Politics

David Neiwert just published the final installment of the “Rush, Newspeak, and Fascism” series. Sorry about the self-link; he doesn’t have a table of contents anywhere. But he says there’s a PDF coming soon. Anyhow, this installment is fascinating material on the connection between religion and fascism, made all the more important and relevant by the recent Rudolph arrest. And, yes, it’s interesting when considering Islamic terrorism as well. Key coinage: “fascimentalism.”

It’s not time to vote yet. Maybe soon. Who knows? It’s a pretty tricky issue. The problem is that if elections are held now, you’re going to get either Islamic extremists or Baathist remnants in power. In many ways, Jay Bremer is right. The long-term goal of a democratic country would be poorly served by holding elections right this minute. This is not, however, news. Most anti-war people noted this problem many months ago. The problem is not that Bremer is putting off elections, it’s that he doesn’t have any clear plan on how to get to them — as predicted. Unfortunately, saying “So what will we do when we win?” was apparently a sign of anti-Americanism. ...

Charlie Stross draws comparisons (original) between the museum losses in Baghdad and hypothetical losses of equal scale in London. Imagine London bombed. The V&A trashed, the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels looted, the British Library complex on Euston Road burned (along with all those annoying old bits of paper like the original draft of Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible, and so on), the Natural History Museum used as a defensive fortification and shelled. (Goodbye, Apollo 10.) ...

Campaign season has apparently officially started. Ari Fleischer spent more time answering questions about Bush’s campaign (original) yesterday than he spent on anything else, including this little gem: Q Secondly, on fundraising. Governor Dean has said that it’s a threat to democracy for any one presidential candidate to have two or three times more money to get his or her message out than any other candidate. Regardless of how much money the President plans to raise, does he see any merit whatsoever in that argument? ...

Bush is now claiming that questions about his justification for the invasion of Iraq are coming from “revisionist historians.” Saddam was a threat, and that’s that. Apparently he was the kind of threat who can be ousted in about two weeks flat — but maybe pointing that out is revisionist history. It’s probably also revisionist history to point out that Iraqis are killing more Americans per week now than they were in 2002. ...

Everyone’s linking to this one (original), but what the heck — let’s dogpile. Rand Beers resigned from his position as a counterterrorism advisor in the White House just before the war on Iraq began. Not because he didn’t support the war; he did. Rather, he couldn’t take working for Bush. Beers had been working in the NSC since the 80s; he replaced Oliver North as director for counterterrorism and counternarcotics. He worked for Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes. He’s a registered Democrat but it would be hard to argue that he dislikes Republicans. ...

This really shouldn’t be a surprise, but I was a bit surprised. The official British investigation into those trailers decided they weren’t WMD labs. They were, apparently, hydrogen gas producing units, which is exactly what the Iraqis claimed they were. The Brits may have had an easier time figuring this out, since Iraq’s original artillery balloon systems were sold to Iraq by a British company. So let’s go back to the surprise. Why was I surprised? Because I can’t help believing, on some level, that there are WMD in Iraq. Despite the fact that no Iraqi official has decided to let us know where they are, and despite the fact that we can’t find the tens of thousands of tons of WMD that Bush claimed, and despite the fact that Iraq didn’t use ‘em even at the 11th hour — some of me says “Well, they must be there.” ...

Looks like the Killer D T-shirts are finally available. Paypal 20 bucks (includes shipping) to dkz@swbell.net, subject line “T-Shirt Order”, tell him what size you want. Or use this link, which I just whipped up and used myself.

Unsurprisingly, Bush’s faith-based programs have taken that fateful next step. This one involves the Head Start preschool program. In eight states, it’s now possible for religious organizations running Head Start programs to discriminate in hiring based on religion (original). This is ludicrous. The rationale is that religious organizations might not participate without being able to discriminate. I am forced to say “So?” Religious groups that feel the need to discriminate based on religion are not appropriate teachers for our children.

The Guardian has another piece on Guantanamo. Five points off for using scare quotes and the term “death chamber.” Ten points granted, however, for quoting the British Foreign Office regarding their concern about the British citizens currently interred down there. Remember, while we won’t subject our own citizens to a military tribunal, we’ll do it to the citizens of our allies.