smCOLUMN FIFTY-EIGHT, APRIL 1, 2001
(Copyright © 2001 Al Aronowitz)
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COLUMN
FIFTY-EIGHT, APRIL 1, 2001
(Copyright © 2001 Al Aronowitz)
A
MUST-SEE WEBSITE!
Subject:
must-see web site
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 22:53:37 -0800
From: john bennett <vagabond@eburg.com>
To: vagabond@eburg.com
Al Aronowitz's Blacklisted Journalist
(a
web site that's a must-see)
The
beefiest, most eclectic, most diversified, most accessible, most informative,
most intelligent and most worth-your-while web site I've seen to date, hands
down, is Al Aronowitz's THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST. Unknowns and Big Names, all
under the same tent. Art,
literature, theater, politics, pop culture and more, laid out with stand-out
grace and style and not a shred of pretension.
Aronowitz is himself a master mix-it-up journalist who's been way on the
inside but whose in-your-face ways have him now way on the outside.
The site is worth a visit just to read his stuff.
I
only give plugs like this spontaneously if I'm moved. I just got off the site.
I'm moved.
John
Bennett ##
*
* *
DUMB DUMBYA AND PAPA TRY TO ERASE
THEIR DIRTY HISTORY
From:
"VENIRE" <VENIRE@ZNET.COM>
To: <info@blacklistedjournalist.com>
Subject: FW: Bush's 'Scrubbers'
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 22:33:35 -0800
Hey
Al-You wanted to get the goods on Nader? Why
waste your time???
I TOLD YOU ALL ALONG THAT OLD MAN BUSH was pulling all the
strings. HERE'S PROOF!
Linda
[Most
news sites "expire" articles after a specified time. These citations,
however, don't seem to be time-related expirations.-]
Forwarded
by Varda <vunovick@panix.com>
http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=220
Bush's
Scrubbers
Richard
Nixon was obsessed with leaks from within his administration, and his secret
team of "plumbers" worked to stop these leaks, breaking the law as
they went about their dirty business.
George
W. Bush is obsessed with any public record that documents illegal, unethical, or
embarrassing activities. He has a secret team of "scrubbers" who make
sure such records mysteriously "disappear" from government offices and
newspaper websites. Here are some records that have disappeared. If you find
more, please e-mail mailto:public@democrats.com.
Please
note: long URL's often get chopped up in e-mail transmissions, so be sure you
have attempted to "reassemble" a long URL before sending it to us.
Also use the search feature of any site you visit, because an old article may
have been archived with a different URL.
The
London Observer: Best Democracy Money can Buy Posted 11/26/2000 - Scrubbed
2/21/01 - Unscrubbed here:
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=15&row=1
When
Papa Bush left the White House, he gave a sweetheart deal to the Canadian
company Barrick Goldstrike. Bush gave them mining rights for US land with an
estimated $10 Billion in gold for only $10 Thousand. Oh and by the way, the company then hired Papa Bush after he
left office where he was on the payroll till 1999. The company also donated
$148,000 to the Republican Party. Unfortunately, you can't read this story any
more at the Guardian because Barrick Goldstrike has threatened a lawsuit. But
you can still read it here.
MSNBC:
The Funeral Home Flap <http://www.msnbc.com/news/479524.asp>
Trouble
for
a Texas mortician with links to the Bush family Posted 8/16/99 - Scrubbed 2/9/01
- Unscrubbed here:
http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=1328
This
article suddenly disappeared from MSNBC's web site on February 9, 2001 - the day
Democrats.com published a major expose on Funeralgate. This follows the
disappearance of several other articles unfavorable to George W. Bush, most
notably: a) the Washington Post article by Al Kamen identifying the Republican
thugs who stopped the Miami recount (reposted following inquiries by a
Democrats.com member), and b) the CNN Crossfire transcript where Larry Flynt
charged Bush with helping his girlfriend get an abortion in the early 1970's. It
took the Watergate scandal to expose Nixon's "plumbers" - it looks
like Funeralgate will expose Bush's "scrubbers".
Washington
Post: The Miami-Dade Rioters
<http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/fedpage/columns/intheloop/A30170-
Article
by Al Kamen identifying the Republican thugs who stopped the Miami recount
Posted 12/6/00 - Scrubbed circa 12/21/00 - Reposted circa 1/1/01
(following
inquiries from a member of Democrats.com)
Remember
the thugs who rioted in the Miami-Dade elections office and stopped the manual
recount of 10,000 undervotes? This one criminal event probably stole the
election for Bush. But please try to forget it, because the Washington Post
doesn't want you to remember this ominous event. On December 6, the link below
showed a photo of the leaders, current and former Republican Congressional
staffers. Now it's gone - straight out of Orwell. If you don't want this event
to disappear down the memory hole, here's the full list, courtesy of
bushwatch.com:
1.
Tom Pyle, policy analyst, office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).
2.
Garry Malphrus, majority chief counsel and staff director, House Judiciary
subcommittee on criminal justice.
3.
Rory Cooper, political division staff member at the National Republican
Congressional
Committee.
4.
Kevin Smith, former House Republican conference analyst and more recently
of
Voter.com.
5.
Steven Brophy, former aide to Sen. Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.), now working at
the consulting firm KPMG.
6.
Matt Schlapp, former chief of staff for Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), now on the
Bush campaign staff in Austin.
7.
Roger Morse, aide to Rep. Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.).
8.
Duane Gibson, aide to Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) of the House Resources
Committee.
9.
Chuck Royal, legislative assistant to Rep. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
10.
Layna McConkey, former legislative assistant to former Rep. Jim Ross
Lightfoot
(R-Iowa), now at Steelman Health Strategies.
These
individuals should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and
ethics
complaints should be filed against the Members of Congress who employ
them.
CNN
Crossfire: Larry Flynt Discusses Bush's Abortion
<http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0010/20/cf.00.html>
Posted 10/20/00 -
Scrubbed
10/21/00 - Unscrubbed here:
http://www.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=159
On
CNN's Crossfire on October 20, Larry Flynt exploded a bombshell: that he has
evidence that George W. Bush was "involved in an abortion in Texas" in
the early 1970's - when abortions were still illegal.
Amazingly, CNN has censored its own story!!!! This has all the markings
of a cover-up by CNN - just like the cover-ups of Bush's many other scandals,
from going AWOL, to using illegal drugs, to corruption in Texas government, to
lying under oath. ##
*
* *
MORE ON THE REPUGNICANT FASCIST
COUP
Subject:
FW: Fascism and America [LONG]
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 22:24:14 -0800
From: "VENIRE" <VENIRE@ZNET.COM>
To: <info@blacklistedjournalist.com>
CC: <jellison@san.rr.com>
From:
today@american-politics.com
American
Politics Journal-Mar. 12, 2001 -- Fascism and America
Guest
Commentary
Fascism
and America Today
By
Aldo Vidali
Monday,
March 12, 2001 (gore2004us.com via APJP) -- I was raised in fascist Italy until
age 17 and will never forget the ugliness of totalitarian control over people's
lives. After two years in Brazil, I came to America in 1949 and wept when I saw
the Statue of Liberty.
Today,
in horror, I see all the unmistakable signs of a new wave of fascism, cleverly
concealed behind pseudo-patriotic, Christian rhetoric. To believe that the
separation of powers will always protect the American people from tyranny or to
deny the very possibility of fascism coming to power in the United States
amounts politically to one and the same thing. By ignoring the covert nature of
fascism, the will to fight against it is inevitably undermined.
Fascism
came to power first in Italy in 1922 and soon Hitler, in great admiration of
Mussolini, established Nazism in Germany. The Republican Florida coup used
methods remarkably similar to both, including the corruption of the highest
authorities in our nation.
America
is now threatened by colossal multinational corporations. The new Republicans,
having been bribed with an ocean of money, are at the service of these
supranational powers and promote the deceitful view of their masters: that the
federal Government is tyrannical and counter to the goals and ideals of
"freedom-loving people." The new
"compassionate-conservatives," i.e., the extreme right wing
Republicans, promote greater state autonomy and fewer federal laws.
They want us to forget that WE THE PEOPLE established a Constitution to
protect our lives from foreign and internal enemies.
Behind
Republican anti-federalism-so staunchly upheld by George W -- is a shrewd
"divide and conquer" ploy that would allow giant corporations to
control the much weaker power of any single state. Naive as the plot may be, it has taken in millions of
credulous middle class Republican voters. Promises of trillion dollar tax cuts
and the rantings of the pseudo-Christian Coalition have exerted enough influence
to cause many to vote for a return to the disaster of a Republican economy where
only the rich prosper.
If
you investigate carefully, you'll soon discover that these evil right wing
forces want to create a private army to accomplish a series of
theocratic/authoritarian goals allegedly to cleanse the "corruption"
of America. They claim that the corrosive influence of the federal Government is
"shown" through the existence of high taxes, restrictive gun laws,
federal regulations (especially those protecting the environment from the greed
of major exploiters, civil rights and reproductive rights), multiculturalism,
sex education, and public education. Historically, these incipient fascist
forces first opposed voting rights. Now they propose the abolition of one
man-one vote, the institution of second-class citizenship, the persecution of
women, people of color, those professing other belief systems (or none at all),
and homosexuals.
Nazis
prided themselves on their technology while clinging to ancient beliefs about
"blood and soil." Neo-Christianoids or pseudo-Christians believe that
the three important aspects of their eventual world dominion are: (1) a
state-of-the-art satellite system (and its television broadcasts); (2)
fundamentalist schools (with their emphasis on crackpot science and racist
school texts); and (3) a fundamentalist church system in control of the state
through cult control of congregations.
Most
Neo-Christians in this post-Christian era are Christianoids who use the pulpits
of various disguised branches of old Calvinism to promote an elitism that they
hope will eventually replace democracy with a plutocratic oligarchy of the rich
and Christianoid leadership. Their
mission statement is a mixed blend of early Gnosticism, the anti-Gnostic
Medieval Church, anti-Catholic Puritan ideology, anti-Luther/Calvinist
Counter-Reformation, and a fascist view of the state as the ultimate expression
of Christian faith. Rarely do we find among them devotion to the real teachings
of Christ beyond the most superficial lip service. The Christian Coalition
resembles Christianity as much as the Spanish Inquisition represented Christ's
love and compassion.
Aware
of the power of religious faith, Mussolini made his first act "The
As
Alvin Toffler noted in "Future Shock", a "reversion to
pre-scientific attitudes is accompanied, not surprisingly, by a tremendous wave
of nostalgia." Right wing Republican campaign rhetoric suggests turning the
clock back to an idealized version of 1950 America, forgetting that after half a
century the world has irrevocably changed-partially due to technological
advances and progress on human rights.
At
the Nuremberg Rally in 1934, Hitler said that "only brainless dwarfs"
would fail to see that Germany had been the "bulwark against the Communist
floods, which would have drowned Europe and its culture." He told his
followers there that he had saved Germany from chaos caused by "Jewish
intellectualism." Pat Robertson's Christianoid book, The New World Order,
reading like a pamphlet from the John Birch Society, uses old Jew-hating
references when touching on Apocryphal Illuminati and Freemason conspiracies.
His broadcasts are a stream of veiled insinuations about conspiracies.
David
Barton, a right wing Christianoid of the first order, spoke at the 1993
Concerned Women for America convention about the Christian Reconstructionist
creed. He says that the basis for American laws should be "whatever is
Christian is legal. Whatever isn't Christian is illegal." In the South,
pseudo-Christians are targeting Jews for conversion.
Coexistence
and respect for diversity of opinion are no longer tolerable options. The
primary agenda for America's right-wing/militia groups is to reject federal laws
and regulations, treat people of color and women as second-class citizens,
forcibly stop abortions and methods of birth control, execute homosexuals, and
persecute Jews by accusing them of myriad evil conspiracies.
At
the Nuremberg Rally, Hitler claimed "alien life and ideas forced on nations
by Jewish intellectualism, which is racially without a basis, led to an alien,
rootless state and internationally to complete cultural chaos."
Buchanan,
when still a member of the GOP, referred to a "so-called Holocaust
This
echoes white supremacist and Christian Reconstructionist groups that believe
Jews are not the "real Jews." Christian Reconstructionists believe
that their church is empowered to "advance Christ's kingdom in time and
history." They claim that "the problem for the unconverted... is a
lack of submission," and that the Bible commands "the godly to take
dominion in the earth" and "reconstruct" it according to their
interpretation of the Bible.
George
Bush's advocating federal financing for "faith based" social programs
is only the first step toward removing the separation of church and state. At
one point, Hitler claimed that by stigmatizing Jews he was "doing the work
of the Lord," and religious leaders as well as the average German
applauded.
Leaders
of paranoia exploit the confusion and anger of their followers by focusing it on
whatever element of society they want to blame for problems.
Ultimately,
impressionable simple minds persuaded by absurd alarmist arguments conclude that
killing the scapegoat eliminates the problem. We have seen this in Nazi Germany,
in Red China, in Cambodia, and recently in Bosnia and Kosovo (George W didn't
know where Kosovo was -- maybe Dick Cheney can help him find it on the map).
One
of the most typical features of fascism has been what Umberto Eco calls an
"appeal to a frustrated middle class." Supporters of the extreme right
wing are people worried about their jobs, especially those who haven't updated
their skills or those stigmatized by some as "The Great Unwired"
because they are not computer literate. The geographic distribution of
Republican majority states supports this contention, for in the 2000 election
they took the states with less Internet traffic and lost where people have daily
access to online media.
The
Internet reveals how the powerful bonds of industrial society that we have
depended on-law, common values, standardized education, and cultural
productions-are rapidly changing due to the Information Revolution. So far, the
ignorance of conservative old wealth has failed to understand what these changes
mean, and by embracing and financing a fascist plot to install into power the
abysmally ignorant George W Bush and his corrupt family, they have clearly
demonstrated their inability to understand that the Information Revolution has
already triggered as much economic and social upheaval as was brought on by the
Industrial Revolution.
For
the GOP to resort over the last eight years to medieval power intrigues-from the
Contract with America to the Florida Coup-is to court a major ecological and
economic catastrophe.
In
the Middle Ages, lepers and Jews were accused of plotting to usurp Christian
governments by poisoning the drinking water. Jews were accused of spreading the
Plague by poisoning wells. Jews and witches were accused of ruining crops, and
spreading sickness and heretical beliefs. In Nazi Germany, Jews were accused of
undermining the sanctity, economy and solidarity of German society. The accusers
turned out ultimately to be destroyers of Germany. Today the extreme right wing
still conceal their KKK white sheets in their sordid skeleton closets. They
persecute homosexuals, resist equal rights for women and minorities, and oppose
environmental sanity, which is our only chance to secure enduring economic
prosperity. The far right pseudo-Christians and other assorted kooks and fuzzy
thinkers accuse "secular humanists" and their "evil Jewish
henchmen," ecology
Christian
lecturer and reactionary Wilma Leftwich said that the One World
In
August 1995, James Dobson of Focus on the Family claimed that "sexually
decadent gender feminists" were plotting to take over the U.S, a typical
fascist method of hate promotion. In the same speech, he accused godless Chinese
of subsisting on a diet of aborted [female] babies-a peculiar, ancient libel
traced to a 6 or 7 AD tract known as Pseudo-Methodius. Dobson and Rush Limbaugh
are the epitome of the neo-fascist. This war-promoting libel also rears its ugly
head in ludicrous, Neo-Christianoid folklore that bears an uncanny resemblance
to old folktales of witches practicing infanticide to feed an army of
intelligent, musical toads with the power of human speech!
To
reveal these American neo-fascists evil intentions, one need only observe the
transparent resistance of the illegitimate Bush government to enacting hate
crime legislation and to giving support to the establishment of an international
court against war crimes to protect humanity from the horror of genocide.
Clearly,
fascists, knowing their own hatred and evil intentions, are not about to help
set up any legal instruments that will punish crimes they expect to commit
themselves when their hoped for time to reach for total takeover comes. Florida
2000 was only a preview of coming attractions.
Today
there is a parallel between the economic and social milieu of the US and Nazi
Germany, especially in the debate over health care. Then-as now-the central issue was who should receive what
kind of care, and for how long. In Nazi Germany, medicine was considered a
national resource reserved only for people who showed the greatest prospect of
recovery and future productivity. Adherents of eugenics -- from Nazis to
promoters of the National Institute of Health's Violence Initiative-claim that
everything from criminal/violent behavior and alcoholism to rampant unemployment
and labor unrest can be blamed on "faulty genes."
Adherents
to this social/political movement also believe in inferiority of some races and
superiority of others-a view that extends to various ethnic groups and social
classes as well. Nazis had their forced sterilization and euthanasia laws;
courts decided a person's "value" to society. It is incredible to
realize that America had the Johnson Act, which authorized more than 60,000
eugenic sterilizations between 1907 and 1941. (Most state sterilization laws
were not repealed until after the 1960s.) Republicans need not worry.
Compassionate Dick Cheney, who believed Nelson Mandela should spend the
rest of his life in prison, will whisper in George's ear ideas of "final
solutions."
Today,
the "compassionate conservatives" consider legislation that limits
welfare recipients to five years' worth of benefits in a lifetime. They are
uneasy about aid to the elderly or to AIDS victims. They passed "three
strikes" laws so that anyone who may have broken a law three times can be
locked away forever, even for stealing a single loaf of bread. This law is a
fascist dream come true; consider the manner in which innocent people have been
framed by law enforcement departments, especially in Texas and Florida.
Dick
Cheney, like Newt Gingrich, voted to end school lunches, so that more
In
Nazi Germany, they advocated reducing rations for the aged, people with terminal
diseases, repeat offenders, and the mentally ill. What passes as
"tough-on-crime laws" in the mind of the ugly right wing mob is no
different from the Nazis' judgment that "some have no right to live."
Fascism
involves a "system of sexual dictatorship devised to impose arbitrary
moralistic values in the individual in the interest of state approved
authoritarian marriage and family where the male will is absolute."
Hitler
said that "the emancipation of women is an invention of Jewish minds."
Today, the extreme right wing frets that "secular humanists" are
restructuring families through the "feminist movement," and actively
encourage increased homosexuality. The fear of "sexual freedom,"
viewed as sexual chaos and sexual dissipation by pseudo-Christian reactionaries
like Ashcroft, works hand in hand with a fear of economic freedom for ordinary
citizens. Welfare is for corporations. Tax cuts are for the rich. Let the people
get trickle down crumbs and keep unemployment and low wages going so the bottom
line for the rich may continue to grow fat. Those distorted fears are being
fostered by the conservative who want to conserve not nature, a people's well
being, or freedom, but only their bottom lines and privileges.
Their
unsurpassed hypocrisy lurks behind all calls for "safeguarding only
The
"Christian" Coalition had no problem agreeing with Buchanan when he
declared that "our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity
and that is the truth that makes men free." What may follow are goose
stepping SS (State Secret Police) with Christianoid crosses on their armbands.
Fascists
like to use simple language and concepts, a rhetoric that appeals to
simple-minded thugs. Fascists constantly attempt to win the support of
functional illiterates, the ignorant, and fuzzy thinkers. George W is a case
Al
Gore and the Liberty Movement are strong and will remain strong because they
adopt intelligence to protect freedom. America's Federalist Papers are not the
kind of literature Bush, Cheney or Greenspan could ever understand or apply.
To
realize the cretinism prevalent in the extreme right point of view, consider its
claims that "women are simply not endowed by nature with the same measure
of single-minded ambition and the will to succeed in the fiercely competitive
world of Western capitalism" as males.
George
had his coup, so let us call it for what it is: AN ILLEGAL FASCIST POWER GRAB.
"The election is over" bray embarrassed Republicans. Let's forget the
fight. Let's come together and move forward." One can only accept a fair
loss, not deceit, mob action, or thievery. Would anyone in his right mind accept
a car thief's plea," Please forget it! I stole it and it's mine
now!!!" while the thief is still driving the car he stole?
Neo-Republicans
are against everything America stands for. They and their corrupt court
accomplices annihilated the votes of all American citizens. The crime of the
century is not forgivable until corrected.
We must never forget it for a single day.
Come
2002 let us kick out as many Republican fascists as possible and then let us
re-elect Al Gore in 2004. Then our Nation can move forward and perhaps establish
Justice and Liberty once and for all.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Many
thanks to http://www.gore2004us.com for
permission to reprint the above
--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=----=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--
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Politics Journal Copyright (c) 2001 American Politics
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