Wednesday, June 25, 2003

Lock The Safe, Margaret. Every so often, I read an article that just makes me go absolutely insane with rage. Here's a snippet: Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday pointed his finger at the Bush administration, saying it is erasing accomplishments that he worked hard to achieve. [Kim du Toit] The irony is that Bush has actually accomplished some significant things that Clinton tried to achieve but couldn't--the so-called "Patriot Act" for example. Personally, I think this accounts for some of the hostility that Democratic partisans have towards Bush--they're jealous that he's gotten away with doing things they tried to do and failed. 10:28:45 PM    comment () Divine Inspiration. Apparently, it's not about oil, WMDs, human rights, Halliburton, or even the Straussian Grand Plan. Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas quoted Bush as saying: God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them. Now, it's no surprise that Dubs is a religious guy, and more power to him, but the wording here is just a touch disconcerting. Does the President literally believe that God is giving him personal instructions? Does he hear voices? If so, are we sure it's not just Paul Wolfowitz playing with a megaphone? [Hit & Run] It's amazing how much Bush sounds like Osama bin Laden. 1:40:51 PM    comment () Vacation Wear. The American Traveler International Apology Shirt might've kept the Dixie Chicks out of trouble. It might get you into fistfights. Enjoy. (via Memepool.) [Hit & Run] It says, "I'm sorry my President's an idiot. I didn't vote for him," in several languages. It's too bad they don't come in black, but I bought one anyway. It's convenient too, since it covers my opinion of anyone who could conceivably get elected. 1:22:04 PM    comment () I Accuse: To Those Who Pave the Way For the New Fascism. This is, indeed, a post of accusation -- an accusation directed primarily at those libertarians and Objectivists who appear to have succumbed to the philosophical disintegration that marks our time. By their support of the foreign policy of the Bush Administration -- and, more particularly, by their support of the specific means being employed by this administration, including extended periods of foreign occupation -- they support and help to pave the way for the rise of the New Fascism. It no longer matters to me that such people protest that they love liberty and freedom, and say that they value freedom and individual rights above all. At a certain point, what you claim to support and to love ceases to matter. That point comes when the policies you support in fact, and in reality, must necessarily lead to the opposite result. In this case, that result would mean the final destruction of freedom, here in the United States -- which, despite all of its problems and all its self-destructive policies, remains the last beacon of freedom to the world. Those libertarians, and more horrifyingly to me personally, those Objectivists who support this administration's current policies ignore the lessons of history, they ignore the necessary and logical connections between foreign and domestic policy, and, most significantly, they ignore that a policy of aggressive foreign intervention is not merely an adjunct to the program of the New Right, or the New Fascists. The truth of the matter, which becomes clearer every day, when at least five or ten additional news stories show the unavoidable consequences of the reckless policies upon which we have now embarked, is the following -- which I will have to repeat several times in the course of this essay, to try to break through the massive resistance which so many seem to have to this idea, which is blinding to me in its clarity: a policy of aggressive foreign intervention, coupled with lengthy periods of foreign occupation, is an integral, necessary and key part of the program of the New Fascists. The apparently self-willed blindness of certain people to this critical, hugely significant fact -- people who have every reason to know better -- would not concern me so much, except for the fact that they thereby make it that much easier for the New Fascists to achieve the realization of their destructive program. That program, in its full reality, would destroy the remnants of freedom in the United States -- which means that it would destroy my freedom, and the freedom of all those I love and care about. This is why I take these issues so personally. All of this is very personal to me. When you support my enemies, and the enemies of freedom, you declare war on me. In such a case, I have no choice but to respond to the challenge. You may therefore consider this my declaration of war in return. [The Light of Reason] This excellent essay is the first of three parts. 1:08:09 PM    comment () From a post on 1911Forum on the prospect of Arnold Schwartzenegger running for Governor if Davis is successfully recalled: Yeah, I can see the headlines now... Davis caught in true lies, terminated by voters after total recall. It looks like the end of days for Davis Governorship. People of California feel they got a raw deal with Davis' re-election, but hope to take an eraser to his legacy in the fall. An unrepentant Davis declares "I'll be back", if the recall proves to be successful. Republicans hope for a great deal of collateral damage to the state's democratic party from the political fallout. 10:41:32 AM    comment ()

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