Month: April 2009

Republican senators are threatening to block confirmation of key Obama nominees if the Obama administration makes public the Bush administration Justice Department memos that explicitly authorized torture and other barbaric relics.

Human rights/constitutional lawyer Scott Horton notes, “It now appears that Republicans are seeking an Obama commitment to safeguard the Bush administration’s darkest secrets in exchange for letting these nominations go forward.”

Funny to remember how many people believed that Washington would no longer be sordid after Bush and Cheney left office.

If the Obama team rolls over for this Republican power play, this will be a symbol of the bipartisan complicity in the worst abuses of recent years.

Rep. Ron Paul on US overreaction to the North Korean rocket launch:

Earlier this week, I wrote about the passing of my old and dear friend, Burt Blumert, who was instrumental in the establishment of Antiwar.com.

Yesterday, Rep. Ron Paul read a tribute to Burt into the Congressional Record (with a very kind plug for Antiwar.com). Here is Ron Paul’s statement:

Madame Speaker, Burton Samuel Blumert passed away on Monday March 30, following a long battle with cancer. Burt was a true hero of the freedom movement and my close friend, advisor, and business partner. As the founder and manager of Camino Coins in Burlingame, CA, Burt was one of the nation’s leading dealers in gold and silver coins. A student of Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian school of economics, Burt understood the important role precious metals played in protecting ordinary citizens from the damage wrought by fiat money and inflation. Thus, he regarded his work as a coin dealer not just as a business, but as an opportunity to help people by providing them with some protection from the Federal Reserve’s inflation tax.

After I stepped down from Congress in 1984, I partnered with Burt in the coin business, a partnership which lasted until I returned to Congress in 1996. Our partnership was based on nothing more than our words. As anyone who ever dealt with Burt could testify, that was all that was needed, because Burt’s word was truly his bond. I am unaware of anyone who dealt with Burt who questioned his integrity or his commitment to his customers.

As well-known and respected as he was for his leadership in the coin business, Burt was best known as a promoter of libertarian ideas. Burt was a long time friend and patron of Murray Rothbard, one of Mises’s top American students and a pioneer in economics, political theory, history, and much else. Burt helped Murray establish the Center for Libertarian Studies, and served as its president from 1975 until his death.

Burt also played a key role in the flourishing of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, which, as its name suggests, is the leading center for the promotion and development of Austrian economics and libertarian political theory in the nation. Burt served as a founding board member of the Institute and he chaired the Institute’s board after the original chair, Mrs. Margit von Mises, passed away in 1993. He also published The Rothbard-Rockwell Report, a well-read libertarian newsletter written by Murray Rothbard and Mises Institute President Lew Rockwell.

Burt played a major role in making the ideas of liberty a force on the internet by serving as the publisher of LewRockwell.com, as well supporting the development of Mises.org. Burt also played an instrumental role in the development of Antiwar.com. Burt also served as chairman of my first run for the presidency, and important counselor in the second.

In addition to his work with these organizations, Burt was a friend, mentor, and patron to numerous libertarian scholars and activists. He was incredibly generous with both his time and his resources. Talking to Burt was always a treat, because he had one of the best senses of humor I have ever known, and it seemed like he was always in a good mood. Events that would send his friends into fits of depression, rage, or both would be used by Burt as fodder for a series of jokes and wisecracks. Even in the last days of his battle with cancer he remained upbeat. One of Burt’s friends called him shortly after learning about Burt’s cancer, but instead of consoling Burt, this friend ending up having his sprits lifted by Burt’s humor.

It is somewhat of a comfort to myself, and I am sure to Burt’s other friends, to know that he lived long enough to see so many of his efforts bear fruit. Today, the Mises Institute teaches sound economies and the principles of liberty to thousands of students every year while Mises.org is one of the leading economics websites in the world. LewRockwell.com is one of the top providers of political, economic, and cultural commentary on the web, while Antiwar.com is the leading source of information for scholars, journalists, and activists looking for material to combat the propaganda of the war party.

As I travel across the country, I am astounded at the number of young people I met who are interested in the cause of individual liberty, peace, and sound money. Many of them got their introduction to these ideas through one of the many organizations nurtured by Burt Blumert.

Madame Speaker, perhaps the highest compliment one can pay to a departed friend is to say that they left the world better than they found it. That is certainly true in the case of Burt Blumert. While I am saddened that I will never again benefit from Burt’s good humor and wise counsel, I am comforted by knowing that I was blessed by his friendship and the thought that the vibrant and growing freedom movement will serve as a living monument to Burt for years to come. I therefore join friends of liberty around the world in mourning Burt’s passing, and saluting all he accomplished during his lifetime.

I am very pleased to announce the latest addition to our stable of columnists: Edouard Husson is Maître de Conférences at the Sorbonne, a historian specializing in the history of Germany and Europe in the 20th century. He is author of “Nous pouvons vivre sans les juifs” (2005) and Heydrich et la solution finale (2008), and others.

He was my host at the recent conference I attended at Bernardins College, the newly-establish Catholic university set up in what was once a 16th century monastery. And what a host he was – I was quite thrilled by the experience, and by the wonderful French hospitality epitomized in my host and his staff. From my vantage point in the middle of the Latin Quarter, high up over the rooftops of Paris, I got to experience the best that France has to offer – and that was true intellectually, as well. The conference on the prospects for peace in the twenty-first century had an amazing array of speakers, and a fascinating cross-pollination took place, with speakers from a wide variety of perspectives, and Prof. Husson was an engaging and challenging moderator.

His first column for Antiwar.com is, I think, a good indication of his general views on foreign policy: his “France first” perspective, which envisions a multi-polar future in which Paris charts an independent foreign policy course, recalls the old Gaullist vision of a “third force.” In any case, here is his first “Letter from Paris,” the first of many dispatches from one of France’s new thinkers — an intellectual innovator who nevertheless makes his appeal to the traditional French sense of uniqueness and zest for independent action.