Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

[Anonymouse]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

[Anonymouse]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

Intruder Gains Front Lawn of White House

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON - A screaming intruder made it onto the front lawn of the White House Sunday while President Bush was at home before being apprehended by Secret Service officers.

Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren described the man as "someone who has come to our attention in the past as a fence jumper."

The bearded man, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt that said "God Bless America," jumped the fence outside the White House and ran across the north lawn while repeatedly yelling, "I am a victim of terrorism!"

Members of the Secret Service emergency response team, including one holding a barking dog, chased the man with their guns drawn and surrounded him near the row of cameras set up for television stand-ups.

"I have intelligence information for the president," he said, waving his arms in the air. "I'm not afraid of you," he screamed at the officers who were ordering him to the ground with guns drawn.

The man eventually kneeled on the ground and was taken into custody shortly before 4 p.m.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060409/...house_intruder

The man has balls.

[Anahita]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

Worship of the state is flatly called fascism, socialism, communism, democracy, etc. Before you indict capitalism, know that it is precisely because of capitalism why America has been such a successful economic model, and it is because of an ever growing government that preaches more and more the mantra of democracy…

Anonymouse, I hope you get that when I tease, I’m poking you for more discussion. Though, I think there are some important distinctions that you gloss over…

"Fascism - A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."
The American Heritage Dictionary, 1983


Economic Fascism, Thomas J. DiLorenzo
“When most people hear the word "fascism" they naturally think of its ugly racism and anti-Semitism as practiced by the totalitarian regimes of Mussolini and Hitler. But there was also an economic policy component of fascism, known in Europe during the 1920s and '30s as "corporatism," that was an essential ingredient of economic totalitarianism as practiced by Mussolini and Hitler...

A version of economic fascism was in fact adopted in the United States in the 1930s and survives to this day. In the United States these policies were not called "fascism" but "planned capitalism...”

http://www.banned-books.com/truth-seeker/1994archive/121_3/ts213l.html

What is Fascism, 1932, Benito Mussolini:

“...Fascism [is] the complete opposite of Marxian Socialism...”

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html

Fascism Anyone?: The 14 characteristics of Fascism, Dr. Lawrence Britt

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections
More of article at:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/14_Characteristics_Fascism.html

First They Came for the J-ws
When they came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the J-ws,
I did not speak out;
I was not a J-w.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Poem by Pastor Martin Niemölle, Nazi Survivor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...

[Sip]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

That should be in the thesaurus under the antonyms of "subtle".

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

Fascism Anyone?: The 14 characteristics of Fascism, Dr. Lawrence Britt

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections
More of article at:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/14_Characteristics_Fascism.html

This sounds much more like the 14 characteristics of democracy in today's America. Except that No. 5 would be "rampant paranoia about anything to do with sex". And there would be a No 15 added - "propagation of irrational beliefs, like fundamentalist Christianity".

[Anahita]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

This sounds much more like the 14 characteristics of democracy in today's America. Except that No. 5 would be "rampant paranoia about anything to do with sex". And there would be a No 15 added - "propagation of irrational beliefs, like fundamentalist Christianity".

The Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism, by Chris Hedges

Http://www.theocracywatch.org

(...reminds me of that saying, "The Christian Right is Neither.")

Excerpts from the book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast. Plume Books, 2003.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Palast_Greg/BestDemoMoneyBuy_book.html

Friendly Fascism – book by Bertram Gross (1980)
"Don't think that modern fascists are like Hitler or Mussolini. Today's Big Government-Big Business tyrants are just as willing to use violence. But they do it more efficiently than the old-time fascists-- with higher tech and lower costs to them. They have the best looks, politicians, celebrities, and control mechanisms that money can buy. Yes, their own conscience tells them that true democracy would be nice. But suppressing their conscience, they under- mine the rights of the working and middle classes. Their operating principle is "Might, Money, Male, Murder-- and also White--Make Right." They wreck the environment. They fool you, rule you, use you, abuse you--and make you like it. They divide you by race, sex, class, and nationality. But they fear the power of the powerless. They're afraid of what you could do if you get off the boob tube and drugs, out of the night clubs and cut-throat competition--and work with others for equal rights."

Fascism Watch Articles:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Fascism.html

" Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power."
--Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), Fascist Dictator of Italy

"The 'corporatization of America' during the past century [has been] an attack on democracy."
--Noam Chomsky

...


On a lighter note, The Onion recently did a parody article entitled something like: Reinstatement of Patriot Act Makes It Illegal to Read Patriot Act.

[Anonymouse]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

Here is a better book.

[Anahita]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

Here is a better book.

A better book? You've read that one and those that I mentioned, as well? Are you against immigration (to the US) also?

---
People vs. Empire
Arundhati Roy
These Times magazine, January 2005

“In India, the word public is now a Hindi Word. It means people. In Hindi, we have sarkar and public, the government and the people. Inherent in this use is the underlying assumption that the government is quite separate from "the people'…

We must question then: Is "democracy" still democratic? Are democratic governments accountable to the people who elected them? And, critically, is the public in democratic countries responsible for the actions of its sarkar?

If you think about it, the logic that underlies the war on terror and the logic that underlies terrorism are exactly the same. Both make ordinary citizens pay for the actions of their government. Al Qaeda made the people of the United States pay with their lives for the actions of their government in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. government has made the people of Afghanistan pay in the thousands for the actions of the Taliban and the people of Iraq pay in the hundreds of thousands for the actions of Saddam Hussein. Whose God decides which is a "just war" and which isn't? George Bush senior once said: "I will never apologize for the United States. I don't care what the facts are:' When the president of the most powerful country in the world doesn't need to care what the facts are, then we can be sure we have entered the Age of Empire..."

[TomServo]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

Are you against immigration (to the US) also?

He probably is.

[Anonymouse]

Re: Bush signs bills 'with fingers crossed'

A better book? You've read that one and those that I mentioned, as well? Are you against immigration (to the US) also?

The idea of immigration is too complex to derail a thread, but suffice to say that fences make good neighbors, but then again you probably haven't even heard of that.

EDIT: And to comment on "democracy" I will add a quote from P.J. O'Rourke who wroted Parliament of Who[r]es: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government. He stated, "Every government is a parliament of who[r]es. The trouble is, in a democracy, the who[r]es are us."