Libertarian Intellectuals
by digby
We all know that John Stossel has always been a putz, but this has to be embarrassing, even for him:
Glenn Beck: I wasn't always a libertarian. I leaned libertarian. But I can't think of a darned thing the government does ... and people will always say the military...
Stossel: that the government does well
Beck: but I'm not convinced the government needs to do the military, I don't think so. Did you know that there are now more admirals than there are ships? That's amazing. Why? Why do we have that? ...
Stossel: So you're someone who was not a libertarian before, but you've become more libertarian as you've gotten older and smarter.. Even the military, you'd be comfortable because you'd have private contractors ...
Beck: you fire them.You investigate them and you fire them.I just had dinner with one of the guys from Blackwater and I said, you know, my concern is that all of this power, all these weapons in the hands of a private corporation, what's to say that the private corporation doesn't take it over.
Stossel: for profit!
Beck: for profit, for evil profit. The follow up question is, if you are a liberal were you comfortable with all that power in the hands of Dick Cheney and George Bush. He was Darth Vader. He was doing it just for profit in the oil companies. Now are you comfortable with Barack Obama having it.
If you can make sense out of that you need to sober up.
But the fact that Beck is having dinner with Blackwater guys freaks me out.
*Keep in mind that Beck is the most popular leader of the Tea Party (because he's so smart.)