Comments on From Russia With Clubs

No tear gas? No rubber bullets? No concussion grenades? These cops are freakin' amateurs.

Classy. Just when you thought that nobody knew how to do old-school fascism any more...

Has anybody looked into Putin's soul recently?

Now that Putin knows how to ATTACK his opponents. How to ATTACK the media.

Those Hillary ATTACKS are nuttin'.

@3... and lived?

Thanks for the excellent and informative post.

Yes, thanks.

As a side note on odd-bedfellows: one of Garry Kasporov's chief co-conspirators in the opposition is Edward Limonov, who was a longtime writer for the eXile...the alt-paper that makes the Stranger look prim, proper, respectable and decidedly non-snarky

Oh, and following up on Fnarf's reference to looking into Putin's soul. Almost every Russian I know makes reference to Bush's inane remark and then most burst out laughing and say "Putin was KGB and FSB, he is mafia." For them this seals the deal for regarding Bush as a half-wit at best.

Dear @7,

A copy of Memoirs of a Russian Punk sits on the very desk I'm writing at. The post-Taibbi eXile appears to be turning around, if slowly. The days with Ames as the lone editor were grim.

Memoirs is great book.

And yes, Ames needed some help.

People who talk about the United States becoming a police state might want to take this opportunity to examine their position in some greater depth.

Also, isn't it funny that American politicians accuse every leader in the world of being "a Hitler" except the ones who might actually qualify?

Relax, it's coming soon to a street in YOUR neighborhood.

Take those cell phone pics for anyone who will give a shit.

The rest will be watching NASCAR on a flat screen purchased with a no-down, no interest contract with their life as collateral.

Judah @11: Were you in Seattle in November 1999? Were you in NYC in August 2004?

"Free speech zones" behind barbed wire, catch-all obstruction statutes, mass arrests without warrants, undercover police infiltration, "no protest zones"...

No, we are not "becoming a police state." We're already there.

Let's see, Seattle on November 30, 1999? Yeah, I think I was on 6th and Pine that day, now that you mention it. I saw it all pretty up-close, and you know what?

Not a fucking police state. Nothing like what's happening in Russia. Not remotely comparable on any level.

So your argument is that just because things are worse in Russia, there's no way the US can be defined as a police state? Do you think it's an accident that we have the largest incarceration rate in the world?

So your argument is that just because things are worse in Russia, there's no way the US can be defined as a police state?

Yes, that's my argument exactly. You're very clever. You perceived the very root and core of what I was attempting to convey. Keen and incisive isn't the half of it with you. I bet all your friends say so.

Do you think it's an accident that we have the largest incarceration rate in the world?

No, but neither would I consider our incarceration rate a clear indication that we live a police state, especially since most of the people we incarcerate are poor, and have been incarcerated for violent crimes, property crimes or drug crimes -- rather than, say, political dissidents and journalists whose incarceration is part of a totalitarian political agenda. The shit a person can say in this country and have no fear of any kind of meaningful military or judicial oppression is simply mind-boggling.

So yeah, basically you're full of shit, but I'm not going to spend all day chasing you around about it. Get yourself a tinfoil hat and a compound in Texas if it pleases you. I couldn't care less and, likely, neither could the "police state".

At least you'll be out from underfoot.

Not all police state's are created equal, and your definition is quite narrow.