Former NYT editor: Just in case you were wondering, I’m not paying my taxes if we bomb Iran
posted at 2:19 pm on November 23, 2007 by Allahpundit
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A little preemptive strike of his own.
I will not pay my income tax if we go to war with Iran. I realize this is a desperate and perhaps futile gesture. But an attack on Iran–which appears increasingly likely before the coming presidential election–will unleash a regional conflict of catastrophic proportions. This war, and especially Iranian retaliatory strikes on American targets, will be used to silence domestic dissent and abolish what is left of our civil liberties. It will solidify the slow-motion coup d’état that has been under way since the 9/11 attacks. It could mean the death of the Republic…
I will put the taxes I owe in an escrow account. I will go to court to challenge the legality of the war. Maybe a courageous judge will rule that the Constitution has been usurped and the government is guilty of what the postwar Nuremberg tribunal defined as a criminal war of aggression. Maybe not. I do not know. But I do know this: I have friends in Tehran, Gaza, Beirut, Baghdad, Jerusalem and Cairo. They will endure far greater suffering and deprivation. I want to be able, once the slaughter is over, to at least earn the right to ask for their forgiveness.
Hedges is one of those leftists who seems like he should be British even though he isn’t. The name, the look, the journalism background, the paranoia about all forms of fascism except the Islamist version he’s quick to apologize for — he’s the American Robert Fisk, a grotesque caricature of the progressive foreign correspondent. But don’t take my word for it. Ace linked this last night but I would have anyway. Watch it if you missed it six months ago. And if you didn’t miss it, watch it again.
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Not futile at all. Will quickly result in prosecution by the IRS. Can’t wait.
JiangxiDad on November 23, 2007 at 2:24 PM
Yup, rumor has it that it’s how they got Capone,too. Lock the seditious POS up, not bad thing in my book.
bbz123 on November 23, 2007 at 2:36 PM
this clip was originally captured by zombietime, but pacifica radio had it yanked for copyright violation, just so you gat get a grasp of how phony pacifica is in their claims toward free speech and principled media insurgency.
jummy on November 23, 2007 at 2:43 PM
Christopher Hitchens delivered a solid, verbal backhand to that chronic bed-wetter, Hedges. Mr. Hedges, you are a loser of the first order. Withhold your taxes, I double dog dare you.
Zorro on November 23, 2007 at 2:48 PM
Isn’t this the same guy who delivered a commencement address that was cut short because the crowd almost rioted against hearing his anti-American crap?
Sydney Carton on November 23, 2007 at 2:50 PM
For a man who accuses America of fascism is quick to defend REAL facsist in Iran. Hitch kicks his measly butt.
RobCon on November 23, 2007 at 2:56 PM
Moron. The likelihood of an attack is based on the threat of Iran getting the bomb, not an election.
BS, the Saudis don’t want Iran to have the bomb either, Iran doesn’t have too many friends in that region, or in it’s own country.
such as? Iranians are already targetting US troops in Iraq. I suppose this guy was one of the clowns wetting himself over the prospect of massive Iraqi scud retaliation in the Gulf War. Once we hit them, they won’t have much to strike back with, and we can handle it.
Another liberal turd who thinks that we have lost civil liberties. BACK IT UP! You can keep repeating it over and over again, it still won’t be true. We haven’t seen this much dissent since the Civil War.
Hilarious. You can’t have a slow-motion coup. I know it’s a French word, and you think you look smart using foreign words, you are a complete moron. I would just love to see these idiots use one example of Americans losing civil liberties. Cite some facts, Mr. slow-motion coup. Man, that is too funny.
Go join them then. Please, move to Tehran and talk about dissent. Like these people aren’t suffering now. Unless you friends are Hamas, Hizbollah, the Revolutionary Guard. I think Iran needs a massive wave of human shields. I think the US government should fund the journey, I would love to see my tax dollars being spent on that.
reaganaut on November 23, 2007 at 2:56 PM
Great!! One less left-wing crazy on the NYT staff!!
When the judge throws out his case because he has no standing whatsoever to bring a suit on a subject reserved for the President by the Constitution, he can peddle his garbage in the Federal Lockup Times …unless they have journalistic standards in prison which require fact-based articles and/or a knowledge of the Constitution.
landlines on November 23, 2007 at 2:57 PM
I decided many months ago… if Hillary gets elected I shall not pay my taxes. Maybe the edit-boy will be my prison b__ch?
Griz on November 23, 2007 at 3:03 PM
Won’t pay his taxes if we bomb Iran? So there’s hope that, one day, I’ll get to see a great headline in the NY Times: “Iran Bombed; Times Editor Thrown in Jail.”
Hey, I can dream…
morganfrost on November 23, 2007 at 3:09 PM
Isn’t this the definition of win-win?
liberrocky on November 23, 2007 at 3:30 PM
Just so you know, Mr Hedges, I’m going to be first in line to turn you into the IRS for the reward!!!
…and the reward will be donated to a cause which supports our troops!
landlines on November 23, 2007 at 3:30 PM
I would love to see him taken away in silver bacelets
KBird on November 23, 2007 at 3:37 PM
This use of candles going out by Hedges in reference to the Bushmarch2War08 is crude and should be familiar to anyone who knows WW1 history or has read any Churchill stuff.
One night in 1914 just before WW1 started, as he watch the streetlights around his office being lit one by one,
then-British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey supposedly uttered the famous words “The lamps are going out all over Europe tonight…we shall not seem them lit again in our lifetime.”
i first saw that reading Wm. Manchester’s bio series of WSChurchill back in the day. Its a famous quote by Grey.
Hedges thinks GWBushitler is itching to start a world war so he can suspend the Constitution, send all oil company profits to the WH, and give missile keys to Israel and a cabal of Bush 41 cronies.
So he takes Edward Grey, substitutes new-agey candles for gas lamps, and voila, he’s got himself a rally cry against the Bushitlerburtonjoobots.
Mike D. on November 23, 2007 at 3:40 PM
He can’t write his propaganda from a jail cell, can he? I think this is win-win.
Kevin M on November 23, 2007 at 4:05 PM
All of these a$$holes saying they won’t pay their taxes makes me laugh. Haven’t they heard of witholding? Some percentage of them may be self-employed or independant contractors, but most of them are paying their taxes all year long. Maybe they’ll
requestdemand a refund from the IRS because of the war. Lots of luck.Longhorn Six on November 23, 2007 at 4:06 PM
They had this at the bottom of that first link:
The way I see it, they owe me 10 bucks for wasting 2 minutes of my time on that drivel.
Guardian on November 23, 2007 at 4:08 PM
i’ll bet my bottom dollar that being a leftist he’s already cheating on his taxes.
mfnorman on November 23, 2007 at 4:09 PM
Gotta luv the nuveo-rich commies. What he said takes cosmetic manhood. It’s sooooooooo fun to be a solcialist when you are rich. Everyone should have and legal team and the means to pay them.
Limerick on November 23, 2007 at 4:14 PM
solcialist…..I guess that is a sun worshiping commie
Limerick on November 23, 2007 at 4:15 PM
This is the jackass that directly compares evangelical Christians to Nazis and suggests the solution is to make such groups illegal and exempt them from 1st amendment protections.
Meanwhile, he’s willing to face jail time to protect an Iranian regime of — as Hitchens pointed out brilliantly — actual theocrats!
This is what a Harvard education does for you.
John on November 23, 2007 at 4:26 PM
Hitchens, that beautiful godless bastard.
Mark V. on November 23, 2007 at 4:47 PM
Good Lord. He even looks like a liberal too. Go ahead buddy. Don’t pay your taxes. See what happens to ya.
SoulGlo on November 23, 2007 at 4:48 PM
Yet another reason to bonb Iran. This putz goes to jail.
RobCon on November 23, 2007 at 5:55 PM
I’m not paying my taxes if we end up with Universal Healthcare. The magic number is 12 million. Just like illegal immigration, if 12 million people do it, its broken and new laws have to be made.
Bicyea on November 23, 2007 at 5:59 PM
Defending Poland also unleashed a regional conflict of catastrophic proportions, but Great Britain and France made the right choice in 1939.
thuja on November 23, 2007 at 6:07 PM
Heh, he’s hedging his bets in case we lose the WOT! Nothing says woosified liberal like this moonbat, disgusting little pansy surrender-monkey turd!
Liberty or Death on November 23, 2007 at 6:48 PM
Mr Hedges, please self minimize your carbon footprint…..
ScottG on November 23, 2007 at 6:53 PM
Why not? Mumia has been doing it for 15+ years. Hell, he even does a radio show from behind bars.
Hannibal Smith on November 23, 2007 at 7:11 PM
Perhaps he would volunteer to remove is carbon footprint.
Kini on November 23, 2007 at 7:27 PM
What a poseur.
If he were serious, he’d do the self-immolation thing with the gasoline and… some sparklers! Yeah!
(That we he could get into the papers.)
heldmyw on November 23, 2007 at 7:56 PM
He should hold his breath to reduce carbon emissions, too!
SouthernGent on November 24, 2007 at 12:41 AM
MANDATES: New prisoners.
Dr. Charles G. Waugh on November 24, 2007 at 2:17 AM
That’s the guy. I remember almost working my fingers to the bone trying to get through to Hugh Hewitt’s show the day he played that speech and dissected his vituperation on the air. It was refreshing to hear some students and audience members put this moron Hedges in his place.
Captain Scarlet on November 24, 2007 at 5:57 AM
I hope he enjoys his daily anal rape in the Joint.
georgej on November 24, 2007 at 7:04 AM
Well, I won’t pay my taxes if any of my money pays Durbin’s Obama’s and/or Rich Daley’s salaries. I won’t pay my taxes if any of my money goes to the Chicago public schools run by scumbag democrats in this blue state where if you send your children there they’ll end up on Jerry Springer, or to minority set asides that promote underqualified candidates to be my bosses because the color of their skin.
See? I have beefs too.
Waaah
LtE126 on November 24, 2007 at 9:12 AM
Yeah, yeah…
.
Another of the gutless Lefty crowd who also SWORE they were going to leave America if Bush got re-elected. Bush got re-elected but all those hard lefty Democrats and Hollyweird types forgot their promise! Very disappointing!
.
I had hoped that just FOR ONCE, these Lefties would be men and women of their word, but no such luck! This is more such BS. This Times-twerp is another gutless Lefty blowhard who doesn’t have the guts to really do such a pedestrian, plebeian thing as major civil disobedience and risk jail time for a principle.
DavePa on November 24, 2007 at 9:51 AM
Anyone else notice where his friends live… I say we take a look at his address book and add a few of them to our target list.
Gwillie on November 24, 2007 at 9:58 AM
Hedges has freinds in a lot of interesting places. Are his freinds also the freinds of America? Freedom?
I doubt it.
peacenprosperity on November 24, 2007 at 11:10 AM
One look at the guy and you can tell he’s a wimp.
D2Boston on November 24, 2007 at 11:55 AM
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