Say No to Rubio and the "New American Century"

The first thing I noticed back in April when Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio announced his run was the banner with the words "New American Century" in the background.

This is code word for a defunct think-tank by the same name which provided the intellectual ammunition for George W. Bush's disastrous Iraq foreign policy.

One writer describes the defunct Project for the New American Century as desiring and demanding "one thing: the establishment of a global American Empire to bend the will of all nations."

I agree.

The Project for the New American Century was a place warmongers turned to hear the intellectual justifications for their warmongering and hawkish foreign policy. This organization was started by neoconservative William Kristol, who is currently an editor of the neocon Weakly Standard.

Dick Cheney, Vice President under Bush II, is a founding member.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a founding member.

Not that Rubio is hiding hawkish views, as you might see in the debates, but his selection of "New American Century" is very telegraphic of the kind of people he would place in his administration.

The next thing I noticed was that Mitt Romney's former aides embraced him.

This should tell you all you need to know.

We don't need a Latino George Bush. Say no to Rubio.

Vote Rand Paul.

Sequester impacts reinforces fact we should end the wars

From the Weekly Standard:

According to the House Armed Services Committee, the 2011 Budget Control Act (the law that imposed both spending caps and sequestration) will force the Marine Corps to shrink by 25 percent--from 202,000 Marines to 145,000. What's more, "by the end of calendar year 2013, less than half of our ground units will be trained to the minimum readiness level required for deployment," Marine Corps commandant James Amos testified to Congress this month.

My focus: "by the end of calendar year 2013, less than half of our ground units will be trained to the minimum readiness level required for deployment." The wars should come to a quick close anyway so that deployment is effectively not a problem. There is no problem here if that simply means troops will have to take longer to be deployed in an environment where there services aren't needed.

I could see the worry about 57,000 Marines losing their jobs, and going on the federal dole in the absence of employment. But they would've been on the dole anyway, albeit for a longer time, if they stayed in the military.

P.J. O'Rourke on Public Schools: End Them, Don’t Mend Them

Enough, however, of outrageous statistics. Let’s generate some pure outrage. Here’s my proposal: Close all the public schools. Send the kids home. Fire the teachers. Sell the buildings. Raze the U.S. Department of Education, leaving not one brick standing upon another and plow the land where it stood with salt.

“Wait a minute,” the earnest liberal says, “we’ve got swell public schools here in Flourishing Heights. The kids take yoga. We just brought in a law school placement coordinator at the junior high. The gym has solar panels on the roof. Our Girls Ultimate Frisbee team is third in the state. The food in the cafeteria is locally grown. And the vending machines dispense carrots and kiwi juice.”

Close them anyway.

End Them, Don’t Mend Them | The Weekly Standard