| 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. |
| We
are now a torturing police state: Bush signing into law that will get rid
of habeas corpus, allow hearsay evidence, and allow the President to
determine what is allowable torture. |
| Bush
Offers Himself Amnesty for Human Rights Crimes |
| Bush
threatens to veto $442b defense bill if Congress investigates detainee
abuses. |
| Guantanamo
Judge: “I don’t care about international law. I don’t want to hear
the words ‘international law’ again. We are not concerned with
international law.” |
| Rumsfeld
to approve new guidelines that will formalize the administration's policy
of imprisoning without the protections of the Geneva Conventions and
enable the Pentagon to legally hold "ghost detainees," |
| US
'preparing to detain terror suspects for life without trial' |
| U.S.
oks evidence gained through torture |
| July
1, 2003: U.S. Suspends Military Aid to Nearly 50 Countries: because
they have supported the International Criminal Court and failed to
exempt Americans from possible prosecution. |
| US
has at least 9000 prisoners in secret detention |
|
More... |
| 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. |
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|
More... |
| 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. |
|
| Many
national parks will have to cut back on staff due to a $2.5 billion budget
cut, the equivalent to one week of the Iraq war |
| Bush
wants to cut Iraq war funding. Just kidding, he wants to cut funding for a
program that gives health insurance to poor children. Governors from both
parties are opposing it. |
| Three
cable channels now feed news, information and entertainment about the
armed services into millions of living rooms 24 hours a day, seven days a
week: The Military Channel, the Military History Channel and the Pentagon
Channel. |
|
More... |
| 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. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and
anti-gay legislation and national policy. |
| It's
legal again, to fire gov't workers for being gay |
| Bush
calls for Constitutional ban on same-sex marriages |
| Bush
refuses to sign U.N proposal on women's "sexual" rights |
| W.
David Hager chairman of the FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory
Committee does not prescribe contraceptives for single women, does not do
abortions, will not prescribe RU-486 and will not insert IUDs. |
| The
State Department has awarded an explicitly anti-feminist U.S. group part
of a US$10 million grant to train Iraqi women in political participation
and democracy. |
|
More... |
| 6.)
Controlled Mass Media:
Sometimes the 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. |
| FBI
Acknowledges: Journalists Phone Records are Fair Game |
| Report
shows U.S. government has been engaged in illegal propaganda aimed at its
own citizens and the story gets only 41 mentions in the media |
| Free
Press details recent governmental propaganda efforts, from
faux-correspondent Jeff Gannon to paid-off pundit Armstrong Williams, and
from the demise of FOIA to video news releases passed off as news.
also... See a Whitehouse fake news release here (opens
realplayer) |
|
|
More...
|
| 7.)
Obsession with National Security:
Fear is used as a
motivational tool by the government over the masses |
|
|
| Rove: GOP to Use Terror As Campaign Issue
in 2006 |
|
More... |
| 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. |
| Jerry
Falwell cleared of charges that he broke federal election law by urging
followers to vote for Bush |
| NC
congressman proposes law making it ok to preach politics from the pulpit |
| Texas Governor Mobilizes Evangelicals |
| Family
research council: Justice Sunday |
|
Thou
shalt be like Bush: What makes this
recently established, right-wing Christian college unique are the
increasingly close - critics say alarmingly close - links it has with
the Bush administration and the Republican establishment.
|
| Park
Service Continues to Push Creationist Theory at Grand Canyon and other
nat'l parks |
|
More... |
| 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. |
| The
K Street Project is a project by the Republican party to pressure
Washington lobbying firms to hire Republicans in top positions, and to
reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials. It was
launched in 1995, by Republican strategist Grover Norquist and House
majority leader Tom DeLay. |
| American
Conservative Magazine: One U.S. contractor received $2 million in a duffel
bag... and a U.S. official was given $7 million in cash in the waning days
of the CPA and told to spend it “before the Iraqis take over.” |
| There
are 6 Congressional Committees investigating the Oil-for-Food (UN)
scandal, yet not a single Republican Committee Chairman will call a
hearing to investigate the whereabouts of 9 billion dollars missing in
Iraq |
| Bush
money network rooted in Florida, Texas: Since Mr. Bush took office in
2001, the federal government has awarded more than $3 billion in contracts
to the President's elite 2004 Texas fund-raisers, their businesses, and
lobbying clients |
|
More... |
| 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. |
| Bush
vows to veto anti-terror security bill if it allows airport screeners to
unionize. |
| Labor
Department warns unions against using their money politically |
| President
Bush Attacks Organized Labor: Bush attacked
organized labor Saturday, issuing orders effectively reducing how much
money unions can spend for political activities and opening up government
contracts to non-union bidding. |
| March
2001: President
Bush signed his name to four executive orders on organized labor last
month, including one that cuts the money unions will have for
political campaign spending. |
| Congress
and the Department of Labor are trying to change the rules on overtime
pay, eliminating the 40 hour work week, taking eligibility for overtime
pay away from millions of workers, and replacing time and a half pay with
comp days. |
|
More... |
| 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
is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts. |
| The
A to Z guide to political interference in science |
| Bush's
new economic plan cuts funding for arts, education |
| Artists
from all over the world are being refused entry to the US on security
grounds. |
| A
group of more than 60 top U.S. scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates
and several science advisers to past Republican presidents, on Wednesday
accused the Bush administration of manipulating and censoring science for
political purposes |
| Freedom
of Repression: New ruling will allow censorship of campus publications |
|
More... |
| 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 |
| The 10 most outrageous civil liberties violations of 2006 |
| The
United States has now become the world leader in its rate of
incarceration, locking up its citizens at 5-8 times the rate of other
industrialized nations. |
| American
Gestapo is here: "There is hereby created and established a permanent
police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed
Division.'" |
| America:
secret jails, secret courts, secret arrests, and now secret laws |
| Snitch-or-Go-to-Jail
bill will make pretty much anything short of reporting on everyone you see
for doing just about anything a jailable offense. With minimum sentences,
up to and including life without parole. |
| The
problem with Gonzales is that he has been deeply involved in developing
some of the most sweeping claims of near-dictatorial presidential power in
our nation's history, allowing him to imprison and even (at least in
theory) torture anyone in the world, at any time |
| Police
officers don't have to give a reason at the time they arrest someone, the
U.S. Supreme Court said in a ruling that shields officers from
false-arrest lawsuits. |
|
More... |
| 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. |
|
| Rep.
John Doolittle (R-Calif.) was forced to give up his seat on the powerful
committee after the FBI raided his home as part of the Abramoff scandal.
To replace him, the GOP leadership tapped Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), who
was himself recently named one of Congress’ most corrupt lawmakers. |
| Making
Sense of the Abramoff Scandal |
| In
preparation for upcoming Congressional hearings, Bush Administration
firing federal attorneys and appointing ringers without Senate
confirmation via the patriot act. |
| If
Bush's pick is confirmed, that will mean the five top appointees at
Justice have zero prosecutorial experience among them. |
| Iran-Contra
Felons Get Good Jobs from Bush |
| Big
Iraq Reconstruction Contracts Went To Big Donors |
| Bush
Wars -- Crooks Get Contracts : The main companies that were awarded
billions of dollars worth of contracts in Iraq have paid more than $300
million in fines since 2000, to resolve allegations of fraud, bid rigging,
delivery of faulty military equipment, and environmental damage. |
| US
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) lost track of $9 billion |
| "Contracting in the aftermath of the hurricanes has been marked by waste, corruption and cronyism" |
|
More... |
| 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. |
| A
couple of election workers have been convicted of rigging a recount in
Ohio following the 2004 election |
| Rolling
Stone does some investigative and rather exhaustive digging into public
documents and says we’re almost guaranteed the 2004 election results
were massively rigged |
| Powerful
Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election
findings |
| Conyers
hearing in which Clinton Curtis testifies that he was hired to create
hackable voting machines (.wmv) |
| The
Republican Party has quietly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to
provide private defense lawyers for a former Bush campaign official
charged with conspiring to keep Democrats from voting in New Hampshire. |
| The
Conyers Report (.pdf) |
| No
explanation for the machines in Mahoning County that recorded Kerry
votes for Bush, the improper purging in Cuyahoga County, the lock down
in Warren County, the 99% voter turnout in Miami County, the machine
tampering in Hocking County |
| Less
access than Kazakhstan. Fewer fail-safes than Venezuela. Not as simple
Republic of Georgia. The 2004 Elections according to international
observers. |
| This picture
is what stopped the ballot recounts in Florida shortly after it seemed
that legitimate President Gore had a lead. The "citizens"
started what was later called "the preppy riot".
Screaming, yelling, pounding on the walls, these "outraged
citizens" intimidated the polling officials to halt the court
mandated recount. A closer look reveals who they really were. They
were bussed and flown in at Republican lawmakers expense. Some even flew
in on Tom Delay's private plane. |
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