Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour from huffpost and Vimeo.

While I believe that “how libertarian” a candidate is shouldn’t be the only deciding factor in determining whether to vote for them, I feel it’s important we discuss it more than “so-and-so’s position on this is not libertarian”, both with regard to their position on it and whether they address it at all. I recognize this thread will likely turn into a huge argument, and if people can provide me with information to alter my analysis, I will be happy to change it. (If I’m slow in doing so, I won’t be offended if other LFV writers do it, though I’d prefer it if those officially affiliated with certain campaigns didn’t do so, for obvious reasons.)

The three substantial candidates I consider remotely libertarian are Steve Kubby, Ron Paul, and George Phillies. (Despite others including Christine Smith as a substantial candidate, I have seen functionally no presence from her.) The standard I’ll use for “libertarian” will be the LP platform, which I recognize is by no means perfect, but it gives me a set of issues to work with. I’ll consider the candidates in alphabetical order. (more…)

Thanks to random commentors on Digg and MichelleMalkinIsAnIdiot.com for this. On March 8, 2002, Michelle Malkin, who is currently all over the place trying to convince people Ron Paul thinks 9/11 was perpetrated by the US government (which considering his earlier statements is patently absurd), wrote the following in Jewish World Review:

THE six-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is upon us. Here are a half-dozen unsolved mysteries still on my mind:

Ooooh. Let’s go on.

What really happened on United Airlines Flight 93? As the Philadelphia Daily News reported back in November, many folks in Shanksville, Pa., where the hijacked Boeing 757 crashed, believe the plane was shot down. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a small, unmarked jet flying overhead immediately after impact; others are convinced they heard the piercing sound of a missile. A federal flight controller told The Telegraph of Nashua, N.H., that an F-16 had indeed been in “hot pursuit” of Flight 93 until it hit the ground. One of the 911calls from a passenger on the flight indicated that there was an explosion aboard the plane. The FBI immediately confiscated the tape.

Are you questioning our leaders, you unpatriotic kook? Surely the explanation lies later on in the article!

What really happened on American Airlines Flight 11? Did one of the hijackers have a gun on board? Was it planted before the flight took off, or was it smuggled on? Either way, shouldn’t someone be held accountable if such an egregious security breach did in fact take place? Investigative reporter Paul Sperry, formerly of Investor’s Business Daily and now with Worldnetdaily.com, scooped the mainstream press by exposing a high-level, internal report from the Federal Aviation Administration. It detailed the alleged shooting of Flight 11 passenger Daniel Lewin by hijacker Satam Al Suqami.

According to the document, which was later obtained by the Washington Post, USA Today, and others, an onboard flight attendant reported in a phone call that “one bullet was reported to have been fired” during the flight, killing Lewin before the plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. FAA officials dismissed the leaked memo as a draft and claimed that the very specific report of gunfire - including the names of the victim, shooter, and their precise seat numbers — was an editing error.

Just a typo, huh?

Now she’s sarcastically questioning our leaders! Something is clearly amiss!

Who murdered Katherine Smith, and why? Smith was the Tennessee state license examiner who had been implicated last month in a phony ID scam involving a group of shady Middle Eastern men from New York City. Investigators say there are “connections” between the ring and the Sept. 11 terrorists; one of them had a repair pass in his possession that gave him access to the lower levels of the World Trade Center basement. It was dated Sept. 5.

A day before Smith was to appear in court over the matter, she died in a bizarre and fiery crash inside a car registered to one of her Middle Eastern co-defendants. Smith was burned beyond recognition; her arms and legs disintegrated in the flames. Yet, her car was traveling barely over 20 mph when it hit a utility pole and damage to the vehicle was minimal. This week, the Tennessee Highway Patrol concluded definitively that her “death was not the result of the crash itself. Her death was by other means.” Is this the vengeful work of al Qaeda killers still on the loose?

Well, that’s actually kind of interesting, but still, why are you questioning our leaders, Michelle? And finally:

So where the he-l is Osama bin Laden, anyway?

But this no longer matters, because we’re in Iraq.

OK, so when did Malkin switch from truther to administration apologist? Secret sources tell me it happened when she met with Bill O’Reilly in a Cairo tavern. This is what she wants you to believe happened, with her in disguise as her alter ego, “Gary”:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl6eHnuXBQ4]But the transcript I have from sources inside the bar is much different:

[Malkin approaches the tavern door. The two guards look at her with suspicion and accost her as she approaches the door.]
GUARD 1: Derka Allah! George Bush jihad!
[Malkin does nothing. Guards ready their weapons to fire.]
GUARD 1: Ba’akalah! George Bush jihad! Ba’akalah George Bush jihad a’ala derka derka George Bush jihad! George Bush jihad!
MALKIN: Uh…Ba’ak…derka derka Allah. Derka derka George Bush jihad! Ha’aka sherpa sherpa. Ba’akalah!
GUARD 1: Oh, derka derka derka.
[Malkin is escorted into a back room where O’Reilly waits.]

Since nobody was in the room besides O’Reilly and Malkin, it is hard to know what exactly transpired, especially as the noises of the tavern obscured many lines. Here is what we know:

[Giggling]
O’REILLY: I like you. You have balls. I like balls.
[Strange noises for several minutes]
MALKIN, loudly: OH, derka derka derka!

Whatever happened in that room, Malkin had been reborn as a neocon, the Michelle Malkin we know and despise today.

This is satire, obviously. Lawsuits will result in you paying court and lawyer costs.

From the Dallas Morning News:

One in four younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances… That sentiment is strongest among those younger than 30. Two percent of them say it can often be justified, 13 percent say sometimes and 11 percent say rarely.

Compare this to the sentiment after 9/11 that the patriotism of the American Muslim community was largely responsible for the US not getting attacked very often. It’s easy to see what’s happened: neocons like Michelle Malkin have raged against the horrors of the Muslim religion, trying to claim that they’re all trying to kill us. That creates an “us vs. them” attitude - after all, if the Muslims already feel hated, why shouldn’t they hate back?

“It is a hair-raising number,” said Radwan Masmoudi, president of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, which promotes the compatibility of Islam with democracy.

He said most supporters of the attacks likely assumed the context was a fight against occupation — a term Muslims often use to describe the conflict with Israel.

Or, you know, Iraq. Sort of like Ron Paul was saying.

…only one in four consider the U.S. war on terrorism a sincere attempt to curtail international terror. Only 40 percent said they believe Arab men carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Does it come as a huge surprise that they’re suspicious of events that have been used to vilify them?

Just over half said it has been harder being a U.S. Muslim since the 9/11 attacks, especially the better educated, higher income, more religious and young. Nearly a third of those who flew in the past year say they underwent extra screening because they are Muslim.

This is the part of racial profiling people like to avoid: blowback. Sure, it’s easy to say “racism is a small problem compared to getting killed”, but this shows that we’re far more likely to get killed if we are perceived to discriminate against Muslims.

That, or you can pay them $100, an increase from the previous $30 marriage license fee. From the Dallas Morning News:

A bill by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, raises the cost of marriage licenses from $30 to $100 and requires engaged couples to take an eight-hour class on marriage if they don’t want to pay the fee. Poor couples can apply for a scholarship to the class.

Now, I’m sure the State would prefer the $70, but if not, you can take this nice class, which also isn’t free.

While Googling Rep. Chisum to see if he had any connections with the proprietors of this class, I found this memo, which he sent out on February 9th. I wish I was making this up:

Indisputable evidence - long hidden but now available to everyone - demonstrates conclusively that so-called “secular evolution science” is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternative “creation scenario” of the Pharisee religion. This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic “holy book” Kabbala dating back at least two millennia. (emphasis his)

So since evolution is a Jewish conspiracy, it clearly violates the Establishment Clause to teach it in public schools. The evidence for this is contained in links to fixedearth.com In other words, CRAZYTIME.

I’ve already emailed the Gray County, Texas LP about this memo, so that they can use it against Chisum in 2008.

I was reading the latest report from CNN.com regarding Ayman al-Zawahiri and the rebuttal to President Bush’s new strategy in Iraq. According to Zawahiri “if we are killed, you will be killed”. There was also the statement of “”Why not send 50,000 or 100,000? Aren’t you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops’ dead bodies? Send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the Mujahedeen to free the world from your evil and theirs because Iraq, the land of the caliphate and jihad, is able to bury 10 armies like yours, with God’s help and power.”

First of all we enter this war in an Imperialist action to “police the world”. Then we come up with “WMD’s and the War Against Terror” after we put a bunch of holes and blew off mountain tops in Afghanistan. After Afghanistan we invade Iraq for the cause of freedom and not for oil. Then we find out that one of the sole reasons was for oil. Now we are sending over more troops this year and we are threatened by the second in command of the Terrorists who took credit for the destruction of the Twin Towers better known to us uneducated types as “9/11″.

Now I am not too hip on the hype and lingo of the modern reporter who has an edge on the savvy colloquialisms of today, but by my best recollection of former years, i.e. Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Somalia, Serbia/Croatia, hell, even Libya and Grenada, the big result of sending people in to combat is to have victory, let alone victory for the good guys. How are we, the “World Police” good guys in this manner? We go in, rough up the former leaders, set up a puppet democracy with a full-proof plan to rid it of its oil for at least 30 years to our own corporations and then plunder off of the people in their misery, send in more troops to help “preserve their democracy” from uprisings and we don’t expect to get hate-mail from the second in command of Al-Queda? I was actually expecting more from Bin Laden than what was given. Now we have a threat that we will get our butts blown to smithereens(good band btw) if we kill any more. In the article I linked even the FBI is involved in finding out more plans here on our soil.

What do we expect? The world to heed to our call for this tripe? Does the whole world seek out our United States freedoms, where I cant even have a smoke in my car anymore in New Jersey, nor can I have a smoke in a bar in California or Springfield, IL? “The Land of the Free” has more issues, lets actually call them for what they are “problems” with trying to maintain a ton of red tape on every law that not only are we full of loopholes from ass-clowns in office creating new laws which make more problems all for a small but obnoxiously loud portion of society(you heard me MADD and OSHA!) that we cannot breathe our own smoke-filled air without being told I either have to out it out or receive a fine, because I am on a sidewalk within two-hundred feet of the door of the local Denny’s. Give me a break, or better yet, suck it up, America! While these terrorists are fighting off the plunderers of their land from the great white devil who blew up their religious site, their homes and their communities, you are busy bitching and moaning about some kid out on the sidewalk smoking because he cant smoke with his coffee in a now non-existent smoking section while you eat your lard-boiled, fat-laden, artery-hardening Grand Slam Breakfast with a diet coke.

AP via Dallas Morning News reports that Saddam Hussein was hanged today. He was convicted a mere 56 days ago for the murders of 148 Shiite Muslims. His appeal request was rejected and US courts refused to grant relief.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dismissed pleas for Saddam’s life to be spared:

“Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence,” al-Maliki’s office quoted him as saying during a meeting with relatives before the hanging.

Some even called for the public viewing of the filmed hanging:

Mariam al-Rayes, a legal expert and a former member of the Shiite bloc in parliament, told Iraqiya television that the execution “was filmed and God willing it will be shown. There was one camera present, and a doctor was also present there.”

and “holy” men prayed for God’s revenge upon Saddam:

“Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam,” said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

There is no question that Saddam did horrible things to some Iraqis, but some of you may remember that over at Hammer of Truth- way back when the trial started- I called the court proceedings a joke of justice. I complained then about the witnesses who were granted the opportunity to testify without facing the accused. The entire court seemed the epitome of a kangaroo court.

We are all too familiar with the side effects of most remedies. We are bombarded with commercials for drugs that promise to cure all sorts of ailments, and we have all laughed at the line, “If you experience an erection lasting more than four hours…” Well folks, I can tell you that we are going to wish that Priapus be the only god that comes to minds of people. Sadly, I predict that the many Iraqis will bring to mind a god associated with war rather than pleasure and fertility.

Saddam will now be viewed a martyr and he knew this as he penned his farewell.

In a farewell message to Iraqis posted Wednesday on the Internet, Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of the struggle against the U.S. “Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs,” he said.

I took some heat for my views over at HoT, as I am sure I will now. But I ask you to keep this in mind: The day that a man can be executed without due process and it be accepted as legitimate is a dark day for humanity. If you can honestly look at yourself in a mirror and cheer Saddam’s sham of a trial and subsequent execution, then tell yourself while you are there, that it could happen to you too.