Spyhopping the Right.
David Neiwert is a freelance journalist based in Seattle. He is the author of Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community (Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, June 2005), as well as Death on the Fourth of July: The Story of a Killing, a Trial, and Hate Crime in America, (Palgrave/St. Martin's, 2004), and In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest (1999, WSU Press). His reportage for MSNBC.com on domestic terrorism won the National Press Club Award for Distinguished Online Journalism in 2000. His freelance work can be found at Salon.com, the Washington Post, MSNBC and various other publications. He can be contacted at dneiwert@hotmail.com.
Sara Robinson has worked as an editor or columnist for several national magazines, on beats as varied as sports, travel, and the Olympics; and has contributed to over 80 computer games for EA, Lucasfilm, Disney, and many other companies. A native of California's High Sierra, she spent 20 years in Silicon Valley before moving to Vancouver, BC in 2004. Her lifelong interest in the social effects of authoritarianism have most recently led her to pursue the MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. She's also a student member of the Association of Professional Futurists, and member of the Accelerated Studies Foundation advisory board on social and cultural issues. For fun, she raises kids and travels. You can reach her at srobinson@enginesofmischief.com.
Sara's recent series:
Cracks in the Wall: Parts I, II, and III.
Tunnels and Bridges: Parts I, II, III, and IV, plus a Short Detour.
Dave's recent series:
The March of the Minutemen
Intro: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Unhinged: Unhonest
Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
___
Other books by Dave [limited availability]:
"The Rise of Pseudo Fascism": An essay
Available in Adobe PDF format here
Support independent journalism:
Suggested $5 donation
Original posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7.
______
Choice essays:
____
"The Political and the Personal"
____
"Bush, the Nazis and America":
Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.
_______
Rush, Newspeak and Fascism: An Exegesis
[PDF file]
[Suggested $5 donation]
[In HTML: Parts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X,, XI, XII, XIII, XIV and XV. See explanatory note.]
[Also available in HTML, and with art, at Cursor.]
_______
Orcinus Principium No. 1
Orcinus Principium No. 2
Why Orcinus?
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Hitting the shelves
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
My third book, Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community, is now being shipped by Amazon and other online sellers. It will be hitting the bookstore shelves on June 1.
I'm especially pleased about this, since I've been working on this book since 1992, when I first wrote the newspaper series for the old Bellevue Journal American which gave the book its origins. I first produced a manuscript in 1994, and have been working on refining and improving it over the ensuing years, when I wasn't working on my other books. I interviewed 28 different internees and Bellevue community members over the years, and I conducted a great deal of archival research as well.
As it happens, events have conspired to make the book even more relevant than before. The combination of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the right-wing program to scapegoat Muslim Americans in its wake -- embodied by Michelle Malkin's book In Defense of Internment, which sought to justify "racial profiling" by demonstrating that the mass internment of 1942 was not simply justified but desirable -- have suddenly made the subject very contemporary indeed.
The text, in most regards, was already a standing refutation of Malkin's thesis, especially her claim that racism was not a significant cause of the internment. It describes, in considerable detail, the 40 years of racist agitation against the Japanese that culminated in the internment. However, I have also written an epilogue that discusses this larger context, as well as some specific refutations of Malkin's work.
Here's hoping you all enjoy reading it.
11:28 AM
Spotlight
Brutal hate
Monday, May 23, 2005
Amancio Corrales
Following up on the recent killing of a transgender man in Yuma, Arizona, the sheriff's department, according to a report filed by Jeffrey Gautreaux in the Yuma Sun, says it's clearly shaping up as a hate crime:
- Amancio Corrales, a 23-year-old Yuma man who was dressed as a woman when he was murdered, may have been the victim of a hate crime, according to the Yuma County Sheriff's Office.
"A hate crime is not ruled out," Sheriff's Capt. Eben Bratcher said. "Until we find who did it, we don't know the motive. The situation lends itself for one to believe that's the case. Thinking someone is a woman and then finding they were a man would not sit well with some people."
However, the sheriff also apparently disputed some of the rumors that were flying about the case, including the claim that Corrales' penis had been severed:
- Rumors in the community and on Internet message boards have alleged that Corrales was brutally beaten to death, possibly even mutilated.
Bratcher said he had heard many of the rumors about the murder, several of which he said were not true. He said YCSO would prefer that people who believe they have information about the crime come and speak to sheriff's investigators or call them at 783-4427.
For now, investigators are being mum because they have to be. At this point, we have to trust that the sheriff's office will eventually arrest whoever committed this crime, at which point we'll find out more about what fate befell Amancio Corrales, as well as what motivated his killers.
I'll keep updating this story as details emerge.
11:56 PM
Spotlight
Minutemen on the march
As I've recently observed, it's clear the Minutemen are planning on building on their success in obtaining fawning coverage from the press by expanding their project beyond patrolling the Arizona borderlands.
According to a recent Washington Times report, they'll be conducting a similar patrol in California this fall -- with an eye on even broader harassment:
- Minuteman organizer James T. Gilchrist, whose 850 volunteers shut down the flow of illegal aliens along a 23-mile section of Arizona-Mexico border last month, has joined forces with another citizens group to help organize a new border vigil in California -- beginning in August.
The Minuteman Project has reached an agreement with the Friends of the Border Patrol (FBP) to help promote a new "border watch" aimed at assisting U.S. Border Patrol agents in apprehending illegal aliens on the California border near San Diego.
FBP Chairman Andy Ramirez said more than 500 volunteers have signed up to patrol areas of the California-Mexico border in August, including former Border Patrol agents, retired police and military personnel and pilots. He said yesterday that at least 2,000 more applications from volunteers nationwide are still being reviewed.
The California vigil will kick off an effort by the Minuteman Project to link anti-illegal immigration groups nationwide and create a network of civilian volunteers along the nation's borders, said Mr. Gilchrist, who lives in Aliso Viejo, Calif. He said he also intends to target employers in the near future who knowingly hire illegal aliens.
It's worth noting, of course, that this campaign apparently will coincide with an initiative in that state that would give them official sanction.
Californians need to think long and hard before giving these extremists their votes. As Amanda Susskind and Joanna Mendelson recently explained in the L.A. Daily News:
- [Minuteman organizer Chris] Simcox told a crowd in California in March 2003 that "so far, we've had restraint, but I'm afraid that restraint is wearing thin. Take heed of our weapons because we're going to defend our borders by any means necessary."
Given these sentiments, it is no surprise that the efforts of right-wing extremist groups to take the law into their own hands and administer their own form of "justice" coincide with a wave of border violence in Arizona that has included execution-style slayings. Violent incidents against illegal immigrants have been both brutal and frequent, further intensifying the atmosphere of fear and suspicion on both sides of the border.
The tide of armed vigilantism has risen in Arizona, adding heat and hatred to the desert state, while doing nothing to solve legitimate problems. Whether proclaiming an imminent loss of American "culture" due to immigration or organizing armed patrols to hunt humans, these anti-immigration extremists have deliberately confused border control policy with intolerance and paramilitary activity. They promote a culture of lawlessness and defiance that will only add to, not solve, America's border problems.
Perhaps we should celebrate the work of a handful of anti-Minuteman activists who are now running an apparent counter-harassment campaign of their own:
- The Minuteman Project, which operated volunteer watches of the Arizona-Mexico border and plans a California watch in August, is inspiring increasingly organized opposition from churches, college-based groups, and even Internet pranksters.
A person or group called SWARM anonymously posted an Internet site last week asking for Minuteman Project opponents to share tactics to disrupt volunteer recruitment and border watches.
SWARM, which stands for South West Action to Resist the MinuteMen, posted the Web page as early as May 8, and word of its existence ricocheted to supporters and detractors via e-mail, Web logs and Internet news outlets.
The site described how to jam Minuteman Project communications with large e-mail attachments and black-page faxes, to submit phony volunteer applications and even bang pots and pans to interfere with the group's silent night border watches.
"Enough is enough," said the SWARM yellow-and-black home page decorated with drawings of stinger bees. "The MinuteMen function and exist when the rest of us, the vast majority of us, remain silent."
The SWARM Web site disclaimer says it is merely informing the public, not recommending illegal acts.
At the same time it says, "Together, we can conduct information warfare against these modern day white-hooded vigilantes."
Unfortunately, as amusing as tactics like these might be -- and the harassers' objections, in fact, are on the money -- they're only a little amelioration in light of what we're confronted with here. The problem isn't so much the Minutemen and their extremist followers, the likes of who have probably always been with us and always will be, though obviously standing up to them is important.
The real problem is the supposedly mainstream figures -- civic leaders all -- who are endorsing this behavior. These include major media talking heads, a U.S. senator, the Republican governor of California, and a senior official of the Homeland Security Department.
President Bush was exactly right when he labeled them vigilantes. More to the point, they are extremist vigilantes.
Unfortunately, more and more Republicans seem to think that that's just what we need.
11:40 PM
Spotlight
|
|
| |
|
|
|
