Comments on: Is Swine Flu A Secret Plot?

By: sinz54

sinz54 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:28:18 +0000

I forgot to mention that in December 1980, ABC News did an investigative report that found that American blacks were absolutely “terrified” at the prospect of a Reagan presidency. They were expecting some kind of holocaust of the black population.

By: sinz54

sinz54 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:27:01 +0000

rbottoms:

How Republicans became so bed wetting paranoid that you even have to reassure them this isn’t Nazi Germany is the real question.

For the same reason that during the early 1980s, millions of American blacks believed that Reagan was going to unleash the Ku Klux Klan on them to have them all lynched.

Because that type of hysteria is being deliberately whipped up by some very cynical political agitators as a way of inciting political opposition to the incumbent President. The Dems deliberately dragged poor old Coretta Scott King out of widowhood to make such incendiary insinuations.

It’s playing with fire, whether it’s being done by conservative agitators or militant black agitators.

By: rbottoms

rbottoms — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:56:42 +0000

Frum, please stop trying to paint Republicans as a combination of Lindon LaRouche and Ron Paul.

You say that like they aren’t.

By: Reason60

Reason60 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:27:03 +0000

It is ironic; I have an account at RedState and make the occasional diary post there. I see people there feverishly terrified of FEMA camps, indoctrination of children, gun seizures, all the wild crazy paranoia.
Yet when I make comments arguing against warrantless wiretapping, the NSA electronic dragnet that records pretty much any and everything it wants, the suspension of habeas corpus for Jose Padilla (an American citizen) etc etc., I am derided as alarmist, that these anti-terror programs are perfectly safe and nothing to be alarmed at.
But about Obama’s secret executive order banning Christmas! Now THAT is teh tyranny!!

Which is the dichotomy at the heart of movement conservatism; Good Government Power versus Bad Government Power.
Bad Government Power consists of social welfare agencies; these are inherently tyrannical and oppressive; Good Government Power consists of the military, CIA, police forces. These are necessary powers to keep us safe.

The contradictions are absurd, yet waived away. It is sometimes easy to laugh this off as silly wingnut cognitive dissonence, but it actuallly stems from the central contradiction in conservatism itself, dating back to 1964. Namely, the twin pillars of “strong defense” and civil order, versus limited government.
When you amplify both of these to extremes, as the Tea Party does, you get twin pillars of fascism (unlimited police power) and 3rd World incompetence (FEMA response to Katrina, lax oversight of just about everything corporate).

So you get a world in which your gun is constitutionally protected, resing safe in your hall closet; but you are wiretapped, your email and bank accounts read, then swept up in detention, held without charges or trial or habeas corpus for years or decades.

But your gun is safe!

By: pdxpunk

pdxpunk — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:21:30 +0000

Hey frum….When you actually speak for US conservatives gimme a call, okay? Whatever this bullshit “it’s an evil conspiracy” prattle is I haven’t heard any of it. But then, since you stand for the “Republicans” or whatever the fuck you think you stand for, you should know, right? Asshole poser.

By: The Swine Flu Emergency: A Dose of Obamacare

The Swine Flu Emergency: A Dose of Obamacare — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:52:32 +0000

[...] than indulge in fantasies about the Obama administration using the swine flu national emergency to grab more power, it seems [...]

By: balconesfault

balconesfault — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:19:34 +0000

rbottoms: How Republicans became so bed wetting paranoid that you even have to reassure them this isn’t Nazi Germany is the real question.

Well, the Obama Administration declared on day 1 that the Federal Government would no longer sanction torture, and that they planned to close extra-legal detention facilities. Isn’t that a marker of impending fascism?

By: rbottoms

rbottoms — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:13:01 +0000

How Republicans became so bed wetting paranoid that you even have to reassure them this isn’t Nazi Germany is the real question.

By: balconesfault

balconesfault — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:11:06 +0000

I’ve seen e-mails making the rounds talking about Obama declaring that nobody can use the term “Christmas” this year … I’ve seen e-mails making the rounds about secret detention centers being built in the desert to round up Americans … I’ve seen e-mails making the rounds implying that might goal of government provided healthcare might be to deny coverage to Republicans.

Oh wait – that last one was actually a RNC fundraising letter.

Anyway, if you’ve just realized that some really crazy shit gets forwarded around the internet – often by people you’d think should know a lot better … often circulating rumors that are debunked in seconds by Snopes or Google … then you’ve lived a charmed existence to date.

By: sinz54

sinz54 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:31:49 +0000

These emergency powers pale by comparison with the emergency powers that the Executive Branch has to deal with a WMD attack on this nation. Long before the PATRIOT Act, during the Cold War, those powers were expanded dramatically:

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/eisen-letters.htm