speak for yourself, big fella.

You know the lyrics?

can't say i do.

So I was, in fact, speaking for you.

You defended Spain, a fascist state.

Franco's Spain isn't considered fascist:

http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/1367/

Only Nazi Germany qualifies any more.

But yes, Franco's form of fascism was vastly preferable to the alternative. Despite you and Ms Sheehan, the alternative never had a shot here and has never been more marginalized than it is now.

Unlike G. Gordon Liddy, I do not exactly sing this one in the shower.

The lyrics can be found at http://ingeb.org/Lieder/diefahne.html

The whole Horst Wessel story is a good reminder of how low-class, how banal all that business was. I am strongly reminded of the HWL when I recall the peace creep/Comsymp chant at the 1968 Democrat convention, "The streets belong to the people, the streets belong to the people."

I just love a good argument.

This isn't an argument, it's contradiction.

No it isn't.

Yes it is.

What argument?

The one we're having in our spare time...

Bloggers used to be fascist toadies. Now they're the vanguard of the proletariat.

Then they should sing "The Internationale."

Would you settle for the "Holzfaller Song"?

Your legal training is showing. What do they call the kind of argument where you say, "Your honor, Spain isn't fascist, but even if it's fascist, it's not the bad kind of fascist."

Rick:

So, what do you make of this from Franco's biography on Wikipedia:

Lacking any strong ideology, Franco initially sought support from National syndicalism (nacionalsindicalismo) and the Catholic Church (nacionalcatolicismo). His coalition ruling single party, the Movimiento Nacional, was so heterogeneous as to barely qualify as a party at all, and certainly not an ideological monolith like the Fascio di Combattimento (Fascist Party or the ruling block of Antonio Salazar). His Spanish State was chiefly a conservative - even traditionalist - rightist regime, with emphasis on order and stability, rather than a definite political vision.

How do you explain that Spain was the safest place in Europe for Jews during WW11? Do you draw any distinction between totalitarian fascist regimes and traditional Latin authoritarian ones? More to the point, do you place any blame on the Spanish left for trying to destroy Spanish democracy and inviting a repressive response, or are they forever innocent because their hearts were pure and they cared only for "the people"?

Rick:

Yes. When people speak of fascism today they really just mean Nazism, which was not fascist by any historical standard and nothing like even the other members of the Axis. But fascist regimes like Franco's and Pinochet's, which have little in common with Hitler's, were the salvation of their nations.

Peter:

It's useless. The Left long ago convinced themselves that Spain would have been better off Stalinist.

Orrin:

Yes, and that anyone who disagrees is, by definition, a fascist.

At the rate they Left is going American kids a generation from now will be so used to hearing their parents and leaders called fascist they'll assume it's a compliment.

Hasn't the yawn factor kicked in for her yet? The Runaway Bride had her two weeks of infamy, then the mother of the missing girl in Aruba got 2-3 weeks until everyone got sick of hearing about the story, but at least there there was the promise of breaking developments. But with Sheehan there is no promise of breaking developments, no trial. She's just going to keep yapping. Even the MSM can't sell that for too much longer.

Robert:

Just wait--she'll say something so horrific, on-camera, that they'll bury her.