Letter Never Sent Tell me when to go.

And so it begins, the end of liberalism in American government and the birth of American-style fascism. The Bush administration is doing everything they can to subvert American tradition by working in deep secrecy to bring forth a huge domestic law enforcement agency. As if the bumbling of the FBI, NSA and the CIA wasn’t enough, Bush recently announced a massive overhaul in the police state by creating the cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security which will have an annual budget of $37.5 billion and will employ 170,000 jack-booted thugs. This makes it the biggest US government department after the Pentagon. Be very afraid.

Strangely, although this is the largest change to the law enforcement bureaucracy in 55 years this new department will have no authority over the FBI or the CIA. It is unclear to me exactly what this huge budget and massive work force will be up to. No doubt checking out subversive, dangerous, terrorist web sites, or looking under rocks for shadowy terrorists. They could go door to door to make sure everyone’s papers are in order. Seriously, 170,000 employees is around the same number as a large-size company like Fedex. That’s a lot of fascist cogs running around taking pictures and making notes. Maybe Americans will get wise before this shit goes too far.

The Justice Department has decided it can’t do anything about some of the fraud in the Florida presidential election. No surprise there. Newsflash: BUSH IS A TOOL OF THE DEVIL! Wheew. I’m glad I let that out. I feel a lot better now.

Ralph Neas, president of the liberal People for the American Way Foundation, said the Justice Department’s refusal to move forward on the cases was “a destructive abdication of responsibility and a breach of faith with Florida voters.”

Primo Umberto Eco found via the ever wonderful Ethel the Blog:

The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition. Traditionalism is of course much older than fascism. Not only was it typical of counterrevolutionary Catholic thought after the French revolution, but is was born in the late Hellenistic era, as a reaction to classical Greek rationalism. In the Mediterranean basin, people of different religions (most of the faiths indulgently accepted by the Roman pantheon) started dreaming of a revelation received at the dawn of human history. This revelation, according to the traditionalist mystique, had remained for a long time concealed under the veil of forgotten languages — in Egyptian hieroglyphs, in the Celtic runes, in the scrolls of the little-known religions of Asia.
This new culture had to be syncretistic. Syncretism is not only, as the dictionary says, “the combination of different forms of belief or practice;” such a combination must tolerate contradictions. Each of the original messages contains a sliver of wisdom, and although they seem to say different or incompatible things, they all are nevertheless alluding, allegorically, to the same primeval truth. …

Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism. Both Fascists and Nazis worshipped technology, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject it as a negation of traditional spiritual values. However, even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon blood and earth (Blut und Boden). The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life. The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action’s sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. …

For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason. Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity. Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition. Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. In our time, when the old “proletarians” are becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority. To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside. …

Continue reading →

You wouldn’t know a Republican was in the White House what with the growing deficits and graft and routine conservative poofery. Let’s see so far the Bush administration has allowed Islamic terrorists to crash planes into buildings, increased the power of the police state while raping the Bill of Rights, engaged in corruption in the highest places of power, and has given the budget surpluses over to crippling deficits to fund the laughable war juggernaut. Not only that, but now according to CNN the unemployment rate is rising to 6% from just over 4% a few months ago. At least now if the economy starts to stink and we have an evil bastard in the White House we might be able to get some good music out of it. What I mean is, remember the late 80’s early 90’s? With all the tumult during the reign of Bush I, that was some good friggin’ music! Nirvana, Public Enemy, Gheto Boyz, Pearl Jam, Ministry…those were the days. I remember when NWO by Ministry would come on Mtv. It’s actually a little uncanny how similar things are now to how they were then.

Unsurprisingly, the House Republicans voted to remove the sunset provisions of the estate tax. This means all those rich shits who spend their lives moving corporations overseas to avoid paying taxes while they fleece 401k plans of the middle class Babbitts will now have the last laugh as they pass on 100% of their ill-gotten wealth to the next generation of American elites.

I’m amazed at how well the Republicans serve their corporate masters. Their knees hit the ground faster than the Democrats and that’s saying a lot. Of course, Republicans are more likely to be filthy rich themselves so I guess its really not all that surprising.