posted on June 15, 2003 09:25:54 AM new
here is something i am sure has entered some of our minds, as for those who do not see, they will one morining, and their world will be forever changed
David Rozelle: Drifting toward fascism
By David Rozelle
June 12, 2003
What shall I call this new America in-the-making just three years into a new century?
These days I find myself unable to swallow what I have told myself, in both the best and worst of times, about ourselves as Americans. All the old words have broken loose from reality. They rattle like falsehoods in the nation's throat.
Based upon how our America now conducts itself among its fellow human beings - including us, its own citizenry - what is our nation becoming? What, if we're honest with ourselves, are we to call a system of government that behaves in these ways:
* Taxes its ordinary people into unfathomable national debt, thereby ensuring that its rich revel in even more riches, its poor regress into even more poverty, its military rejoice in even more militarism?
* Devises and enforces policies that starve public services for its most vulnerable citizenry - its children, its elderly, its working poor, its racial minorities?
* Sells national and state legislation to the highest bidders from among wealthy interest groups, while vigorously resisting reforms that would restore democratic power to the individual?
* Exercises its contempt for the collective will of other nations by unilaterally tearing up global arms and environmental treaties, while dismissing both the legal and moral authority of the United Nations?
* Invades and conquers a sovereign country by fabricating military intelligence as a pretext for invasion, then, declares "liberation" as its real intention all along as it expropriates that nation's oil fields?
* Turns one cataracted eye to atrocities in dozens of other countries that have no oil wells to liberate, the other to a report by Amnesty International critical of its own behavior as a "liberator"?
* In a work of egregious TV propaganda, lands its supreme leader "at sea" (costumed as a fighter pilot) on the state-of-the-art USS Abraham Lincoln to proclaim victory over a third-rate, enfeebled nation?
* Holds nameless prisoners incommunicado, without counsel or charges, for indefinite periods of time, in addition incarcerating the highest proportion of its own citizens (most of them black) in the world?
* Actively attempts to nullify laws intended to ensure equality for racial and other minorities, at the same time invoking evangelical Christianity as the primary motive for all of its policies?
* Alone among Western nations preserves capital punishment, even seeking to try alleged murderers in states where, upon conviction, the likelihood of execution is most probable?
* Threatens the civil rights of individual citizens by expanding its surveillance and policing powers, including pressuring libraries to release to federal authorities the reading records of library patrons?
* Conspires to consolidate media control - and thereby dissemination of "news" information - among corporate leviathans lavishly invested in perpetuating the incumbent party's political power?
Footnote: Fascism: "A philosophy of government that stresses the primacy and glory of the state ... obedience to its leader, subordination of the individual will to the state's authority ... suppression of dissent. Martial virtues are celebrated, while liberal democratic values are denigrated ... led by charismatic leaders who represented to their publics the strength that could rescue their nation from political and economic conditions." - Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia.
posted on June 15, 2003 11:09:51 AM new...you are making a misinformed judgement, but how could you not...
What in the world does that mean?
"fas-cism (fash'iz'em) n.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."American Heritage Dictionary
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What luck for the leaders that men do not think. - Adolph Hitler
[ edited by profe51 on Jun 15, 2003 11:11 AM ]
posted on June 15, 2003 03:56:02 PM new
Those are some great points skylite, but many countries are guilty of the same things, not just the U.S. It's the people that are willing to speak out against the status quo who are the checks and balances for that country, and eventually, the people will win out. Besides, all this just happened since Bush became President.
posted on June 16, 2003 04:55:41 AM new
It started going down hill from ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
He also started a war with lies and suspended Habeous Corpus. All the original colonies had been very careful in joining the union to preserve their soveriegnty. All understood they could leave. The civil war was nothing less than a war on the independance of the states and since he won through deciet, lies, and hidden military action taken without Congress. - he got to write the history that said it was a good thing.
Slavery was dying anyway - it was a dead issue except as a convenience like WOMD.
Drifting? How about plunging from the sky like an airliner with it's wings torn off?
posted on June 16, 2003 06:49:09 AM newMueller responding to heat from ACLU etc....
Mueller said the FBI had redoubled its dedication to upholding citizens' rights under the Constitution, although is still its top priority. Some secrecy is necessary in combating terror, he said, but many concerns about infringement of rights have been overblown.
For instance, Mueller said the FBI has only investigated patrons' use of library books and computers when probing specific individuals with court-approved warrants, rather than using random sweeps that critics fear
"The FBI will be judged not just on how we effectively disrupt and deter terrorism, but also on how on how we protect the civil liberties and constitutional rights of all Americans," Mueller said. "We must accomplish both, so that future generations can enjoy lives that are both safe and free."
Ashcroft said department policy, "for which we do not apologize,"
is to detain people who are in the country illegally for as long as it takes
to clear them before they are deported.
He also said the Justice Department would investigate allegations
of abuse of the detainees, although 14 of 18 cases referred so far
already have been cleared without any charges being filed.
"We do not stand for abuse," Ashcroft said.
Several Democrats complained about the department's use of the new
anti-terrorism powers. "We are concerned about the way you have
used your powers, the way you have detained immigrants," said Rep.
Maxine Waters
