Escape Artist

There are 14 criteria for determining if you are dealing with a fascist regime. These 14 points came from a professor who studies fascist governments.

1. Powerful & continuing nationalism
flags fly everywhere,

2. Distain for the recognition of human rights
looking the other way or even supporting torture, imprisonment for long periods with no recourse,

3. identifying enemies or scapegoats as unifying cause
rallying people to stop or get rid of perceived foes (illegal aliens/undocumented workers?)

4. Supremacy of the military
disproportionate funding to the military even when there are homeland issues of major concern.

5. Rampant sexism

6. Controlled mass media

7. Obsession with national security
Even your toothpaste cannot be taken onboard a plane now.

8. Religion & government intertwined
(God wants George W. to be president???? Yes he actually said that.) Christian sentiments are continually espoused by the current administration.

9. Corporate power protected
Can you say Enron?

10. Labor power suppressed

11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
Free expression openly attacked

12. Obsession with crime and punishment

13. Rampant crony and corruption

14. Fraudulent elections
Sometimes elections are complete shams. Other times the judiciary is used to control elections.

Ok, I could not help it, I had to make a few comments along the way. The current administration fits neatly into every single one of those criteria. Lets have a little look at some of the things Bush and friends have done.

1. In exchange for large U.S. oil companies gaining access to occupied territories, Bush reportedly gave $43 million of your tax dollars to the Taliban in May of 2001 - only 4 months before their September 11th attacks on the United States!

2. Bush had no concern about terrorist attacks on the U.S. before 9/11/01 After Bush's "election" was officially announced, President Clinton requested numerous meetings with Bush - specifically to discuss terrorists threats and making them a priority of Bush's Regime. Bush refused to meet with Pres. Clinton, but allowed one of his staff "underlings" to talk to Clinton instead. Not surprisingly, Bush never bothered to find out what Clinton had to say.

3. Bush wholeheartedly supported the infamous "Patriot Act," which infringes on most of your constitutional rights. In addition, he is an outspoken supporter of the "Patriot Act II."

4. Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto Treaty, a global warming agreement between major world powers, signed in 1997. Like global warming is not a pressing issue???

5. Bush banned federal aid to any international group offering abortions or abortion counseling, even if their funding from those projects came from other sources. THE HYPOCRISY HAS SPOKEN

6. Bush used his presidential powers to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax for corporations. All taxes paid under the AMT since its 1987 inception were refunded to the corporations. Do we have any guesses how Bush is financing his campaign?

7. CRIMINAL ALERT!!! Bush appointed Elliott Abrams to the National Security Council. Abrams was convicted during the Reagan administration for Iran-Contra ties. He also signed into law stronger penalties for drug use, even though it is “irrelevant” that he did cocaine.

8. Bush proposed to nominate the attorney responsible for the court case that weakened the Americans with Disabilities Act, Jeffrey Sutton, to judgeship in a federal appeals court.

9. Bush turned the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on the U.S. into a scheme to justify severely limiting civil rights and attacking the Constitution and to avert public attention from the extreme economic threats the Bush Regime has invoked upon the millions of middle-class, working-class, and poor Americans, while giving break after break to large corporations and rich individuals. (as well as using it as a rallying point for going to war.)

10. Of Bush's proposed $2 trillion tax cut 43% goes to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

11. Bush cut $35 million in funding for doctors to receive advanced pediatric training. ( "No child left behind, unless they're ill"??)

12. Bush has already packed the federal courts with radical conservative judges - Charles Pickering, Priscilla Owens, and Miguel Estrada -etc.

13. Bush finally realized the giant tax cuts for the rich had an effect on the economy. What does he want to do about it? He wants to take away benefits from children and the elderly to compensate.

14. Bush used his infinite "wisdom" to completely halt international negotiations designed to monitor and prevent the production of biological and chemical weapons. (The weapons of mass destruction are right here?)

15. Bush refused to federally fund the continued clean up of a uranium-slag heap in Utah. The large Mormon population there doesn't care if their kids come out with birth defects and die at a young age - do they??

16. The Bush Regime took an anti-human rights stance in the U.S. and abroad, by treating basic human rights as an obstacle of setting up civic security. Who needs freedom anyway? (secret prisons, countries throwing us out for them... violations of the Geneva Convention are rampant.)

17 Bush leaves abused and neglected children behind by cutting $15.7 million that was supposed to aid states in investigating their cases. As long as they're educated, who cares how they're treated.

18. Pay very close attention to this one: Bush used the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on the U.S. to create the Department of Homeland Security. Ironically, Hitler also created such an office, the Reichshauptsicherheitamt, or "Main Office of Homeland Security," and look where he took Germany. True Americans, BEWARE!!!

19. Bush lied to the American public and Congress about the Taliban's motives in the 9/11/01 attacks in order to gain approval of extremist foreign policies and shield their eyes from the true dangers of the "Patriot Act."

20. Bush repealed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, while spending billions of tax dollars building a large national missile defense. (and you wonder why North Korea won’t cooperate?)

21. Bush shows his true opinion on affirmative action, by appointing outspoken affirmative action opponent Kay Cole James to direct the Office of Personnel Management.

22. # Bush nominated a lawyer for a teen sex video distribution company, Harvey Pitts, to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Then he publicly decries Foley’s actions, while perhaps reprehensible, all the “boys” who got those e-mails were of legal age of consent.. something that keeps being left out of the press.)

23. Bush and Cheney both refused to testify under oath - or by themselves - to the 9/11 Commission. What are they trying to hide from the public?

24. After screwing up that nation's economy to the point of a record high number of jobless Americans, Bush cut $200 million in funding to help retrain dislocated workers. Oh well, if they're jobless, they can't pay their inflated working-class taxes, now can they?

25. Bush proposed a measure to use eminent domain to the government to seize private property for power lines.

26. # Bush took steps to abolish the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

27. After the U.N. questioned Bush's "war on terrorism," the Bush Regime decided the nation should act with a small group of other nations stupid enough to believe the "weapons of mass destruction" fables. (France among others knew these were fables.)

28. Bush nominated the leading critic of the separation of church and state, Michael McConnell, to a federal judgeship. (When Christian rules become our laws, we are no longer a nation of religious freedom.)

29. Bush's oil buddies celebrated when he nominated J. Steven Giles as Deputy Secretary of the Interior. Giles was an oil and coal lobbyist!

30. After brother Jeb "guaranteed Florida" in the 2000 elections, thousands of eligible voters in the state were mysteriously turned away from the polls. Bush and co. denies this ever happened, takes the election, and screws the world... (does this sound like election tampering to anyone?)

31. Bush cut $60 million from a Boy's and Girl's Clubs of America program for public housing.

32. Undermining a Clinton-era agreement, Bush gave $95 million to North Korea for their nuclear programs and waived the part of the agreement that required inspections to ensure no weapons-grade plutonium was being hidden. (and now leads the UN in sanctions against North Korea, with underlying threats of war on yet another front.)

33. Bush adds another passionate opponent of civil rights to his list by nominating Terrence Boyle to a federal judgeship.

34. Looking for a little more waste in America? Try Bush proposing to ease environmental considerations for permits for refineries, nuclear plants, and hydroelectric dam construction.

35. Bush nominated Linda Fisher - an executive for Monsanto - to the Environmental Protection Agency. Monsanto is one of the largest farming and pesticide biotechnology companies in the world.

36. "There is no gap in gender pay," implies Bush Council of Economic Advisers appointee Diana Roth. (Last time I looked women still made 37 cents to a dollar in the same job.)

37. Bush cut $700 million in capital funds for public housing repairs.

38. Promises, promises... Or outright lies! Bush promised $15 billion in AIDS funding for Africa in his 2003 State of the Union Address, then "accidentally" left it out of the budget.

39. Bush eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.

40. In a Supreme Court Case, Bush opposed affirmative action at Michigan State.

41. Just because he can't read more than 5 words at a time, Bush is working to ensure you won't be able to - by cutting federal spending on public libraries by $39 million.

42. Bush created $4 million in federal grant money for HIV and drug abuse prevention programs - but only for religious groups and non-secular equivalents. (what happened to separation of church and state?)

43. Eliminating workers' rights and environmental safety, Bush renegotiated a free trade agreement with Jordan.

44. Bush proposed to reverse a federal regulation to protect 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road building.

45. # More Iran-Contra ties... Bush appointed unindicted high-level Iran-Contra figure, John Negroponte, as the United Nations Ambassador.

46. Even more Iran-Contra ties... Bush appointed unindicted high-level Iran-Contra figure, Otto Reich, as the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.

47. In these scandalous times of war crimes committed by Americans with possible ties to the executive staff, it's not hard to figure out why Bush renounced U.S. support for an International Criminal Court and aggressively campaigned to exempt all American personnel from its jurisdiction. He threatened to pull American support from all U.N. peacekeeping operations unless he got his way...

48. More reductions for the good of the corporations... Bush cut 28% of government funding for researching cleaner, more efficient automobiles.

49. # Too bad Bush isn't an endangered species - he might not have nominated an advocate for repealing the Endangered Species Act, Bennett Raley, as the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. (or maybe your vote will help make him an endangered species?)

50. Bush ran from his duties, so he's not a veteran. That's probably why he cut the Veterans' Administration budget by $25 billion. (so.. its like, support our troops ONLY while they allow themselves to be weapons.. then screw them.)

51. Many of Bush's buddies own oil companies, so it's not at all shocking that he cut government funding to research renewable energy sources by 50%!

52. Nuclear Bush undermined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ben Treaty by supporting testing of new nuclear weapons and refusing to rule out a nuclear first strike on non-nuclear nations.

53. Bush doesn't like women, or so one can assume following his closure of the White House Office for Women's Health Initiative and Outreach.

54. Who cares about the environment? Not Bush, he cut $500 million from the Environmental Protection Agency's budget.

55. Bush suspended U.S. support for the U.N.'s family planning programs and stopped short of supporting the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

56. How about all-out opposing the U.N.? Maybe Bush is just like his Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton, who opposes nonproliferation treaties and the United Nations.

57 Bush has refused to release federal funding designed to provide for stem cell research projects.

58. # Thanks to Bush, federal employees can have Viagra but no contraceptives, due to his cut of a program that provided prescription contraceptive coverage.

59. # Create an international offensive against the spread of AIDS? Nah, Bush refused to participate and helped his buddies in the pharmaceutical business capitalize by increasing costs of life-saving medications

60. Bush suspended rules requiring rock miners to clean up sites on Western public lands. Think your tax dollars will end up paying for the clean ups?

61. Bush cut a federal program to provide child care to low-income families transitions from welfare to work. So, they can work but cannot get child care, without using pretty much all their earnings.. leaving them what to live on?

62. Bush's America will stay uniformed about potential consequences from chemical plant accidents, thanks to his cancellation of a proposal to increase the public's access to the information.

63. Undermining world peace, Bush condoned the Israeli reoccupation of Palestinian territory and rejected the U.N. Security Council's resolutions that provide a framework for conflict resolution between the two. The resolutions have been supported by previous U.S. administrations.

64. Bush abolished rules mandating energy-saving regulations for central air conditioners and heat pumps. What was that about an energy crisis?

65. Bush proposed a bill to prevent groups from suing to have an animal placed on the Endangered Species List. Again, too bad Bush isn't an endangered species.

66. Convicted of murder? That's okay, you can get financial aid for college. However, if you've ever been convicted of a misdemeanor drug charge, Bush has made sure you will never get financial aid for college.

67. Once upon a time there was a 2004 deadline for auto makers to develop PROTOTYPE high mileage cars. Nevertheless, just like the June 30, 2004, Iraq deadline, Bush has pushed the prototype deadline up indefinitely. Maybe this one's because his oil buddies fear losing revenue if people actually get more than 30 or 40 MPG...

68. Bush censored the environmental concerns found by scientists his administration hired - to make it look like global warming is not a major threat.

69. "The terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming!" That's all that our Chicken-Little-In-Chief cares about. Therefore, Bush proposed eliminating a federal program to help communities prepare for natural disasters. The program had been developed and successfully used in Seattle. Never mind that! "The terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming!" Besides, he made most of these terrorists with his little war.

70. Bush 2000 campaign pledge: To invest $100 million in rain forest conservation. This was a promise the "compassionate conservative" didn't keep

71. Another broken promise... Bush failed to increase public education funding and failed to fund the so-called "No Child Left Behind Act." It seems every child gets left behind, except those whose rich mommies and daddies send them to private or boarding schools.

72. Bush 2000 campaign pledge: To regulate carbon dioxide emissions. He didn't, decided it would be "too costly." This from the guy who has created the largest deficit in history!

This is just the tip of the iceberg here. There is nothing new or profound here, all these things are public record. There are longer lists all over the internet.

How about if we apply the 3 strikes laws to the oval office? Lets see, just with my short list 72 divided by 3 is 24 strikes.. then there the over 800 laws he has broken.. that's just the US laws.. not counting the long standing treaties and the Geneva Convention violations.. I would say we are a bit overdue for the impeachment. So if you won’t start the impeachment, best make sure you vote this guy out of office.. while you still have a vote. Lets try not to forget that corporal who became Hitler... its looking more and more fascist here every day.







# posted by Silvatungfox @ 8:15 PM 0 comments links to this post
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

University Of Peace
In the current issue of the Beijing Review, there was a rather good article that pointed out we have many schools in the world to teach war, but none to teach peace. It suggested that the path to peace might start with the creation of such universities and that in a time when the world is crying out for peace and peacemakers, we are sorely lacking in anyone trained to the task.
War is big business. There is always money to be made in war, but where is the profit in peace? If we could make peace as viable a profit maker as war is today, then we might be able to actually sustain lasting peace in the world. The trick of course is to find a way to make peace pay.
Perhaps also if there was a way that did not violate free trade to make it impossible to realize any profit from war it would also help. (like imposing such dramatic taxes on any gain realized as a result of war to make it an unpopular way to make money)
Back to that article. This author made the article an invitation, or a challenge to all nations to individually or jointly create schools for peace. One thing I do not recall being mentioned in the article was religion which would actually have to be left at the door to the class rooms as we all know the history of using religious beliefs to embark upon "holy wars" which in fact were sometimes not so thinly veiled wars of aggression over property and wealth.
Arbitrators and negotiators could take the place of troops and guns. They would need to have more of a global consciousness than a national one in order to be unbiased and really look at all the issues and find common ground for all parties.
From the perspective of a follower of the Tao, it appears that Christianity and Islam are not all that far apart in theology, yet some would have you believe there is a holy war in progress. Somehow making a war one of a holy cause is supposed to validate it. People still die, there is still ground taken, there are still the same prizes and costs.
Bush is taking the stand that his war is righteous because it is against terrorism. Think about that for a moment. It is first and foremost, an un-winnable war because with each terrorist you kill or maim, you create two or more (sometimes even hundreds) more terrorists. He claims to be there to spread democracy.. which like the previous argument makes you wonder if he is really this stupid or just a liar since he fails to recognize that Hezbollah was democratically elected as part of the Palestine government .
Ok, cease fire for a minute on Bush. What about Condi Rice? Sent supposedly to negotiate a peace or help to do so. As far as I can see she has no qualifications as a peace maker or peace keeper. She delayed her trip for what, a month? to give Israel time to bomb the crap out of the Hezbollah before she could step in and have the appearance of being a peace maker with all the best intentions. The only agenda for the United States is to put folks in power who agree with us and destroy those who don't. (or better yet, let someone else destroy them and we wont step in to look like the good guys until the "bad" guys are pretty much wiped out.)
We need to have institutions of higher education that teach peace, negotiation, and ethics. We need to have the graduates of such institutions be the negotiators and peacemakers of the world without valuing nationalism above globalism.
Maybe we can even make this a race. Which Nation shall rise above all others and be the first to create a higher education institution of Peace? Which Nations will band together in an attempt to end wars forever ? Who will be the first to hand out diplomas in Peacekeeping? My money is not on the US as long as Bush still holds the reins.


# posted by Silvatungfox @ 1:06 PM 0 comments links to this post
Thursday, September 07, 2006

Fundies & The War On Terrorism
We all have multiple identities. Race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, class, and probably some others that do not spring readily to mind.

Every identity has it’s fundamentalists, the gatekeepers of what is permissible for those who share that specific identity. They usually have their work cut out for them to keep everyone within their identity toeing the line. Their one commonality is that they are all reactionary, guardians of authenticity, there job is to deny complexity and impose uniformity.

They exploit identity as an end rather than a beginning from which to connect with humanity and exclude the rest of humanity from their specific niche. They are devoted to eternal and exclusive truths and brook no dissent or debate.

A Christian fundamentalist will only recognize you as a fellow human being up to a certain point unless you also are a Christian, beyond that point you are just one more lost sinner.

In the real world identities do not exist in a vacuum and are rooted in material conditions that confer power and privilege in relationship to one another.

Lets examine 9/11 for a moment with regard to national identity. Immediately nationalist fundamentalism took grip after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and has been thriving ever since. We are told REAL Americans will rally round and support the administration in the war on terrorism, and that if you do not agree you are not a real American, you are the enemy.

Fundamentalists thrive only at times of crisis. The rest of the time we can pretty much ignore them and be true to all our combined identities.

So here is the problem. Finding alternative and more attractive routes out of the current crisis, breaking the cycle of violence that is snowballing out of control.

The Taoist ideal of sitting quietly is something poets, artists and mystics usually know how to do. When our minds are stuffed full of current ideas there is no room for new thoughts and we are unable to be truly creative.

In our current situation we are faced with a great need for creative solutions to the unprecedented dangers of the day. It was unthinkable after 9/11 to declare a 40 or 60 day period of mourning and take no further action until the horrific reality was fully accepted and understood.

Instead, without all the facts, politicians reached after short-sighted policies. Afghanistan, Iraq, threats to Iran, all of which have made a bad situation much worse. I have said before that you can make a terrorist, but you cannot unmake one.

Listening is a rare commodity, as is forgiveness, and in fact forgetfulness. ( at this point I can feel the knee-jerk reaction of those fundies who still cry remember the Alamo and throw the Mexican over the newly built wall to the South.) I do not mean we should forget the past entirely, I do mean we need to sit quietly and listen. We need to start from scratch and be ready to forget who did what to whom so that we can actually negotiate peace for our people. It is clear that the current administration has no intention of anything but continued violation of the laws of our nation. The headlines even on a local small time paper this morning told of more prisoners that have been being held in secret without legal recourse, who have just been shipped to Guantanamo.

Sit quiet for a moment, and reflect, let your mind empty. Then look at the reality of what the administration is doing and ask yourself if you believe in the rule of law. If you answer yes you believe in the rule of law, then it is your duty as an American to rid the country of an administration that has become a dictatorship eroding away all the human and civil rights this country was founded on based on the premise they are at war on terrorism. The only way to stop the terrorism is to stop feeding it by creating more terrorists.


# posted by Silvatungfox @ 1:28 PM 0 comments links to this post
Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Typical Politic
The norm for politics in the United States is, thanks to Bush, becoming violation of the law of the land.

Bush has personally violated over 800 of our own laws and it is apparent he intends to continue to do so until the people call him to task by impeachment and trial for his crimes.

This disregard for the law seems to be spreading with unprecedented vigor. An otherwise relatively good candidate, Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa will no doubt be challenged in court for getting a bill passed that gives him control of the Los Angeles Unified Public Schools, which is in direct violation of the state constitution.

While it is true that if you don't like a law, then you should work to change it but the current way of doing things if you are a politician is to ignore or by-pass the existing law and then try to show how you were not really violating the law.

Villaraigosa is small fry compared to Bush, but I bring it up as an example of the insidious trend that Bush and his cronies have started.

The central claim of the Bush administration is that to spread democracy in the middle east will bring an end to terrorism. This seems to ignore the possibility of a democratically elected terrorist organization.

Hezbollah is an important part of a democratically elected government, yet Britain and the US continue to label it a terrorist organization and insist we are only trying to strengthen the legal government of Lebanon. Well hey fellas, if they were democratically elected, what makes them illegal? The fact that we don't particularly like their methods?

The Palestinians spoke in their election, then we say, you must have gotten it wrong, you have been misinformed and you must now re-think it all and vote the way we want you to. This is democracy according to Bush and his administration.

Is it any wonder at all, that it is becoming more and more thinking around the world, "if Bush is for it, it must be bad and we are against it"?

Lets talk about democracy for a minute. In it's full liberal sense, it contributes to peace, or so they tell us. In a half-baked partial or manipulated from it can increase the danger of war.

While it is possible for democracy to grow from military occupation like Germany and Japan following war, it is not always going to work that way. Building democracy as a purpose does not justify military intervention. Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji had a point when he wrote to the NY Times that it is better for people to find their own paths to freedom, and our job is to support them.

It is time to stop meddling in the rightfully elected governments of other countries and to start addressing ourselves to the losses of our own democracy that are occurring through the continued violations of law being committed by the Bush administration.