Ugly Americans

In case anyone wonders why Americans may end up hated throughout the world, here's a perspective:

Blackwater

In case anyone wonders why American's should care, here's a perspective:

Haliburton -- Kellogg, Brown, and Root

There is a solution, the United States has to make contractors operating in its behalf overseas responsible to some authority for action:

Corporate Immunity

If not, here's the result:

Post WWI Italy

United States citizens ought to think about it the next time they hear their President say he's supporting platitudes as "freedom" (except Iraqis under rule of United States contractors), security (except for employees working outside the country for those contractors), and a war against terrorism (wherever President Bush says it exists and needs contractors to support it).

Remember, terrorism lies in the eye of the beholder:

Britain's view of American Revolutionaries

Take care,

jim

Ten Steps to Fascism

I took the time last winter to read William L. Shirer's classic: _The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich -- A History of Nazi Germany_.

It was sobering to learn how a single, and largely uneducated man, could take a dysfunctional view of society and influence an allegedly advanced society to become the number one outlaw nation on the planet.

News broadcast over that winter seemed to parallel some of the actions and concepts of characters like Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, and Goering.

Recently Naomi Wolf has defined another concept for controlling an unwitting public with 10 steps taken by dictators in recent history.

They too seem familiar:

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

Read the full story here. (See: The Guardian)



Some added commentary. (See: Harpers)


Take care,

jim