Instead of calling for some militia like those in Montana and taking up arms to use violence now, how about joining the free state project in N.H. where you can more wisely help them in their grassroots activism there. Hell, they may eventually even go for secession in that state which I think is the only answer at this point.
I'm for that, but the problem is bigger than people who are willing to label themselves neoconservatives when you have people like Jane Harmon and Joe Lieberman pushing an authoritarian surveillance state in the same way. I wouldn't consider Hillary Clinton included in the people you could get to fight this, while I would consider Dennis Kucinich someone who would, but hillary isn't exactly a neocon. There is little difference between neoliberals and neocons and your greatest offenders in this regard come from both sides of the isle.
I don't see any difference. Lieberman and Clinton are neocons as far as I'm concerned. There are a bunch of neocon Democrats (just look at the nearly unanimous 'Yes' votes for the Patriot Act, and the current Democratic Party support for the telecom immunity/warrantless wiretapping bill).
At the risk of being called abusive of the Digg system due the length of my last post, I am stubbornly continuing by offering some advice Washington in earnest. I only ask that you read it as carefully as you can. This was also provided to Senator Menendez today, verbatim.George Washington's prescient advice is all about what is happening right now in 2008. Washington said in his Farewell Address an enjoinder regarding factionalism versus justice. It should impact your thinking and that of your colleagues. Please think on it with the depth worthy of your office, and let it fortify you: The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.
jdenigmaJun 19, 2008
Instead of calling for some militia like those in Montana and taking up arms to use violence now, how about joining the free state project in N.H. where you can more wisely help them in their grassroots activism there. Hell, they may eventually even go for secession in that state which I think is the only answer at this point.
Closed AccountJun 19, 2008
I'm for that, but the problem is bigger than people who are willing to label themselves neoconservatives when you have people like Jane Harmon and Joe Lieberman pushing an authoritarian surveillance state in the same way. I wouldn't consider Hillary Clinton included in the people you could get to fight this, while I would consider Dennis Kucinich someone who would, but hillary isn't exactly a neocon. There is little difference between neoliberals and neocons and your greatest offenders in this regard come from both sides of the isle.
wiseweaselJun 19, 2008
I don't see any difference. Lieberman and Clinton are neocons as far as I'm concerned. There are a bunch of neocon Democrats (just look at the nearly unanimous 'Yes' votes for the Patriot Act, and the current Democratic Party support for the telecom immunity/warrantless wiretapping bill).
mrcodergaJun 19, 2008
At the risk of being called abusive of the Digg system due the length of my last post, I am stubbornly continuing by offering some advice Washington in earnest. I only ask that you read it as carefully as you can. This was also provided to Senator Menendez today, verbatim.George Washington's prescient advice is all about what is happening right now in 2008. Washington said in his Farewell Address an enjoinder regarding factionalism versus justice. It should impact your thinking and that of your colleagues. Please think on it with the depth worthy of your office, and let it fortify you: The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.
mkvalsvikJun 20, 2008
We have to stand up against this bill. Thanks a million to Glenn and others for highlighting this monstrous bill.
brad3378Jun 21, 2008
Not just the neo-conservatives - Our favorite "constitutional scholar" Barrack Obama Supports FISA Legislation too:<a class="user" href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/20/obama_supports_fisa_legislatio.html">http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/2 ...</a>