Hating freedom since 2004
because she wore a tux instead of pearls. Student yearbook editor fired for not complying with teacher's order to remove the photo.More evidence of how much my home state sucks ass. Oh, and also gets more and more fascist every day.
What else did you expect him to write about?
What all of them [paleocons who have written recently about Republican party fascism] miss, importantly, is the role of movement leaders -- particularly Bush, Cheney, Karl Rove, and the neocons -- in encouraging these proto-fascist traits. There is no evidence that they're doing so because they themselves are actually proto-fascists; rather, I think it remains clear that these people are pro-corporate crony capitalists, and the evidence strongly suggests that they're indulging this style of politics for the sake of shoring up their numbers and securing their political base. The strongest evidence for this is the ongoing minuet the Bush administration dances with the neo-Confederate faction that now rules the South.This is why we are unconvinced when people say "it's just another four yours" to us. It's not just 'the administration'. It's the Åmerican people. We're not any worse than other people, really, it's just that conditions are ripe. Increasing inequality (courtesy of the crony capitalists), environmental stress, war, plague (Bird Flu. It's the New Black Death![tm]) -- will these things push us closer to fascism, you think? Or will they result in a fabulous Age of Aquarius, with peace, love, and happiness for all? We Report. You Decide.
In other words, "movement conservatives" are being molded into a mindset that increasingly resembles classic fascism, but it's being done by leaders who mostly find this mindset convenient and readily manipulable. Unfortunately, the history of fascism is such that the arrogant corporatist belief that they contain these forces is not well grounded.
What's important to understand is the real dynamic: A growing populist "movement" is being encouraged increasingly to adopt attitudes that, taken together, become increasingly fascist. Greater numbers of individuals are being conditioned to think alike, and more importantly, to accept an increasingly vicious response to dissent. This does not mean that genuine fascism has arrived as a real political force in America; but it does mean the groundwork is being created for just such a nightmare, by irresponsible politicians tapping into terrible forces beyond their ability to control.
If even "paleo-conservatives" can see this, there's hope of stopping it. But I think we need to begin with a clear understanding of who, what, and why the fascists are.
The latent fascists who are the biggest problem right now are not Republican leaders. It is their oxyconned, Foxcized, Freeped-out, fanatic army of followers, comprising ordinary people, who pose the long-term problem. Drawing them back from the abyss is the real challenge that confronts us.
here:
Wherever resentment resides in the human character it can find a home in the Republican Party. This anger and frustration stems from a long nurtured sense of cultural besiegement, which they are finding can never be dealt with through the attainment of power alone. They seek approval.My father-in-law was saying much the same thing over dinner last night. ("They know we despise them, and that we are right to do so.")
just as Network TV goes into summer reruns: "In its drive to stop Iran gaining any ability to make nuclear weapons, the United States is ready to give European allies only until June to cajole Tehran before Washington seeks U.N. sanctions, U.S. diplomatic documents show."
from the BBC: "Doctors say a 21-year-old man was admitted to hospital in Hanoi suffering from fever, respiratory problems, and liver failure."
Atrios has a post about the Kansas AG's subpoena of abortion records.
here's an interesting piece by Slavoj Žižek on authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and the American crusade. Amy usually finds Žižek to be a little "yeah, so?" but I almost always enjoy him.
We Report, You Decide.
64 percent believe that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda (up slightly from 62% in November).
61 percent believe that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, was a serious threat to U.S. security (down slightly from 63% in November).
More surprising perhaps are the large numbers (albeit not majorities) who believe the following claims not made by the president and which virtually no experts believe to be true:
47 percent believe that Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001 (up six percentage points from November).
44 percent actually believe that several of the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis (up significantly from 37% in November).
36 percent believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded (down slightly from 38% in November).
Another interesting finding is that only 46 percent believe that Saddam Hussein was prevented from developing weapons of mass destruction by the U.N. weapons inspectors, a fact which most reports now support.
Friedman today: "When a country lives on borrowed time, borrowed money and borrowed energy, it is just begging the markets to discipline it in their own way at their own time. As I said, usually the markets do it in an orderly way - except when they don't."
The BBC reports that Britain'sNHS superbug death rate doubles. However, Reuters reports that "The World Health Organization's Asia chief, Shigeru Omi, said on Wednesday the world was in the "gravest possible danger" of a pandemic. A top U.S. disease expert said this week the killer virus was the world's number one health threat." But, says the article, the world is not investing enough to prevent its spread in Asia, and poor farmers pay little attention to admonitions not to sell their sick poultry and spread the disease even further. "Governments needed to work harder to inform farmers about the risks of bird flu and persuade them to make sensible decisions," says one expert on the problem. And boy oh boy, that's good news for Avian Influenza, Ltd., because, after all, it's easy to convince people to make sensible decisions for the good of the broader community. Especially when they can save all that trouble and just burn some witches instead.
Jim Hoagland at WaPo complains that feminists should be "shouting from the rooftops" about Iraq's election results and what they mean for the "liberation" of Iraqi women.
The idea of our beautiful son someday dying in an idiot-led war.
TPM notes a Craig's List posting purporting to be from the Social Security Administration looking for people to participate in a focus group on the "privatization or partial privatization of Social Security". The posting has been purged from Craig's List since its discovery.
Note: Swiping posting title "Loose Links" from our friend RJ at The Daily Blague.
It grows more and more likely that the right, who wholeheartedly supported the war and are currently supporting the political handling of the occupation, deposed a totalitarian dictator to install a repressive fundamentalist theocracy in its place. I fail to see how that advances the cause of our country or western civilization. Indeed, it is a betrayal of everything we stand for.
I've been meaning to post for a while now about Ross Douthat's Atlantic piece about how Harvard let him down so much. However, I keep not wanting to actually read the damn thing, since Brad DeLong's discussion of it made it sound so icky I haven't been able to find the stomach for it yet. Oh, and it's also subscribers-only, so I'd have to track down a print magazine. Like I have time for that.
This tedious saga just keeps going on, and on. I can't keep up. But here's Bitch, Phd with what should be an obvious statement about the ridiculousness of the 80-hour work week.
Oh, for chrissakes. Three months ago there was some big debate on, what, Crooked Timber?, asking where all the women bloggers were. And lots of women bloggers came by and said "geez, do we have to have this debate every three months?" And now here's Kevin Drum, wondering where all the chick bloggers are. Again.
He actually thinks Americans, if shown the right pictures, and told the right facts, will give a shit about genocide. He forgets that we've put torturers in charge of enforcing the law. Nevertheless, we should all write our Senators, etc. to request that they pull their heads out of the bogus social security 'debate' long enough to focus again on the torture, the genocide, the terrorists, and the dead people.
New Donkey is shocked at survey results showing that,in a hypothetical presidential race, George W. Bush trounces George Washington 62%-28% among Republicans (and what happened to the other 10% -- were they afraid the poll was some kind of loyalty test?):
Depending on what happens during Bush's second term, he is almost certain to go down in history as a president comparable to William McKinley at best (the symbol and vehicle for a political realignment he did little or nothing to cause) or Warren G. Harding at worst (the amiable front-man for a feeding frenzy of corruption and national irresponsibility).The problem with guys like Kilgore is that they are far, far too generous to Bush and refuse to recognize the actually revolutionary character of this administration. For which I hold Bush responsible.
Disclosure: The Biscuit Report has been retained by Avian Influenza, Ltd, to help it with its campaign "Bird Flu: It's the New Black Death." It is in fulfillment of that business relationship that I recommend this link about the coming bird flu pandemic.
Stumbled across some appalling fascist T-shirts at www.thoseshirts.com (copy/paste the link; i'm paranoid), chock full of fascistic eliminationist rhetoric against us liberals, the French, environmentalists, etc. Some of the luminaries of the fascist blogosphere, like Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin are proudly featured wearing their dreck.
Krugman says the Social Security sale is going so badly Bush is likely to switch to, say, a Syria or Iran sale any day now. Wag-the-Dog Protection: But, he says, "Mr. Bush's critics are falling into an unnecessary trap if they focus only on domestic policies, and allow Mr. Bush to keep his undeserved reputation as someone who keeps Americans safe. National security policy should not be a refuge to which Mr. Bush can flee when his domestic agenda falls apart."
Doctors See a Big Rise in
In interviews with more than two dozen sports-medicine doctors and researchers, one factor was repeatedly cited as the prime cause for the outbreak in overuse injuries among young athletes: specialization in one sport at an early age and the year-round, almost manic, training for it that often follows.
'It's not enough that they play on a school team, two travel teams and go to four camps for their sport in the summer,' said Dr. Eric Small, who has a family sports-medicine practice in Westchester County. 'They have private instructors for that one sport that they see twice a week. Then their parents get them out to practice in the backyard at night.'
Digby thinks the line "We're just trying to keep the Republicans from going too far!" is a good one for the Dems in Congress to use.
I haven't looked at my newsreader in three days. I've been busy planning three gardens (ordering seeds, plotting paths, trying to find room for 38 tomato seedlings arriving May 15..) and getting ready for our trip to New Zealand. So, loyal readers, I apologize for my lack of posts in recent days. I will now attempt a marathon read-and-post session. Do not expect Pulitzer material, I'm just trying to catch up.
This man who pretends to feel such empathy for gays is the same man who ran on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, told James Byrd's family to take a hike, signed off on 150 plus executions without looking up from his gameboy and now claims that the constitution gives him the total power to order torture and execution in the name of the War On Terror.
This goes beyond hypocrisy. It's downright pathological. The Republican coalition consists of a racists, homophobes, dupes and the rich selfish bastards who tell them whatever they want to hear in order to get elected. I hope their religion is real because if it is they are all going to spend eternity in the ninth circle of hell.
