fas-cism: [fa] shizzem: noun; dictatorial movement: any movement,
tendency or ideology that favors dictatorial government, centralized
control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme
nationalism.
So, let's consider the dictionary's four criteria for fascism.
First, a passing comment on the private enterprise component. "Free
enterprise" has come to mean just the opposite -- we now have an
intensely corrupt corporate culture nurtured by and entwined with
government, resulting in a cartel of unimaginable power. You have one
vote. Halliburton and the Carlyle Group own politicians and bureaucrats
by the score. Consider the resignation last week of super-hawk Richard
Perle from a Pentagon advisory post after he was outed as a war
profiteer. The latest revelations were that he arranged to pocket
$725,000 from corporate criminal Global Crossing to engineer a deal that
likely would have put some of our most sensitive technology in the hands
of Communist China. War Boss Donald Rumsfeld nonetheless dubbed the
twisted Perle a man of morality.
It's the first and last two criteria, however, that come into focus as
Derek Alphran morosely views his scorched anti-war signs.
An ambitious cabal, disdainful of democracy and besotted with the
devilish belief they are on a Mission From God, has its hands on
America's control levers. They have dressed themselves up in the flag.
The uninformed, misinformed and, often Nazi-caliber racists on talk radio
(Michael Savage), join with government in damning dissent. Their
book-burners-in-training are honing their skills by immolating
dissenters' anti-war yard signs.
The rise in attacks on mosques is a related symptom, one frighteningly
reminiscent of the swastika scribblers of another era. Those jacking up
the hate are elevated to the status of seers. To wit, one of America's
chief vitriol-slingers is Daniel Pipes, a shill for Israel's ultra-right
Likud party. He is demanding that all of the 6 million Muslims in America
be monitored and their activities regulated. He wants campuses purged of
attitudes sympathetic to Islam and Arabs. Pipes also claims that his
"research" shows 15 percent of Muslims are proto-terrorists. At
an Emory University forum earlier this year, his claim was exposed as a
fraud and he admitted under fire that he has no evidence. Yet, he remains
a frequent network chattering head denouncing Islam.
We are demanding that other nations -- Canada, for example --
"muzzle anti-U.S. sentiment." At home, taking a page straight
from Joseph Goebbels, the Bushies time terrorist alerts (likely bogus) to
tweak public anxiety. When citizens are fixated on survival, attention is
deflected from Bush's domestic and economic catastrophes, and his
wholesale squandering of the nation's wealth to benefit his privileged
class.
The horribly deceitful Ari Fleischer has warned Americans to "watch
what they say." His bullhorns, such as Savage, are calling for
dissidents to be jailed. Others, like Ann Coulter, call those not in the
goose-stepping parade "traitors." She suggests government
"physically intimidate liberals."
Those that don't pay heed are starting to pay the price. You may have
heard that Stephen Downs of Albany, N.Y., was arrested after refusing to
take off a "Give Peace a Chance" T-shirt in a mall. The
ludicrousness of that attracted international press attention. There have
been many, many similar but largely unnoted incidents, such as what
happened to Andrew O'Connor in New Mexico. After opining in an online
chat room that Bush "was out of control" (a tautology, I'd
argue), O'Connor was besieged by the Secret Service, who handcuffed him
and interrogated him for hours on his political views.
And what you haven't had hardly a hint about (one buried story in the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution) is what the Bush cartel plans next.
John Ashcroft is cobbling together an expansion of the grossly
mis-monikered PATRIOT Act. Bush wants the power to strip people of their
citizenship and to conduct secret arrests -- all without judicial
oversight. We'd create our own army of the "disappeareds." Will
they be terrorists, or just those who oppose the Reich? You will have no
right to know. Or to ask.
So, yes, I think the jackboots are being polished.
Mea culpa: Last week I referred to some cops using "throwaway
guns." The actual term is "throwdown guns."
Senior Editor John Sugg -- whose favorite recent story unreported by the
AJC and most other media (except the BBC) was how Bush had his hair
primped and was cracking jokes before he disingenuously donned an actor's
somber face and announced we were going to war -- can be reached at
404-614-1241 or at
[EMAIL PROTECTED].
04.02.03
atlanta.creativeloafing.com
Full Article...
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/04/03/2258667
