Saturday, July 29, 2006

Did someone order "freedom fries?"

From MSNBC: Iran president bans usage of foreign words

Another similarity between conservative Republicans and fundamentalist Islamists.

posted at 12:24 PM

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:59 AM

    And then there's the similarity between fundamentalist Islam and the American left: fascism.

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  2. Unknown10:58 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  3. Unknown2:19 PM

    From Encyclopedia Britannica:

    "Fascism: Philosophy of government that stresses the primacy and glory of the state, unquestioning obedience to its leader, subordination of the individual will to the state's authority, and harsh suppression of dissent. Martial virtues are celebrated, while liberal and democratic values are disparaged. Fascism arose during the 1920s and '30s partly out of fear of the rising power of the working classes; it differed from contemporary communism (as practiced under Joseph Stalin) by its protection of business and landowning elites and its preservation of class systems."

    If that definition brings to mind a certain American political party, it sure isn't the Democrats.

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  4. Anonymous9:38 AM

    stresses the primacy and glory of the state, unquestioning obedience to its leader[s], subordination of the individual will to the state's authority, and harsh suppression of dissent.

    Perfect description of the American Democratic Party in action. If you don't see it, you're not paying attention.

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  5. Anonymous11:49 AM

    stresses the primacy and glory of the state, unquestioning obedience to its leader[s], subordination of the individual will to the state's authority, and harsh suppression of dissent.

    Perfect description of the Democratic Party today.

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  6. Unknown9:38 PM

    Examples?

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  7. Anonymous9:43 AM

    Can’t point to Jane Hamsler’s racist post on Huffington Post skewering Joe Liebermann for not kowtowing to the radical left; it was removed apparently after the author and host belatedly realized it was in poor taste, with no explanation or apology.

    Daily Kos, DU and other left-wing blogs regularly ban dissenters, but their membership frequently refer to right-wing women as cunts and/or whores, and katie bar the door if those women are also minorities.

    Peacefilms.org carried an anti-war video by a supposed veteran from Iraq who turned out to be a complete fraud. They didn’t know enough about what they oppose to see the warning signs, which were everywhere.

    Harry Reid had a snit about the conservatives being recipients of Abrahamoff funds, then toned it down somewhat when it was discovered that both he and Hillary Clinton were also recipients. It’s all right for me but not for thee?

    I’ve seen quite a few YouTube videos of leftist protesters who don’t seem to believe in free speech for anyone but themselves. In fact, I’ve seen peace demonstrators get violent with those who disagree.

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  8. Unknown10:44 AM

    The Huffington Post, Peacefilms or Harry Reid hardly represent "harsh suppression of dissent." If anything, the first is an example of self-censorship. If someone wants to take back an ill-considered statement, that's his prerogative. The Peacefilms and Abramoff examples have nothing to do with this discussion at all. (And for the record, NO Democrat received funds from Abramoff. Some of his clients donated to Democrats, but if anything, Abramoff encouraged them to shift their donations away -- not toward -- Democrats. You can see for yourself at The Center for Responsive Politics' Opensecrets.org site. The numbers don't lie.)

    I'm not familiar with banned members Daily Kos, or DU, so you'll have to point me to the specific examples. But even if these were outright, arbitrary bans, that's hardly "harsh" supression. No one is obligated to subsidize someone else's free speech. I regularly read debates on Daily Kos, including readers who disagree with each others and the site's host.

    As for the YouTube videos, please point me to them. And make sure the videos show mainstream Democrats, not some fringe anarchists who happened to be protesting the war. When I talk about conservative Republicans, I'm talking about Bush, Cheney and folks like the Kansas State Board of Education, not Eric Rudolph.

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  9. Anonymous4:51 PM

    How exactly does one tell a mainstream Democrat from a left-leaning anarchist? Many of the Daily Kos regulars (e.g., the obscene name calling that you didn't address, those seeing conspiracies everywhere, the judeophobes) must be anarchists I guess. Actually you wouldn't have had to refer to Rudolph, I could point out liars, thieves and mentally challenged Republicans as easily as you can. But to pretend that ALL the problems are on the right is dishonest too. What I was trying to get across, despite the somewhat stiff and unevolving definition of fascism from EB, is that the left has its share of deep problems too, not the least of which is a core center that seems to be everything Democrats used to be against: intolerant, bigoted, unwilling to take the beam out of its own eye, happy to point fingers, slower to try to fix. For every obnoxious Bill O'Reilly there is an equally obnoxious Randi Rhodes.

    What a horrible choice, I wonder if they realize how much it drives people away. Where is the Democratic Party of the American working person who is extremely put off by the offensive shenanigans of party today?

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  10. Unknown9:17 PM

    I'd say it's very easy to tell a mainstream Democrat from a left-leaning anarchist. Does the person have any power in the Democratic party? Do they hold office? Are they quoted as representatives of the party? If you want to criticize the a Democrat, point to someone like Hillary Clinton or Harry Reid (or even the right's favorite punching bags, Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson), not some random protester who may or may not actually be a Democrat. When I compared conservative Republicans to fundamentalist Islamists, I was referring to the near-insane behavior of elected Republicans, not some no-name Republican crank at a protest or posting on some Internet discussion board.

    I didn't address the obscene name-calling on Daily Kos because it isn't relevant to whether Democrats are fascists. Obnoxious behavior, isn't automatically fascism.

    I'm fully aware that Democrats have their faults. But it doesn't follow that, because neither is perfect, both are equally worthy of our vote. If the last six years have shown us anything, it's the stark between the two major parties. The Republicans have demonstrated again and again that they're incapable of governing. When the Democrats control of all three branches of government, I'll be the first in line to criticize them, too.

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  11. Anonymous11:29 AM

    Not mainstream huh?

    http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008763

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  12. Unknown2:40 PM

    You honestly believe that an anonymous post on a liberal site qualifies as a tenet of mainstream Democrats? That some random crank with a computer is a fair counterweight to a Republican lawmaker?

    Not even the writer of the Wall Street Journal piece is willing to draw that conclusion.

    "Moreover, the support he gets from these haters should not be attributed to Mr. Lamont--nor should he be blamed for their extremism, bigotry and intolerance. But he ought to denounce them. He hasn't as yet."

    Why hasn't Lamont denounced them? I seriously doubt he's even aware of them. I wasn't, and I read Kos every day. I don't read the comments on most Web sites, because they're hardly worth my time. And Lamont's time is a lot more valuable than mine.

    Believe me, when it comes to finding ignorant comments on wingnut Web sites, I could match you post for post. But it'd be beside the post -- these people do not represent either party.

    And finally, as rude as this behavior is, it still isn't fascism. You can accuse the Democrats of lots of things, but fascism is hardly one of them.

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