Free Republic

TWENTY YEARS after the fall of the Soviet empire, it is much easier to see that the current Russian regime wants to reclaim great power status. It more resembles the earlier Soviet regime and those of the czars than it does any Middle European liberal state. Indeed, its exploitation of Russian-speaking minorities in the Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and Ossetia as pawns is reminiscent of the tactics of the Nazi regime in the 1930s. Russia has invaded Georgia not just to punish Georgia's elected leadership, but also to reclaim Russian control of gas and oil pipelines in the Caucasus region....

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 — Democrats in Congress failed once again Friday to shift President Bush’s war strategy in Iraq, but insisted that they would not let up. Their explanation for their latest foiled effort seemed to boil down to a simple question: “What else are we supposed to do?” Frustrated by the lack of political progress in Iraq, under pressure by antiwar groups and mindful of polls showing that most Americans want the war to end, the Democrats last week put forward a $50 billion war spending bill with strings attached knowing it would fail. Like so many of the...

Not long ago, while visiting a friend at Oxford University, I found myself in a heated political discussion with a Scotsman. The subject of our dispute was the Iraq war, but the conversation turned toward the rise of latent anti-Semitism in once-respectable quarters of British opinion. Two years earlier, a story entitled “A Kosher Conspiracy?,” illustrated by a gold Star of David plunged into the heart of the Union Jack, graced the cover of Britain’s most prominent left-wing magazine, The New Statesman. Since then, the intellectual climate had only worsened. In response to my remark that many use the...

October 09, 2007 The evidence for NeocommunismBy James Lewis There is a compelling factual case to be made that the contemporary radical Left can properly be called "Neocommunist." The Hard Left is grounded in Marxist vision of creating a "new man" under a system led by a vanguard that knows best what the rest of society needs. And Neocommies behave in patterns with startling parallels to Old Communist tactics. The Neocommies are not members of a Communist Party, and are part more of a movement than a conspiracy. They are utterly different from traditional liberalism in America and Europe. Traditional...

AFTER the Democrats took control of Con gress last year, party leaders said that one goal of the new majority was "to achieve energy independence, strengthen national security, grow our economy and create jobs, lower energy prices and begin to address global warming." Yet the Democrats' energy bills do just the reverse - thwarting energy independence by taxing oil producers and keeping substantial reserves of oil and natural gas locked up, while favoring "fairy dust" alternative energy and fuel sources that won't be able to compete with oil and gas for decades (if ever). Now that Congress' is back, a...

On the way to their September 15 March on Washington for the “Mother of All Protests”, anti-war activists organized by ANSWER already have had to switch gears. The funds they’ve raised “to pay for buses and to print the hundred of thousands of flyers, stickers and posters needed to spread the word,” must go to pay some $10,000 worth of fines if group organizers do not remove every poster within 72 hours. SNIP Their last protest, also touted as the “Mother of All Protests” saw the “Moonbats” outnumbered for the first time in decades by the Gathering of Eagles. SNIP...

Town hall meeting - Sen. Ron Wyden takes heat for Congress not bringing the troops home Although few senators can match U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden's long record opposing the war in Iraq, it didn't protect him from being thoroughly roasted Tuesday by angry anti-war activists at a town hall meeting in Portland. The noontime event at Portland State University attracted more than 300 people, many of whom charged that the Oregon Democrat hasn't done enough to end the war. The senator was also repeatedly verbally flayed for not supporting the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "Do...

The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, by Matt Bai (Penguin Press, 316 pp., $25.95) Matt Bai’s The Argument is the most significant book to date on the upcoming 2008 elections—not because it has anything to say about the horse race for the Democratic nomination, but because it offers an account of the people who constitute what Howard Dean calls “the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.” Bai writes regularly on politics for the New York Times Magazine, where some of this material originally appeared. He has been sharply critical of George W. Bush and...

That's the way Hillary and her hero Saul Alinsky viewed liberals. It was the same way the Old Left – the Communist Party – viewed liberals. Hillary quoted Alinsky in her thesis as explaining the difference between a liberal and a radical: "The liberal refuses to fight for the goals he professes." I'm sure Hillary still sees herself today as a "radical." But she could never use that term and remain a viable politician. So she has adopted another term – "progressive" – which means the same thing to those in the know. This is the favored term even today...

Led by Democrats since the start of this year, Congress now has a "confidence" rating of 14 percent, the lowest since Gallup started asking the question in 1973 and five points lower than Republicans scored last year. The voters put the Democrats in to end the war, and it's escalating. The Democrats voted the money for the surge and the money for the next $459.6 billion military budget. Their latest achievement was to provide enough votes in support of Bush to legalize warrantless wiretapping for "foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States." Enough Democrats joined Republicans to make...

A tearful Cindy Sheehan cited her son, killed in Iraq, as her inspiration as she announced her candidacy Thursday for the U.S. House against Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Sheehan last month said she intended to run against Pelosi, the House speaker, if the San Francisco congresswoman didn't move to impeach President Bush by July 23. Sheehan said Thursday that Pelosi had "protected the status quo" of the corporate elite and had lost touch with people in her district, most of whom, she asserted, want American troops out of Iraq. Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Pelosi, would not comment on Sheehan's candidacy...

Saturday, September 15March on WashingtonEND THE WAR NOW!Check out Sept15.org A message from Ramsey Clark The People of Baghdad Have No Water Join MAS Freedom Sept. 15 for D.C. Rally and Iftar Join Iraq war veterans, active duty servicemembers and their families on September 15 Monday, September 17 Peoples March Inside Congress -- organizing group is CODEPINK. Come to Washington DC on September 15 for a large antiwar protest timed to coincide with the report by General Petraeus on the "Surge" in Iraq. Click here for more information and to get involved.Initial sponsors of the march include:The ANSWER Coalition; Ramsey Clark; Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation;...

When the Democrats enlarged their tent to include leftist activists, Ralph Nader was left in the cold. At a green party convention in Reading, Pa., on July 14, Ralph Nader provoked admirers and detractors alike when he declared that he is once again "considering" a run for the presidency. This would be the 73-year-old activist's fourth third-party race. For a decade now and counting, Nader has presented himself as the outsider's outsider, as the reformer's conscience and as a sturdy crusader against a corrupt party system -- meaning, in effect, against Democrats, from whom he siphons votes (a fact amply...

It is time to recognize exactly what we are up against and the concerted effort that will be required to save our country from the rampaging Left. The failed immigration bill was but one issue. There will be many, many more of equal or greater importance before the elections of 2008. Democrats play a tough game. This has always been true, but the immigration bill is perhaps one of the most poignant examples. Democrats could care less what floods of illegal immigrants do to undermine our legal system, overwhelm welfare and medical services, fracture society and destroy our culture. The best of them...

With the predictability of a John McCain temper tantrum (or a John Edwards $200-haircut), every two year the Democrats announce that they're going to fight like hell for the religious vote - a vow duly reported by the media in the hushed tones of revelation. Thus, a story on the recent CNN Democratic presidential forum began with the following observation: "After barring their souls in a live television confessional, top Democratic White House hopefuls have put Republicans on notice that religious voters are up for grabs." At the forum, sponsored by Jim (Hugo-Chavez-Is-My- Shepard) Wallis and his Sojourners collective, Hillary...

As conservative Republicans tell the tale, the 2006 election was merely a referendum on the Bush administration's incompetence in Iraq and New Orleans and on the Republican congressional scandals. The contest, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote, "was an event-driven election that produced the shift of power one would expect when a finely balanced electorate swings mildly one way or the other." Others insist that demographic trends continue to favor the Republicans. Seeing 2006 as an anomaly, political analyst Michael Barone argued that population growth patterns favor Republican-leaning areas in the interior of the country rather than Democratic-leaning areas on...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Why can't the left get any respect? Whenever you use the word "left" in American politics, you feel almost compelled to add quotation marks. Today's left is not talking about nationalizing industry, abolishing capitalism or destroying the rich. What passes for "left" in American politics is quite moderate by historical standards. Still, cliches die hard, so you hear such 20-year-old questions as: "Are Democrats moving too far to the left?" or "Will Democrats abandon the center?" This approach is about abstractions, not concrete political problems, and it misses the dynamic in American public life, which is the...

There's another website I participate in,and I often find myself crossing verbal swords with the self-defined "intellectual elite". Today was no exception. On one thread,an anonymous poster was making snotty remarks about "neo-cons" in the Administration.He/she (whatever!) listed several by name,and it suddenly occurred to me all of the names were Jewish . I responded politely-which took a bit of effort.I'm not Jewish,but 3 of my grandchildren are.My closest friend in high school was the son of death camp survivors-(and yes,I saw the tattoos with my own eyes !) I expressed my concern to "Anonymous",saying I knew anti-Semitism had become...

They’re NeoCOMs, that’s what they are! Like many of my friends who view things political from the dexterous side, I’ve been somewhat mystified by the way our brothers and sisters on the sinister side get all lathered up whenever they hear or utter the word NEOCON. Thinking that such a word could be used to fire up our troops in a similar manner, I now offer the word NEOCOM to describe our (loyal?) opposition. Following are characteristics I’ve observed of modern Democrat operatives: 1 – Like the OLDCOMS, they are never bothered by inconsistencies in their political arguments always picking...

CHICAGO -- Many have proclaimed the death of Marxism, but C.S. Lewis said it best: Witches don't die, they merely come back in a modified form. And therein lies a story. One morning 34 years ago, my college roommate and I saw a notice in the Yale Daily News about a meeting on socialism to be held that evening in one of the university classrooms. We showed up on time and found ourselves the only ones in the room except for a solemn man precisely arranging on a front table piles of publications from the Socialist Workers Party. Saying not...

The BBC production the Cambridge Spies boils down to a piece neo-Stalinist agitprop that reveals the moral and ideological bankruptcy of the BBC, an institution that was once even respected by it totalitarian enemies for its integrity. Particularly telling, though not at all surprising, has been the praise heaped on it by the vast majority of reviewers. Tony Watson inadvertently summed up the political and historical illiteracy of his media colleagues when he asserted that this band of traitors were driven as much by "their fierce anti-fascist leanings, as they were by the romanticism of communism" (the Age television lift-out,...

Descent Into DerangementBy Greg YardleyFrontPageMagazine.com | June 30, 2003 The communist opposition to President George W. Bush has begun. On Friday, June 27th, President George W. Bush arrived in Burlingame, California for a fundraising lunch, and the communist Workers World Party was there to protest, with the help of their allies in the labor unions and on the far-left of the Democratic Party.  It's a scene we'll see again and again in the next year and a half - through their anti-war International ANSWER, the Workers World Party has vowed to follow President Bush wherever he goes.  Supporters of Democrat Dennis...

The Fifth International?By Greg YardleyFrontPageMagazine.com | June 26, 2003 For the past three years, an annual conference called the World Social Forum has been the biggest international gathering of radicals on earth, attended by all the leaders of the world left. Labor unions, Communist parties, non-governmental organizations, anti-globalization activists, anti-American 'peace' groups, multiple heads of state, and the representatives of armed guerilla insurgencies all gather yearly at Porto Alegre, Brazil, to make new connections and plan for the future. While the organizers of the World Social Forum claim the event is a "open meeting place" for those interested in building...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. What comes after neoliberalism? To answer that question we must ask a more fundamental question: What do neoliberalism and neoconservatism have in common with the antiglobalization and antiwar movements? The answer is that all ostensibly share a focus on redefining democracy in the contemporary world system. “Spreading democracy” is the rallying cry of both the Washington Consensus and the Bush Doctrine. The “Washington Consensus” is the claim that global neoliberalism and core finance capital´s economic control of the periphery and the entire world by means of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)...

What Is The Pax Liberalis? The problem with political policies based upon ideologies is that they're based on ideologies. From Marx/Engels on the left to Rand/Hitler on the right, the futility of an ideologically-based political system has been proven time and time again to be both unworkable and dangerous. No matter how much force a government uses to impose it's political will on an unwilling segment of the populace, it will never achieve it's goal of total unity, because an ideologically based government lives in denial of a simple reality: that there is no such thing as a perfect system...

Unless you live at the bottom of a well, you've probably noticed that 9/11 and Iraq have had a transforming effect on the American Right. The short formulation is that so-called neoconservatism has triumphed. In 1999, Republicans bitterly opposed U.S. action against a rogue state in Central Europe; in 2000, their presidential nominee ran on an inward-looking, reactive, "humble" foreign policy. All of that is history now. It is hard to find a conservative who does not believe, as the neocons do, in robust and pre-emptive American action against tyrants and terrorists. That change is, I believe, a watershed, akin...

The term "useful idiots" has been attributed to Lenin, as a description of those mindless people in the Western democracies who would always find ways to excuse whatever the Soviet Union did. Columnist Mona Charen's new book "Useful Idiots," shows that such people are still with us. Long after the Soviet Union's horrors had become too widely known around the world for their sympathizers in the West to be able to get away with whitewashing the USSR, new Communist dictatorships arose to become the new objects of the affections of the Western intelligentsia and of like-minded people in the media...

(note hammer and sickle on chest!) Joseph Stalin and Superman would seem to have little in common except their shared nickname, "the Man of Steel." Stalin was a brutal dictator who murdered millions, while Superman is the mythical embodiment of truth, justice and the American way. Yet in Superman: Red Son, a new three-part comic book series, the first of which has just been released by DC Comics, writer Mark Millar posits an alternative universe where Superman grew up on a collective farm in the Ukraine in the 1930s rather than in the idyllic Midwest town of Smallville, U.S.A. Indoctrinated...

<p>Communism is not only not dead, it's alive and well and still very dangerous.</p> <p>That's the sober warning Lee Edwards, a veteran conservative journalist, scholar and expert on communism, delivered to about 60 people Wednesday at a Duquesne Club lecture sponsored by St. Vincent College's Center for Economic and Policy Education.</p>

Cultural CommunistsBy Joseph YeagerFrontPageMagazine.com | May 9, 2003 In two provocative and convincing articles recently published on Frontpage Magazine, David Horowitz offers a new conception of the anti-American Left, and indeed, a new appellation as well: neo-communism, or neo-coms for short.  Aside from identifying and naming this increasingly dangerous political force, the most important aspect of Horowitz's essays is his explanaiton of how anarchists--a powerful element within the neo-com set--are also essentially Communists.For the purposes of review, Horowitz's argument is as follows.  He asserts that the primary goal of the anarchist neo-coms is to destroy the United States, which they regard as...

Taking on the Neo-Coms, Part II By David HorowitzFrontPageMagazine.com | May 2, 2003 I have argued that the contemporary left, which opposed the American war and opposes the America peace, which denounces American corporations and the global capitalist system, should be called “neo-communist,” a term to denote anti-American leftists who demonize the American economic system and identify it as a “root cause” of global problems. An objection to the term is that some members of this left – perhaps many – no longer advocate a Communist future sensu strictu. Many in fact call themselves anarchists and would be eager to...

How to identify the political left? Current usage refers to everyone left of center as "liberal." Yet what are currently identified liberals liberal about except hard drugs and sex? In regard to everything else, they are determined to intervene, regulate and control your life, or redistribute your income. Obviously, when terror-hugging radicals like Ramsey Clark and Communist hacks like Angela Davis are referred to as "liberals" – as they routinely are – the obfuscation works to their advantage and against the interests of veracity and democracy. The term "liberal" should be reserved for those who occupy the center of the...

Neo-Con. Now there’s a word that has popped into the public consciousness faster than, “gravitas.” What the heck does it mean? Naturally, the literal translation is “new conservative,” but those who use it make it sound like an insult. I picture the Democratic brainstorming meeting, led by James Carville. (Insert dream sequence music here) CARVILLE: “Okay, y’all, we gotta come up with somethin’ quick. Them darn Republicans and that illegitimate president of theirs is doin’ everything right. We need to get some kind of word that’s gonna make them stupid people in fly-over country think the Republicans are evil and...

How to address the recent spate of purple prose regarding the pros and cons of sorting out the Cons? You know the ones I mean; the neocons, the paleocons, even theocons and I suppose, some excons. For those of you outside the virtual Beltway, the 'cons' referred to above would be those who espouse conservativism, and the latest rage among liberals (and some cons themselves) is to pigeonhole its proponents. Yes Virginia, as strange as it may seem, there is Diversity amongst the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. And this seems to both surprise and elate its enemies.