can say definitively that we've fully made the transition from fascism lite to fascism?

http://www.slate.com/id/2198949/?from=rss

The article in Slate.

Sarah Palin, Web InventionHow a college sophomore put Alaska's governor on the map.

By Timothy Noah

Posted Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, at 1:52 PM ET

Adam Brickley.Adam Brickley

According to both the Aug. 29 Anchorage Daily News and the June 13 Colorado Springs Gazette, Sarah Palin became John McCain's vice presidential candidate largely through the machinations of someone even younger and less experienced than herself. From the Anchorage Daily News:

The hype can probably be traced to the Web site of a 21-year-old college senior majoring in political science at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. Adam Brickley, a political buff who will graduate in May, started a "Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President" blog last year and has relentlessly promoted the idea ever since.

Brickley has never been to Alaska or met Palin. But while researching potential vice presidents, he stumbled on Palin and thought she would be a good No. 2 to just about all of the major Republican candidates in the race at the time. …The "Draft Palin" movement picked up momentum in more mainstream media, including a column last summer by Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard. Others followed, including talk over the past couple weeks from conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. [Actually, Limbaugh's been chatting up Palin since February 2008; Brickley created his blog in February 2007, during his sophomore year, a mere two months after Palin assumed the governorship. Click here to see him talk up Palin this past May on YouTube.]

Brickley (aka "Elephantman") supported Rudy Giuliani in the primaries, according to his blog. According to his "Blogger" profile, Brickley's interests include politics, Zionism, and "fighting socialism." ZoomInfo adds that he's a leader in University of Colorado-Colorado Springs College Republicans and the founder of a political blog called ConservaGlobe; that he made dean's list; and that he receives a $7,500 Ronald Reagan College Leaders scholarship annually from the conservative Phillips Foundation. At the moment, he appears to be interning for a young conservative commentator on TownHall.com named Matt Lewis. "WE DID IT!!!!!!" crows Brickley's latest entry on the Draft Sarah Palin blog. "I'll have a lot more later, but needless to say I am positively elated."

"-- probably shocked -- and perhaps even a little frightened at how high-quality the sound of these podcasts will be."

I can't wait. I'll get popcorn.

Anybody: "I disagree"

Somebody: "You're a bigot"

Anybody: "I'm confused. I disagree with you I didn't say that I hated you.

Somebody: "You're still a bigot."

Anybody: "Again I'm confused. I think you are wrong about X. Not that you personally should be discriminated against."

Somebody: "Bigot"

Anybody: "I don't get it."

Somebody: In thought bubble above Somebody's head. "That's the point."

Don't you remember, John King and Joe Klien have tried to set you straight on when it's OK to criticize a member in good standing of the media.

1.) You must call them to confirm they wrote what they actually wrote.

2.) You must give great deference to them because they have many years of experience.

3.) You are a mere blogger (though I don't picture you in a bathrobe and in an efficiency apartment in Brooklyn) so responding to you is tiresome because you just don't understand how the world works.

I'm sure the list is much longer but I think those are the highlights.

Re: Interview with Aaron Brown

1.) Have to give him props for at least engaging your questions in a somewhat reasonable manner. I was expecting at some moment to bring out the canard of how many years experience he has and how dare you (mere blogger that you are) ask such imperious questions. Thankfully that did not occur. That sort of manhood measurement I've seen in response to what you've written and know how fundamentally dishonest it is.

2.) I was fascinated, and would like to know your thoughts on his response to one of your last questions. Specifically, his take on the question of polls and how they reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of basic facts. e.g. seventy percent surveyed believe Hussein was directly involved in 9-11. His response was, in my mind, unabashedly that it really is, by and large, the fault of the public. That he accepts some responsibility, minimized by a great degree by the willful ignorance of the public.

3.) This interview reminded me of your blogging heads thing with Ben Smith. The topic being a certain hair cut on former senator and "coverage" afforded by the Politico. There appears to be a rationalization that mainstream journalists employ mostly by having caveats at the ready to explain why their coverage was adequate and fair and have an example or two they can point to that counteracts inquiries into their motives. In Smith's case, taking trivial non-story stories repeated over and over again but being able to point to other product of theirs that would weigh against criticism for repeating the vapid (love that word, thanks for adding it to my vocabulary) Drudge type attacks.

In Brown's case, he was able to continually point to his show being less popular because they dealt with more Iraq issues than others, he had on opposing view points etc.

Both of those interviews show (along with other examples of your interactions with journalists) a bit of a pathology. "I do balance opposing views, see..." "I'm a bit cranky and challenge at times..."

They don't see themselves as a part of the problem yet they acknowledge their is a problem.

Anyway, thanks Glenn. For everything.