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November 27 at Annapolis kicked off the latest Israeli-Palestinian Middle East peace process round that may be an historic first. It’s the first time in memory the legitimate government of one side is excluded, and that alone dooms it. Like previous rounds, it’s more pretense than peace, and as Jonathan Steele puts it in his November 16 Guardian column “The Palestinian path to peace does not go via Annapolis….so what do….Palestinians do next….In their decades-long bid for justice, they have tried everything:” armed struggle to compromise, but nothing works and the reason is simple. Their sincerity isn’t matched by Israel, the West, other Arab states and the US most of all with all the muscle in its hands to push or constrain Israelis to be serious and fair. That’s the problem. How can one side negotiate in good faith without a willing partner. Nothing new will be introduced this time; the conference is for one day; no peace negotiations will be held; Israeli Prime Minister Olmert calls the summit “a meeting, not a negotiating session;” respected Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk says Olmert “has no more interest in a Palestinian state than….Ariel Sharon;” no advance agreement of intentions or principles has been reached; and it’s still not sure who’s coming. Further, Gaza remains under siege, the West Bank is also terrorized, settlements continue being built, Palestinian land keeps being taken, more lives in the Territories are being lost, suffering remains unbearable, and hope for the beleaguered people again will be dashed. Their message on the ground is clear, but no one’s listening. They won’t accept surrender for peace. They want nothing less than freedom and justice in their own unoccupied land. Israel won’t give it to them, so the struggle continues. But just in case, neoconservative hard-liners are taking no chances on something of substance from Annapolis reports Jim Lobe in his November 22 Electronic Intifada article. Skepticism or not about prospects this time has them united to assure Israel gives nothing away now or ever. Secretary Rice is their target because she’s pushing for her kind of no state-two-state solution by January, 2009 when a new administration takes over. It doesn’t matter how flawed it is as long as something resembling progress emerges. But even that’s too much for hard-liners like super-hawk Frank Gaffney who calls any type Palestinian state “a dagger pointed at the heart of Israel and a new safe-haven for terror aimed at the United States and other Western nations.” Others like him agree and support continued Middle East war until the entire region is subdued under US-Israeli control. That means no concessions at Annapolis, defeating Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, no pullback from Iraq, and attacking Iran. A very scary scenario as another peace offensive gets underway with its participants pretending it’s real. Looking Back at Past Peace Process Futility Until the late 1980s, the US and Israel were content to ignore regional and other calls for peaceful diplomacy, but that began to change with the outbreak of the first intifada mass uprising in 1987 when oppressed Palestinians fought back and caught the media’s attention. The region exploded again when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August, 1990, and the Gulf war followed in 1991. When it ended, the US and Soviet Union jointly sponsored the watershed Madrid peace conference at which Israel negotiated face-to-face with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians for the first time. They continued after its conclusion on two parallel tracks to resolve past conflicts and sign bilateral peace treaties along with multilateral negotiations on issues affecting the whole region. Madrid promised hope and was the catalyst for the Oslo Accords and their Declaration of Principles that were signed on the White House lawn in September, 1993. They began secretly with a post-Gulf war weakened PLO and delivered betrayal. They established a vaguely-defined negotiating process, specified no outcome, and let Israel delay, refuse to make concessions, and continue colonizing the Occupied Territories. In return, Palestinians got nothing for renouncing armed struggle, recognizing Israel’s right to exist, and leaving major unresolved issues for indefinite later final status talks. They included an independent Palestinian state, the right of return, the future of Israeli settlements, borders, water rights, and status of Jerusalem as sovereign Palestinian territory and future home of its capital. Israel got more as well - the right to establish a new Palestinian Authority (PA) to police a restive indigenous population. Yasser Arafat and other PLO leaders were in exile in Tunis following the 1982 Lebanon war. They got to come home, take control of their people, and be rewarded for being Israel’s enforcer. Oslo I led to Oslo II that was signed in Taba, Egypt in September, 1995, countersigned in Washington four days later, and made things even worse with its complex document. It called for further Israeli troop redeployments beyond Gaza and major West Bank population centers and later from all rural areas except for Israeli settlements and designated military zones. The process divided the West Bank into three parts with each having distinctive borders, administration and security control rules - Areas A, B and C plus a fourth area for Greater Jerusalem. A complicated system was devised as follows: — Area A under Palestinian control for internal security, public order and civil affairs; — Area B under Palestinian civil control for 450 West Bank towns and villages with Israel having overriding authority to safeguard its settlers’ security; and — Area C with its water resources under Israeli control and its settlements on the West Bank’s most valuable land with them all connected by special by-pass roads for Jews only. Israel has total control of the Territories and occupies most of the West Bank with its expanding settlements, by-pass roads, separation wall, military areas and no-go zones overall that are off limits to Palestinians in their own land. The Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum came next and was signed by Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on September 4, 1999. Its purpose was to implement Oslo II and all other agreements since Oslo I in 1993 that included the following: — a 1994 Protocol on Economic Relations; — a Cairo Agreement on Gaza and the Jericho Area the same year; — the 1994 Washington Declaration and Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities between the two parties; and — the 1995 Protocol on Further Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities. Both sides agreed to resume “permanent status” talks and discuss other elements of a peace plan relating to Israeli troops redeployments, land transfers, safe passage openings between Gaza and the West Bank, a Gaza seaport, prisoner releases and other issues related to security, normal civilian life activities, international donor community aid, and a timetable for final status talks on the toughest issues. “Permanent status” talks followed in July, 2000 at Camp David where Bill Clinton hosted Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak. Betrayal was again planned and delivered, but the major media called Barak’s offer “generous” and “unprecedented” with Arafat spurning peace for conflict. Barak insisted Arafat sign a “final agreement,” declare an “end of conflict,” and give up any legal basis for additional land in the Territories. There was no Israeli offer in writing, and no documents or maps were presented. All Barak offered was from a May, 2000 West Bank map dividing the area into four isolated cantons under Palestinian administration surrounded by expanding Israeli settlements and other Israeli-controlled land. They had no direct links to each other or to Jordan. The cantons consisted of: Jericho, the southern canton to Abu Dis, a northern one including Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarm, and a central one including Ramallah. Gaza was left in limbo as a fifth canton that was resolved when Israel disengaged from the Territory in August and September, 2005 but kept total control over it and right to reenter any time. The Barak deal was so duplicitous that if Arafat accepted it any hope for real peace would be dashed. He didn’t and was unfairly blamed. The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) analyzed the deal as follows: — Israel only proposed relinquishing control of from 77.5 - 81% of the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem and likely intended to keep the Jordan Valley; — Israel claimed sovereignty over all West Jerusalem, one-third of occupied East Jerusalem, and as later developments proved wants all Greater Jerusalem exclusively for Jews; — Israel wanted control of the Temple Mount that Palestianians call al-Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary and is the site of the sacred Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque. Barak’s Camp David deal was all take and no give with no chance for reconciliation or resolution of the conflict’s most intractable issues. It was all pretense by design, but when Ariel Sharon took over in February, 2001 he ended all further peace negotiations. It stood that way until George Bush unveiled the Quartet’s fake “road map” for peace in a June 24, 2002 speech. In it, he called for an independent Palestinian state along side Israel in peace by 2005 with good faith efforts on both sides to achieve it. The process was to be in three phases, but its prospects were doomed from the start. After the plan’s launch, the region was beset by violence, Israel increased its land seizures and targeted assassinations, Palestinians responded in kind, and the humanitarian situation in the Territories became so dire it was impossible convincing either side that the road map was credible. It wasn’t, and it failed like all previous efforts before it. That’s where things stood until Condoleezza Rice restarted the current Annapolis round to salvage a warmaking administration, reinvent it as a peacemaker, and manage to manipulate a fake outcome to prove it. The scheme is this, and George Bush spelled it out on November 21 when he spoke to Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to lay the groundwork for Annapolis: — forty-nine countries were invited; — who’s coming isn’t sure, but Iran wasn’t invited; — Saudi Arabia accepted with reservations; and — Syria was a maybe but AP reported November 25 it will now send its deputy foreign minister unlike other attendees sending foreign ministers; Syria will come because the occupied Golan is on the agenda, even though, like the Saudis, it has no formal relations with Israel. Others listed are members of the Quartet, G-8, Arab League, permanent members of the Security Council along with Israel and the Palestinian Abbas quisling government with its legitimate one excluded that renders the process a sham. Rice is pathetic saying “very clear signs” are evident, and “everybody’s goal is the creation of a Palestinian state” with both sides on board for it. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is just as bad claiming “Annapolis will be the jumping-off point for continued serious and in-depth negotiations (that won’t) avoid any issue or ignore any division (in) our relations with the Palestinian people for many years.” Nearly sixty to be exact and over 40 under occupation with no serious effort ever for resolution. Snags still remain in the window dressing surrounding the conference with both sides so far unable to reach an acceptable joint statement to be presented in Maryland. If they’re still apart when it starts, the conference will end with Rice’s statement and not a joint Israeli-PA one. Either way matters little as once again fanciful language will substitute for substantive results. With Gaza under siege, Hamas uninvited, and an illegitimate government in its place, peace and any progress toward resolution can’t happen. That’s how it’s always been and will remain until Israel begins negotiating in good faith. But that won’t happen until the world community accepts nothing less because world public opinion and people of conscience demand it. If you enjoyed this post, please make a donation to help keep this website active: Click Here for the Free Populist party Newsletter Stephen Lendman [send him email] lives in Chicago, and maintains a blog at http://sjlendman.blogspot.com. He also hosts “The Steve Lendman News and Information Hour” online at www.themicroeffect.com. More Articles from Stephen Lendman

Communism’s Comeback
Communism is dead in Russia, a shell of itself in China and just hanging on in Cuba. But Lenin’s corpse has a rare reason to smile. A new workers’ paradise is sprouting in Venezuela, under the direction of the sometimes clownish but always cunning President Hugo Chavez.Most of the rest of the world learned the folly of autocratic socialism back in the 20th century, but Chavez prefers to repeat mistakes rather than learn from them. He has nationalized oil holdings, created new state-run firms, confiscated privately owned land and politicized finance, while endeavoring to take over telecommunications and power companies.All this is part of his grand plan for “Bolivarian socialism” and “the formation of the new man.” President Chavez does not dream on a small scale. “The old values of individualism, capitalism and egoism must be demolished,” he says, and he is eager to get on with it, in spite of - or, maybe, because of - what else will disintegrate in the process. In case you have lingering doubts about what sort of country he has in mind, Chavez offers a color scheme for his educational program: “red, very red.” It is no coincidence that he is a close ally of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. But his anti-Americanism endears him to noncommunist tyrants as well. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made multiple trips to Venezuela to embrace Chavez as “the champion, the leader of the struggle against imperialism.”Chavez, like Castro and Ahmadinejad, is hostile toward political as well as economic freedom. He has closed down some opposition media outlets, while cowing others through laws making it a crime to disparage him or his confederates. The judiciary and electoral council have been stripped of their independence. The government has refused to admit human rights monitors from the Organization of American States.Sometimes Chavez is just, well, strange. In August, he announced that he would move the nation’s clocks ahead, so the time in Venezuela will three and a half hours behind Greenwich Mean Time instead of four. “It’s about the metabolic effect, where the brain is conditioned by sunlight,” he explained. But all this is merely a prelude to the next stage of his revolution. It is expected to commence after a national referendum to be held Dec. 2 on a package of constitutional amendments proposed by Chavez and his confederates.The changes would not only repeal the two-term limit on his office, allowing him to serve for life, but also transfer virtually all power to one person: the president. He would gain the authority to supersede local governments on a whim, declare a state of emergency anytime it suits him and seize farms and processing plants if he deems it necessary for “food security.”The question is not what Chavez he will be able to do if this plan passes. The question is what he will not be able to do?and the answer is, not much.Still, Chavez apparently remains popular among the poor, who may be unaware of the economic stagnation generally produced by this brand of socialism. In following the example of Cuba, Chavez is doing something exceptionally novel: modeling his economy on one far poorer than his own. It’s as though General Motors, dissatisfied with its fortunes, were to embrace the business plan previously used by American Motors.But Chavez’s “reform” plan is expected to pass anyway. One reason is that it includes such enticements as a new six-hour workday and expanded social security benefits. Other reasons: Government control of the media makes it hard for opponents to get their message out, and some dissenters are boycotting because they see the plebiscite as rigged against them.Still, supporters of pluralistic, constitutional democracy have not given up. University students have marched in opposition to the proposals, despite violence from pro-Chavez forces and jeers from the president, who calls them “fascists” and “rich bourgeois brats.” But as Douglas Cassel of the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the University of Notre Dame put it in a recent radio commentary, “Show me a revolution opposed by university students en masse, and I’ll show you a phony revolution.”A phony revolution may nonetheless be a durable one. If the Venezuelans who go to the polls next month give Chavez what he wants, they are likely to discover a paradox: They can bring about dictatorship through democracy, but not the reverse.Steve Chapman is a columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Tribune. COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. If you enjoyed this post, please make a donation to help keep this website active: Click Here for the Free Populist party Newsletter

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We Must Return to Our Constitution
In a previous article, The Immorality of the Iraqi War, I spoke of four Linchpin basics required to yield a healthy and moral Society. Those four were the ” Rule of Law”, “Financial Viability”, “Guaranteed Rights of Redress” and “Morality and Fidelity of our Government”. Those four basics must be maintained by equal checks and balances, much as our great Constitution was designed to provide checks and balances. The rationale was that if one of the three Governing bodies (The Executive, The Senate, and the House) tried to usurp the role of another, those checks and balances would be buffers to intercept and block the runaway Governing body, bringing it back into compliance with the Constitution. And those framers, with great wisdom, placed a fourth body to rule on the constitutionality and the application of Laws arising from the Governing bodies, The Judicial body has as its purpose the charge to interpret and rule on the what is constitutional and what is not constitutional. They are not to make law. Therefore, this body is there to provide checks and balances to our rule of law. So what is currently the most egregious problem with our Government? I submit that the most potentially damaging problem we have today is the failure of our elected officials to observe the Rule of Law - our Constitution - especially our Federal Government officials who took an oath to uphold that Constitution and apply it in their governance. The current Executive, the Bush Administration, has promoted a movement away from the framework of our rule of law, such that this Executive, swelled with the success it has had in snubbing the law, is now emboldened enough to begin thinking of making inconsequential the Congress and the Supreme Court. In other words the Bush Bunch is flirting with freeing their governance from - the rule of law. They proclaim that to properly protect the people, they must not be constrained by - - law! As a result, we are more and more being governed by fewer and fewer people. In fact we are perilously, if not already, past the point of no return, to becoming an Oligarchy. There are two governing agents in our United States: Those that we elect, and those who hold influence over those that we elect - A “Shadow Government”, one that has great influence in policymaking and Governance, over every part of our daily lives. This Group provides Lobbyists to influence our elected representatives, spreading money, power and influence, as bribes to provide favor for the agenda of the few. Well, if the problem is a drifting away from the Governing structure put forward by our Founding fathers - The Rule of Law, then what allows this to not only continue, but to expedite this failure of our system? I submit that the cause is A.D.D., Attention Deficit Disorder, of the American Public. We have become so “party First” and “Spin Oriented,” that truth has no place in our vocabulary. Either we are in a state of denial, or we just don’t realize what the truth is. We the Citizens of America need to return to the rule of law. Not just a law for the masses, no, we need to bring especially those we have elected into compliance with the Constitution - the law governing our government. They were elected for this purpose! We definitely need to repeal the Patriot act, the MCA, and end the wars now. Then, we need to “strike at the root”…. look at HOW the politicians wage aggressive wars, and remove their power to do so in the future: We must somehow get some veto-proof legislation in place that will forever bar Congress from abdicating their duty in times of war. And there needs to be some legislation that will forever bar a President from “deciding” what non-constitutional actions will be exercised, and what constitutional actions will be ignored. How are we going to do this? First, we the people must strengthen our influence so that we can bring to heel the Republican or Democratic party when they stray. Both must be made inconsequential, or at least responsive. This can be done by exercising your vote with thought. Select a third party to start suppoting; the Populist party is one that advocates a return to Constitutional Law, and works to place representatives in Government, beginning at the Local level and progressing to the National Level. It will take some time. Neither the Republican party nor the Democratic party is willing to toe the line. It is not in their best interests to allow competition to grow and become strong. That is why they have worked together to promote legislation to make it extremely difficult if not impossible for a third party to succeed. Nevertheless, their stranglehold must be broken. As I said, they won’t do it, so the People of America must take the initiative. We either must induce change or we must force change. A change of direction back to the basics. But this Linchpin “The Rule of Law” properly enforced on the powerful as well as the weak, the rich as well as the poor, all races and classes, equally on each, to each as a private citizen, restored to its solid foundation, will be accepted by the people when there is visual evidence that the law is applied fairly and equally. When it becomes solidly entrenched, no would-be dictatorial president, senator, or congressman will be able to return to any office because the people will not allow it. The key to taking back our country from the War mongers, the lobbyists, the immoral, is a resolve to see it through, a vision of a return to Constitutional Law, an urgency to return to what our country was founded on and what has made us the greatest Nation on Earth. There are those who would sacrifice our greatness for personal gain. A group of those people now occupy our government. Everyone knows about Eisenhower’s statement concerning the Military-Industrial Complex, but he also made the following observation: “America is great because America is good - and if America ever ceases to be good - America will cease to be great.”- Dwight D. Eisenhower in a speech in Boston, September 21, 1953. America has ceased to be good. Returning to the Constitution will bring us back. If you enjoyed this post, please make a donation to help keep this website active: Click Here for the Free Populist party Newsletter Cliff Carson [send him email] is a freelance writer and Populist party contributor. More Articles from Cliff Carson

The Inefficacy of Government
It was reported recently that thousands of employees lost their jobs at Chrysler. This is just one more example of this government’s ineffectiveness at handling the economy. Now we have the town of Orme, Tennessee going without water. At night you have the town mayor, Tony Reames opening up a valve so that the folks of this town can have three hours of water. It is their time to do the laundry, the dishes and hopefully squeeze in a shower before he is forced to turn it off. According to the AP, “The mighty waterfall that fed the mountain hamlet has been reduced to a trickle, and now the creek running through the center of town is dry.” Yet one does not sense any urgency coming from congress to deal with the drought situation gripping the South East. Droughts like hurricanes and fires have a devastating affect as well. They affect the lives of human beings. Those living in this area of the country seized by this drought are forced to live with these restrictions. It also affects the commerce of this area as planted fields dry up yielding little. One can only pray for those farmers seeing their crops destroyed. While Americans are facing foreclosures which some estimate to be over 2 million, again, where is the sense of urgency coming from congress and let us not leave out the Bush administration to deal with this emergency? At the closing bell on a recent Friday and as reported by Bloomberg News, the price of oil per barrel closed at $95.93. It is reaching that magic number of $100 per barrel and yet where is this government to handle this? With winter upon us many middle class Americans will feel this bite into their budgets as they try and heat their homes. My suggestion: Instead of buying children tainted toys made in China, buy them sweaters, socks and slippers made in the United States for Christmas. As you will see, I hyperlinked some web sites that are selling American made products and by the way, those socks are crazy and wild. The kids will love them. Also those sweaters are handmade and one has got to love the cute toddlers they chose to model them. It may bring back Christmas to what it was supposed to be. Before our addiction to gadgets we exchanged simpler gifts. Besides in choosing American made products we are helping our fellow citizens. With China showing little regard for the safety of our fellow citizens, let us reciprocate in kind. (Article Continues Below) You may be asking why I am bringing these hardships up. Well I do receive the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) email alerts and now I know what our congress has been working on. Nope, it is not cutting off the funds to this blasted war. I wish it was though. According to the CBO report (pdf) you will be shocked to read at how your congress has been working so hard for you the American tax payer. “H.R. 3712, a bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 1716 Spielbusch Avenue in Toledo, Ohio, as the “James M. Ashley and Thomas W.L. Ashley United States Courthouse”; and H.R. 3315, a bill to provide that the great hall of the Capitol Visitor Center shall be known as “Emancipation Hall.” Gee, and we pay these congress members why? While the CBO reports, “these bills would have no significant impact on the federal budget and would not affect direct spending or revenues.” You would think they would be working on something far more important. It would be a sight to see in which a farmer whose crops have dried up confronting one of these congress members responsible for these bills. I think I would pay to see that one. Then we have the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2007 (pdf) also known as H.R. 900 which according to the CBO, “H.R. 900 would require Puerto Rico to conduct a plebiscite (a direct vote where an electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal) by the end of 2009 on whether the island should retain its current relationship with the United States or pursue a permanent non-territorial status.” It may be important to the island of Puerto Rico, but seriously how important is it to the continental United States when Americans are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet? In the past when I used to campaign for various candidates no matter what party, I used to tell them to take their tax bills, utility bills and increased mortgage payments into the voting booths and vote accordingly. It only serves as a reminder to them as they vote for their respective candidates. I for one have had my belly full of these politicians. If you enjoyed this post, please make a donation to help keep this website active: Click Here for the Free Populist party Newsletter Mary MacElveen [send her email] is a freelance writer who maintains a blog at http://www.marymacelveen.com. She has been published by many other websites, and has been a guest on the Jay Diamond Radio Show on WRKO in Boston and has also appeared on CNN. She has done numerous web broadcasts for sites such as RadioLeft.com, TVNewsLies.org and FranklySpeakingRadio.com. More Articles from Mary MacElveen

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US Coup Planned for Venezuela?
The New York Times had a news article about Venezuela in Thursday’s edition, but it was about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez saying he would cut diplomatic ties with neighboring Colombia. There wasn’t a word about a memo from a CIA operative in Caracas to CIA Director General Michael Hayden, uncovered yesterday, outlining a plan for interfering with a Venezuelan referendum set for Dec. 2, and laying out the steps for instigating and backing a coup. The plot, called “Operation Pliers,” and laid out in the letter to Hayden by an undercover operative named Michael Steele, who reportedly works in the US Embassy as a “regional affairs officer,” was intercepted by Venezuelan intelligence and released publicly on state TV yesterday. In the Nov. 20-dated letter, Steele refers to an $8 million US-funded in-country propaganda campaign against Chavez and the referendum, already being implemented, which is designed to institutionalize many of Chavez’s socialist reforms and to permit him to continue to run for president beyond his current two-term limit. He proposes trying to stall the referendum, which pro-Chavez forces are expected to win handily, and failing that, to then promote a campaign to refuse to accept the results. Steele further confirms that the agency is working with international news agencies in an effort to distort reports about the referendum and the reforms. (CNN had to apologize for a “mistake” which led to the words “Who killed him?” superimposed over a photo of Chavez broadcast on CNN’s Spanish-language international broadcast in Venezuela. Was this a deliberate CIA-inspired black-op?) Among the tactics Steele recommends in his letter are: * Promoting street demonstrations and violent protests* Creating a climate of ungovernability* Provoking a general uprising* Working through the US military attach at the embassy to coordinate with ex-military officers and former coup plotters against Chavez. Even more darkly, the letter calls for initiating “military actions” to support opposition mobilizations and strategic building occupations, involving US military bases in neighboring Curacao and Colombia to provide support, and even taking control of parts of Venezuela in the days after the referendum, while encouraging a “military rebellion” inside the Venezuelan National Guard. The CIA communication has been reported in articles filed by the Associated Press, but the Times and other major US news organizations have not mentioned it. Instead, the Times today ran a column by Roger Cohen, which compares Chavez to the fascists of 1930s Europe, and which calls for defeat of the referendum. (Are Cohen and the Times part of the CIA’s propaganda campaign?) The Cohen column is so rabid that it would be almost comical, were it not for the fact that there is a real threat of a bloody CIA-inspired coup in the democratic nation of Venezuela. In fact, I thought it would be fun and instructive to alter Cohen’s hit piece a bit, substituting the US for Venezuela, and Bush and Cheney for Chavez, to show its hypocrisy. Here then, a sample of the only lightly tweaked column: ________________ Shutting Up America’s Bush and Cheney By Richard Cohen (courtesy of editing by Dave Lindorff) It was a fascist general in 1930s Spain who coined the phrase “Viva la muerte!” or “Long live death!” Essentially meaningless, the words captured the cult of soil, blood and savagery that coursed through European Fascism, in its Francoist and other forms. President Bush and Vice President Cheney hate Islamo-fascists; they are central to their repertoire of insults. But they have not hesitated to deploy the imagery of death to bolster their rightist brand of petro-authoritarianism, now operating under the ludicrous banner of “Homeland, Free Markets and Democracy!” The slogan looks almost quaint in its anachronism. Bush and Cheney would no doubt claim American Revolutionary, rather than Spanish fascist, roots for it (Patrick Henry also invoked liberty and finality). The bottom line is this. America’s oil-gilded caudillos are getting serious about instituting executive rule, much like Franco and Mussolini. I might add Vladimir Putin to that list. Like the Russian leader, Bush and Cheney have already used fears of terrorism, a pliant judiciary, subservient institutions like the Congress, and the galvanizing appeal of vitriolic anti-Arabism to concoct a 21st-century authoritarianism, complete with gulags and arrest and indefinite detention without charge. But even Putin has not contemplated going as far as Bush and Cheney with their doctrine of pre-emptive war and “regime change” abroad. Americans will vote next November most likely between two candidates for president who endorse many of the new powers already claimed by Bush and Cheney, and the Congress, even under Democratic control, continues to grant them additional powers, including the power to conduct sweeping spying on electronic communications without any court order or demonstration of probable cause, the power to declare martial law anywhere in the country on the slightest of pretexts, and the power to expropriate private property of those deemed to be “threatening” the American occupation in Iraq. “The measures amount to a constitutional coup,” said Teodoro Petkoff.etc. .Bush’s and Cheney’s grab for emperor status is grotesque and dangerous - as Fascism was - a terrible example for a world that is moving towards democracy. Venezuela’s Chavez got it right when he told the assembled delegates at the United Nations General Assembly, shortly after President Bush had left the podium after addressing the same group, that he could still “smell the sulfur” left in the room by the American president. ____________________ Of course, we in America only read such things about foreign governments, not about our own. Which may explain why despite the constitutional coup that has been occurring in the US over the last seven years, we have yet to see any hearing in the Judiciary Committee on the impeachable crimes of Bush and Cheney. If you enjoyed this post, please make a donation to help keep this website active: Click Here for the Free Populist party Newsletter Dave Lindorff [send him email], is an award-winning investigative reporter who has been working as a journalist for over 33 years. He writes frequently for Salon.com, BusinessWeek, The Nation, and many other publications. Dave’s most recent book, The Case for Impeachment, is now available. Find all of Dave Lindorff’s works on his website, www.thiscantbehappening.net. More Articles from Dave Lindorff

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