DO READ more on "Kabuki theatre" / DHS, etymology of "Heimatschutz" since Goeebels

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Erich M <me () quintessenz org>
Date: October 7, 2006 6:27:50 AM EDT
To: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart () pobox com>
Cc: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] "Kabuki theatre" / DHS, etymology of "Heimatschutz"  
since Goeebels

On Tue October 3 2006 02:41 Bill Stewart added to the bitstream:
> Here in America the department's name sounds that way too,
> and it also has Stalinist "Motherland" connotations.
> If you haven't drunk the neo-conservative Kool-Aid,
> it's so utterly appalling that it's hard to say it,
> and Godwin's Law says that if we were to actually
> *tell* the neocons what they sound like,
> we'd lose the discussion right there.

Servus Bill,
Sorry for being late. That is the point: Choosing such a name led to  
a PR
disaster amongst the 95 million Europeans speaking German.

> Don't be polite on our account :-)
I must be. So much of good cross/atlantic relations heve been  
shattered. In
Europe Anti-Americanism is growing and that is dangerous.
Criticism of US politics based on rational arguments is one thing.  
But the
kakophonic choir from the right is gaining momentum here: dull, stupid
Anti-Americanism based on prejudices. The gist: "Americans are a  
bunch of
superficial, greedy and hypocritical trigger-happy cowboys without  
culture".
Many traditional leftists do not sound very much different, alas.

It is us who have to raise our voices against that here. This is the  
dilemma
you face if you are a freedom loving European.

Before 9/11 transatlantic contacts between European civil liberty  
groups and
the US was excellent. German, Austrian and civil liberty  
avantguardists like
quintessenz.org from all over Europe  regularly met with guys like Barry
Steinhardt [ACLU] Jim Dempsey [CDT] Marc Rotenberg [EPIC] and numerus  
EFF
people from 1997 onwards.

This was of incredible value to us. The US guys already had  
experience and
they shared that experience  with us who had much less. They knew how to
raise fundings and they organized conferences. They helped out with
everything we could not manage during the humble beginnings of a  
European
cyber/civil liberties movement.

The howling of the sirens for the "war on terror" put those special  
relations
on hold. Contacts were frozen, almost immediately - an instance, we all
deeply regret.
Greetz from Freud's Own City, Vienna
Erich Moechel

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