Wednesday, June 27, 2007

JESUS ARRESTED SAYS UNIDENTIFIED SOURCE

JESUS ARRESTED SAYS UNIDENTIFIED SOURCE
By Brandon Alexander Geraghty-MacKenzie
TBR Media


WASHINGTON DC--According to an anonymous source in the Justice Department, Alberto Gonzalez, at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney, has ordered the arrest and secret trial of Jesus Christ after the beloved Savior issued a statement in which he condemned the Bush Administration for its war on reason and compassion.


"The last thing we need," said the unnamed spokesperson, "is some crackpot talking about compassion and civil liberties when Vice President Cheney wants to rule the world."

The Israeli born Jesus, who is also known as the Prince of Peace and the Son of Man, found himself at odds with the administration in Washington after he delivered a repeat of the Sermon on the Mount in front of the Whitehouse on July 4th of this year.


"We don't like Saviours telling us how to run our business," said Vice President Cheney. "Jesus did what he did, but e think the Neocon idea of bomb now and ask questions later makes a lot more sense than getting your facts straight before you launch an invasion.


Secretary of State Condosleezza Vice agreed. "What has this Christ guy done for us lately?" quipped a clearly irritated Rice. "All he did was peddle a bunch of goods about peace and helping the poor, and turning the other cheek. That kind of s--- sounds good in the Bible but I hope none of our followers took this Christianity drivel seriously. God knows we don't."


This wouldn't be the first time that Jesus and the Administration have found themselves at odds over the Vice President's policies. On April 1 of this year, the Son of Man invited the wrath of presidential Puppet master Karl Rove when he made statements about Rove's physical, philosophical, and spiritual similarities to the late Heinrich Himmler. Rove, predictably enough, was outraged. "Everyone knows that my personal heroes are Machiavelli and Josef Goebbels. Rove told the Washington Press Corps. "And I resent the fact that the bastard child of a teenage child named Mary and a middle aged child molester named Josef should receive more respect than I do." Shortly after last year's incident, Jesus, had been detained for 40 days and 40 nights in an undisclosed location in the Middle East, an act which drew swift and vehement condemnation from various human rights organizations. During that time the Prince of Peace had been denied counsel, while Ann Coulter, the Administration's attack rat and all purpose hate merchant, tortured the benevolent Savior with nude photos of herself and President George W. Bush in Mary Cheney's hot tub.


"It was the most revolting thing that I had ever seen," Jesus said. "I came very close to forgetting that I was the son of God, and not a mindless, hypocritical son of a Bush."

The Lord God offered his understanding. "I always told that kid of mine to turn the other cheek, but I wouldn't blame Him if he turned this bunch of war addicts into a bunch of sex-starved centipedes."


After the latest transgression, the Bush Administration may not be so forgiving. Speaking at a stacked town hall meeting in Phuque-yu-qwik, Wisconsin, President Bush hinted that the Son of Man might be harshly punished.


"Someone needs to ahhhh set this long-haired hippy ahhhhhh straight," Bush stammered. "There's only one Lord and God and ahhh that's Dick Cheney."


Cheney agreed. "we're trying to decide if this should be a public or a private crucifixion," Cheney giggled. "At first we worried about the Fundamentalists, but their belief system is so screwed in the head that you could never call it Christian. I think that the evangelical community will pay quite handsomely to see their prophet get what's coming to him. It isn't as if they are genuine Christians, you know."

Jesus was philosophical. "I have a strange was of coming back," he suggested calmly. "If I were Cheney I'd be taking out insurance--preferably a policy that covers flooding, earthquakes, and eternal damnation."


Cheney responded in his usual quaint, nonabrasive manner. "I don't take kindly to threats," he growled. "And if Jesus thinks he's going to scare me he can go f--- himself."

Monday, June 25, 2007

Faith Based Insanity and the Extreme Court

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/06/25/43apfaithbased_web.h26.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR2007062500531.html?hpid=topnews

Well, if there was any doubt as to whether or not the Supreme Court is dominated by Catholic theo fascists, it was proven today when Judge Sammy Benito ruled along with a 5-4 majority that tax payers can't sue in regards to the President's Faith Based initiatives.  
 
Why don't we come right out and say it.  During the reform era of the Catholic Church, during the time of Vatican II in the 1960s, this country was foolishly worried about whether the Vatican would attempt to use it's temporal and spiritual power to  control the Presidency of John F. Kennedy.  Today, under the leadership of very repressive and very archaic Church leaders those concerns are actually quite valid.  The Vatican, including a Pope who once fought for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi war machine, are indeed trying to use their temporal and spiritual power to make American politicians (and judges) tow the line for a Catholic theocracy in the United States.  In other words, Americans were wrong to worry about this sort of thing during the time of liberal reforms within the church, but now, with the reactionaries and theo fascists firmly in control in Rome, it appears as if we really do have to be concerned about the Catholic Church as a fifth column threat to our freedoms and basic Constitutional values.
 
Let's be clear about this.  The conservative theocracy in Rome and the liberal values of the founding fathers cannot co exist.  One has to go and if I have my way the ones who are going to go--preferably to their own hell in a hand car--will be the increasingly totalitarian Version of Catholicism which is now growing on the American body politic like a deadly and metastasizing tumor. 
 
Who ever would have thought that the day would come when the people, the American taxpayers, who support those black robed bastards on the Supreme Court would be told by their servants that they don't have the standing to challenge their government over the topic of religion. Just what in the hell are these black robed sons of bitches thinking about?  Well, I would suspect that they are thinking about a Catholic or at least a Christian theocracy in which those who dare to disagree or not believe are delegated to second class citizenship.  and the miserable bastards certainly proved the point today.  Moreover they also proved that they have a very limited idea as to what constitutes freedom and an even more limited view as to what constitutes a Constitutional right.  On the other hand, they did prove that they're about as American as a Nazi Party in Nuremberg during the late 1930s.
 
Personally I don't give a damn what foolish mythology people want to follow.  But when any faith--be it Catholic or Dominionist, or Fundamentalist, or whatever--tells me, as a tax payer that I don't have the right to use the federal judiciary in this country to protect and defend my non Christian values then they have crossed a line.   They are not merely swing their arms and fists.  They are swinging my arms and fists so as to punch me in the proverbial nose and for that I will not sit down and be quiet for anyone.  Not even the totalitarian bastards on the Supreme Court who claim to love American freedom while they are trying to maliciously and knowingly to undermine those freedoms on a regular basis.
 
 Look at it this way.  If they can tell the American taxpayer that he or she does not have the right to bring a suit regarding faith based initiatives what else can they prohibit?  What else can they bastardize?  How many other important issues pertaining to basic liberty can decalred off limits to the American people?  Free speech?  The right to assemble?  The right to a speedy trial?   Habeas Corpus?   Oh that's right.  I forgot.  Those rights are already under attack By George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzalez.  How silly of me to forget.
 
In the meantime,the Supreme Court has revealed itself as the Extreme Court, and if we don't start electing more people from the left to counter the fascist tumors which have taken root in our judiciary we will be the ultimate price when we become a so called "Christian theocracy."  
 
Read Reich wing dicatorship. 

Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Republishing of THE FOURTEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM

In light of the fact that many of our essays for the FOURTEEN DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM were either distorted or disappeared when the new version of blogger was implemented, we have decided to republish the latest versions of these works on our new blog, essentially restoring on THE COALITION FOR A DEMOCRATIC AMERICA what was lost on the COALITION FOR A REPUBLICAN-FREE AMERICA.  Luckily all of the original and revised versions were backed up on various sources so this was not an especially difficult task to perform. 
 
We hope our readers won't find this endeavor to be too repetitive nor too egotistical on our part, but a lot of hard work and long hours of research went into the creation of these pieces, so we decided to republish them on the new blog.  Moreover, this blog is about small "d" democracy and since the posts in question deal with the bastardization of and undermining of democracy we thought this would be an appropriate place to revisit them. 
 
In retrospect we probably should have published them in the proper order, with Part 1 at the top and the credits at the bottom, but we are certain that our readers won't mind a little scrolling.
 
The current members of THE COALITION FOR A DEMOCRATIC AMERICA.

Credits and Sources

CREDITS

A project this long and this complicated does not write itself. Many people donated their time and talent and we would like to take the time to thank them for their dedication to the our little project here.

First and foremost a huge thank you to our writers: Brandon, Brian, Daniel, Enlightenment, Halcyon 67, Jeffrey, Karen, Katie, Kelli and Kyle. And to Dusty for suggesting that we post them on new sites.

Thanks to Jeffrey for providing his living room and the constant supply of cake, cookies, and black coffee that kept us going.

And most of all to our readers without whom the exchange of ideas could never take place.


GENERAL SOURCES THAT EITHER INSPIRED THIS PROJECT OR WHICH WERE USED EXTENSIVELY THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE PROJECT:

CHURCHILL: WINSTON
THE SECOND WORLD WAR (Six Volumes)
* The Gathering Storm (1948)
* Their Finest Hour (1949)
* The Grand Alliance (1950)
* The Hinge of Fate (1950)
* Closing the Ring (1951)
* Triumph and Tragedy (1953)

DEAN: JOHN
Conservatives Without Conscience
2006 Viking

HEIDEN: KONRAD
Der Fuhrer: Hitler's Rise to Power
1944 Houghton Mifflin

A History of National Socialism
Octagon Books, New York, 1971
Reprint of the Alfred A. Knopf Inc Edition
of 1935

Hitler: A Biography
AMS Press Inc New York, 1975
Reprint of the Alfred A. Knopf Inc Edition
of 1936


THE NIZKOR PROJECT
http://www.nizkor.org/

PHILIPS: KEVIN
American Theocracy
Viking 2006

SHIRER: WILLIAM L.
Berlin Diary
Alfred A. Knopf
1941, New York

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:
A History of Nazi Germany
1959, 1960, Simon and Schuster

The Nightmare Years
Little, Brown, and Company, 1984

Toland: John

Adolf Hitler
1976 Doubleday



1. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART ONE
RAMPANT NATIONALISM


GENERAL SOURCE

VARIOUS MEDIA

Triumph of the Will

Film by Leni Riefenstahl
Released 1935, 1936
1996 Timeless Videos

Democracy and Fascism: Fear and Hatred
by John Lukacs
2005 Yale Press

Berlin Diary
Entry for September 7, 1934
by William L. Shirer
1941 New York

Inside the Third Reich
Memoirs by Albert Speer
1970 The McMillan Company

Who was Martin Niemoller
http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Politics/niemoller.shtml


2. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART TWO
DISDAIN FOR THE RECOGNITION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS

GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS


Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President
By Justin A. Frank
2002 Regan Books

Conservatives Without Conscience
By John Dean
2006 Viking

SPECIFIC RESOURCES
BOOKS

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
Pages 93-99, 701-706

2000 American Psychiatric Association

Portrait of a Killer: Jack The Ripper Case Closed
Pages 28-30
By Patricia Cornwell
2002 G.P. Putnam's Sons
New York

Merck Manual of Medical Information: Home Edition
Page 427
Editor In Chief, Robert Berknow, M.D.
1997 Merck & Co., Inc.

SPECIFIC RESOURCES
WEBSITES:


Let us Remain Steadfast in our Condemnation of Torture
By Brian Walters QC, President Liberty Victoria
From The Public Forum on Torture--25 June, 2005
At:
http://www.libertyvictoria.org .au/documents/20050625_Condemning_torture_Brian_Walters.html

The Hidden History of CIA Torture: America's Road to Abu Ghraib
From Common Dreams News Center
At:

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0909-16.htm

The Madness of George W. Bush
By; Paul Levy
From: Serendipity
At:

http://www.serendipity.li/bush/madness.htm

Bush Isn't a Moron: He's a Cunning Sociopath
By: Ben Conover
From: Serendipity
At:

http://www.serendipity.li/wot/conover01


3. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART THREE
IDENTIFICATION OF ENEMIES AND SCAPEGOATS
AS A UNIFYING CAUSE

ESSAY I
WHEN IN DOUBT BLAME GAYS AND LESBIANS


GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS


Mein Kampf
By Adolf Hitler
The complete original version as published by
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1939

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES


United States Holocaust Museum
Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hsx/

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBISITES

Matthew Shepherd Online Resources
Nazi Anti-Jewish Speech vs Religious Anti-Gay Speech
http://www.hatecrime.org /subpages/hitler/hitler.html

The World Congress of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Jews
New Israel Holocaust Memorial Honors Gay Victims
March 16 2005
http://www.glbtjews.org/article.php3?id_article=145

Gay & Lesbian Community Notes
"The Truth About Reagen and Aids"
By Michael Bronski
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Jan2004/bronski0104.html

Wikipedia Article about Fred Phelps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps#Criminal_record

Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy
Paul Cameron
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron.html

ESSAY II
RACIAL PROFILING: CODEWORD FOR RACISM


GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES


"You Can't Fight Terrorism With Racism"
By Colbert I. King
Washington
Post.com
Saturday July 30 , 2005
At
http://www.washingtonpost.com
/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/29/AR2005072901626_pf.html

ACLU website
Racial Profiling: Old and New
http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/racialprofiling/index.html


Talk Left: The Politics of Crime
Study: "Racial Profiling Exists and is Ineffective Against Crime Control"
September 25, 2003
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/003826.html

Wikipedia Article about "Organized Crime"
See Section titled "Nontraditional Organized Crime"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime
(see also the links to terrorist organizations and Al Qaeda)

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES


Wikipedia Article about "Columbine High School Massacre"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre

Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network
Extremism in America/William Pierce
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Pierce.asp

The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh
By Gore Vidal
Vanity Fair
September 2001
http://www.geocities.com/gorevidal3000/tim.htm

4. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART FOUR
SUPREMACY OF THE MILITARY


SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES:


Out of School and Into the Military
by Soffia Jarrin-Thomas
Z Magazine online (February 2006)
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Feb2006/thomas0206.html

No Child Left Behind by Military Recruiters
by Leah C, Wells
Published December 6, 2002 by
commondreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1206-08.htm

Military Recruiters Accessing Pupil Data
By Jennifer Mrozowski
Published by The Cincinnati Enquirer (online edition)
January 6, 2003
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/01/06/loc_military06.html

"Some Things You Should Know About
Media Violence and Media Literacy"
Published by the American Academy of Pediatrics
June 6, 1995
http://www.aap.org/advocacy/childhealthmonth/media.htm

Higher education funding cuts prompt public outcry
By Bradley Gwendolyn
Academe, May/June 2001
Published at Look Smart Find Articles

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3860/is_200105/ai_n8940960?cm_ven=YPIp/articles/mi_qa3860/is_200105/ai_n8940960?cm_ven=YPI

Compromising Our Future
(Sudden cuts in federal education spending demonstrate government priorities gone awry
By the Crimson Staff
June 6, 2006
Published at The Harvard Crimson
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513735

Globalization, Low Wages and U. S. Foreign Policy
By John F. Cowan
July 22, 1996
http://home.pacbell.net/jfcowan/econ/TWWAGES.HTM

Working...and Poor
By Michelle Conlin and Aaron Bernstein
Business Week online
May 31, 2004

Manipulating the Faucet of Fear
by Ellen Goodman
From the online edition of the Seattle Times
April 14, 2006
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002929123_goodman14.html

Hate Groups are Infiltrating the Military
By John Kifner
Published: July 7, 2006
Online Edition of the New York Times

War on terrorism
Project for the Center for Media and Democracy
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=War_on_terrorism
As of this writing, last modified September 5, 2006

5. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART FIVE
RAMPANT SEXISM


GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS


The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
by William L. Shrier
Footnote on page 100
1959, 1960 Simon and Schuster

From: The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940
pages 135-136
By William L. Shirer
1984 Little, Brown, and Company

SPECIFIC SOURCES:
WEBSITES


National Conference of State Legislatures
Pharmacist Conscience Clause
Updated August 2006
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/conscienceclauses.htm

ATTEMPTS TO PREVENT ACCESS TO
EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION IN WISCONSIN
at Religious Tolerance
http://www.religioustolerance.org/aboemerwi.htm


6. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART SIX
CONTROLLED MASS MEDIA


GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS


What Liberal Media: The Truth About Bias and The News
by Eric Alterman
Publsihed 2003 by Basic Books, a member of Perseus Books

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES


FAIR Press Release
Examining the "Liberal Bias" Claim
From June 1, 1998
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2447

From the PEW Research Center
Bottom Line Pressures Now Hurting Coverage, Say Journalists
May 23, 2004
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=825

New Study Challenges "Liberal Bias" Claim
http://www.ibiblio.org/prism/jul98/newstudy.html

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES


Media Reform Center
http://www.corporations.org/media/

SPECIFIC SOURCES:
WEBSITES


Introduction to the Illiberal Conservative Media (ICM)
by Mary; Guest post by eRiposte
From the Left Coaster
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/003932.php

The Truth About The Right-Leaning U.S . Media
The Story Republicans Dont Want You to See
http://www.oreilly-sucks.com /News/mediafacts.htm

"Media Bias? Big Time"
Rush Limbaugh Online (Extreme Broadcasts BS)
http://www.rushlimbaughonline.com/articles/mediabias.htm

Conservative Media Bias
From T Rex's Guide to Living: Politics
Last updated February 25, 2005

Media Reform Center
http://www.corporations.org/media/


7. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART SEVEN
OBSESSION WITH NATIONAL SECURITY


ESSAY I:
LIBRARIAN TAKES ON PATRIOT ACT: AND WINS


GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS


THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH: A HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY
Pages 191-196
By William L. Shrier
1959, 1960 Simon and Schuster

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES


Patriot Act
2001 Version, Complete
From Electronic
Privacy Information Center
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html

Librarian Who Fought FBI Search of Patron Records to Receive
2005 PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award
From Penn America Center
http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/810

Patriot Act smackdown: Librarians 1, FBI 0
By Peter Pollack
June 27, 2006
From ars technica
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060627-7150.html

ESSAY II:
POWER CORRUPTS BUSH ABSOLUTELY

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES


Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/

The Impact of the USA PATRIOT ACT on Free Expression
Commentary by Nancy Kranich
From the Free Expression Policy Project
Last updated on August 24, 2006
http://www.fepproject.org/commentaries/patriotact.html

Impeaching Bush
By Onnesha Roychouduri
From Alternet, march 6, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/32977/

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES

Judge Rules Against Wiretaps
By Dan Eggen and Dafna Linzer
From:
washingtonpost.com
Friday August 19, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081700650.html

George W. Nixon
From CBS NEWS
By Dick Meyer
July 24, 2003
http://www.fepproject.org/commentaries/patriotact.html

Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News
By David Barstow and Robin Stein
From: truthout.issues
13 March 2005
Original from the online edition of The New York Times
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/9592

The First Amendment Handbook:
Confidential Sources and Information: FISA Warrants
http://www.rcfp.org/handbook/c04p09.html

8. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART EIGHT
RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT ARE INTERTWINED


GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES


Separation of Church and State Website
http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/tnpidx.htm


SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES


Colonial Torture Methods
From Frances Farmer's Revenge
http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/torture/colonial.htm

Christianity in the Confederate South: Southern Nationalism and Christianity
From Austin Cline's Agnosticism/Atheism
Circa 2006
http://atheism.about.com/od/christianismnationalism/p/ConfederateSout.htm

First Amendment Separation of Church and State:
The Intent of Our Founding Fathers
http://www.geocities.com/ldjandl/thesis/articles_dobbs_freedomofreligion.html#V

Separation of Church and State Myth: Is it in the Constitution?
From Austin Cline's Agnosticism/Atheism
http://atheism.about.com/od/churchstatemyths/a/phrase.htm

SPECIFIC SOURCES
BOOKS


A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution, Volume I
Pages 18-23, 67-70

9. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART NINE
CORPORATE POWER IS PROTECTED


GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS:


Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power In America
By Bertram Gross
Published in 1980 by South End Press


SPECIFIC SOURCES AND UPDATES
WEBSITES

Getting a Line on Electricity
By Thomas Content
From the online edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
July 29 2006
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=477875&format=print

Hearnings Set for Proposed Transmission Facilities
From The Beaver Dam Daily Citizen
Friday September 8m 2006
http://www.wiscnews.com/archives/read.php?info=/bdc/2006/09/08/97991.php

Residents Fight Power Lines
by Ed Garvoille
November 15, 2005
From the online edition of The Capital Times
http://www.wiscnews.com/archives/read.php?info=/bdc/2006/09/08/97991.php

Power Line Not Needed So Soon
Wisconsin State Journal
WSJ Staff and wire services
December 28, 2005
http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/wsj/2005/12/28/0512270550.php

Petition: Bury new Power Lines
By Anne Marie Ames
From The Capital Times
January 24, 206
http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2006/01/24/0601240312.php

10. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART 10
LABOR POWER IS SUPPRESSED


GENERAL SOURCES:
BOOKS:

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America
by Bertram Gross
1980 New York: M evans

SPECIFIC SOURCES:
BOOKS

From THE RISE AND THE FALL OF THE THIRD REICH:

A HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY,
page 263
By William L. Shirer
Published in 1960 by Simon and Schuster


SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES

Labor Unions Face Hostile Climate
by Greg Gordon
McClatchy Newspapers
September 04, 2005
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=LABOR-09-04-05&cat=PP

1939: Labor Legislation
From Encarta
http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461501334/1939_Labor_Legislation.html

Labor Law Reform To Establish Our Constitutional Rights
http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/policy_lr.html

A New Assault on Workers' Rights
By Stewart Acuff and Sheldon Friedman
June 28, 2006
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2006/06/workers_rights.html

1929-41: The Depression and the New Deal
From Historical Text Archive
http://historicaltextarchive .com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=604

11. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART ELEVEN
DISDAIN FOR INTELLECTUALS AND THE ARTS:


ESSAY I:
THE BUSH WAR AGAINST SCIENCE I


Bush's New Economic Plan Cuts Funding for arts, Education
By Aaron Kraft
February 6, 2003
Fro ORBIS, A unifying Voice
http://www.vanderbiltorbis.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/02/26/3e5c2a2342f25

'Mr Ferrer can't be with us tonight'
From the Guardian
Feruary 18, 2004
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1150285,00.html

Jeb Bush: Horowitz a 'Fighter for Freedom'
From NewsMax.com
April 6, 2005
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/4/6/233459.shtml

Bush Administration Accused of Suppressing, Distorting Science
Bby Seth Borenstein
From Common Dreams News Center
Februay 19, 2004
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0219-02.htm

ESSAY II
THE BUSH WAR ON SCIENCE II


GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
by William L. Shirer
1959, 1960 Simopn and Schuster

American Theocracy
by Kevin Phillips
2006 Viking Press

SPECIFIC RESOURCES

WEBSITES

Staff Scientists Reject FDA's Plan B Reasoning
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 18, 2004; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50466-2004Jun17.html

Bush Administration Accused of Suppressing, Distorting Science
by Seth Borenstein
Common Dreams News Center
February 19, 2004
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0219-02.htm

Debunking Intelligent Design
From A Concerned Scientist
October 25m 2005
http://danielrhoads.blogspot.com/2005/10/debunking-intelligent-design.html

Global Warming: Fact Verse Myth
Circa September 2003
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/documents/382_myths.htm

12. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART TWELVE
OBSESSION WITH CRIME AND PUNISHMENT


GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS


Friendly Fascism
By Bertram Gross
1980 South End Press

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES

Racism and the Administration of Justice
From Racism and Human Rights
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/race/criminal_justice.htm

Poor Left Defenseless in Courtroom
By mary Zahn and Jessica McBride
Milwaukee Journal Sentienl online
December 8, 2002
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=101767

From Social Justice to Criminal Justice: Poverty and
the Administration of Criminal Law
NY: Oxford University Press, 2000
The Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics
http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/cje/html/socialjusticebook.html

13. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART THIRTEEN
RAMPANT CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION

ESSAY I:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CRONYISM


*The information for this essay was collected by Center for Public Integrity from 73 requests made possible by the Freedom of Information Act

For additional reading please see the following related sources

When Advocates Become Regulators
By Ann C. Mulkern
May 23, 2004
Common Dreams News Center
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0523-02.htm

The Ten Most Brazen War Profiteers
By Charlie Cray
September 5, 2006
AlterNet/The Ground Truth
http://alternet.org/waroniraq/41083/

Corporate Freeloader Chief is Bush' s Choice to Head Treasury
Citizens for tax Justice
http://www.ctj.org/html/jwsnow.htm

The Road to Riches is Called K Street
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
June 22, 2005
Online edition of The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101632.html

Dick Cheney's Hallibutron Connections
Links to two artlcies from The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/directory/dick_cheney_s_halliburton_connections

*Cheney's Grimey Trail in Business"
by Robert Scheer
July 16, 2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020722/20020716

*Tricky Dick II
by Nate Blakeslee
February 8, 2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020218/blakeslee20020208

The Student Loan Blues
February 27, 2004
The Bush Beat at The Village Voice
online version March 2004
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/2004_02.php

Chemonics International
The Center for Public integrity
March 31, 2004
http://www.public-i.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=8

ESSAY II:
A SATIRICAL LOOK AT CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM AND OVERALL CORRUPTION


GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES:



How Corporations Influence the Government
By Mark A. Triebwasser
1998
From American Government
http://www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html

Welcome to the Machine:
How the GOP Disciplined K Street and Made Bush Supreme
by Nicholas Confgessore
Washington Monthly
July/August 2003
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0307.confessore.html


SPECIFIC SOURCES
WBSITES


Money Troubles
By Dan Froomkin
Washingtonpost.com Staff
Updated September 4, 1998
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/campfin.htm

Going Backwards:
Early Wins Embolden Lobbyists for Business
By Dan Morgan and Kathleen Day
Published March 11, 2001 in the Washington Post
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0311-01.htm

Civil Rights and Campaign Finance:
Summaries of Key Law Review Articles
by Susan K. Serrano, Rsearch Director
http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/newsletter2/story6.html

National Holiday for Election Day Proposed
April 16, 2003
BLR (
HR.BLR.com)
http://hr.blr.com/display.cfm/id/8347

14. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART FOURTEEN
FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS AND A STACKED JUDICIARY


ESSAY I: (In Four Sections)
ELECTION FRAUD IN 2004


GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS

Mein Kampf
By Adolf Hitler
The complete, unabridged
1939, Houghton Mifflin Company

Armed Madhouse
by Gregg Palast
See the chapter titled
"The Con."
2006 Dutton, New York

GENERAL SOURCES

WEBSITES

Black Box Voting
Homepage etc
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
By Robert F. Kennedy Juinior
From the online edition of Rolling Stone Magazine
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen/4

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES

Democracy Crisis
Election 2006: Will All Votes Count?
From Democractic Underground .com
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/IndyOp/28

Proof of Ohio Election Fraud Exposed
By William Rivers Pitt
December 15, 2004
From Truthout.issues
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121604Z.shtml

Black Voters in New Orleans
By Ed Davis
Common Cause
Apilr 19, 2006
http://www.commonblog.com/story/2006/4/19/13428/7894

The August 27, 2006 broadcast of Ring of Fire
Mike Papantonio interviewing Greg Palast
Topic: Republican dirty tricks in New Oreleans
Broadcast on WCPT 850 AM Chicago
The New Face of Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in America
People For The American Way
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=22222

ESSAY II
RADICAL VIEWS ON THE CONSTITUTION AND THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM...


GENERAL SOURCES:

BOOKS:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
William L. Shirer
1959, 1960 Simon and Schuster

Adolf Hitler:
by John Toland
1976 Doubleday

Der Fuhrer: Hitler's Rise to Power
by Konrad Heiden
1944 Houghton Mifflin Company


SPECIFIC SOURCES
BOOKS

Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler
Unabridged issue
1939 Houghton Mifflin Company

SPECIFIC SOURCES:

WEBSITES

Benito Mussolini Quotes
From
Thinkexist.com
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/benito_mussolini/

Adolf Hitler's Views and Opinions on Democracy
By Matt Brundage
From publications
http://mattbrundage.com/publications/hitlerdemocracy.html#democracydefinition

I am not a strict constructionist and no one ought to be
posted on The University of Chicago Faculty Blog
by Sunstein
October 7, 2005
http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/faculty/2005/10/i_am_not_a_stri.html#more

From Reconstructionism to Dominionism, Part 2
By Mainstream Baptist
November 26, 2005
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2005/11/26/01436/229


*SOURCE MATERIALS FOR SUMMARY:

SOURCES
BOOKS


The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
By William Shirer
Pages 563, 594-595, 913-914
Simon and Schuster 1959, 1960
Mein Kampf

by Adolf Hitler
Pages 948, 950-951
Unabridged version as published by
Houghton-Mifflin 1939, Boston


SOURCES
WEBSITES


The Project for a New American Century
by William Rivers Pit
February 25, 2003
From Information Clearing House
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1665.htm


Reflections

THE FOURTEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM
REFLECTIONS
by Brandon, Daniel, Jeffrey, and Kyle


"Such was the government of the Third Reich, administered from top to bottom on the so-called leadership principle by a vast and sprawling bureaucracy having little of the efficiency usually credited to the Germans, poisoned by graft, beset by constant confusion and cutthroat rivalries, augmented by the muddling interference of party potentate, and often rendered impotent by the terror of the SS-Gestapo.
-------"At the top of the swarming heap stood the one time Austrian vagabond, now become, with the exception of Stalin, the most powerful dictator on earth. As Doctor Frank reminded a convention of lawyers in the spring of 1936, "There is, in Germany today, only one authority and that is the authority of the Fuherer."
-----"With that authority Hitler had quickly destroyed those who opposed him, unified and Nazified the State, regimented the country's institutions and culture, suppressed individual freedom, abolished unemployment and set the wheels of industry humming--no small achievement after only three or four years in office. Now he turned--in fact he had already turned-to the two chief passions of his life: the shaping of Germany's foreign policy toward war and conquest and the creation of the mighty military machine that would enable him to achieve his goal."

William Shirer
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany.

While we were writing our essays on the Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism, we couldn't help but notice that the unifying theme which united the series as a whole was the Administration's craving for and addiction to power. Whether it was the use of Gays, Lesbians, racial minorities, or non-Christians as scapegoats to unify and energize the Republican base, or the strengthening of corporate power at the expense of workers' rights, we recognized a truly pathological addiction to and abuse of power that reminded us of so many totalitarian regimes in the past. As bad as we thought the regime in Washington had become, we were stunned and horrified to discover that its craving for power, that it's desire to control every aspect of American life, it's obsessive goal of permanently undermining the Constitution in favor of what Karl Rove refers to as a "permanent Republican majority" (think Thousand Year Reich) would take it to even lower and more repressive levels.

Under the guise of protecting Americans from terrorism (repression and atrocities always produce a plethora good excuses--even the Nazis defended their demented medical experiments by claiming that their crimes against humanity were for the benefit of the German Fatherland) the United States Senate voted to give George W. Bush dictatorial powers. After phony, public dissent from Republican Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and John Warner, passed what what Chris Floyd has referred to as the Republic Snuffing Act. For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past few months, on Thursday, September 28, 2006, the United States Congress gave George W. Bush the right to both, interpret the Geneva Conventions as he sees fit, and to unilaterally decide who is an enemy combatant. In addition, the September legislation defines an enemy combatant as someone who gives "terrorism" some kind of "support." Moreover, the President and his designated agents are now free to persecute American citizens. Translated into the common vernacular, the president and his cronies now have the power to render virtually anyone for any reason. Whether it's a lawyer defending accused terrorists, a naive citizen making an innocent contribution to a seemingly legitimate charity to help the victims of war in Afghanistan and/or Iraq, or even some one who dares to speak the truth to the corrupt and increasingly totalitarian power that is flowing out of Washington DC, anyone can now be declared an enemy combatant by our highly paranoid leader select. And to make the deal even sweeter, the legislation is retroactive, meaning that our beloved Fuhrer cannot be persecuted. Worst of all, since 2001, George W. Bush has been claiming the right to kill anyone who he declares an enemy combatant. Six days after those jumbo jet liners crashed into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, the Demander and Thief signed a 'presidential finding' authorizing the CIA to kill those individuals whom he marked for death as terrorists." Eventually Bush signed orders which authorized CIA agents to kill targets without seeking permission from the President. The upshot being that you can be disappeared, tortured, or even murdered by the President and his Gestapo admiring goons if the President experiences one of his increasingly visceral temper tantrums.

So what's the worst that can happen? Well, you can be "disappeared" or murdered if you're lucky. But with habeas corpus in a shambles and the President's proclivity for enjoying the pain and suffering of others these are just a few of the experiences that you might be forced to undergo and which others before you have already been forced to endure:

*placing panties on your head.

*threatening you with vicious dogs

*having a plastic bag tied around your head and then having your head soaked in water

*being stripped naked and forced into a human pyramid

*being stripped naked and forced to masturbate in front of your interrogators

*being strapped into a chair, force fed through a rubber tube in your nose and then forced to sit in your own feces

*having electrodes connected to your genitalia

*having a broom stick inserted into your rectum

Those are the kinds of things that could happen to a innocent American citizen because our increasingly paranoid and sort tempered (read unstable), sociopathic president believes that he has been chosen by Jesus for a greater purpose. This, after all, is a president with a lifetime history of bullying and sadism.

Seriously. Do we really want to trust a man who is this disturbed and this impulsive with that kind if power? Just look at this man's background.

When George W. Bush was a child seven years old his younger sister Robin died of Leukemia. The Senior Bushes, in one of the most abusive forms of child neglect that you could possibly imagine, didn't even bother to have a real funeral. After a brief, get-this-out-of the-way memorial service, they went golfing the next day. They didn't even allow their grieving and angry son to express any emotion what so ever. The end result was that George W, the oldest born in the family, never had an opportunity to express the grief and often virulent blend of love and anger that older siblings have towards younger siblings for knocking them out of their position as the only and favorite child. And to make the situation even more complicated, George Junior and Robin were exceptionally close. They were playmates and George almost certainly loved her as a big brother would love a favorite little sister.

Sadly she may have been the last person for whom he felt anything that even resembled a normal human relationship. As Bush grew physically he did not grow emotionally. The end result is an angry, sadistic seven-year-old in a 60-year-old body. His entire history is filled with the early symptoms of Anti Social Personality Disorder, also known as psychopathy. (In an alternative view as suggested by one of our friends, LeftOfCenter on THE BLUE REPUBLIC , Bush may in fact suffer from an even more serious disorder, Malignant Narcissism .) As a child he enjoyed torturing and killing small animals ( e.g. inserting fire crackers in frogs rectal openings and blowing them up. As a young man in college he enjoyed branding the buttocks of fraternity initiates with red hot coat hangers. Many years later he would underplay the fact that this was actually a form of sexual assault by spewing half baked drivel about how the injuries he inflicted weren't any worse than a cigarette burn. (Do you know what we would do to a parent who was caught burning a child's hind end with a cigarette burn? Can you say "abuse charges?") His past history of alcohol and cocaine addiction are well known, but chemical addictions are often a sign of psychopathy. As a young married man he drove the car through the front and out through the back of the garage wall because Laura criticized one of his speeches--unusual behavior since it was George who asked for her opinion in the fist place. From the time Robin died to this very day George W. Bush has been a verbal bully, a mean-spirited sadist who has enjoyed the pain of others. Despite the fact that he never served a day of active combat himself, his hero worship has always been centered around soldiers and cowboys--but not just any soldier or cowboy. His affection has always been reserved for the most violent and brutal ones, the ones who can kill without conscience--a trace which our psychopath and commander shares with his idols. In other words, George W. Bush has always enjoyed the pain and suffering of others. The man is so self-absorbed and so thoughtless of others ( i.e. cruel) that during the 2004 campaign he called Laura a lump. And that's pretty much how he sees everyone else--as lumps below him.. How sadistic and cruel is he? When soldiers were dying in Iraq he thought it would be a really cool idea to perform an insulting comedy routine about the weapons of mass destruction--the ones that he lied about.

Moreover he abhors debate and nuance. Bush himself as actually said that he "doesn't do nuance." Translated into modern English he becomes aggressive, often unstable, when people disagree with him. Indeed disagreement, debate in any way shape or form, makes him nervous and angry. So much so that he has to cover up his insecurity by using off-color names for reporters and others. This unusual trait became even more obvious when he literally ordered the Secret Service to keep a safe distance between himself and the equally unstable President of Iran during his recent trip to the United Nations. The reason? Bush did not want to reveal how afraid and angry be becomes when he has to debate people without a pre-written script. .

The ultimate irony in all of this is that while George W/ Bush claims unilateral (dictatorial) power to preserve American freedom of Islamic Terrorists, Bush has found the perfect, complimentary dance partner in Osama Bin Laden. Both embrace fundamentalism in the names of their various religions. Both view dissent and disagreement as traitorous or even blasphemous. And, more chillingly, both have a dismal view of human life and are perfectly willing to terrorize and kill to obtain their very repressive objectives.

And now this abomination has been given the unilateral power of life and death over anyone anywhere on the face of the earth,

The American Republican is dead. May the ensuing Empire collapse quickly so that we bring back the little things that this Administration despises the most: Democracy, Freedom, and the Founding Fathers' system of Checks and balances.


SPECIFIC SOURCES
BOOKS:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
Page 276
by WIlliam Shirer
Simon and Schuster 1969, 1976

GENERAL SOURCES:
WEBSITES:

Fatal Vision: The Deeper Evil Behind the Detainee Bill
By Chris Floyd
From Truthout Editorial
October 2, 2006
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100206A.shtml


Senate OKs Bill for Detainee Trials, Interrogations
From CNN.com
October 28, 2006
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100206A.shtml

Summary and Epilogue


THE FOURTEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM
SUMMARY AND EPILOGUE

SUMMARY
PROPAGANDA AND FALSE PREMISES: THEN AND NOW
By Brandon, Jeffrey, Kyle, and Daniel

Only a few days after we began the revision of this project, the Bush Administration launched another propaganda campaign, this time a concentrated effort that was, and is, designed to convince the American people that an over-glorified cult of right-wing, Islamic religious fanatics were the modern day equivalents of World War II Fascists. Indeed, President Bush has coined a new term--Islamo-fascists, as if the term Islamicist weren't enough to distinguish moderate Muslims from the fanatical variety, but who said Christianists like George W. Bush are consistent much less accurate? According to William Shirer: "By the end of 1942, Adolf Hitler seemed once more to be on top of the world...On the map, the sum of Hitler's conquests looked staggering. The Mediterranean had become practically an Axis lake, with Germany and Italy holding most of the northern share from Spain to Turkey and the southern share from Tunisia to within sixty miles of the Nile. In fact German troops now stood guard from the Norwegian North Cape on the Arctic Ocean to Egypt; from the Atlantic at Brest to the southern reaches of the Volga River on the border of Central Asia." In a similar vein, Hitler's ally, Imperial Japan, controlled a significant share of Eastern Asia. An equally significant share of the Pacific Theater, including, but not limited to, Sumatra,Borneo, the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, Attu, Kiska, and the southern half of Sakhalin (Karafuto) had been conquered and occupied by the Imperial Japanese military.

The upshot here is that terrorist organizations do not possess the military might of Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. They do not have standing armies, navies, and air forces. They are not nations with definable boundaries; they do not have the boundaries of a modern nation state. Under certain circumstances they may inflict significant, even devastating, damage, but they do not possess the ability to conquer and occupy a nation the size of the United States. For all intents and purposes, international terrorism operates like a transnational corporation, more like a crime syndicate than a fascist empire with a standing military. And yet this Administration not only wants to equate international terrorism with World War II totalitarianism. It now appears as if the Administration wants to equate itself with the allied leaders of World War II, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt.

Now that is a rather bizarre claim when you consider the fact that George W. Bush and his fellow Social Darwinists have spent the past twenty-six years trying to dismantle everything Roosevelt and subsequent generations Democrats implemented throughout the 1930s and afterward to protect American workers and the weakest of our citizens from corporate exploitation. Whether it was Newt Gingrich intoning that we should let medicare "die on the vine," or or George W. Bush trying to privatize Social Security, or the Republican-dominated Congress meddling with bankruptcy laws and over time regulations, the fact of the matter is that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are not fighting World War II (or World War III if you will) and they are not the intellectual equals of Churchill and Roosevelt. They have systematically done anything and everything in their power to placate the military-industrial complex at the expense of the shrinking and increasingly nervous middle class.

Of course, it might just be that they are trying to capture the mantel of Roosevelt's wartime record, but that doesn't seem likely when you remember the fact that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have opted to emulate Hitler, Mussolini, and the Imperial Japanese military, essentially transforming the barbaric act of invasion into a blood soaked art form. Isn't it ironic? While the Republican leadership has been trying to portray others as fascists, it has repeatedly revealed itself as fascist in nature-- the invasion of Iraq being a perfect case in point. In Mein Kampf , Adolf Hitler specifically revealed his militaristic policy towards Eastern Europe and "Bolshevik" Russia: "With this, we National Socialists consciously draw a line through the foreign policy trend of our pre-War period. We take up at the halting place of six hundred years ago. We terminate the endless German drive to the south and west of Europe and direct our gaze towards the lands in the east. We finally terminate the colonial and trade policy of the pre-War period and we talk about new soil and territory in Europe. Today we think primarily of Russia and its vassal border states." Only a few pages earlier Hitler said: "I must attack most sharply those folkish scribbler souls who claim to see a 'breach of sacred human rights' in such an acquisition of territory and who consequently direct their effusions against it." Likewise, The Project for a New American Century (think "Thousand Year Reich") not only presented the guidelines for American hegemony, it also advocated for the invasion of Iraq in the delusional hope that such an invasion would promote democracy, stability, and greater American influence over the Mideastern oil supply. Indeed, these renegades from the Nixon Administration were so eager to flex their military and political muscle that they approached Bill Clinton in 1998, asking if he would consider just such an invasion,

Lesson learned? When power-hungry megalomaniacs with Anti-Social Personality Disorder have the audacity to put their socopathic ideas into print, the world should take them seriously.

Like their Neocon descendants, the Nazis of 1939 went through elaborate means to justify their aggression to their own people--even when the outside world recognized what they were doing. During the run up to World War II, the invasion of Poland, the Nazi-dominated press portrayed Poland as the aggressor: "Whereas all the rest of the world," wrote William Shirer, "considers that the Peace is about to be broken by Germany, that Germany is threatening to attack Poland...here in Germany, in the world world the local newspapers create, the very reverse is maintained...What the Nazi papers are proclaiming is this: that it is Poland which is disturbing the peace of Europe; Poland which is threatening Germany with armed invasion.

To justify the invasion the Nazis engaged in a bit theatrical propaganda: "For six days," writes Shirer, "Alfred Naujochs, the intellectual S.S. ruffian had been waiting at Gleiwitz on the Polish border to carry out a simulated attack on the German radio station there. The plan had been revised, S.S. men, outfitted in Polish Army uniforms, were to do the shooting and drugged concentration camp inmates were to be left dying as 'casualties'--the last delectable part of the operation had...the expressive code name 'Canned Goods.' There were to be several such faked Polish attacks, but the principal one was to be the radio station at Gleiwitz."

Seventy-four years later it appears as if the Neocons have learned their lessons well. During the run up to the American invasion of Iraq, the phony issue of mushroom clouds rising over American cities was drummed home on a regular basis. Our media were filled with frightening stories about how our troops were learning to wear and use special gear that would protect them from chemical or biological agents. In addition, we were led to believe that Saddam Hussein had direct ties to Al Qaeda and 911. We were told that we had a moral duty (odd words coming from an Administration that is essentially amoral to the core) to remove a blood-thirsty tyrant whose hand Donald Rumsfeld had once shaken while Saddam was our ally against Iran. And, of course, we were informed that our troops would be welcomed with candy and flowers and that their efforts would result in peace, freedom, and democracy throughout the entire Middle East. At it's cynical worst, the Administration sent then Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations to deliver a propaganda show piece which had been built upon the flimsiest of evidence, if not out right distortions and prevarications. Granted, it lacked the originality and excitement of a phony attack on a German radio station, but it did the job; and through the entire process our corporate-owned media behaved like a well trained lap dog, seldom if ever bothering to check the administration's "facts." If the prewar propaganda was a sham, the conduct of both, the occupation and the war on terrorism were little more than a continuing study in sexual perversion. Does anyone remember how the Administration and its minions of double-speaking pundits fanned the flames of hate against Iraq by reminding us that Udai and Qusai Hussein had used everything from threats, rape, and executions to extract their sociopathic ideas of revenge? We sure do, and as we look at the Administration's attitude towards Article III of the Geneva Conventions we find ourselves wondering if the Administration was complaining or admiring when it talked about the infamous Hussein brothers.

"This debate," said President Bush at his 15 September 2006 press conference, "is occurring because the Supreme Court ruling said that we must conduct ourselves under the common article three of the Geneva Convention. And that common article three says that--you know--there will be no outrages upon human dignity. That's like very vague. What does that mean? Outrages upon human dignity? That's a statement that's wide ope to interpretation."

We're sorry, but human rights are not vague statements--at least not to a normal human being with a fully developed conscience. A truly moral human being--not a pseudo Christian who spews quasi-Biblical platitudes when ever it serves his or her own interests--should know the difference between good and evil, between normal behavior and sadism.

Stripping people of their clothing and forcing them to masturbate; threatening people with vicious dogs; inserting objects into a victim's bodily orifices; connecting electrodes to genitals; smearing your intended victim with fake menstrual blood; strapping your victim onto a chair, forcing a feeding tube down the victim's throat and then letting that victim sit in his own fecal matter; placing underwear on your victims' heads; stripping your victims naked and forcing them to form a human pyramid: Those are all acts that might be construed as violating human dignity. Those are acts which some might correctly define as sexual assault. And the fact that this president doesn't understand this tells us that he doesn't need an enabling piece of legislation to approve his perverted sense of (in)justice. Instead, it tells us that he needs to be a resident in a ward for the criminally insane.

This president has been practicing what John Dean and more conscientious conservatives refers to as "cheap grace." For some time now we have wondered how this man can claim to be a Christian, claim to love America, and yet, at the same time, violate every standard of decency about which Christ ever spoke. By the same token we have also wondered how anyone can claim to love America on one hand and then drag her moral reputation through the mud: quite an accomplishment after September 12, 2001, when virtually the entire world was offering us sympathy and assistance. In many ways the kind of religion that George Bush and others like him practice actually lowers the inhibition against harming or dehumanizing others. Instead of feeling a legitimate sense of guilt, Bush and many of his supporters--indeed many of the president's advisers--merely confess their sins to Jesus, dispense with the idea of penance, and sin again. They sin, wash away their guilt and graduate to commit even greater, more heinous violations. Without guilt they seem to develop a sense of arrogant self-righteousness which only encourages them to become more aggressive and more sadistic. In the end you see religious figures like Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of world leaders; world leaders like George W. Bush experiencing what left wing comic/commentator Stephanie Miller refers to was "wargasms" whenever he talks about torture or the invasion of a sovereign state. Of course, we can hear the Neocon lemmings, those who would follow this president over the edge of a cliff if he asked them to, chiming in with comments such as: "You don't grant human rights to people who saw off heads." To which we would respond, that the Bush War against terrorism and the Constitution has only been raging for five years and already the far right has begun to resemble and imitate the enemy which it so viscerally claims to hate, ignoring the distinct possibility that they have adopted the same attitude towards human rights and human dignity as the terrorists themselves. Five years: That's how long it took the President's followers to lose their souls and their moral compasses .

Whether its rampant nationalism, a disdain for human rights, sexism, or the corporate press distorting the truth to placate Republican politicians it seems to us that there is a common thread that runs through all of the Fourteen Characterises: a craving for an and acquisition of power that has dehumanized our leadership to the point of sadism and cruelty. The attacks on New York City and Washington DC were traumatic--that much was a given--but on September 12, 2001, we had an opportunity to do so much more.. Instead of building a genuine alliance of nations, instead of reaching out to moderate Muslims and creating true coalitions against savagery and barbarism, our leaders exploited the tragedy of 9-11 to satisfy their own petty wants and desires.

Another Republican, Abraham Lincoln, asked us to "embrace the better angels of ourselves." This President has asked and demanded that we embrace the malevolent demons of our inner selves. And when we listen to the vitriol that emanates from the radical right we are forced to conclude that some people heeded the President's call.

SOURCES
BOOKS

The Rise and Fall of the Third ReichBy William Shirer
Pages 563, 594-595, 913-914
Simon and Schuster 1959, 1960

Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler
Pages 948, 950-951
Unabridged version as published byHoughton-Mifflin 1939,
Boston

SOURCES
WEBSITES

The Project for a New American Century
by William Rivers PitFebruary 25, 2003From Information Clearing House
 
 
 
 
EPILOGUE
By Katie

Oh, it must be that famous Bush logic: of COURSE you can fight a war without allies, other political interests or weapons. Sometimes, I have to wonder if our commander-in-chief honestly believes that "God makes all the bad men go away." It does seem to be the base of all the foreign policy we've seen in the last five years. Hell, it seems to be the base of any policy we've seen in the past five years. There are some stunning historical parallels between Hitler and our own little Georgie and yet, nothing is being done. Have the free-thinking people of this nation really given up to the Insanity Party (aka any sort of radical right-wing anything)? My history teachers always taught me that the reason Hitler was so effective--and therefore so dangerous--was that for the most part, he came to power through the proper political means. He staged no coups and overthrew no governments. He was elected. George Bush was elected at least once. He seems to move further and further to the right with every passing day. In fact, he's moving so far right, he just might end up in Germany soon.

Truly, has no one noticed the echoes of a supremely treacherous government? All the promised (and yet-to-be-delivered) economic reforms? The emphasis on military strength? Less and less tolerance for individuality and beliefs other than the leader's? The founding of policies based on one man's opinion of religion (Hitler's being a backlash against, Bush's being ultimate faith in)? The xenophobic tendencies of a nationalist obsession? Need I go on? I'm fairly certain I don't need to point out eerie and ominous similarities to the members here. What about the common public?
Thomas Paine incited a revolution with one pamphlet...why aren't we trying harder when one tactic fails? Why are we letting anyone bulldoze our lives with ideas of, "My vote doesn't count" (well, that's a bad example...sometimes, as Florida has shown us, it doesn't) and "I only have one vote." There are close to 300 million people in this country. I'm willing to bet at fair number of them are of voting-age. 150 million people. If we can gauge a vote by public opinion, it seems like an overwhelming majority are not in support of right-wing ideals.

Let's say that 3/5 of that would vote for a more liberal candidate, ideology, whatever they're voting for. 3/5 is 90 million people. That's 90 million votes, or 60% of the estimated total voting population. Last time I checked, 60% wins an election. A whopping 9% ( 8.1 million) of those votes could be declared useless and the liberal candidate would still win. That's roughly the population of New York City. One city has the power to change an entire election. And yet...Nothing happens. We've still got Adolf Jr. in office. Why? Because of mindless propaganda. Remember all those propaganda posters from WWII? Sometimes, I feel like I'm going to wake up some morning and see a big sign that says "Don't get involved, it's bad for your health!" There are obvious and blatant commonalities between Hitler's regime and Bush's regime. Doesn't that tell us something about which side of the political spectrum they reside?

Though it's rather like preaching to the choir at this point, I leave you all with two words'.   Question everything.