Worth Reposting

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

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

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Courageous Carter?

President Carter has been quietly keeping the peace for years (here and around the world), speaking out only when he has something important to say. Though he may not have been one of the greatest Presidents ever, he was a hell of a lot better than the current one, and President Bush could certainly benefit from the wisdom of his experience. I am concerned that he has apologized for the harshness of his statements. If a former President who knows the pressures of the job can’t criticize, who can?

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dying in the streets of Baghdad and all over their occupied country for a war that has no reason. Their country has descended into chaos and our young men and women (though women are never shown in combat on the news) are coming home in boxes or being kidnapped off the streets. Will people ask why when the war is over, or will we retreat from finding answers in the interest of “healing the nation”?

The Iraqi Parliament is drawing up plans for a quick US withdraw. Why aren’t we doing that instead of considering a LONG TERM PLAN? And remember: Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

In His Own Words…

By Donald Hudson Jr., 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

BAGHDAD, May 12 — My name is Donald Hudson Jr. I have been serving our country’s military actively for the last three years. I am currently deployed to Baghdad on Forward Operating Base Loyalty, where I have been for the last four and a half months.
I came here as part of the first wave of this so called “troop surge”, but so far it has effectively done nothing to quell insurgent violence. I have seen the rise in violence between the Sunni and Shiite. This country is in the middle of a civil war that has been on going since the seventh century.

Why are we here when this country still to date does not want us here? Why does our president’s personal agenda consume him so much, that he can not pay attention to what is really going on here?

Let me tell you a story. On May 10, I was out on a convoy mission to move barriers from a market to a joint security station. It was no different from any other night, except the improvised explosive device that hit our convoy this time, actually pierced through the armor of one of our trucks. The truck was immediately engulfed in flames, the driver lost control and wrecked the truck into one of the buildings lining the street. I was the driver of the lead truck in our convoy; the fifth out of six was the one that got hit. All I could hear over the radio was a friend from the sixth truck screaming that the fifth truck was burning up real bad, and that they needed fire extinguishers real bad. So I turned my truck around and drove through concrete barriers to get to the burning truck as quickly as I could. I stopped 30 meters short of the burning truck, got out and ripped my fire extinguisher out of its holder, and ran to the truck. I ran past another friend of mine on the way to the burning truck, he was screaming something but I could not make it out. I opened the driver’s door to the truck and was immediately overcome by the flames. I sprayed the extinguisher into the door, and then I saw my roommate’s leg. He was the gunner of that truck. His leg was across the driver’s seat that was on fire and the rest of his body was further in the truck. My fire extinguisher died and I climbed into the truck to attempt to save him. I got to where his head was, in the back passenger-side seat. I grabbed his shoulders and attempted to pull him from the truck out the driver’s door. I finally got him out of the truck head first. His face had been badly burned. His leg was horribly wounded. We placed him on a spine board and did our best to attempt “Buddy Aid”. We heard him trying to gasp for air. He had a pulse and was breathing, but was not responsive. He was placed into a truck and rushed to the “Green Zone”, where he died within the hour. His name was Michael K. Frank. He was 36 years old. He was a great friend of mine and a mentor to most of us younger soldiers here.

Now I am still here in this country wondering why, and having to pick up the pieces of what is left of my friend in our room. I would just like to know what is the true reason we are here? This country poses no threat to our own. So why must we waste the lives of good men on a country that does not give a damn about itself? Most of my friends here share my views, but do not have the courage to say anything.

Donald C. Hudson Jr. is a private assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. E-mail: donaldchudsonjr@yahoo.com.

You Prey on Me

Dave posted the lyrics to a Timbuc3 song called “Prey” and I think it pretty much sums up my feelings on religion as well as the death of Jerry Falwell. The teaching of world religions in schools is something I advocate, and even teaching electives on each of the major religions would be acceptable in public schools, but teaching classes in which particular emphasis is given to one of the sects of Christianity and its accepted version of the bible is not allowed by the US Constitution and should not be happening in Texas. A school district in Louisiana didn’t see the need to separate church and state when they allowed bibles to be distributed to children inside the school. It seems that James Dobson is stepping up to the Falwell plate by denouncing Giuliani. I have my own reasons for doing the same, but Dobson’s saying that if Giuliani is nominated, he may not vote for anyone. So, let’s get Giuliani nominated so that the Religious Right will stay home on election day.

Media Cover-Up

In this article, 20 journalists (such as Dan Rather) describe the ways in which corporate media ownership prevented them from reporting important – and often troubling – stories. Rather than allowing these stories to air and letting the people decide their importance, they were stifled by corporate brass and the threat of pulled sponsorship. Some writers and journalists have even been fired.

Not all of these stories would be detrimental to the government, but they would have an impact on the profits of key government employees. Some expose things like the expensive and pointless war on drugs or the hormones put into our milk supply, but others talk about the detaining of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and voter fraud in the 2000 election. Most important is the reason why all this censorship is possible – the consolidation of the country’s major news outlets.

Let’s not forget that in a fascist government the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives, sometimes under the guise of consumerism. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

Especially this weekend, but as always, take a look at these faces:
3,435 US Soldiers killed in Iraq
25,378 US Soldiers wounded in Iraq

Dishonerable Deceptions

Military recruiters are becoming even more desperate as young people show their distaste for the war by not joining the military. Recruitment numbers are down, ROTC enrollment is low, and Uncle Sam wants anybody, and I mean ANYBODY to pick up a gun and point it at Iraqis.

A man who had been discharged from the Army a decade ago for suicidal feelings (not to mention talking to himself) during boot camp was allowed to try again and killed himself as a result. Military personnel are resulting to telling new recruits to lie on forms and top Army officials are becoming fed up with these practices, but not the reason recruiters are resorting to them.

We’re recruiting gang members and the mentally ill to serve in our military while young, healthy men and women refuse to even acknowledge that a recruiter is speaking to them. I wonder why that is? Have the youth of this country finally decided that they do not want to go to war? Are they tried of being raised in a nation where violence and war is the norm? Probably not. My guess is that they’re just too egotistical to dedicated their lives to anything bigger than themselves. But at least they’re not joining the Army.

Sicko

Michael Moore’s next film, Sicko, will be premiering at the Cannes film festival on June 29th. This film is being blocked by the Bush Administration because Moore visited Cuba with 10 first responders from 9/11 for a segment for the film. They were there to receive treatment that they could not get in the US due to the Bush Administration’s denial that anything was wrong with the air around ground zero in the days directly following the demolition of the Twin Towers. Whatever your personal feelings about Michael Moore, it has to be acknowledged that there are very few reporters, journalists, and documentarians asking the questions he’s asking. I hate that he is my only source of information when it comes to the answers to these questions. He has his own agenda, of course, but NO ONE ELSE IS ASKING. And before you say, “Well, he went to Cuba, and that’s illegal,” please remember that Oliver Stone got to go, as did Stephen Spielberg.

Our media is conspicuously absent from this administration. Controlled mass media is a symptom of a fascist nation. Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common. Here is the very least you can do to get the word out to as many poeple as possible that this Administration has to go.

UPDATE: At the screening of ‘Sicko’ several journalists and critics admitted to crying, and even Fox News gvae the film a good review.

Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

Vietnam SyndromeThe consequences of U.S. defeat in Iraq would be much greater than they were in Vietnam.As the war in Iraq drags on into its fifth year, comparisons to the Vietnam War grow more frequent and persuasive. There are some parallels, as there are to all wars, but key differences between Vietnam and Iraq also deserve noting.

As in Vietnam, the United States faces an enemy that cannot be distinguished from the civilian population. A preliminary hearing for Marines charged with killing 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha recalls the U.S. massacre at My Lai.As in Vietnam, the United States is fighting a war that can’t be decisively won because a determined, seemingly inexhaustible enemy would rather die than cease killing.In Iraq, the United States again is allied to a democratic government that cannot successfully defend itself, no matter how much aid it receives. As it did following the Vietnam War, the United States might wind up having to resettle hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who took our side in the war but would risk being murdered if they remained in their country after U.S. withdrawal.Similar to President Lyndon Johnson’s experience, President Bush lost popular American support for the war as U.S. casualties mounted. Like Johnson, Bush is unwilling to withdraw. Repeating the 1960s, it will take a change in leadership to end U.S. combat involvement in Iraq.

In Vietnam, the United States faced a united, determined enemy: communist North Vietnam and its Viet Cong allies. In Iraq, U.S. troops battle a multifaceted enemy: Saddam loyalists, Shiite militias and imported terrorists with ties to al-Qaida. These enemies can hardly be identified, much less decisively defeated or negotiated with.In Vietnam, the United States spent hundreds of billions of dollars, suffered 400,000 casualties and inflicted more than 1 million. In Iraq, the financial cost is almost as high, but U.S. casualties number in the thousands. Iraqi combat and civilian deaths are difficult to calculate but probably exceed 100,000.The most telling difference between the war in Iraq and the one in Vietnam is the most dangerous. When the United States could not prevail in Vietnam, it withdrew, with little consequence to U.S. strategic interests or the regional balance of power. U.S. withdrawal from Iraq could result in another rogue regime bent on anti-Western terrorism and aggression. Alternatively, civil war resulting in complete anarchy and a failed state would offer global terrorists another base from which to operate with impunity.

In some ways, Americans might come to wish the war in Iraq were more like the Vietnam War, not less.

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

He Who Troubleth His Own House…

You are a toxic person. You have done more damage in two weeks than most people can do in two years. You have destroyed my confidence and undermined my trust. You have damaged a future that was on shaky ground to begin with, and for what? You are a selfish woman.

I don’t believe for a second that any of this is innocent. I think it probably is on his part (though he has his share of the blame), but every woman knows, once a manipulator, always a manipulator. You can’t be trusted. If you could be, you would have bowed out when I asked you, without sending him my emails to you. If you really didn’t want anything but friendship from him, you would have walked away when I said you were hurting my marriage. And if it was your intention to stop talking to him, you would have done it without asking him if that’s what he wanted. I know this game. You are purposely pitting him against me.

The kinds of things you have been saying to my husband, regardless of the reasons, are unacceptable. Under no circumstances do you ever tell another woman’s husband that you love him, that if you weren’t separated by an ocean and a continent things might be different, and that you need him. I can’t imagine how your husband could be okay with all that. And if all of this is so innocent, why is it that you haven’t told YOUR husband the extent to which you have been talking to mine? Does he know about the phone calls, the emails, the IMs? How does he feel about your telling another man that you love him?

To Help Save Iraq From Iraqis

If the troop surge is working, why are we sending 35,000 more soldiers to Iraq? And why aren’t the major news outlets reporting that the White House is telling American citizens to brace for higher casualties in Iraq? Vice-President Cheney probably won’t mention it when he meets with the leaders of United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. We have occupied Iraq and we’re killing tens of thousands of civilians in Iraq (many of them children) and Afghanistan. Al-Zawahri has invited President Bush to toast the “success” of his security plan with a glass of orange juice in the middle of the Iraqi Parliment, since it’s obviously sooooo safe. The National Guard couldn’t respond after the tornadoes that ripped apart Kansas because they’re all deployed to Iraq. This HAS to end, and the only way to get it done faster is to Impeach or Protest.