Pacifists are the enemy?

[yendi]

So, Bush and his Merry Organization of Fascist Scum have placed anti-war activists on the no-fly list. Because if you don't restrict the movement of and harass good citizens, the terrorists win!

Of course, since Bush has conveniently thrown the gay marriage issue front and central, and the conservative-run media is eating it up like candy, don't expect any serious outrage from the sheep over this one, any more than over his last 84 offenses.

Wonder how long before all Libertarians are on the no-fly list. Ditto the Green Party. And then all Democrats. Followed by all Blacks and Jews, of course.

Comments

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

Fucking moron. Obviously it doesn't count if you've only been to protests and signed petitions though, since I have flown since 9/11. I'm wondering if I have an alert level though. I have been searched, though I figured it was cause I was wearing a trenchcoat.

[shawnj.livejournal.com]

Can I ride down that slippery slope, Daddy?

[thejunebug.livejournal.com]

But he didn't get a blowjob in the Oval Office, so we can't impeach him.

[yendi]

Of course not! Violating the sanctity of marriage is the only impeachable offense!

[dwivian]

Lying to a Grand Jury is impeachable.

Lying to everyone else....is politics.

[justanotherg33k.livejournal.com]

The EFF cofounder John Gilmore has been heavily involved in this issue. He was recently kicked off of a British Airways flight for wearing a "Suspected Terrorist" button. Information on his legal challenges appears at www.freetotravel.org (http://freetotravel.org/).

I'm wondering how bad the lockdown of Atlanta is going to get as the
WTO conference on Sea Island approaches next year.

[zerbie.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend gets detained at the airport for being named Jean-Jacques. Because, you know, we hate the French. Nevermind that he's an American citizen, born in California, with no criminal record and maybe one speeding ticket to his name. But his name sounds French, and he probably speaks the language, and he might get froggy, and we can't have that.

Hrmph.

I did send this link to him, though, because it contains the only decent idea I've heard: file a complaint with the ACLU. The TSA agents he's spoken with won't, of course, tell him anything, and say there's no way to get off the list.

[stormy-brow.livejournal.com]

The Dubya Admin is indeed a fascist organisation. I'm glad I'm not the only one that calls it that.

Why are more people not outraged that no shred of democracy exists anymore? Can't people see what a fascist regime we're dominated by?

[vyseryn.livejournal.com]

Do you know what a fascist government is like? Think Nazi Germany. Think Mussolini's Italy. Think the Hussein Regime. There is absolutley NO comparison to the Bush administration and these governments. Such a statement is pure rhetoric. Only in politics can people redefine a powerful, negative term to suit their own needs...

Don't think for a moment that this type of stuff wasn't going on in previous administrations. Politics will be politics, and power will be power, regardless of the party the administration represents.

[stormy-brow.livejournal.com]

And how do you think Mossolini and Hitler and Stalin started? Do you think they started as full-blown murderers? No. Look back hard at history. It does repeat itself, and it is doing so now.

Look up fascism in the dictionary. Democracy is dead in this country. The people have no say.

[stormy-brow.livejournal.com]

From dictionary.com:

fas·cism
n.
often Fascism
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
Oppressive, dictatorial control.

Take note to the text that I've hightlighted in bold. People are blind if they do not see that this is something that is happening right now. Insert any sort of "ism" where racism exists in that definition.

[condign.livejournal.com]

Ahem. Hyperbole is the last refuge of a poor argument.

In a fascist regime, you'd be in jail already for posting that.

[fortunavirilis.livejournal.com]

The most unfortunate aspect of all of this is that I am not surprised in the least.

[vyseryn.livejournal.com]

What is this "conservative-run media"? Fox News? The New York Post? Rush? Sean Hannity? Is that the entirety of the conservative run media? You surely can't be talking about CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, C-SPAN, the New York Time, Boston Globe, LA Times, Miami Herald, Washington Post, etc. Truth be told, the Left still has a strangle hold on the media in this country.

[yendi]

Um, yes, I'm talking about exactly them. The corporate-owned companies that find it in their best interest to preserve the corporate-friendly status-quo. Putting Cynthia Tucker or Ellen Goodman on your op-ed page as a feint, and then killing or burying any stories about Bush's actions, is both conservative and cynical. The difference between the mainstream conservative press and the sources you cite is that they are conservative, not reactionary.

[vyseryn.livejournal.com]

Your statement makes it sound like the conservatives dominate the media, which is entirely untrue.

You make it sound like the idea of killing or burying stories is something new and unique to the Bush Administration. They called CNN the "Clinton News Network" for a reason. This same sort of stuff when on during his administration too, but you didn't hear about it. Why? Liberal president - Liberal media. It was not in their interests to report things that they didn't have to.

Why are all these things coming out in this administration? That is quite simple. Republican President/House/Senate/Supreme Court - Liberal media. It is in their best interests to have a Democrat in power. This is politics... This is how it has been done. This is NOT new for this administration, and to think so is purely biased. I guarantee that if there was a conservative dominated media, you wouldn't be hearing about any of this stuff.

[amokk]

I see my entire arguement has already been stated.

Book links: Bias, about media bias and Dereliction of Duty, what else Clinton did beyond perjury. ;)

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Yendi, can I quote your post in its entirety with the appropriate links in my LJ?

[yendi]

Of course! Help yourself!

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

What I find terribly amusing is that when people bring up Fascism and/or the Nazis with regards to the current trend in U.S. politics, so many people jump up and scream "No, no, it's not anything like that!" People insist that the speakers are being alarmist and silly. It's as if they believe that fascism can never make a comeback.

You know what? The people in the countries that have had fascist leaders never thought it would go that far either. A woman I knew, who grew up in Germany under the Nazi Party and survived World War II, used to get a horrified look on her face when she would describe what happened, what her family and friends were feeling. I'm paraphrasing from memory, but it was along the lines of:

"We thought we were giving up a little of our freedoms to make it through. They were going to make our lives better, but we had to work with them. It was only the troublemakers that were jailed, harrassed. Not law-abiding, decent citizens like us! Never! But then...the troublemakers were gone and there was another group of troublemakers that had to be surpressed. Then another. And another. Suddenly we realized, that we would all eventually be troublemakers. That it was just going to get worse. We were staring down the barrel of a gun the whole time and had never known it."

That's what things like this remind me of and what I think too many Americans forget about. The slippery slope exists and we have found ourselves upon it. The question is, what will we do about it?

[sidruid.livejournal.com]

Personally, i don't think we'll go that far. However, at the same time i'm disturbed by how far it has gone. It was only 50 years ago Senator McCarthy waved his little list about...

"I have in my hand fifty-seven cases of individuals who would appear to be either card-carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party"

And thus ensued a witch hunt across hollywood... cause you know, that's where all the commies are.

Is this really so different? While I hope we're not about to go back to locking japanese muslim americans in containment camps, the idea that the Bush admin has labeled anti-war liberals as potential enemies of the state, to be doubly checked at airports, strikes me as a step further than we've gone in a long while; and a step further than i thought we would ever go again.

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

I think that was the point I was trying to make, though I may not have made it as well as I could have. The more little steps like this that we take, the harder it is to back up. I'm just worried that we'll eventually go too far and start sliding.

As for detention camps, look at what's been happening both with the Al Qaida prisoners (as extreme cases) and with immigrants that haven't met their paperwork requirements. Some of that's pretty damned scary and internment camp-like.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

This is what I am saying. Should I be afraid? I am, let's see, a registered Libertarian. Pro-choice. A pagan. Pro-gay-marriage. Pro-gay. Pro-stem-cell research.

And fairly soon I'll be living with a woman without having married her first. The thing is about any of these things, if President Dumbass wants to make them an issue just to "get rid of people who don't like him," he can and will do so. How do I know? Because he's already made it impossible for war protesters to get on a fricking plane!

Not only that, but have you ever seen one of his public appearances in person? Wondered to yourself where the protesters are? 'Cuz there have to be some. He has the Secret Service round them all up and put them in a corral a quarter mile away so none of the press can see them. Because y'know, ALL WORKERS WERRY HOPPY.

[stormy-brow.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I was trying to say the same thing, only it didn't come out well, and I was lambasted. I'm glad someone knows how not to talk out of their arse, because apparently I don't.

[fionawolf.livejournal.com]

Uh oh Spaghettios! I fulfill three of those. And to top it all off, I support gay marriage! I guess I should be thrown in jail now...