The link: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/24/708/
In case the post title wasn't a hint, I'm unable to maintain decorum in the presence of the ridiculous deception this woman spouts.
Now, Hussain has apparently met this woman, and insists she's intelligent. I'm skeptical, but I'll take his word for it. She strikes me more as a well educated idiot. The sort of person you get when you combine years of education with arrogance, self obsession, and thoroughly mediocre intellect. But Hussain says she's smart. So if she is, then she's an incredibly deceitful individual.
She would like us to believe that we're on the road to fascism. Just like Stalin introduced it into Russia, Bush is introducing it here. If she is truly intelligent, she knows this is a flagrant falsehood, and by delivering it with conviction, she knows she is misleading America for political reasons.
This country faces real political problems. These problems stem from both political parties. These problems really need fixing. By pretending that we're living in Stalinist Russia, by pretending that Bush is some sort of iron fisted despot in the making, she totally divorces the debate from reality, and prevents us from holding our elected officials responsible for their real failings.
Because I'm OCD, I'm going to have to refute her idiot 10 step list, one by one. It just burns at my soul like a stupid powered arc welder that her idiot comments even exist, much less get taken seriously.
Anyway...
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy: Obviously this is 9-11. Why? Because it's convenient. It's also ridiculous.
Let's not forget the fact that America was terrified of Communism for over half a century. Let's not forget that this fear was present in both political parties. American fear Communism from without, and from within. There was endless fear of it blossoming here. Good American folk could be turned...
The fact is, countries are always scared of something. Before it was Communism. If we were scared then, does that mean somebody was trying to plunge us into fascism? If the fear of Communism generally subsided under Reagan and the elder Bush, both Republicans, then didn't Republicans free us from the plot, created by FDR and Truman, both Democrats? No. That's ridiculous. And I'm not going to even pretend it's reality, even though it's got all sorts of partisan coincidences a conscienceless douchebag like Naomi Wolf would latch onto.
The fact is, Communism was a real threat recognized by great leaders on both sides of the aisle. FDR, Truman and Reagan were all great leaders who combatted Communism and prevailed. The fear was real and valid. It was not a prelude to fascism.
Compare that to the fear of terrorism. Is Bush, or anybody for that matter, suggesting that Wahabbism might catch on with regular Americans? No. And that's a critical point, that's the “internal” part of it. Terrorism is an external enemy. Sure, it might hit our homeland, but the attack comes from without. You can still trust your neighbor. You just can't trust scary Muslims.
So Wolf is already wrong on two levels. The presence of an internal and external enemy is not proof of anything. Even if it was, terrorism isn't even an internal enemy, while Communism, apparently not a prelude to fascism, was.
2. Create a gulag: Of course, Gitmo. And as the list goes on, it's easy to see how Wolf isn't basing her list on reality, or any genuine concern on her part, but instead of how she sees recent events laying out in the American psyche, as created by her allies in the liberal dominated media. Most everyone has heard of Gitmo. Fewer have heard of rendition, but still, some have. It's not that the facts point to her 10 steps, it's that her 10 steps map nicely to the picture that most Americans, in their shallow understanding, have of the country.
This is the thing: She doesn't think there's a real threat of fascism, she just think it will PLAY WELL.
Back to her bullshit... She wants us to believe that Bush has constructed Gitmo to put us in when we don't agree with him. As if there were room in all of Cuba for the massive volume of shrieking haters who endlessly assign him flaws. Could these people be any less censored or intimidated? They're so not intimidated that they don't even bother to use the excuse of intellectual honesty disuade them from spouting their crap.
But I'm off topic again. Gitmo. And rendition. Bush's tools, right? The fact is Guantanamo has been an American military base for over a century. It has housed detainees for over 20 years, and legal challenges against it have taken place and been overturned previous to the Bush administration, particularly in 1993, during whose administration? That's right, Clinton's... I guess he was just keeping it in place, ready for his close ally George W Bush.
Much in the same way Bill Clinton started the practice of rendition, which was subsequently used by the Bush administration.
It's strange how all the things Bush is doing to “create a gulag“ are just continuations of previous policy, and yet still examples of how Bush is stepping through the list to fascism. Was Bill Clinton just a pawn in Bush's plan to do all of this? If so, does Naomi Wolf now regret serving on Clinton's election team, and being married to one of his speechwriters?
No, of course not. Because, again, this isn't about the truth, this is about what Naomi Wolf can sell people on. Their ignorance is her best ally. Keeping them fired up at lies keeps them too busy to actually learn that she's lying.
I'd also like to take a second to talk about the Gulags... By some estimates, the number of Soviet citizens in the Gulags numbered 28.7 million, nearly a third of their population at that time. The number of deaths in the Gulag is unknown, but official Soviet documents put the number above a half million during WWII alone, and academics estimate tens of millions actually died.
It should shed some light on the utter ridiculousness of Wolf's claims, indeed it should discredit anyone who uses the word in reference to modern day USA, to know the real scope of the horror of the Soviet Gulags. I have no illusions about the quality of life as a prisoner in Guantanamo, but to compare it to the Gulag is a falsehood of incredible, yet quantifiably massive scope. It's a lie so egregious that it permanently stains the credibility of the utterer and calls into question their very humanity, to use the suffering of untold millions as a cheap political jab.
3. Develop a thug caste: This one is such a reach it's hard to even find something pretending to make enough sense to need refutation. Apparently private military contractors, aka. mercenaries, just by existing, belong to Bush. The archetypal “thug caste,“ the brown shirts, were a paramilitary organization, and directly attached to the Nazi party. Are we supposed to believe that the existance of mercenaries, who have existed for all of human history, who have been employed by governments for all of human history, somehow are Bush's creation? And that even if they were, they are analogous to the brown shirts?
Show me an armed wing of the Republican party, going out beating up Democrat politicians on the floor of the House or Senate. Then we'd have an analog. Until then, we have Naomi Wolf trying to fool you into thinking that the ongoing existance of mercenaries means something.
This deception barely even earns the title. It's hard to be deceptive when your arguments don't even make sense. But, hey, it's a 10 point list, and Blackwater equals Halliburton equals Cheney. It may not make any sense, but liberals don't need to think when they can feel outrage. Need to cover the issues America has been programmed to respond to. Cheney. Blackwater. Salivate, puppy.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system: Number 4 and already I'm losing steam. What needs to be said that about this one that shouldn't already be obvious thanks to #2? Do I need to talk about Carnivore? About Echelon? About all the programs that existed under previous administrations, and which (to varying degrees of accuracy) have been accused of spying on Americans?
Are we so stupid we honestly think Bush invented surveillance?
Do I need to point out the fact that much of the UK is blanketed with a network of cameras, constantly watching the activities of their citizens? Is England on its way to fascism? But they have socialized medicine, isn't that, like, uh, the exact opposite of fascism? I mean,
I won't belabor the details of the idiotic press coverage of Bush's surveillance programs. Certainly there is a debate to be had there, but just as Naomi Wolf distracts from the real issue, so do her cronies in the media distract from the real issues in surveillance. We need laws that react to the changes in technology. We need laws in place that allow us the agility to respond to threats, but don't give undue authority to the governent.
This is what Bush has been asking for, and while the media screeched, and the Democrats made political hay, in the end, even they approved of Bush's policy because they knew it was right all along. Of course their approval was covered much more quietly than the firestorm of falsehoods and misrepresentation that had come before. No need to tell the country that Congress ultimately agreed with Bush, just leave the impression that he's trying to spy on you illegally. Who knows, maybe Naomi Wolf can make use of it in a list someday?
Oooh, look, she can!
5. Harass citizens’ groups: This one bores me with it's speculativeness and lack of real factual lies to deconstruct. Naomi knows that her party has had some success in convincing people that they're being censored and intimidated by Republicans. There's no real basis, but it works. And this list is about selling, not about educating.
One time a church got audited after talking about peace. There's no way that could have been coincidence. That type of thing comes from the TOP!
The Pentagon is keeping track of anti-war rallies and meetings. Nothing says harassment like keeping notes on somebody. It's a wonder my college professors didn't sue me. Oh, wait, I didn't take notes, because I went to a leftist liberal arts college and I figured out what they wanted to hear about a week in.
Now, maybe I'm not the expert on fascism that Naomi Wolf is, but I'd think you'd need to do a lot of harassing in a very visible, widespread sort of way to have an impact on a nation of 300 million folks. If Bush is out there doing the do, then how come she's only got two short paragraphs of examples of government observation?
She's running out of steam even faster than I am.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release: This one is neat. She has so little to work with, that she has to make a little journey from the actual detention and release of citizens, to the writing of lists, to the no fly list. Apparently not getting let on a plane is detention and release. I guess you're detained by the expectation of flying, then released by not getting to fly. Or something. There's a list! A list!
Honestly, this one is almost my favorite. It's like the soft, weak side of Naomi. In ther first few list items, she's really hitting America where it's weak, all the hot button issues, really putting together some effective deception to sell people. But now? Seeing a strong, sexy, Marxist-feminist this vulnerable? Well, it's just a huge turn on for my dominance-minded Republican mysoginism. Or, at least, that's what Naomi tells me. I feel like I still just think she's a high caste whore, who sells her twat for her Democrat pimps, and I don't find her at all appealing. But hey, she said.
Anyway, by number 6, she's just flailing, pretending like a second hand story about a quote from an airline employee means something.
“Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that,” asked the airline employee.
So let's get this straight. Naomi heard from a guy that an airline employee said this. And the airline employee isn't even a decision maker at the airline. And the airline doesn't even write the no fly lists anyway. But this is somehow a voice of authority. No, it's not. It's actually about four degrees separated from authority. It can't even GOOGLE Kevin Bacon from where it is.
Oh, yeah, also two people out of 300 million, have been tried and released. Of the two, I only recognize James Yee, and his case is far from simple. He's certainly not a victim. Regardless, am I to understand that in a nation of 300 million people, two being tried and released is intimidating for the other 300? And am I further to assume that it's totally unreasonable that in a nation of 300 million, at least two would have done something that actually leads to getting detained and released several times?
I bet Bush is behind all those detainments and releases of various members of the Kennedy clan! Hmmm...
7. Target key individuals: Interest... Wearing out... Can't... Deal with how ridiculous...
Look, Naomi, no. About three people got fired for not agreeing with the Bush administration? Again, in a nation of 300 million? I'm willing to bet that all Presidents fire people who refuse to work along the guidelines they're given. You're allowed to fire people who don't do the job the way you want it done. I work in software. If I keep telling my boss, in a civil manner, that he's not doing a good job, is he supposed to keep me around? No. Fire me. Play on the team, or fuck off.
And what's this about firing academics who are critical of Bush? Are we talking about Ward Churchill? Was that dipshit's story one of conservative lawmakers from Colorado leveraging the CU board to fire him? Are you fucking serious? That's a story of a plagiarist, a liar and a conman, who attracted attention with his anti-American tripe, and who paid the price. He was fired because CU had no choice. The only thing protecting him was the fear of being seen as a pro-Bush censor. If a professor had committed just the plagiarism without all the anti-Americanism, he'd have been gone in a week.
8. Control the press: This, of all of them, has to be the most impossible to take seriously. Bush is controlling the press? You mean the press that RELENTLESSLY hammers and criticizes him? The press that does everything in its power to demonize him? The press that is so nearly an arm of the Democratic party I sometimes wonder why they don't just admit it and spare their followers the stress of pretending? That press?
Oh, no, not that press. She means the press like Josh Wolf. The blogger. That nobody has ever heard of. The kid who basically fucked with the justice department, on purpose, to build up his “progressive street cred.” Yeah, he's the press.
And the press like Joe Wilson... In Naomi Wolf's world, Joe Wilson is the press. He's not a Democrat operative, who was working to undermine Bush, and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams... He's the press. Wasn't I just saying the Democratic party and the press were the same fucking thing? Naomi appears to agree.
What's particularly laughable about this reach, is that the REAL intimidation of the press in the Plame story was how the people going after Bush, after Libby, imprisoned actual reporters (not bloggers or Democrat operatives) for not giving up their sources in the Bush administration. The real intimidation, the real attacks on journalistic integrity, the attempts to compromise sources, were made by those attempting to convict Bush and his team.
It's laughable. It's insultingly fucking laughable.
But I understand what Naomi is doing here. We're already to #8, and no sale is complete without mention of Plame. Had to fit it in there. Have to sell it Naomi!
9. Dissent equals treason: I just don't have the time to go into all the ways this is bullshit. I guess that's what you get with a scattergun assault like this.
We know that dissent is the sole property of the left. Even when the conservatives are out of power. I think Molly Ivins said so, so it must be true.
But, whatever, it's hypocritical, as General Betray Us can tell you. Betray comes from the same root as traitor... Let's not pretend that the right is the only side using rhetorically charged language. MoveOn.org is getting awful accusatory with General Petraus, don't you think? Because he wouldn't say Iraq is a huge failure? That's not being a traitor, that's just doing your job and trying to be optimistic about it.
Plus, while Bush absolutely is not Stalin or Hitler, and David Petraus most certainly didn't betray us, some of Naomi Wolf's pals really are traitors. As she mentions, the NYT leaked classified information. Is that not something that could be construed as traitorous? How about putting out pictures of the tail numbers of rendition aircraft? Couldn't blank those out? And where is Bush calling these genuinely traitorous acts by their name? He said they were “disgraceful.” You quoted it Naomi. Is that “traitor?”
Again, amazing. Bush never said it, and if he had, quite frankly, he'd have been right.
We're not talking about dissent here, Naomi. Publishing state secrets isn't dissent. Dissent is about opinions, about disagreement. It's not just “what liberals do, and also totally correct and awesome.“ It as a meaning, conservatives can do it too, and they certainly don't get spared from your hyperbolic character assassinations, do they?
10. Suspend the rule of law: Wow. What a trip it's been. And Naomi is clearly flagging near the finish.
In order to prove that Bush is going to suspend the rule of law, she mentions a bill, the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007. A scary, scary bill. A bill which passed the House with a 92% yes vote. How did Bush get all those Democrats to let him suspend the rule of law? Do you think I'm too stupid to google the fucking bill Naomi?
Wait, strike that. I'm sure the people you talk to probably are.
I think that figure, 92% should be enough to prove what a dishonest whore Naomi Wolf is. But I want to put one more comment out there for the record (that means you, Gosh).
George Bush is leaving office in January of 2009. No matter what. Naomi Wolf wants you to believe that you have to vote Democrat to prevent him from completing his evil, fascist plans and getting re-elected in 2008.
YOU STUPID WHORE. HE'S DONE IN LESS THAN A YEAR AND A HALF.
Forget how individually fragile and worthless each of your ridiculous list items is. Even if every one made sense, the simple fact contained in the capitalized diatribe above renders it all worthless.
Did Bush set this all in motion, as a fetus, by mind controlling FDR and Truman, and then via special hypno-cocaine he gave Bill Clinton, and all the voting members of the House, all to set things in motion to pass the reins of a semi-partially-tangentially-mabye-sorta-pseudo-butnotreally-fascistic governent to his real master the arch socially liberal conservative RUDY GIUILIANI!??!?!?
OF CRAS!
IT AM ALL MAKE SENS NOW! I HVAE COLLECTRONAD ALL OF SORUCES FOR VERIVIVIFICATION!
YOU STUPID STUPID STUPID WHORE OF A LYING WHORE.
Why do you have to be this stupid where people can read it? Don't you understand you're HURTING THE FUCKING WORLD?
This part, I treasure: “Of course, the United States is not vulnerable to the violent, total closing-down of the system that followed Mussolini’s march on Rome or Hitler’s roundup of political prisoners. Our democratic habits are too resilient, and our military and judiciary too independent, for any kind of scenario like that.”
Yup. Naomi is saying to you, dear reader, that even after however many paragraphs of screaming that Bush is Hitler/Stalin, even she can't really suspend her disbelief anymore, and has to admit it's all just bullshit, and really what “fascism” means is, like, I dunno, Bush not liking people who call him Hitler/Stalin. But even that's not cool, is it? Can we really let him fail to do anything less than reverently treasure our dissent? Can we?
I ASK YOU? CAN WE?
Vote Democrat, folks. They care. They care to take the time to make 10 item lists of the things they've been brainwashing you with for 7 years. They care enough to give you a brainwashing Cliffs Notes. Who else would do that? They really, really care.