Archive for the 'Fascism' Category

Breaking news from yesterday that Faux seems to have missed.  A little something to hook nearly anyone’s sense of the macabre.   It seems like a couple of guys on the inside think there is not much that Prince is not capable of.
The Nation

ABC News

Some of us don’t take much convincing, already pretty convinced that this stuff was going on, but everybody else needs to take a much harder look at this crook and his organization, pretty much fits the definition of violent psychopath.

From the BBC:

Iran is well known for filtering the net, but the government has moved to do the same for mobile phones.

Nokia Siemens Network has confirmed it supplied Iran with the technology needed to monitor, control, and read local telephone calls. It told the BBC that it sold a product called the Monitoring Centre to Iran Telecom in the second half of 2008.

The product allows authorities to monitor any communications across a network, including voice calls, text messaging, instant messages, and web traffic. Rather than just block traffic, it is understood that the monitoring system can also interrogate data to see what information is being passed back and forth.

A spokesman described the system as “a standard architecture that the world’s governments use for lawful intercept”. He added: “Western governments, including the UK, don’t allow you to build networks without having this functionality.”

Yes, the UK retains the capability to monitor its citizens’ phone calls. But that’s irrelevant to the question of whether or not Nokia should have sold this technology to Iran. When they sold this technology to Iran’s state-owned , Nokia knew that it would be used to monitor and oppress dissenters.

In other news, Nokia’s clients murdered 17 dissenters yesterday.

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It should be noted that Nokia isn’t the only company that sells technology to Iran. While Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, his company was covertly doing business with Iran, in violation of US law. Cheney also lobbied the Clinton administration to ease sanctions on Iran. And during the early part of the Iraq War, while the Bush administration was making Cheney a multi-millionaire by giving no-bid contracts to Halliburton, the company was still doing business with Iran.

(cross posted at This Old Brit)

After nearly two decades of being married to the second worst leader in Italian history, Veronica Lario, wife of Silvio Berlusconi, has had enough:

La Repubblica, a leading Italian newspaper, said Ms Lario’s decision came after reading about the 18th birthday party in Naples.

“That’s enough, I cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors”, she was quoted as saying.

Another newspaper, La Stampa, quoted Ms Lario as saying she had been “forced to take this step”.

“This really surprised me, because he never came to any 18th birthday party for his children, despite being invited,” the paper quoted her as saying earlier.

Mr Berlusconi was reported to have brought the woman a golden necklace studded with diamonds as a present.

Following his wife’s reaction, Mr Berlusconi was quoted as saying he was sorry his wife “had let herself be fooled by left-wing newspapers”.

Relations with her husband were already said to be frayed after Ms Lario had criticised her husband’s choice of young and attractive female candidates with little political experience to represent his Freedom Party in the forthcoming European elections.

Mr Berlusconi courted Ms Lario in 1980 after watching her perform topless in a play. They married ten years later.

Two years ago he issued a public apology to his wife for flirting with young starlets, among them Mara Carfagna, who he later appointed as equal opportunities minister.

In other Berlusconi news, the Italian leader claimed that his popularity rating, at 75%, is the highest of any world leader. A recent poll indicated that Berlusconi’s actual popularity rating is at 56% and dropping, but he attributed the discrepancy to a hostile media. Berlusconi’s various media holdings control 90% of Italy’s television market, so it would appear that he is remarkably tolerant of criticism and even outright hostility from his employees.

For the record, Obama’s popularity rating now stands at 68%, which was better than 56% last time I checked. But to be fair, Byron York points out that Obama’s not nearly as popular if you remember not to count black people (what was Bush’s popularity like if you didn’t count white people?), an argument York makes in a totally non-racist fashion:

His sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are.

From the BBC:

George Galloway, a British member of Parliament, has been banned from Canada on security grounds, the country’s immigration service has confirmed. Mr Galloway, a Respect Party MP, said the ban was “idiotic” and he would look at legal action to try to overturn it.

British media reported the decision was due to his views on Afghanistan and the presence of Canadian troops there.

Mr Galloway said he was not prepared to accept what he described as an “inexplicable decision” and indicated he would challenge it with all means at his disposal. “This has further vindicated the anti-war movement’s contention that unjust wars abroad will end up consuming the very liberties that make us who we are,” he said. “All right-thinking Canadians, whether they agree with me or not, will oppose this outrageous decision.”

A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada confirmed the MP would not be allowed into the country on national security grounds. He said the decision had been taken by border security officials “based on a number of factors” in accordance with the country’s immigration act.

How could Galloway possibly endanger Canada’s national security? Does anyone in their right mind think that he could rally disaffected Canadians to revolt against their government? Has Galloway ever incited violence of any kind? This is nothing more than an attack on speech by a government that can’t stand criticism.

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Watch this and weep.

Then ruddy rage!

The young girl is 15 years old.

The ’so called’ policeman is a ’so called’ sheriff’s deputy.

So, now you’ve seen the film, read this whole sorry story ~ and much more of the same sort of shocking shit.

Home of the brave? Land of the free?

Oh, yeah. Sure

And we’re a pair of Protestant Popes.

(Cross posted from How This Old Brit Sees It)

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The joke’s on bin Ladin: he hit New York City instead of “real America”

Here’s a clip of Jon Stewart answering the McCain campaign’s tactic of saying that anyone who doesn’t agree with them isn’t a real American:

The fact is, most Americans support Obama, and Democratic congressional candidates will collect most of the votes this year. Most Americans live in cities, and most live in “blue” states. So if one of the major political parties is un-American, it’s the Republican party.

I guess it’s a good thing for Republicans that Obama is running on a platform of unity and inclusion.

Jeorg Haider

Jeorg Haider, Austria’s most prominent fascist, finally did something I can support:

Austrian far right leader Joerg Haider was killed in a car accident on Saturday, the national news agency APA reported. It quoted police as saying Haider died after suffering severe head and chest injuries when a car he was driving went out of control and rolled over several times outside the southern city of Klagenfurt. APA said he was alone in the car.

Rightist groups surged to a combined 30 percent of the vote in a national parliamentary election last month, with Haider’s smaller Alliance for Austria’s Future tripling its support to around 12 percent.

Haider made headlines by campaigning on an anti-immigration ticket and with verbal gaffes. He once reproached Austria’s government by citing the “proper labor policies” of the Third Reich. On another occasion he referred to concentration camps in a parliamentary debate as “penal camps.” Haider was also widely condemned for meeting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2002, which he said was a “purely humanitarian” matter.

Born in Upper Austria, his father was a former member of Adolf Hitler’s brown-shirted storm troopers. His mother was a teacher who had been a Hitler Youth leader.

(cross posted at This Old Brit)

Big Sister leads the masses in the daily Two Minutes Hate

Here’s Dana Milbank, reporting from a recent Sarah Palin rally:

Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”

And there was plenty of scapegoating to go with the hatred:

The angry GOP vice presidential nominee even found a way to blame the market decline on the yet-to-be-enacted tax policies of the yet-to-be-elected Obama.

“If you turn on the news tonight when you get home, you’re gonna see that, yah, this is another woeful day in the market, and the other side just doesn’t understand — no!” she said at an afternoon fundraiser at the home of mutual fund giant Jack Donahue. “Especially in a time like this, you don’t propose to increase taxes. The phoniest claim in a campaign that’s full of them is that Barack Obama is going to cut your taxes.”

Palin also told those gathered that Obama doesn’t like American soldiers. “He said that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, ‘air-raiding villages and killing civilians,’ ” she said, drawing boos from a crowd that had not been told Obama was actually appealing for more troops in Afghanistan.

In reality, Obama’s plan would cut taxes for every American making under $200,000 per year, and cut taxes more than McCain’s plan for everyone making less than $125,000. But the rally didn’t just include racism, scapegoating, and lies. It also included threats of violence:

The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of “Palin Power” and “Sarahcuda” T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. “One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,” she said. (”Boooo!” said the crowd.) “And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,’ ” she continued. (”Boooo!” the crowd repeated.)

“Kill him!” proposed one man in the audience.

A similar scene played out at the end of the Weimar Republic. Germany’s imperial ambitions had been thwarted, and its economy was caught up in the worldwide economic depression. Facing an imminent collapse at the polls, Germany’s unpopular conservative party allied itself with a political maverick named Adolph Hitler, who used bigotry, scapegoating, and lies to whip crowds into a frenzy.

Unfortunately for the Germans, the Weimar allowed the conservatives to make Hitler the head of state without holding an election, and it allowed Hitler to declare a state of emergency and suspend the constitution once he took office. In this country, the people still get to vote, and the president is still constrained by congress and by the courts. But while we won’t be seeing outright fascism anytime soon, it’s disconcerting to see American conservatism lurching in that direction.

We’ve not met (anything like even nearly), every individual example of evil, perverted extremist who ever existed.

Nor have we yet had the pleasure of encountering all this earth’s Austrians. Even if we had, it would be seriously stupid to say something as silly as “They’re all the sodding same.” However, we can certainly say in all sincerity (and with our hands on our hearts) that, so far, we’re still to meet one who we felt we could easily ‘take to’.

Austria, still hobbled by its history

The country’s old xenophobia has raised its head again. We can hardly be surprised

Austria is special.

Its tourist board will tell you that, as will the headlines on the infrequent occasions when the Alpine republic grabs global attention. One of those rare occasions happened this weekend: Austria’s far-right parties scooped up 29 per cent of the votes between them in a general election, pushing them ahead of the conservative People’s Party, and only just behind the Social Democrats.

The last time Austria was in the news was in April when Josef Fritzl was arrested for imprisoning his own daughter in a cellar and fathering her seven children. While it would be absurd to connect the horrifying Fritzl case directly to Austria’s troubled politics, the fact that Fritzl blamed his behaviour on his harsh upbringing under the Third Reich shows that the country remains hobbled by its history

Read the rest of this regrettable report in today’s (London) ‘Times’.

Incidentally, we wonder who the sickening, soulless, shitty, Aryan Austrian arsehole Josef Fritzl, would have voted for?

Finally, we’ve forever found it to be uber-interesting that Austria’s official, national coat of arms should show - all together - an eagle, a crown, a hammer, and a sickle.

(Cross posted from How This Old Brit Sees It)

Here’s a clip of Fox News reporters attacking a man for encouraging his 11-year-old son to wear a t-shirt with a controversial political message.

Daxx Dalton was suspended from school for wearing a t-shirt that reads “Obama: a terrorist’s best friend.” It seems obvious that the school is in the wrong here. If a controversial political message isn’t protected by the 1st Amendment, then what’s the point of having a 1st Amendment?

Why does Fox News hate free speech? Has there ever been a more anti-American institution than this Australian import?