And in other news...

[solarbird]

Okay, so, remember Iraq? That place with, you know, the war? The Independent reports on the Bush administration's plan for a "security plan" that pre-empts Iraqi sovereignty and keeps US forces in the country indefinitely. In a separate article, The Independent also has a story on the Bush plan to blackmail Iraqi P.M. al-Maliki into accepting the plan by withholding US$20 billion in Iraqi assets. There have been protests against the plan in Baghdad; the plan includes immunity from Iraqi law for both US military forces and all US "contractor" mercenaries. Here's Juan Cole's commentary noting that P.M. al-Maliki really has no allies left except the Bush administration, with links to further articles.

The New York Times's recent hire from the Boston Globe brings forth coverage of Senator McCain's embracing of the Bush administration's theories of unlimited executive power. The coverage is unusual in that it's actual coverage of the issue; by contrast, Glenn Greenwald holds out David Broder of the Washington Post as yet another example of everything that's been wrong with the political media over the last decade or more. (C.f. this Wall Street Journal piece calling Gitmo a "model prison", which includes this amazing example of back surgery - not mentioning that the surgery was necessitated after "an IRF team cuffed his wrists to his ankles and jumped on his back after immobilizing him."

Meanwhile, the Obama-is-a-secret-Marxist meme on the batshit-crazy right is ramping up a bit, with Tom Delay contributing to it. Of course, that's only a follow-up to the "moderate" Senator Joe Lieberman thinking that's a very good question to ask. Christ, this is stupid.

The surveillance state in Britain now includes local councils snooping on, well, everyone; busybodiness has a new set of tools. In reality, of course, I'm posting this to highlight how far down the surveillance state will inevitably extend.

Finally, in better news, a clear majority of American citizens now think gay marriage is a private choice, with a majority now opposing laws against it. Those numbers will, of course, get worse in the privacy of the voting booth, but it's still good news. That isn't stopping one clerk in the California Central Valley to refuse to marry anyone in protest, on advice from the anti-gay fundamentalist legal group, the Alliance Defense Fund, but w/e, since she will issue the license, which will still allow people to get married. Someone else will have to perform the ceremony.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Marxist? Oh, come on. This is the best they can do? "batshit crazy" is about the size of it.. now, Hillary, they had every right to make that accusation of; that woman is a, well, probably more accurately, a fascist, definitely totalitarian of some stripe.... the only thing good I can say about Hillary is that at least she's not Cynthia McKinney, the little communist... well, that and Hillary is now irrelevant for the '08 campaign, that is a very good thing....

But, come on. Obama a Marxist? First they call him a Muslim, now this? They're scared shitless, that's what. And well they should be. It's too damn bad none of'em are gonna hang over this.... Obama hasn't the stomach to give proper treatment to traitors, more's the pity. We need some heads on pikes, for the encouragement of the others...

[solarbird]

Calling Hillary Clinton a Marxist isn't any more valid, frankly. She's entirely within the mainstream of modern political culture DC - which means yeah, she's an authoritarian. She's one of the somewhat-socially-liberal stripe, rather than the fundamentalist, but that doesn't make her a Marxist; the application of the label is just mindless reflex, a genericisation of the word, a substitution for "evil."

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, the Obama-is-a-secret-Marxist meme on the batshit-crazy right is ramping up a bit, with Tom Delay contributing to it. Of course, that's only a follow-up to the "moderate" Senator Joe Lieberman thinking that's a very good question to ask. Christ, this is stupid.

Right. Obama can't be a Marxist. Why, if he was ... um ... if he was ... um ...

Hey, why is it crazy to argue that Obama is a Marxist, anyway?

[solarbird]

Because being a Marxist means something, because, in turn, words mean things. I'm not aware of Senator Obama being for the nationalisation and political control of all forms of heavy industry, the elimination of private property, the inevitability of the collapse of capitalism through historical forces, government in the form of proletarian dictatorship run by councils formed by unions and other popular councils in any form, and on, and on, and on. In other words, the assertion is fucking stupid, unless you are too fucking stupid to know anything about Marxism and the writings of Marx and Engels, in which case you're apparently also too fucking stupid to be using words correctly and you're just throwing around scare words as slurs.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I'm fully aware of Marxist theory, the whole steaming pile of nonsense, and many of its sub-theories. Marxism is so unpopular in the modern West, off-campus, that anyone who seriously believed in Marxism would have very little chance of being elected President. Hence, when we see a Presidential candidate -- like Barrack Obama -- who pals around with Marxists, speaks approvingly of Marxists, and recommends Marxist-flavored policies (such as his capital gains tax hike, which he admitted would reduce revenues), we may reasonably suspect him of being a secret Marxist.

[solarbird]

If you're so aware of them, why are you applying the label to someone who doesn't share them? And I have actual Marxists on my friendslist; accordingly, I "pal around" with Marxists. Am I...

no, wait.

No.

I will not play this incredibly stupid game. If you want to pretend that he's OMG SEKRIT COMMIE!!!1! then go ahead. If you're dumb enough to convince yourself of it for reals, go to fucking town, because if you wanna believe that, you will; please put up the "I WANT TO BELIEVE" poster on your wall and start wearing the dingbat helmet, because maybe it'll help with the cosmic rays, and at least you'll have a clear identifier in public view so that the sane can consider themselves clearly warned. Me, I'm not going to play this game; I'm not going to pretend that the intensely stupid Outer Party noise machine propaganda is even worth arguing. Besides, I'm too tired of the stupid even to care.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*point* *giggle*

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of pro-Hillary blogs that have good posts but draw a *very* conservative crowd (one of them is now a pro-Obama blog and members are dropping like flies) where I saw this Obama is a Marxist thing. This will be the very last time I try to correct it, cause what the hell, he deserves to have crap like this out there after the campaign he ran.

So, as you may have gathered, I can't stand Obama and am not gonna vote for him, but he's not anything resembling a Marxist, or even a European style mix of capitalism/socialism that people over here like to call "socialist". It's impossible to say *exactly* how he plans to govern since he has taken assiduous pains not to be pinned down on things and his advisors have bragged about exactly this lack of specificity, but his economic addvisors are generally of the University of Chicago school (or actually from the university of Chicago, see Goolsbee), favor privatizing social security, etc.

I think he's a country club republican, sort of a younger, hipper mix of Cheney and Bush rolled into one who isn't as beholden to the fundie crowd, and with a stronger emphasis on self-promotion. Which is not good. But also not Marxist.

That said, I find it amusing that the campaign that practically ran itself on "I am a Saint and my primary opponent is a racist and everyone who votes for her is probably a racist too", among other things I dislike about it, gets hit with false rumors. I'm torn between engaging in turnabout and encouraging you to continue to spread the Marxist bit far and wide, and thinking that this sort of thing demeans the entire process, which heaven knows doesn't need to be demeaned any further.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I certainly don't mean that Obama is a doctrinaire Marxist; rather that he has a certain popular-Socialist leaning. This is exemplified by his argument that we should raise capital-gains taxes for "social justice," even if this reduces actual revenues.