near-Dictator”?
John McCain proudly announced the newest member of his staff this week. Michael Goldfarb, online editor for the neocon magazine The Weekly Standard, is his new Deputy Communications Director.
Last April, Goldfarb wrote the following about the powers he thinks the U.S. president possesses:
“The framers… sought an energetic executive with near dictatorial power in pursuing foreign policy and war.”
Oh, really? The Founders wanted a president with “near dictatorial” power? Responds liberal journalist Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com:
“Until the Bill Kristols and John Yoos and other authoritarians of that strainentered the political mainstream, I never heard of prominent Americans who describe the power that they want to vest in our political leaders as ‘near dictatorial.’ Anyone with an even passing belief in American political values would consider the word ‘dictatorial’ — at least rhetorically, if not substantively — to define that which we avoid at all costs, not something which we seek, embrace and celebrate.
“And the very idea that the Founders — whose principal concern was how to avoid consolidated power in any one person — sought to vest ‘near dictatorial power’ in the president is too perverse for words. But that’s been the core ‘principle’ driving the destructive radicalism of the last seven years, and it’s an extremist view that is obviously welcomed at the highest levels of the McCain campaign.”
Goldfarb has also endorsed torture techniques such as beatings and waterboarding, and has called for amnesty for corporations which assist the government in knowingly and illegally spying upon Americans without warrants.
But of course, that’s what you’d expect from the spokesman for a “near dictator,” right?
If John McCain had his way a book released last month would be banned. “Who Speaks For Islam? What A Billion Muslims Really Think” analyzes the results of a 6 year survey (2001 - 2007) about what Muslims think about America and the West. The survey sample represents “more than 90% of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims, making this the largest, most comprehensive study of contemporary Muslims ever done.”
To put it simply, the findings show that Ron Paul is right and John McCain is wrong.
Laura Ingraham is a very popular conservative talk radio host. Many Ron Paul supporters will remember her as the one who introduced Ron Paul at the Iowa Ames Straw Poll with a bit of disrespect for his supporters.
This audio from today reminds me of Ron Paul in 1987 when he appeared on the Morton Downey Jr. TV Show and was very vocal about the drug war. He didn’t resort to personal attacks as he hardly ever does (although he did a bit in the Morton Downey Jr. piece), but he is certainly loud arguing his points here. I wonder if he is tired after doing the trip from East coast to West coast and back to East coast last night.
Many Ron Paul supporters will probably love his aggressiveness here. I’m not one of them. He is much more palatable when he is calm in explaining his points like he did at the beginning of the ABC Debate on Saturday night.
He does calm down after talking about terrorism and Iraq a bit. The end is pretty good too, when he talks about “unintended consequences”.
In any case, here is the audio via YouTube. Note, that this indicates it is “part 2″. If “part 1″ shows up I will make a new post with it.
This segment is about US foreign policy, Iraq, and U.S. Intervention.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is the only Republican presidential candidate who says we need to get our troops out of Iraq now, and that we never should have invaded Iraq at all.
The United States should not be the “world’s policeman,” said Paul.
This is the latest Texas Straight Talk column by Ron Paul.
The latest National Intelligence Estimate has been greeted by a mixture of relief and alarm. As I have been saying all along, Iran indeed poses no quantifiable imminent nuclear threat to us or her neighbors. It is with much alarm, however, that we see the administration continue to ratchet up the war rhetoric as if nothing has changed.
A post by Eric21ND Ron Paul Forums sums up the best arguments I’ve seen for Ron Paul’s foreign policy. It is clear and concise.
That war isn’t about protecting the country…if it was why to all the other candidates leave our borders wide open? If you want to protect our country secure our borders first not other countries. Ron Paul’s plan would protect our country in several different ways, instead of getting side tracked into nation building. He keeps his eye on the ball and would hunt down our real enemies. Tell your co-worker you hunt down terrorists with good police work, world cooperation, and the special forces…not rolling out the tanks like its WW II. That’s how we caught Ramse Usef. At the sametime by focusing in on our enemies we cut down on killing innocent people and occupying countries which incites the next generation of terrorists. It’s a multi front approach Paul would take. Think of terrorists as a fly and Bush policy is to take the biggest sledge hammer you find to try to kill it…bottom line the fly is too fast and gets away. Paul’s approach would be to use a swatter, fly paper, and to shut the screen door.
Summary:
1. Our borders are wide open so how serious are these candidates about or security really?
2. Paul wouldn’t get distracted by nation building other countries and would focus on real threats.
Here is a two part interview with a couple Iraq war veterans by Henry Rollins on his IFC show. Clips from this interview were used in the “Troops Are Human” Liberty Maven video, but the interview stands on its own as “must watch” material.
In this Exclusive piece from NBC, the investigators “reveal” the reason they attack us is due to our occupation of their land. Of course, this just echoes Ron Paul’s position from the beginning.
Liberty Maven
” analyzes the results of a 6 year survey (2001 - 2007) about what Muslims think about America and the West. The survey sample represents “more than 90% of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims, making this the largest, most comprehensive study of contemporary Muslims ever done.”
