Sunday, January 13, 2008

Fascist America Part Dos

Earlier this week, I received quite a response on my Fascist America post.

Libertarian Jason had this comment
It's unclear to me exactly which points of hers that you "can't take seriously".

Here's an idea... Instead of expressing useless incredulity, why not elaborate in a more extensively rational and logical manner exactly why she is wrong.

Just simply saying, "ha!" isn't particularly enlightening.

So now I feel obliged to spell it out for Jason
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
The day we saw those towers go down, we didn't need to invent an enemy; it was clear that we had one.

2. Create a gulag
Where the hell is said "gulag". We have a detention camp at Gitmo. To my knowledge no Americans are being held there.

3. Develop a thug caste
What is this thug caste you speak of?

4. Set up an internal surveillance system
I assume this is in reference to the NSA wiretaps. Again, can someone name me a specific US citizen that has been prosecuted for an offense where these were used.

5. Harass citizens' groups
What constitutes harassment? What has the administration done to "harass" citizens groups.

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
Once again, I'm not aware of any arbitrary detention and release. Maybe Jason's neighbor was snatched up in the middle of the night, harassed, beaten and sent back home in the morning because I would think that would be front page news somewhere in the US.

7. Target key individuals
Again, who are these people being targeted, Bill O'Reilly?

8. Control the press
Just because liberals no longer control the press doesn't mean the conservatives are. Name a journalist jailed by the government. For some of the venom released by some of these media types towards the Bushies, I would think there would be more people in the "gulags".

9. Dissent equals treason
Once again, where's the treason?

10. Suspend the rule of law
And again, where has the rule of law been suspended.
After this, I say to Jason, "where's the beef" can you name one instance where the US has used the Patriot Act to prosecute a US citizen for something other than terroristic crimes?

Look if you read this blog long enough, you know I give to republicans and democrats alike. We've had enough of our civil liberties stripped without putting a tin colander on her heads and making some up.

We have to live everyday with true civil liberty violations drunk driving check points, drug forfeiture laws, confiscatory taxation, red light cameras, mandatory seat belt laws, etc. Before we start paranoid delusions of Patriot Act abuses, let's work on getting rid of the politicians who give these deals.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Liberal elites hate Bush. So they use a negative label such as facist along with a clever list. This quickly works on lazy thinkers like Jason who have no clue as to the difference between our goverment and that of a Hitler or Muselini.

In the meantime, these same geniouses have no actual solution for any actual problems. Such as how to defend our country , or how to shuttle their hero, Al Gore, to all his global warming conferences without burning 10,000 gallons of hydrocarbon per day.

Oh yeah, they do have solutions: raise taxes, regulate other's lives, and make people who've made good choices pay for those who've made poor ones. And of course complain, complain, complain about how much their life sucks and why it's everyone else's fault.