In America today, the name and image of Stalin are invoked heavily by fringe critics of Barack Obama. The critics disagree with his policies on health care and see in it the basis for increasing power of the state. The role the state will play in the healthcare system is a legitimate political issue on which well-informed citizens can have different views. But the comparison to Stalin makes clear that these critics really have no inkling of who Joseph Stalin was, what he did, and why his name lives in special infamy at hallowed spots like the pit at Chon Tash. This frivolous use of his name and image cheapens our nation’s political dialogue, and it is also a mark of disrespect to his victims. And it points to the fundamental crisis of which Aitmatov wrote so powerfully: the failure to know the past, to be informed by it, and to distill guidance from it. The age of the mankurt, alas, has not passed.

Scott Horton

For more on the pit at Chon Tash, click here.

Scott Horton also has a short piece on Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol’s Keep America Safe.

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What will they think back home in Ho Chi Minh City?

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Media Matters/Glenn Greenwald:

Global warming statistically proven (again)

“Why in 2009 America are mulattoes invariably identified as blacks?”

Debunking the fake Obama thesis (in case you missed it)

Netanyahu defines war crimes

Still deconstructing the lies that took us to war

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Keeping America safe from unemployment insurance.

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David Neiwert:

Minutemen, Jim Gilchrist, Shawna Forde, & Harvard

It’s a crime to drive in Texas if you don’t speak English

Beck’s Louisville slugger routine

Hate crimes bill passes Senate

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Digby: has WOD merged with WOT, and if so, WTF?

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A summary of the Katherine Kersten “flying imam” column from Sunday (the one I ignored, too fucking much being too fucking much), and a very illuminating post from Eric Black based on the judge’s actual findings and court documents (you know, facty stuff, as opposed to Kerten’s made uppy stuff).

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Destroying what’s left of the Republican party:

Scarborough: run the moderates out

Guessing who the moderate is in Texas

Pawlenty stabs Republican NY23 candidate in the back, endorses third party radical

Hating on bikes

Privatizing rape

Former Fox pundit rips Beck

That whole punishment on top of punishment thing

Self-identified Republicans are only 20% of the electorate right now despite Gallup saying that “conservatives” are the biggest ideological group in America.

And they may well be, but thanks to forty years of Dixiecrats redefining the Republican party from conservative to radically pro business/rich, most conservatives can’t stand to be in the Republican party. They are a party of know nothing loudmouths who screw things up when they get their way, then whine that they never get to really do things their way.

Meanwhile, the Democratic party is trying to cope with an influx of moderates and outright conservatives.

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It’s bankster week in Chicago. Expect more fun stories like this one.

Best financial news of the day? Madoff enabler Jeffry Picower found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool in Palm Beach.

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All my life I’ve loved newspapers, and now that they’re dying, I couldn’t be happier.

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EtC.:

GWill: first he says out of Afghanistan, now he sees legalization of marijuana as inevitable.

Hitchens: Christianity fraud if not literally true

Top college admissions essays (pretty good examples of the art of coming across like a human being)

Higher insurance rates for small businesses

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What can I say? Weird schedule.

And a late night happy b’day to Bootsy Collins (58), Seth MacFarlane (36), and Hillary Clinton (62).