Loyal Opposition, Disloyal Regent

Remember the hullabaloo about The End of History? There were many of us who scoffed then at its hubris, the sheer arrogance of thinking we were “it.” Now, of course, even the adherents of such triumphalism are back in the trenches, forecasting their own gloom-and-obscene-profit version of Permanent War. It’s as if the Cold War never ended—and just in the nick of time for them, too. This gives the right the opportunity to revive that most heinous of Cold War anachronisms, the Loyal Opposition. Now the LO can be permanently kept toothless by the ever-present threat of the New Cold War (remember: they have actually used these words). Some have even promised World War IV.

This bogey man is considered by the right to be sufficient to cover any manner of High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Even the egregiously traitorous act of deliberately revealing the secret identity of an intelligence agent must be beyond scrutiny. But who’s kidding whom? The whole concept of loyalty is perverted, of course, when the war itself is fraudulent, and when those demanding such loyalty are treasonous themselves.

Arianna outs Arnold the Barbarian

Citing the "clear and present danger" of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arianna Huffington has sounded the alarm on the Republican threat to what remains of democracy in California. By withdrawing her own candidacy to work against the gubernatorial recall, she's done it with class and savvy.

Gone are the days when activists can dismiss a Hollywood macho man as a mere side show. That lesson has been driven home by the "compassionate conservatism" of the "Texas lightweight" now in the White House.

In 2000, the United States was an apparently stable democracy. The government was fiscally sound. The Bill of Rights was still in tact. Eight years of relative peace and prosperity lulled much of the nation, including the left, into complacency. After all, it had removed Nixon and survived Reagan/Bush I, albeit at great cost. But there had been light at the end of the tunnel.

No more. There is no visible life after Bush-Cheney-Rove. The Bill of Rights is shredded. The economy is shot. The ecology is under total attack. From rigged voting machines to manipulated voter rolls to ghastly detention camps and a

Unmasking the Ugly 'Anti-American'

Strong critics of U.S. foreign policy often encounter charges of “anti-Americanism.” Even though vast numbers of people in the United States disagree with Washington’s assumptions and military actions, some pundits can’t resist grabbing onto a timeworn handle of pseudo-patriotic demagoguery.

In a typical outburst before the war on Iraq last spring, Rush Limbaugh told his radio audience: “I want to say something about these anti-war demonstrators. No, let’s not mince words, let’s call them what they are -- anti-American demonstrators.”

Weeks later, former Congressman Joe Scarborough, a Republican now rising through the ranks of talking heads, said on MSNBC: “These leftist stooges for anti-American causes are always given a free pass. Isn’t it time to make them stand up and be counted for their views, which could hurt American troop morale?”

Today, in an era when the sun never sets on deployed American troops, the hoary epithet is not only a rhetorical weapon against domestic dissenters or foreign foes. It’s also useful for brandishing

Filipinos reclaim their heritage, history and culture with a weekend of performance and people power

New York City -- The voices of spoken word artists, musicians and former political prisoners resounded over a room packed with people at the Brecht Forum last Saturday night. RECLAIM: (Re)Affirming Our Culture of Resistance, organized by the Justice Not War in the Philippines Campaign, drew over 200 people to an evening that was a fundraiser, party, performance and lesson on the Filipino people's continued struggle for justice.

RECLAIM was conceived to commemorate two dates in recent Philippine history: September 21, 1972, the declaration of martial law under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos; and September 16, 1991, the ousting of the US military bases. Reinforcing the collective memory of those dates, the evening's lineup included Linda Abad and Ramon Mappala, who gave stirring testimonies of their persecution under the Marcos regime. Later in the evening, Gloria Pacis, the mother of US Marine Stephen Funk, told of her son's courageous effort to speak out against the war in Iraq. The three speakers, together with interwoven stories of youth activists under attack under Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's

Time to act

The ad in the airline magazine shows a young boy on a swing, the backdrop for an interactive pager being held by a man's hands. "Maybe you don't have to send an e-mail right now," says BellSouth's ad for their interactive paging service. "But isn't it cool that you can?" The ad, with its headline of work@lifespeed, celebrates a world where our jobs engulf our every waking moment.

It's not just our workplaces. Our lives in general seem faster, more complicated, more at the mercy of distant powers and principalities. We have less time for our families, and less room to ask where we want to go as a society and as a planet. The very pace of environmental crises, global economic shifts and the threats of war and terrorism make it harder to address them. If we're to act effectively as engaged citizens, we're going to have to slow down our lives, our culture, and a world that seems to be careening out of control.

People talk of these pressures wherever I go. "I'd like to be more involved in my community," they say, "to take a stand on important issues. "But I

The Death of Freedom

As we head into our own experiment with regime change, gay issues will be pushed yet again towards the forefront of American political debate. But this will not be a rehashing of the '92 cycle, with a potential president making lofty promises to the gay community only to break them when a conservative wind blows his way. Instead, candidates will rush to assure the American voter that they will oppose any attempt to legalize homosexual unions or support a codified definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Unfortunately, with the conservative Republican party entrenched against them and the more moderate Democratic party having abandoned them, gays and lesbians can be assured that this promise will remain inviolate.

Bush and Blair's chickens: but no poultry for the press?

LONDON -- The postwar travails of the Bush and Blair regimes have been moving at roughly the same tempo. Last Saturday, the Financial Times announced on its front page, "Blow for Blair as 50 percent want him to go." At that same moment, U.S. headlines were assigning the same collapse in popular esteem for Bush.

            On the business of faked intelligence, the chickens have been slowly but inexorably coming home to roost, albeit with much irksome pomposity about some supposed new corruption of such intelligence estimates from former high standards. Never forget, U.S. intelligence created or endorsed some of the most brazen lies of the twentieth century, starting with Kennedy's "missile gap" thrown in Eisenhower's face.

            Now, from the U.S. Congress, indeed from a former CIA officer, have come indignant charges that U.S. intelligence estimates were willfully perverted.

            The British inquiry by Lord Hutton into the circumstances of scientist Dr. David Kelly's death was intended by the Blair government as a detour from the main issue of bogus, government-endorsed "intelligence"

Anyone but Bush

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- For Democrats only: I think our field is shaping up quite nicely. Several of our candidates are starting to look promising indeed. Of course, only a political junkie would have sat through the entire two-hour debate, and the fact that there are 10 of them works against any one standing out. If the field isn't winnowed down soon, they might want to consider dividing themselves into two groups for a debate so we get more than these unsatisfactory soundbites.

            I think they ought to keep Al Sharpton in just for the entertainment value. Carol Moseley Braun is obviously the weakest link. But you know, guys, she wouldn't stand out so painfully as the only one who ever brings up women's issues if some of the rest of you did so occasionally, too. I really like Bob Graham, but for some reason he doesn't come across well. He voted against the Iraq war resolution, against the tax cuts and against confirming John Ashcroft -- a much higher profile in courage than several others in office. But even with all his electoral experience, he doesn't sound sharp.

            The real progressives are supporting Kucinich, and normally I'd

Local Candidate’s Night Brings Community and Candidates Together

Over 50 GLBT and allied community members attended a Candidate’s Night on Thursday evening at the King Avenue United Methodist Church hosted by Stonewall CAN (Community Action Network), Stonewall Democrats of Central Ohio and the Log Cabin Republicans. Sixteen candidates and campaign representatives attended the forum and presented on various issues, including, discrimination against GLBT persons, domestic partner benefits and ensuring a safe environment for GLBT youth in Columbus public schools.

Edward Said dead at 66

A mighty and a passionate heart has ceased to beat.

            Edward Said died in a hospital in New York City Wednesday night at 6.30 p.m., felled at last by complications arising from the leukemia he fought so gamely ever since the early 1990s.

            We march through life buoyed by those comrades-in-arms we know to be marching with us, under the same banners, flying the same colors, sustained by the same hopes and convictions. They can be a thousand miles away; we may not have spoken to them in months; but their companionship is burned into our souls, and we are sustained by the knowledge that they are with us in the world.

            How many times, after a week, a month or more, I have reached him on the phone and within a second been lofted in my spirits, as we pressed through our updates: his trips, his triumphs, the insults sustained; the enemies rebuked and put to flight. Even in his pettiness he was magnificent, and as I would laugh at his fury at some squalid gibe hurled at him by an eighth-rate scrivener, he would clamber from the pedestal of martyrdom and laugh at himself.

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