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[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] Diversion and deceit may not be the primary reasons that The Doubleduh-Cheney Gang keeps us in Iraq, but clearly the war is great cover. If you read Part 3 of this series you learned, I hope, that the smog of war does veil the continuing neocon march toward its real goal: the destruction of the United States. In this light, we can see that 9/11's effect was not primarily to allow The Gang to invade Iraq, although it certainly did that. Once there, however, they have benefited from the war's ability to mass-capture the attention and energy of those who might otherwise effectively organize against militant globalization. Leave it not to the Left, but the jingoist, ultra-paranoid militia-types like The Minutemen to see the point . . . [more at P!]

I am sure most of you have been to a musical performance where the sound level is gradually increased without you even realizing it in order to prepare you for the main event. I call it the concert theory. Looks like it can be applied to other arenas as well.

The further the administration drops in the polls the more threatening the rhetoric around dissent becomes. The statements Donald Rumsfeld has been making are a few decibels higher these days.

For instance: Rumsfeld had this to say on America's moral superiority and blameless innocence in world affairs.

Rumsfeld:

"Can we truly afford to return to the destructive view that America — not the enemy — is the real source of the world's troubles?"

The message here is clear. The act of self-examination, of either self or your country is destructive to America.

I know I am but what are you.

It’s a playground classic. Accuse your adversary of the very thing you are guilty of.

Fascism is fascism is fascism no matter where it comes from or how it is wrapped. The unbounded greed of corporate America, invading the world one economy at a time. The Christian fundamentalist breaking down the separation of church and state. The Islamic jihadist blowing themselves and others up for Allah. They all want the same thing.

Power.

The power to control the lives and resources of others for their own benefit.

In America we have called it:

Indian Reservations. Slavery. Immanent Domain. Spreading democracy. National Security. The War on Terror. Foreign policy.

"Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation. It therefore occurs when there is a need to accommodate new ideas, and it may be necessary for it to develop so that we become 'open' to them."

Five years since the stealing of the 2000 US presidential election and nearly two years since a repeated computerized electoral theft in 2004, the vast majority of the US electorate have not yet woken up to the reality that their country has been hijacked by a small cabal of militarists who make Dr Strangelove look a cuddly moderate.

Grindstaff Chronicles Newsletter

Pity We Have To Bother Our Beautiful Minds With The Manure in Washington
Gloriously beautiful, mild country day, portending good cocktails and a sumptuous dinner. If only, as a group, we were not all so interested in politics and what is going on around us and around the world. After everybody arrived, Schuyler served those who wanted a cocktail a Kamikaze, which he made with Grey Goose vodka and Rose's Lime Juice. I think the cocktails help to lessen the pain of talking about what a mess this administration has pooped on the country. We're no longer seen around the world as this beacon of decency, nor are we seen as a culture to emulate, rather, we're seen as the slime Bush & Co. have turned us into. We're seen as instruments of torture, maiming and killing. Thugs, in other words.

Crossposted from The Republic of T.

Want a bit of scary reading? Author Chris Hedges has gone where even angels fear to tread, as he rubs shoulders with the true believers at the National Religious Broadcasters convention, and lives to tell the tale. It’s a chilling read. You’ll want to take a shower immediately after reading it.

The article records the obligatory queerbashing at the conference. All done in “love,” of course.

In the parking lot outside the center, I come across a pickup truck with large hand-painted panels bearing anti-gay slogans and a round red circle with a line through the center superimposed on the faces of two men kissing. STOP THE INSANITY, it says across the top. I pick up one of the pamphlets in a metal box on the side of the truck: “Protect Your Family & Friends from the Dangers of . . . Homosexuality: The Truth!” It lists “the facts about homosexuality they refuse to teach in Public Schools or report on the Evening News!” including: “homosexuals average 500 sexual partners in their short lifetime” and “because of unsanitary sexual practices homosexuals carry the bulk of all bowel disease in America.”

Schulz: Speak - it is our only hope.

The Jewish Barber (Charlie Chaplin's character): Hope... I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business - I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

Despite claims by supporters of the Bush administration to a monopoly on American patriotism and their right to define that patriotism, organizations such as MFSO are exercising one of the highest duties with which any American citizen is charged. If our family members serving in the military are duty bound to follow their Commander-in-Chief they then have a right to expect fidelity from that commander. The commander must have no higher priority than the greatest possible support of the troops, must focus on keeping them as safe and least exposed to harms way as possible in pursuit of national security objectives.

In spite of many in the past year likening the current political trend on the far right to fascism our words went unheeded. Mr. Bush managed to get re-elected (barely) and as such the neo-fascist have pulled out the big guns. Perhaps you haven't seen it yet but you probably aren't an American woman living in France and married to a frenchman.

For those of you who don't know me, I am Dianne. I have been living in France for 5 years. I have been fighting the current administration's policies since before the Iraq invasion. In that time I have met the neo-fascist. I have visited their blogs and read things to make your blood chill if you have any knowledge of German history and Hitler's rise to power. The neo-fascist have met me and from the comments they leave, no doubt it is just as well I am in France. My husband and me have our own space dedicated to us on certain websites declaring me a traitor and much more. As my husband is French you can imagine what is directed at him.

To understand the true nature of fascism, one must understand who the fascist is. Perhaps the best illustration of fascist thinking comes from the very founder of the term. Though, be warned, mussolini's doctrine of fascism is a piece of trash that was designed to turn its readers into slaves. It is advised that you read it thoughtfully and with caution.

By Benito Mussolini

Like all sound political conceptions, Fascism is action and it is thought; action in which doctrine is immanent, and doctrine arising from a given system of historical forces in which it is inserted, and working on them from within. It has therefore a form correlated to contingencies of time and space; but it has also an ideal content which makes it an expression of truth in the higher region of the history of thought . There is no way of exercising a spiritual influence in the world as a human will dominating the will of others, unless one has a conception both of the transient and the specific reality on which that action is to be exercised, and of the permanent and universal reality in which the transient dwells and has its being. To know men one must know man; and to know man one must be acquainted with reality and its laws. There can be no conception of the State which is not fundamentally a conception of life: philosophy or intuition, system of ideas evolving within the framework of logic or concentrated in a vision or a faith, but always, at least potentially, an organic conception of the world.

came across this here by farker Brutal.

"Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy. The 14 characteristics are:

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays." Check.

Students for an Orwellian Society presents the following patriotic announcement:

As to be expected, SOS has been quite successful. Since the events of 11 September, we have been able to convince a number of figures in national and local politics to help forward our aims. How could they do otherwise?

Our successes can be shown to fit into the three major ideals of Ingsoc as expressed by Orwell:

War Is Peace

• Oceania (commonly called the US and Britain) is at war with Afghanistan Iraq. Oceania has always been at war with Afghanistan Iraq.
• Eurasia (commonly called Russia, Pakistan, etc.) is allied with Oceania in war against Afghanistan. Eurasia has always been allied with Oceania.
• US Congressman Charlie Rangel has been arguing for a return of military conscription (“The Draft”) as—so he tells the public— a way of reducing war.
• It's not easy to capture someone killed the year before—until you harness the power of Ingsoc. When you've got Ingsoc on your side, though, it's so easy that the US did it again.
• Three cheers for Homeland Security drone patrols!
• In order to fight terrorism, we must cause it, says Donald Rumsfeld.
• It's okay that there were no “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq; that's not why we went to war. It's equally okay that there are so many of them in Oceania.
• The Nobel prize committee has been considering nominating George Bush and Tony Blair for their prestigious Peace prize.
• Just like in 1984's Room 101, the Miniluv operations in Guantánamo Bay were authorized to “exploit[] a prisoner's phobias, sometimes using muzzled dogs in interrogations.” Doubleplusgood!
• According to the Bush administration, the Duelfer report which conclusively showed that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq actually justifies the war in Iraq.
• “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.” — George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States
• “Protecting [an] Islamic cultural center” involves fighting a war inside it, as the New York Times on the Web shows.

Freedom Is Slavery

• The Anti-Terrorism Act ensures US citizens' freedom by ensuring the FBI's ability to examine their activities.
• Security cameras have been placed around the Columbia campus and around the island of Manhattan.
• If you are buying postage, do not ask for stamps without flags on them. Such would clearly be a sign of lack-of-patriotism, and we at SOS are glad to see that the Post Office is cracking down on it.
• We encourage all true citizens of this country to join Operation TIPS, which, we promise, will help further an Orwellian society in ways that we at SOS cannot even begin to fathom.
• There's really nothing we can say about DARPA's Total Information Awareness project except to thank them for all their hard work.
• While Victory Gin is not (as far as we know) yet available, the sale of freedom fries is an important first step; freedom fries and freedom toast are also now available in Congress. Also, check out Victory Beer, and W Ketchup
• The truly Orwellian and praiseworthy Transportation Safety Administration gets our thanks for spotting anti-Americanism in passengers' baggage.
• Flying while wearing certain buttons may not be permitted. It is, apparently, okay to wear a button saying, “Hooray for Tony Blair,” though.
• Similarly, carrying a note stating that you do not have a bomb in your bag is equivalent to saying that you do have a bomb.
• When flying, you may use the toilet. However, if it is occupied, do not wait in line for it to become free. Only a terrorist would do that.
• We've been notified that Apple Computer company, which once made public anti-Orwellianism pronouncements, is now coming around to our side. (Note: Link contains a quicktime movie.)
• The Junior Anti-Sex League is

On returning from my trip to the West in February, I received a request from The New York Times to write a piece answering the following questions:

What is a fascist? How many fascists have we? How dangerous are they?

A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.

The perfect type of fascist throughout recent centuries has been the Prussian Junker, who developed such hatred for other races and such allegiance to a military clique as to make him willing at all times to engage in any degree of deceit and violence necessary to place his culture and race astride the world. In every big nation of the world are at least a few people who have the fascist temperament. Every Jew-baiter, every Catholic hater, is a fascist at heart. The hoodlums who have been desecrating churches, cathedrals and synagogues in some of our larger cities are ripe material for fascist leadership.