I understand Fascists pretty well having lived with the type and values for years.  They are the abusers.  So, what about the enablers?  These are the lazy cowards who never stand up to their ridiculous notions and bombast.  I get their respect because I do stand up to them and I do challenge their triumphalist notions.

84557 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 7/06 at 12:09 pm

“Cheney is really a citizen of Texas - home to presidential assassins and every other form of treason.” 

Wasn’t he a senator for Wyoming awhile back?

“Unfortunately, Wyoming is full of Nazi scumbags on its own tick.”

Got ‘em here in Maine too where the French Canadians compete for jobs, and up in northern Idaho where they live on the shores of awesomely beautiful Hayden Lake, and Down in Oklahoma where My father worked for an oil company which refused to hire native Americans, and up in the money-ladden mansions of New Jersey where they spout traash about black welfare queens, and Along the Hudson north of Westchester in New York where they “hold the line for real Americans”, and down in Florida on the bleached white beaches where they bitch about hispanic interlopers (Didn’t Spain own that once?), and in the old mill towns of New England where “it’s all the Jew’s fault the factories closed.

Nazis are everywhere, In low populatation areas like Wyoming they are more noticable.

Cheney is really a citizen of Texas - home to presidential assassins and every other form of treason.

We have been smeared because Cheney claims to be from Wyoming when it’s convenient to him.  It is sort of like being a president and a congressman at the same time.

Unfortunately, Wyoming is full of Nazi scumbags on its own tick.  But it is usually only interested in gouging and chiseling the government - not in converting it to a Jim Jones compound.

John Hanks, Laramie, Wyoming on 7/06 at 9:29 am

“The Matthew Shepard controversy is still alive and well.”

I was talking about your other infamous citizen….Dick Cheney! 

BUT

I had heard from a Wyoming based friend that the Shepard murder was about owed money…. I assume from your reply that’s wrong?

Here in Maine we have a similar tale about two self-identified christian boys who therw a gay man (Charlie Howard) off a bridge into one of the city’s canals, and killed him.  We didn’t get the national coverage you did… Easier to pick on the cowboys in Wyoming than the lumbermen in Maine.

The Matthew Shepard controversy is still alive and well.  The city almost passed a hate crime ordinance but they fell for all the usual Republican lies.
Shepard also is an open question.  Was he murdered over drugs or over being gay?  Perhaps the important thing is that the U.S. Gay Community finally got a victim hero.

Laramie tolerates me as an obvious, visible and extremely annoying anti-Republican.  I’m sort of a village atheist.

John Hanks, Laramie, Wyoming on 7/05 at 4:31 pm

“Frank Goodman Sr. is right.  Except that most Americans have taken to Fascism like a duck to water since they first conceived the nonsense called “manifest destiny”.  Sadly, the media has made Americans even more immature and ignorant by constantly changing the subject or just making sure that there is no real subject at all.  I still think the average American is capable of changing a tire, but not much else.  The human race is made up of crooks, suckers, and lazy cowards.  The Republican traitors are banking on that.”

Back in 1970, Laramie was a great town, recently it has suffered from some bad exposure.  If you are its new ambassador, I’ll bet a horse license plate it is comming back!

Thanks, obviously, I agree!

Frank Goodman Sr. is right.  Except that most Americans have taken to Fascism like a duck to water since they first conceived the nonsense called “manifest destiny”.  Sadly, the media has made Americans even more immature and ignorant by constantly changing the subject or just making sure that there is no real subject at all.  I still think the average American is capable of changing a tire, but not much else.  The human race is made up of crooks, suckers, and lazy cowards.  The Republican traitors are banking on that.

I have “taken to the streets” ever since the Wellstone family was murdered.  My car is covered with plastic lettering and their are signs in my windows.  I say what I think and a lot of people seem to like that.  For instance, one sign says, “Republicans Return to their Vomit”.  Another sign says, “Anger Is Tiresome.  Hatred Is Serene”.  Another says “He Who Dies Without Lower Middle Class Values Wins”.

I am very well known in my Laramie, Wyoming community.  I simply made the conscious decision that I would rather be murdered now than die later in Naziland.  It is a soldier type decision.

Right ON, Nikolai!

2008 will tell the tale…but I worry. Giuliani is a popular and well-known man, thanks again to 9-11.
Obama and Clinton, I’m afraid, will SPLIT the Demo vote, unless they join the same platform in the best interests of the Party and the Country. (Are you listening out there?)

Nothing suits the current power elite better than to have the brighter middle class folks out there throw up their hands and declare it all a waste of time (which could be better spent watching Fox News, and buying new sneakers).

VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, (while you still have one!) And for Pete’s sake get onto some E-Activism websites and start writing your Reps about issues you support.

NO, they don’t personally read them (grow up, already) but they DO TALLY OPINIONS, believe me. ONE letter counts, by their reckoning, for about 3,000 votes (i think—not exactly sure of the assigned number). Phone calls some other number—so NO it isn’t a useless pursuit. HASSLE THESE GUYS—MAKE THEM COUNT YOUR OPINIONS ON EVERY ISSUE YOU CARE ABOUT!

My personal E-faves:
1. AFL-CIO Now
(workingman’s issues—supports Bills that block Big Business from stomping folks)
2. Free Press for Media Reform
(supports Bills that prevent all media from slipping into fewer and fewer hands)
3. Greenpeace
(global warming, rain forest destruction, irresponsible logging, etc.)
4. Save the Internet
(trying to prevent the filtering of your access to blogs and small websites [like this one!] by AT&T, COMCAST, VERIZON, and others as part of their plan to enahance speed only to websites that pay them big bucks, and thus slow all the others {yes, REALLY!})
5. PFAW (People For the American Way)
supports all sorts of civil rights issues.

Your issues might not be mine, dear reader. That’s American. But get out there and find the folks who are raving mad about YOUR stuff—and let Congress KNOW how YOU Feel.

“This is an affront to something sacred in the public imaginary of a thoroughly militarized United States: that we are an international beacon of civilized virtue, and that our military is the masculine epitome of that virtue standing between our suburban security and the dark chaos of the Outside.  Questioning the mystique of the armed forces is tantamount to lunacy at best and treason at worst.”

Sounds like a questisential trait of the fraudulent-patriot group calling themselves “Gathering of Eagles.”

Medaille College (Lesbian); The Church in the Wind Ministries (S.O.G. MC- Alternative Cult); Bryant & Stratton College (Liberal); Ms. Melody Battista (GAY-Crazy Head); Karaoke/Sex Pervert Justin; Guy Michaels Cercone (Adulterer)= White Racists (Western N.Y.) want WHITES ONLY!!! NO Minorities Allowed!!!! White people hide their prejudices. They get mad if you are a leader/educated/$$$$$$$$$ & gets respected in society!!! Churches are homos, perverts, liars, etc… all trying to please each other as a Liberal Christian. The Devil is a Christian among the Day Time People & Pagan during the Night Time People. Crazy with Hatred in people in U.S.A. or United Snakes of AmeriKKKa!!!!

Cunningham, you seem to have become the target of left-wing jibes on this thread. And I realise you’re trying to provoke right back. You’re ore mannerly about it than most rightists, though.

My wife and I didn’t leave the U.S. due to fear. Mate, it’s much scarier to sell off or give away everything that you can’t justify putting on a ship, and then to venture halfway around the world to a land you’ve only seen on a 2-week scouting trip, where you don’t know anyone, and can be kicked out of the country if you don’t get on with the boss. (I’m here on a work visa that’s controlled by my hospital, and if I get fired, I’m not just out of a job, I’m out of the COUNTRY!)

We left because of morality. We consider the killing the U.S. is doing now, and the potential nuclear genocide on Iran, to be deeply immoral. We didn’t want to pay taxes for it any more. Luckily, I have a portable profession, and we had a house in San Francisco that we could sell at the peak of the housing market, so we were able to exile in style.

There WAS an element of fear, though. Not fear of Muslims, but of the U.S. government. Getting back to fascism, my wife and I are convinced that America is going down the fascist path. Money and power are being concentrated in the extreme upper class. Middle-class people get screwed in that environment. We had a chance to escape with our money and morals intact, so we did.

Here is a letter to the editor that I wrote for a Wyoming newspaper.

Queen Victoria hated “enthusiasm” and I agree with her.  You can almost always spot a crook by his wild enthusiasm or his absolute certainty.  When Ann Coulter says Democrats are faggots she does it with the same certainty that she might announce that they are all from outer space.  The trick is to keep the tone right and the expression sarcastic as if it is impossible for anyone to disagree.  She knows her right-wing suckers well.  Context is the most important thing in language.  Half-baked and poorly educated conservatives practice smear tactics as well as she does.

Start with a wild insult and you control everything.  Every neo-con traitor dirt bag knows the drill.  Sadly, too many liberals and progressives have been too interested in ideas and facts to catch on to the simple verbal aggression that is the stock and trade of every right-wing con artist.  If a conservative smears you, the best way to deal with the problem is to forget the choir boy stuff and reach for a baseball bat.  The worst way is to try to defend yourself in a civilized manner as if right-wingers are ever “civilized”.  As Ecclesiastes might have said, There is a time for “civilized discourse” and there is a time for “barbarism”. 

Your average lower middle class Republican is angry at the world and “anger speech” is always on the tip of his tongue.  He particularly despises liberals who read books, play with ideas, and have lively conversations.  Most horrifying of all he suspects that liberals don’t believe in Santa Clause.  The conservative mind, which understands all things at age 16, fights valiantly to keep its fists up against any idea that has not been certified by Limbaugh or Coulter.  He follows in the ancient tradition of those who thought lightening rods and regional time zones were the work of the devil.

The irony is that the American right-wing conservative is the most radical person in our history.  Unable to win honest elections, he feels free to rig them.  Unable to persuade Americans to wage wars of conquest, he flies Americans into skyscrapers as a sort of circus stunt to whip things up.  Since he hates people smart enough to see through his endless tricks, he makes sure that our media and schools become propaganda mills for his comic book ideas.  Every American institution is debased in the service of the privileged few, who have endless wealth, plus the criminal values of New York mafia dons and Southern plantation owners.  They whipped up enthusiasm for a never-ending phony war that they knew was lost before it started.  Still, it was a great way to brew up a honey pot for drug kingpins, weapons dealers, and every other sort of over-privileged jerk.

I don’t believe that America exists anymore.  We are just another pathetic third world shack full of termites and falling apart.  I do believe in crooks and traitors, however,  and they are as obvious as the maggots on a dead horse.

John Hanks, I guess your latest may have been directed at me.  Only did three semesters at the University of Buffalo in ‘81 and 2.  I guess I was too stupid to go any further, I managed to accumulate a 44 year work history, though.  Like, I’m 59, well, you do the math.  I live in the middle of a hot bed of rabid liberals, that’s why when I’m with those professors, we drive each other to drink.  We’re all the same age now.  I grew up around here.  To paraphrase Kerry’s botched joke, they went to college, I was too stupid and got sent to Vietnam, ‘67-‘68 and this is how stupid I really am, asked to go back again in ‘70-‘71.  Can I make a suggestion?  Instead of getting up on the side of the bed that you do, thereby starting each day with banging your head on the wall and having a miserable day, get up on the other side.  I may be stupid, but you seem to be making yourself sick. Better yet, I’m going to suggest that to your parents as soon as they get back.

It always cheers me up to see a right-wing crook defend his license to steal.  It’s like watching a dog walk on his hind legs.  It must have been hard work not learning anything while in college.

Heerrr’s Johnnie, I’m so glad I could brighten your day.  Could you be a little more precise and bring me up to speed with which of my, what was it, lower middle class values that gave you such a start.  I sound like Newt?  I did it all from memory.  See, all that studying did pay off. Listen, I still have that roll of paper towel sitting here if you need to wipe your nose.  You sound like my drinking professor buddies from Villanova, Bryn Mawr and Haverford.  You have some stiff competition, boy.

John:  Can you use smears and insults on your own or do you need Gingrich’s list to help you along.  You lower middle class values types give me a laugh. 
Why do you hate facts and ideas so much?  Ignorance takes a lot of hard work.

Bukko, that’s funny, I have found Truth Digs to be similar to the Fox News Channel, fair and balanced.  When I first started reading blog sites I stumbled into a number of leftist sites and after a while I had to start keeping window cleaner and paper towel by the monitor so I could quickly clean the hate and venom that would come gushing out of the screen.  It was burning holes in the table not unlike the saliva dripping from the monster’s mouth in the Alien movies. That’s a shame you were scared so far away you ran to Australia.  Maybe Bela Pelosi will run for President and she’ll have Murtha as her vice-President.  Will you than feel safe enough to return?  You’ll then have a wide variety of prayer rug shops to choose from.

Where is John Cunningham?  Has he run out of smears and insults.

John, as a Limbaugh/Fox listener and Savage/Drudge reader, I’m surprised you bother with a lefty site like TruthDig. It’s human nature to seek out opinions that reinforce the opinions we already have. Plus, the wildly divergent views of reality expressed by the right and left in America are SO dissimilar that it’s like they’re talking about alternate universes. Too much cognitive dissonance, like having headphones with one earpiece playing classical and the other side set to gangsta rap.

That’s one of the reasons I didn’t listen to right-wing radio for more than a few minutes at a time before I left the U.S. Didn’t match my perception of this planet. Plus, Rush and the others are SO nasty-angry. I wouldn’t want anyone who’s that miserable and insulting in my living room. Why would I have such negativity on my TV or radio? That said, one of my favourite programmes to listen to here is podcasts of a U.S. radio talker named Mike Malloy, who rants as unhingedly as Savage, only from a leftist perspective.

With one difference, which gets back to the original topic of this piece: fascism. Malloy, and Air America Radio, and Truthdig, and the lefty websites I like—they’re ranting AGAINST THE POWERFUL. That includes Democrats and corporations, as well as the Bush Crime Family. Rush, Fox and the like, POUND ON THE LITTLE GUY. Their venom spews on gays, Muslims, blacks, poor people, Mexicans, etc. And they talk a lot about who should be killed. To me, that’s fascist—going after the weak and wanting them dead. Not my scene, mate. Too bad it’s yours.

I agree with Bob, but I think he is too much on the side of the angels.  Prejudice is not necessarily bad against traitors.  (There isn’t time or sophistication enough to separate the big Republican traitors from the little ones.)  They mounted an insurgency that is just as real as the one in Iraq, only it is as if the Sunni Republicans put themselves and Saddam Bush in power.  They deserve to be hung, but they should be kept in Leavenworth instead.

Freedom does not exist and it has never existed in this country except in the sense that you are free unless some powerful person has it in for you.  I do agree that there is a sort of “freedom” for people who have progressed beyond a half-baked indoctrination level of education.  Sadly, that freedom is considerably diluted by a culture that is staunchly lower-middle class.

Americanism means lower middle class type loyalty to country.  It is a form of tribalism which allows criminals to manipulate the population at will with jingo slogans and endless pandering bull crap.

Throughout history most peoples including Americans have preferred the annoyances of tyranny.  They have left the lofty thoughts to kings (crooks) and priests (con-artists).  The creation of the American middle class was an exception which just proves the rule.  The human race has always been made up of crooks,  suckers, and lazy cowards.  There are ways to change this sorry state of affairs, but none of them are easy or transparent.

Bukko,yes, I do spend a lot of time tuned to FNC and after listening to Rush for a couple of years back in the ‘80’s when he first came on the air I just recently got back into listening to Rushbo.  Savage comes on as a tape in the evening while I’m in the lazyboy channel surfing but I do checkout his web site daily.  Oh my God, you’ve got me pegged.  You’re profiling, that’s not politically correct you know.  I get my Eurabian news hot off the PC (plenty of English versions of all the Eurabian newspapers) plus frequent visits to http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com and http://www.the religionofpeace.com, http://www.hotair.com and http://www.drudge.com.  My life stopped flashing before my eyes years ago.

Comment #56808 by logical4u on 3/05 at 9:56 am says:

“That is what is so great about this country: you get to decide how you want to live your life and how you want to spend your money”

OOps… I was on board until this ...

I once believed this also, so I sure can see how one might (as you say) “...fall into this trap”. I grew up just north of NYC where the big green lawns and milk and cookies after school insulated us from those who mowed those big lawns, and picked the lettuce we bought at Gristides. 

Then, I went to work for Massachusetts’ Department of Youth Services and moved to Lawrence, a once thriving textile town near the Commonwealth’s wealthy North Shore.

Out in Boxboro, Rowley, and Prides Crossing the folks could decide how they wanted to live their life and how to spend their money”

Back on park Street in Lawrence, where the big mills were shuttering buildings (in favor of cheaper down-south, non-union labor) folks stood for hours in three mile long unemployment lines.  The 805 wage checks went for rent, heat, and food…after that nothing left…sometimes before that.  No chance of moving, no money for that… No chance of a job,  no one hiring, and a bunch more folks joining unemployment lines daily.

My line of work was booming (college degree required) turns out poor children are more vulernable to “economic downturns” than their wealtiier peers.

Later the fires, soring crime rate, and absolute abandonment by alledgedly “liberal” politicians left the gritty old mill city in a hole from which it has yet to emerge.

The poor folks I knew in 1973 may still be eaking out some type of life there…. I doubt it is the one they would choose.

What a beautiful trap you have written!  If anyone disagrees with your predjucial views, you can call them names and lump them into one of your narrow categories. 
While critical of white MALE supremists, there is no mention of MALE supremists in any other culture.  No comparison to black stars that use sexual exploitation of women to sell “art”, or no comparison to the many other cultures on the face of the earth that force women into degrading lifestyles. 
While critical of “white males” that are taking up arms, there is no mention of how dangerous the world has become and that if there wasn’t a market for “mercs” (due to the unsafe world), less would be employed in these fields.
Hate groups are hate groups, it doesn’t matter if they are led by Jesse Jackson, Louis Farakan, Osama bin Laden, David Duke or any similar organization.  Your article is just typical and one of the reasons that “whites” are speaking out: “blame the whites” has become a world-wide chant for people not to take responsibility for their own actions.
The reason “whites” don’t realize “blacks” have it so bad is because the “blacks” they work with have the same opportunities they do.  They are promoted similarly.  When they go into a store and see “blacks” buying steak and namebrand foods with food stamps that they can not afford, with manicures, hair beatifully done and dripping “bling”, it just doesn’t occur to them, that person might not have enough money.  I am not saying that other nationalities (including “whites”) do not do the same thing.  I am saying that you do not see “whites” crying about what they made of their life.  That is what is so great about this country: you get to decide how you want to live your life and how you want to spend your money.  Please don’t lecture “whites” because you made bad decisions.  If you don’t like where you are, work harder to get where you want to go or is that just “too white” for you.  Good luck with that hate thing.

Ah, John, you were seeming so rational, mate. You’ve been around, seen Europe, know a bit about the world. But I should have known that anyone who uses the neologism “Eurabia” would also rant on about “Islamofascism.” Both of these are Fox/Limbaugh/Savage buzzwords. You really are frightened, aren’t you? The big bad Muslims are coming get us? There are Muslim arseholes just as there are Christian ones, and the Christians have the better weapons. Who’s killing more of whom? Who’s the bigger threat? The real fascists are the ones on both sides who use fear to whip up hatred and thus control the populace better. Don’t you realise you’re being manipulated by the people ON YOUR SIDE who want to keep you cowering in terror?

BillB, Iran is the center of Islamofacism.  They’re the bad guys, we’re not.  Ten percent of Islam is involved with Islamofacism.  Ten percent of a little over a billion is one-hundred million.  One-hundred million that hide behind women and children.  Look at the damage the German army did during the 30’s and 40’s.  Maybe at its peak it had ten million members.  Today the free world is dealing with one-hundred million that have told us that we will either hit the prayer rug five times a day or we will be killed.  What part of that don’t you understand?  What we’re doing is containing Iran by being in Iraq and Afghanistan, they’re surrounded.  Get used to it.

Excellent and very valuble review of the fascistization of our military. I am a WW II veteran and know how even an egalitarion army, as we were, and a legitimate cause (real defense against aggression) can behave brutally. But we came back mentally intact and largly with a deeper understanding of the world and acceptance of others becasue it was an egalitarion army and a necessary cause. Observing the corrosive effect of this aggression in Iraq and afghanastan on both the civilian population here and the soldiers I worry that we are creating the new SS and SA that will support the dictators a\that are now running our country or their successors. God help us. I thank the author for his insight into the process.

If it waddles like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it’s a DUCK!

Skruff, ah, yes, the Downeasterners.  When I moved to Buffalo in ‘81 I was in my early 30s.  Being from Philadelphia I was very conscious of uptown, downtown, crosstown, north, south, east and west. Every thing laid out in perfect squares.  I started to notice, especially after I started driving the cab, Buffalonians when going to Niagara Falls, 17 miles north of Buffalo, would say, ‘I’m going down to the Falls.’  Of course, I knew what they meant, but sometimes I’d have to take a little shot and say, ‘you mean up to the Falls?’  The response was usually, ‘huh’.  The more I drove the more I noticed it.  Then it hit me.  Before cars and roads the ‘thruway’ of travel was the Niagara River.  It runs north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and the direction of flow determines whether you’re going up river or down river.  I guess it’s just something that stuck in the local language.  If you’re today on the Niagara Thruway, running along the banks of the Niagara River, they all say, ‘going down to the Falls’ and when returning to Buffalo say, ‘I’m going up to Buffalo.’

Comment #55709 by John Cunningham on 2/27 at 12:40 pm says:

Skruff, don’t mean to be picky, but, I couldn’t help but notice.  “Way down here in Maine”.  Maine is north of Brooklyn, north is up, south is down and east or west is over to or across to.

A very commom mispreception, but largly reserved to landlubbers.

Maine is “Downeasst”

http://www.marypurslow.com/Map.htm

Skruff, don’t mean to be picky, but, I couldn’t help but notice.  “Way down here in Maine”.  Maine is north of Brooklyn, north is up, south is down and east or west is over to or across to.  Might hurt yourself if you go north and down at the same time, could be painful.

My mother’s neighborhood in Brooklyn, (all Tutonic when she was a girl) is now largly Arab.

Funny though, the houses still have the same look from the street.  Flowers still adorn the window boxes, and it still has one of the lowest crime rates in the city.

Our hospital way down here in Machias Maine (very recently 100% white) now has doctors from Yemmen, Saudi Arabia, India, The Phillipines, and Iran.

I assume these folks are running from conditions they find uncomfortable…  Anyway, I am sure happy to have them.  Before this influx, our supply of qualified physicians was drying up, as they can make far more money around the big cities.

BTW it was a white guy who stole my car…. my only experience as a “victim”

It is not what a Fascist believes that is so important (that is just the furniture).  Fascists are blockheads that are carefully cultivated by our institutions - including the rich.  They reify ideas and treat them like things or commodities.  Blockheads have charisma and power which is attractive to the gullible, including liberals.  They are basically half-educated and in love with a narrow set of notions which are always free of context.

The way to fight these bastards is to tease and annoy them until the admit their ridiculousness.  Liberals have to have smarts, not just ideas.

it looked so easy
our heritage beckoned
the nation was, after all, christian

and so they began their crusade
marching toward theocracy

and as they plodded
the children wailed
are we there yet?

and god whispered
you’re going the wrong way

tc

Yes, Bukko, I, from ‘76-81, drove a taxi in Philadelphia.  From ‘86-‘94 drove a taxi in Buffalo, NY.  Then from ‘97-‘02 drove a taxi in Niagara Falls, NY.  Been there, done that.  Can you say 24/7 six days a week familiarity?  Did two years in Vietnam, harbor absolutely no ill will toward Vietnamese, in spite of one of those years I was in the Infantry. The fourth gun to the head in Nov ‘02 got me to ‘hang up my keys’.  I’ve been on the business side of rifles and guns a lot, you never get used to it.  I’m now retired living in a Philadelphia outer suburb.  I don’t have to ride around in the gauntlet that surrounds Center City Philadelphia.  I take the train downtown. By the way, did manage three R&R’s in Sydney, ‘68, ‘70 and ‘71.  My Eurabian experience was one Return of Forces to Germany exercise I did when I joined the NY National Guard in ‘84.  We flew over to Amsterdam, got our equipment off the ship and then drove to Alsfeld, West Germany.  Oh, how things have changed.  At least the communists didn’t hide behind women and children and the IRA would call in their bombings to Scotland Yard.  Unfortunately was only there for a month.  Did two weeks a year later on a Keep Up exercise.  The most exciting thing I did was six round trips from Alsfeld, 75k north east of Frankfurt legally driving 100mph.  Some of the hills I couldn’t maintain 100 and had to get out of the way of the BMWs and all those other neat German cars that had plenty of peddle to maintain 120mph.  I was in a VW Vanagon.  What a trusting government that let’s their citizens when they get away from the cities drive at whatever speed you feel you can do. So you’re saying it’s just disaffected ‘yutes’ (the American version sets things on fire also) that have determined that the French police don’t patrol certain parts of Paris.  I dare say the Philadelphia police haven’t surrendered North and West Philadelphia to the insurgency. So much for our War on Poverty, all we got are a bunch of baggy pants running around grabbing themselves like a bunch of two year olds that have to go to the bathroom.  As I said all I presently know about Eurabia I get through the majic of a PC.  So, then I guess you’re all set to hit the prayer rug five times a day.  I for one want to keep my non-practicing Catholic head right where it is.

Frank, while I lived in Western New York for that 23 years I got to know many Native Americans.  With all the crap we gave them they have managed to come away as being a class act.  Wonderful group of people.  It’s funny, they call Columbus Day Invasion Day.

To Rod of comment #33035…
I bet you celebrate Columbus day don’t you?
And you hate it when people bash Columbus for being a tyrant.
Columbus, the person who claimed to discover a land where people where waving at him from the shore.

John Cunningham, have you ever traveled to “Eurabia” as you call it? Especially recently? Tell me, what do you imagine it to be?

My wife and I go to France every other year or so, and we also trip into Amsterdam, northern Italy and other Western European countries. We spend a lot of time in Paris when we’re there. The “banlieus” (housing projects) in the suburbs or Paris certainly look different to the Deuxieme Arrondissement, but when I drive a rental car through them, I don’t feel endangered like I did when I accidentally drove through crack-market neighbourhoods in the U.S. In A’dam, heart of a country where there was the notorious Muslim terror murder of Theo van Gogh, there are Muslims all over the red-light districts. They run the restaurants that stoners stumble into after hitting the hashish bars. I feel less threatened by them than the African and Anglo-Saxon dope dealers who stand in the shadows and cough the word “cocaine?” when I walk by.

In my current city of Melbourne, there are suburbs like Brunswick on the north side of town that are heavily Turkish and Lebanese. Some women walk around in the veil, some in hijab, and some in tank tops. (It’s blood hot here now!) On the trams, Muslim men with Osama-style beards sit next to tattooed, pierced punks. Same on the Paris Metro, BTW.

Have you ever been around Muslims, other than the one who scared you so much in Philly, John? I’m a hospital nurse, so I literally wipe their arses. They’re not that dfifferent to anyone else. Not all of them are pleasant people, but sick people never are, including the whites. Same for the riotous suburbs of Paris—poor people are pissed off and they tend to fark stuff up, no matter what colour they are or where they live. Do you feel “amazed” in the bad black neighbourhoods in the City of Brotherly Shove, or the hostile redneck hamlets of northern Alabama?

Getting back to fascism, which was the subject of this article, the more that people hate whole groups and nations out of blind prejudice, the easier it is for fascists to say “Let’s kill all of them!”

I have always objected to the rise of “privatization” in our government. I have been surprised that little is made of the prior claim that giving our medical care to “private” corporations would led to control of inflated medical cost, when in fact it has done no such thing. So the question is how did we get to such a place where Military operations, prison management, etc (don’t forget education) been allowed to go private?

The business about “white power” is sadly true, but is not all of the problem. The implication of this claim ignores that paternalism of the right is not restricted to “whites”. It is at heart of the groups that are now moving into the country. What makes “White Supreme” so un-nerving at this time is its rise in the military and Republican government. It is likely to destroy the peace of mind of the very group it is supposed to raise up. Support for it is hyper inflated by the loss of control of our borders and an ill advised dynamic that has the established population of the country forced to accomodate the new residents at the expense of our culture, such as it is.

I am torn by my feeling that we need social progressiveness to survive and a feeling that we should not be allowing things that amount to social and cultural suicide. We do not have to allow ourselves to be occupied by people who have over populated their own countries and certainly not allow them to dictate the culture they have moved into.

Looking at the world wide response to population and responsible business practice, I see the same non contructive behavior that allowed the Roman System to collapse. A grasping for wealth without responsibility and taking short term solutions to growing threats. We should tend to our own house and let the rest of the world to its own devices.

When lower middle class persons become rich they often pander to parts of society with lower middle class values.  Those values include the seven deadly sins and others which are real human weaknesses.  As long as people are half-baked and half educated lower middle class (Fascist) values will have an irresistable appeal.

Bukko and Skruff.  We’re not terrified but we are sitting in amazement when we, through the magic of PC’s, see what is going on in Eurabia.  How did they manage to allow themselves to be surrounded in their cities?  The worse scene is in France where a considerable part of France has for all intent and purpose been handed over to the seething mushrooms, I mean muslims.  The police do not patrol those areas, no go zones.  We do look in amazement when what looks to be a man in a berka, traveling stealth, gets on the Market Street Subway here in Philadelphia.  The male member of the species would rather blow himself up than get stuck at home with the kids.  Maybe it’s just a big city thing.

Skruff: on this thread and others, you gotta stop talking so much sense, mate. Where would the overall level of discussion be without delusions and wingnuttery?

I took statistics in college. Seemed an easy way to bag one of the math requirements for my liberal arts degree. Damned if I didn’t learn some things! Funny how a broad-based university education will do that to you. STAT 101 is why I don’t play the lottery, for instance.

I wonder what percentage of Americans literally DOES fear thst they PERSONALLY will be killed by terrorists. And what percentage believes that Muslims can take over the United States and make all women wear burqas? (If they took over and converted the men, they’d have to be circumcised, but Americans are so ignorant of Muslim customs they don’t realise that. If they did, watch out!)

It’s probably a minority with those fears, but it’s an important minority. Because they’re the only people whose opinions President Cheney cares about. As long as he’s got them skeered and sheeple-ing into line, he and the media can pretend that Americans support the incompetent fascists that they are.

“Terrorism”

What does this mean?

Show of hands:

How many of you folks are “terrified” that some Arab will kill you and/or your family?

Second show of hands:

How many US residents are “terrified” everytime they get behind the wheel of their family sedan, knowing 44,000 people in the US are killed in auto accidents each year?

Third show of hands:

How many of you are “terrified” by the thought of losing everything you owe, being tossed out on the street, after your boss outsources your job?

Do folks still learn “percentages” in school?

Dear The Jay Mick,

I’m not sure how to respond.  Is your unemployment about to run out or look who got up on the wrong side of the rock.

The Revolution Has Started

For the past few years I have written on the fascist overthrow of the American democracy and I have learned that revolution is unavoidable. We are being led into an entire new culture without even a fight. Our privacy is completely gone and we accept that the government is lying to us. Most of us know that the American government is using unethical methods to gain further control over the people, but nothing is done. Fear and manipulation has been used create public conformity into acceptance of all government actions. However, I have also learned that our government’s control over us is very weak and susceptible to revolution. The fascist American pseudo-dictatorship has attempted to pass laws in order to pressure further control over the herds. These new “law” are meaningless. We the people must ignore there legitimacy and provoke usage of these false regulations. Time for revolution is upon us and our victory is inevitable.

We must not fear our government; it is our government who must fear us. We can decide how things are run simply by majority rule. We must decide now how we want things to be done in this country. We must provoke action to be taken against us; it is then we will create a public stage through use of media attention. Their control over us can be used against them. It is our duty to act any way we choose fit, so if we want to keep our privacy then flood “Big Brother” with overloads of misinformation and send them on wild goose chases. However, civil disobedience is not the only shape the revolution must take; it is essential that we unite through inspiration. Revolution can be successful in smaller numbers when people are truly committed to each other.

It is also essential that we must not fear terrorism. Terrorism has always existed in the world, but it has only been since the events of 9/11 that we have made it such a large part of our lives. Fighting terrorism through war is pointless; we can not kill every lunatic that uses mass murder to fight for what they believe. The American Fascist Alliance is simply creating more and more people who will disagree with American politics to their death. We can not hate on those who use violence against America as a public display of disobedience, because one day violence may be the only thing the American people can do to save its democracy. We the people must open communications with these radical opposes of American politics to gain better understanding of each other.

We must gain a better understanding of the people behind ‘terrorist’ acts of violence and learn how we can use them to save our democracy. Bin Laden simply had an extremely poor method of retaliation as his way to fight unethical American politics. He foolishly attacked his greatest ally and helped the fascist American elite cloud the people into believing a false reality. Terrorist are poorly educated freedom fighters that use methods which inevitably backfire. Terrorism is just a term that the fascist American elite is twisting in order to broaden its usage to define all forms of disobedience. We must not go to these Eastern cultures to kill, but instead we must reach out to them as the American people and unite. Our fascist American government is speaking for us, even when a majority of us do not support them. The mid-eastern people are just like us and we share similar goals. Our revolution does not only have support here in this country, but also has the support of nearly every country in the entire world.

And that is the key, isn’t it? Our revolution is not only essential in saving the American democracy; rather it is vital in saving the entire world. The term terrorism may soon very well be used to label American people who fight for revolution, but we must not let meaningless labels deter our methods or goals. Let them wear out the term with over usage. Give them what they want and state, “We are terrorist!” However, we will terrify the fascist elite with intelligence, unity, and civil disobedience rather then explosives and hate. If the “terrorist”, who we are in war with now, learn that they have allies here in American then that will help create safety from terrorist attacks. We can secure a safety that our lying imperialist government fails to achieve with their war-mongering. We can also open discussions between the mid-eastern “terrorist” in order to teach them more successful forms of disobedience. I have constantly searched for ways to inspire a united majority here in America, but I was not thinking globally. Majority support for the revolution is already overwhelming throughout the world. We can seek foreign media to help give legs to the revolution. Media of the countries that we bully may salivate over helping the American revolutionist. 

  The theme of this admittedly scattered expose is that we can say what we want because we are protected by the right of Free Speech. The government must recognize the revolution because it has officially started. So far we are left ignored, but that has only intensified our efforts. The time for revolution is here; the wheels are in motion. I promise I shall provoke action taken against me which will be supported by laws regulated by the American fascist regime. It is time to get power for the youthful generations in America. It is time; VIVA LA REVOLUTION!                                   
                                                              -By: The Illustrious Jay Mick

The Revolution Has Started

  For the past few years I have written on the fascist overthrow of the American democracy and I have learned that revolution is unavoidable. We are being led into an entire new culture without even a fight. Our privacy is completely gone and we accept that the government is lying to us. Most of us know that the American government is using unethical methods to gain further control over the people, but nothing is done. Fear and manipulation has been used create public conformity into acceptance of all government actions. However, I have also learned that our government’s control over us is very weak and susceptible to revolution. The fascist American pseudo-dictatorship has attempted to pass laws in order to pressure further control over the herds. These new “law” are meaningless. We the people must ignore there legitimacy and provoke usage of these false regulations. Time for revolution is upon us and our victory is inevitable.

  We must not fear our government; it is our government who must fear us. We can decide how things are run simply by majority rule. We must decide now how we want things to be done in this country. We must provoke action to be taken against us; it is then we will create a public stage through use of media attention. Their control over us can be used against them. It is our duty to act any way we choose fit, so if we want to keep our privacy then flood “Big Brother” with overloads of misinformation and send them on wild goose chases. However, civil disobedience is not the only shape the revolution must take; it is essential that we unite through inspiration. Revolution can be successful in smaller numbers when people are truly committed to each other.

  It is also essential that we must not fear terrorism. Terrorism has always existed in the world, but it has only been since the events of 9/11 that we have made it such a large part of our lives. Fighting terrorism through war is pointless; we can not kill every lunatic that uses mass murder to fight for what they believe. The American Fascist Alliance is simply creating more and more people who will disagree with American politics to their death. We can not hate on those who use violence against America as a public display of disobedience, because one day violence may be the only thing the American people can do to save its democracy. We the people must open communications with these radical opposes of American politics to gain better understanding of each other.

  We must gain a better understanding of the people behind ‘terrorist’ acts of violence and learn how we can use them to save our democracy. Bin Laden simply had an extremely poor method of retaliation as his way to fight unethical American politics. He foolishly attacked his greatest ally and helped the fascist American elite cloud the people into believing a false reality. Terrorist are poorly educated freedom fighters that use methods which inevitably backfire. Terrorism is just a term that the fascist American elite is twisting in order to broaden its usage to define all forms of disobedience. We must not go to these Eastern cultures to kill, but instead we must reach out to them as the American people and unite. Our fascist American government is speaking for us, even when a majority of us do not support them. The mid-eastern people are just like us and we share similar goals. Our revolution does not only have support here in this country, but also has the support of nearly every country in the entire world.

Ref: Comment #51015 by Jay Mick on 2/01

Unity of purpose does not guarantee a happy choice. It is unity of purpose that the Fascist uses to bring about his own design. The leader who can discern the hopes and fears of his constituents and act to keep them focused on the hopes and fears, leads rather than follows by leading youth where it wishes to go.

The wise leader would lead his people to the threshold of their own knowledge of right and wrong and then accept the leadership of the democratic choice to govern wisely and well.

Well informed people can make their own choices without leaders. Well motivated people can set their own goals and well educated people can succeed in the struggle for life. It is the weak and the uncertain who must be led by example rather than by fear of consequences. When there are two sides to a question, with certainty on both sides, conflict follows. Left to chance alone, the choice will be as often wrong as right. The only model is the successful choices of past leaders. The lesson in history is the wrong choices, not the right ones. The right choices should be clear.

It has become that time when the youth of this country needs to make it evident that when united it is we who hold the true power. Unified we can demand our government to recognize that their existence is to make the people happy. We are young, strong, fast, and brave and then when collectively motivated by youthful ambition, we can become a force with the ability to take away power from the small economic elite. It is us who fight their wars and us who die protecting their security. A motivated, unified youthful generation is a dishonest government’s worst fear. Government relies on separating us so we are easier to use as their pawns. It is the young men and women of this country whose civic duty is to destroy the growing movement of fascist acceptance. It is us who will be suffering in the fascist police state wondering what happened to all our rights. However, if we take action to unify as a group we can be a powerful instrument of fear. All we need is the proper motivation to tell us that we have tremendous power if utilized correctly. Regardless of political view points we should unify based on a generation alliance. We can shift the power away from the small power elite and give ourselves better options for our future. A majority of support would be given to us by the middle to lower classes. It is they who will continue to suffer the most by the negative evolution that our government has recently foretoken. All that is needed is the motivation to help them realize that if they can unite, then it is their majority power that can control the government. Separating ourselves based on life experiences rather than political point of views offers an opportunity to gain a level of power that presently is unattainable.
To fight fascism someone must take a first step toward the beginning of civil disobedience, which will bring change. So I will publicly state that if the Patriot Act (or anything thing similar) is ever passed in this country, then there will be no boundaries which will stop me to actively disobey and fight this wicked evasion of privacy. This “Act” is a condensed example of everything that has begun to threaten the individual rights that we should cherish forever. This Act is the first step to take the social norms that have recently evolved into our country and begin to make them law. No form of punishment shall ever make me concede to accept this law. Perhaps this attempt by me to spark some revolutionary flame may be even be considered treason and I could be considered a homegrown terrorist for what I say. That still will never change my beliefs and will never stop me from fighting fascism. It is time we show our political strength and stomp out fascism before its too late.      By: Jay Mick

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Anti-Fascist Movement in the USA(first draft)
I am 25 years old now and I noticed my generation knows nothing in understanding war or politics. We live as sheep walking invisible paths that our fathers and grandfathers created to lead us into blindness. Our fathers sent us to war in Iraq based on intangibles that they felt we did not deserve to understand. Our fathers and the father’s of our fathers are brainwashed by an undying patriotic fog created by years of wartime motivational necessity. They no longer see personal differences of what our government considers our enemy. Our fathers focus only on lifestyle differences and a misguided belief in our government’s honesty in order to rationalize any war.  We have no one to seek the truth from, because we do not even know a truth exists. However, there is a truth and it is more disturbing then any that our country has faced in the past. It is a truth that shall spawn my generation’s first true war. However, we do not need to send our brothers and friends across an ocean to die, because the battleground has made its way right to our doorstep and even into the confused minds of a changing country’s citizens.
    Fascism, something once despised by all countries of decent morality, has found its way to the United States. This is no longer just a term, symbolizing evil, which we read about in books. It is now a deadly reality that we have refused to notice and even welcomed with open arms. The youth of this country (the collegians, soldiers, athletes, and blossoming graduates) is weak and gullible. We are blind-wanderers walking in a landmine field where we have made ourselves dependent on people feeding us unreliable direction. We are so hypnotized by the daily routine of our lives that we allow our government to filter our news. We let them use fear to conform us into easily manageable zombies. We let them manipulate their way into costly wars without demanding the truth. Overtime we have watched a small economic elite gain power in every level of government and progressively misuse power. The polarization between political parties has made them forget their essential need for one another. Both sides start relying on negative stereotypes and media attacks to belittle each other’s views all while forgetting they are both representing a nearly equal half of the American public. They use an issue such as terrorism and twist it to slowly slip more and more power away from the people. We have allowed these things to slowly become cultural norms while forgetting that we once had a name for this newly evolving government; Fascism. It’s hard to imagine we have walked so listlessly into a world where the people are treated like cattle. However, just as easily as we got to this point we can still make thing right.

Sounds like a bunch of crap to me. They only stopped eating people in the polynesian island chain about 80 years ago, and as far as atrocities go, let’s talk Stalin, Hitler, and so forth. I think people flip the race card around in our country anymore to see how far it’ll fly, and how much money they can make off of betting where it lands.

If one thing’s missing, it’s a discussion of how to get people psyched around the idea of going out and starting a business. Difficult? Yes. Worthy endeavor? Absolutely. Long-overdue? Quite likely. Is running a business a universal panacea? Hell, no. Neither are do-gooder social policies, nor, for that matter, does an education inoculate you from the cruel twists and turns of fate or other peoples’ ignorance and prejudice, or, for that matter, even your own. But, some of the items above might, just might, steer people down a better path, something marginally more positive and rewarding. You just never know.

I think I’d cry ‘ignorance’ or ‘apathy’ before ‘fascism’, people use what’s in front of em, be it the salt shaker,lead-based paint, or a copy of Mein Kampf. And, if anything, your parents have a major influence on how you’ll grow up in the world. But, at the same time, it’s important to recognize that yes, people are different, and cultures vary widely, and the worst thing you can do is try to gloss over them. Better to explore and understand, but at the same time avoid long and unproductive guilt trips.
Anyone can be vicious, lie, cheat, steal, and kill, whether they dress just like you or run naked with a bone through their noses, or have a billion dollars and a helper to brush their teeth. You don’t know people until you know em,
so don’t let a glossy paint job fool you, nor a couple dents and scrapes throw you off. See the world through your own eyes, if you really want to understand people, pay close attention to what they do and say, but don’t let them tell you what to do or say, or how to think, or what to think, or when to think it. Be independent in your actions and your judgements, and reserve that last bit for the very very very last, because likely even then it’s still premature. A little forgiveness goes a long way, but so can helping others once you do learn their faults(yes, we all have em), and likewise you might be enlightened as to your own shortcomings. And, if you’re really really lucky, maybe you’ll make a friend.
Or, forget to look both ways before crossing, and get cruelly mowed down by the 5:30 crosstown bus.
Life is what it is, think for yourself.

Read “The Rise of Fascism”, by F.L. Carsten (1967)...What could have been going through those “Nazi’s” minds???
In The Awakening of White America (THE WHITE WORLD!!!), Wolf in the mud-pit formerly known as Massachusetts. 14/88!!!

Instead of focusing on possibilities for fascism we should be looking towards diversity and helping the people of our world.  President Bush’s speech on January 10, 2007 proposed sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq while only 12% of Americans agree with his plan.  The United States has already spent approximately $350 billion on Iraq.  We need to be putting these resources to issues such as global poverty which was one of the top ten United Nations Millennium Development Goals created in 2000 by a large gathering of global leaders.  We should tell our representatives that it is in everyone’s best interest to undertake this issue.

http://www.fascistamerica.net

“nothing” occasionally has benefit.

“Nothing ain’t worth nothing, but its free”

with appologies to Janis Joplin

Skruff, you can refine things to such a degree you’ll eventually have nothing left.

Doc says…“We were all sworn to defend”

Truthfully, I never took any oath to “defend” anything or anyone.

but

You bring up a good point. Maybe we should all be asked about our choice of “citizenship” upon reaching majority?  The accidential geography of our birth should not “grant” us anything, except the ability to live with parents until we are old enough to make legal choice.

Scruff and Doc, dear people, I feel we’re reading from different pages of the same ‘book’ at the same time.

We were all sworn to defend, and never relieved of our duty; to defend the law of the republic for which we stand.

OOps! you have made a mistake John.. You’ve got me mislabled. 

Anti government means anti ALL government even Khruschev’s

I’m an anarchist of the barter and exchange variety. Weak folks need government, but such government only weakens the heard.

Dear Skruff, you sound disappointed that Khruschev didn’t get to bury us.  We’re alive and he’s not.

May I suggest you two folks take your personal vendetta to email?

You are spoiling the discussion and sowing the seeds of Fascism

Yo, Walker, your speech sounds like a cross between something like Hugo Chavez and when Khruschev pounded his shoe at the UN.

Sorry, John Cunningham.  I didn’t realize you’ve only been ‘talking’ in your sleep.  I wouldn’t have disturbed your slumber for even a minute, otherwise.  So dream on, my friend.  Those all-seeing eyes of yours clearly can do with a rest.  Because the world you might finally wake up in won’t look anything like the place you’re imagining yourself in right now.  Don’t worry, though.  That’s a good thing.

But then Walker, on second thought, you’re not a Mexican government official hiding behind your computer, are you?  Like I posted earlier, you have to stop trying to run off your poor by promising them that we’ll set them up with a casino.  We only give our original inhabitants a casino.  You might think we think ‘they’ all look a like.  But, we do have eyes.  Come on Mexico, spread out the oil money.  You’re acting just like a bunch of middle eastern governments.  What ever happened to the days when the neighborhood kid cut the lawn, he was underbid by an illegal.

Dear TAO Walker,  you’re in severe need of counseling.  Take care

Well, hell, John Cunningham.  Times are hard everywhere.  Good you’ve got some ties to this place, however short-term.  Better, though, if you open up those eyes and ears and learn finally just exactly where is the “here” that you’re at.  Believe me, those “Mayans” and “Aztecs” you are evidently so upset about do know exactly where “here” is, unlike your roughshod-riding forebears, who were then, as you are yourself still today, pretty much raw recruits to this multi-milennial war against the world of your birth (and fighting, unfortunately, for the wrong side, to boot).  None of us holds any of that against you, though.  You’ve been had, John, and are right now being taken for a ride by forces your eyes are blind and your ears deaf to. You’re a captive to the self-interest of ruthless gangsters who rule you by fear, and who will sacrifice you and your brothers-in-arms to the requirements of their ‘project’ without blinking an eye.  They’re doing it right this minute.  So maybe a little real education right about now might do you more harm than good, for a change. Those copper-toned faces coming up from the south mean you no harm.  Their brothers and sisters already here who’ve come through Europe’s genocidal onslaught, with their integrity and their memories intact, aren’t your enemies, either.  But we know who is, Johnny.  And we know they mean you no good.  So who ye gonna call….the Department of Homeland Security?....the Defense Department?....the Department of Justice?  And keep in-mind you may get only one call.  Make it count, amigo.

What the f*** you say.  I have eyes, I have ears.  Part of me’s been here since ’ 1887, the other part from 1910.  Mc and Polack, tell me all about it.

Hey, I got eyes, I got ears, what the f*** you talking about?  Theories, theories, evertbody’s got theories.  A little less educatin’, a little more lookin’.

If John Cunningham and others obsessed with the “illegal immigrant problem” want some well-grounded perspective (on the situation’s historic and even pre-historic antecedents, as well as it’s immediate manifestations), they might take a good hard look at Leslie Silko’s “Almanac of the Dead.”  There are elements at-play in this living world next to whom the pretentious delusions driving the cult of ‘western civilization’ shrink to the miniscule temporary aberrations that their uniformly deleterious effects (on those infected with them) have always shown them to be, to the rest of us. And if such fear-ridden “carriers” of this wannabe “global” disease would like a look at the dead-certain consequences of turning the whole U.S. into a “gated community,” they can check-out “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allen Poe, or “The Plague,” by Albert Camus.  Your behind-the-scenes ‘owners’ and their fear-mongering overseers are stampeding you ruthlessly into their urban feedlots placed strategically next-door to the slaughterhouses of “perpetual war for perpetual peace,” sheeple.  And this time, as Boss Cheney has bragged, it’s “full speed ahead,” no matter what the “voters” do. If you keep runnin’ scared they mean to run you to death.  Better, instead, you start running-down the flaws in your national character that’ve got you “here and now boys” to the brink of self-inflicted extinction. You might start with your carefully contrived but none-the-less woeful ignorance of your own complicity in the murderous rampage still being perpetrated upon the natives, human and others, of Turtle and Hummingbird Islands. Is this the best of times, the worst of times, THE END of times, or what?

Yes, Amigo, we could start with the Mexican government.

Listen up everybody! We have all vented our feelings repeatedly over the past few years (and especially,in the last two weeks)
Now is the time to take action in order to make sure, the past six years is NOT repeated!
Let us all keep sending E-mails to our Dem Senators and Congress men/women to:
1] Start HEARINGS / INVESTIGATIONS on the war
2] Push for PAPER RECEIPTS on all votes cast in ALL elections in ALL FIFTY STATES.
That should be a good starting point! 
Any thaughts ?

p.s. Let us not waste any more precious time trying to debate,hopeless right-wing, nut-jobs like Hondo

Reading comment 38277 by Derek reminds me of something.  Is it just me or does anyone else notice that the pictures of the faces of our illegal problem here in the US is made up of people that resemble our Native Americans.  No doubt the Europeans that settled this part of North America did run rough shod over the original inhabitants we found.  Though it has gone in fits and starts the US and Canadian governments have been trying to make amends.  My point.  Are we witnessing an ethnic cleansing on the part of the oil rich Mexican government?  Those that run Mexico look like the descendents of the Spainish European settlers.  Is it possible that they’re making life as difficult as possible for the descendents of the Aztecs and Mayans to stay ‘home’ thereby driving them north.  They don’t want to share in the oil riches or Mexico.  What’s Mexico doing with all the money we pay them for the oil we buy?  Maybe the Mexican government told the descendents of the Aztecs and Mayans to head north, the Americans will set you up in a casino.

Hondo’s blog can be found at ChristianConservatives.blogspot.com I’ll warn you, it’s boring and repetitious. I even stopped snarking at him there, after he stopped bloviating here. Waste of time. So shhhhhh! Let sleeping doofuses lie. I hesitate to even write this in case he’s got auto-notification turned on…

Total bunk and nothing more than left wing angst and paranoia. “White male patriarchal culture”? Now where have I heard that term before?  Oh, yeah, from feminist historians who blame all the world’s problems on the White Man. In their world view all minorities are like innocent flower children sullied by white oppression. Go to some of the White Studies sites and see true racism at work. Those bleating left wingers are hoping that Lenin will awaken from his slumber to guide the ignorant masses toward nirvana.

Stan Goff, I enjoyed your article.  Since being in a family for more than 26 who joined Organized Crime shortly after I married, I had a front row seat with learning about corruption and crime and the US. Although my view is a little different than yours, it offers another perspective to why we have all these problems.

The Organized Crime system that my ex-wife’s family joined wasn’t any ordinary Crime system.  They are sometimes referred to “The Government within our Government”, “Political Crime Outfit” and may others.  I know this group is linked from lower Government areas on up to the highest level in our Federal Government.  Of course, not everyone is involved, but there are huge numbers of people involved.  One is the Illuminati’s who are expected to represent about 1-2% of our population, which is anywhere from 3-6million people.  A little research on who and what these people are about should surface some interesting facts for the reader.  Just after marrying, I was asked to join the FreeMasons but I declined because I felt pushed and didn’t understand why.  The reason came out later as it was the family that wanted me to join.  Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t join.  As I understand it, the FreeMasons, have a link to the Illuminati’s which also have links to the MOB who also have links to the CIA, DEA and others.  My life’s experience in this family crosses with many National News Scandals involving Political Corruption and the MOB.  Luckily that I didn’t get involved in some of these other offerings also.  I may have ended up like Gus Boulis.

My ex-in-laws are in Property Development and often said “They wouldn’t ever have been able to build their business big, UNLESS they joined.  Plus, everyone is involved”!  Of course by saying “Everyone is involved” they really mean that the “RIGHT” people are involved but again, the amount of “RIGHT” people involves more than many. 

There are MOB links all through this and the MOB is linked to Banking that goes all the way up to include the largest Bank in the World.  We know it as something different than what it is supposed to be.  This has been alleged for years but is sadly the truth. 

Our Political process is cluttered with this problem, as I was told by the family that out of every 10 people involved, 7 are Republicans and 3 are Democrats.  Hence, many have speculated that both parties have a similar problem and this is more true than anyone would think.  It isn’t ONLY about corruption, it’s about something else. 

Stan, I’m afraid from my experience that our problems are much larger than skin heads and others who reject authority.  I know it to be far larger than this.

Hondo, what happend to you? Did the Evil (Liberal) Atheist Conspiracy get you?

There’s a huge problem with “class cutting” in the US today.  The P.C. mogals would have us believe the black underclass comprises most, if not all of the poor in The USA. 

When one gets beyond precentages (which are meaningless when defining pockets of poverty) they will find that the largest number of poor folks in these United States are white.

The children I worked with in Worcester’s “white ghetto” (on the city’s south side)were poor. not only did they lack the possessions of middle-class America, they lacked hope, spirit, and family.  Of course children (white black, male or female) seem to play no part in Stan Goff’s manifesto on the culturaal divide. He tells us of the death of Randy Weaver’s wife, but skips the murder of his son, Sammy age 14, who was killed by a shot to his back. Sammy had fired on “unknowns” who had opened fire on Sammy’s dog.

Sort-of-like the economy of central Massachusetts opening fire on the youngsters in Main South in the 1970’s.

I guess that we (all of us) pretty much reap what we sow.

By all means if it is the expressed purpose of the administration to fight them over there, take our worst racist thugs and leave them there to die in the quagmire; trouble is, there are good kids there, by an accident of bad-timing and being lied to and lied about. Make no mistake Bushes ass is in this too far, even our Dems don’t want the depth of it exposed. Too much an international crime to be atoned for with out a heavy penalty, at the same time facing a foreign debt that is the starter pistol for the next worldwide depression. Good Luck People, you are going to need it.

The elections on November 7, slowed the hemorrhage in our government but our problems are far from being over.  There are millions of Americans who fell in love with the purveyors of Fascism in this administration and their elite club of “us” against “them” with the “them” including any American who refused to fall in lockstep with this movement.  Americans who want to retain our Constitutional rights and want to move back toward a more democratic form of government, must not be lured into thinking the problems have been solved.  The snake has had to recoil, but with its head still very much intact.

Where are the open borders people when it comes to Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Switzerland, Mali, Indonesia and the rest of the world.  The US already has the most lenient immigration policy in the WORLD.  Why aren’t you crying about countries that DO have more strict immigration laws?  I’m not in a good situation job-wise etc. so can I stay at your house Stan.  If you want open borders than you should be fine with me coming over.

I think women are a great asset in the work force.  They help enrich society.  I have no problem working with women or having them as superiors. 

Not a nary word about gay people.  Somehow that was “overlooked”.  Gay people are a target for fascists/supremacists as well.

Heya Female Voice, don’t let criticism from strangers bother you. It’s just little black marks on a glowing screen!

And isn’t Zurich SUCH a well-run place? So clean and efficient… The Swiss ought to run the world. They probably DO, they just allow the rest of us to think that we’re doing it.

Getting back to fascism, how come the Swiss haven’t gone in that direction? They are insular, have a strong Germanic heritage and a society that focuses on “ordnung.” Plus they had a VIOLENT history. Seems a fertile ground for the F-word. What’s different to them and the U.S.?

Dear Mr. Goff:

My guess is that the reason that there aren’t more female voices in this comment list is because, generally speaking, females tend to prefer listening-to rather than giving stump speeches. Thank you Peggy for stressing the importance of listening.

However, after listening to (i.e., reading…carefully) some of the long-winded ramblings here, I barely have the strength to respond, even though MOST of the posts here have SOMETHING in them that I can agree with, even those from the NUTS.

Personally, I believe that some kind of reasonable post length limit would probably result in an increase in posts from women and girls simply by reducing reader fatigue. Of course, some of you probably think that 2000 words is “reasonable”. Start yer own BLOG!

As for my feelings on your article, Mr. Goff. I find it to be well-thought-out and frightening. As for some of the comments to your article, I am particularly struck by the number of U.S. “refugees” who responded, of which I am one.

[Perhaps, we almost ran into each other in Zurich, Mr. Bukko.]

I guess I got tired of hearing all the talk.

However, if you want to know my thoughts on the alternative, i.e., action, look what happened to the Republican and Democratic National Convention protesters. Look what happened to the Anti-Globalization protesters in Florida. I am not ready to sacrifice my life or health for what I see as an increasingly poorly educated (although often well-schooled) populace, who probably would effect some even worse alternative after throwing off their fascist yoke, assuming that is even possible. And I am not sure it is. At least not until ALL the oil runs out and there is no way to run the “machine” except by human slave power.

Best of luck to you all.

By the way. I can’t really handle criticism from anonymous strangers, and therefore, I hope that no one feels that I have picked on them or personally singled them out (except perhaps the really long-winded ones) so as to merit any personal insults or retaliation. Unless of course, this is a BOYS ONLY! GIRLS KEEP OUT! treehouse and punishment is pulling my pigtails.

By the way, I also own a gun.

Re: #37716 by Doug Cunningham.  Stan’s article and Mr. Cunningham’s comment capture the very essence of The Rule of Fear. Keeping its subjects convinced they’re all alone in their misery is critical to sustaining its hold over much of humanity in these latter days.  It had long been a mystery to me that so many self-confessed Christians, who are told in so many words, “Be not afraid,” are running both scared and amok in the world these days. Then it finally dawned on me that fear of endless suffering, as punishment for failing to come up to some supposedly divine standard, is the driving force and dogmatic foundation of that (and lots of other’s, too) peculiar belief system…....even as many of the rest of us have become intimately familiar with the multitude of fates-worse-than-death dealt-out so cavalierly around the globe by fundamentalists of one stripe or another.  A pox on all their houses.

Because of two years in Vietnam it turned out to where I wound up with a PTSD problem.  It was like thirty years after the event, that, with help from the VA, I was able to connect the dots on a number of ‘issues’ that had crawled up my a**.  Always worked, always had a job, even went and did a part Army with the National Guard in Buffalo.  I mean, I was out there, running amok in your midst.  One thing I learned was about one-third of the traumatized population turns out to be totally unphazed.  One-third is moderately affected and one-third is f*****.  Turns out I straddle the lower and middle third.  Resulted in a very nice payment from Uncle Sam in his efforts to make amends.  I am your tax dollars at work, I’m a work in progress.  But, all that aside, PTSD is a funny thing and combat veterans do not have a monopoly on the disorder.  There’s also a lot of civilians running around outthirty71 there.  A symptom of the condition is one begins to imagine things.  When the anniversary date phenomenon kicks in it’s kind of like a flashback without the sight and sound.  If your present environment doesn’t match the psychopharmocologically driven feelings many make their environment match those feelings rather than make their feelings match their present environment.  If one would have a full blown flashback then one could easily put a finger on what’s going on in one’s head.  I’m not a doctor so that’s the best way I can break it down to twenty-five words or less.  We’re all under a lot of stress right now, stress can cause trauma.  The terrorists are doing a number on us.

Well, that was an amazing read, I’m not sure I agree with a lot of it, citing facts from 2000 is 6 years out-of-date in a world that changes monthly, and as far as ‘fascism’ goes, I once had some pinhead try to recruit me into his head-trip little group, supremacists are usually people that are making up for something, percieved social disadvantage, something like that. If you read about the run-up to WWII, Adolf Hitler capitalized on 20% unemployment in Germany to garner support for his movement. Playing to the ‘down and out’ crowd and promising them stuff is a good way to get a mob gathered…and telling them they’re better than everyone else and that they ‘deserve’ stuff or whatever, I don’t know what you call that, but it’s not right.

I look at haircuts. If I see someone that looks like they’ve got an attitude, REALLY short hair coupled with tattoos, and usually a dirty look for the people they come in contact with, generally a belligerent air to em, I’m kind of on my guard right off the bat. I’ve seen white skinheads, asian skinheads, black skinheads, hispanic skinheads, a skinhead’s a skinhead, and assuming that racism etc. is a ‘whites only’ thing is, in and of itself, a racist attitude.
Extremism’s extremism, it doesn’t even matter if you’ve got a shaved dome, it’s what’s INSIDE your head that’s key: If you have this view that ‘all____ are _____’, a totally binary yes/no view of things, well, that’s part of the problem right there. Not ALL people with no hair, for example, are extremist, not every person with a tattoo is also packin’ a grudge and looking for an outlet.

I haven’t read a whole lot about Timothy McVeigh, I read he was a decorated soldier from the first gulf war, I just think it was a real pity that someone that did well as a soldier just couldn’t come back and hack it as a citizen. War tends to change people, though, read about some of the PTSD stuff as it pertains to those who’ve been in our current war in Iraq. They talk about homelessness etc., not being able to hold jobs,
getting arrested, etc.

I think the best antidote for any/all of it is to try and learn about the causes of war, in the instance of the middle east it’s a resource war,
bluntly spoken, and look for ways to forestall the need for bullets to go flying around in the first place. If’n people worked a little harder on that, it’d be better for everybody, I think.

Here is the case for impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts178.html

Though this is a leftist position, many conservatives and moderates agree with it. The only reason that it will not be done is that the American people have been duped just as the Germans were duped by Hitler. The American media has joined the Emperor and the Supreme Court is packed with supporters of the Imperial Presidency concept.

It was a natural consequence of the “Leader of the Free World” designation of the American president, no matter who held that office. It was also the outcome of the fact that there are in America, as in every nation on Earth, people who would carry out the will of a dictator to torture, distort, subvert and to rule by force. True democracy is hard to sustain against those who would usurp the democratic process to install a dictator. True democracy appeals to the will of the people and the will of the people can, if distorted by propaganda, elect a Zionist, Islamic, Christian,  Communist, Fascist, or some other dictatorial regime that violates the intent of the constitution and imposes restrictions on minorities to deny freedom of religion, economics, and politics.

It is not too late, but we have little time to act. The will of the people must be asserted en masse to undo the harm and the remove the threat to our democracy and the constitution.

Hondo, to quote a senile but famous old fool, “There you go again.” There you go with the same tired rhetoric about what repulses YOU (not Americans) about “liberals.” Only, these liberals are entirely a construct of your imagination. “Straw man” is the term I learned in debate class for that argumentative technique. It’s the same thing your ignorant president uses on the campaign stump.

The thing is, Hondo, this thread is about Stan Goff’s analysis of the fascist takeover of the United States. Did you read it? What is your right-wing, Kool-Aide slurping take on it? Because really, mate, we don’t need an irrelevant repetition of your hackneyed squawking points about “liberals.” You have only one note, son. Develop a new one unless you’re too intellectually limited to do so…

Hondo’s List of What Repulses Americans About Liberalism:
1. Liberals believe in oppressively high taxes to pay for social engineering programs that don’t work.
2. Liberals believe in affirmative action. Put another way, liberals believe that a man should be judged by the color of his skin, not the content of his character.
3. Liberals believe in gay marriage. There is not one single state among the contiguous 48 where you will find a majority to support that.
4. Liberals believe in unlimited abortion on demand, with absolutely no restrictions. There is not one single state among the contiguous 48 where you will find a majority to support that.
5. Liberals believe in human cloning. There is not one single state…..
6. Liberals are against the Patriot Act. Liberals are against the NSA wire tapping program. Liberals are against coercive interrogations of terrorist detainees. There is not one single state…..
7. Liberals are against any reference to God or Jesus Christ at any time in the public square. Not only is there not one single state…..but there is not one single Founding Father that would agree with that position.
8. Liberals believe that “it takes a village to raise a child” means that “it takes a secular progressive government to raise a child.” They are wrong.
9. Liberals believe that the average American is too stupid to make it through the day without the care and nurturing of “Mommy and Daddy Government.” They are wrong.
10. Liberals believe that if you don’t do well in school, you “end up” in the military. Tuesday’s election will illustrate how strongly America disagrees with the dumbass from Massachusettes and his liberal comrads.

Read Al Gore on the limits of executive power.

Transcript: Al Gore On the Limits of Executive Power     PDF       Print       E-mail
Monday, 16 January 2006
by Al Gore
Remarks as prepared

Congressman Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America’s Constitution is in grave danger.

In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power.

As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.

It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored.

So, many of us have come here to Constitution Hall to sound an alarm and call upon our fellow citizens to put aside partisan differences and join with us in demanding that our Constitution be defended and preserved.

It is appropriate that we make this appeal on the day our nation has set aside to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who challenged America to breathe new life into our oldest values by extending its promise to all our people.

On this particular Martin Luther King Day, it is especially important to recall that for the last several years of his life, Dr. King was illegally wiretapped-one of hundreds of thousands of Americans whose private communications were intercepted by the U.S. government during this period.

The FBI privately called King the “most dangerous and effective negro leader in the country” and vowed to “take him off his pedestal.” The government even attempted to destroy his marriage and blackmail him into committing suicide.

This campaign continued until Dr. King’s murder. The discovery that the FBI conducted a long-running and extensive campaign of secret electronic surveillance designed to infiltrate the inner workings of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and to learn the most intimate details of Dr. King’s life, helped to convince Congress to enact restrictions on wiretapping.

The result was the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA), which was enacted expressly to ensure that foreign intelligence surveillance would be presented to an impartial judge to verify that there is a sufficient cause for the surveillance. I voted for that law during my first term in Congress and for almost thirty years the system has proven a workable and valued means of according a level of protection for private citizens, while permitting foreign surveillance to continue.

Yet, just one month ago, Americans awoke to the shocking news that in spite of this long settled law, the Executive Branch has been secretly spying on large numbers of Americans for the last four years and eavesdropping on “large volumes of telephone calls, e-mail messages, and other Internet traffic inside the United States.” The New York Times reported that the President decided to launch this massive eavesdropping program “without search warrants or any new laws that would permit such domestic intelligence collection.”

During the period when this eavesdropping was still secret, the President went out of his way to reassure the American people on more than one occasion that, of course, judicial permission is required for any government spying on American citizens and that, of course, these constitutional safeguards were still in place.

But surprisingly, the President’s soothing statements turned out to be false. Moreover, as soon as this massive domestic spying program was uncovered by the press, the President not only confirmed that the story was true, but also declared that he has no intention of bringing these wholesale invasions of privacy to an end.

At present, we still have much to learn about the NSA’s domestic surveillance. What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: “The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men.”

An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet, “On Common Sense” ignited the American Revolution, succinctly described America’s alternative. Here, he said, we intended to make certain that “the law is king.”

Vigilant adherence to the rule of law strengthens our democracy and strengthens America. It ensures that those who govern us operate within our constitutional structure, which means that our democratic institutions play their indispensable role in shaping policy and determining the direction of our nation. It means that the people of this nation ultimately determine its course and not executive officials operating in secret without constraint.

The rule of law makes us stronger by ensuring that decisions will be tested, studied, reviewed and examined through the processes of government that are designed to improve policy. And the knowledge that they will be reviewed prevents over-reaching and checks the accretion of power.

A commitment to openness, truthfulness and accountability also helps our country avoid many serious mistakes. Recently, for example, we learned from recently classified declassified documents that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized the tragic Vietnam war, was actually based on false information. We now know that the decision by Congress to authorize the Iraq War, 38 years later, was also based on false information. America would have been better off knowing the truth and avoiding both of these colossal mistakes in our history. Following the rule of law makes us safer, not more vulnerable.

The President and I agree on one thing. The threat from terrorism is all too real. There is simply no question that we continue to face new challenges in the wake of the attack on September 11th and that we must be ever-vigilant in protecting our citizens from harm.

Where we disagree is that we have to break the law or sacrifice our system of government to protect Americans from terrorism. In fact, doing so makes us weaker and more vulnerable.

Once violated, the rule of law is in danger. Unless stopped, lawlessness grows. The greater the power of the executive grows, the more difficult it becomes for the other branches to perform their constitutional roles. As the executive acts outside its constitutionally prescribed role and is able to control access to information that would expose its actions, it becomes increasingly difficult for the other branches to police it. Once that ability is lost, democracy itself is threatened and we become a government of men and not laws.

The President’s men have minced words about America’s laws. The Attorney General openly conceded that the “kind of surveillance” we now know they have been conducting requires a court order unless authorized by statute. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act self-evidently does not authorize what the NSA has been doing, and no one inside or outside the Administration claims that it does. Incredibly, the Administration claims instead that the surveillance was implicitly authorized when Congress voted to use force against those who attacked us on September 11th.

This argument just does not hold any water. Without getting into the legal intricacies, it faces a number of embarrassing facts. First, another admission by the Attorney General: he concedes that the Administration knew that the NSA project was prohibited by existing law and that they consulted with some members of Congress about changing the statute. Gonzalez says that they were told this probably would not be possible. So how can they now argue that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force somehow implicitly authorized it all along? Second, when the Authorization was being debated, the Administration did in fact seek to have language inserted in it that would have authorized them to use military force domestically - and the Congress did not agree. Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Jim McGovern, among others, made statements during the Authorization debate clearly restating that that Authorization did not operate domestically.

When President Bush failed to convince Congress to give him all the power he wanted when they passed the AUMF, he secretly assumed that power anyway, as if congressional authorization was a useless bother. But as Justice Frankfurter once wrote: “To find authority so explicitly withheld is not merely to disregard in a particular instance the clear will of Congress. It is to disrespect the whole legislative process and the constitutional division of authority between President and Congress.”

This is precisely the “disrespect” for the law that the Supreme Court struck down in the steel seizure case.

It is this same disrespect for America’s Constitution which has now brought our republic to the brink of a dangerous breach in the fabric of the Constitution. And the disrespect embodied in these apparent mass violations of the law is part of a larger pattern of seeming indifference to the Constitution that is deeply troubling to millions of Americans in both political parties.

For example, the President has also declared that he has a heretofore unrecognized inherent power to seize and imprison any American citizen that he alone determines to be a threat to our nation, and that, notwithstanding his American citizenship, the person imprisoned has no right to talk with a lawyer-even to argue that the President or his appointees have made a mistake and imprisoned the wrong person.

The President claims that he can imprison American citizens indefinitely for the rest of their lives without an arrest warrant, without notifying them about what charges have been filed against them, and without informing their families that they have been imprisoned.

At the same time, the Executive Branch has claimed a previously unrecognized authority to mistreat prisoners in its custody in ways that plainly constitute torture in a pattern that has now been documented in U.S. facilities located in several countries around the world.

Over 100 of these captives have reportedly died while being tortured by Executive Branch interrogators and many more have been broken and humiliated. In the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, investigators who documented the pattern of torture estimated that more than 90 percent of the victims were innocent of any charges.

This shameful exercise of power overturns a set of principles that our nation has observed since General Washington first enunciated them during our Revolutionary War and has been observed by every president since then - until now. These practices violate the Geneva Conventions and the International Convention Against Torture, not to mention our own laws against torture.

The President has also claimed that he has the authority to kidnap individuals in foreign countries and deliver them for imprisonment and interrogation on our behalf by autocratic regimes in nations that are infamous for the cruelty of their techniques for torture.

Some of our traditional allies have been shocked by these new practices on the part of our nation. The British Ambassador to Uzbekistan - one of those nations with the worst reputations for torture in its prisons - registered a complaint to his home office about the senselessness and cruelty of the new U.S. practice: “This material is useless - we are selling our souls for dross. It is in fact positively harmful.”

Can it be true that any president really has such powers under our Constitution? If the answer is “yes” then under the theory by which these acts are committed, are there any acts that can on their face be prohibited? If the President has the inherent authority to eavesdrop, imprison citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can’t he do?

The Dean of Yale Law School, Harold Koh, said after analyzing the Executive Branch’s claims of these previously unrecognized powers: “If the President has commander-in-chief power to commit torture, he has the power to commit genocide, to sanction slavery, to promote apartheid, to license summary execution.”

The fact that our normal safeguards have thus far failed to contain this unprecedented expansion of executive power is deeply troubling. This failure is due in part to the fact that the Executive Branch has followed a determined strategy of obfuscating, delaying, withholding information, appearing to yield but then refusing to do so and dissembling in order to frustrate the efforts of the legislative and judicial branches to restore our constitutional balance.

For example, after appearing to support legislation sponsored by John McCain to stop the continuation of torture, the President declared in the act of signing the bill that he reserved the right not to comply with it.

Similarly, the Executive Branch claimed that it could unilaterally imprison American citizens without giving them access to review by any tribunal. The Supreme Court disagreed, but the President engaged in legal maneuvers designed to prevent the Court from providing meaningful content to the rights of its citizens.

A conservative jurist on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that the Executive Branch’s handling of one such case seemed to involve the sudden abandonment of principle “at substantial cost to the government’s credibility before the courts.”

As a result of its unprecedented claim of new unilateral power, the Executive Branch has now put our constitutional design at grave risk. The stakes for America’s representative democracy are far higher than has been generally recognized.

These claims must be rejected and a healthy balance of power restored to our Republic. Otherwise, the fundamental nature of our democracy may well undergo a radical transformation.

For more than two centuries, America’s freedoms have been preserved in part by our founders’ wise decision to separate the aggregate power of our government into three co-equal branches, each of which serves to check and balance the power of the other two.

On more than a few occasions, the dynamic interaction among all three branches has resulted in collisions and temporary impasses that create what are invariably labeled “constitutional crises.” These crises have often been dangerous and uncertain times for our Republic. But in each such case so far, we have found a resolution of the crisis by renewing our common agreement to live under the rule of law.

The principle alternative to democracy throughout history has been the consolidation of virtually all state power in the hands of a single strongman or small group who together exercise that power without the informed consent of the governed.

It was in revolt against just such a regime, after all, that America was founded. When Lincoln declared at the time of our greatest crisis that the ultimate question being decided in the Civil War was “whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure,” he was not only saving our union but also was recognizing the fact that democracies are rare in history. And when they fail, as did Athens and the Roman Republic upon whose designs our founders drew heavily, what emerges in their place is another strongman regime.

There have of course been other periods of American history when the Executive Branch claimed new powers that were later seen as excessive and mistaken. Our second president, John Adams, passed the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts and sought to silence and imprison critics and political opponents.

When his successor, Thomas Jefferson, eliminated the abuses he said: “[The essential principles of our Government] form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation… [S]hould we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety.”

Our greatest President, Abraham Lincoln, suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. Some of the worst abuses prior to those of the current administration were committed by President Wilson during and after WWI with the notorious Red Scare and Palmer Raids. The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII marked a low point for the respect of individual rights at the hands of the executive. And, during the Vietnam War, the notorious COINTELPRO program was part and parcel of the abuses experienced by Dr. King and thousands of others.

But in each of these cases, when the conflict and turmoil subsided, the country recovered its equilibrium and absorbed the lessons learned in a recurring cycle of excess and regret.

There are reasons for concern this time around that conditions may be changing and that the cycle may not repeat itself. For one thing, we have for decades been witnessing the slow and steady accumulation of presidential power. In a global environment of nuclear weapons and cold war tensions, Congress and the American people accepted ever enlarging spheres of presidential initiative to conduct intelligence and counter intelligence activities and to allocate our military forces on the global stage. When military force has been used as an instrument of foreign policy or in response to humanitarian demands, it has almost always been as the result of presidential initiative and leadership. As Justice Frankfurter wrote in the Steel Seizure Case, “The accretion of dangerous power does not come in a day. It does come, however slowly, from the generative force of unchecked disregard of the restrictions that fence in even the most disinterested assertion of authority.”

A second reason to believe we may be experiencing something new is that we are told by the Administration that the war footing upon which he has tried to place the country is going to “last for the rest of our lives.” So we are told that the conditions of national threat that have been used by other Presidents to justify arrogations of power will persist in near perpetuity.

Third, we need to be aware of the advances in eavesdropping and surveillance technologies with their capacity to sweep up and analyze enormous quantities of information and to mine it for intelligence. This adds significant vulnerability to the privacy and freedom of enormous numbers of innocent people at the same time as the potential power of those technologies. These techologies have the potential for shifting the balance of power between the apparatus of the state and the freedom of the individual in ways both subtle and profound.

Don’t misunderstand me: the threat of additional terror strikes is all too real and their concerted efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction does create a real imperative to exercise the powers of the Executive Branch with swiftness and agility. Moreover, there is in fact an inherent power that is conferred by the Constitution to the President to take unilateral action to protect the nation from a sudden and immediate threat, but it is simply not possible to precisely define in legalistic terms exactly when that power is appropriate and when it is not.

But the existence of that inherent power cannot be used to justify a gross and excessive power grab lasting for years that produces a serious imbalance in the relationship between the executive and the other two branches of government.

There is a final reason to worry that we may be experiencing something more than just another cycle of overreach and regret. This Administration has come to power in the thrall of a legal theory that aims to convince us that this excessive concentration of presidential authority is exactly what our Constitution intended.

This legal theory, which its proponents call the theory of the unitary executive but which is more accurately described as the unilateral executive, threatens to expand the president’s powers until the contours of the constitution that the Framers actually gave us become obliterated beyond all recognition. Under this theory, the President’s authority when acting as Commander-in-Chief or when making foreign policy cannot be reviewed by the judiciary or checked by Congress. President Bush has pushed the implications of this idea to its maximum by continually stressing his role as Commander-in-Chief, invoking it has frequently as he can, conflating it with his other roles, domestic and foreign. When added to the idea that we have entered a perpetual state of war, the implications of this theory stretch quite literally as far into the future as we can imagine.

This effort to rework America’s carefully balanced constitutional design into a lopsided structure dominated by an all powerful Executive Branch with a subservient Congress and judiciary is-ironically-accompanied by an effort by the same administration to rework America’s foreign policy from one that is based primarily on U.S. moral authority into one that is based on a misguided and self-defeating effort to establish dominance in the world.

The common denominator seems to be based on an instinct to intimidate and control.

This same pattern has characterized the effort to silence dissenting views within the Executive Branch, to censor information that may be inconsistent with its stated ideological goals, and to demand conformity from all Executive Branch employees.

For example, CIA analysts who strongly disagreed with the White House assertion that Osama bin Laden was linked to Saddam Hussein found themselves under pressure at work and became fearful of losing promotions and salary increases.

Ironically, that is exactly what happened to FBI officials in the 1960s who disagreed with J. Edgar Hoover’s view that Dr. King was closely connected to Communists. The head of the FBI’s domestic intelligence division said that his effort to tell the truth about King’s innocence of the charge resulted in he and his colleagues becoming isolated and pressured. “It was evident that we had to change our ways or we would all be out on the street…. The men and I discussed how to get out of trouble. To be in trouble with Mr. Hoover was a serious matter. These men were trying to buy homes, mortgages on homes, children in school. They lived in fear of getting transferred, losing money on their homes, as they usually did. ... so they wanted another memorandum written to get us out of the trouble that we were in.”

The Constitution’s framers understood this dilemma as well, as Alexander Hamilton put it, “a power over a man’s support is a power over his will.” (Federalist No. 73)

Soon, there was no more difference of opinion within the FBI. The false accusation became the unanimous view. In exactly the same way, George Tenet’s CIA eventually joined in endorsing a manifestly false view that there was a linkage between al Qaeda and the government of Iraq.

In the words of George Orwell: “We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”

Whenever power is unchecked and unaccountable it almost inevitably leads to mistakes and abuses. In the absence of rigorous accountability, incompetence flourishes. Dishonesty is encouraged and rewarded.

Last week, for example, Vice President Cheney attempted to defend the Administration’s eavesdropping on American citizens by saying that if it had conducted this program prior to 9/11, they would have found out the names of some of the hijackers.

Tragically, he apparently still doesn’t know that the Administration did in fact have the names of at least 2 of the hijackers well before 9/11 and had available to them information that could have easily led to the identification of most of the other hijackers. And yet, because of incompetence in the handling of this information, it was never used to protect the American people.

It is often the case that an Executive Branch beguiled by the pursuit of unchecked power responds to its own mistakes by reflexively proposing that it be given still more power. Often, the request itself it used to mask accountability for mistakes in the use of power it already has.

Moreover, if the pattern of practice begun by this Administration is not challenged, it may well become a permanent part of the American system. Many conservatives have pointed out that granting unchecked power to this President means that the next President will have unchecked power as well. And the next President may be someone whose values and belief you do not trust. And this is why Republicans as well as Democrats should be concerned with what this President has done. If this President’s attempt to dramatically expand executive power goes unquestioned, our constitutional design of checks and balances will be lost. And the next President or some future President will be able, in the name of national security, to restrict our liberties in a way the framers never would have thought possible.

The same instinct to expand its power and to establish dominance characterizes the relationship between this Administration and the courts and the Congress.

In a properly functioning system, the Judicial Branch would serve as the constitutional umpire to ensure that the branches of government observed their proper spheres of authority, observed civil liberties and adhered to the rule of law. Unfortunately, the unilateral executive has tried hard to thwart the ability of the judiciary to call balls and strikes by keeping controversies out of its hands - notably those challenging its ability to detain individuals without legal process—by appointing judges who will be deferential to its exercise of power and by its support of assaults on the independence of the third branch.

The President’s decision to ignore FISA was a direct assault on the power of the judges who sit on that court. Congress established the FISA court precisely to be a check on executive power to wiretap. Yet, to ensure that the court could not function as a check on executive power, the President simply did not take matters to it and did not let the court know that it was being bypassed.

The President’s judicial appointments are clearly designed to ensure that the courts will not serve as an effective check on executive power. As we have all learned, Judge Alito is a longtime supporter of a powerful executive - a supporter of the so-called unitary executive, which is more properly called the unilateral executive. Whether you support his confirmation or not - and I do not - we must all agree that he will not vote as an effective check on the expansion of executive power. Likewise, Chief Justice Roberts has made plain his deference to the expansion of executive power through his support of judicial deference to executive agency rulemaking.

And the Administration has supported the assault on judicial independence that has been conducted largely in Congress. That assault includes a threat by the Republican majority in the Senate to permanently change the rules to eliminate the right of the minority to engage in extended debate of the President’s judicial nominees. The assault has extended to legislative efforts to curtail the jurisdiction of courts in matters ranging from habeas corpus to the pledge of allegiance. In short, the Administration has demonstrated its contempt for the judicial role and sought to evade judicial review of its actions at every turn.

But the most serious damage has been done to the legislative branch. The sharp decline of congressional power and autonomy in recent years has been almost as shocking as the efforts by the Executive Branch to attain a massive expansion of its power.

I was elected to Congress in 1976 and served eight years in the house, 8 years in the Senate and presided over the Senate for 8 years as Vice President. As a young man, I saw the Congress first hand as the son of a Senator. My father was elected to Congress in 1938, 10 years before I was born, and left the Senate in 1971.

The Congress we have today is unrecognizable compared to the one in which my father served. There are many distinguished Senators and Congressmen serving today. I am honored that some of them are here in this hall. But the legislative branch of government under its current leadership now operates as if it is entirely subservient to the Executive Branch.

Moreover, too many Members of the House and Senate now feel compelled to spend a majority of their time not in thoughtful debate of the issues, but raising money to purchase 30 second TV commercials.

There have now been two or three generations of congressmen who don’t really know what an oversight hearing is. In the 70’s and 80’s, the oversight hearings in which my colleagues and I participated held the feet of the Executive Branch to the fire - no matter which party was in power. Yet oversight is almost unknown in the Congress today.

The role of authorization committees has declined into insignificance. The 13 annual appropriation bills are hardly ever actually passed anymore. Everything is lumped into a single giant measure that is not even available for Members of Congress to read before they vote on it.

Members of the minority party are now routinely excluded from conference committees, and amendments are routinely not allowed during floor consideration of legislation.

In the United States Senate, which used to pride itself on being the “greatest deliberative body in the world,” meaningful debate is now a rarity. Even on the eve of the fateful vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq, Senator Robert Byrd famously asked: “Why is this chamber empty?”

In the House of Representatives, the number who face a genuinely competitive election contest every two years is typically less than a dozen out of 435.

And too many incumbents have come to believe that the key to continued access to the money for re-election is to stay on the good side of those who have the money to give; and, in the case of the majority party, the whole process is largely controlled by the incumbent president and his political organization.

So the willingness of Congress to challenge the Administration is further limited when the same party controls both Congress and the Executive Branch.

The Executive Branch, time and again, has co-opted Congress’ role, and often Congress has been a willing accomplice in the surrender of its own power.

Look for example at the Congressional role in “overseeing” this massive four year eavesdropping campaign that on its face seemed so clearly to violate the Bill of Rights. The President says he informed Congress, but what he really means is that he talked with the chairman and ranking member of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the top leaders of the House and Senate. This small group, in turn, claimed that they were not given the full facts, though at least one of the intelligence committee leaders handwrote a letter of concern to VP Cheney and placed a copy in his own safe.

Though I sympathize with the awkward position in which these men and women were placed, I cannot disagree with the Liberty Coalition when it says that Democrats as well as Republicans in the Congress must share the blame for not taking action to protest and seek to prevent what they consider a grossly unconstitutional program.

Moreover, in the Congress as a whole-both House and Senate-the enhanced role of money in the re-election process, coupled with the sharply diminished role for reasoned deliberation and debate, has produced an atmosphere conducive to pervasive institutionalized corruption.

The Abramoff scandal is but the tip of a giant iceberg that threatens the integrity of the entire legislative branch of government.

It is the pitiful state of our legislative branch which primarily explains the failure of our vaunted checks and balances to prevent the dangerous overreach by our Executive Branch which now threatens a radical transformation of the American system.

I call upon Democratic and Republican members of Congress today to uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution. Stop going along to get along. Start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of government you’re supposed to be.

But there is yet another Constitutional player whose pulse must be taken and whose role must be examined in order to understand the dangerous imbalance that has emerged with the efforts by the Executive Branch to dominate our constitutional system.

We the people are-collectively-still the key to the survival of America’s democracy. We-as Lincoln put it, “[e]ven we here”-must examine our own role as citizens in allowing and not preventing the shocking decay and degradation of our democracy.

Thomas Jefferson said: “An informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.”

The revolutionary departure on which the idea of America was based was the audacious belief that people can govern themselves and responsibly exercise the ultimate authority in self-government. This insight proceeded inevitably from the bedrock principle articulated by the Enlightenment philosopher John Locke: “All just power is derived from the consent of the governed.”

The intricate and carefully balanced constitutional system that is now in such danger was created with the full and widespread participation of the population as a whole. The Federalist Papers were, back in the day, widely-read newspaper essays, and they represented only one of twenty-four series of essays that crowded the vibrant marketplace of ideas in which farmers and shopkeepers recapitulated the debates that played out so fruitfully in Philadelphia.

Indeed, when the Convention had done its best, it was the people - in their various States - that refused to confirm the result until, at their insistence, the Bill of Rights was made integral to the document sent forward for ratification.

And it is “We the people” who must now find once again the ability we once had to play an integral role in saving our Constitution.

And here there is cause for both concern and great hope. The age of printed pamphlets and political essays has long since been replaced by television - a distracting and absorbing medium which sees determined to entertain and sell more than it informs and educates.

Lincoln’s memorable call during the Civil War is applicable in a new way to our dilemma today: “We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

Forty years have passed since the majority of Americans adopted television as their principal source of information. Its dominance has become so extensive that virtually all significant political communication now takes place within the confines of flickering 30-second television advertisements.

And the political economy supported by these short but expensive television ads is as different from the vibrant politics of America’s first century as those politics were different from the feudalism which thrived on the ignorance of the masses of people in the Dark Ages.

The constricted role of ideas in the American political system today has encouraged efforts by the Executive Branch to control the flow of information as a means of controlling the outcome of important decisions that still lie in the hands of the people.

The Administration vigorously asserts its power to maintain the secrecy of its operations. After all, the other branches can’t check an abuse of power if they don’t know it is happening.

For example, when the Administration was attempting to persuade Congress to enact the Medicare prescription drug benefit, many in the House and Senate raised concerns about the cost and design of the program. But, rather than engaging in open debate on the basis of factual data, the Administration withheld facts and prevented the Congress from hearing testimony that it sought from the principal administration expert who had compiled information showing in advance of the vote that indeed the true cost estimates were far higher than the numbers given to Congress by the President.

Deprived of that information, and believing the false numbers given to it instead, the Congress approved the program. Tragically, the entire initiative is now collapsing- all over the country- with the Administration making an appeal just this weekend to major insurance companies to volunteer to bail it out.

To take another example, scientific warnings about the catastrophic consequences of unchecked global warming were censored by a political appointee in the White House who had no scientific training. And today one of the leading scientific experts on global warming in NASA has been ordered not to talk to members of the press and to keep a careful log of everyone he meets with so that the Executive Branch can monitor and control his discussions of global warming.

One of the other ways the Administration has tried to control the flow of information is by consistently resorting to the language and politics of fear in order to short-circuit the debate and drive its agenda forward without regard to the evidence or the public interest. As President Eisenhower said, “Any who act as if freedom’s defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America.”

Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: “Men feared witches and burnt women.”

The founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their endeavors, they would have been hung as traitors. The very existence of our country was at risk.

Yet, in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the Bill of Rights.

Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of missiles poised to be launched against us and annihilate our country at a moment’s notice? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march-when our fathers fought and won two World Wars simultaneously?

It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same.

We have a duty as Americans to defend our citizens’ right not only to life but also to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is therefore vital in our current circumstances that immediate steps be taken to safeguard our Constitution against the present danger posed by the intrusive overreaching on the part of the Executive Branch and the President’s apparent belief that he need not live under the rule of law.

I endorse the words of Bob Barr, when he said, “The President has dared the American people to do something about it. For the sake of the Constitution, I hope they will.”

A special counsel should immediately be appointed by the Attorney General to remedy the obvious conflict of interest that prevents him from investigating what many believe are serious violations of law by the President. We have had a fresh demonstration of how an independent investigation by a special counsel with integrity can rebuild confidence in our system of justice. Patrick Fitzgerald has, by all accounts, shown neither fear nor favor in pursuing allegations that the Executive Branch has violated other laws.

Republican as well as Democratic members of Congress should support the bipartisan call of the Liberty Coalition for the appointment of a special counsel to pursue the criminal issues raised by warrantless wiretapping of Americans by the President.

Second, new whistleblower protections should immediately be established for members of the Executive Branch who report evidence of wrongdoing—especially where it involves the abuse of Executive Branch authority in the sensitive areas of national security.

Third, both Houses of Congress should hold comprehensive-and not just superficial-hearings into these serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the President. And, they should follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Fourth, the extensive new powers requested by the Executive Branch in its proposal to extend and enlarge the Patriot Act should, under no circumstances be granted, unless and until there are adequate and enforceable safeguards to protect the Constitution and the rights of the American people against the kinds of abuses that have so recently been revealed.

Fifth, any telecommunications company that has provided the government with access to private information concerning the communications of Americans without a proper warrant should immediately cease and desist their complicity in this apparently illegal invasion of the privacy of American citizens.

Freedom of communication is an essential prerequisite for the restoration of the health of our democracy.

It is particularly important that the freedom of the Internet be protected against either the encroachment of government or the efforts at control by large media conglomerates. The future of our democracy depends on it.

I mentioned that along with cause for concern, there is reason for hope. As I stand here today, I am filled with optimism that America is on the eve of a golden age in which the vitality of our democracy will be re-established and will flourish more vibrantly than ever. Indeed I can feel it in this hall.

As Dr. King once said, “Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.”

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Al Gore On the Limits of Executive Power

This is much like the well documented “Ipanema Effect”. Doctor S. Nooter, well known for his theories on BONDING and his obsession with fleece explains, if you whistle the tune, others will unknowingly pick up on it and it spreads from there.

Candid and Honest remarks. I see a lot of people who don’t like to see what you have to say. A lot of their deeply bred racism is apparent in the comments. Then we have the Muslim haters denouncing Goff, then the Israeli haters. Everyone’s got somebody they love to hate, apparently. As a poor white redneck who grew up in West Texas I know the ingrained racism of these people. I know how they can disregard the humanity of whole peoples simply because they are muslims, jews, negroes, or mexicans. As the ridiculous racist Wolf B’Shannon (Half Nazi/Half IDF? Lover) Can you be both nowadays? Plenty of hate to spread around- Anyway, as “Wolf” (macho!) says: ‘They’ are degrading us, our European culture, our MORAL CHARACTER (in all caps, no less, as if his sociopathic commentary didn’t render all mention of morality moot).

Killing unarmed pows and killing innocent civvies is NOT the heart of morality. Desiring to have those who can willingly do these actions is NOT something the American Military needs. Honor is NOT an Outdated nor Undesirable concept. And for those of you who make the Laughable comment that Goff should have done something- What makes you think he didn’t? Military men will know that, as Goff says- White Racists are hardly a minority in the armed forces. His point is - THEY SHOULD BE- but more and more- Racism is on the rise here in America. As evidenced by a lot of the la-la land commenters… Racists Degrade America, not enrich it.

I always find it interesting when another leftist bashes and blames all of societies ills on white males.  Is that the best you can do?  Every time I see another “special” on tv regarding racism, it always focuses on whites.  Never a mention of black, hispanic, asian, jewish, arab etc etc etc racists.  You spent all this space blasting supposed white supremists joining the military to get training when you should have focused on all the inner city gangsters joining the military for the same training and then taking it back into their neighborhoods and terrorizing their poor neighbors.  But then again, I forget where I am.  I’m in “BLAME WHITES FOR EVERYTHINGLAND”.

Yes, there are extremist groups spread through out the USA.  And some of them actually join the military.  Some do it for patriotism and some for the military training.  The good thing about this is THEY ARE NOT THE NORM!

I served in Special Forces from the Vietnam War through the first Gulf War.  I was around for Operation Just Cause.  I was there through a lot of dirty little conflicts for which there are no medals or public recognition.

If what you claim about Haiti is correct and you didn’t do anything about it then you are a moral coward.  It’s easy to blame the other side for the bad things in our society.  What have you done to make things better?  Bitch about how bad things are?  Go out there and do something to make it better.

I need to quit before I go overboard.  But think about this – If you know something is wrong, and you don’t do something to make it better, then you are also part of the problem.  Pointing fingers at the other guy is not a solution.

Re #31915, on gasoline prices.
Interesting, another view of this is all the moralizing and theorizing on christianity, capitalism, democracy, etc. can be reduced to petroleum consumption instead, which has an interesting correlation to the rapid rise in living standards in the world, particularly in the USA. It’s common to see a graph of living standard vs. oil consumption displayed in discussions (particularly when the US is about to invade some country) to get everyone softened up for what will follow. Such conclusions should always include the observation that apparent causation found in a correlation could be present for other reasons, such as a shared third cause not present in the correlation.

Been in Russia for two years now, where the Soviet government has morphed into one giant corporation (call it Russia, call it Gazprom, call it RosNeft, same thing) dedicated to the supply of oil and gas to the rest of the world. The powerful people here certainly realize without a rise in living standards, they’ll have another revolution to mess with, so they are motivated, to say the least.

So forget all the moralisms and claims to superior civilization that people in the US like to lay claim to for a minute; clearly without a cheap transportation and manufacturing system that makes consumer goods and food extremely abundant and available, the US would be a very different place. The dark and reactionary elements described in this dig would likely become ascendant, as human nature likes to pin blame on things, whether it is merited or not. The educational and artistic level in the US doesn’t seem particularly high, either, so one one could imagine it turning to the same level of barbarism Americans like to consider exclusive to other countries. The existence of all these white power types should be of no surprise—wasn’t the country founded on that principle, after all? Certainly there was manifest destiny to take it all away from the “savages” that lived there previously.

From that point of view, the moral and religious view of the society has less effect than just switching to a different form of “cheap” energy (whatever that is). Does one enable the other (that is, does the particular moral and religious climate of a culture encourage the type of technical creativity that would produce such a thing)? It’s hard to see that a population that embraces a medieval belief like christianity so wholeheartedly would be able to pull it off. It seems more likely that things will get tough and repressive, and very polluted as the huge resource of coal within the US is exploited instead, which is much more polluting to burn than petroleum. One could certainly see that invasion of other countries to secure the oil supply could be picked as a less creative solution, and Russia, Inc., among others, certainly is afraid of the USA doing just that (Russians are naturally paranoid about such things, apparently for good reason, if their history is looked at).

Anyway, thanks for the mention of automobiles—I think it is key to understanding any discussion that has to do with USA, since the whole culture is based around them.

Dave

History has shown me all great civilizations have met their demise through their own negligence. Some equate negligence with ignorance. Like mistaking being nice for being stupid. Moreover, “the civil war” within the walls of Congress will be the nations downfall.
The tsunami of illegal immigrants cascading across the country will contribute to re-arranging the US as we know it. I’m glad I’ll be off the planet before it attains it’s worse level.
John Kirgan
Viet Nam War vet
Concerned citizen

I do not agree w/many things the current admin. has done and am not ready to go to be called up as my buddy has (army reserve), but one thing that I think is funny is that Democrates are complaining about the high oil prices!!!! 
I don’t like it, but have bought 3 mutual funds that, even after the recent drops, have still given me a 25%+ return….ALSO as a moderate/fiscal conservative entrepeneure type of person the higher the price the sooner WE WILL look to alt. types of fuel, the more funding will go into it-both gov. and private…how can you be mad at EXXON, who cares what the price is??? If you are wearing you faded jeans w/anti-gov and corporate (70s style) pins on them and work (maybe) on top of that at a university you just have shown me/us (moderates) that you aren’t as samrts as you say you are!  The goal should be to make things BETTER!  HAVE (somewhat) POSITE OUTLOOK!  What can I do to help my country, can I use the profits that my oil funds have given me and invest them in an ENVIRONMENTAL mutual fund? HELL YEAH! DO I want the government to regulate medicine? HELL NO!  What has to be done, well (maybe) we want the government to pressure health insu. and pass reasonable laws that encourage inureers to offer products that all can afford and reduce the # of uninsured…reduce insurers admin cost which account for 38 cent of every dollar that is spent in healthcare and only 7 cents is for the DRUGS you and I use!  You want to get rid of the big pharma? Great that will look good when you add 90,000 drug reps to the unemployed, thousands of scientist, thousands of clerical workers, thousands of middle-managers, b/c that will mean not only a nice little increase in white-collar unemploymetn across the U.S.., but also many other local business owners and blue collar workers, b/c all these unemployed won’t need to go to the drycleaners anymore, they won’t have the guy mow the law, and who needs the red wine from that local cellar-HELL I DON’T.  I ‘ll need my money to be a disgruntled new converted radical liberal to buy some faded jeans and pins…no more $17 dollar haircuts at Great Clips…let it grow…just as the global economy is more and more intertwined, so is the everyday economy in the US and everywhere else.
There are no simple solution, my frustration is when I read some blogs etc, some a little/alot to the left and some a little/alot to the right is that I and the rest of us in the middle class with moderate common sense interests are left out.

NO ONE wants to budge…lefties complain about the oil price yet want to get rid of cars that don’t get at least 50mpg??????????????????????
“Hello McFly, anybody home?”
Contradiction???? Hell yeah!
Example, why can’t we go for something like raising the MPG to 30 mpg by 2012 to 35 mpg by 2017, design and implement the use of new even better cathliotic converters by 2010 in order to reduce the emmissions???? ect etc etc….instead, again, the right will say to ME I sound like a treehugger and the TREEHUGGERS will can me conservative BUSHY Detroit lovin’ retard!  So both of y’all have pissed me and many others of and will not get support b/c it is all to the extreme….so I’ll only play the lotto if it is at least $300 million or higher and otherwise say ot is playin w/the devil….please both sides do some detoxin and call when ya want to get together and play
CCC

One interesting facet of fascism in Hitler’s Germany was how it crept up gradually. It’s like the old story about boiling a frog: if you throw it straight away into the hot water, it will jump out. If you increase the heat slowly, it won’t notice.

Whilst preparing to flee the U.S., my wife and I went to Zurich to arrange some banking details> Because it’s close to Munich, we made a side trip to Dachau. (We’re so farkin’ morbid; have to visit a concentration camp when we go to Europe…) In the administration hall, there was an extensive exhibit with old newspaper articles, photos and other info showing the step-by-step way Hitler accreted power. I had thought that he took control in one fell swoop. But it was incremental between 1933 and 1939. Seize the courts, then the economic planning, pass a law on the press here and a law resricting Jews there. Sadly, I saw the same thing in the U.S. Gave impetus to my flight.

I’m just so totally self-absorbed in what is so totally occupying my personal explanation for a mind.  Oh, my god, oh jesus.