Umberto Eco on Fascism

First pointed out by Bob Harris- Umberto Eco- author of the truly wonderful Foucalt's Pendulum has an article written back in the last century- 1995 to be exact- in which he lists out a number of philosophical ideologies that make fertile soil for fascism. It's like Karl Rove read the list and used it as his roadmap to the '04 election.

A sampling:
"The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism.
In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason."
"Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity.
Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition."

WTF?

The Shrubster wasn't elected by people who are afraid of gays and the repulsively uninformed- he was elected by GOD.
Gee- the religious right wonders why they scare the living daylights out of those of us who are even remotely rational.
A sample:
Richard Land, a leading Southern Baptist who participates in a weekly strategy call between the White House and evangelical leaders put it this way: “Whoever won, it would have been God’s will.” But because Bush won, Land told Beliefnet, God has clearly shown America his blessings. If Kerry had won, it would have proved God was cursing the United States. “The Bible says godly leadership is a sign of God’s blessings and a lack of godly leadership is a sign of God’s judgment. I don’t see Kerry as a godly leader.”
Truly marvelous stuff.

Rove's Legacy

Carl Rove has been called lots of things- but dumb is never one of them. While the democrats fumble around trying to decide how Republican they can act in '08, Carl is already very hard at work wrapping up then next election for whatever wingnut next sucks in the nomination. McCain and Ghooliani probably shouldn't hold their breath- Bush will hand pick his successor and he's gonna be someone the American Taliban- Sam Smith's term for the far right- can really get behind. Why? Becuase that's Rove's strategy. Step one: Shore up and strengthen the already electrified American Taliban base- and second- here's the bigee- take the Hispanic vote away from the Dems entirely- thereby opening up California to the Repubs in '08. What he's doing- first Hispanic Attorney General and the work visa for aliens issue- is obvious and quite brilliant- but it's going to be really difficult 4 years from now to listen to the damn morons in the news media talking about what a surprise the whole thing was and how the Dems were just outmanuevered again.

I know he thinks he has a mandate but things are getting out of hand.

You would think anyone who would reccomend Zell Miller to replace COlin Powell as Sec. of State would just be a wingnut right. Well, I'll still argue this guy's a wingnut but a contributing editor to the National Review thinks it's a good idea.

But that's just a guy talking- this one's a whole lot spookier.

President Bush has announced his plan to select Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Dr. Hager is the author of "As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now." The book blends biblical accounts of Christ healing women with case studies from Hager's practice. His views of reproductive health care are far outside the mainstream for reproductive technology. Dr. Hager is a practicing OB/GYN who describes himself as "pro-life" and refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women.
In the book Dr. Hager wrote with his wife, entitled "Stress and the Woman's Body," he suggests that women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome should seek help from reading the bible and praying. As an editor and contributing author of "The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality Reproductive Technologies and the Family," Dr. Hager appears to have endorsed the medically inaccurate assertion that the common birth control pill is an abortifacient.

No Child Left Behind

Yeah. Bush's Police State won't leave anyone behind.

I'm still reeling from the election. Trying to understand how 1/2 of this country hates gays so much they'd reelect Bush IN SPITE of the fact that Kerry's poisition on the gay marriage thing is nearly as unsupportive of gays as Shrub's. Civil unions- sure- step right up to the water fountain- it's not the same as our water fountain- but it's just as nice.
Oh, and now you have to ride at the back of the bus.
The Daily Mirror put it best- How can 55 million people be so dumb?

Dean Wins!!!

Via Tom Tommorrow (how does he find so many gems?) A great bit of alternate history: The election of Howard Dean.

kerry loses

I wrote a 1,000 word thing and it just disappeared when I tried to post it. Fuck it. We lost. The evil shitbags won. Every single person who cast a vote for Bush will pay for it. It's their air, water, food, TV, too.
Let them choke on it.

You can almost hear the entire country holding its breath.

The Most Accurate Indicator??

This is my 101st post to this blog and I thought it was fitting to do 2 things. First, my predictions for tommorrow.
Kerry by 5 points. He takes Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, and MAYBE Ohio.
Dems go up by 1 seat in Senate and Repubs hold the House by 5. (5 is the magic number this year)
I think we'll know Kerry won tommorrow before midnight.
HOWEVER, it wouldn't surprise me to see Bush's people trying REAL hard to roll back Kerry's win. We'll see.

Second I would like to post what is probably the stupidest, yet weirdly accurate indicator of elections: The fate of the Washington Redskins.

Washington Redskins vs. The President
Wisconsin supporters of John Kerry and John Edwards had an extra reason to cheer the Packers victory over the Redskins today: over the past 17 presidential elections, the outcome of the Redskins' final home game has determined the outcome of the election. According to history, if the Redskins win, the incumbent president remains in office. If they lose, the challenger wins.
How the Washington Redskins franchise fared the game before presidential elections, and the elections' outcomes:
2000: Tennessee 27, Redskins 21... Democrats lose White House (George W. Bush defeats Al Gore)
1996: Redskins 31, Indianapolis 16... Democrats keep it (Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole)
1992: New York Giants 24, Redskins 7... Republicans lose it (Clinton defeats George H.W. Bush)
1988: Redskins 27, New Orleans 24... Republicans keep it (Bush defeats Michael Dukakis)
1984: Redskins 27, Atlanta 14... Republicans keep it (Ronald Reagan defeats Walter Mondale)
1980: Minnesota 39, Redskins 14... Democrats lose it (Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter)
1976: Dallas 20, Redskins 7... Republicans lose it (Carter defeats Gerald Ford)
1972: Redskins 35, New York Jets 17... Republicans keep it (Richard Nixon defeats George McGovern)
1968: Minnesota 27, Redskins 13... Democrats lose it (Nixon defeats Hubert Humphrey)
1964: Redskins 21, Philadelphia 10... Democrats keep it (Lyndon Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater)
1960: Cleveland 31, Redskins 10... Republicans lose it (John Kennedy defeats Nixon)
1956: Redskins 17, Chicago Cardinals 14... Republicans keep it (Dwight Eisenhower defeats Adlai Stevenson)
1952: Pittsburgh 24, Redskins 23... Democrats lose it (Eisenhower defeats Stevenson)
1948: Redskins 51, Boston Yanks 21... Democrats keep it (Harry Truman defeats Thomas Dewey)
1944: Redskins 42, Chi-Pitt 20... Democrats keep it (Franklin Roosevelt defeats Dewey)
1940: Washington Redskins 37, Pittsburgh 10... Democrats keep it (Roosevelt defeats Wendell Willkie)
1936: Boston Redskins 13, Chicago Cardinals 10... Democrats keep it (Roosevelt defeats Alfred Landon)
1932: Boston Braves 7, Chicago Bears 7... Republicans lose it (Roosevelt defeats Herbert Hoover)

Osama in his own words

For those who are still kicking the dirt and believing the Gosh Darn Al-Queda just hates all of our freedom, Osama’s new tape should be an eye opener. No complete transcript is available, but here's the most complete transcript available. Sure he’s an evil shit- but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have legitimate reasons for his anger. Reasons, by the way, he has no reason to lie about. This IS NOT to say that 9-11 was justified. His anger is justified, how he acted on it, IS NOT. The sad fact of the matter is the poor deluded bastard probably thinks he’s Saudi Arabia’s George Washington. He wants the US to stop supporting Israel and to get our military out of the middle east entirely- particularly from Saudi Arabia. In other words he wants us to get the occupying military to go home- it's the same justification being used by the insurgents in Iraq.
Is that really such an insane request? Would we want someone’s military in OUR country. No, I don’t think we would. And it's an easy one to agree to. We just pack up our shit, come home, and focus our attention on eliminating our slavish need for foriegn oil.
The hawks will say that Osama wants us to go home so can he can be free to train terrorists to come over here and kill us. That’s just stupid. We have this infatuation in this country with cartoonish bad guys. The truth of the matter is, people can be sane, and still be very very evil. A crazy guy couldn’t hide out from us all this time.
Osama said the attack was carried out because "we are a free people ... and we want to regain the freedom of our nation."
Why does that have to be a lie? WE may not agree with anything the man thinks, but FROM HIS POINT OF VIEW what he's saying is true.
People do evil (ie violent) things because they are convinced of the truth of their convictions to the point they think they are justified in the violence they are perpetrating.
Nearly all violence has this same conviction- from a crime of passion to a well thought out act of terrorism, to an entire nation organized around a war. It is the root of the wheel of death the human race has been spinning around on since Cain killed his brother.
From this point of view both the US and the Al Queda are the same. It’s all senseless killing. When John Kerry pulls our people out of the Middle East (which I think most Democrats are hoping he will do if elected) I hope he doesn’t stop at just Iraq. I hope we bring everyone in the region home. And while we’re at it lets stop being the number one arms dealer in the world.

Bush Worse than Doctor Octopus and Leatherface.

Reuters-

Film Fans Make Bush 'Movie Villain of the Year'

LONDON - President George W. Bush may see himself as defender of democracy and compassionate conservatism but film fans have voted him "Movie Villain of the Year".
The American "Axis of Evil" fighter is wooing voters with security pledges ahead of the presidential election next week, but it was Bush's role in Michael Moore's anti-war film "Fahrenheit 9/11" that won him the villainous title.
In a poll for Total Film magazine, the U.S. leader fought off competition from such well-known baddies as atomic scientist Doctor Octopus from "Spider-Man 2" and fellow Texan Leatherface from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".
"The overwhelming response of our readers voting Bush top villain just goes to show how frightening people found him in Fahrenheit 9/11," Total Film's editor Matt Mueller told Reuters. "He was absolutely terrifying in that film. The infamous scene where he's informed about the Twin Towers attack while visiting a school, and sits there absolutely paralysed, is enough to strike fear into anyone's heart," he said.

LYRICS TO "MOSH"- THE EMINEM SONG I MENTIONED YESTERDAY

Watch the video here.
Much respect. The video was produced by GNN the Guerilla News Network. They're good folks, I've been digging them for a while. GNN Home Page Here. (You can watch the video from here as well.)

"MOSH"

kids: I pledge alegence to the flag of the united states of america

eminem: People, hahaha, this is it, it feels so good to be back!

VERSE 1:

I Scrutinize every word, memorize every line
I spit it once, refuel, reenergize and rewind
I give sight to the blind, my insight through the mind
I exercise my right to express when I feel its time.
just in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say the “fight” you take it as ima whip someone’s ass
If you don’t understand don’t even bother to ask,
a father who has grown up with a father less passed who has blown up now to rap phenomena,
that has or at least shows no difficulty multi task, in juggling both perhaps master this craft slash entrepreneur who has held launch a phew more rap bags.
Who’s had a phew obstacles thrown his way through the last half
Of his creatifical maneuver moving past that
Mister kiss his ass crack, he’s a class act,
Rubber band man, yeah, he just snaps back

CHORUS:

Come along follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark that we need, to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength, come with me, and I wont steer you wrong
Get your faith and your trust, as I guide us through the fog, to the light at the end of the tunnel we gon’ fight,
we gon’ charge, we gon’ stomp, we gon’ mosh through the smog, we gon’ march through the mosh, take us right through the doors… COME ON

VERSE 2:

All the people up top, on the side and the middle, from the ghetto, lets all form and swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build, from the front to the back,
All you can see is a sea of people, some white and some black
Don’t matter what color, all that matters is we gathered together,
To celebrate for the same cause, no matter the whether
If it rains, let it rain, YEAH the wetter the better
They ain’t gon’ stop us, they cant, were stronger now more then ever
They tell us no we say yeah, they tell us stop we say go,
Rebel with a rebel, yell “rais hell”, we gon’ let em? No
STOMP, PUSH, SHOVE, MUSH… FUCK BUSH, until they bring our troops home… COME ON

CHORUS:

just,
Come along follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark that we need, to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength, come with me, and I wont steer you wrong
Get your faith and your trust, as I guide us through the fog, to the light at the end of the tunnel we gon’ fight,
we gon’ charge, we gon’ stomp we gon mosh through the smog, we gon march through the mosh, take us right through the doors… COME ON

VERSE 3:

Imagine it poorin’, its rainin’ down on us, moshpits outside the oval office
Someone’s tryin to tell us something, maybe this is god, just sayin we're responsible
For this monster, this coward, that we have empowered, this is bin laden
Look at his head noddin’, how can we allow something like this without pumpin our fists
Now this is our, final hour,
Let me be the voice, in your strength and your choice, let me simplify the rhyme,
Just to implify the noise, tryin to amplify to times it, and multiply it by sixteen million people are equal at this high pitch
Maybe we can reach alqueda through my speech, let the president answer our high anarchy
Strap him with a AK-47 let HIM go fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way,
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil, no more psychological warfare to trick us to thinking that we ain’t loyal
If we don’t serve our own country, we’re patronizing our hero
Look in his eyes, its all lies, the stars and stripes, have been swiped, washed out and wiped,
And replaced with his own face, mosh now or die, if I can snipe tonight, you’ll know why, ‘cuz I told you to fight.

CHORUS:

Come along follow me as I leed through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark that we need, to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength, come with me, and I wont steer you wrong
Get your faith and your trust, as I guide us through the fog, to the light at the end of the tunnel we gon fight,
we gon charge, we gon stomp we gon mosh through the smog, we gon march through the mosh, take us right through the doors... come on

Eminem: and as we proceed to mosh through this deasert storm, and these closing statements, if they should argue, let us beg to differ, as we set aside our differences, and assemble our own army to dissarm this weapon of mass distruction that we call our president for the present and mosh for the future of our next generation, to speak and be heard, mr president, mr senitor

kids: hear us, hear us

WOW- Who knew?

I don't care what you think of Eminem or hip-hop you have to watch his latest video. I wish MTV would just start playing it and leave it on until election day. I'm not sure when Eminem got political beyond his own life- but this is a seriously brilliant song/video combination.

DICK Cheney- The MOVIE

Want to know what a lying prick Cheney is?
A career retrospective.
Watch it here. (About 40 minutes)
You'll notice Sinclair isn't trying to air it. Oh well.
For instance, Did you know that Cheney dropped out of Yale- Twice?
Oh, and he got arrested for Drunk Driving too- just like Bush.

Oh, this just keeps getting more and more ridiculous

In what HAS to be, hands down, the most completely fucking stupid thing his Shrubness has EVER said- either that or this man is WAY WAY WAY more insane than even his greatest detractors have ventured to guess.

Pat Robertson. THE Pat Robertson of the 700 Club fame- otherwise known as Fundamentalist Wacko- says that in discussions with Pres. Shrub before the gulf war that NO ONE WAS GOING TO DIE!!!! I cannot wait to see the Republicans attack Robertson as a liberal or something- this is going to be rich!


What exactly was said?
"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "
Robertson said the president then told him,
"Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."

Anyone that votes for this guy needs to have their heads examined. That millions will in a couple of weeks is a little hard to understand. How far up your ass does your head have to be before people will admit you're not worth their support?
I guess we'll find out.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any more ridiculous

THE BUSH FOLKS ARE BURYING A CIA REPORT THAT HOLDS THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR 9/11!!!!!

That's right, the CIA has reportedly had a report prepared for weeks that names high level Bush administration officials (we don't know which ones exactly- just that they are "high level") as culpable for 9-11. Since this falls under the category of things the Dubyas don't want to be true- THEY ARE SUPRESSING IT. This practice was quite common- in Soviet Russia.

Once again it makes me wonder- is there anything these people won't do?

There he goes again...

Cheney has once more unleashed what is probably the most petty, most shameful, most disgusting of all campaign arguments.
If you vote for the other guy- we're all going to die.
I mean, come the fuck on.

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States..." -Dick

First of all, this scares the crap out of me becuase if I'm a terrorist- this makes me want to hit America before the election- if for no other reason for saying they cannot hit at the Bush Administration- especially considering what happened in Spain last year. I fear such an attack will be the October surprise we've all been waiting for. These guys are clearly desperate. (Both the terrorists and the Bush Camp)

I think the first thing Kerry is going to do as President is to give all of Halliburton's contracts to other firms- I'm sure the thought's crossed the minds of the people at Halliburton as well. I'm sure they've made a few phone calls- I mean you would almost have to- the contracts are worth literally billions of dollars. If you're a Halliburton Exec. do you really just let this happen? And who are you going to call? Why the ex CEO of your company and the Vice President of the US- Dick Dick Cheney.
This is all speculation of course and will always remain so. Dick's not stupid- there will never be any record of his interactions with Halliburton. But with Billions of dollars in play and the media in their pocket- the chances for really scary Reichstag Fire/Wag the Dog- type stuff just gets higher and higher.

I really think it sucks that we even have to consider such things- that my biggest hope- not confidence- hope- is that the US can hold an election that comes within 10 miles of fair. Never mind the screw-ups in Afghanistan- I'm worried about our country- our people.

Tucker Carlson, "You're a dick..."

Johnathon Stewart is my hero. Watch him on Crossfire. It's totally brutal- John rips both Tucker and Bagala to shreds. And his point is a very valid one. My favorite part is when they criticize Stewart's COMEDY show against their show on CNN.

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?
STEWART: Absolutely.
CARLSON: You've got to be kidding me. He comes on and you...
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.

For all y'all with the yellow ribbons who plan to vote for the Cheatin' Dubya.

Amply supplied troops?

Go ahead. Say it's because Kerry voted against the 87 milliion- which was actually a protest vote against Halliburton's free cash giveaway.

He got his money. The troops are in a terrible place- unequipped, outnumbered, and unsafe. They should be back home here with us. If wanting people to not die is unAmerican. Then so be it.

Send Bush home to Texas and bring our troops home for Valentines Day!

Cheater Cheater Cheater!!!!!

It's a little hard to believe, but Bush wore the wire again in the 3rd debate. Salon has a great picture of it although you'll have to go through some bullshit to actually read the article that accompanies the terrific photo of Bush's bulging back.

Sorry to keep hyping on this- but if he's willing to cheat like this in a simple (albeit important for his personal political future) debate- just try to imagine the level of deceit going on about the really important issues that effect everyone in this country- indeed around the entire globe.

Yikes.