The "New Totalitarianism" now defines a desperate neocon end game

By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
Online Journal Guest Writers

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_756.shtml

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The New Totalitarianism has become tangible in particular through a string of terrifying prosecutions against non-violent dissenters, an attack on open access to official government papers, and the attempted resurrection by right-wing "theorists" of America's most repressive legislation, dating back to the 1950s, 1917 and even 1797.

Bush's universal spy campaign is the cutting edge of the assault. The attorney general has told Congress both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln engaged in electronic wiretapping. He has deemed the Geneva war crimes accords a "quaint" document and treats the Bill of Rights the same way.

Evidence of no-warrant spying on thousands of US citizens continues to surface. Like all totalitarian regimes, this one believes its best defense is to terrorize its citizenry by intruding, Big Brother-like, into all facets of personal life. Inevitably, it is moving to prosecute whoever reveals that spying is going on, including a KGB-style search for the hero who leaked Bush's warrantless wire-tap program.

Along with spying comes official secrecy. The Bush regime is reclassifying millions of pages of harmless, marginal documents to prevent public scrutiny. It demands access to the papers of the deceased investigative reporter Jack Anderson so they can be reclassified. It has moved to prosecute reporters, government officials and even lobbyists who have used documents in ways the administration doesn't like...

Don't give Bush credit for Adolf's fashion sense.

When the decider decides to dress himself, it looks more like this:



He makes Truman Capote look straight.

...how to look presidential, doesn't he?

Nice juxtaposition of the complementary methods of repression, building the walls while we stare at the open roof. By the time we're all shut into our prison, it will be too late to do anything about it.

What amazes me is that most Americans don't see it. They don't believe their President and his Administration are well on the way to--have succeeded in--revolutionizing America. We have gone from being a wealthy oligarchy to being a military dictatorship.

People don't see it because we haven't had to pick up the tab yet. By the time we do, there won't be any alternative. It will be shut up and don't speak out against the government or you go to jail, or just "disappear," send your boy or girl off to war or you will starve--and maybe lose your home, don't be caught reading, writing, or planning any change in the order of things (you can't anyway because you don't have access to the internet, the library, or satellite television).

Did I mention that there are some fairly high paying jobs (with benefits) coming up in new private sector jobs ... in the prison industry? Call it Service economy positions.

...your remarks as alarmist rhetoric--those in denial still do. I'm not laughing now.

They are grand at this strategy


... May 2, 2006, 00:34



As the Bush/neocon kleptocracy disintegrates in a toxic cloud of military defeat, economic bankruptcy, environmental disaster and escalating mega-scandal, its attack on basic American freedoms -- its "New Totalitarianism" -- has escalated to a desperate new level, including brutal Soviet-style prosecutions against non-violent dissidents and an all-out offensive for state secrecy, including an attack on the Internet.

In obvious panic and disarray, the GOP right has turned to a time-honored strategy -- kill the messengers. While it slaughters Americans and Iraqis to "bring democracy" to the Middle East, it has made democracy itself public enemy Number One here at home........

The repression has reached new theoretical levels. In recent weeks, right-wing journals such as the National Review have featured articles demanding enforcement of ancient legislation outlawing "sedition." With the US now "at war," the right-wingers say it is perfectly fine for Bush to arrest and imprison those who advocate peace. In particular they cite repressive legislation used in the 1950s to clamp down on "known Communists." They also cite acts passed in 1917, during World War I, and the Sedition Act, passed under John Adams in 1797.

These laws in essence gave the chief executive power to imprison American citizens at will. Woodrow Wilson used them to jail Eugene V. Debs and thousands more who resisted US intervention in Europe. Debs was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for urging resistance to a war opposed by a significant majority of the American people (Debs ran for president from his Atlanta prison cell in 1920 and got nearly a million votes). Some dissenters were arrested for carrying posters that quoted Wilson's own writings in favor of peace. Opponents of the military draft were routinely jailed without trial. A "Red Scare" was used as cover to smash the Socialist Party and radical labor movement, debilitating the American left for decades to come.

John Adams's Sedition Act had similar aims. Its reign was brief and less destructive. But according to the New Totalitarians, it remains in force, and should be used to crush opponents of Bush's Iraq attack.

The neocons have taken particular aim at generals and other officers who have criticized the Bush military strategy, if it can be called that. The critiques have merely underscored the astonishing incompetence of the Bush junta. They reflect the highest order of courage and patriotism........