The Week in Review: Living in a Fascist State

Yup, time to talk about fascism again. I was originally going to talk about Chimpy McHauptsturmführer's insistence on torture, but I think we can cover that, too.

So, when an Air Force higher-up wants to test weapons on the civilian population of his own country (again) before using them in occupied territories, that sounds like fascism.

When our constitutional rights are ignored by an increasingly-militarized police threatening citizens and breaking into their homes and arresting them for committing journalism, that looks a lot like fascism.

But, every time I bring up the idea that our government is fascist, I hear two arguments in rebuttal.

First there's the camps. Every time I call the Chimp Administration fascist someone always says "Well, they're not fascist because they're not putting people in camps."

Let me, Dear Reader, disabuse you of that notion.

The other point is that we're not fascist precisely because I'm allowed to say it - that because Homeland Security hasn't dragged me off to Gitmo yet, we're not in a fascist state and our freedoms are safe. Let me bring up the examples of Greg Palast and Major Mike McCormack and posit that they merely haven't worked their way down to me yet.

In other events this week, it appeared that while Colin Powell was enjoying his retirement -oh, I don't know, cleaning out his attic or something - he found his balls, which he hadn't seen for a long time, tried them on, and found they still worked.

Well, as the philosophers would say, Sadly, No!

Here's some legal analysis from Valtin wherein he lays out the torture strategy for the GOP, thus:

When Colin Powell came out in support of the McCain/Graham bill to limit the Bush administration's attempt to gut rights for detainees and use coercive interrogations, i.e., torture in its "lighter" version (cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment [CID]), he joined the traditional military in trying to restore the good, old-fashioned status quo.

This status quo has allowed for all sorts of dubious interrogatory practices. This is done via a phony reworking of the definition of CID, so that it relies on the U.S. Constitution, rather than the stronger language in international treaties.

Come, let's see how pulling the wool over our eyes really works.

Well, the family's up and I gotta get rolling on errands & etc. so let's wrap this up with a link to ten reasons why Chimpy's Global War on Terra is utter and complete horseshit.