Under George Bush, Freedom Of Speech And The Press Were The First To Go

We pride ourselves as a nation of being a beacon of freedom, land of liberty, shelter for the oppressed masses....or at least we used to before George Bush became President. As bad as we saw it get under our last President, it was much, much worse. It was obvious President Bush didn't have much respect for the laws, but not to the degree that Attorney General Eric Holder has uncovered.

From ThinkProgress:

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder released several Bush administration Office of Legal Counsel memos, which show the astonishing extent to which the administration expanded its wartime powers. An October 2001 memo from John Yoo, for example, states that the “Fourth Amendment would not apply” for domestic military operations. The memo also restricted basic First Amendment rights:

In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully,” Yoo wrote in the memo entitled “Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States.”

Thank goodness we have a competent and truthful Attorney General now that is willing to uncover and expose the abuses from the previous Administration. The more I hear from Holder, the more I like him. Of course, I could like a horde of rats in a dark subway tunnel more than John Yoo and the Attorney Generals that he worked for from 2001 to this past January. Hopefully these small nuggets of truthful morsels will keep coming out and ideally, that we prosecute each and every Bush Administration official that willingly broke the laws of our country that are supposed to keep us as free a nation as possible.

How To Turn America Fascist In Ten Easy Steps

Sure, we may officially live in a democracy right now. Free and fair elections, having checks and balances that work efficiently between the co-equal branches of government, a fourth estate that vigorously investigates the Congress and the President are all things that we hold sacred and that our founding fathers helped create over 200 years ago.

Of course, they really aren't working up to their potential at the moment, President Bush has been viciously attacking these tenets of our government and plans on stopping at nothing to make sure that his will and his will alone is carried out. Well the UK Guardian has studied up on what it takes to turn a country fascist and has come up with examples to following ten steps:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

That list sounds a lot like what Hitler and Mussolini did, doesn't it. Well in case you haven't been paying attention, it is what the Bush Administration has been up to for several years now. The Guardian provides plenty of examples on how Bush implements his ten steps, but if you read the news objectively, it isn't hard to see with your own eyes. Remember, even Bush said it would be easier if the United States was a dictatorship. So why just talk when you can really turn our democracy on its head?