Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

Maybe because I'm a "San Francisco elite," when I heard what Barack Obama said at a Marin County fundraiser about the difficulties inherent in reaching out to small town voters, I said, "And...?" Obviously, context is everything, and perhaps it was not as artfully phrased as it might have been. Are voters so fragile that having someone point out that there is antipathy and bitterness in many economically impoverished areas that makes it hard to connect to voters and encourage them to vote for you is somehow an elitist attitude? Are we so immature that we need candidates to pat us on our heads and say, "It's okay, little voter, there, there...don't let me bother your pretty little head with reality"? Really, which is more condescending?

But you wouldn't have known that by CNN's coverage on Lou Dobbs Tonight. Guest host Kitty Pilgrim spent the whole hour talking about how this could potentially devastate Obama's campaign, bringing on concerned analysts and reporters alike to discuss how this shows Obama's elitist attitude (my God, he declined a cup of coffee for a glass of orange juice...and he can't bowl! That snob!). And while they acknowledged Obama's response, they saw fit to focus on Clinton and McCain's pouncing on this opportunity to go after Obama. At first, I was incredulous over the whole thing and figured that the media just needed something to talk about. But then I looked at the calendar.

Friday afternoon data dump. What came out of the White House this Friday? Bush sanctioned torture.

That's right. While Kitty Pilgrim clutched her pearls for a full hour at the thought of poor voters in rural Pennsylvania being thought of as being bitter and distrustful of others because of their disaffection, she (and all the other talking heads and news shows) IGNORED the fact that our president has admitted that he committed a war crime. A crime for which other heads of state have found themselves in front of a war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but merited not even a yawn out of our media. Read what is less important to CNN than Barack Obama's characterization (NSFW).

Talk about disaffection. At this point, I am of the belief that we need to put the heads of these media companies on trial as well for their complicity. Take the AOL Hot Seat below the fold:

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This token Christian has to say it...thank God for the ACLU. (Yes, I mean that, Bill-O.)

The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a motion asking a federal judge to hold the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in contempt, charging that the agency flouted a court order when it destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the harsh interrogation of prisoners in its custody....

“The interrogation techniques employed by our government raise fundamental questions of human rights and decency,” said Arthur Eisenberg, New York Civil Liberties Union Legal Director. “The CIA cannot avoid those questions by simply destroying the evidence.” Read more...

Download | play    Download | play   (h/t Heather)

On an ever-increasing basis, I get the distinctly creepy feeling that high school English class made a very big impact on the neo-cons in office.  Not for the quality of writing of such dystopian classics like 1984 and It Can't Happen Here, but as a guideline of what to do once in power (tell me you can look at Karl Rove and not think "Four legs good. Two legs better"), proving once again that the basic lessons of history and humanity are lost on them.  

Case in point: drawing from a very apt analogy of Fahrenheit 451 in which firemen went looking for questionable material (like the unacceptable notion of books that make you think) from the citizens to keep them complacent and happy, comes the news that the Department of Homeland Security has "deputized" the FDNY with the ability to report on citizens that may express opinions  or have in their possession books that sound "anti-American."  A handy ally for DHS, as fire departments and EMTs don't have to waste time with little niggly things like search warrants or probable cause for such searches.

Mike German, formerly with the FBI and now with the ACLU, talks with Keith Olbermann of the highly greased slippery slope we all find ourselves on. 

CNN's latest smuggled video shows soldiers beating peaceful pro-democracy protestors and hauling them away by the truckload.

Download | play Download | play (h/t Bill W.)

Words of Power quotes Human Rights Watch to Business: "Keeping quiet while monks & other peaceful protesters are murdered & jailed is not ... constructive engagement." read more...

Stephen sits down with Naomi Wolf, who has published articles we've linked to previously tracking America's slide into fascism and has recently come out with the book, The End of America: A Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot.

Download | play Download | play (thanks to Heather for vids)

Wolf's work is based on the famous 14 Common Aspects of Fascist Governments by Lawrence Britt. Look familiar?

This morning on "Meet The Press" Karl Rove sat down with David Gregory to talk about his career, Iraq and the state of the Republican party today. Gregory actually asks some tough questions and follows up on them, but the Master of Spin refuses to answer most of the questions directly and as expected, attempts to rewrite history and put a positive face on his scorched earth brand of politics and the worst president in American history.

Part I Download | play Download | play

Part II Download | play Download | play

Rove bashes Hillary Clinton and Joe Wilson, throws Richard Armitage under the bus, defends the recently unearthed video of Dick Cheney (what's changed? Why 9/11 of course!) and refuses to take responsibility for his role in the failures of the Bush administration and the catastrophic damage he's done to the Republican party. There's a lot of garbage to sort through, have at it in the comments...

The Agonist:

Just in case you can't hear the war drums then give this a read. It's a Statement of Policy from the Executive Office on the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008. In a nutshell it notes that the Scooter-Commuter, Geroge W. Bush will veto any bill that limits his freedom of action with regards to Iraq. For good measure (inserted by a denizen of OVP, of course) there's this little nugget concerning Iran:

The Administration strongly opposes amendments to the bill that to restrict the ability of the United States to deal effectively with the threats to regional security posed by the conduct of Iran, including Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The Administration also notes that provisions of law that purport to direct or prohibit international negotiations, covert action, or the use of the armed forces are inconsistent with the Constitution's commitment exclusively to the presidency of the executive power, the function of Commander-in-Chief, and the authority to conduct the Nation's foreign policy. If the bill were presented to the President with provisions that would prevent the President from protecting America and allied and cooperating nations from threats posed by Iran, the President's senior advisers would recommend he vetoed the bill.

God help us.  This is unmitigated madness.  Again, the only thing I can see to help us is to ratchet up the heat with your elected officials.  Call daily, write letters, emails, go to their offices and make a nuisance of yourself. At some point, we must become louder than the pundit class inside the Beltway so that they understand that it's more than their political livelihoods on the line, but the republic itself.

Okay, this is really creeping me out...anyone else see some disturbing parallels?

It's official. To be patriotic in Russia is to be a fan of Putin, specifically a Putin Youth. During the celebration on June 12th of Independence Day (Russia from the Soviet Union in 1990), "the only groups allowed onto Red Square were the youth group Nashi" - which means "ours" - "the Young Guard and Young Russia," according to Sergei, a Nashi supporter.

Tickets were carefully dispensed only to the faithful near the Krasny Ploshad Metro from a truck, I finally discovered after questioning a dozen reluctant people holding the tickets.

The 120,000-odd Putin Youth members are perhaps the most creepy demonstration of Putin's "Back to the Future" cult of personality - youth groups created, supported, and used by the Kremlin to harass, bully and intimidate opponents and critics.

"The idea was to create an ideology based on a total devotion to the president and his course," says a Kremlin adviser, Sergei Markov. Obsessed by the color revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia, the Kremlin decided to create their own loyal youth brigades.

The article goes into details that are just bone-chilling.

On a side note, my buddy Cliff, from whose blog I got this disturbing story, is holding a fundraiser to help out his contributers.  If you are able, please consider a donation.

A few weeks ago, I linked to Naomi Wolf's article in the Guardian listing why she believes we are sliding further and further into fascism.  Obviously, there are some who will dispute that (and I believe we saw that on our comments as well) and the Guardian saw some tremendous feedback, so they invited Naomi Wolf back to debate Boston College professor Alan Wolfe on truly how fascist the country is becoming.  Part 1 is available here and Part 2 is available here.  It's a fascinating and intelligent discussion. (thanks to Hugh J. again)

It's been said in different ways in different forums, but it's a stark reminder of how bad things are when it's published by a mainstream author (Naomi Wolf) in a mainstream publication (albeit not one read by most Americans).   

Guardian UK: (h/t Hugh J.)

If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy - but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps.

As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.  Read on...

I'm sure this book (from the title alone) is going to upset alot of people (see: Jimmy Carter). That notwithstanding, in his latest controversial work, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America, author Chris Hedges examines the growing right-wing fundamentalist movement in America and argues that it resembles the early fascist, cult-like movements of Germany and Italy in the 1920's and 30's. Regardless of where you stand, this book is bound to spark some serious debate.

Download | play   Download | play  

From Amazon:

American Fascists examines the movement's origins, its driving motivations and its dark ideological underpinnings. Hedges argues that the movement currently resembles the young fascist movements in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s, movements that often masked the full extent of their drive for totalitarianism and were willing to make concessions until they achieved unrivaled power.

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Robert Greenwald, Director of the new film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, talks to Bill Maher about the egregious war profiteering taking place in Iraq by private companies like Halliburton, CACI, Bechtel and Blackwater. These for-profit companies are taking advantage of the American taxpayers at the expense of the troops and the Iraqi people and have been allowed by the rubber-stamp GOP congress to operate with impunity. You can buy a copy for $12.95 and support Greenwald here or view the film in full here. If there's one good thing a Democratic Congress will bring, it's oversight of these horrendous (yet status quo) practices.

Movie WMP  |  Movie MOV 

Greenwald is a genius whose films are the definitive works to date on a myriad of controversial topics including the 2000 election, pre-war intelligence manipulation and FOX News' contempt for journalism. All of them can be viewed on Google Video for free as well here:

HuffPo :

Today in Bill Clinton's Bipartisan Love-In Blows Up in His Face, Arianna writes,

"Hooray! Good for Bill Clinton. He finally called Fox News and the right-wing on their BS, right? Well, sort of.

... I'm glad the Chris Wallace interview is flying all over the internet, but I really hope that one person who will watch it over and over again is Bill Clinton. And that on the fifth or sixth viewing it might occur to him that the more cover he gives Bush and his cronies, the more they're able to increase and entrench their power. Power they use to destroy everything that Clinton purports to stand for."

There is a fundamental point here. I, and many others, think that the Democratic leadership has profoundly misjudged the nature and intentions of the conservative movement. John Dean, in his book Conservatives Without Conscience, warns that we are witnessing the rise of an authoritarian government, and Kevin Phillips, in American Theocracy, warns that the current Republican leadership is intent on bringing about a theocracy. This is not politics-as-usual. THIS is what the bloggers are so shrill about.

Read on...  

So the right wing is predictably euphoric about Bush's latest political ploy. Here's an example from The Corner:

The President just pulled one of the best maneuvers of his entire presidency. By transferring most major Al Qaeda terrorists to Guantanamo, and simultaneously sending Congress a bill to rescue the Military Commissions from the Supreme Court's ruling Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the President spectacularly ambushed the Democrats on terrain they fondly thought their own. Now Democrats who oppose (and who have vociferously opposed) the Military Commissions will in effect be opposing the prosecution of the terrorists who planned and launched the attacks of September 11 for war crimes.

And if that were not enough, the President also frontally attacked the Hamdan ruling's potentially chilling effect on CIA extraordinary interrogation techniques, by arguing that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is too vague, and asking Congress to define clearly the criminal law limiting the scope of permissible interrogation.

Taken as a whole, the President's maneuver today turned the political tables completely around. He stole the terms of debate from the Democrats, and rewrote them, all in a single speech. It will be delightful to watch in coming days and hours as bewildered Democrats try to understand what just hit them, and then sort through the rubble of their anti-Bush national security strategy to see what, if anything, remains.

(Boy, I sure hate it when the Democrats politicize the war on terror. It's so wrong.)

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Rumsfeld's cranky outburst mangles a historical analogy, bad-mouths legitimate critics, and illustrates once again why the defense secretary should resign.

TWO REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS ago, the mantra of conservatives was "Let Reagan be Reagan." Apparently President Bush has decided to let Rumsfeld be Rumsfeld - even when Bush himself is no longer the Bush who taunted Iraqi insurgents with "Bring 'em on!" and posed in front of a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished."

In a cranky speech Tuesday to an American Legion audience, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld compared critics of U.S. policy in Iraq to those who sought to appease Hitler before World War II. For good measure, Rumsfeld suggested (echoing Jeane Kirkpatrick's liberal-bashing speech at the 1984 Republican National Convention) that those same critics "blame America first."

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