Site(s) of the Week/Month 27

It has been a while since my last site(s) of the week/month and its predecessor, on Lewisham 1977, so it is fitting that my Site of the Week/Month for October 2008 is Unity, the anti-fascist forum.

The Unity forum provides an excellent opportunity for anti-fascists to use modern web technology to discuss tactics and related issues in the fight against fascism. Recommended.

Unity brings news: “Searchlight uncovers BNP hate factory”

Karl Pfeifer on Austria.

Karl Pfeifer on Austria, depressing but necessary reading.

Presidential Poll.

Following on from my previous post on the US Presidency, I wonder how many people would be happy with Sarah Palin as President?

Under the US constitution, in the event of the President dying or becoming incapacitated whilst in office then the Vice President takes over.

So if John McCain was elected President of the US of A but subsequently died in office or suffered a major stroke, etc then Sarah Palin would become President of the world’s only superpower.

So here’s my poll question:

Swift on Obama.

There are not many times when I deliberately link to a Tory, but Jon Swift covers the mania against Obama in a rather good way, this particular part stood out for me:

“Ace of Spades’ Super-Secret Unified Field Story That Connects All the Dots

For weeks Ace of Spades has been working on a super-secret story about Obama, which “called Obama a straight-up liar on his supposed ‘flimsy’ relationship with The Terrorist William Ayers” and finally connected all the dots, linking Obama and Bill Ayers, Acorn, Tony Reszko, Charles Manson, the Chicago mob, the Illuminati, Freemasons, the Trilateral Commission, Jewish bankers, Nazis living in South America, Fidel Castro, the KGB, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Bigfoot, Area 51, the Harlem Globetrotters, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Bermuda Triangle, Mrs. Calabash and Mr. Gorsky. Apparently, Ben Smith at Politico, had the story, too, according to Ace and Hill Buzz, and he was just sitting on it (though Smith denied it). Then just as Ace was on the verge of breaking the story, he made this heart-breaking announcement: “The source was considering dropping his demand for anonymity. Thus likely moving the story forward. (He wasn’t considering going forward with the Politico, by the way: but with the other, more important organization.) And now, today? After witnessing Politico, among others, savage Joe Wurtzelbacher? Cold feet.” Curse you, mainstream media and your accursed fact-checking! Will your cover-up of the truth about Barack Obama never end! “

(H/T: Rosie)

Update: Palin as President is just so funny, click on things and see, try the PC.

A Forgiving Nation.

The United States often comes in for criticism, and particularly during this election period, much of it is justified, but I think they must be a very forgiving nation, why else would they tolerate the activities of an idiot like Dmitriy V. Sklyarov?

The Star Press reports:

“MUNCIE — A rural Muncie man who last year proclaimed his hatred for blacks and Jews on the steps of city hall has been accused of repeatedly biting a 9-year-old boy.

Dmitriy V. Sklyarov , 20, 11001 W. Bethel Ave., is also accused of leaving threatening phone messages at Wes-Del High School, announcing he had placed black magic “spells” on teachers that he said would cause their deaths.

Sklyarov was charged Friday with neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, a Class C felony carrying a standard four-year prison term, and battery resulting in bodily injury, a Class D felony with a standard 18-month sentence. He was being held in the Delaware County jail Monday under a $15,000 bond.

County police allege that Sklyarov on Oct. 8 repeatedly bit a 9-year-old boy who had been left in his care, leaving at least 13 bite marks, still visible the next day, on the child’s arms and at least one bite mark on each leg.
…

n March 2007, Sklyarov — who had earlier proclaimed himself as the leader of a Delaware County Skinheads organization — held a 30-minute rally on the front steps of Muncie City Hall, touting white supremacy and proclaiming his hatred for blacks and Jews.

The event drew fewer than 20 people, among them a Michigan member of the American National Socialist Workers Party, five anti-racism protesters and about a dozen police officers.

A MySpace Web page purported to have been created by Sklyarov refers to him as an “Aryan sorcerer.”

In an Aug. 31 posting, the author discusses the alleged participation in black magic by Nazi leaders during World War II; purports the “Aryan race” was created by a pagan god, and rails against Jews, blacks and those of mixed racial heritage.”

You couldn’t make it up.

Cocaine, Toffs and Bilderberg

One of my readers has pointed me towards Ian Bone’s blog and the allegations of cocaine sniffing Toffs, which is all very interesting, but I noticed that the onward link to The Diary of Ananarchist as “Bilderberg”.

I don’t know much about Tories, Eton or sniffing cocaine, but the reference to Bilderberg caught my eye.

You can barely scan an English language neo-Nazi web forum without some nefarious point about Bilderberg, New World Order, Freemasons, etc.

So I was curious about The Diary of Ananarchist’s views on Bilderberg, I didn’t have to look far, the very next post, labelled as Bilderberg, is about them in the form of Tony Gosling on YouTube.

Astute readers may like to study Mr Gosling’s web site and draw their own conclusions (hint: the references to 9/11, “truth”, Mossad and the anti-Christ are give aways).

Amongst the strange fonts, exaggerated claims and poor design (not uncommon on such sites) I found these ones:

“1. Eugenicist Prince Philip ordered the assassination of Princess Diana – ten years retrospective film
2. The 7/7 London bombs were planted by God-haters MI6 & the Israeli Army
3. 911 was an Inside Job and Cheney/Brezinski plan another attack on the West”

Hmm, seems that Tories ain’t the only one sniffing coke?

Around The Blogosphere.

Rather than actually blog I thought I’d round up items, in no particular order, that I have been reading across the blogosphere:

Martin in the Margins finds a faith in politics, something I had noticed too.

The New Centrist is grading, Midterm Season (and a pic of a bluebird)…

Stroppyblog discusses Nicky Reilly and Asperger’s syndrome.

Engage covers yet another resignation from the University and Colleges Union (UCU).

Weggies says “that Political Ideologies are all based on a set of assumptions about Human Nature that are not universal.”, I’d tend to agree with him.

Olly keeps an eye on McCain and Palin.

Labour Start chronicles the labour movement across the world.

Which leads nicely to news from Iraqi trade unionists.

Marko describes Fascism and the hatred of women.

Fabian points his readers to an on-line English language version of the Talmud, which states: “A search for Talmud at Google will turn up hundreds of thousands of hits, a depressing number of which are to anti-Semitic sites. However, to our knowledge this is the first extensive English translation of the Talmud to be posted on the Internet.”

As the Extreme Right often construct their arguments on bastardized antisemitic mistranslations of the Talmud and make a concerted effort to deliberately misrepresent its contents then it is good to have an on-line reference copy, in the fight against neo-Nazism.

More later on.

Play Fair.

I was going to post on the Haider funeral and the nauseating display of solidarity with that dead fascist by Austrian politicians, but my blood pressure probably wouldn’t allow it, it was sickening.

I am indebted to the Drink-Soaked Trotskyite Popinjays for WAR for the link to Play Fair 2008:

“is organized by:

The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Worker’s Federation (ITGLWF). The campaign is also supported by a diverse coalition of organizations worldwide.
…

We support the aims and demands of the Play Fair 2008 Campaign.

We believe that sportswear and athletic footwear companies, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), National Olympics Committees, as well as national governments must take steps to eliminate the exploitation and abuse of workers in the global sporting goods industry.
…”

They look like a good campaign!

Phil Woolas

Phil Woolas’s recent comments show that New Labour has learnt nothing, absolutely nothing, in the past 11 years, as The Times reports:

“The Government must, he insists, face up to voters’ concerns about the level of immigration – particularly as a recession looms. The economic downturn changes everything, he says. “Clearly if people are being made unemployed, then the question of immigration becomes extremely thorny.” “

Pandering to the lowest common denominator is NOT a smart idea, nor is conceding the ground to Tory backwoods men and the BNP.

Jim at the Daily (Maybe) is much better at picking apart Woolas’s nonsense:

“It feels more like desperation. To head off the BNP, by adopting their policies. To distract people from the causes of unemployment. To give people someone to blame who isn’t the government. Except I’m not sure it will actually do any of these things.

But whilst the Tories and the BNP are full of glee that Labour seems to be conceding the argument on immigration it’s up to the rest of us to ensure that we don’t let migrants become the scapegoats for a crisis they didn’t cause.”

Good News from Spain.

The Spanish Civil war was a pivotal but profoundly sad event in the 20th century, so it is good to hear this news from the BBC:

“A Spanish judge has launched a criminal investigation into the fate of tens of thousands of people who vanished during the civil war and Franco dictatorship.

Judge Baltasar Garzon – Spain’s top investigating judge – has also ordered several mass graves to be opened.

One is believed to contain the remains of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, who was murdered by fascist forces at the start of the war in the 1930s.

Correspondents say the historic ruling will be controversial in Spain.

They say there has been a tacit agreement among political parties not to delve too deeply into the civil war and Franco era.

In his 68-page ruling, Judge Garzon says that Francoists carried out “illegal permanent detentions” which he says falls within the definition of crimes against humanity.

He refers to 114,000 people who disappeared during a 15-year period after the outbreak of war in 1936.

…”
Let’s hope that Judge Garzon’s investigation reveals the truly murderous nature of Franco’s regime and the barbaric conduct of the Nationalists and Fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Update: I have been looking for the Spanish language version of Judge Garzon’s ruling, without much success. If anyone finds it, please let me know.

Drunk Fascist.

Drink and fascism have a long history, from German beer cellars to Joerg Haider’s welcomed demise.

Apparently, this particular Austrian fascist couldn’t take his drink either, according to Reuters:

“Austrian media reported that the amount of alcohol in Haider’s blood was nearly four times the legal limit.”

Hmm.

Joerg Haider.

What follows is a make shift obituary of the fascist, Joerg Haider:

Bloomberg comments: “Joerg Haider, the Austrian politician who once praised Adolf Hitler’s employment policies and visited former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, died in an automobile accident today. He was 58.”

Haider’s sympathy for the Nazis is revealed by the ADL:

“During a ceremony commemorating World War II veterans which is known to attract former SS officers and neo-Nazis, Haider called the crowd, including an array of former SS officers, “decent people of good character” and applauded them for “sticking to their convictions despite the greatest opposition.” While addressing the reunion of Waffen-SS veterans, Haider declared that the reason people opposed them was “simply that in this world there are decent people who have character and who have stuck to their beliefs through the strongest headwinds and who remained true to their convictions until today.” Haider’s appearance at the ceremony was revealed when an amateur videotape of the gathering was broadcast on German television in December 1996.

Following these revelations, Haider defended his appearance at the event, saying: “The Waffen SS was a part of the Wehrmacht and hence it deserves all the honor and respect of the army in public life.” “Everything I said in that video was completely acceptable.” “I participated in this event and I don’t see any reason not to. While I reject National Socialism, I certainly do not approve of the wholesale disparagement of the older war generation. I stand by this generation and I fight against the way it is disparaged.”

But first prize goes to Red Star Darren. What a highline!

Max Find The Truth about 9/11.

Max Dunbar has done a fine public service by sifting through a debate on 9/11:

“The exchange is 24,000 words long but is well worth reading. Note how Taibbi gets straight to the point, asking hard questions with punchy humour, while Griffin waffles, reiterates and falls back upon remorseless pedantry, dense ontological rhetoric, and ludicrously contrived analogies.”

Would that I had his powers of concentration, well done Max!

Atzmon’s Trajectory.

Gilad Atzmon’s latest embrace of neo-Nazi level antisemitism (“Jewish Bankers”, etc) shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone following his trajectory. HP explains it all.

Sartre on Fur.

My mind’s a bit cloudy at the moment for anything other than short posts, but I thought Ben use of Sarte at Z-Word makes a very astute observation on the nature of antisemitism:

Antisemitism is unlike most other forms of emotionally-grounded hatred, which are normally provoked by a certain experience. You may hate your landlord for raising the rent, or your cellphone company for providing lousy service, or a particular airline for giving you a middle seat when you were promised the aisle. But antisemitism functions differently. “It precedes the facts that are supposed to call it forth; it seeks them out to nourish itself upon them; it must even interpret them in a special way so that they may become truly offensive,” writes Sartre.”

Couldn’t have said it better and one day I promise I’ll read Sartre, proper.