I am no liberal. Maybe you should shut off Rush and Fox and actually listen to what real conservatives are saying; Bush is the least conservative, president we have had in the last 100 years.

Main Entry: fascism
Date: 1921
1often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

This is the name of Naomi Wolf's original article by the same name. Carolyn Baker wrote a very interesting article analyzing not only Wolf's original article, but changes that have slowly been occuring in our nation during this "twilight" where things seem to be staying the same, but every-so-slightly are actually changing. Wolf's list of 10 easy steps that need to occur to walk us into a fascist state are:

Invoking an external and internal threat
Establishing secret prisons
Developing a paramilitary force
Surveiling ordinary citizens
Infiltrating citizen's groups
Arbitrarily detaining and releasing citizens
Targeting key individuals
Restricting the press
Casting criticism as espionage and dissent as treason?

Subverting the rule of law
I've bolded the points above that I think are the most damning, but from the list I think most, if not all, of these points have already been executed have they not? Unlawful wiretapping, circumventing of standard laws and requirements by the administration, secret prisons and restriction on the press are all things we are seeing and have been watching happen slowly but surely more and more over the last 8 years.

Think back 10 years ago were you reading almost every day in the paper about illegal wiretapping, secret prisons and the administration simply refused to comply with investigations? No you weren't. These have all been subtle changes.

These changes are not magical or confusing. These changes are making corporations richer and richer. You think it's an accident this war is taking so long? You think it's a mistake that the U.S. has paid Blackwater alone close to $1 trillion dollars in the last 4 years? Please wake up and smell the coffee. The unfortunate truth is that a true democracy is not as profitable to huge corporations as a more restricted, controlled, oppressive and predictable government. Especially one where the political figure heads are representatives sent to the table by the corporations that back them.

What I found most interesting was how throughout history the term "fascism" has really been distilled down to what it really is: "corporatism". It's a state of government at which corporations are essentially in control and create policy that have the greatest benefit to the corporations themselves. I was always under the assumption that "fascism", this big scary word meant "Nazis" and other hand-wavingly-sinister terms but it doesn't.

Just how much power and control corporations have over our lives and laws
How profitable it is to these corporations to create a more repressive state of existence for citizens

Taken from http://www.breakitdownblog.com/fascist-america-in-10-easy-steps/

"Again, Bush et.al., will be remembered as the most corrupt, vile and immoral group that ever held office. His actions have directly hurt our standing in the world, our safety and our economy. His CHOICE to go to a NEEDLESS war has weakened the dollar, disrupted supply lines, and increased the cost of light crude.

FACT!"

No. FICTION propagated and spread by hate filled liberals and their goose stepping lackys. And, pray tell, define fascism for us.

The war in Iraq directly affects gas prices. Sorry that upsets you and your fractured notion of how the world works.

I know exactly what facism is, maybe YOU should look it up.

Again, Bush et.al., will be remembered as the most corrupt, vile and immoral group that ever held office. His actions have directly hurt our standing in the world, our safety and our economy. His CHOICE to go to a NEEDLESS war has weakened the dollar, disrupted supply lines, and increased the cost of light crude.

FACT!

whydoicare-I thought this article was about gas prices. Take your unimformed hate filled tirade elsewhere. Oh ya, look up the definition of "Facist" in the dictionary and you'll find you presently have no concept of the real meaning of the word. Yawn.

'liberal exposer'

My mistake...gas is 3.40. That is only a 200% increase.

Yawn? Where are those WMD? Oh that's right there aren't any. 5 years on, 4000 plus dead and a cost that could push a TRILLION dollars. Your damn right that I'll blame Bush, Cheney, Powell, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc. They will forever be remembered as the most corrupt inept administation in American history.

I'm sorry that you have grown tired with the theft of OUR money and the needless deaths of OUR country men and women in Iraq. Sorry to inconvenience your mind with the thought of dead Americans in a war that was based on lies of that dimwit of man named George W Bush.

And if you think a we can afford a trillion dollars your nuts. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11880954/

Liberals like yourself, who want to bring freedom and democracy to the middle east are destroying our country. As a patriot and TRUE conservative, I cannot stand by with out least critisizing the corrupt thieves in Washington, on both sides of the aisle.


Here are the top lobbiest groups based on money in DC:

1 Finance, Insurance & Real Estate $2,558,205,882
2 Health $2,298,865,053
3 Misc Business $2,257,719,539
4 Communications/Electronics $2,092,700,759
5 Energy & Natural Resources $1,670,116,451
6 Transportation $1,358,911,163
7 Other $1,252,273,819
8 Ideological/Single-Issue $848,747,426
9 Agribusiness $819,757,771
10 Defense $668,009,653
11 Labor $265,459,714
12 Construction $264,698,101
13 Lawyers & Lobbyists $188,142,079


And what Marxist special interest are there in Washington? None of those groups seem to be Marxist. Some Facist yes. Marxists no.

I don't disagree with you that we need to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Nor am I opposed against drilling in the USA. Read up on N.D. and Montana oil. It will be profitable to drill if oil stays at this price, but once it drops, oil companys will lose money per barrel.

That is why they don't drill. It is cheaper to get it from the middle east, plus they don't have to deal with any environmental issues. Again, read up on the issue, don't take my word for it.


Ultimately you seem like another Bush shill. You could stand in a fire and disagree that the fire is the reason you are burning.

Whydoicare, you are right in that world economics and the weaking dollar play a role in petroleum prices and what is happening economically, but flat out wrong about the role of the Iraqi war, the worn out ridiculous complaints about Bush and Cheney, ad nauseum, etc. etc. Yawn. Talk about simplifying and being simple minded. And where is gas in Ravenna $4.40? The simple answer to reducing our dependence on foreign oil is drill for our own, which we have in abundence. ANWR, a mosquito infested wasteland on the North Slope is swimming in oil. A recently discovered BILLION barrel reserve in North Dakota and Montana was just announced, but bet your bottom dollar that it will be off limits to drilling and production. Everyone who voted for Tim (do nothing) Ryan, moronic Sherrod Brown, or like minded liberal mental midgets (can you say Ted Kennedy?) who consistently legislate prohibition of American owned companies from drilling/producing oil within America's domestic reserves is directly to blame for our current mess. It's poetic justice for the biggest complainers about gas prices are the ones who vote time after time for these jerks and have no concept of who is really all of us. You've gotten what you asked for, uninformed voters! Only when these lib politicians break the shackles of the Marxist special interests that grease their palms will things change. And that won't happen until the sheep quit re-electing these business hating doofuses who bend over for the lefty whack job environmentalists. Beg for $4.00 gas if McCain is elected? If one of the 2 Demos get elected we'll be begging for $9.00 gas.

By the way...

Here is some reading for folks who continue to think that the war in Iraq is a great thing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/usa_iraq_analysts_dc;_ylt=AhnT2.KGEcjih_ywhYw_Vn4DW7oF

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080420/ts_alt_afp/usiraqmilitarywar_080420024028

Dowhatsright

You are clearly a person of deficient mental capacity to understand the issues at hand. Re-read my post and respond to the financial issues I mentioned. You cannot because it is clear you don't understand them. You have simplified things due to having a simple mind.

The Iraq war was about oil. Not about securing it for cheap consumption, that is your contention. The entire world's oil is traded in US dollars. Saddam wanted to trade oil in Euros because they are worth more. That would cause a massive crash of the dollar due to the nations of the world flooding the currency markets with dollars to buy Euros. You think Bush and Cheney, with all their connections to the energy industry (think Enron), wanted prices to go DOWN? You aren't very bright are you?

Oil prior to the Iraq invasion was around $1.70, in Ravenna the price is around 4.40. That is around a 260 percent increase in 5 years. If you think this war has stabilized oil prices, then please, master of global markets, explain to us why they continue to climb higher???? By the way, as of January 1999, oil was 8 dollars a barrel. In fact, medium range oil futures where consistently dropping in price from 1996 onward to 2000, where they started to climb again. This is not my opinion sir, but fact!

And your moronic contention that I am like Hillary is ludicrous. I voted for Ron Paul sir in the primary election. He was the only candidate who spoke of sound money and the real way to fight terrorism: through trade and protection of our boarders, not bringing "freedom and democracy' to the middle east. You see, I am not some BLEEDING heart liberal like yourself, sir. I believe American blood and treasure should be spent on Americans, not Iraqis. Your divisive dribble goes to show what a mouth breathing slug of a human you are.

You can live your life in fear of the boogey man, oh wait, I mean terrorists. Those of us with grey matter between our ears have bigger fish to fry.

Come on WhydoIcare, quit using Bush as a scrape goat. Your statement is a bunch of crap. You people claimed the war was for Oil, when that proved to be untrue, you now say the war is the reason for the high price. You are another Hillary, say anything and then change when you are caught. Maybe you had rather have the suicide bombers over here targeting our kids like in Israel . It is people like this that hide the fact through their prejudice that make it almost impossible to solve the problem. You have to know the true reason in order to correct the problem.

The price of oil started up under Clinton. It is nothing but greed by big oil.

The middle east could run up the price of gas, just like they did in 1976 with the oil embargo. The war helped to stabilize gas prices. Prior to the oil embargo, American business was afraid to raise prices, thinking that people would not buy their product. When the people kept buying the gas regardless of the price during the embargo, business learned that Americans will buy the product at any price. Other business followed and everything went up. They are doing it again.

Where were all these people complaining about gas prices in 2003, prior to the Iraq invasion? Every analysis going into Iraq predicted higher gas prices. 5 years in and 4000+ dead, look at the prices now?

The reason gas is so expensive is due, in part, to the weak dollar. The dollar is weak because we are borrowing billions of dollars a month from the Chinese to fight a war in Iraq. As we borrow more, we print more money, the value of the dollar drops. This causes inflation and the Federal Reserve lowers the interest rate which further weakens the dollars and in turn gives foreign investors less return on their investments, thus limiting the amount of capital the government can spend. Not only as Iraq been a monumental FAILURE, it has also allowed the Chinese to buy us out lock stock and barrel (don't think so, look at the trade deficit and the strength of other currencies such as the Euro).

Wait until McCain gets into office! You will beg for gas to be 4 dollars a gallon! Once he comes up with a reason to go after Iran, gas will instantly shoot up over night, easily into 6-8 dollar a gallon range (in part driven by the speculation and derivative markets). This will be accompanied by massive food shortages and civil unrest. Remember all our food is planted, harvested, produced, packaged and shipped via gas/diesel products. AS gas prices go, so does food.

Suredon't believe me, that's fine. Gas has NEVER been this expensive. Adjusted for inflation gas is even more expensive now than it was in 1975 (adjusted for inflation a gallon in 1975 cost 1.80).

It is only going to get worse folks. You better start planning for things now.