Copies of "Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction" show up in the mail.

I got a package with the author copies of the books in the mail yesterday. You know intellectually that the book is going to be published, but there is something about holding it in your hands and opening it up and reading it that makes it real.

I have spent my life reading books. Now I am the editor and an author for a book and I have joined the world of ideas. Books once in circulation circulate a long time. I purchase books from the 19th century. With this book, the contributors, and the other editors and I initiate a dialogue that goes into the future long after we are gone.

Finally, after all these years there is a book on the neo-Confederates and by a major academic press. People are going to find out what this movement is all about and once understanding what it is they will recognize it when they see it. One of neo-Confederacy's advantages has been is that it isn't recognized for what it is, so it is able to do things unopposed. That advantage will be soon gone. Also, Confederate symbols and monuments will be perceived differently once people realize that there is a neo-Confederate movement.

You can pre-order a copy at this URL. The book is released on Dec. 1, 2008 which is next Monday. http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exhagneo.html

Russian professor Igor Panarin predicts U.S.A. to break up, neo-Confederates excited. Real issue missed by media and bloggers.

The Drudge Report http://www.drudgereport.com/ had an item about an Igor Panarin, member of the the diplomatic academy of the Russian ministry of foreign affairs predicting that the United States would suffer financial collapse and then break up into six states.

Bloomberg has an article about Panarin's prediction here.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a3sayDZz.QKc&refer=us

The UK's right wing paper, The Telegraph has an article here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3521671/US-will-collapse-and-break-up-Russian-analyst-predicts.html

The neo-Confederates saw this report as validating their fringe ideas. They have been promoting the idea that the United States would collapse. See this blog for a typical neo-Confederate view: http://dixienet.org/rebellion/rebellion.html

Frank James of the Chicago Tribune points out that Panarin's prediction is silly in this posting.
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/11/us_disintegration_a_russian_fa.html

I am not interested in discussing the possibility of the United States breaking up. I think it is a very remote possibility even with a severe economic crisis. I think the media and bloggers are missing the important issue of Panarin's prediction. Why did he make it and to what purpose?

Panarin is closely associated with the Russian foreign ministry as a member of its diplomatic academy. The article was published in Izvestia, a major paper in Russia. I don't think he would say something that he thought would annoy the Russian government and neither would Izvestia likely print it. Major media in Russia we are told is beholden to the Russian government.

It might be possible that Panarin's interview published in Izvestia is to undermine foreign confidence in the United States and its abilities to make payments on its debts. Perhaps Panarin and the Russian government takes seriously American secessionists, not realizing that they are little more than web pages, excepting the neo-Confederates, and hope to encourage secessionists in the United States.

I think Panarin's article was some attempt to irritate the United States and poke fun at the United States. Of course if the Russians attempt to give aid or comfort to secessionist groups in the United States that would be another thing entirely.

It will be interesting what other media outside the United States make of it.

Nieman Marcus sells the Confederacy. Boycott Nieman Marcus. Or Nieman Marcus is dreaming of a "White" Christmas

Nieman Marcus is selling the Confederacy. Boycott Nieman Marcus.

It turns out that Nieman Marcus is selling the Confederate Fighter Motorcycle from Confederate Motor Works.

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/sitelets/christmasbook/fantasy.jhtml?cid=OCBF9_NMO3594&cmcat=Christmas

http://dailyabsurdities.com/2008/11/18/confederate-fighter-bike/

This is very Dallas, where the upper class wouldn't see any problem in celebrating the Confederacy. Dallas, unlike most major cities in America, and unlike Fort Worth, doesn't have a human rights commission.

This also should inform the reader that the love of the Confederacy isn't confined to lower income whites, who I think are maligned by stereotypes, but extends to educated upper class whites.

There are still companies that sell consumer goods with a Confederate identity.

Boycott Nieman Marcus

Fear of a Black President

A fraternity was penalized for flying a Confederate flag at a North Carolina University. The story is here.

http://townhall.com/columnists/MikeSAdams/2008/11/10/the_president_is_black,_hide_the_confederate_flag

This puts Mr. Adams in a rage. What is interesting is that he relates this university matter to the election of an African American president. It is a fear of the loss of white privilege.

It is the theme of the article also, that whites are being persecuted by having separate standards applied to them versus African Americans. It is the loss of white privilege and worse yet in Adams' mind, subordination of whites. Adams is thinking "the bottom rail is on top."

Adams' approach could have been that the university should not have Rap music with such obviously offensive lyrics. It would be an article about his visit and the lyrics and how the lyrics are contrary to the values of Obama and feminism. However, Adam's discussion of the Rap music is just a device to defend the fraternity's flying the Confederate flag and express through his column a fear of a loss of white privilege with the election of Obama.

Republican Party becoming a Confederate Party?

An interesting article in the New York Times, titled "For South, a Waning Hold on National Politics." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/us/politics/11south.html?hp

Discusses how the Republican party is becoming a regional party of the South.

Some comments from the article:

"The Republicans, meanwhile, have “become a Southernized party,” said Mr. Schaller, who teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “They have completely marginalized themselves to a mostly regional party,” he said, pointing out that nearly half of the current Republican House delegation is now Southern."

And

"Even the Democrats made use of the Southern strategy, as the party’s two presidents in the last 40 years, Jimmy Carter and Mr. Clinton, were Southerners whose presence on the ticket served to assuage regional anxieties. Mr. Obama has now proved it is no longer necessary to include a Southerner on the national ticket — to quiet racial fears, for example — in order to win, in the view of analysts."

It will be interesting to observe and see if the Republican Party continues to evolve into Dixiecrats.

Will Obama place a wreath at the Confederate Memorial in the Arlington Cemetery next June 2009?

Will Barack Obama place a wreath at the Confederate Memorial in the Arlington Cemetery next June 2009?

Every president has placed a wreath there since the Woodrow Wilson administration. Wilson both started sending wreaths to the memorial and started segregation in the Federal government and went after African American federal employees. I have started to read "Jim Crow and the Wilson Administration: Protesting Federal Segregation in the Early Twentieth Century," by Nicholas Patler.

As to the question, I am not sure whether Obama will or won't send a wreath to the Confederate Memorial on or near Jefferson Davis' birthday next June 2009. I certainly plan on writing Barack Obama asking him not to send a wreath and encourage others to write him also asking that he not send a wreath.

I am also going to write some letters about some other issues, such as the UDC Confederate awards at the nation's military academies.

Obama's campaign is undoubtedly aware of this web page:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/274/274_clinton_udc.html

I don't think it is impossible that Barack Obama will send the wreath to the Confederate Memorial. However, I don't think Barack Obama will want a web page like this for himself and I am sure I will be able to find someone to do such a web page if Barack Obama proves to be indulgent of the Confederacy.

However, it may not be such an effort to get Barack Obama to stop the wreath and stop Confederate activities in the U.S. Military. An Barack Obama election victory will show that the influence of a certain reactionary crankiness, such as neo-Confederates are over as a political force in this country. In fact I may be asked as to what else needs to be done to remove neo-Confederacy from the Federal government and its programs, projects, parks, and properties. I will be willing to help out if they ask.

COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TOPIC

Here are some fun YouTubes of Eastern music I found which I think are quite interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldPMifPbngc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hncJzoAiAw&feature=related

I thought I would add a few fun things to the blog once in a while.

Ed Sebesta interviewed for a"National Post" article on the election of Obama

At this link is an article on the response to the likely election of Obama as president of the United States in the Canadian National Post.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/uselection/story.html?id=924369

I was interviewed regarding the neo-Confederate response to Obama's election.

This is the section relating to my interview:

Edward Sebesta, who tracks neo-Confederate groups, said that in recent weeks, he's seen a huge shift away from issues of immigration to the election of Obama. "A climate of hysteria has taken over," said Mr. Sebesata, who co-edited the book Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction.

An article in the far-right Southern Mercury pointed out that if Mr. Obama were elected, his "rhetoric and anti-white legislative proposals would stir up racial riots. If he were running for re-election, these riots would turn into an exceedingly violent nature that would seriously damage race relations in America, and leave entire sections of our cities in ruins."

What I meant exactly was that animosity against McCain on immigration become less of a focus and a sort of hysteria over Obama's election had become the dominant focus. In the interview I also said that the neo-Confederates would fuse the issues of Obama's election and immigration.

Unfortunately the article doesn't mention that the "Southern Mercury" is the publication of the Educational PAC of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

I have realized with this interview that the election of Obama is going to make the issue of neo-Confederacy more prominent. Also, I am going to have to make sure my name gets spelled correctly.