Bob Burnett, The Huffington Post
This is the time of year when "best of" awards are given in categories such as news stories and movies. In the propaganda classification, there is no doubt that Karl Rove, Bush guru and head of the White House bureau of mind control, is once again the runaway winner - the recipient of the 2005 Orwell award.In "1984" George Orwell described a diabolical "Ministry of Truth. " The organization operated a system of mind control, "Newspeak," to keep citizens under the thumb of a totalitarian regime headed by the ubiquitous "Big Brother." Orwell's ideas about mind control found a home in the Bush White House. Under the direction of Karl Rove, the Administration developed their version of newspeak, "Bushspeak." They paraded a series of illusions before a gullible public. The same George Bush who was asleep at the wheel before 9/11 and who responded to the threat of Al Qaeda by diverting our resources into a Iraqi quagmire, is portrayed as a strong leader who would keep America safe.Bushspeak worked: The 2004 Presidential exit polls revealed that Bush supporters believed that Iraq supported the 9/11 attacks (75%) and had weapons of mass destruction (73%). They saw the war in Iraq as directly connected to the war on terror, and they trusted President Bush to do the right thing to win. In The New York Review of Books, Mark Danner observed that in the election Bush voters, "faced a stark choice: either discard the facts, or give up the clear and comforting worldview that they contradicted. They chose to disregard the facts."In 2005, Bushspeak refined its message: Conservatives were portrayed as the true defenders of the country and liberals as spineless appeasers. In June, Karl Rove spoke to the New York Conservative Party. "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." "Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said: we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said: we must understand our enemies." Classifying most Democrats as liberals, Rove depicted them as gutless. Advocates of a "cut and run" solution in Iraq. In November, Democratic Congressman John Murtha, a hawk and a decorated veteran, called for a swift withdrawal from Iraq. "The United States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk." Bushspeak fired back. White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, accused Murtha of advocating, "surrender to the terrorists." "Endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party."Bushspeak is a key ingredient in all Administration speeches. December 18, Bush spoke to the Nation on the Iraq war. He observed that there are only two positions on terrorists: One is to continue to fight them in Iraq. The other is to "leave them alone." According to the President, the choice is between "victory" and "defeat." He characterized his opponents as defeatists.When it was revealed that Bush had secretly authorized domestic eavesdropping, in violation of the law, The President argued that he had special powers as commander-in-chief. He claimed that his actions had kept America safe, although he offered no proof for this.Under Karl Rove's direction, the Bush Ministry of Truth is constantly in attack mode. Ready to pillory anyone who disagrees with the Administration, to question a critic's sanity, patriotism, and manhood. The President persistently attacks his critics from the basis of his fundamentalist belief, "Since I am aligned with God, I am superior and my beliefs should prevail, and anyone who disagrees with me is inherently wrong." [To quote Jimmy Carter.]Many Americans are unaware of the Rove propaganda machine, and fall under the spell of its relentless assault. Unfortunately, "a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth." Many voters don't know what to believe. They hear passionate arguments for and against the war in Iraq, for and against the Bush national security "strategy." Fortunately, there is an authoritative, independent voice they can turn to. The 9/11 Commission, as the "9/11 Public Discourse Project," recently issued report on the efforts of the Bush Administration to prevent another attack on the homeland. The Project concluded, "We are not as safe as we need to be... there is so much more to be done." "Many obvious steps that the American people assume have been completed, have not been... Some of these failures are shocking." The 9/11 Project observed, "Our leadership is distracted." While 57 percent of Americans disapprove of "the way the President is handling the situation in Iraq," 56 percent approve of "the way Bush is handling the U.S. campaign against terrorism." The relentless onslaught of Bushspeak accounts for this paradox: Despite his many missteps, Americans continue to see George W. Bush as strong on national security. They have faith that he will lead them to "victory," although they don't know what that is.For skillfully constructing this oxymoron and continuing to delude Americans into believing that "ignorance is strength" and "war is peace," the 2005 George Orwell award goes to Karl Rove.

posted by Joshua P. Angell  @ 7.1.06 0 comments

What's Bugging You Today?
Is it the same "something" or someone shall we say that's bugging me?
Read this, and be your own judge. Bush and his cronies are slowly taking away our very right to dissent. Free Speech? Sort of... but not really. Anyway, read the info, make your own decision, but I think you will agree with me... Mega Dildos to you!- Josh

This is the third in a four-part series about what's really in the USA Patriot Act. Click here to read Part 1 and here to read Part 2.
Section 214, aka "Can I borrow a pen register?"
What it does: "Pen registers" ascertain phone numbers dialed from a suspect's telephone; "Trap and trace" devices monitor the source of all incoming calls. Neither reveals the content of communication. Patriot removes the warrant requirement for these taps so long as the government can certify that the information likely to be obtained is "relevant" to an ongoing investigation against international terrorism.
The law before and how it changed: Under Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, a traditional phone wiretap could be obtained on a showing of probable cause that one of an enumerated list of crimes had been committed. Warrants were valid for only 30 days, and the government needed to report back to the court. Under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act the requirements for a wiretap order were more minimal: The FBI didn't need probable cause or even reasonable suspicion to install a tap, but only had to certify to a judge that information resulting from such a warrant would be "relevant" to an ongoing criminal investigation. Section 214 doesn't change this standard but broadens the reach—making the FISA pen register/trap-and-trace power available in both criminal and foreign intelligence investigations, so long as the government merely certifies that the information obtained would be "relevant to an ongoing investigation." The probable-cause requirement in criminal cases is gone. Courts may not inquire into the truthfulness of the allegations before authorizing a tap.
How it's been implemented: In July 2002 the attorney general's office told the House Committee on the Judiciary that the number of times the tools in Section 214 had been used against Americans was classified and would be provided only to intelligence committees. In August 2002 the DOJ also noted that 214's "streamlining" of the pen/trap request process "has made these less intrusive tools of FISA more reasonable tools of investigation and more available as alternatives to other tools of the Act." Not clear how that's supposed to be reassuring.
Would you know if Section 214 had been used on you? Only if the information obtained was someday used against you in a proceeding; otherwise it's kept secret.
Sunsets in 2005: Yes.
Prognosis: In July 2003 Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Ron Wyden introduced S 1552, the "Protecting the Rights of Individuals Act," which would toughen judicial review for some telephone and Internet monitoring. The bill requires the government to be more specific about targets of wiretaps obtained under the law.
Enough to get you through a cocktail party: While Patriot certainly lowers the standard for obtaining wiretaps to an assertion of mere "relevance" in an ongoing investigation, those standards were awfully low to begin with. It's hard to see how Patriot made life much worse than FISA.
Section 216, aka "Your friendly neighborhood Carnivore"
Section 216 clarifies that pen register/trap-and-trace authority applies to Internet surveillance. Until now, it was at the whim of judges and the Justice Department whether the rules for phone taps applied to the Internet as well.
What it does: Patriot changes the language that was drafted contemplating only telephonic surveillance to include Internet monitoring, specifically information about: "dialing, routing, and signaling." It also broadens such monitoring to any information "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation."
The law before and how it changed: Before the Patriot Act, Internet surveillance by the feds was essentially unregulated. The availability of an Internet tap turned on whether a judge would apply phone tap rules to the Internet. While the act broadens the use of tapping devices from telephone numbers to Internet and e-mail origins, it actually sets up higher standards for the government to meet. For instance, wiretaps may not be used to intercept "the content" of Internet communications (although the act does not specify what "content" means, which worries civil libertarians).The provision requires that the feds report back on how the wiretap was used. However, warrants can now be sought for any suspected crimes, not merely for terrorism-related acts. Also, judges have no authority to reject these applications.
It was widely reported that the Patriot Act expressly authorized the use of "Carnivore"—the federal Internet surveillance tool. However, Patriot never mentions Carnivore, and the only section that implicates Carnivore requires that the government file a detailed report whenever it installs its own surveillance device on an ISP.
How it's been implemented: The DOJ says it has used the Patriot-amended pen/trap provisions to track the communications of a host of ne'er-do-wells. [The greatest-hits list it sent the House Judiciary Committee in May includes: "(1) terrorist conspirators, (2) at least one major drug distributor, (3) identity thieves who obtained victims' bank account information and stole the money, (4) a four-time murderer, and (5) a fugitive who fled on the eve of trial using a fake passport." They also say the new authority helped them investigate the murder of Daniel Pearl.]
In May 2002 the attorney general sent field offices a memo warning agents against "overcollection," the inadvertent collection of content when using a pen/trap device. The memo mandated that agents must use "reasonably available technology" to avoid capturing content. If content is accidentally captured "no affirmative investigative use may be made of that content"—"except in a rare case in order to prevent an immediate danger of death, serious physical injury, or harm to the national security." Asked at a May congressional hearing how the DOJ defines "content" when it comes to electronic communications, Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh reported, "We consider non-content to be the 'to' and the 'from.' The subject line is content." Nice that they're paying attention, but it does appear that the DOJ acts as the only check on itself, here.
As for Carnivore, the DOJ reported in August 2002 that federal investigators had filed only two notices detailing the installation of surveillance devices on an ISP. Only one of the two was related to a terror investigation. Dinh noted in May that agents retain information about such installations—"including information relating to how it was used, what information was gathered by the device, and ultimately whether or not it was successful in gathering such information"—and make it available to the court that issued the warrant within 30 days.
Would you know if Section 216 had been used on you? Not unless you were someday prosecuted based on information obtained pursuant to this statute.
Sunsets in 2005: No.
Enough to get you through a cocktail party: Section 216 is one of the provisions that may actually protect privacy. By codifying wiretapping law as it's applied to the Internet, Patriot removes a lot of the ambiguity from the prior rules. But as the laundry list above suggests, Patriot authorized this surveillance for a lot more than the war on terror. Which seems a little opportunistic, no?
Section 206, aka "Here, Rover"
Section 206 authorizes roving wiretaps: taps specific to no single phone or computer but to every phone or computer the target may use. It doesn't get as much attention as it should. If the government decides to tap a computer at the UCLA library, every communication by every user can theoretically be intercepted.
What it does: Expands FISA to permit surveillance of any communications made to or by an intelligence target without specifying the particular phone line or computer to be monitored.
The law before and how it changed: Taps were formerly applicable only to specific phones. Under Patriot, the FISA court can authorize taps or intercepts on any phones or computers that the target may use. The foreign intelligence authorities can require anyone to help them wiretap. Previously, they could only serve such orders on common carriers, landlords, or other specified persons. Along with Section 220, which allows a judge to authorize national wiretaps rather than ones limited to her jurisdiction, this severely undercuts a judge's ability to monitor whether taps are being used appropriately and erodes the "particularity" requirement of the Fourth Amendment.
How it's been implemented: When asked in May to detail provisions of the Patriot Act that had helped federal authorities dismantle terrorist networks, the DOJ made no specific mention of section 206. (They also skipped 214.) That's slightly odd, since the DOJ has often used such open-ended questions to grandstand about renewing sunsetted provisions. The DOJ did tell the House Judiciary Committee in July 2002 that the number of roving wiretaps issued is classified, noting that we can "assure the committee that the Department's request for use of such authority … has been limited to those cases where the surveillance ordered by the Court would otherwise be, or would otherwise likely be, impossible." So, at least there's that.
Would you know if Section 206 had been used on you? Not unless the information was someday used to prosecute you.
Sunsets in 2005: Yes.
Enough to get you through a cocktail party: The vast expansion of warrant power is worrisome. The check on the use of wiretapping authority for government fishing expeditions was judicial oversight. Such oversight is impossible when taps are issued nationwide and to a range of phones and computers.

posted by Joshua P. Angell  @ 5.1.06 0 comments

Nicholas von Hoffman:
'Outlook: Cloudy with continued craziness'
Topic: Republicans
Nicholas von Hoffman, The Huffington Post
The long range predictions of political and social meteorologists at this weather station are gloomy. Bear in mind that there is more money, attention and sex allure for weather persons when storms are forecast than when sunny days are promised, so readers may want to discount the following dark forebodings.January - In his State of the Nation speech President Bush says that the Iraqi war is kinda like a long, long horse race but that the thoroughbred named USA is leading down the home stretch and heading to a barn called Democracy. He expects the American force there can be reduced by the end of May.He tells people that now is not the time to give up on SUVs. He promises that the price of oil and natural gas is going to go down because of the miraculous technology advances our scientists, who are the best in the world, will have growing out of their test tubes, "faster 'an you can say ethanol."Congress repeals the Freedom of Information Act. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says, "It was useless and we are trying to get old, unenforced laws off the books."February - An air marshal who is a member of a VIPER anti-terrorist patrol kills an old man on a commuter train coming into Chicago from suburban Park Forest. The man, Arinsoe Palgrave, 81, carrying an attache case, began emitting strange sounds which the air marshal (name withheld for security reasons) took to be Arabic. After being asked by the marshal for some ID, Palgrave lept from his seat, began jerking and shaking while holding on to his attache case. When Palgrave ignored orders to place his case on the railroad car's floor and assume the position, the marshal was forced, to save the lives of the other passengers, to take the suspected terrorist out. The bomb squad determined that the case contained Palgrave's medical records and a petition to the Veterans Administration to raise his disability payments. A grandnephew, Marcel Palgrave, 23, said that his uncle suffered from an undiagnosed neurological disorder.March - Karen Hughes, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, returns to the Middle East to resume her mission of teaching Arabs how to act right. Hughes, 49, a close collaborator with the President, is said to be one of the most astute political minds in Washington. The highly respected Egyptian newspaper El-Ahram noted her return to its part of the world in an article which contained the phrase, "fat, Christian cow."Congress reaches a milestone. In secret session it passes the first classified law. When asked how people can obey a law they don't know about, House Speaker Denny Hastert, said, "You'll know when you break it because we'll be down on you like a ton of bricks." The ACLU said Classified Law Number 1 was taking the country in "a new direction."April - Karl Rove, George Tenent, John Ashcroft and Fats Domino are awarded the Medal of Freedom. Fats entertains the glamorous Washington audience with "Ain't That a Shame."Avian flu breaks out in Minnesota. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Michael O. Leavitt, says, "Not to worry, the disease is only infecting undocumented immigrants who are being deported as fast as possible."May - President Bush announces that a turning point in the Iraqi war has been reached. He says that three million Iraqi soldiers have been trained, plus four million Iraqi police. Thus one out of every five Iraqis are in the army or law enforcement. He expects the American force there can be reduced by the end of the year.The Department of Energy says that scientists have achieved a release of energy via cold fusion, the way the sun releases energy only a lot cooler. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman tells a press conference that cold fusion can extract enough energy from a teacup of ocean water to power every home and office in the United States for a month. He has his picture taken with the teacup.June - Department of Education reveals it has perfected a computer program to teach Federal law enforcement officials how to connect dots.Officials fear gasoline prices will go through the roof this summer.President Bush tells his radio audience he is worried terrorists may try to disrupt American elections in the fall.The Supreme Court rules that government employees or persons deemed "critical in the G-WAT (global war against terrorism) may not tell others who they are if ordered to be "invisible." The case was originally brought by Grandmother X, who is not allowed to reveal to grandchild Y who his mother is. She may work for the CIA.July - Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman admits to a Senate committee that he dropped the teacup and it broke, which has set back the cold fusion program but he predicts it will be up and running before the last drop of oil has been pumped out of Saudi Arabia. When queried, he is quoted saying, "Senator, you're asking me if I would buy an SUV under present conditions? My answer is yes. We can get another teacup."HHS boss, Michael O. Leavitt, concedes that there have been "a few hiccups" in the avian flue inoculation program but the "people most vital to our society, police, elected officials and risk taking, job creating, innovators with incomes over $500,000 a year" have been vaccinated. When asked about others, Leavitt responded that "most of them have high definition TV." An anonymous HHS official said that, "budgetarily it doesn't make sense to spend money for expensive vaccines on people who most likely will die next winter because they can't afford to heat their homes. Either Big Bird gets you in July or Frosty the Snowman offs you in January," but then added he was only joking. Welfare advocates said the jest was in poor taste.August - A gas station in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, is identified by the Associated Press as the first one in America to charge $10 for a gallon of regular. President Bush says that the price of gas is a sign that the free market is working and the economy is growing.He tells reporters that he is buying each of his twins a Ford Explorer but with the cup holders removed. This month, he tells a group of Marine veterans, will see America reaching a turning point in Iraq. He foresees a "draw down" of American troops by as early as March of 2007, which is way ahead of schedule. Democracy in the Middle East is around the corner, but the President is worried about what may happen here on election day.September - President Bush is accused of ordering the CIA to attack the World Trade Center and that 9/11 was a put-up job. "Why would I do a silly thing like that," the President said when pressed on the point.Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asks Congress to pass a law mandating every child born in the US have a small chip inserted in the back of the neck enabling the government to keep track of who's where and where is who. Gonzales explained that people move around "too much," although not as much as they did before gas hit $10, "but what will happen if prices drop?" he asked.Hurricane Albino destroys Houston, Texas.October - Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman says that his Department hopes to have a new teacup up and running by sometime in the second quarter of next year.A FEMA press release states that Katrina victims are being evacuated from their temporary housing so that Hurricane Albino victims can move in. A spokesperson, when asked what Katrina victims are to do, answered, "They need to deal with it."Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, reacting to a Washington Post story about proactive interrogation, angrily explained to reporters who, he said, had not done their "homework," that when a fingernail is only pulled out halfway, it is "emphatically not a violation of the Geneva Convention, and you, ladies and gentlemen, should know that."The average price of gasoline has dropped to $7.21. Officials said the price of heating oil is over $6.00 a gallon but those using natural gas will have no cold nights this winter if they take out home equity loans.November - - Donald Rumsfeld denies that a sack of fingernails discovered by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh for the New Yorker magazine are human nails. "These are chimpanzee nails. Don't you people know anything?" a testy Secretary of Defense asks Pentagon reporters.In response to repeated inquiries from major Wall Street bond houses, Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill concedes that, "There has been a snafu with our books. We really don't know what is what right now, so there will be no financial information this quarter."White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, says the President believes that Iraq has reached an important milestone. But the milestone is classified "for obvious reasons."In a joint news conference the President and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announce that the elections this month will be held under "Iraqi election rules." For the 48 hours preceding election day no one other than unruly Mexicans will be allowed in the country. All plane and railroad traffic will cease. Schools will be closed and no cars will be allowed on the streets. Only people on their way to or from their voting place will be permitted to leave their homes. The Army will count the ballots and the country will be informed of the election outcome "as soon as it is safe."December - - Secret Service agents and police in Omaha had to use night sticks and pepper gas to protect President Bush from a mob of enraged golden oldies in wheelchairs and on walkers, who assailed the Chief Executive with canes, dentures, hearing aids and empty plastic pill containers. A shocked Chief Executive asked, "What did I do?"Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld concedes not all the fingernails belong to chimps.While lighting the National Holiday Tree, President Bush asks his fellow Americans "to stay the course." He predicts some troops will be withdrawn by the end of May, 2007.

posted by Joshua P. Angell  @ 2.1.06 0 comments

Siege Heil: The Bush-Rove-Schwarzenegger Nazi Nexus and the Destabilization of California
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

George W. Bush's grandfather helped finance the Nazi Party. Karl Rove's grandfather allegedly helped run the Nazi Party, and helped build the Birkenau Death Camp. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Austrian father volunteered for the infamous Nazi SA and became a ranking officer.

Together, they have destabilized California and are on the brink of bringing it a new Reich. With the Schwarzenegger candidacy they have laid siege to America's largest state, lining it up for the 2004 election.

The Bush family ties to the Nazi party are well known. In their 1994 Secret War Against the Jews, Mark Aarons and John Loftus use official US documents to establish that George Herbert Walker, George W. Bush's maternal great-grandfather, was one of Hitler's most important early backers. He funneled money to the rising young fascist through the Union Banking Corporation.

In 1926, Walker arranged to have his new son-in-law, Prescott Bush---father of President George Bush I, grandfather of George Bush II---hired as Vice President at W.A. Harriman and Company. Prescott became a senior partner when Harriman merged with a British-American investment company to become Brown Brothers Harriman. In 1934 Prescott Bush joined the Board of Directors of Union Banking.

The bank helped Hitler rise to power. It also helped him wage war. As late as July 31, 1941---well after the Nazi invasion of Poland---the U.S. government froze $3 million in Union Banking assets linked to Fritz Thyssen. Thyssen was noted in the American press as a "German industrialist and original backer of Adolph Hitler."

Loftus writes that Thyssen's "American friends in New York City [were] Prescott Bush and Herbert Walker, the father and father-in-law of a future President of the United States." That would be the current president's father, George Herbert Walker Bush, also the former CIA director.

On October 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi Germany's banking operations in New York City, which were under the direction of Prescott Bush. The government seized control of Union Banking Corporation under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The liquidation yielded a reported $750,000 apiece for Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker. The book, The Splendid Blonde Beast: Money, Law and Genocide, goes into exhaustive detail on Bush-Harriman Nazi money laundering. More recently, Michael Kranish covers the same Bush-Nazi relationships in The Rise of the Bush Family Dynasty published in the Boston Globe. Loftus documents that "Prescott Bush knowingly served as a money launderer for the Nazis. Remember that Union Bank's books and accounts were frozen by the U.S. Alien Property Custodian in 1942 and not released back to the Bush family until 1951."

Often ignored are the Bush family's post-World War II dealings with former Nazis. John Foster Dulles, who had worked with the Bush family in the Harriman Company in laundering money for Nazi Germany, was Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of State. His brother Allen became CIA director.

As Martin Lee documents in The Beast Reawakens, American intelligence recruited numerous top Nazis to spy on the Soviets during the Cold War. Many established connections to the Bush family that had helped finance their original rise to power. In 1988 Project Censored, in its top award, noted "how the major mass media ignored, overlooked or undercovered at least ten critical stories reported in America's alternative press that raised serious questions about the Republican candidate, George Bush, dating from his reported role as a CIA 'asset' in 1963 to his presidential campaign's connection with a network of anti-Semites with Nazi and fascist affiliations in 1988." Investigative reporter Russ Bellant established ties between the Republican Party and former Axis Nazis and fascists.

In 2000 and 2001 the Columbus Alive published a series of articles documenting further links between Bush, Sr. and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his own fascist networks in Japan and Korea.

Karl Rove has parallel ties. The shadowy Rove serves as "Bush's Brain" in the current White House. He is the political mastermind behind the California coup, and is now in the headlines for outing Valerie Plame, the CIA wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson. A consummate strategist, Rove may have outed Plame in retaliation for Wilson's failure to back up the Bush claim that Saddam Hussein was buying nuclear weapons materials in Africa. According to some published reports, as many as seventy CIA operatives have been put at risk by Rove's retaliatory strike.

According to Wilson, and to Retired U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Al Martin (www.almartinraw.com), Rove's grandfather was Karl Heinz Roverer, the Gauleiter of Oldenburg. Roverer was Reich-Statthalter---Nazi State Party Chairman---for his region. He was also a partner and senior engineer in the Roverer Sud-Deutche Ingenieurburo A. G. engineering firm, which built the Birkenau death camp, at which tens of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, dissidents and other were slaughtered en masse.

Rove, who has been based in Utah and associated with the Mormon Church, is widely viewed as the chief engineer of the current Bush administration. He and Tom DeLay are attempting to force the Texas legislature to redistrict its Congressional delegations, adding seven sure seats to the Republican column. By controlling the state houses in New York, Florida, Texas and California, the GOP would have a lock on the four largest states in the union, and thus the ability to manipulate vote counts and strip voter registration rolls in the run-up to the 2004 election.

Rove is a prime behind-the-scenes mover in the Schwarzenegger campaign. On May 1, 1939, a year after the Nazis took control of Schwarzenegger's native Austria, his father Gustav, voluntarily joined Hilter's infamous Strumabteilung (SA), "brown shirt" stormtroopers. This was just six months after the brown shirts played a key role in the bloody Kristallnacht attacks on Germany's Jewish community.

The Vienna daily Der Standard noted recently that "Gustav, a high-ranking Nazi, brought up the bespectacled, rather frail boy with an iron fist and quite a few slaps in the face." Arnold's father favored a Hitler-style mustache in photos.

On October 3, ABC News broke the story of Schwarzenegger's 1977 interview in which he was asked whom he admired. Schwarzenegger replied, "I admire Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for what he did with it."

To cover himself, Schwarzenegger has made substantial donations to the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal Center, which tracks down ex-Nazis. Arnold has also renounced Hitler.

But he has not renounced his friendship with fellow Austrian Kurt Waldheim, the one-time head of the United Nations with known Nazi ties. The book Arnold: An Unauthorized Biography, documents Arnold toasting Waldheim, who had participated in Nazi atrocities during World War II, at his wedding to Maria Shriver. "My friends don't want me to mention Kurt's name, because of all the recent Nazi stuff and the U.N. controversy," Arnold said. "But I love him and Maria does to, and so thank you, Kurt."

On May 17, 2001, Schwarzenegger also met with Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay of Enron at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles. Through the utility deregulation plan signed into law by Pete Wilson, Schwarzenegger's chief advisor, California was destabilized, bankrupting the state government and opening the door for Tuesday's recall election. Lay has been George W. Bush's chief financial backer, and a close associate of Karl Rove's.

According to Bob Woodward's Bush at War, Bush attended a New York Yankees game soon after the September 11 World Trade Center disaster. He wore a fireman's jacket. As he threw out the first pitch, the crowd roared. Thousands of fans stuck out their arms with thumbs up. Karl Rove, sitting in the box of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, likened the roar of the crowd to "a Nazi rally."

He would know.



Bob Fitrakis's Spooks, Nuke & Nazis is now available at www.freepress.org. He is co-author with Harvey Wasserman of The SuperPower of Peace v. Bush et. al.. available November 1.

Harvey Wasserman is author of Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States and co-author (with Bob Fitrakis) of The Superpower of Peace v. Bush et. al., soon available from www.freepress.org.

posted by Joshua P. Angell  @ 2.1.06 0 comments

FROM THE DESK OF DOGGETT:

Dear Joshua:

Knowing of your concerns for protecting our liberties, I offer this update from Washington regarding the shocking revelation that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans without seeking a warrant.Yesterday, I joined several colleagues in filing a "Resolution of Inquiry" requesting that the Justice Department turn over documents in their possession authorizing the NSA's warrantless spying on American citizens' telephone calls and emails and the legal recommendations to do so, subject to any necessary redactions or security classifications. President Bush claimed authority for him to authorize surveillance of Americans rested on the congressional resolution that authorized the war in Afghanistan only a few days after 9/11. In fact, this is just the kind of activity that Congress did not intend to authorize when it gave President Bush the power to attack Afghanistan. I issued the following warning on the floor of the House of Representatives on September 14, 2001:[T]imes of peril can also cause our well-justified anger and desire for immediate action to overwhelm democratic safeguards erected over the last two centuries. The tension that we face tonight is to provide the President with enough authority to eradicate wrongdoing without wronging the carefully crafted systems of checks and balances so essential to our democracy. As we vote for this important resolution with the lives of so many at stake in this important endeavor against terrorism, we cannot let the Executive branch become the exclusive branch. Our approval must represent not the end but the beginning of congressional involvement.The President should stop hiding behind the skirt of national security. There is no justification for denying Congress and the public the documents we seek. On Friday, when the President was asked by Jim Lehrer whether he authorized the secret wiretaps, the President declined to answer, citing national security. But by the next day, with his political security at stake, President Bush not only discussed the domestic spying program but said he would keep doing it. We should not surrender our liberties to any Administration. Retreating to such abusive tactics is weakness, not strength. Authoritarianism is not born full-bodied, it is conceived in small injustices, which tolerated over time, become irreversible. As I stated last week during debate on renewal of the mis-named PATRIOT Act, "Real patriots understand: An all-powerful government can undermine our security just as surely as a dangerous religious fanatic. Intrusive, invasive powers in the hands of a few, with little oversight and no accountability, are a formula for wrongdoing."Please keep me advised of any federal matters on which I may be of assistance.Sincerely,Lloyd---------------U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett201 Cannon House Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20515(202) 225-4865, (956) 687-5921, (512) 916-5921http://www.house.gov/doggett

posted by Joshua P. Angell  @ 2.1.06 0 comments