Home > Sieg Heil!
by Doug Thompson
The ugly face of fascism appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday.
It appeared twice: With Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and again with FBI Director Robert Mueller as both demanded Congress not only reauthorize the rights-robbing USA Patriot Act but expand the ability of the federal government’s goose-stepping storm troopers to invade the privacy of Americans and ignore the protections of the Constitution.
"Now is not the time for us to be engaging in unilateral disarmament" on the legal weapons now available for fighting terrorism, Gonzales said, adding that the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act have “proven invaluable in fighting terrorism and aiding other investigations.”
The key phrase here is “other investigations.” Although the Patriot Act was rushed into law to fight terrorism, the Justice Department under former Attorney General John Ashcroft and now Gonzales sees nothing wrong with using the act to go after anybody for any perceived crime. Ashcroft, a religious zealot, deployed the powers of the Act in several unsuccessful attempts to prosecute American citizens for selling dirty books and videos.
"It’s important that these authorities remain available," Gonzales added.
For what? To spy on any and all Americans for any and all perceived crimes? This is the same Alberto Gonzales who said, while still serving as White House Counsel, the “Constitution is an outdated document.”
The current Patriot Act already gives the government power to wiretap at will, snoop into private travel and financial records and monitor the day-to-day activities of virtually any American citizen. But FBI Director Mueller says that’s not enough. He wants the powers expanded.
“Experience has taught the FBI that there are no neat dividing lines that distinguish criminal, terrorist and foreign intelligence activity,” Mueller said in his prepared testimony. So Mueller wants to blur the lines even more by giving his agency the power to snoop into any American’s records without a judge’s approval.
The widespread abuses of the Patriot Act have created an unusual coalition of opponents - diverse organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Conservative Union. When these two diverse, politically-opposite groups band together to fight something it should send warning signals coast-to-coast in a heartbeat.
But those warnings fall on deaf ears when they reach 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. George W. Bush and his klavern of neo-Nazis don’t care one goddamn bit about the Constitution or an American’s right to privacy, due process or other protections under the law.
The law is something these power-mad despots ignore when it runs counter to their fascist ways. They proved that with their lame-brained attempt to circumvent the law in the Terry Schiavo debacle and now they want to scrap the law altogether by expanding their police-state powers under the USA Patriot Act.
Some members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, agree and support legislation to scale back the Constitution-defying provisions of the Patriot Act.
“Cooler heads can now see that the Patriot Act went too far, too fast and that it must be brought back in line with the Constitution,” says Gregory Nojeim, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office.
Perhaps. But Bush says he will veto any legislation that rolls back the Patriot Act and Congress is still controlled by a gang of Republican thugs who put loyalty to their party above loyalty to their country.
Maybe it’s not too late. Or maybe we better start practicing goose steps and extending our right arms out straight while shouting “Sieg Heil!” three times.
Forum posts
8 April 2005, 15:07
>maybe we better start practicing goose steps and extending our right arms out straight while >shouting “Sieg Heil!” three times.
Some portions of the Patriot Act are dangerous and Congress should have never passed them in the first place.
That being said, Nazi (and Communist) analogies have no place in American politics. They cheapen the deaths of millions and discredit the one drawing comparisons.
9 April 2005, 01:07
OMYGAWD!!! Good sense, and good manners, on THIS website??? I am flabbergasted.
9 April 2005, 01:30
"Nazi and communist analogies have no place in American politics." ?
Sorry, but there is nothing cheap about calling a spade a spade. Mr. Thompson has it right.
12 April 2005, 19:43
Since I moved to Germany, I
ve learned a bit about Nazis and National Socialism. I too found the term "Nazi" too hard, or too misleading or something. So I looked up National Socialism in the Wikipedia. I found it disturbing to compare the article on Nazi Ideology with some of the stuff thats apparently going on in your fair land at the moment (At least that`s the view from Europe). Oh dear oh dear! All the little hairs on my neck are standing up.Peace, love, happiness and lots of good hippie stuff.
Anthropophobe
21 April 2005, 07:02
now, now, lets not be tossing racial slurs around.
9 April 2005, 01:25
Perhaps the reason that more Americans and members of congress are not outraged by the unlawful applications of the Patriot Act is because they have not been its victims. This bill was pushed through without any real opposition or thought of its consequences. Now a host of police agencies are using this act to attack the civil rights of law-abiding citizens. The secrecy clauses of the act should have raised a few flags, but no, let’s all give the little Hitler whatever he wants. "The public be damned!" Wait until the real nut case Repub.s start using it generously against their political opponents in Congress. These guys don’t have to prove anything, probable cause, what’s that? If the Congress cared one iota about the people they wouldn’t have to even talk about extending this travesty of justice. Look at what the storm troopers have done to doctors, women and children over the last three years. Look at the abuse of "non-lethal" (i.e.taser) weapons alone. This act appeals to the most violent emotions of man, yet there is no accountability. Given the behavior of the cabinet, sieg heil would be a fitting tribute.
10 April 2005, 02:50
Congress and the senate didn’t even read the patriot act before they passed it and I doubt that you could get them to read Patriot Act II either. They are ALL playing on the same team with Bush. We have a one party system like in the old Soviet Union, the only difference is that we like to lie about that and pretend it isn’t so.
The thing you never see in the government propaganda ministry news outlets that passes for the mainstream news is that 13 states have declared that they WILL NOT participate in or enforce the provisions of this Hitlarian piece of legislation. Thirteen states have leadership with enough patriotism left that they refuse to goosestep behind this SS/brownshirts act, that is the good news if there is any.
19 April 2005, 21:34
People who hate Americans in general and Dubya in particular are pretty quick to say "Sig Heil?"
Don’t believe me? Check this out:
http://dmdlp.blogspot.com/2005/03/where-have-i-seen-this-before.html