The Return of Frank Moore

A few months back, I wrote a bit about presidential candidate Frank Moore and some of his platform. Oddly enough, Frank responded to the piece in the comments section as well as on his personal site, and had this to say:

“ah, i do love liberals! i get, when i look under your veneer of cynicism, that you basically like my platform. yep, my resume, while all true, is embarrassing in its bulk. it just tells you i'm a do-er, that i know how to get things done. i agree that most of my platform is now politically impossible, although relatively simple to do. it is important to ask why this is so. the first step to make what we want possible is to remove deadening cynicism. that is what my campaign is all about. cynicism isn't really skeptism, critical, or realistic. it just sucks hope and possibilties out of any situation.

define "welfare," please.


In Freedom,
Frank Moore”

Since I wouldn’t dare avoid a request from a presidential candidate, here is my response.

Hello Frank, I appreciate you following up on my piece. I was actually rather surprised to see your comment; you are the first presidential candidate to do so!

As for ‘welfare’, I generally define it as “the provision of welfare services by the state.” That is a bit vague, and I am sure I could come up with a longer more accurate description, but that will probably be fine for the point of this discussion.

I commend you for attempting to remove some of the cynicism from politics; if the last few months of campaigning have shown anything, it is that most American’s are looking for a candidate that is optimistic about the future.

But as for me, I will remain skeptical and sarcastic. I find those dispositions to be the best ammunition available to me in these rather amusing times. It takes all kinds in this world, and while I respect positive visions and hope, our discourse requires those who look at those willing to march us towards “a brighter day” and chuckle a bit.

And to be honest, I don’t think your platform is as bizarre as some of your Third Party contemporaries (and I thought I sounded pretty sympathetic in my piece).

I wish you the best of luck during this grueling campaign season, and I will be checking up on your campaign to see how things are progressing.

Brilliant Chess Racist Dead

The incredible chess player (and anti-Semitic idiot), Bobby Fisher is dead.



His ability to play Chess is something all amateur players can respect, but his obvious stupidity in life is something I can not forgive.

I find it a bit ironic that I spent a great deal of my day reading up on the infamous anti-Semite Lyndon LaRouche when I heard that Fischer was dead. I can only hope that it is one less idiot to walk this earth, but something tells me he will quickly be replaced by another fool.

Ron Paul’s Ideological Brethren: Lyndon LaRouche

I recently finished reading “The Truth about Leo Strauss” by Catherine and Michael Zuckert, and they reminded me of something I had known for awhile now: many of the recent arguments made against Strauss and his apparent followers (the NeoCons), were established by crazy old Lyndon LaRouche. Here is LaRouche stating outright that 9/11 was an inside job (amongst other irrational things).



He wrote a book titled “Children of Satan” which claimed that Neo-Conservatism is a “cabal of Strauss disciples, along with an equally small circle of Likudnik fellow-travelers".

How odd that this very same amateurish opinion was perpetuated on the floor of the House by good old Ron Paul himself.



Larouche and Paul: fellow voyagers on a brook of bullshit.

Wei Wenhua – RIP

The death of Wei at the hands of communist thugs is something that should get major play in the blogosphere, as well as elsewhere.

“Wei Wenhua was a model communist and is now a bloggers' hero -- a "citizen journalist" turned martyr.

The construction company manager was driving his car when he witnessed an ugly scene: a team of about 50 city inspectors beating villagers who tried to block trucks from unloading trash near their homes.

Wei took out his cell phone and began taking pictures. The city inspectors saw Wei and then attacked him in a beating that lasted five minutes. By the time it was over, the 41-year-old Wei was slumped unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital but was dead on arrival.”

Definitely worth a letter to your local Chinese consulate.

Update:

If you live in the States, you can call your local Chinese Consulate. Here are the locations and numbers.

Chinese Embassy in Washington DC
Address: 2201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. 20007
Tel: (202) 338-6688, (202)5889760
Fax: (202) 588-9760

Chinese Consulate General in Chicago, IL
Address: 1 East Erie Street, Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60611
Tel: (312) 573-3070/3071
Fax: (312) 803-0122

Chinese Consulate General in Houston, TX
Address: 3417 Montrose Blvd., Houston, TX 77006
Tel: (713) 520-1462
Fax: (713) 521-3064

Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles, CA
Address: 443 Shatto Place, Los Angeles, CA 90020
Tel: (213) 807-8088
Fax: (213) 807-8091

Chinese Consulate General in New York, NY
Address: 520 12th Avenue, New York, NY 10036
Tel: (212) 244-9392
Fax: (212) 465-1708

Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco, CA
Address: 1450 Laguna Street, San Francisco, CA 94115
Tel: (415) 674-2900
Fax: (415) 563-0494

How is this for Feminist?

Some very sizzling pics of Israeli women in the IDF (and safe for work).

(Hat tip Likelihood of Success)

Why McCain Matters

The main reason to cast a vote for McCain by Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard:

“For obvious reasons, McCain is the chief beneficiary of the surge effect. He has relentlessly promoted increasing the number of troops in Iraq and adopting a counterinsurgency strategy that stresses the protection and safety of Iraqi citizens. And a year ago, Bush bucked tremendous antiwar pressure, much of it from Republicans, and announced the surge strategy. Like McCain, he emphatically rejected the notion that the war was lost.

Last summer, when his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination was at a low point, McCain was urged by some of his advisers to downplay his support for the war. McCain rejected that advice. He knew how to evaluate a military plan, understood that the counterinsurgency strategy was different from what had been done before in Iraq, and knew what it could accomplish (and has).”

Sure, a number of Republican candidates claim to have supported the Surge from the start as well, but no one attached themselves to the policy like McCain did. McCain has linked his chances for the Presidency directly to the idea that Iraq must be won, and must be free. He held to that position even when it was considered suicide to his campaign, and so publically supported Petraeus' plan that he must have known that it would sink his political career if it failed. It has not, and even leading Democrats are coming to terms with its miraculous turnaround in a conflict many had assumed was lost.

I have made it clear on this blog and in conversations with friends and family that my vote will go to the candidate that supports the fight for democracy in Iraq, and will not abandon the Kurds to be slaughtered yet again. I can forgive some of McCain’s decisions throughout his career and the way he has pandered to religious conservatives in recent months, and I can effortlessly when I consider what democracy promotion will look like if someone like Obama or Edwards is elected.

The War on Terror and the fight for liberal democracy may be nothing more than a bumper sticker slogan to some on the left, but it means something to me. If we surrender freedom to the forces of theocracy and totalitarianism overseas, we do not deserve to call ourselves democrats at home. If our concept of democracy ends at our borders, like Ron Paul supporters would have us believe, then we have sacrificed our comrades overseas for juvenile self assuredness and sciolism.

What an odd era we live in, where an ex-Trotskyite like myself finds a foreign policy companion in a man like John McCain.

“I have tried to pull France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. Even I cannot prevent the French from being French.” - Charles De Gaulle

“Anyone who doesn’t have a mistress is a nincompoop.” – Francis I, King of France