Highly qualified but strangely inattentive
The illusion of process
... The first question about [condoleezza] Rice's role as security adviser is, how was she able to stay out of the line of fire of the neocons who had fought her over Russia policy in the first Bush administration, and the evident answer is, only by staying close to the president. That, in turn, carried implications for Rice's ability to speak truth to power ...
Deciding what matters
Every presidency begins with the new chief executive and his National Security Council initiating a wide range of policy reviews that enable the new administration to put its stamp on U.S. policies. As they proceed, these reviews are discussed at the NSC Deputies Committee and then rise to the level of the NSC Principals Committee. Under Bush, the process of orderly review leads to National Security Presidential Directives (NSPDs) that specify decisions taken. Aside from any of its other consequences, Rice's testimony before the 9/11 Commission revealed that NSPD-9, the basic counterterrorism directive and authorization for the military campaign against Afghanistan, approved on September 17, 2001, was the first substantive policy directive approved by President George W. Bush during his term in office.
That no directive had been approved earlier does not mean that the Bush administration had not acted on foreign policy. The abrogation of the ABM Treaty, the U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto environmental protocols and the International Criminal Court agreement, and other measures, all took place during this early period. What the revelation about NSPD-9 does mean, however, is that all of those early Bush actions were carried out without interagency policy review.
Conversely, the policy review on intelligence was carried out at the president's request by a group headed by Scowcroft. That review was completed around the time of September 11, 2001, but its conclusions had yet to be acted upon at the time of Rice's testimony to the 9/11 commission, more than two years later. This indicates that the policy process in the Bush administration functions much differently from the standard established earlier. The current system might be broadly characterized as a "personality-based policy."
An examination of particular policy areas and of the role of Rice and the NSC staff in those matters confirms this view. One more point needs to be made about Rice's 9/11 testimony. The testimony of senior Clinton and Bush administration officials, including Rice, establishes that Clinton administration officials very consciously made certain to indicate to Rice, Bush, and others, their view that terrorism would be the major foreign policy preoccupation in the immediate future.
Rice, Bush, and others proceeded to act as if these concerns had not been enunciated. It may be hindsight to point it out, but the Clinton officials were correct in their concerns, and the way Bush administration officials treated the issue is exactly analogous to the way the first Bush administration responded to Gorbachev's speech in December 1988. In each case, no response was made and crucial time was lost while the matter was subjected to formal policy review. In fact, the point is even sharper in the case of terrorism; current Bush administration officials acted quickly in many other areas while holding back on counterterrorism before conducting a lengthy review. As cited earlier, Rice had thought about the earlier failure and personally conceded her own blindness in the waning days of the Cold War. It is regrettable that a similar incident occurred when Rice returned to the White House ...
Obsession?
... Back in the heady days of the campaign, Rice authored an overview of her candidate's world views and intentions that appeared in Foreign Affairs. Referring to the Clinton administration's resort to force in Kosovo, she wrote: "The Kosovo war was conducted incompetently, in part because the administration's political goals kept shifting and in part because it was not, at the start, committed to the decisive use of military force." Substitute "Iraq" for the name of the country, understand Rumsfeld's "lite" invasion plan for what it was, and that observation applies exactly to Bush's war in Iraq as stage-managed by Rice.
Stage management is a matter of process, and it is the process of Rice's NSC that needs examining. Two factors greatly complicated the possibility of a smoothly running system. One is the deep chasm between Colin Powell's State Department and Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon. The second complication is Dick Cheney, a vice president with unprecedented sway on national security issues, who forged an underground policy structure of his own with connections to Rumsfeld and links to key officials elsewhere such as Hadley on the NSC staff and Bolton at State. Cheney not only has the president's ear, he has the ability to create and push paper in the bureaucracy. Previous national security advisers, faced with State-Defense Department competition, have played traffic cop outside the Oval Office (in Kissinger's case, he moved to supplant both agencies and pull the reins of power into the White House). Rice has chosen instead to cultivate her direct relationship with the president, essentially getting out of the way of the policy war. Rice's ideological predilections, more attuned to those of the Cheney-Rumsfeld alliance, help assure that the NSC process is more a matter of ideology than of issues, evidence, and attainable objectives.
Finally, a word about Rice's role as public persona. During the Clinton administration, Tony Lake and Sandy Berger made the national security adviser more of a public person through their speeches and television appearances. Rice has taken this effort to an entirely new level. Frequently appearing on multiple news shows on a single day, spending hours in successions of interviews, presenting speeches in tandem with other officials in coordinated public relations offensives, making many speeches on her own, Rice has acquired unprecedented visibility as a spokesperson. I have not taken a systematic survey, but an estimate of her appearances would include speeches in the dozens and news contacts in the hundreds. The wide variety of public positions Rice has taken on substantive issues restricts her ability to act impartially in the policy process. And the sheer effort required to sustain her public appearances may seriously curtail the time Rice has available to actually manage the Bush administration policy process, such as it is ...
A report card
During the 2000 presidential campaign, when Rice was auditioning for her current position as national security adviser, she offered two statements that make perfect points of departure for an evaluation of the Bush administration's national security record. One is her January 2000 article in Foreign Affairs. The other is Rice's speech, accompanied by a discussion with the audience and host Charlie Rose, before the Council on Foreign Relations on October 12, 2000.
Rice argued in Foreign Affairs that "multilateral agreements and institutions should not be ends in themselves." [26] She objected specifically to the Kyoto Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, on which the Bush administration has been as good as its word. Both of these agreements, as well as the ABM Treaty, are history. As mentioned earlier, U.S. actions opting out of these treaties were taken without reference to process. Whether the United States is better off as a result is disputable.
Rice also maintained that "the Clinton administration's attachment to largely symbolic agreements and pursuit of, at best, illusory 'norms' of international behavior [has] become an epidemic." One may easily make an identical comment with regard to the Bush administration's Roadmap in the Middle East.
Rice went on, "There is work to do with the Europeans too," pointing to the enlargement of NATO and defining what holds the transatlantic alliance together. The Bush administration has succeeded in enlarging NATO by incorporating East European nations. At the same time it has substantially undermined relations with key partners, leaving the overall NATO relationship shakier than ever before.
Rice saw China as "a potential threat to stability in the Asia-Pacific region," to be countered by deepening U.S. cooperation with Japan and South Korea. Today the United States is actually dependent on China, both as a source of imports and as a diplomatic intermediary with North Korea. Rice wrote that China was not a status quo power and thus was "a strategic competitor, not the 'strategic partner' the Clinton administration once called it." In fact, the Bush administration now relies on China as a strategic partner. Meanwhile, U.S. relations with South Korea are worse than before, and important differences have emerged with both South Korea and Japan regarding North Korea.
The United States, wrote Rice, needed to pay "immediate attention to the safety and security of Moscow's nuclear forces and stockpile. The Nunn-Lugar program should be funded fully and pursued aggressively." Today these nuclear safety programs are in a virtual state of suspended animation.
The "rogue regimes" in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, Rice explained, "are living on borrowed time, so there need be no sense of panic about them." This statement speaks for itself.
Most important, Rice insisted, "Foreign policy in a Republican administration will most certainly be internationalist." That statement clearly conflicts with the Bush administration's unilateral abrogation of treaties, its unilateral push toward ballistic missile defenses, its flouting of the United Nations in the war with Iraq, and its treatment of alliance relationships. It has virtually ignored Latin America and conditioned foreign aid on performance norms.
On the Middle East, Rice told the Council on Foreign Relations, "The circumstances that created the opening for direct Palestinian/Israeli dialogue really goes [sic] back to a significant change in the circumstances in the Middle East coming out of the [1991] Persian Gulf War." A bit of overdetermined analysis that clearly foreshadows the miscalculation that led to the Iraq war?
Speaking the night after candidate Bush said in a presidential debate that the United States needed to be "humble" on the international stage. Rice told the Council, "Ever since I first talked to Governor Bush about foreign policy, this has been something that has been on his mind."
Once in power, however, the Bush administration has acted in the exact opposite fashion, as if it could sweep the board clear on the international plane. Rice also described Bush's view of U.N. peacekeeping: "I think he's somewhat skeptical of the idea that the United Nations could become a major force." In power, the Bush administration initiated a war with Iraq, ostensibly to strengthen the United Nations by enforcing a U.N. resolution.
- John Prados, "Blindsided or blind?" bulletin of the atomic scientists july/august 2004
posted July 28, 2004 in politics, printi know there are more frustrating things to be frustrated about, but
it is very frustrating that "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)" is the top book in my friendster "network."
posted July 27, 2004 in deliveryfashion now encourages people to assume an identity without actually having one of their own
Young women seem most susceptible to this form of identity theft, to judge by the number who participate in reality shows that involve a scalpel and the promise of Britney Spears's chin. But the reluctance to create an original and distinctive look, one that gives a face to personality, isn't limited to young women. Fashion designers are also losing their identities, that thread of continuity that runs through their collections. To ask who Marc Jacobs is this season is to ask which famous designer or artist recently captured his attention.
Against this background of constant change, heightened by magazine covers that seem to have adopted the biblical practice of stoning readers (Lucky, "663 Great Finds"; Teen Vogue, a paltry "85 Killer Fashion Finds"), women with a constant style hold an almost secret advantage—morally, aesthetically, politically.
To look at Laura Bush, with her neat, unvarying hairstyle and penchant for tailored clothes, is to wonder if she subscribes to Lady Astor's line: "What a boring thing it is to try to look pretty." But unlike her predecessor in the White House, who bobbed from style to style, Mrs. Bush found a look that suited her (now mostly from Oscar de la Renta) and stuck to it. She has managed to silence the conversation about her clothes, which is the boring thing ...
[amy fine] Collins suggests that the test of an identifiable look—one that is, in effect, a stamp—is whether it can be easily drawn, even as a caricature. "These girls today—imagine an artist having to draw them," she said, drawing a circle in the air with her finger, presumably the head of a stick figure.
- CATHY HORYN, "It's My Style and I'm Sticking to It," new york times July 27, 2004
posted July 27, 2004 in crap, performance, printhappiness is
a favorite blog with a new rss feed.
posted July 27, 2004 in deliverya useful primer
The economic conservative (I'm in the supply-side division) opposes the enforced redistribution of wealth, advocating lower taxes for all to stimulate growth with productivity, thereby to cut the deficit. Government should downhold nondefense spending, stop the litigation drain and reduce regulation but protect consumers from media and other monopolies.
My social conservative instinct wants to denounce the movie-and-TV treatment of violence and porno-sadism as entertainment; repeal state-sponsored gambling; slow the rush to same-sex marriage; oppose partial-birth abortion; resist genetic manipulation that goes beyond therapy. However, this conflicts with -
My libertarian impulse, which is pro-choice and anti-compulsion, wants to protect the right to counsel of all suspects and the right to privacy of the rest of us, likes quiet cars in trains and vouchers for education, and wants snoops out of bedrooms and fundamentalists out of schoolrooms.
The idealistic calling grabs me when it comes to America's historic mission of extending freedom in the world. This brand of thinking is often called neoconservative. In defense against terror, I'm pre-emptive and unilateral rather than belated and musclebound, and would rather be ad hoc in forming alliances than permanently in hock to global bureaucrats.
Also rattling around my Republican mind is the cultural conservative. In today's ever-fiercer kulturkampf, I identify with art forms more traditional than avant-garde, and language usage more standard than common. I prefer the canon to the fireworks and a speech that appeals to the brain's reasoning facilities to a demidocumentary film arousing the amygdala.
- WILLIAM SAFIRE, "Inside a Republican Brain," new york times July 21, 2004
posted July 21, 2004 in politics, printCheneys differ on marriage amendment
Lynne Cheney, the wife of the vice president and the mother of a lesbian, said Sunday that states should have the final say on the legal status of personal relationships.
That stand puts her at odds with the vice president on the need for the constitutional amendment being debated in the Senate that effectively would ban gay marriage.
- Will Lester, "Cheneys differ on marriage amendment," chicago tribune july 12, 2004
posted July 12, 2004 in politics, printprotest rnc, replant central park, repeat
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 9:14 AM
Subject: [noRNC] RNC Petition: Volunteers to Replant Central Park
Dear New Yorker,
As you know, Mayor Bloomberg, and NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, are saying New Yorkers can't rally against the RNC in Central Park, because a demonstration there would damage the grass.
Let's take this grass issue off the table: let's volunteer to clean up our own mess. We're pledging to give 4 hours of our time to the Parks department, to repair and clean up Central Park if the City permits our rally.
We should also be ready to trade those 4 hours for other jobs, in other parks, sometime in the next year, to offset costs for re-sodding or other specialized repairs in Central Park, which may not be suitable for volunteer labor.
Don't New Yorkers deserve free speech, AND nice parks? It shouldn't be so hard, if we all pitch in.
Click below to sign our petition to Mayor Bloomberg, and pledge to volunteer:
NOTE: Since you are pledging to volunteer, please sign the petition ONLY if you live in the NYC area! If you do not, please forward it to someone who does. Your name and address will not be shared, and will be used only to contact you about volunteer opportunities for NYC parks, if the petition is successful and the RNC rally is permitted.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/975111804
And don't forget to forward this message! Our goal is 1,000 volunteers, but we're guessing many more will be ready to help. The more volunteers we can offer, the stronger our case will be.
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expand the perimeter of free speech
I find it hard to believe that any man could screw Ann Coulter, but they were having an affair ... I call her a fag hag. She does like to hang out with gay guys a lot ...
If I have any legacy at all to leave, I would like it to be that I fought to expand the perimeter of free speech. And I can't think of any nobler goal than that.
- Larry Flynt, "Citizen Flynt," interview by David Bowman salon July 8, 2004
posted July 08, 2004 in politics, print, sex, speechfree kerry-edwards stickers posted July 07, 2004 in politics
taking the subway every day to the end of the line and walking around
CUNY has campuses throughout the five boroughs in the most diverse of neighborhoods, and that's where aspiring journalists can find out about the real New York, far away from the vacuous glitterati of midtown Manhattan. That's where our journalism students should study, at one CUNY campus a month.
Beyond the traditional journalism classes taught from textbooks, the assigned readings should be every major book about New York City over the last 50 years, including but not limited to The Power Broker and Gotham. Students, in return for free tuition (paid for by the media conglomerates that make billions in profits every year), will be required to sign a pledge promising they will never write one word about Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Barry Bonds, Woody Allen, models, actors and actresses, Al Sharpton and all the other annoying media hounds who hog far too much space in our newspapers ...
They must have a heavy dose of economic theory, so they don't wind up like the "reporters" who were outclassed on that topic in May during a debate with Stuyvesant High School students. This will help them in explaining the various flimflams of Wall Street and city leaders.
One of the courses offered, according to the CUNY administrators, will be "how to spot a story." That is the easiest part. It's called taking the subway every day to the end of the line and walking around; reading the Law Journal, to see who is suing whom, and the City Record, to see how the Mayor is selling or leasing your land; attending community-board meetings, where the rubber hits the road on civic issues. Turn off the TV and read the weeklies; they have more information about our neighborhoods and their changing ethnicity in one issue than all the dailies combined.
Of course, there is one major dilemma with all this theory about how to cover the real news of our city, the news that affects all eight million of us.
Where would any of it get published?
- Jim Callaghan, "A Boot Camp For the Media," new york observer July 7, 2004
posted July 07, 2004 in printretired united states marine responsible for death threat to shadow protest webmaster
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: To: Webmaster, RNC Not Welcome
From: "David A. Lynn (Phantom)"
Date: Mon, July 5, 2004 11:53 pm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: July 5, 2004
Contact: David A. Lynn, Webmaster, Shadow Protest
RETIRED UNITED STATES MARINE RESPONSIBLE FOR DEATH THREAT TO SHADOW PROTEST WEBMASTER
A retired United States Marine is apparently behind the death threat received by David A. Lynn, Webmaster of the Shadow Protest, it was announced today.
Lynn said in a statement that he had been informed by FBI agent Brian Hayes that Chris Meier, a retired United States Marine, had been contacted by the FBI, and had admitted to sending the following email to
Lynn:
From: Chris Meier [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: April 27, 2004 10:58 PM
To: phantom@...
Subject: Protest
Please, please, please show up at the NYC GOP convention!
This way we can beat you to death!
I'm calling everyone I can know to show up, with their friends, for a good old head bashing! We'll have a contest "the one with the most brains on his bat wins". This is actually for your own good. The resultant brain injury and death will save you from a future Islamic regime which would rape and then kill you. Then again, faggots like you would relish a good fudge packing by a mullah. Oh well, wishful thinking, you faggots will be too weak from AIDS to attend anything by November.
US Marine tired of spineless faggots
The FBI told Lynn that Chris Meier had agreed not send any more email of this type.
"I am glad to know that Chris Meier is a retired Marine, and not currently responsible for protecting our country," said Lynn. "Moreover, I am quite relieved that he is not representing the United States in a military role in a foreign country, or worse yet, responsible for the care of military detainees in places such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba or the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq."
Lynn indicated that he had attempted to file a report about the email with the Philadelphia Police Department, but was not allowed to do so. "Corporal Thomas Young, Badge #8087 at the Sixth Police District in Philadelphia refused to take a report for the following reasons: 1) I refused to tell him if I was planning to go to New York for the convention; 2) Unlike the FBI, Corporal Young did not view this email as a death threat; 3) Although Corporal Young had not seen my site, he told me that there were no pictures of me on my site, and therefore, this person did not know what I looked like, and that I had nothing to worry about, and 4) I had written to the Philadelphia District Attorney's office, and had a copy of the letter with me, and it was his contention that the Philadelphia Police Department does not work with the Philadelphia Attorney General's Office, and that I was in the wrong place." Lynn has since filed an internal affairs complaint with the Philadelphia Police Department. A copy of the initial report can be seen at http://www.shadowprotest.org/policeinternalaffairs.pdf.
Lynn indicated that the FBI and Philadelphia Police Department were clearly not sharing information with regard to this matter. "The duty officer at the FBI informed me several times that it was the responsibility of the Philadelphia Police Department to provide any needed protection for me, and that Corporal Young should have taken a complaint, and that there was nothing that the FBI could do about the matter. I guess this means that it was unlawful for the FBI duty officer to pick up the phone and call the Philadelphia Police Department for me, or that she was unwilling to call the Philadelphia Police Department for me. I have written to the FBI for clarification on this matter, but have received no response."
Lynn also indicated that the lack of cooperation between the FBI and the Philadelphia Police prompted him to withhold some information concerning the FBI's actions when the Philadelphia Police interviewed him for his internal affairs complaint. "I indicated that there was some information that I would not tell the Philadelphia Police. I believe that if the two agencies cannot cooperate on my behalf, then it is not my job to help them cooperate. I made it a point to be clear which questions I would not answer, and why."
Lynn said that he might attempt to press charges a second time against Chris Meier in Philadelphia. "I have been sent information from individuals who have seen my site suggesting that the residence and identity of Chris Meier, and since the Philadelphia Police Department has offered me a chance to re-file a complaint, I may do so with this additional information."
Finally, Lynn indicated that he had been in contact with Norman Brandinger, President of Global Online Electronic Services (GOES), the Internet Service Provider for Chris Meier. Lynn indicated that he was asking GOES to live up to its publicly stated terms of service that are currently posted on its site. These terms prohibit the transmission of "material legally judged to be threatening."
ON THE WEB: This press release and other documents pertaining to the history of this death threat including letters to law enforcement, a pdf file of the initial internal affairs report, and the letter to Global Online Electronic Services can be found at http://www.shadowprotest.org/deaththreatinfo.htm.
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Protesters will outnumber and may well outspend the Republicans
Wait a minute, you say, they are a ragtag bunch with no cash to pump into the local economy. Not so. Protesters increasingly fall into the aging boomer demographic. They have well-paying jobs, houses, 401(k)'s—and credit cards.
Even if half the protesters sleep on floors, that leaves more than 250,000 staying in area hotels, where they will spend more than $50 million.
And how do you thank someone if you stay on their floor? You take them out to dinner after a day of all-American protesting. And before dinner, why not a Broadway (or Off Broadway) show or a visit to the Met or even a poetry slam? Or, as a thank-you, you might buy a gift for your host and for loved ones back home. And you might buy a thing or two for yourself. The protesters—poor and wealthy ones combined—could spend $100 million on this stuff and other incidentals. Despite their spending potential, what do the protesters get in the way of wooing? They can't even get a permit to congregate in Central Park and exercise their First Amendment rights of free speech because City Hall is worried about the lawns!
Last month, Mr. Bloomberg made a good start by issuing some permits to protest groups. But if he truly had the interests of New Yorkers in mind, he would immediately start a major marketing campaign, encouraging protesters from across America to demonstrate at the Republican convention. This campaign would emphasize that protesters are welcome in New York—and that they'll have a good time and be kept safe. As a sign of his commitment, Mr. Bloomberg should ensure that the demonstrators be given access to a prime venue, like Central Park, for their big event.
If protesters were properly invited and assured of a safe place to protest, who knows how many would come? Two million? Three million? This could translate into a billion dollars or more for the city.
As a former businessman, the mayor should understand that cash-carrying people are cash-carrying people, even if they don't like President Bush. So, Mr. Bloomberg, roll out the red carpet to protesters.
- BEN COHEN, "Court the Protest Economy," new york times July 4, 2004
posted July 05, 2004 in politics, print>> Love is a battlefield <<
Bremer takes home Iraqi souvenir
chemical_ali writes from Iraq:
"In a romantic postscript to a disastrous
occupation, newspapers here are saying that Paul
Bremer enjoyed "an emotional relationship" with a
35-year-old Iraqi woman who used to work for
Saddam's protocol department. His paramour and
her family are now in Jordan awaiting passage
to the US in Bremer's hasty wake, with talk of
marriage on the cards.
"Many of Bremer's colleagues also fell into bed
with their Iraqi translators and assistants,
while others could pick up prostitutes at the
private bars the occupation authority set up at
the Rashid hotel. Army grunts, however, had to
make do with banging their hookers in the
toilets of the Palestine hotel, right under
the noses of the press corps."
- "Help! They are trying to stop pop!" popbitch july 1, 2004
posted July 01, 2004 in crap, politics, print, sexbest gothamist interview
2. If you could sit Courtney Love down right now, what would you say to her?
1. What's the matter with you? You’re gonna lose the kid! 2. Do you have any, um, stuff? 3. Where's the bathroom? 4. Thanks.
3. As long as you get the sex and drugs, could you live without the rock and roll?
I live without the rock and roll all the time. I live for techno, house, electronic music. (I used to live for drum 'n bass but it turned into heavy metal without the hot guys with long hair and tight pants, so forget that). Rock and roll belongs in a nice museum somewhere. They should force the people who make it to become permanent exhibits at MOMA. I should also note that since all my "boyfriends" are gay, I also live without the sex, so all that’s left are the drugs.
Time travel question: What era, day or event in New York's history would you like to re-live?
I'd like to see Blondie in their heyday at CBGB's. Otherwise you can keep New York City, past, present, and future.
9pm, Wednesday - what are you doing?
At some place that passes for a "cool" club. Drinking the pain away. Trying desperately to figure out how I can write about it.
What's your New York motto?
Screw these people.
Who do you consider to be the greatest New Yorker of all-time?
New Yorkers suck. But if you put a gun to my head, I would nominate Debbie Harry because she's from New Jersey.
What was your best dining experience in NYC?
My fave restaurant in NYC is Lucien. I’ll eat there until I'm am [sic] so full you have to carry me away on a stretcher.
Just how much do you really love New York?
I don't. I like the drop-off laundry. That's it. And Lucien. I like my friends, it's such a shame they all live here though.
Of all the movies made about (or highly associated with) New York, what role would you have liked to be cast in?
As the snowstorm that detroys the city in The Day After Tommorrow [sic].
- Andrew Krucoff (i think?), "Tricia Romano, Village Voice columnist," gothamist interviews june 30, 2004
posted July 01, 2004 in crap, music, printEr1c C1apton says that he shot the sheriff
This is odd, because it seems like he probably has dinner with the sheriff and summers with the sheriff and, of a Saturday, motors down to the high street and shops for synthetic waffle-stitch Nike hooves with the sheriff. But maybe something went wrong with that whole insurance deal and Erick simply had to shoot the sheriff, though he would advise the young and impressionable not to follow his lead, were he given the chance to clarify his position.
- sasha frere-jones, "THIS WEEK IN OTHER PEOPLE'S ROCK," S/FJ july 1, 2004
posted July 01, 2004 in music, printQueer as Volk
This belief in the superiority of homosexuality had a strong German tradition that grew up at the turn of the twentieth century around Adolf Brand, publisher of the country’s first gay magazine. You could call it 'Queer as Volk': they preached that gay men were the foundation of all nation-states and represented an elite, warrior caste that should rule. They venerated the ancient warrior cults of Sparta, Thebes and Athens.
Rohm often referred to the ancient Greek tradition of sending gay solider couples into battle, because they were believed to be the most ferocious fighters. The famous pass of Thermopylae, for example was held by 300 soldiers—who consisted of 150 gay couples. In its early years, the SA—Hitler and [ernst] Rohm's underground army—was seen as predominantly gay. Rohm assigned prominent posts to his lovers, making Edmund Heines his deputy and Karl Ernst the SA commander in Berlin. The organisation would sometimes meet in gay bars. The gay art historian Christian Isermayer said in an interview, "I got to know people in the SA. They used to throw riotous parties even in 1933 ... I once attended one. It was quite well-behaved but thoroughly gay. But then, in those days, the SA was ultra-gay."
Rohm is venerated on the Homo-Nazi sites that have bred on the internet like germs in a wound. They have names like Gays Against Semitism (with the charming acronym GAS), and the Aryan Resistance Corps (ARC). Their Rohmite philosophy is simple: while white men are superior to other races, gay men are "the masters of the Master Race." They alone are endowed with the "capacity for pure male bonding" and the "superior intellect" that is needed for "a fascist revolution." The ARC even organises holiday "get-togethers" for its members where "you can relax amongst the company of our fellow white brothers" ...
Gay pornographer and film-maker Bruce LaBruce has one explanation. He claims that "all gay porn today is implictly fascist. Fascism is in our bones, because it's all about glorifying white male supremacy and fetishizing domination, cruelty, power and monstrous authority figures" ...
Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has a sensitive and intriguing explanation. "“There are many reasons for this kind of thing," he says. "Some of them are in denial. They are going for hyper-masculinity, the most extreme possible way of being a man. It's a way of ostentatiously rejecting the perceived effeminacy of the homosexual 'Other.' These troubled men have a simple belief in their minds: 'Straight men are tough. Queers are weak. Therefore if I'm tough I can't be queer.' It's a desperate way of proving their manhood."
Searchlight magazine—the bible of the anti-fascist movement, with moles in every major far-right organisation—offers an alternative explanation. "Generally condemned by a society that continues to be largely hostile to gays, some men may find refuge and a new power status in the far right," one of their writers has explained. "Through adherence to the politics espoused by fascist groups, a new identity emerges—one where they aren't outcasts, because they are White Men, superior to everyone else. They render the gay part of their identity invisible—or reject the socially less acceptable parts, like being feminine—while vaunting what they see as superior."
- johann hari, "The strange, unexplored overlap between homosexuality and fascism," Attitude via arts and letters daily june 24, 2004
posted July 01, 2004 in politics, print, sex