Fascism

Ernst Nolte's classic Fascism in Its Epoch set out six key characteristics of fascism:

1. Strong belief that--through social darwinism--morality is ultimately tied to blood and race, understood as descent and genetic relationship.
2. Strong rejection of the classical "liberal" belief that individuals have rights that any legitimate state is bound to respect
3. In its place, an assertion that individuals have duties to the state, seen as the decision-making organ of the collectivity.
4. A rejection of parliamentary democracy and other bottom-up institutions to assess the general will.
5. The assertion that the general will is formed by the decrees of the leader.
6. A strong fear of twentieth-century Communism, and an eagerness to adapt and use its weapons--suspension of parliaments, mass propaganda, rallies, street violence, and so forth--to fight it.

And exactly how many do the NeoCons get? I think they would argue 2,3 and 5 but publically but privately they openly support the concept of 5. As for 2 & 3 I don't know that they privately articulate these beliefs but that's semantics... for example they would argue that individuals only give up their rights if the are, for example, talking to terrorists. But then the convince themselves that every anti-war demonstrator is a potential terrorist and boom all of a sudden you sound like you are limting your spying program but really you aren't (see Isakoff's investigative reporting).

Dog Bites Man

I pre-road Ronde Ohop yesterday and, while stopping to say hi to some family, got bit by their dog Patch. Son of a.... it hurts like a mother.

The course seems good to me, but it could be that the Ridley is just an awesome bike.

Thanks for sharing Chad

Chad's newest "Simple" is up. Thanks for sharing.

Since we are sharing.. my version of this story comes from my Cat 4 years. I think I was racing for SRC so it was my first year or so. Anyway, the team was doing the Redmond Derby and rather than drive up I decided to ride from Tacoma.

Being a relatively stupid Cat 4 (maybe even still a Cat 5) I took 1 water bottle. It was a 96+ degree day and the ride was about 70-80 miles. After the crit I was so dehydrated I thought I would die. Fortunately they were giving out free AllSport and I helped myself.

About 8 bottles later I bummed a ride home and to my dismay found that my pee was blue and it actually hurt. Like a mother. All night long I was "dry peeing".. what did come out was painful and freaky.

Did that gross you out? Me too.

but, he is a jack -off.

I read Daddy Abramoff's little rant and.. well, you kid made a jack-ass out of himself, sir. If he is experiencing hardship, it's self inflicted and the result of trying to screw America so it's a little hard for me to feel sorry for him.

Small business advocates?

In my experience both as a small business employee, corporate lackey and small business owner, these so called "Small business advocates" never were. They were conservative groups promoting a conservative agenda under the guise of "small business advocacy". In fact, their role seemed to be convincing small businesses that conservatives were looking out for them because, see, they have small business advocacy groups and liberals don't.

I'll give Paul Krugman the benefit of the doubt on this, and he's said that the health care bills aimed at walmart will have no net negative affect and may improve the situation. I'll admit that doesn't agree with my gut. But, I am smart enough to recognize Krugman is usually right (I think the number was 80% of the time) so I'll defer to his superior knowledge.

Well sad Brad

From Brad DeLong.

Sad Sad Cycling

Well, this is sad news. I have a pretty lengthy post on my issues with WADA waiting to get posted. Frankly, WADA make me angry and I need some time to re-edit that one to keep it level headed. But, just because I feel WADA is incredibly dishonest doesn't mean that doping is ok. The evidence against Genevieve Jeanson seemed pretty convincing to me because her Doctor was willing to testify against her.

Don't Defend Hillary

I am not a fan of talk radio in general; unlike the liberal blogosphere (at least the I frequest) which does a pretty good job of fact-checking itself Talk Radio on both the left and right seems to be dominated by wingnuts from both sides (Al Franken and Dave Ross excepted. In short, talk radio is the lazy-medium with the added bonus of allowing the average joe to spout off ill-thought out ideas with little or no intelligent review.

So it was with some annoyance that I heard Randy Rhodes and several other talkies defending Hillary's speech likening the Senate is like a plantation. I think Peter David said it best:

If Hillary Clinton's goal was to get some ink in saying that the Senate was like a plantation, then it was a really smart thing to say. If, on the other hand, she was trying to draw a remotely accurate metaphor, I don't think that was the way to go.

Her representatives have tried to justify it by saying that the Senate is being run by the Bossman and opposing views are stifled. Yeah, okay, but that also describes any number of corporations. No one is in the Congress or Senate against their will, no one is being beaten, and no one is being hunted down if they leave. There's just way too much baggage attached to the concept of plantations to try and pare it down to, "Our attempts to present our views are being stifled." I mean, she could just as easily address the UJA and say the Senate is like a concentration camp, and it would be just as questionable.

If she'd wanted to be clever, she could have said, "I'm not saying the Senate is like, say, a plantation. Not at all. I mean, yes, Democrats are being given no more respect by Republicans than the Bossman gave his workers, and we have about as much input into the way things are being done. And it can be certainly stated that the Senate is giving little to no attention to the needs of its black constituents. But it's definitely NOT like a plantation...yet." That makes it slightly harded for critics to come back and say, "So you're saying the Senate is like a plantation?!" to which she replies, "Uh, no, I said it isn't like one. Are you reading impaired?"
...

Al Gore's speach on the otherhand was right on. The difference was that were Hillary used metaphor, Al Gore stuck to actual examples and can't seriously be called out by the right on whether he represented facts or not. All they can do is try to argue that the Imperial Presidency is a good thing (which obviously they know they can't win on because they dance around that subject).

The Brem vs. Stewart

It's serious week on the Daily Show, as Stewart took on L. Paul Bremmer. I actually found it to be an interesting interview. 2 things stuck out to me:

1. The unwilligness of Republican's to criticize their party's leadership and direction in public.

2. The unwillingness of the neo-con crowd to critically analyse their beliefs.

To me the two seem to be connected by the adherence to "truthiness" over "fact". The money quotes to me was when Bremmer reaffirmed that the generals never asked for more troops, but when asked had said Sanchez specifically said they needed more. That is an incredible parsing of reality to get to where bremmer wanted to be, which was we didn't mess up. And, his indirect allusion that critics were academics with theories while he was actually dealing with the real world. I find it interesting that the neo-con's own "theories" have been busts "on the ground": supply-side economics, Iraq, etc., yet when they keep touting them they always talk about reality on the ground. Yet the deride such critics as Krugman who are really prescribing solutions that have been implemented in the past or elsewear with success as pushing unproven, pie-in-the-sky theories.

Franklin vs. Bush

Reposted from: Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday

The Great Franklin-Bush debate...in 6 rounds:

Bush: America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
Franklin: All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. In my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace. When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

-

Bush Health care reform must begin with Medicare; Medicare is the binding commitment of a caring society. We must renew that commitment by giving seniors access to preventive medicine and new drugs that are transforming health care in America.
Franklin: Well done is better than well said.

-

Bush: There is no "trust fund," just IOUs that I saw firsthand, that future generations will pay---will pay for either in higher taxes, or reduced benefits, or cuts to other critical government programs. The office here in Parkersburg stores those IOUs. They're stacked in a filing cabinet. Imagine---the retirement security for future generations is sitting in a filing cabinet. It's time to strengthen and modernize Social Security for future generations with growing assets that you can control, that you call your own---assets that the government cannot take away.
Franklin: Half a truth is often a great lie.

-

Bush: The fact that somebody leaked this program [of illegally spying on Americans without a warrant] causes great harm to the United States. There's an enemy out there.
Franklin: Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

-

Bush: I'm a uniter, not a divider. I refuse to play the politics of putting people into groups and pitting one group against another.
Franklin: Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

-

Bush: I'm not going to change my mind.
Franklin: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise. ... When you're finished changing, you're finished.

Final score: Bush 0 Franklin 6

That's right---the guy with the cardiovascular system of a teenager just got his clock cleaned by a 300 year-old man. Now click here and wish Ben Franklin a happy birthday.

Ronde Ohop

Well, I spent most of the day getting emails our and generally promoting Ronde Ohop.. man I am excited. I love my race ;)

Come the rest week

And thank God. Cause my legs are pretty darn sore.

Why you shouldn't like Alito

Listening to Alito speak and looking at his record, I think the problem I have with him isn't that he's a philsophical conservative. He's not. He's an ideological conservative. That's a problem. Let me explain.

I am a philisophical liberal. That means that I look at issues from a liberal perspective and follow them to their conclussion regardless of whether it agrees with what the liberal establishment decides. They are ideological liberals. Their stances aren't always truelly liberal. Once they decide what they will support, it becomes liberal because they support it.

Sandra Day O'Connor was philosophically conservative. And while I don't agree with the philosophy she was generally honest. Alito's record shows he is ideologically conservative, meaning that he decides what he believes and then will create an argument that's "conservative" to defend it.

I no more want him on the bench than an ideological liberal.

How can you not be angry?

When I read stuff like this, how can I not get angry at people driving around with Bush/Cheney stickers? Real people are dying because of a seemingly instinctual loyalty to W and the GOP.

And I have a hard time not getting angry at the insiders who are now beginning to speak out against the shenanigans.... isn't it a little late? It's a good thing you came out, but it's hardly an act of courage now... it would have been admirable before the war or before the election.

Wire Tap Non-denial

Interesting to note this isn't a denial, especially cosidering that the core issue is whether the law can be overruled at Emperor W's whim.

Coach Troy, why do you hate me so?

If you are a real masochist let me recommend Spinervals Tough Love. 3 hours of serious effort. Actually, I can do it in more or less zone 3 but without any real breaks like on an outdoor ride it certainly left me hurting.

Why Are We Ruled By These Liars PruDog edition: I told you so

Apologies to Brad DeLong for stealing his running byline but tpm has the goods. While it may turn out the CA wasn't wiretapped, the problem I have is that experience tells us they probably are using them against their political enemies. The evidence seems to indicate that the GOP believes in this idea of hardball politics that includes breaking the law as long as they can justify to themselves that they aren't.

The Windtrainer and Me

My trainer doesn't look to friendly to me this morning.

What happened to Slate?

Back in 1998 Slate was a pretty damn good source of info. It had good, intellectually honest writters. Now it has Chris Hitchens and a bunch of typical media hacks. Noah and Selatan seem to be the only really honest ones left.

And back to Hitchens.. Slate's management has to know that he's a compulsive liar. Everytime I've heard him speak he's thrown out a massive lie as the centerpiece of his arguments. For example, in justifying the Iraq war he stated that we had in fact found WMD and referenced the specific study that found them. He decried the main stream media's cover-up of such finds and called it proof that the invasion was justified. What he failed to mention (but was immediately pointed out) was that the WMD in question was found during Gulf War I, 10 years earlier.

I am willing to read writers I know are honest (until they prove they aren't). But I won't waste my time givign the benefit of the doubt to any new writers on Slate because Slate can't be trusted to vet them for honestly.