JABbering Stooge

Okay, I’ve been rather lax on keeping my promise to discuss the state of democracy in this country (between time commitments with work and school, and the video/audio crack that is World of Warcraft, I haven’t gotten around to it until now). But now, over one month after I first promised, and just in time for the Liar-in-Chief’s State of the Union Address, I will indeed be devoting the next several posts to delivering my own State of Our Democracy. Here’s how it will work:

• Introduction: Is America Headed for Fascism? - An overview of what I think is the current state of American democracy, complete with specifying how I will lay out my argument.

• Part One: The First Seven Characteristics of Fascism - This covers the first seven characteristics of fascist regimes, as defined by Laurence Britt: Powerful and Continuing Nationalism, Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights, Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause, Supremacy of the Military, Rampant Sexism, Controlled Mass Media and Obsession with National Security.

• Part Two: The Last Seven Characteristics of Fascism - Self-explanatory. These seven characteristics are: Religion and Government are Intertwined, Corporate Power is Protected, Labor Power is Suppressed, Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts, Obsession with Crime and Punishment, Rampant Cronyism and Corruption and Fraudulent Elections.

• Part Three: Raging Against the Dying of the Light - This section details what we liberals need to do to restore America to what it once was.

• Conclusion: There is nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed by what’s right with America. - Says all you need to know. This section contains my final thoughts on the subject.

If all goes according to plan, I should have the introduction up by the time I go to work today. Part One will go up later tonight, if not overnight due to the State of the Union. Part Two will go up tomorrow after I get home from my internship. Part Three will go up Thursday after I get home from work, and the conclusion will go up after I get home from my internship on Friday.

After that, I plan on discussing Orson Scott Card. That should take me into my first anniversary as a blogger.

From there, I will start formulating and articulating a positive liberal agenda for the Dems to run on in ‘06.

Note: Obviously, I have done absolutely nothing on this project. I have since decided to completely re-work the idea from scratch. This and the whole Democratic Contract With America thing will take top priority when I finish moving my posts over, along with the Orson Scott Card thing.

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Jan. 31, 2006 2:33 AM)

In case you were wondering what the local Freeperati were up to in the aftermath of the DeLay indictment, they were busy writing letter-length screeds standing up for their boy who, in their eyes, walks on water and can do no wrong. The complete sludge is available here.

In the eyes of these people, a Republican could be caught on video tape molesting both a dog and a toddler, and it’d be O.K. - they’d either be claiming that the video was forged by evil "libruls" or that the dog and toddler were terrorists bent on doing evil and needed to be taught a lesson (besides, they’d claim, the Geneva Conventions don’t apply because they say so). But if a Democrat so much as jaywalks, they’ll call for his head. No wonder why the congressional Republicans tried to change their own ethics rules so that DeLay could keep his leadership position - under the cover of post-election wrap-up, no less (thankfully, the public outrage forced them to 86 the idea).

Has it become any clearer yet why the thugs in charge need to be voted out in ‘06?

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Oct. 2, 2005 11:35 PM)

Seeing in a Mirror Dimly: A Preview of the Fall ’05 Political Season

As summer fades into autumn, students’ minds are filled with anticipation of the coming school year. This is entirely natural, as we humans often attempt – sometimes blindly – to prognosticate on the future in the hopes of a better world. With this in mind, I would like to offer a preview of the upcoming political season here in Texas and around the country.

NY Christian Coalition channels Heinrich Himmler (yes, I am making a Nazi reference - dropping the N-bomb, if you will):

(New York City) The leader of a conservative Christian lobby group appears to suggest that gays should be required to wear warning labels, although he denies that was his intention.

"We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we ‘celebrate’ a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average life span according to the 2005 issue of the revered scientific journal Psychological Reports," Rev. Bill Banuchi, executive director of the New York Christian Coalition told the Mid Hudson News.

The journal regularly publishes articles described by many mainstream psychologists as misleading and faulty. The homosexuality morbidity study was conducted by the conservative anti-gay Family Research Institute.

Thanks again to AMERICAblog, which points out:

In fact, the "study" in question was done by Paul Cameron, the head of a hate group - literally, the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Cameron’s group a "hate group" - Cameron was thrown out of the scientific profession twenty years ago for his hate research. But that doesn’t stop the Christian Coalition from using hate literature and proposing Nazi solutions to brand gays.

I have a feeling that the pink triangles are probably going to be coming out in 2006, assuming the Rethuglicans get such a massive majority that there is no hope of effective opposition, or another 9/11 occurs. Either way, expect Dick "Nobody loves Dean" Cheney to become Chancellor Palpatine at that point.

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Jun 13, 2005 4:46 PM)

Well, final exams are finally over with, so let’s look at the events that have developed while I was hunkered down in an undisclosed location preparing for the inevitable: