Watching CPAC

Antifascist Calling...

Watching snippets of the CPAC convention on C-SPAN (granted, I could tolerate only a brief peek before running from the room, gasping for air) was analogous to observing a latter-day Nuremberg rally of war mongers, Christian dominionist zombies, unalloyed racists, died-in-the-wool union-busters, Islamophobes and antiabort fanatics obsessed with "moral purity" (paging Gen. Ripper, white courtesy telephone please!) Admittedly, this is not "entertainment" meant for the kids or those prone to sudden outbursts of rage.

But you have to hand it to the (far- and very far) right -- a closed fist in the face would do nicely! -- despite their decades-long grip on state power and the militarist largess bestowed on the gathering by well-connected Bushist cronies in what used to be called the "military-industrial-complex (I prefer the gauche phrase "ruling class") they do seem to whinge and whine an awful lot that somehow they're the victims of sundry left-wing plots to "subvert" the (Christian) Republic!

Here's a panel on Hugo Chavez Democrats: Silencing the Right, featuring, David Horowitz and Joe Farah! Or how about resurrecting "The Clinton Chronicles"? If soft porn's your taste, here's Kathleen Willey, authoress of Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Or how about a panel on Our National Defense featuring none other than the Hon. Rick (slept with a dead fetus) Santorum, or Martin ("kill the darkies") Seiff, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East. No? Then why not a book signing by that sterling (former) representative of "ethics in government," Tom DeLay, hawking his pulp read No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight. Still too tame? Then just for kicks, how about (another) book signing, this one featuring Kenneth Timmermann and his latest screed, Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party Surrender (now you're talking!) A speech by Mr. "dark side" himself, Dick Cheney? Interested yet? I thought you would be! Nervous about the threat posed by (of all things!) "creeping socialism"? Well, then why not a panel on How Liberals Are Criminalizing Free Enterprise?(!)

Still can't get enough? There's Ann Coulter, they'll always be Ann Coulter...

But the truth is, and here's the killing joke, CPAC is no laughing matter. As the American Empire slips ever-closer towards an abyss of its own making, and the "Iran threat" looms like Lord Sauron on an ever-darkening horizon, the right is preparing a (nuclear) "night of the long knives" for us all.

And there won't be film at eleven...