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Recent
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May
7, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Quoting Under the Influence: Breasts,
Martinis, Hitchens
David
Krieger
Winning the War; Alienating the World
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush's Troubling Speech
Bruce Jackson
Bill Kunstler's Last Big Speech
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/07
Website
of the Day
The Truth About Bush's Military Records
May
6, 2003
Paul
de Rooij
An Activist in the Trenches: an Interview
with Gretta Duisenberg
Anthony
Gancarski
Money to Burn: in Defense of Bill Bennett
John
Stanton
Bush's War on Jesus
Sam
Hamod
W. Bush: the Little Snot, the Little
Bully
Robert
Fisk
Bush Says the War is Over: Tell It to
the Shi'a
Kathleen
Christison
A Roadmap to Nowhere
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/06
May
5, 2003
Gary
Leupp
Phase Two: Syria and Iran
Jorge
Mariscal
The Militarization of US Culture
Ishmael
Reed
A Family Values Man
Tarif Abboushi
Sharon's Confidence: Bush Won't Come to Shove on Roadmap
Leila
Matsui
Regime Change Begins at Home...Literally
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Sam
Smith
Coalition of the Shilling
May
3, 2003
Ron
Jacobs
Tears of Rage: Remembering May 1970
Elaine
Cassel
William Bennett, a Freudian Perspective
Sam
Hamod
Understanding the Shi'a of Lebanon
Scott
Fleming
Getting Shot on the Oakland Docks
Mickey
Z.
Cuba and Puerto Rico: 100 Years of Terror
William
S. Lind
Don't Take Col. John Boyd's Name in Vain
Dr.
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The New Nuclear Terrorism Threat
Joanne
Mariner
Cluster Bombs Over Iraq
Anthony
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Hot Fun in the Summertime
Ilian Pappe
Searching Jenin
William
MacDougall
America's Kids Are All Right: Pre-Teen Conservative Commentators
Seth Sandronsky
Incarcerated and Invisible
Rich
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Over Our Dead Bodies
Lenni Brenner
How Bob Dylan Found His Voice
Adam
Engel
American Bulk
Poets'
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Reiss, Guthrie, Albert
Steve
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Bush's War Web Log 5/03
May
2, 2003
Caoimhe
Butterly
Crowd Control American-style
Neve
Gordon
US: No Right to Know About the Disappeared
John
Chuckman
Tom Friedman's Life as a Pet Hamster
Bradley
Burston
Betting on Abu-Mazen...To Lose
Harvey
Wasserman
Bush's Military Defeat
John
Troyer
Question Those Writing History
Saul Landau
The Cuba Conundrum
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/02
Website
of the Day
Moussaoui's
Quiz
May
1, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole
Iain
Boal
A May Day Message to the FCC: "We
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Diana
Johnstone
About Cuba
Sam
Hamod
Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Intelligence Fiasco
Lee Sustar
Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff
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Peter
Linebaugh
May Day at Kut and Kenthal
Stew Albert
Straight Shooters
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Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/01
Website
of the Day
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April
30, 2003
Ashley
Smith
Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History
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Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/30
Gary
Leupp
Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre
Robert
Jensen
Fighting Alienation in the USA
Wayne
Madsen
The Four Horsemen of Propaganda
Ahmad
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Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East
Gabriel
Kolko
Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition
Adolfo
Perez Esquivel
A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush:
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April
29, 2003
Gary
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Disorder and Opportunity: the Results
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Brush with the Law
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Z.
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Robert
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Did the US Murder Journalists?
Chris
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Gagne
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Uzma
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Arrogant
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Gore Vidal
The
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Francis Boyle
Impeach
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May
8, 2003
The Other "F" Word
"Chosen
by the Grace of God"?
by BEN TRIPP
You could fill your lederhosen with razor blades
and ride a bicycle down some steps. You could administer yourself
a boiling-hot clyster of Drano and minced cactus. You could irritate
a pride of lions whilst bedecked in a ham waistcoat. But why
take the easy way out? It's better to stand and fight. I refer
to the deeply Sisyphean task of opposing the neofascist regime
which has taken over the United States. There, I did it. I used
the word 'fascist', which places me in that camp, even if the
word was prefixed with the modifier 'neo' as in 'o neo f the
worst ideas ever'.
It's been a long time coming, and not
just because of Bob Dole's Viagra (humorous joke, get it? Long
time never mind). For all its strenuous efforts, I could never
give the Bush administration that much credit before. Fascism
is such a heavy term, so loaded with images of greasy newsreel
dictators in Sam Browne belts and tall boots. Too many commentators
leapt on the 'Orwellian' and 'fascist' bandwagons too quickly
into Bush's sic volo, sic jubeo term of office. After all, wasn't
the WWI Sedition Act far worse than Ashcroft's Junior Inquisition?
How about the McCarthy Era, when a ventriloquist's dummy nearly
destroyed our nation's freedoms, just to deny Dalton Trumbo the
screenwriting credit for 'Roman Holiday'? For a long time I couldn't
quite slap the 'F' word, as fascism is coyly known among lefties,
on Bush and his minions. No matter how naughty the Man Who Would
be President might be, for my tastes he never hit that perfect
Kafka note-- until recently. Him and his people weren't really
fascists. Just execrable excrudescent assholes. But 2003 has
changed all that.
These people are fascists, and they make
Mussolini look like a mezzafinook. There is no component of American
liberty of which they are unwilling to relieve us, and no aspect
of American life upon which they are unwilling to relieve themselves.
Where to begin? First, we must define 'fascism'. It is a term
like 'love', about which it can be said that everybody knows
exactly what it means, and nobody knows what they're talking
about. Luckily I know everything and so can clear the matter
up, particularly if I consult Mussolini's own diary, which I
picked up on Ebay for a song (the song was 'That's Amore' as
sung by Dean Martin). For those not fluent in Italian, I will
paraphrase the definition before me in Il Duce's crabbed hand:
Fascism is an extreme right-wing ideology
which embraces nationalism as the transcendent value of society.
The rise of Fascism relies upon the manipulation of populist
sentiment in times of national crisis. Based on fundamentalist
revolutionary ideas, Fascism defines itself through intense xenophobia,
militarism, and supremacist ideals. Although secular in nature,
Fascism's emphasis on mythic beliefs such as divine mandates,
racial imperatives, and violent struggle places highly concentrated
power in the hands of a self-selected elite from whom all authority
flows to lesser elites, such as law enforcement, intellectuals,
and the media. What a rush. Must buy Clara a new hat.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
If we accept this general definition of fascism, we can be forgiven
for rushing to the bedroom and throwing some clean underwear
into a portmanteau ere catching the next train to Toronto. But
we must stand our ground, however eroded it may be. Our freedoms
have been undermined at home. Our nation has engaged in an outrageous
military adventure overseas, the tissue-thin justification for
which has disappeared completely, leaving America in the awkward
position yclept 'hostile invader' by entities such as the United
Nations (you remember them, those nice colored folks over on
39th Street?) Meanwhile our states have mostly gone bankrupt,
the first tax cut during wartime since the 1840's more wealth
for the wealthy- is in the works while corporate feudalism runs
rampant, our ability to respond to authentic terrorist threats
has been hobbled, the voting system has been co-opted by digital
pirates in the Republican party, the electoral system in general
is hostage to big money, our healthcare system is in meltdown,
our national budget is so far in the red we have to import ink
from China just to keep up; the prison population is exploding
while our schools implode, civil rights are verklempt and vivisepulturated,
our businesses are folding by entire sectors while the military-industrial
complex thrives, and our environment is sinking into crisis with
the North Pole melted and environmental regulation evaporating
like so much ozone. Meanwhile, Jesus Christ is sleeping in the
Lincoln Bedroom.
But because the American media has ceased
to make its own news, relying instead on a kind of government-hosted
charabanc tour for journalists, nobody is questioning this lunatic
national retrenchment in a public forum- instead, we demonize
Arabs and teenagers and black people and homosexuals and poor
folks and drug users and anyone, God bless them, who has ever
performed fellatio. And that's only the tip of the scheisseberg.
These are all harbingers and symptoms and outcomes of fascism.
But still, fascism is such an extreme notion. Once could argue
that these many fresh hells are the result of simple criminal
mismanagement, and for some time I have been so inclined (to
argue thus, not to criminally mismanage. For the latter I'd need
an MBA.)
What specific enormity cemented the notion
of Bush and his cabal as 'fascists' in my mind? If I could sit
out all of the above, surely nothing could compel me to apply
the scarlet 'F' to these vendible quantum-larrikins and their
erstwhile leader, the Ivy-League demagogue bogtrotter George
W. Bush. I can tell you the very moment, and if you missed it,
it's worth finding a dog-eared copy of the video and viewing
it entire, although I caution you to keep a bucket handy- these
images are too graphic for many American stomachs.
An aircraft carrier in the Pacific, about
an hour from San Diego, California. You could row that far. A
couple of jets on deck as props, lots of giddy sailors. Here
comes an airplane! It lands in the accustomed manner. Out springs
the Boy Prince, the Dauphin of D.C., the VIP of the GOP, George
W. Bush in full military flight suit, with his ejector harness
giving him the worst moose knuckle in presidential history. A
bit of video for the election commercials just in case the Democrats
don't all curl up and die on their own, what's the harm in that?
I wish it was that simple. But what we really saw in that moment
was a coup d'etat. The president isn't supposed to wear a uniform.
He's a civilian. Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt strapped on a pistol
now and then and we've had generals who made president before.
That Kennedy fellow was a war hero, too, and Bush Senior, the
one who got elected, did his bit in the Pacific while Grampy
Prescott was supporting the Nazis in Europe. But when they were
president none of these men put on military uniforms. They understood
that there are three sacred lines with regard to American democracy
that can never be crossed: the line between privilege and power,
the line between Church and State, and the line between civilian
and military leadership. Cross any of them, and you're at fascism's
doorstep. Cross two, you're on the threshold with your hand on
the doorknob.
George W. Bush, son of unimaginable privilege,
crossed the first line when he was selected to be president by
the Supreme Court and accepted the job. He crossed the second
line when he revealed his divine imperative, such as when (after
the disaster of 9/11) he spoke of being "chosen by the grace
of God to lead at that moment." (attributed by Tim Goeglein,
deputy director of White House public liaison and a barrel of
laughs at any party.) When George climbed out of that airplane
in his shiny new war suit, he didn't just carry his own cute
little self across the deck: son of privilege, chosen of God,
and wearing a military uniform, he passed through the doorway
from mere wickedness to fascism. Our struggle in the time ahead
is to resist the urge to follow him.
Ben Tripp
is a screenwriter and cartoonist. He can be reached at: credel@earthlink.net
Today's
Features
Alexander
Cockburn
Quoting Under the Influence: Breasts,
Martinis, Hitchens
David
Krieger
Winning the War; Alienating the World
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush's Troubling Speech
Bruce Jackson
Bill Kunstler's Last Big Speech
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/07
Website
of the Day
The Truth About Bush's Military Records
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