Fascism Watch

I mean, isn't there something nightmarish about our misleader swooping down on a steaming pit of testosterone and sweat and whipping a throng of brown-shirted youths into a nationalistic frenzy?
Rick Mercier

The Boy Scouts certainly need to change the color of their uniforms.

Bush Has "No Conscience"

And so president Bush came marching in, to make a long story short, came marching in to the room, got right in my face, eyeball-to-eyeball, nose-to-nose this close, toe-to-toe and he said, "I'm George Bush, President of the United States, and I understand you have something to say to me privately.' And I said, 'Yes, I do respect the office of the presidency of the United States, but I want to tell you how it feels to lose your only child in a cause that you don't believe in, in an unnecessary war.
Dolores Kesterson, Gold Star Mother

Here we have another story of a grieving mother who lost a child in Iraq who was later creeped out after meeting the president. He is a frightening, terrifying, megalomaniac and we will all pay dearly before the constitution forces him to go back to Texas in January 2009.

Now we know that he can't even pretend to have any empathy for the mothers of soldiers he sent to die. Mrs. Kesterson also had this to say.

But my personal feeling is that he really doesn't have a conscience about all this death and destruction. That was the essence I took away after looking him in the eyes and meeting with him—there's just no conscience there.

White Guy with Bomb

After the London bombings we were told that racial profiling is not only OK, but it is necessary. No point in screening white grandmas when we know that bombers are all brown skinned Muslim men.

Well, not so fast. A very white man was caught trying to bring a bomb on board a plane in Oklahoma City. The FBI says that Charles Alfred Dreyling, Jr. has no known connection to any terrorist organization. That remains to be seen. Lest we forget, there are white supremacy terror groups operating openly in the U.S. and they have bombs.

How can we forget Timothy McVeigh? What about William Krar? Never heard of Krar? Thanks to the corporate media, the story of Krar's possession of over 100 cyanide bombs has been largely unreported.

So let's keep screening everyone. A lot of red blooded white Americans are walking around with bombs.

Fascism Has Arrived

A few months ago I wrote a Black Commentator column entitled, "Fascism: Are We There Yet?" Well, it seems there is no longer a need for rhetorical questions. The answer is a definite yes. The U.S. military has devised plans, CONPLAN 2002 and CONPLAN 0500, (sound like movie titles), that will allow them to take control in the event of terror attacks.

If this news doesn't give you the creeps then you aren't thinking clearly. Check out this less than comforting piece of information.

But the new plans provide for what several senior officers acknowledged is the likelihood that the military will have to take charge in some situations, especially when dealing with mass-casualty attacks that could quickly overwhelm civilian resources.

I for one don't trust Donald Rumsfeld to call out the troops to "help" me. This week we were told that the 9/11 Commission hasn't received any of the documents it requested from the White House and that some of the hijackers were known to military intelligence but were allowed to roam freely.

What a neat trick. You allow a terror attack to take place and then use it to justify invading other countries and putting the American people under military control.

Fascism is here.

The Times Gets the Goods on Judith Miller

"I gather that Doug Jehl, who is a dogged and respected reporter, has been assigned to do an in-house investigative report for the Times and that he is already cutting pretty close to the bone. Several editors he has spoken to are now asking themselves why there wasn't more questioning of whether Miller's silence reflects a fear of incriminating herself rather than betraying a source. I predict this will start to unravel in the next couple of weeks -- if only because the Times is afraid of getting scooped again by outside rivals."

Hmm. You can tell the truth for the sake of telling the truth or you can tell the truth because you don't want someone else to tell it first. I suppose we should take our victories wherever we can get them.

It will all come out. In all probability Judith Miller is not in jail to protect a source. She is in jail to protect herself from incrimination. Arrianna Huffington keeps getting the goods on Miller and on the Times too.

Robin Cook's Resignation Speech

We cannot base our military strategy on the assumption that Saddam is weak and at the same time justify pre-emptive action on the claim that he is a threat.

Well, if that isn't good old fashioned common sense I don't know what is. Those were some of the late Robin Cook's words as he resigned from Tony Blair's government in 2003.

Robin Cook: A Man of Principle

Robin Cook served as Britain's Foreign Minister until his boss, Tony Blair, formed an unholy alliance with George W. Bush and occupied Iraq. Cook resigned his position in protest. He died suddenly on Saturday but his courage should not be forgotten.

60th Anniversary of Hiroshima

Many Japanese historians have long judged the Soviet declaration of war to have been the straw that broke the camels back - mainly because the Japanese military feared the Red Army more than the loss of another city by aerial bombardment.

For the past 60 years Americans have been told that vaporizing men, women and children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the only way to end the war with Japan. What a convenient justification for a war crime.

Well, maybe the Soviets should get credit for ending the war. The endless discussions of whether or not the bomb had to be dropped might be useless after all. Common Dreams has a great article on the subject.

Judith Miller

And no fewer than four sources have either e-mailed, called, or, in one case, run up to me on the street to tell me that what I termed Miller's "especially close relationship" with Chief Warrant Officer Richard Gonzales, the leader of the WMD-hunting unit Miller was embedded with during the war, might have been, well, very close indeed.
Arianna Huffington

We already know that Judith Miller is a corrupt journalist who used compromised sources to help the administration in its campaign of lies that led to the deaths of thousands. She may also have been the source who outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. Now it turns out that she may have taken the term "embedded" rather literally. Was she making a little whoopie with the troops in Iraq? Thanks to Arianna Huffington for the heads up.

CNN Suspends Robert Novak

CNN should have suspended Robert Novak long ago. He did out a CIA agent after all. At any rate it took a childish melt down on the air to get CNN to do its job. Novak had a hissy fit and walked off the set during a segment of Inside Politics. Crooks and Liars gives you a peek.

Bolton Booed

Another embarassment for America. Our new UN Ambassador, John Bolton, was booed as he walked in the door. Why was he booed? Perhaps because he made statements like these.

"There is no United Nations. There is an international community that occassionally can be led by the only real power left in the work, and that is the United States, when it suits our interest, and when we can get others to go along."

"The secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If you lost 10 stories today it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

"The United States makes the United Nations work when it wants it to work, and that is exactly the way it should be because the only question for the United States is what is in our national interest."

See the video here.

The Murder of Jean Charles de Menezes

No turnstile jumping, no bulky jacket. The London cops lied about killing this man. They had to lie. They knew they killed an innocent person almost immediately and they had to lie to insulate themselves from criticism. I wonder if they even yelled at him to stop? We will find out that every public statement made after the shooting was a lie.

Can I Get an Amen

So where are the Christian leaders when it comes to violent actions by our Western leaders? Where are the televangelists, who every Sunday take over the airwaves to trumpet the message of Jesus, when it comes to taking on bunker busting bombs and mass carnage?

Good questions from Calvin White at the Common Dreams web site.

DLC is for Suckers

And that's when we get to the real problem with the DLC -- its policies are BOTH morally bankrupt, and politically disastrous. The rise of the DLC within the Democratic Party has coincided almost perfectly with the decline of the Democratic Party's power in American politics -- a decline that took Democrats from seemingly permanent majority status to permanent minority status.
David Sirota

GOP Bribes Blacks to Run

Don't believe the hype about blacks becoming Republicans. The GOP loves to use black people for photo ops to make themselves look like "compassionate conservatives." In Maryland they had to bribe a black person to run for office. Lt. Governor Michael Steele was paid to be a Republican "consultant" when he ran for office. Yes, they had to pay him to get him to run.

The DLC is a Joke

Bush's approval ratings are at an all time low, in large part because the public has turned against the occupation of Iraq. What does the Democratic Leadership Conference do in response to their opponent being on the ropes? They say we need to send more troops to Iraq.

Progressives should not be intimidated into supporting them. They are losers. The lesser of two evils argument doesn't work because this "evil" side is incapable of winning. So don't worry about them. Don't back the next Kerryesque empty suit. They will lose. Go ahead and say what you want and do what you want. Forget the DLC.

Christians Must Apologize to Muslims

"The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out."
Editor and Publisher

A federal judge ordered the Defense Department to reveal all of the photos and video footage of the Abu Ghraib abuse, torture and rape. Secretary Rumsfeld has refused to do so, for obvious reasons.

What will Americans say when scenes of sodomy of children are revealed? Will Christians apologize to Muslims? We need should. George W. Bush has received millions of votes because he calls himself a Christian. Christians must condemn him and beg the Muslim world for forgiveness.

I'm sure that most people aren't ready to do this, but that is just too bad. It is the only right thing to do after our Christian president kills and tortures thousands of Muslims.

Police Brutality in London, or New York

If you are stopped by the police, stay calm and in control. Remember, anything you say or do can be used against you. You might be arrested for provoking or bad-mouthing police, resisting physically, or running away. Use your judgment; the police might arrest you even if they are not legally justified in doing so.
New York Civil Liberties Union website

Jean Charles de Menezes was a Brazilian living in London. He is now dead. London police shot him five times in the head and torso as he ran to catch the subway.

The itchy trigger fingered were looking for would be bombers. As always happens they killed an innocent person. Now we in New York can look forward to police searches of our belongings in the subway. That is bad news for anybody colored.

When black people need police protection we are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. I am terrified of a bombing taking place in the New York subway system that I use every day. I am also terrified because our encounters with cops usually don't end well, to put it mildly. There will obviously be increases in brutality, or in disrespectful and humiliating treatment.

The New York Civil Liberties Union believes that the searches violate the fourth amendment, which protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures. They have also asked for commuters to contact the NYCLU about their experience with police subway searches. It is essential that we keep the police honest. We don't want to end up like Mr. de Menezes, may he rest in peace.

Charles Evers Lies

Charles Evers is the worst of the worst. He is a black conservative who uses the name of his dead brother, Medgar Evers, to further the right wing cause. Today he used Alternet, asserting that he is a Republican because he wants to work for change from the inside.

Evers has a long history of supporting Republican racists, like Trent Lott and judge Charles Pickering. He may have also been an informant for the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, America's own version of the KGB and Stasi. The Commission spied on over 87,000 Mississippians who threatened that state's "way of life," that is to say segregation and terror. Here are the chilling words from Evers own mouth.

"I wascooperating with the Sovereignty Commission from the point of negotiation,"Evers said. "It wasn't that I was going to tell on somebody. It was, 'We'regoing to march at eleven o'clock tomorrow, governor, and I want someone there toprotect my people.'" He added, "I guess they're trying to say that I was playingboth sides. Well, I'll play three sides if necessary.... Whatever it took, Iwould do that. I had enough of my people lynched; I had enough of themistreatment; I had enough of 'em beaten and denied the right just to go andvote or get a damn drink of water. Whatever I could do on my part, if it meantkissin' ass, I'd kiss ass."

According to the Commission's own documents he was "in the palm of our hands." Evers claims of innocence are hard to swallow and so are his claims of working to change the Republican party. He is either an opportunist or a true believer in the right wing cause. Either way he is not to be believed now.

John Conyers Downing Street Minutes House Parties

This Saturday, 7/23, Rep. John Conyers is sponsoring house parties across the country to spur action on the Downing Street Minutes. Sign up to attend or host at Conyers website.