September 19 through 25, 2005

Weekly publication through mid Oct. Thanks for your patience. MamaLiberty

Laying the Bricks of Blame
By Lady Liberty

Whether it's advisable or not, there was really never any doubt that the city of New Orleans would be rebuilt. When it is, the experience of Hurricane Katrina will doubtless also ensure that the levees surrounding those areas below sea level are improved to withstand stronger storms and higher water.

Along with the clean-up and the plans for restoring and rebuilding those parts of the city that were destroyed by wind or water, many in officialdom are also preoccupied with what the Bush administration calls "the blame game." Some are calling for investigations; others are skipping right to the punishment phase for those they believe responsible for the devastation (or at least for the failure to adequately mitigate it). (Read the rest here)

Baker’s Dozen ™ Hints to Prepare for Disaster
By Nathan A. Barton (TM and © 2005)

Based on the recent responses (or lack thereof) of government at all levels to natural disasters, and the aftermath of natural disasters, it is wise to take a little time and do some preparation in case YOU find yourself in such a situation. Assume that no government agency will be there to help.

Tragedy Wears A Human Face: Reply To Rep. Ellen Sauerbrey
By Carey Roberts

This past week (Sept. 7, 2005) Ellen Sauerbrey, US representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, went to Washington, hoping to shore up support for the State Department's pro-feminist agenda. But her plan backfired.

Sauerbrey's speech, "Freeing Women from Exploitation and Despair," presented this last Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation, was flawed in its framework, biased in its presentation, and dangerous in its social implications. Let me explain.

Marxism divides society into two groups: haves and have-nots, with the interests of the groups pitted in primordial conflict. Traditional Marxism views economic class as the heart of the problem. In contrast, neo-Marxism -- under the guise of gender feminism -- places sex at the crux of its analysis. And neo-Marxism is the framework that representative Ms. Sauerbrey operates from. (Read the rest here)

The Bush Administration's Dead
By Ted Lang © 2005

Wasn't it President G. Bush who back on May 1, 2003 celebrated victory over Saddam's forces in the Iraqi War aboard the U.S.S. Lincoln? Why did we invade Iraq in the first place? Bush offers we should "stay the course" and continue to massacre and be killed to honor our military dead who already gave their lives and limbs in that war.

But what about our military dead in all wars fought by Americans - shouldn't we honor them as well? Shouldn't we treasure the peace and freedom on our shores for which they paid the ultimate sacrifice? How are we honoring all our military dead resultant from all the wars they ever fought by suspending our freedoms via the USA PATRIOT Act that abolishes our Bill of Rights? (Read the rest here)

Sarai State of Affairs
By Ivan Eland

U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed into the Sarai neighborhood of Tall Afar this weekend, a northern Iraqi city believed to be a logistics center for insurgents in northern Iraq, only to find a ghost town. U.S. commanders claimed the rebels had fled and were defeated. The former may be true, but let’s hope U.S. military leaders haven’t deluded themselves into believing the latter.

According to the Washington Post, Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, pronounced the conquest: “I think what we saw today was the effect of our counterinsurgency and security operations in Tall Afar in the previous weeks. The enemy then decided to bail out. They knew they were being destroyed.” Maj. Chris Kennedy, McMaster’s executive officer, concurred with his boss’s reasoning: “The shaping operations that we conducted before crossing into Sarai are the reason why we haven’t seen the resistance we expected.” Capt. Noah Hanners, a platoon commander within the regiment also toed the party line: “That we had so little resistance shows the operation has been effective.” (Read the rest here)

Katrina Exposes Government for What It Is
By Sheldon Richman

If a private-sector employee performed as badly as the federal, state, and local governments performed before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina, he would be summarily fired. But the governments will claim their budgets were too small and proceed to extract more money from the taxpayers. That’s how the political world works. And it's part of the reason that governments perform as miserably as they do.

Hurricane Katrina should finally disabuse people of the idea that government exists to take care of them, especially the most vulnerable. That self-serving promise was never credible. Do we need more evidence that it was a fraud? With guardians like these, who needs enemies? (Read the rest here)

Your Feedback and Comments
The Mailbag for This Week

Libertarian Commentary on The News
By Nathan A. Barton © 2005

This is a temporary attempt at submitting a weekly summary of news and commentary to readers and supporters of The Price of Liberty, and I would very much appreciate your comments and feedback. I find it quite difficult to try and select 30-40 of the most important stories of the week, and in some cases, we have summaries of stories which have developed during the week, or the current “climax” of an ongoing story. There are not always commentaries for each news item, in case of several related stories. Again this week, Katrina’s aftermath dominated the news and the implications for the cause of liberty in this nation and the world are more clearly defined: so I have two sections of “Gulf War Three “ news to report and comment on. As always, these views (and the selection of the news articles to report) are my own, and don’t necessarily represent the views of anyone else associated with TPoL, RRND, FND, CSN, WND or any other source. And I try to be polite and kind when stepping on toes, especially toes of libertarians, but I do expect that the stepped-on toes will still hurt.

Gulf War Three – General News

Katrina death toll estimate cut
Washington Times
"Alarming predictions of as many as 10,000 dead in New Orleans may have been greatly exaggerated, with authorities saying yesterday that the first street-by-street sweep of the swamped city revealed far fewer corpses than feared. 'Some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred,' said retired Marine Col. Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security chief. He declined to give a revised estimate. But he added: 'Numbers so far are relatively minor, as compared to the dire projections of 10,000.' The encouraging news came as workers repairing New Orleans' system of levees and water pumps projected that it will take a month to dry out the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina." (09/10/05)

Ebbert, in typical military fashion, is NOT outright calling his boss a liar. As I’ve pointed out before, as on Bloody Tuesday, people panic and give outrageous claims. Sadly, all too often, it is only the claims and not the actual numbers remembered. (Read the rest here) (Two full pages!)

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