C&L Book of the Month: <I>Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy</i>
By Mark Groubert Thursday Nov 29, 2007 8:01pmTakeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy By Charlie Savage
“Charlie Savage’s Takeover reads like a political thriller because it is one: the story of Dick Cheney and his hapless boss pushing the presidency off its constitutional foundation.”
John W. Dean, former Nixon White House Counsel
In Takeover, author Charlie Savage takes us through the steel doors of power to peer over the shoulders of the Bush-Cheney lawyers who secretly devised ways for American presidents to circumvent laws and treaties. He pulls back the iron curtains which hide the political motivations behind Bush's selections for the Supreme Court. He takes us along the road that leads to the current executive branch addiction to secrecy. On the trip, Savage's book gives us clear translations of the Bush-Cheney gang's bizarre radical theories.
For all this we must say thank you, sir.
This is an incredible master work from Charlie Savage, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist from the Boston Globe who first brought to our attention the Bush Administration's abuse of so-called signing statements. For that he won himself the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Thank you, Charlie Savage. Thank you for showing us what intellectual heroism is all about. Thank you for helping us understand our own current political quagmire. Thank you, well, thank you for not giving up when so many of us are burdened with great despair regarding our nation's condition.
Now here are some additional "thank yous" for the upcoming Holiday Season from the folks at Crooks and Liars.
Thank you, George W. Bush.
Thank you, Dick Cheney.
Thank you, Alberto Gonzales.
Thank you, David Addington.
Thank you, Andy Card.
Thank you, Lewis Libby.
Thank you, Condi Rice
Thank you, to the folks in the Office of Legal Counsel.
Thank you, to the entire Bush-Cheney administration.
Thank you for exposing all of the loopholes in our three branch governmental system supposedly protected by insurmountable “checks and balances” and often referred to as the “greatest Democracy on earth.”
Thank you for letting us know about signing statements. Thank you for turning 9/11 and the Patriot Act into your own version of the Reichstag Fire Decree.
Thank you for letting us know that what we thought was set in stone through International Treaties, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and a two party system was really held together by baling wire and a gentleman’s agreement never to go too far. Thank you for your nutty theory of the Unitary Executive. Who new? I certainly didn’t. I must have missed that class at the Heritage Foundation back in 1984. The impression I got in both high school and college was that our seemingly flawless system was nearly impervious to outright overt political hijacking.
I mean, didn’t I hear from Woodward and Bernstein on the 25th Anniversary of the resignation of President Nixon that “the system worked?”
Now we’ve learned much since then.
We’ve learned about unanswered congressional subpoenas. Dead end subcommittee investigations. The reversal of the Freedom of Information Act. We’ve learned about secret White House Energy hearings. A war no one can stop. Treasonous outings of CIA agents. Congressional laws nullified through signing statements. We’ve learned of private militias in the streets of New Orleans. Secret presidential executive orders. Suspension of habeas corpus. Wiretapping without warrants. Enemy combatants. We’ve learned a lot in seven short years.
The list goes on and on as we begin to look like a scene from the German film, “The Lives of Others."
Please someone, anyone. Please call it what it is already, I can’t take the pressure. When is it enough? When do we utter the word? When the planes run on time? C’mon. Just say it. You’ll feel better.
Ah, there. Isn’t that better? Now we can talk about our dysfunctional national family. Remember what they teach in recovery. “You’re only as sick as your secrets.”
So how do you get from point A to point B? From democracy to fascism?
Naomi Wolf has it down to the same 10 easy steps throughout the history of the 20th Century:
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
2. Create a gulag.
3. Develop a thug caste.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
5. Harass citizens’ groups.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
7. Target key individuals.
8. Control the press.
9. Dissent equals treason.
10. Suspend the rule of law.
Sound familiar? It should. Elements of it cascade out of our national news on a nightly basis.
So Bush-Cheney et al, I salute you. I salute you for your shear deviousness. I salute you for keeping a cage full of legal monkeys cranking out bullshit legal phrases, not to justify your actions, but merely to have something on paper in case you’re questioned by hall monitors if caught smoking in the boys room.
I salute you personally Dick Cheney for having the unmitigated gall balls to keep on truckin’ despite numerous heart attacks, negative world opinion, single digit approval ratings, election losses, chief of staff convictions, lawsuits, civilian deaths, infrastructure destruction, military failures, decline of the dollar, and well, total global mayhem.
A salute to you because in the middle of all of the above, you still have the determination, ambition, loyalty and drive to jump on a plane and fly half way around the world to Saudi Arabia simply to kiss some Royal family ass.
History, I believe, will eventually thank you, in an off kilter kind of way of course. I’m sure you’ll be acknowledged for demonstrating the loopholes in the vice-presidency job for instance. But you knew that coming in, didn’t you? That job previously being so innocuous. So innocent. A do-nothing position of federal ribbon cutting. You’ve taught us otherwise. Thank you.
My holiday blessings, Dick Cheney for showing us what happens when you make hard controversial decisions knowing that the legal endgame will be supported by your hunting partner and four former underlings now dressed in black. It's a pleasure to watch you field your position during a game in your home stadium where the playing field is no longer level and yet surprisingly the final score is always the same - 5-4 in your favor.
Thank you again, Dick Cheney for showing us that our protective governmental roof has more holes in it than a Beverly Hills shower head and when you and your friends at Halliburton make it rain, it pours.
Thank you all in the Bush Administration for in a way you have torn back the lace curtain and exposed the Wizard of American Democracy for what he is.
A sham.
A few of us knew it. Some of us suspected it. Many of us didn’t want to hear it.
You showed us how to steal an election and get it certified by the M&WIB. That was new. We didn’t know we were vulnerable there. Thanks.
You showed us how to cherry pick intelligence, suppress dissent and launch a massive invasion of an unarmed nation. Well, that was an amazing feat my friend. I must hand it to you. The British caught on, but hey, maybe they were impressed as well. After all, they jumped on board knowing full well you were full of shit. But we will learn from you, old wise one, and hopefully we will adjust.
We will go to work on our roof. After all, we are, “ The Greatest Country on Earth.” We have our work cut out for us. So many legal holes to be fixed. Such a porous system of government. Who knew? Thanks again, Mr. Shingle man.
You at home, the average liberal American says the Bush-Cheney gang must have broken the law and should be impeached or prosecuted. Author Charlie Savage will show you otherwise. Savage’s Takeover, will demonstrate to you how the Bush Administration has not broken the laws of the United States. At least not as they and apparently the Congress sees it. Bush-Cheney and friends have merely shown us the loopholes around the laws. Add a little intimidation. A war. Some media control and bingo - an imperial presidency.
Savage takes us back through the erosion of congressional power and the rise of Imperial Presidencies. A slow drip of power upward, from Congress to FDR to Bush forces the reader to say the phrase “Omigod” out loud repeatedly during this 400-page masterwork of historical research and reason.
Part of the devious genius of the Bush-Cheney gang is the overall secrecy they work and breathe through. They don’t debate Unitary Executive Theory. They live it. They don’t abide by the Geneva Convention. They reword it. They don’t admit to torture. They redefine it.
The Bush-Cheney mob uses their own demented logic of evil to keep swimming forward like a starving great white. Since they believe only the president can declare war, (Their lawyers write statements on request telling them so and sometimes they simply sign the statements that are written by Cheney’s chief muscle, David Addington) and a war president has unlimited powers (their lawyers write more statements confirming this), then logically, the president is above the law (also confirmed by the Office of Legal Counsel) in all military and security issues.
Why doesn’t the Democratic Congress do something?
We know the Republican Congress was rank with cronyism and partisan politics, but what do the Democrats have to lose? Clearly, there were/are numerous laws being broken by the Bush-Cheney team. Well, the dirty little secret that both Feinstein and Schumer know (as do other members of Congress) if they dare to admit it, is that no laws have been broken. (There is allot of gray area out there my friends.) Congressional veterans see the legal holes Bush and Cheney have slithered through. They are the open manholes in our system. Loopholes that up until now, with the occasional exception, were kept closed via handshake, wink or nod.
Everyone, well, governmental scholars at least, knew these gaps existed, but no one ever thought they would/could be exploited at this level. Sure, civil liberties have been challenged during wartime. Just ask Japanese- Americans. But this? On so many levels? For almost 8 years? No one has ever had the balls. Until now.
In many ways, it could be said that George Bush served as a political Trojan horse for Cheney and his army of Constitutional crazies. An empty vessel ripe for riding. Presidential power was Cheney’s obsession, not that of George Bush. After all, it was Dick Cheney, the youngest presidential chief of staff who served under the weakest President in modern times – Gerald Ford. It was Dick Cheney who witnessed up close and personal the defanging of his Commander in Chief after that same role had been abused by Ford’s predecessor, Richard M. Nixon.
It was Dick Cheney who vowed to restore the power of the presidency.
It was we who didn’t listen to him. It was we who didn’t take him seriously. We who mocked him. We who laughed madly when Jon Stewart made duck sounds to imitate his vocal style.
Well, we aren’t laughing any longer, are we?
On paper, the only thing that separates us from Stalin, Hitler, Pinochet, Franco and Mussolini is the upcoming election in ’08.
On paper, America is different. We are still special. We are still unique. But as everyone knows, paper burns.
It burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit.
How and if we repair the age old structural damage to our governmental system will be the true challenge for American democracy. Leaving our Constitutional covering without repairs will certainly force us to feel the hard rain to follow. It will also leave a series of festering bullet-like wounds in the nation’s body politic.
Whether our next president is named Edwards, Obama, Clinton or Romney, these holes must be patched. These wounds sutured. These fissures fixed.
Our future depends on it.
Takeover will take your breath away. Hopefully, someday, you’ll get it back.
A screenwriter/producer/journalist based in Hollywood, California, Mark Groubert is the Senior Film and Book Reviewer for CrooksandLiars.com. As a filmmaker he has produced numerous documentaries for HBO. Groubert is also the former editor of National Lampoon Magazine, MTV Magazine and The Weekly World News. In addition, he writes for the L.A. Weekly, L.A. City Beat, Penthouse, High Times and other publications.
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I couldn't put it down. The format Savage chose to use with each chapter was interesting as well.
By now the dealers on amazon must be going lower than the $17 I paid for it. If I wasn't such a selfish bastard, it'd be at the library already. Rise of the Vulcans ended up there, as did State of Denial. Ghost Wars will remain in my home forever...Conscious of a Liberal as well.
Charlie Savage has written one here that I won't be able to part with. So for what it's worth, I think if you like to read and/or you're fond of the constitution, this is a ticket worth buying.
nice post, Mark!
The only parallel to Nazi Germany that almost every author fails to make - the most blatant - is that it was the Nazi's themselves that started the Reichstag Fire in 1933 and then they blamed it on another group, the communist Jews.
A staged terror attack in 1933 gave birth to the Enabling Act.
A (official theory) terror attack in 2001 gave birth to the Patriot Act, the Military Commission Act, Presidential Directive 51, death of habeas corpus, torture, renditions, Homeland Security, the Afghan and Iraq wars....
yet, no one dares say aloud the obvious.
Al Swearengen LOL you back from the dead already?
We laugh.
But what comes next?
GWB has set the bar.
Which president is going to reject the bar or jump over it?
Oh, I think we're in a dark age.
VietVet8666 @ 5:
Maybe we will all die a horrible death brought on by the Bush families greed and personal agenda.
L.A. Confidential @ 6:
And maybe they will. My bet is we all end up paying big time for GWB's blunders.
BoilThemInTheirOil @ 7:
They are not blunders. They only appear to be blunders to you because they are not things that normal people would do.
These are actions of a group of people who know what they are doing, and they are doing it very well.
They are at war with you.
Great writing!
Truth Be Told @ 8:
AND THATS THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OUTING A CIA AGENT IN TIME OF WAR IS TREASON AGAIST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Call Nancy Pelosi @ 1-202-225-0100 and DEMAND IMPEACHMENT.
Mike Meyer @ 11:
Useless.
Nancy is an enabler. She is a willing collaborator because she makes a lot of money doing what she is doing, and stands to make even more, by not doing what she should be doing.
She is the mother who fails to report her husband to the authorities for molesting the children. Willing, complicit, Enabling (Act)
What they want isn't that complicated. Shut up, don't question authority, obey orders, work a job, pay your bills.
It's all a money grab.
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
They want to run America like a football team.
Truth Be Told: The whole world knows that Nancy has taken IMPEACHMENT off the table. (as do I) THE QUESTION IS HAVE YOU TAKEN IMPEACHMENT OFF YOUR TABLE. (it's still on mine)
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
its much more than that.
from page 72 of the PNAC document "rebuilding America's Defenses"
Why wait for SOMEONE ELSE to be a CITIZEN FOR YOU. Do YOUR DUTY.
Truth Be Told @ 16:
Yeah that to Big Swinging Dick of the planet.
Mike Meyer @ 17:
The powers that be have already planned contingencies for this.
they have think tanks and all sorts of research into what public reaction would be for given circumstances. The human being is the most heavily studied and behavior analyzed animal on the planet.
You will not be able to go Spartacus on them.
When can we get Joe Klein, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, etc., to read this book and actually UNDERSTAND it?
So what you are saying is ROLL OVER and take it?
Mike Meyer @ 21:
No. They expect a frontal attack when the population finally has had enough.
why do you think that you are so heavily surveilled? why do you think there is a not just a "wiretap," but a "country-tap?" Why have they invested soooo much into domestic suppression technologies such as the microwave heat platform, the LRAD sound cannons, tasers, robotics, embedded ID chips, and tons of other mechanisms for social control?
you have to outflank them. do the unexpected.
Oh, I see, better to live as a slave than fight for Liberty. I'm sure the FOUNDING FATHERS had that in mind too. (naturally IF WE STFU, we'll live forever without any pain ) (YOU do realize 'they' know who YOU are and that YOU have an opinion on these blogs, don't YOU)
I'm ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT IMPEACHMENT IS UNEXPCTED.
Mike Meyer @ 24:
No, for starters, Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are what is unexpected.
See how the MSM has opposed their candidacy's from every possible angle - except the internet.
Toss aside everything you think you know, and vote the candidates who are not pushed by the media.
Excellent post. I want to send copies to everyone I know.
It's amazing how the only three constitutional candidates running are never mentioned as possibilities.
Senator Chris Dodd introduced the Restoring the Constitution Act, which would restore habeas corpus and require the US to live up to the Geneva Conventions. It would remedy much of the harm done to our nation’s commitment to due process rights by the misguided Military Commissions Act.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D Ohio) carries a pocket Constitution with him. He knows our nation is in peril. I have met Mr. Kucinich and I saw a brilliant, brave man who stands on honor, integrity, and law.
Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. Mr. Paul has been very outspoken about the travesty he sees.
I believe, backed by a "New and Improved" '08 Dem majority House and Senate, that any of these could actually put that Old Constitution back together again, and strengthen it in the process.
The "New and Improved" '08 Dem majority could repair the social safety nets, election reform, Social Security, and health care. Mr. Kucinich has the best health plan for the people, and could hold any remaining war mongers in check.
I've written this a few times before, and now I see Mr. Kucinich, himself has broached the idea of a bi-partisan team, to repair the damage this cabal has manifested. The GOP fear Kucinich because no one has been able to buy him yet. Mr. Paul is like a thorn in the GOP's side. I love it.
(By the way, have you seen how fast the money is pouring into Mr. Paul's site, OMG!)
Of course, this is only my opinion.
THE REASON IMPEACHMENT IS UNEXPECTED IS 'they' know that YOU will not back up Kucinich or Paul now that the time has come to back them. (the whole reason for the calls to Pelosi, to BACK UP those in Congress willing to IMPEACH with YOUR voice.) 1-202-225-0100 Call and DEMAND IMPEACHMENT---HELP DENNIS AND RON IMPEACH.
Mark's a gifted reviewer
One of the two best books I've read on bushco/Iraq. If nothing else, its great to read the work of a real journalist. Lazy pigs like Klein and Broder should read this and hang their heads in shame.
It is still hard to believe that the right wing think tanks accomplished so much of their stated goals in such a short period of time. Add to that the fact that they operated for so many years without impediment, since everyone was afraid to appear as un-patriotic. We really need to take stock in all of the damage done in the past 7 years.
With the exception of Dennis Kucinich the Candidates for election in 08 have not said a single word about what they would do to repair the damage done by those criminals to our constitutional government!
I want to express this in a way that might not get deleted. Um, why do these 2 still walk the face of the Earth? Unfortunate things happen all the time, except to these 2. Why do we have to continue on like this? Who the f*** do these guys think they are? I get one shot at life, so why are they allowed to destroy it? F*** them!!!
Mike Meyer @ 27:
There will be no impeachment.
City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance
Author: Zangana, Haifa
Bibliographic Data: Hardcover, 160 Pages, Seven Stories Press, November 2007
List Price: $20.00
ISBN: 1583227792
Description: Zangana, a former political prisoner of the Ba'ath regime, presents the first comprehensive history of women in modern Iraq through the U.S. occupation. She contradicts the passive role shown by Western media and presents a forceful critique of attempts to hijack the initiatives of Iraqi women.
Nice work. More please.
#32 - jasmoran66:
I hear you and empathize. But do you honestly feel these two are untouchable? For now, they are. Their current political positions make them safe. But after January 2008... anything can happen. I read, I listen, and I hear the hate. It's like a low rumble you can hear from far away. They've made many enemies. And whether they know it or not, I suspect they're in someone's crosshairs.
What we learn every day from a myriad of sources is just the tip of a very large iceberg. The next administration, hopefully, will allow a normal course of inquiry and revelation to proceed. We will learn much about the past 7-8 years and what was done for the "safety" of our nation. Some of us will be shocked, most will just be disgusted. But I hope all will demand change and correction.
Call me a fatalist with optimistic leanings.
Er... that should have been January 2009!
Bob Herbert asserted in his column in the NYT that Tom Tancredo wants everyone to assimilate. The new mantra for the GOP is: We are Borg. Very scarey.
Don't be too negative, we've already taken over Congress
and we'll win the next election and throw the bums out.
Then we create new laws that will keep a Bush-clone
under more control. Don't fall for the same scare tactics
Republicans have been using. Bush-Cheney is a case history
of how to lose Congress and the American people.
"Thank you, George W. Bush.
Thank you, Dick Cheney.
Thank you, Alberto Gonzales.
Thank you, David Addington.
Thank you, Andy Card.
Thank you, Lewis Libby.
Thank you, Condi Rice
Thank you, to the folks in the Office of Legal Counsel.
Thank you, to the entire Bush-Cheney administration."
HEY! Wait a minute!! Where's Herr Karl Roef?
While i wholeheartedly agree that George Bush and Dick Cheney, particularly the latter, are two of the most evil men this nation has ever known, i do not think that all of this falls on them. It is a much longer story; they serve as the culmination.
The War on Drugs, in particular, pushes the time line of the story much farther back. It was the WoD that has led to such an astonishing incarceration rate. It was the WoD that militarized our local police forces. And it was the WoD that was one of the early attacks on Constitutionality and the Bill of Rights. We didn't stop it then, which makes stopping it now that much harder.
Democratic leadership, too can share the blame. Clinton's coagulation of the media and the Carter doctrine have their place in this story. And that the Democrats have, for seven years, aided and abetted the most subversive and distasteful behavior that the Republic has ever witnessed.
I wish i could say that we can take it all back and fix it, but i'm not so sure now. I feel no confidence that any of the mainstream candidates will do anything more than use the newfound executive power for their own desires, rather than repeal them.
If it is going to change, that change will have to come from us little people. Do we have the intellectual strength to actually challenge them? Can we extricate ourselves from our dependency on the State and its corporate patrons?
We can do nothing, the trajectory Bush/Cheney has set us on will lead to self-destruction. But do we have what it takes to weather that storm? These are scary times indeed, but i find myself more concerned with the strength of the American consciousness to handle severe adversity than with what happens in this election cycle.
Oh, and thank you Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney for laying that old Chinese proverb on us all; these times may be a little more interesting than we'd like, but at least they are interesting.
ChrisM70 Says:
When can we get Joe Klein, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, etc., to read this book and actually UNDERSTAND it?
********************************************************
the only thing these corporate sluts/ pigs understand is being bent over, pants down, hands to ankles, assholes spread open, screaming 'next, next' to the long line of corporations behind them .. this is why tim 'my depends area always too full' russerts head seems to be exploding all the time, why 'miss' chris matthews, a latent drag queen who lusts for guiliani, splutters cum out of his rabid mouth everytime he talks about clinton, and joe kleins eyes are permenatly crossed ......
anyone wanna take bets if charles savage and his book will be discussed on 'meet the propagandists' ... mtp .. 'hosted' by miss russert anytime soon ?
Truth Be Told @ 3:
Naomi Wolf went public Nov. 28th with this:
"For the first time publicly, Wolf traced the origins of contemporary developments back to President Bush's Nazi grandfather, Prescott Bush, and his plan to launch a fascist coup in the 1930's."
The Bush Crime Family never gave up. HW's CIA career started in the JFK Assassination era, Cheney and Rumsfeld shortly after. This Shadow Government that Eisenhower warned us about in 1961 was already using "National Security", "State Secrets", "Executive Privilege", the CIA, NSA, DIA and corruptible "lifers" in many other agencies, combined with international entanglements channeled through CFR, AIPAC and Wall Street to Subvert American Military Muscle and the Executive Office.
911 didn't just "come along" in perfect timing, 9 months after a First-in-History Selection of the Losers GW/Darth Cheney by the Supreme Corrupted, er, Court. 911 could not happen without the Executive Authority over NORAD, diverse Black-Budgets/Ops, key installations of high-level appointees at CIA, FAA, FBI, DOJ, and DOD, and the Press. I mean the carrier USS George Washington apparently had to be right there for some uninvestigated reason. These are all things that could not be arranged without the Office of the President. 1975 was the year a small group of generals at the DOD were first asked to assess the impact of "airliners into the WTC", as Sworn to by one participant.
Progressive media has focused on the Iraq War while ignoring the central excuse that got us there and all the world-class criminality behind that. If PNAC Inc. can keep the American Populace of the trail long enough, they will attack Iran, and no, they don't care whether it's legal, approved by the international community or the American People, that's what the "new camps" are for... in case some of us get too loud in our free-speech. But while I don't believe we can solve the Constitutional Crisis without opening an unrestrained investigation into all aspects of 911, there is one other "possible" alternative to moving boldly in the right direction:
Kucinch/Paul '08
Independent, left-right Constitutional Review Ticket. Give the American People a Review of the White House with 100% Access to it and its entrenched apparatus. The two candidates switch offices midterm, abolishing fears from left and right about who runs what. DOJ and other Executive Appointments are Split 50/50. Review US Foreign Policy and its Apparatus. Review the Office of President/Vice-President in light of Constitutional Law. Review Intelligence Apparatus. Review Defense. Review Federal Contracts/Conflicts. Restore Obvious Constitutional Laws. Idle the domestic agenda except in Unanimous Agreement between them.
Today may be the time to consider making history, breaking the 2-party gridlock, facing off against the entrenched well-heeled interests of the Beltway, by co-opting the campaigns of the only two Presidential Hopefuls who have NOT sold out to the highest corporate/global-power interest.
The attack on American Liberty which threatens both the right and the left deserves a head-on collision with We, the "unalienable" People... And We don't have a lot of time.
Fascism and corporatism is in Bush's blood line... his grandfather not only helped NAzi Germany, but reportedly tried to stage a coup here in the US. The video link is to an autor who has made a film that includes original footage of General Smedley Butler's testimony to congress attesting to this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html
Video Link
http://www.infowars.com/articles/nwo/bush_crime_family_prescott_plotted_...
YANKEE KNOW HOW:
For the first time in history, man has put a Dick in a bush and fucked the whole world.
YANKEE NO HOW!
Truth Be Told @ 16:
Right! Everyone on C&L who hasn't read the PNAC papers need to, for therein you will find the plan that Cheney, Rumsfeld et al have been following. I read it back in 2000, I stumbled upon it during an internet search. It's basically the codification of the combined "wet dreams" of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Kristol, Perle, J. Bush, and a bunch of other neo-cons who signed it. Once you read it, you will know for sure that nothing that has happened in the past 8 years has been by accident - certainly not the so called "terrorist attack" on September 11, 2001 - or what Cheney et al like to refer to as "the New Pearl Harbor." And, I'd be willing to bet that AIDS, and other recently occurring viral diseases have been purposely introduced to test their theories about reducing population.
The difficulty we face now is that our government has been so completely infiltrated with these morons and their fascist, imperialist ideas - at all levels, from the supreme court, senate, house (Dems as well as Reps), to state and local pols and, even scarier, police forces - public and private. Plus they have the backing of the corporate elitists and the global financial cabal.
I'm still trying to be an optimist here, but as more time passes and no one emerges on the national scene who is speaking the truth, it seems we'll be reaching the tipping point. If the economic collapse that looms actually occurs (and make no mistake, this has been engineered by these freaks, too) regular citizens will not have the resources or energy to put up a good fight, we'll be too busy tryin' to get food and water and dodging "rare" diseases.
Keep telling us about stuff like this! Thank You!!!
The blueprint: 10 steps all fascist societies have taken throughout history:
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy (the "terrorists")
2. Create a gulag (Guantanamo Bay)
3. Develop a thug caste (Blackwater)
4. Set up an internal surveillance system (domestic spying)
5. Harass citizens' groups (infiltrate, taser, jail, put people on "lists")
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release (whisleblowers, Guatanamo)
7. Target key individuals (political opponents, journalists, activists)
8. Control the press (FAKE news releases, embedded reporters, FAKE reporters, FOX News, Rush Limbaugh)
9. Dissent equals treason ("You're against the troops", "You're with the terrorists", "You're un-Patriotic")
10. Suspend the rule of law (revoke Habeus Corpus, Military Commissions Act, etc....)
http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/2007/11/fascist-america-in-10-easy-ste...
jackpine savage @ 41:
The shame of all of this is that lawyers should know better. Now, they have lowered the bar to where it is not what the law intends but rather what they can reinterpret or which loophole they can use. It says a lot about what lengths these lawyers were willing to go to for themselves alone.
thanks Ralph Nader!
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