Hey, looks like I called it! Chirac’s interested in the Chile proposal. I didn’t think that was actually likely, but I did note it would be a clever diplomatic move. Via Den Beste, who thinks it’s another chance to mock Chirac and rather misses the problems it might cause Tony Blair.
Population: One
Over the course of the last couple of months, David Neiwert has been writing a series of articles entitled “Rush, Newspeak and facism” on the potential for fascism in the United States. He’s a journalist who has extensive experience in this field; his articles are well worth your time. I don’t really have anything to say about these, which makes me a bad blogger, but sometimes you just have to pass along the important links.
- Part 1: a discussion of the nature of fascism.
- Part 2: why the left shouldn’t abuse the term “fascist.”
- Part 3: more on what fascism really means, and the “Patriot” movement.
- Part 4: the Patriot movement as proto-fascism.
- Part 5: how the memes of the Patriot movement are transmitted to mainstream thought.
- Part 6: Bush’s relationship with the religious right.
- Part 7: more on transmitters — the people who carry ideas from the extreme right into the mainstream.
- Part 8: political and religious transmitters, from Trent Lott to James Traficant to Pat Robertson.
- Part 9: media transmitters who pick up the rhetoric of the Patriot movement and make it palatable.
- Part 10: why Limbaugh’s tactics work and how they pull the mainstream right towards the extreme.
- Part 11: the fringe doesn’t look like the fringe, and can’t be assumed to be marginal.
- Part 12: a case study in Kalispell, Montana and a call to arms.
- Postscript: the importance of understanding the word “fascism.”
- Postscript:: Robert Paxton and “mobilizing passions.”
- Postscript: fascimentalism.
3/24/2003 Addendum: I have added a link to the postscript, and will continue to update this post if the series is further updated. I very much urge anyone who finds Neiwert’s work interesting to buy his book and to buy the pamphlet he’s producing from the series in whatever form he makes it available. I feel a little guilty that people have linked to me, rather than to him — I just reformatted his links a little. Buy his stuff, and make me feel better.
7/6/2003 Addendum: He’s released a PDF version of the essays, substantially rewritten and edited. Five buck donation requested. Go, read.
Time for another quick Iraq rundown.
Bush’s promise to unveil a Middle East peace plan (despite what some in his administration think of it) may have been another favor to Tony Blair, as it seems that promise is helping Tony Blair keep Claire Short from resigning. On the flip side, a poll of Labor backbenchers showed 95 out of 129 MPs refusing to support military action without a second resolution.
Still, any talk of peace is simply avoiding reality. US bombers took out Iraqi radar systems last night — specifically, those systems which would give warning of a US attack. The Azores meeting is not a diplomatic summit, it’s a planning session for the attack.
Not so long ago, Bush said there’d be a Security Council vote “no matter what.” Apparently he lied. Chile circulated a compromise proposal that adopted Britain’s five steps — five things Saddam must do or face war — but gave him 30 days to get it done. Bush said no. I don’t think Bush can allow that resolution to get to the floor, because it would get the nine yes votes Blair needs to head off any revolt. Unfortunately for Blair, ignoring a resolution with nine yes votes is far worse than skipping another resolution altogether, so Blair and Bush have to get the war in gear before anything happens. See what trying to reach a compromise gets you?
Along those lines, if France really wanted to embarass the hell out of the US, it’d pick up the Chilean proposal and champion it. Imagine the fun if Bush found himself forced to veto a resolution that included a trigger for war? I don’t really think that’ll happen, but man it’d be interesting.
Anyhow, I’m still predicting March 21st, this coming Friday. (Doh. Was off by three.) Launching the war mid-week would pummel the markets; better to give Wall Street a couple of days to watch before they can panic. If the Security Council winds up bringing other resolutions to the floor, that might speed things up.
I bought some Dixie Chicks CDs today. If the best argument one can think of is “I don’t agree with you so I’ll punish you economically,” one doesn’t really have much of a case, does one? Come to think of it, one would — in that hypothetical case — mostly be pouting. The only thing which could make it complete is calling one’s antagonist names.
The last Mr. Sterling of the season and probably for good aired last night, and you know what I did? I watched it. You bet.
Most of the hour was spent on the deeply gripping and action-packed story of the Senator’s filibuster, most of which was delivered to an empty Senate. There was a tense little subplot about whether or not he’d be able to go to the bathroom. I think the message of the episode was that if you don’t care whether or not you get reelected, and you can talk for 24 hours straight, you may be able to screw up the budget and cause the United States to default on loans. But the cost will be your hot actor girlfriend.
In retrospect, I should have been recapping the show like this from the start.
Charlie Daniels continues to be a sad, sorry little son of a bitch. He sent that “open letter” out to a bunch of people. Tamara Saviano (who works in the music industry) got the letter, apparently directly from Daniels. She responded, from her home, on her own time.
She got fired. After Daniels’ publicist complained.
So not only is Daniels revealing himself as the worst kind of idiot, but if you dare to disagree with him, he’ll see if he can get you fired.
(Via Textism, via Electrolite.)
The good people at CafePress have finally added data CDs and audio CDs to their product list. You have to send in a master, but they’re working on allowing you to upload MP3s instead. CafePress stores will include audio samples for audio CDs, and the packaging is full jewel cases with inserts. I can’t tell if CafePress’s CDs are commercial grade or CD-Rs. The base price for CDs is $4.95, and shipping and handling is $5 for the first item — so pricing is pretty competitive. You could get slightly better prices going with a specialized CD fulfillment house, but the interfaces there are not as slick.
Can’t wait for the book offerings.
I think any pen and paper RPG designer could warn these folks about the perils of their idea. But it’d be more fun to watch them cope with finding out themselves.
“Hey, let me tell you about my character!”
I got a spam today entitled “bryant, Housing market may be cooling – Rates Tick Up”. Inside there was a lengthy screed regarding Prime Minister Howard Wilson and the CIA. Some investigation on the Web revealed that it’s an excerpt from Chapter 15 of the Unauthorized Biography of George Bush, by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin. This appears to have some connection to David Icke. There is no visible connection at all to the housing market.
If I never post again because I’ve been kidnapped by giant reptiles posing as the Rothschildes, you’ll know why.
I’ve gotta be missing something in this CNN article. Here’s the money quote:
The Bush administration believes that it is one vote shy of having nine of 15 votes needed on a U.N. Security Council resolution that sets a Monday deadline for Iraqi compliance, a senior U.S. State Department official said, and officials are focusing diplomatic energies on Mexico and Chile to secure their backing.
Germany, Russia, China, France, and Syria are firmly against. That’s 5 out of the 15. The US, UK, Spain, and Bulgaria are your clear yes votes. That’s 4 yes votes out of the 9 needed.
That leaves Pakistan, Mexico, Guinea, Chile, Cameroon, and Angola. For the CNN quote above to be accurate, all of those countries except Chile and Mexico would need to have signed on. However, just yesterday, Pakistan said it would abstain. Note also that the three African nations in the undecided list have historical and economic ties to France.
So did Pakistan change its mind? Did all three of the African countries decide to jump to the American side? Would Rumsfeld have made damaging comments if the undecideds were lining up on the US/UK side anyhow? Is the CNN article just a calculated leak of false information? God knows.
Edit: The article now says Pakistan changed its mind and all three of the African countries will vote yes. So that answers those questions, except for the one about Rumsfeld. You know… particularly after the Blix drone reporting mess, I’m starting to wonder if it’s a good thing that CNN.com is OK with altering stories after they’ve been posted. From a journalistic reliability standpoint, I’d like to see CNN articles marked as either fixed or subject to change.