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Friday, June 13, 2008 12:00 AM

Conservatism vs. authoritarianism: The British vs. the U.S. right

While British conservatives oppose mild increases in government detention and surveillance powers, American "conservatives" support endless expansion of those powers.

The letters thread is now closed.

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Friday, June 13, 2008 12:42 PM

The Takeaway

GG can be heard on the new WNYC news program, The Takeaway,

link

http://www.thetakeaway.org/

Friday, June 13, 2008 12:42 PM

Hey "Ron Pauliac"

You didn't answer my question.

Why do you continue to disrespect GG and his blog and behave the way that you do? Why do you show so much for contempt for GG and his blog? Why must you decide after about three days that is no longer necessary to honor GG's requests?

Friday, June 13, 2008 12:45 PM

Tim Russert Dead

msnbc.com is reporting that Tim Russert died after collapsing.

Friday, June 13, 2008 12:45 PM

Funny should should say that, Baldie...

Last evening, whilst gathered 'round with the family in front of the not-so-old Sony (less than 9 years of service), looking forward to the football match, er, soccer game, between Croatia and Germany, the tube blew (or some other equally expensive malfunction occurred). As my son observed after we swapped it out for a lesser, but still working, TV set from the basement - "Could be worse, we could be reading now".

But we are on the market for a new TV - perhaps I'll take your advice and buy something so freakin' big that I'll never again have to think of anything more unpleasant than counting the high resolution hairs on Pat Sajak's head.

Friday, June 13, 2008 12:49 PM

NBC’s Tim Russert Dies

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/russert-dies-of-apparent-heart-attack/index.html?hp

Friday, June 13, 2008 12:50 PM

A true American!

As my son observed after we swapped it out for a lesser, but still working, TV set from the basement - "Could be worse, we could be reading now".

Friday, June 13, 2008 12:52 PM

Conversatism vs authoritarianism: Thank you for your clear distinction

Mr. Greenwald, you have done the readers a real service by clearly pointing out how many who call themselves conservatives are actually authoritarians. (One can veer into authoritarianism from the left too, but we leave that for different times.)

There is a great deal of mud-slinging from all sides with the the words "conservative" and "liberal" used as catch-all epithet.

We need to reunite these words with principles.

An instructive device to differentiating liberal, conservative, authoritarian and libertarian is the World's Smallest Political Quiz. I urge everyone to plot their own place on the quiz and then, for fun, fill it in as if you were Dick Cheney (and be fair!). You will see that Mr. Greenwald's distinctions are quite accurate.

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

Friday, June 13, 2008 12:56 PM

@William T.

@ Iokannan

As L.W.M. was once wont to say, invoke the demon, and he'll appear. L.W.M. usually employs the L word or mentions Ron Paul, but now that Bucky's gone to his reward, there's only the Chris demon left to respond. The more powerful invocations these days seem to involve references to Israel, the War on Drugs, or taxing the rich (the shooter demon's particular abracadabra.)

As for myself, I'm enjoying the respite. I'd love to persuade you to forego your bell, book and candle this morning, but given my own occasional dabbling in the black arts, that would be the rankest hypocrisy. ;-)

-- William Timberman

William, my dear frend, you have invoked its unholy name and conjured it this day. Could you please reverse the incantation and send it back? Thank you.

;-)

Friday, June 13, 2008 12:56 PM

Suits for diet

That McCain quote sounds stupid even for him. Does anyone have a link to the entire speech? (When I discuss it, I want an actual reference to the text.)

Of course, he will be saying something different next week.

Off topic, but by the way, why do you think McCain wants ten debates against someone who actually can think and talk much better than the average guy? McCain certainly cannot.

Friday, June 13, 2008 12:56 PM

@ the world smallest political quiz

http://world.std.com/~mhuben/wspq.html

Friday, June 13, 2008 01:02 PM

ethics professor @ Russert

msnbc.com is reporting that Tim Russert died after collapsing.

Did they name their sources?

Friday, June 13, 2008 01:04 PM

Not quite a fan of Russert

to put it mildly. Still, sudden death is always shocking, and I tend to hew to the idea to say nothing ill of the (newly) dead. Still, the man always seemed about to explode into a million pieces on air. I wonder he got all that energy from and if the source had anything to do with his heart attack.

Friday, June 13, 2008 01:06 PM

Britain vs England

Just a semantic note, Britain and England are not one and the same. Please be consistent when writing about British politics, and either use 'English' and 'England' or 'British' and 'Britain'. Reading this kind of mix up grates on those of us who live in the parts of Britain that are not England.

You say:

"...comes from the British Right, which sees it as an intolerable expansion of unchecked government power and a severe erosion of core Western liberties. Factions within the British Left are opposed to the legislation for the same reason."

and then later:

"And, in England, principled conservatism on such issues is not unique to Major."

Friday, June 13, 2008 01:08 PM

@ L.W.M.

Consider it done. (With the kind assistance of Tim Russert, whose demise is bound to generate at least a couple of days of sloppy, saccharine, thoroughly disgusting media coverage -- see the NYT front page already.)

Friday, June 13, 2008 01:11 PM

@djmagaro

@ the world smallest political quiz

http://world.std.com/~mhuben/wspq.html

-- djmagaro

Mike Huben, like Obama, "is a genuine Marxist in the Lenin, Mao, Alinsky mold". Pay no attention to him.

Liberals have at least won the election

I'm a conservative, and take issue with a lot of Mr. Lind's assertions about the conservative cause. But McCain is pretty much a liberal, while Obama is a genuine Marxist in the Lenin, Mao, Alinsky mold.

So liberals have already won the 2008 Presidential race.

However, I think the conservative cause has received such recent setbacks primarily because the media is so overwhelmingly liberal--even radical. The hysteria of political correctness is consuming our society like wildfire.

And Conservatives have done themselves no good by being seen as anti-abortionists, pro-prayer in schools, and taxcutters. That is not what the conservative movement of the past 40 years was about. When you add support for a foreign policy which is internationalism-on-steroids conducted like a John Wayne movie and gunboat diplomacy philosophy, conservatives have put themselves--hopefully temporarily-in a very vulnerable position.

The media presented us with a McCain-Obama choice for President, the worst candidates for President in American history.

-- rphillips111

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/06/10/liberals/permalink/e9e91f54f0fc804da315e47b3f1f0da1.html

I doubt if any of the Taft's were that big of a nutbar but you never know.

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