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American Fascism

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I wouldn’t want to suggest that all teabaggers are fascists, but clearly, some of them are…

The government should censor news agencies that report on US documents leaked by websites like WikiLeaks, according to a tea party-backed Republican who will soon represent the 22th district congressional of Florida.

Speaking with an online radio station, Rep.-elect Allen West said that attacks on the US were not limited to “a bomb or an airplane flying into a building,” but could occur “through cyber attacks” or “through leaking of very sensitive classified information.”

“Regardless of whether you think it causes any harm, the fact that here is an individual that is not an American citizen first and foremost, for whatever reason gotten his hands on classified American material and put it out there in the public domain,” West continued. “And I think that we also should be censoring the American news agencies which enabled him to do this and also supported him and applauding him for the efforts. So that’s kind of aiding and abetting of a serious crime.”

Uh-huh.

So the question is, does Rep.-elect West not understand the First Amendment, or does he simply feel no need to honor it? Or perhaps West’s opposition to a free press is more calculated…?

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) has also supported the secrets outlet, saying that “if the public doesn’t know what’s going on, then they can’t vote intelligently.”

The inability to “vote intelligently,” huh? I suppose that would explain West’s election.

Comments

  2. 2

    New outlets have to decide for themselves what they think the right thing to do is…
    News orgs thru out the history of our nation have had to balance “news worthiness” vs “national harm” and freedom of speech.

    I can’t believe I’m going to do this……..

    …I agree with Mcdermott……

  3. 3

    Maybe Allen can re-enact the Boston Tea Party for their bizarro-reincarnation of the movement by throwing their computers into Boston Harbor to protest the internet.

  4. 4

    State secrets and political embarrasment are two different things. The politicians seem to equate the two as the same thing.

  6. 6

    There are a few inexcusable manglings of the language.

    Anyone ignorant enough to say “gotten” should be disqualified from any Public Office or occupation where high school graduation is required.

  7. 7

    “And I think that we also should be censoring the American news agencies which enabled him to do this and also supported him and applauding him for the efforts. So that’s kind of aiding and abetting of a serious crime.”

    Someone needs to ask him what the name of that serious crime is. I keep seeing calls for the Wiki Leaks folks to be jailed, but those calling for them to be jailed can’t seem to come up with an actual crime that they’ve committed.

  8. 8

    @3

    Maybe Allen can re-enact the Boston Tea Party for their bizarro-reincarnation of the movement by throwing their computers into Boston Harbor to protest the internet.

    Can’t do it, the eco-freaks have banned throwing things in the harbor. Back in my day it was your God Given Right to throw stuff in the harbor. This country really has gone to the dogs.

  9. 9

    “I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

    –Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820

    Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organised political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature.

    The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

    –Albert Einstein, 1949

    “The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against Fascism.

    One reason why Fascism has a chance is that in the name of progress its opponents treat it as a historical norm. The current amazement that the things we are experiencing are still possible in the twentieth century is not philosophical. This amazement is not the beginning of knowledge, unless it is the knowledge that the view of history which gives rise to it is untenable.”

    -Walter Benjamin

  10. 10

    @ 5 – Lucy

    “If only John Boehner wept as copiously for the poor and the sick as he does when confessing his own greatness.”

    ~Roger Ebert

  11. 11

    “Someone needs to ask him what the name of that serious crime is. I keep seeing calls for the Wiki Leaks folks to be jailed, but those calling for them to be jailed can’t seem to come up with an actual crime that they’ve committed.”

    The way to figure out if the teabaggers are fascists is whether they subsequently pass the law they think Assange is breaking.

  12. 12

    @ 11

    Section 9, U.S. constitution:

    No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

    Any law passed by congress, specifying Wikileaks, or Assange in the text of the law in an effort to enable prosecution by the US Government, would be a bill of Attainder, and Ex Post Facto. He is not a US Citizen, he is not currently inside the United States, and is thereby not subject to its laws.

  13. 13

    Whether it’s totalitarianism left or totalitarianism right, the poor sap with the jackboot to his throat probably doesn’t care much about such distinctions.

    Now, I don’t cotton to either commies or fascists, but commies don’t concern me much these days. My grade school days were punctuated by hiding under a school desk with my head up my ass every Wednesday at noon. That fear fest is behind me. There is no commie threat. Not from without, and not from within. We all know that Republicans project too much. That’s a fact and one that’s been known since the Blow Job. So a few years ago when the wingnut talking heads frantically started calling the left “facists”, of all things, red flags (reverse pun intended) were popping up all over the place. I think most of us knew we were heading into uncharted territory and that’s exactly where we find ourselves today.

    Dave Neiwert’s long had some good reads on American fascism posted over at Orcinus.

    I’m not keeping my eye out for a reincarnation of Nazi Germany. If we’re gonna go there, and it looks like we are, we’re gonna do it American style.

    Time’s a wastin’. I think the only relevant discussion to have is how do we change the nation’s course and how do we get started on it.

  15. 15

    Sunlight is the best disinfectant to cure a government with too many classified documents. Three cheers for Julian Assange!

  16. 16

    Has anyone ever seen Allen West and Pudpuller in the same place, at the same time?

    Anyone?

  17. 17

    The GOP will deeply regret Allen West’s election by the end of his term. He mixes crazy with arrogance, snarliness, and idiocy, then doubles the recipe.

  19. 19

    pieceofshit @ 18
    How ironic that the virulently antisemitic pieceofshit would post on a thread about fascism.

  20. 20

    @19
    proudlefty, are most jews socialists? i never met one who wasnt. and you’re the sucker because do you really think most jews, especially billiomares like soros, are looking for ways to strengthen the white, christian middle class? ur a moron.

  21. 21

    btw, now that madoff’s son killed himself, do u still believe they knew nothing? another scam that they supposedly turned in their father as soon as they found out. wall street is the kikes personal playground, and if you have stocks or a pension, you’re getting scammed.

  22. 22

    interesting: the same far leftists who give three cheers for Asange and his attack against uber powerful US govt, are also the same ones pining for a larger, more controlling US govt(otherwise known as mommy-govt).

    ironic.

  23. 23

    continued….

    the leftist progressives in this country who want a large, controlling federal govt who has a finger in every aspect of our lives, somehow think they can control the beast they are trying to establish.

    you guys want a huge federal govt, how the fuck you think your gonna control it? THAT is how a facsist govt will be implemented in the US – through the progressives.

  24. 24

    jews want a huge federal government because then the people get controlled from the top and it eliminates local people having power and deciding they dont like jews. can u blame them?

  26. 26

    How sweet, pieceofshit and Dr. Z, a couple of fascists, decrying government. They are too oblivious to even recognize the irony.

  28. 28

    proud lefty, just curious. so you totally trust bernake to be solely in charge of the economic survival of every american? wow, what a sucker. the same thing madoff said when he realized he could scam you all.

  29. 29

    @ 27

    “me thinks I hit a little too close to home”

    Actually, quite the opposite. You’ve conjured up a classic caricature of progressives that simply doesn’t exist anywhere in the real world. If there are progressives out there who want the government to control every aspect of our lives, I’ve never met one of them. And, neither have you, for that matter. I suggest you bing the phrase “straw man”. You might learn something.

    @ 28

    “so you totally trust bernake to be solely in charge of the economic survival of every american”

    No, but, then, I don’t have to. I really only need to note that it’s in Bernanke self interests not to totally fuck things up.

    It’s also worth considering the alternatives.

    1) Return to the gold standard. No, thank you. One of the thinks we’ve learned over the past century is, if the money supply can’t expand to match increases in productive capacity, we end up with lots of idle resources. See Great Depression for details. I’d rather not repeat that mistake.

    2) Leave monetary policy up to politicians. Again, no thank you. So long as a Democrat is in the White House, it’s in Republicans’ self interests to fuck things up as much as possible. And, they will. Not only have we seen them do this, Mitch McConnell has essentially said that his number 1 job is to fuck things up as much as possible.

    Those are the three choices: some non-indexed limit on the money supply, some technocrat who knows what the fuck he’s doing or politicians. Not exactly ideal choices, but, well, welcome to reality.

  31. 31

    Leave it to a self-loathing Jew to slam a patriotic, black American. Whassamatter, Goldy- run out of Israelis to hate?

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