When Americans No Longer Own America
    By Thom Hartmann
    Common Dreams

    Monday 27 February 2006

    The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality: So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America.

    Through a combination of the "Fast Track" authority pushed for by Reagan and GHW Bush, sweetheart trade deals involving "most favored nation status" for dictatorships like China, and Clinton pushing us into NAFTA and the WTO (via GATT), we've abandoned the principles of tariff-based trade that built American industry and kept us strong for over 200 years.

    The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.

    Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they "restrain trade." Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.

    These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 - meaning that they're going into debt or selling off their assets just to maintain their lifestyle.

    At the same time, federal policy has been to do the same thing at a national level. Because our so-called "free trade" policies have left us with an over $700 billion annual trade deficit, other countries are sitting on huge piles of the dollars we gave them to buy their stuff (via Wal-Mart and other "low cost" retailers). But we no longer manufacture anything they want to buy with those dollars.

    So instead of buying our manufactured goods, they are doing what we used to do with Third World nations - they are buying us, the USA, chunk by chunk. In particular, they want to buy things in America that will continue to produce profits, and then to take those profits overseas where they're invested to make other nations strong. The "things" they're buying are, by and large, corporations, utilities, and natural resources.

    Back in the pre-Reagan days, American companies made profits that were distributed among Americans. They used their profits to build more factories, or diversify into other businesses. The profits stayed in America.

    Today, foreigners awash with our consumer dollars are on a two-decades-long buying spree. The UK's BP bought Amoco for $48 billion - now Amoco's profits go to England. Deutsche Telekom bought VoiceStream Wireless, so their profits go to Germany, which is where most of the profits from Random House, Allied Signal, Chrysler, Doubleday, Cyprus Amax's US Coal Mining Operations, GTE/Sylvania, and Westinghouse's Power Generation profits go as well. Ralston Purina's profits go to Switzerland, along with Gerber's; TransAmerica's profits go to The Netherlands, while John Hancock Insurance's profits go to Canada. Even American Bankers Insurance Group is owned now by Fortis AG in Belgium.

    Foreign companies are buying up our water systems, our power generating systems, our mines, and our few remaining factories. All because "flat world" so-called "free trade" policies have turned us from a nation of wealthy producers into a nation of indebted consumers, leaving the world awash in dollars that are most easily used to buy off big chunks of America. As www.economyincrisis.com notes, US Government statistics indicate the following percentages of foreign ownership of American industry:

• Sound recording industries - 97%
  
• Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage - 79%
  
• Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
  
• Metal ore mining - 65%
  
• Motion picture and video industries - 64%
  
• Wineries and distilleries - 64%
  
• Database, directory, and other publishers - 63%
  
• Book publishers - 63%
  
• Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product - 62%
  
• Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment - 57%
  
• Rubber product - 53%
  
• Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing - 53%
  
• Plastics and rubber products manufacturing - 52%
  
• Plastics product - 51%
  
• Other insurance related activities - 51%
  
• Boiler, tank, and shipping container - 50%
  
• Glass and glass product - 48%
  
• Coal mining - 48%
  
• Sugar and confectionery product - 48%
  
• Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying - 47%
  
• Advertising and related services - 41%
  
• Pharmaceutical and medicine - 40%
  
• Clay, refractory, and other nonmetallic mineral products - 40%
  
• Securities brokerage - 38%
  
• Other general purpose machinery - 37%
  
• Audio and video equipment mfg and reproducing magnetic and optical media - 36%
  
• Support activities for mining - 36%
  
• Soap, cleaning compound, and toilet preparation - 32%
  
• Chemical manufacturing - 30%
  
• Industrial machinery - 30%
  
• Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities - 30%
  
• Other food - 29%
  
• Motor vehicles and parts - 29%
  
• Machinery manufacturing - 28%
  
• Other electrical equipment and component - 28%
  
• Securities and commodity exchanges and other financial investment activities - 27%
  
• Architectural, engineering, and related services - 26%
  
• Credit card issuing and other consumer credit - 26%
  
• Petroleum refineries (including integrated) - 25%
  
• Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments - 25%
  
• Petroleum and coal products manufacturing - 25%
  
• Transportation equipment manufacturing - 25%
  
• Commercial and service industry machinery - 25%
  
• Basic chemical - 24%
  
• Investment banking and securities dealing - 24%
  
• Semiconductor and other electronic component - 23%
  
• Paint, coating, and adhesive - 22%
  
• Printing and related support activities - 21%
  
• Chemical product and preparation - 20%
  
• Iron, steel mills, and steel products - 20%
  
• Agriculture, construction, and mining machinery - 20%
  
• Publishing industries - 20%
  
• Medical equipment and supplies - 20%

    Thus it shouldn't surprise us that the cons have sold off our ports as well, and will defend it to the bitter end. They truly believe that a "New World Order" with multinational corporations in charge instead of sovereign governments will be the answer to the problem of world instability. And therefore they must do away with quaint things like unions, a healthy middle class, and, ultimately, democracy.

    The "security" implications of turning our ports over to the UAE are just the latest nail in what the cons hope will be the coffin of American democracy and the American middle class. Today's conservatives believe in rule by inherited wealth and an internationalist corporate elite, and things like a politically aroused citizenry and a healthy democracy are pesky distractions.

    Everything today is driven by profits for multinationals, supported by the lawmaking power of the WTO. Thus, parts for our missiles are now made in China, a country that last year threatened us with nuclear weapons. Our oil comes from a country that birthed a Wahabist movement that ultimately led to 14 Saudi citizens flying jetliners into the World Trade buildings and the Pentagon. Germans now own the Chrysler auto assembly lines that turned out tanks to use against Germany in WWII. And the price of labor in America is being held down by over ten million illegal workers, a situation that was impossible twenty-five years ago when unions were the first bulwark against dilution of the American labor force.

    When Thomas Jefferson wrote of King George III in the Declaration of Independence, "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation…" he just as easily could have been writing of the World Trade Organization, which now has the legal authority to force the United States to overturn laws passed at both local, state, and federal levels with dictates devised by tribunals made up of representatives of multinational corporations. If Dubai loses in the American Congress, their next stop will almost certainly be the WTO.

    As Simon Romero and Heather Timmons noted in The New York Times on 24 February 2006, "the international shipping business has evolved in recent years to include many more containers with consumer goods, in addition to old-fashioned bulk commodities, and that has helped lift profit margins to 30 percent, from the single digits. These smartly managed foreign operators now manage about 80 percent of port terminals in the United States."

    And those 30 percent profits from American port operations now going to Great Britain will probably soon go to the United Arab Emirates, a nation with tight interconnections to both the Bush administration and the Bush family.

    Ultimately, it's not about security - it's about money. In the multinational corporatocracy's "flat world," money trumps the national good, community concerns, labor interests, and the environment. NAFTA, CAFTA, and WTO tribunals can - and regularly do - strike down local and national laws. Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" are replaced by Antonin Scalia's "Rights of Corporate Persons."

    Profits even trump the desire for good enough port security to avoid disasters that may lead to war. After all, as Judith Miller wrote in The New York Times on January 30, 1991, quoting a local in Saudi Arabia: "War is good for business."

    -------

    Thom Hartmann is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author of over a dozen books and the host of a nationally syndicated noon-3pm ET daily progressive talk show syndicated by Air America Radio. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are What Would Jefferson Do? and Ultimate Sacrifice.

 More from : http://www.buzzflash.com

Okay so the UAE was one of only three governments to recognize the Taliban, and the UAE royals have been pals and houseguests of Osama bin Laden, and the gold that was used to finance the 9/11 attack was transfered through Dubai, and the government has a history of giving a nod and a wink to terrorists "traveling" through the country, and two of the 9/11 hijackers were from the UAE, and...

Oh, well, "1984" is fiction no longer.  There is no truth in the Bushevik Administration. There is no history.  There is only the twisted government lie of the day.

And it all adds up to betraying the American people. 

The Busheviks have made America numb and passive as a result of lying so frequently -- and with such abandon -- that it has become the coin of the realm.

Now, like Jim Jones, they are giving us our cups of arsenic laced Kool-Aid, by paying the financiers and supporters of terrorism to protect us from terrorists.

And shouldn't port protection be a U.S. government role anyway? Why are we outsourcing our national security and billions of dollars to a foreign government, let alone one that plays footsy with Al-Qaeda?

You're not supposed to ask, you know.  It might get you a face full of birdshot.

First of all, why isn't our own government responsible for protecting our ports? Isn't it hypocrisy to outsource our national security? Oh, we forgot, it's the Bush Administration, whose motto is, "It doesn't have to make sense, buddy. Just try and stop me." George W. Bush, Now and Forever, the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Surprise, Surprise: UAE gave $1 million to Bush library 2/24

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8184.shtml
 
 
From Capitol Hill Blue

The Rant
Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer
Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyerBy DOUG THOMPSON
Feb 22, 2006, 07:35

A written report from Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago says Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting.

Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited "visible signs" of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions, the report said.
According to those who have read the report and talked with others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up.

We talked with a number of administration officials who are privy to inside information on the Vice President's shooting "accident" and all admit Secret Service agents and others saw Cheney consume far more than the "one beer' he claimed he drank at lunch earlier that day.

"This was a South Texas hunt," says one White House aide. "Of course there was drinking. There's always drinking. Lots of it."

Cheney has a long history of alcohol abuse, including two convictions of driving under the influence when he was younger. Doctors tell me that someone like Cheney, who is taking blood thinners because of his history of heart attacks, could get legally drunk now after consuming just one drink.

If Cheney was legally drunk at the time of the shooting, he could be guilty of a felony under Texas law and the shooting, ruled an accident by a compliant Kenedy County Sheriff, would be a prosecutable offense.

But we will never know for sure because the owners of the Armstrong Ranch, where the shooting occurred, barred the sheriff's department from the property on the day of the shooting and Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III agreed to wait until the next day to send deputies in to talk to those involved.

Sheriff's Captain Charles Kirk says he went to the Armstrong Ranch immediately after the shooting was reported on Saturday, February 11 but both he and a game warden were not allowed on the 50,000-acre property.  He called Salinas who told him to forget about it and return to the station.

"I told him don't worry about it. I'll make a call," Salinas said. The sheriff claims he called another deputy who moonlights at the Armstrong ranch, said he was told it was "just an accident" and made the decision to wait until Sunday to investigate.

"We've known these people for years. They are honest and wouldn't call us, telling us a lie," Salinas said.

Like all elected officials in Kenedy County, Salinas owes his job to the backing and financial support of Katherine Armstrong, owner of the ranch and the county's largest employer.

"The Armstrongs rule Kenedy County like a fiefdom," says a former employee.

Secret Service officials also took possession of all tests on Whittington's blood at the hospitals where he was treated for his wounds. When asked if a blood alcohol test had been performed on Whittington, the doctors who treated him at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi or the hospital in Kingsville refused to answer. One admits privately he was ordered by the Secret Service to "never discuss the case with the press."

It's a sure bet that is a private doctor who treated the victim of Cheney's reckless and drunken actions can't talk to the public then the memo that shows the Vice President was drunk as a skunk will never see the light of day.

Comment on this story

© Copyright 2005 Capitol Hill Blue

Memo From Ken Mehlman Click here for more of Mark Spittle's satirical take on what constitutes treason from a GOP perspective.

From RNC Chair Ken Mehlman For immediate release February 19, 2006 To my friends and fellow loyal Party activists: As you know, treason is a very serious offense. In many cases, it is punishable by death. Unfortunately, this ultimate penalty is doing little to dissuade our Liberal enemies from participating in both acts of treason against the United States, and – worse yet – accusing our own Party members of that very same act. In order to help Party members better communicate, understand and defend against the concept of treason, I am circulating this talking point memo on the Party’s official positions on treason. This table intends to educate you on what the Party feels is, and what is not, treason as we understand our nation’s laws and Constitution. Treason Is Not… Treason Is … … outing an undercover CIA agent currently fighting the War on Terror, specifically doing so for political advantage. … revealing to the public the secret, unconstitutional, warrantless wiretapping of American citizens by the government. … ignoring official, written Presidential Briefing Memos on Osama bin Laden’s planned terrorist attacks on US soil. … trying to bomb Osama bin Laden in Sudan, and only hitting a milk factory. … lying to the American People and the United Nations about WMD’s in a foreign country that clearly didn’t have them, except for what we gave them when we had the White House last time. … lying about a blowjob. ... torturing the enemy, people we think are the enemy, or just people who look like the enemy. ... torturing the White House Press Secretary with really uncomfortable questions. ... moving suspects to foreign countries where we can torture them in secret. ... catching the White House Press Secretary in the hallway and torturing him with more questions. ... the VP saying "Go fuck yourself" to a Democrat. ... a celebrity making a joke about Jack Abramoff's name. … creating false controversy for thirty years about a Democrat failing to report a car accident for eight hours. …creating real controversy for five days after the VP shoots an old man in the face while hunting drunk, and fails to report it for twenty four hours. … nation-building in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Israel. … nation-building in the Balkans. … giving Iraq the tacit approval to invade Kuwait and then using that as a pretense to invade them later. … removing the “w” keys from the typewriters before transition of power to a new Administration. … rigging electronic voting machines to ensure Democrats never again hold the White House. … getting Black people out to vote by providing them bus rides to polling stations. … supporting GOP spokespeople who call for the assassination of Liberal Supreme Court Justices, Democratic ex-Presidents, or any other enemy of the Party. … being mean to the Vice President by bringing up his accidental shooting of an old man in the face. … invading a country that had nothing to do with an attack on US soil, while befriending the country that did, and secreting away members of that country’s family to avoid any entanglements after said attack. … failing to invade a country that had nothing to do with the attack on the USS Cole. … using American taxpayer money to support anti-US governments and prop up military regimes which we will later have to fight, rather than helping find homes for hurricane victims. … using US taxpayer money on social programs like literacy, education or construction of proper levees in flood prone regions. … selling the control of US ports to the nations directly involved in the terrorist attacks on US soil. … going to China on a fundraiser. … giving US tax revenue to companies once run by the Vice President, and supporting that effort by cutting veteran’s benefits, limiting active duty soldier salaries, and cutting funding for body armor. … giving tax breaks to the poor. ... obtaining funding and promotion from Churches, even ones that call for the assassination of other world leaders. ... obtaining funding or promotion from Labor unions or other organizations that try to raise the minimum wage. ... Watergate. ... Whitewater. ... ethical violations by multiple members of the Party in all houses and branches of the government, thereby undermining the political process. ... doing a rebel yell during a campaign speech.

This message is a follow up to the previous message asking where the Democrats' Newt Gingrich is.  The two articles excerpted below talk about what Democrats need to do to rescue our country from the right-wing elites.

BuzzFlash.com

February 7, 2006

Thom Hartmann Brings Context to Today's Political Frays

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

…Thom Hartmann is a regular contributor to BuzzFlash through his illuminating "Independent Thinker" book review column. He also hosts a syndicated radio talk show, heard from coast to coast on the Sirius Satellite Radio system, on CRN, on Air America, and on RadioPower.org. What's more, Hartmann is the award-winning author of such books as Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights; We The People: A Call to Take Back America; and What Would Jefferson Do?...

Sometimes you just want to grab these Democratic consultants and shake them. The meme that the Republicans get out is that the nature of an elite is to have pointy-headed intellectuals decide what’s best for you. And that’s actually a pretty good meme, because it can be used against the Republicans to say, "Oh, the Republicans want pointy-headed intellectuals like the insurance companies' actuaries to decide what doctors you see. The Republicans want pointy-headed intellectuals at Dow Chemical to decide what pesticides are going to be in your food…

So all you have to do is just nudge that meme or that frame a little bit, and all of a sudden, it comes crashing down on top of the Republicans…

Look at how many times the Republicans have said, over and over and over again, starting back in the sixties, that government is bad. "Government is not the solution. You don’t want government taking care of things." Without saying the obvious, that, "Therefore, let’s replace government with corporate governance. Instead of the people’s elected officials, let’s replace government answerable to the people with corporate boards of directors."

They didn't win early on. They lost a lot! How many times did the Republicans have to say that before the Americans actually began to believe it? It was an entire generation. A full generation!

The Democrats have, at least since Clinton came along, stopped speaking up for traditional progressive and democratic values. They've stopped using every debate as an opportunity to speak out on behalf of those values.

That’s why the average person is uncertain of Democratic and liberal values…

The Left Coaster

Saturday :: Feb 18, 2006

All Bets are Off

… Our elected Democrats have a unique, historical duty to save the country or be forever, irrevocably known as the clueless clowns who stood there and let it happen.

Elected federal, state, and county Democrats, their staffs and consultants, know this: when the god-awful bills come due for Bush’s felonies history will give equal weight in their occurrence to both the Republicans and Democrats, the berserk felons and their sick enablers. I will be a very loud active participant in that process.

History could write that after five years the Democrats woke up, saved the country and retook Congress this year. If y’all want to proclaim a cohesive strategy, form a media attack team and ask for help from the blogosphere I am so with you, comprades. I will write and donate and protest, register voters, talk to everyone I can. I won’t give up my job and my life, no, but I will do everything I possibly can.

Nothing can be done about what Bush and Cheney attempt, but we as a party can easily stop them. That’s why I’m so hard on our own people, it’s totally within our power to have a strategy, a media attack team and task requests for the blogs. All bets are off, Democratic Party, so get brave and unified. The vast consequences hinging on your behavior this year will forever be known and recorded.

[And I will be very seriously pissed off if this effort gets going and doesn’t include me.  I’VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR FIVE YEARS!!!­Caro]

Lots more really good stuff at MakeThemAccountable.com.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Excerpt: How to Steal an Election

By Andrew Gumbel, AlterNet
Posted on February 15, 2006, Printed on February 16, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/32084/

[Editor's Note: This is an edited excerpt from Steal This Vote by Andrew Gumbel, published by Nation Books.]

If you do everything, you'll win. -- Lyndon Johnson

A few days before the November 2004 election, Jimmy Carter was asked what would happen if, instead of flying to Zambia or Venezuela or East Timor, his widely respected international election monitoring team was invited to turn its attention to the United States. His answer was stunningly blunt. Not only would the voting system be regarded as a failure, he said, but the shortcomings were so egregious the Carter Center would never agree to monitor an election there in the first place. "We wouldn't think of it," the former president told a radio interviewer. "The American political system wouldn't measure up to any sort of international standards, for several reasons."  

E-voting is so much easier to compromise than ballot box voting that it isn't funny.  Additionally, ballot boxes have to be stuffed one by one, but computerized machines in a given jurisdiction can all be compromised at once.  Help America Vote Act indeed!  Just another Orwellian nightmare.
 

Statisticians Recommend New Measures to Ensure Vote Count Accuracy and Release 'Ohio’s 2004 Exit Poll Analysis for Novices'

Why should Americans care about possible 2004 vote miscounts? The 2004 election is over. It’s old news. The only reason for rehashing prior elections is to ensure that our votes are counted the way voters intend in the future. Should Americans trust that our votes are counted accurately; or is wholesale electronic election tampering occurring? How could the evidence of vote tampering be hidden? Is the future of democracy and U.S. elections at stake? The U.S. press has dismissed exit polls as surprisingly inaccurate in the 2004 presidential election when exit polls conflicted with official vote counts. Were Exit Polls Wrong or Vote Counts Altered? 

Read more...

We are a nation controlled by big oil corporations. This is more proof of corporate fascism. ~H.I.T.

BUSH: 'OIL COMPANIES AREN'T MAKING ENOUGH MONEY': "The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years," the New York Times reports today. "New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government."

George W. Bush actually said this in his state of the union address last week. Have we Americans completely been taken over by religious cooks?~Hello in there

"Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research:  human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos.  Human life is a gift from our Creator -- and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale." GWB  * * * * State of the Union 2006 * * * *

This morning I am meeting with a group that is working to change

the Democratic leadership in our Tarrant County , Texas

What are you doing to save Democracy?~ Hello in there

Doreen for Change Home
Campaign to elect Doreen Geiger as Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair.
Includes campaign platform, links, and contact information.

The latest from

http://www.buzzflash.com

With Clinton, the radical Republican coup plotters tried for years to pin illegal activity on him -- with the help of the media and led by Ken Starr -- but came up with nothing until they found a blow job.

With Bush, all the illegal and unethical activity, along with the stunning incompetence and dereliction of duty, are out in the open and in the public record, thanks, in part, to courageous whistle blowers.

Harry Reid and other Democratic Senators keep saying we need an investigation.

We don't need investigations, which the Republicans continue to prevent anyway; all the evidence we need is right out there in the open.

We just need outrage, conviction, and an opposition party that goes out across America and tells our fellow citizens the truth about corruption in the White House and the Republican Party -- along with the severe danger that the Bush Administration's bumbling ineptitude poses to our national security.

Americans want the truth and they want to survive.  The Bush Administration is a daily threat to both, and it's all out there for everybody to say.  The Dems just need to hammer the point home in the Heartland, with conviction and a unified message.

The rest will happen because of a voter revolt come November.  But only if the Democratic leadership becomes evangelists for saving democracy and protecting our nation from the elitist foces of tyranny in the White House and their rubber stamp GOP majority in Congress.

President Bush's marks on overall job approval and for handling the economy are mired near their lowest levels despite a spike in consumer confidence over the past month, an AP-Ipsos poll found. If the Democrats Blow This, Once Again, It's Time to Conduct a Revolution in the Democratic Party Leadership. In Fact, It's the Only Thing That Will Give the Dems in D.C. a Spine. We'll Have to Import the Talent from the Grassroots.

A Message from Randi Rhodes, hear her on Air America, HOME: The Randi Rhodes Show on Air America Radio For 8 years I listened to a drug-addled Rush Limbaugh and his cadre of wannabes call me a Communist. In their twisted logic peace, prosperity, fiscal and social responsibility, smaller government, merit over cronyism, personal privacy, and homeland security through competence and vigilance somehow equated to Cold War era Soviet Union governance...I know, it makes ZERO sense but consider the source. If Limbaugh & Co. truly would like to study real domestic parallels to oppressive 20th Century governments, they could start with Dr. Lawrence Britt's 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism, which I have provided below. This is a big break from the usual format of my newsletter but I believe that you'll appreciate the info. Thanks for listening! Love ALLways, Randi

Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), 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 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. 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. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations. 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. The above is a summery of the more detailed orignal article "Fascism Anyone?" first published in Spring 2003 edition of Free Inquiry

Frightening, Cindy, absolutely frightening.
The Raw Story

Capitol police admit they did wrong.
Reuters

Capitol police apologize to activist Sheehan

The State of the Union....

No freedom here in the U.S.

First amendment ha! Not under

the fascist rigime of GWB.

Read about Cindy Sheehans arrest :

Cindy Sheehan: What Really Happened
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0201-01.htm

Response to State of the Union by Howard Dean:

Remember this? "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Those are George Bush's famous 16 words from his 2003 State of the Union address, delivered less than two months before he sent troops into war in Iraq.

They were false. Three years later Americans are still demanding answers on the manipulation of intelligence by an administration eager to start a war.

Americans have a lot of questions that went unanswered tonight. When George Bush delivered his State of the Union address, he had a big megaphone and the world's attention. He had the opportunity to regain some degree of credibility with the American people -- more than half of whom disapprove of his performance as president. But he failed to answer the real questions ordinary Americans have about the state of our union: