http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/g/b085ee55-6bc6-4bf7-88fe-6ac899607d46

Or http://tinyurl.com/2wbtax if that doesn't work

"So let's see if I have this straight....."

Funny. You've never gotten it straight so far, why start now?

Bill Clinton declared war on Iraq??!!

Did the Germans also bomb Pearl Harbor?

Restricting admission to campaign rallies to "true believers" is RWA.

Surrounding oneself only with loyal sycophants is RWA.

Purging attorneys not zealously dedicated to using their position to pursue the party ideology is RWA

Abrogating fundamental and Constitutional liberties and protections in the name of protecting the fatherland is RWA.

Engaging in wars of opportunity is RWA.

Claiming a divine right of presidency that answers only to God and not the American people is RWA.

Demanding Microsoft open its code to discourage monopoly and promote competition is not RWA.

Got it, yet?

PR - enjoyed your posts @ MyDD. Sorry if I've missed the reference to it, but do you have an url for self-assessment on Altemeyer's scale?

Define winner and loser. Would the winner be praying to Mecca five times a day? Like I say, the only unilateral way to peace is surrender. Is that what you have in mind as a winning strategy?

There's that old canard again. Scooter (and any others of the uninformed out there), Islam does indeed mean "submission," as has been pointed out by friends of yours.

But it's not your submission they are interested in, as Muslims. It's THEIRS. (Wish you could say the same about Christians and salvation.)

Someday we'll have a real public education system in this country again.

Bamage,

Thanks for your appreciation. There is indeed an online RWA self-test. It's in chapter one of "The Authoritarians," Altemeyer's online book in PDF form available here:

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

While you're at it, you might want to read the book, as well!

This discussion is not about conservatism or liberalism, but a fringe sect of right wing authoritarianism. The confusion lies in the fact many contemporary RWAs call themselves conservatives. Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Charles Krauthaumer, Dinesh DiSouza et al are not conservatives. Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley and Nelson Rockefellor would hardly recognize them and certainly would disdain them for their ideology.

Oddly, this cabal of authoritarian imperialistic extremism masquerading as a conservative ideology does not overtly express its disdain for the conservative cause the way left wing ideologues attacked their liberal brethren.

Maybe it was the temperment, but people like Herbert Marcuse, Che Guevera, Leon Trotsky et al, were more than happy to denounce their liberal brethren as weak or morally depraved. RWA's probably do this in secret, which explains how moderate Republicans have been made so cowed.

Yet, the Krauthaumers who see Iraq as a plum that must be picked, the D'Souza's who believe it must be kept for its importance to our national interests (read oil), and the Tom Delays who believe anyone who doesn't believe in their ideology is an enemy who must be destroyed at all costs without forgiveness (read if you must his book). These are people who worship absolutes. Conservatism stands for principles but never feared testing them and knew when to defend them. That is considerably different from suppressing all dissent at all costs.

Liberalism is not afraid of conflict or battle. Every liberal principle and freedom we now enjoy came at a great struggle and much cost spanning three centuries. The world's most apacolyptic war of the modern world was waged and won by one of the most liberal democracies and ideologies on the planet. Only to have the RWA's the McCarthys to come in and knife the wounded during Truman's presidency.

We are liberals on this site debating conservatives. Yet what we have not distinguished nor succeeded in pointing out is that the people Glenn Greenwald is talking about are not conservatives and those who are, or who may have honest issues with our liberal beliefs are supporting people who are not their friends, but thier enemies; fascists. No conservative or liberal would look four years after a disasterous war based on false premises and still demand blind loyalty to the truth of its cause-not unless you are Germany or Japan in 1944.

One of the many admirable traits of liberalism was its power to reject the more absurd and threatening notions of extremism that sought to undermine principle of individual liberty to an all knowing all powerful state. For example, we libs are all for kicking in our tax dollars for a jointly managed universal health care plan, we just don't want the worst plan of the most corrupt greedy regime of demogouges shoving it down our throat.

What amazes me is why conservatives let themselves be pushed around by these chickenhawks prattling about in their brownshirts or flightsuits and making empty threats. The internet records a million bytes of liberals challenging extremism. When will we see conservatives standing up to those who pretend to be their own but exploiting them for the worst of purposes.

It's not the moderate liberal we should be demanding, but the moderate conservative. Judging by the early returns on the GOP candidate trail no one should hold their breath.

Ubermenchen or not our misadventure in Iraq has not yet hit rock bottom..

There are all to many who have not foreseen what a true real defeat in Iraq will produce..

I'm not talking about a forced pull out, as an eventuality but a true real defeat of American forces and an absolute debacle tragedy which will alter for ever the balance of power..

This inability to foresee a true military defeat is a fatal flaw and it's true for neo-con idiots and also many on the left as well who also fall into the myth of American invincibility..

Ask yourself what was the first "weapon of mass destruction..?"

Do you realize the potential danger our troops and much of the Shiia especially population are exposed to..

Do you know the prophesy of the Euphrates running dry and this sparking so much of what many consider Armageddon..?

Why would the Euphrates run dry from a drought..?

Or just the opposite, a flood which bursts it's banks and floods everything from Baghdad to Basra..

Remember the sand storms how they said how fine it was a got into everything..?

Well that's because it's not sand, its dried silt..!

Where is there a body of water that if released could flood down the mountains hit the Baghdad region and burst the banks of the great Euphrates..?

That's right it's in Syria..!

Now the area between the Euphrates and Tigress is lower than either of those rivers and the banks of these rivers are made up of thousands of years of accumulated silt..

A Flood as predicted in the Bible would burst the banks of the Euphrates and flood all the way to the gulf..

Also everything would sink in that silt..everything all equipment and men and women and cattle everything..

We have no business in Iraq/Babylon/Mesapotamia and the Bible tells us that all this occurs after Moab returns to the land of Mesapotamia well MOAB has returned to Mesapotamia so this huge ruinous defeat is not far off now..

Why is it that in an administration supposedly committed to their theological ideology chooses to ignore at all our jeopardy these very specific warnings..?

Is it Bush's messianic self appointed mission as Brzenski and I have already concluded or just the characteristic arrogance and incompetence that is it's hallmark..?

It says in Revelation that "the flood gates will open and never be closed again..!"

Where were the flood gates 2,000 years ago in that region..?

There weren't any..!

Who opens them and spills out the largest body of fresh water in the middle east..could be any one and even done as our government already knows by computer or sabotage assault..

Know the story of Gilgamesh or Noah we're talking that kind of Flood..in the same region which has already occurred so I, we know where the water goes and what it does..

What's the General's plan for this contingency..?

They wanted a "Surge" well that may be exactly what they'll get..

I've shared this with Senators and our Pentagon but they choose to ignore this, well remember these are the same idiots that got us into this mess and waste and ruin and also the same ones many of them who allowed our entire nuclear arsenal to be stolen as well..!

Ok that's all just hope and pray that our Congress gets our troops out of Iraq before it's to late..