link dump

"Micro-scripts" -- a few good ideas in the article but generally pretty superficial. ("Guess who's losing the great phrase face-off" in Boston.com, by Bill Schley. By an author of a new book by the same title.

Some good links from Dave Neiwert on how Liberal Fascism transmitted through the discourse. Sad sad sad. ("Is Conservatism Brain-Dead?")

Finally, an article in Columbia Journalism Review that contemplates why some protests get coverage and some don't. (Teabaggers, astroturfed town hall riots = yes. Protests at a health care CEO's house? No -- "too staged" according to the journalists.)

"gay nazis" in action

Well, queue the outrage from Christianists. Box Turtle Bulletin reports:

San Francisco police had to escort a group of preachers out of the Castro. Those so-called “Christians” are now using this as an excuse to post the most extraordinary claims and garnering vast amounts of publicity and sympathy for themselves on right-wing blogs.

Links to KTVU report on the story here, and also to the raw footage (5 min) that made up the report.

Here's a report from one of the prayer people, provided in the YouTube description:

Since it was a long night, I can't even begin to remember all of the things that were shouted and/or chanted at us. Then, they started throwing hot coffee, soda and alcohol on us and spitting (and maybe even peeing) on us. Then, a group of guys surrounded us with whistles, and blasted them inches away from our ears continually. Then, they started getting violent and started shoving us. At one point a man tried to steal one of our Bibles. Chrisdene noticed, so she walked up to him and said "Hey, that's not yours, can you please give it back?". He responded by hitting her on the head with the Bible, shoving her to the ground, and kicking her. I called the cops, and when they got there, they pulled her out of the circle and asked her if she wanted to press charges. She said "No, tell him I forgive him." Afterwards, she didn't rejoin us in the circle, but she made friends with one of the people in the crowd, and really connected heart to heart. Roger got death threats. As the leader of our group, people looked him in the eyes and said "I am going to kill you.", and they were serious. A cop heard one of them, and confronted him. (This part is kinda graphic, so you should skip the paragraph if you don't want to be offended.) It wasn't long before the violence turned to perversion. They were touching and grabbing me, and trying to shove things in my butt, and even trying to take off my pants - basically trying to molest me. I used one hand to hold my pants up, while I used the other arm to hold one of the girls. The guys huddled around all the girls, and protected them. Soon after, the cops came and stood between us and the mob. When it was getting more heated, the cops were like "You guys should leave." and Roger said "We want to stay." Someone tried to steal my backpack, but I tapped a cop on the shoulder, and said "Hey, that's my bag." and he got it from him and gave it to me. Others weren't so lucky. Probably half our team got their jackets stolen. Eventually, as the crowd was getting more and more uncontrollable, the cops were afraid for our lives, so they escorted us to our van. (The cops were very nice to us from start to finish.)

Story is a bit implausible to me... Okay, mean chants and whistles, sure. But notice how the account quickly descends into stereotypes: The gays are peeing on them somehow. They try to molest the narrator. They're afraid for their lives, but somehow one of them is able to brave the mob and "connect heart to heart" with one of the fallen, without being molested or killed of course. All in all, a great opportunity for the Christians to display how much they love these fags and just want to help them, but they are so depraved that they resist it:

We can't hate the people because they are just broken and blinded by the spirit of this age. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities and Powers. It's not a political thing, we just love the people.

Comments on that story are fuckin scary. ("God will judge that city soon!" "Fucking faggots. I hope for a backlash so severe no fag would dare come out of the closet. Chase the sick liberal faggots to the shores. Icky pervert deviants. Kill them all. ")

Classic Nazi tactics: invade the enemy's neighborhood and insult them, provoking a reaction that can then be propagandized to show how "hateful" they are.

depressing Sunday

More from the Twin Cities. Makes me sad.

The torture, sadism, and abuse the Minneapolis Police, St. Paul Police, Ramsey County Sheriffs (and out of town departments) unleashed upon protesters, press, passers-by, and community members took place while Homeland Security and the Secret Service they control were in direct command of all area "law" enforcement and had final authority over all decisions about protests and protesters. In other words, what we saw in the Twin Cities shows us how American local "law" enforcement act in broad daylight when the Feds are on the scene and supervising their work.

Over the last week, we had a chance to observe de facto professional cultural norms in America's local, state, and Federal enforcement. This is what democracy looks like?

Hardly. Post goes on to outline all kinds of horrible abuses, including deliberate targeting of journalists and medics. And they're also going after random black people just for the hell of it. And check this:

Just a few rogue cops who don't believe in negotiation? Nope.

Twin Cities "law" enforcement now storms into meetings between residents and elected political leaders.

A peaceful meeting of lawyers with the Mayor of Minneapolis to discuss the police-incited riots and the way peaceful protesters and journalists have been treated is broken up by cops in FULL RIOT GEAR.

This is what democracy looks like?

WTF!?!?!

more from St Paul

Motherfuckers.

intemperate but true

"How the Secret Service Turned into the Stasi"

And if that isn't Godwin-defying, which it technically is not, then why not refer to them as the SS throughout. That's their proper acronym after all.

RNC protest police state

Bitch, PhD:

Criminalize dissent, privatize public space (and, I would add, politicize private space): the tactics of police and Homeland Security over the weekend leading up to the convention

Needless impounding of a bus on which this earth-activist family lives

All the lies told in defense of the police state

Video from Amy Goodman, journalist with Democracy Now! who was arrested for nothing

See also Glenzilla ("Massive police raids on suspected protectors" -- emphasizing the pre-emptive nature of the police response and its brutality. The best part is where the city code people come by to try and shutter the house for violations including a busted back door -- that the police kicked in). Also his Scenes from Saint Paul, other links as well.

Firedoglake: It also helps to remember that the fascists behind this do so to cover up their own corruption. (Godwin violation mine, not theirs)

Panties for Peace

Apparently the Burmese junta thinks women's panties rob them of their power. So women are sending them by mail, and flinging them over embassy walls.

"Not only are they brutal, but they are also very superstitious," Jackie Pollack, a member of the Lanna Action for Burma Committee, told the Guardian Unlimited. "Condemnation by the United Nations and governments around the world have had no impact on the Burmese regime. This is a way of trying to reach them where they will feel it."

new nazis stealing leftist symbols

Spiegel story Verkleidete Rechte: Tarnkappen-Nazis buhlen um junge Linke. CRAZY! But makes total sense. Looks like the Nazis are now taking Che as their own brand of icon -- a nationalist freedom fighter!

Possible uses: youth culture and fashion as political tool, totalitarianism (that the symbols can be shared by the two extremes), women in fascist movements (see included photo essay and story on "Skingirls, Renees, und braune Schwestern"