American Exceptionalism = H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y

American Exceptionalism = H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y

When I was in school, I was told that a hypocrite was someone who told you not do something but did it himself anyway. A hypocrite functioned under the “do as I say NOT as I do” philosophy. Jesus is said to have condemned the Pharisees for being hypocrites. Hypocrites practice hypocrisy. I was taught this was one of the Earth’s lower moral life forms.

From http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07610a.htm
Hypocrisy is the pretension to qualities which one does not possess, or, more cognately to the scope of this article, the putting forward of a false appearance of virtue or religion.

Essentially its malice is identical with that of lying; in both cases there is discordance between what a man has in his mind and the simultaneous manifestation of himself. So far as the morality of the act goes, it is unimportant that this difference between the interior and the exterior be set out in words, as happens in formal lies, or be acted out in one's demeanor, as is true of simulation.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have morals or virtues that one does not truly possess or practice. … A classic example of a hypocritical act is to criticize others for carrying out some action while carrying out the same action oneself.

American Exceptionalism is the philosophy that states no one else can do something EXCEPT America and those we have chosen. American Exceptionalism is hypocrisy because at its core there is a belief that we can do whatever we want and others must be restricted from similar actions. Under the Bush regime, American Exceptionalism has been taken to new lows.

HAVING NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Ever since the days of “duck and cover,” I wondered why it was okay for America to spend billions on a nuclear arsenal that could destroy the Earth many times over while insisting that other countries should have no nuclear weapons. I was told it was because only the U.S. and its allies could be trusted with such dangerous weapons, despite the fact that we are the only country in history to use such weapons in an attack, twice. The two times nuclear weapons have been used it was on essentially civilian targets. This was a deliberate choice. Some of the scientist involved wanted the bombs exploded over a relatively flat area with a population, so they could quantify the destruction of the bombs. Purely military targets in the mountains and hills were rejected because the chances the data would not be a useful.

YELLOW-BELLIED CHICKENHAWKS
This particular group of people preaches about how great it is for our young people to fight in the war. You will not catch them or their children doing the fighting however. It isn’t the fighting man in Iraq that is getting rich, it is those who send them and would never go themselves.

PRODUCING MORE WMDs
The only WMDs found in Iraq were the inert remnants of poison gas. This has been used by some regime shills to justify our invasion and occupation. The U.S. has recently started to produce chemical and biological weapons again, saying they are needed for defensive purposes. Are they needed so we can sell them to the next Saddam that comes down the pike? If we need them for defense, why don’t other countries?

OPPRESSION AT HOME AND ABROAD
Our government in the last five plus years has illegally wiretapped phones, held prisoners without charge for years, has started a preventive (not even preemptive) war, and so on. They have done these things saying they are in the defense of freedom. How can one defend freedom at the same time as restricting freedom?

CASHING IN ON WAR AND PEOPLE’S SUFFERING
This is how Harry Truman dealt with war profiteers. From http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030512/editors:
When he heard rumors of such profiteering, Truman got into his Dodge and, during a Congressional recess, drove 30,000 miles paying unannounced visits to corporate offices and worksites. The Senate committee he chaired launched aggressive investigations into shady wartime business practices and found "waste, inefficiency, mismanagement and profiteering," according to Truman, who argued that such behavior was unpatriotic. Urged on by Truman and others in Congress, President Roosevelt supported broad increases in the corporate income tax, raised the excess-profits tax to 90 percent and charged the Office of War Mobilization with the task of eliminating illegal profits. Truman, who became a national hero for his fight against the profiteers, was tapped to be FDR's running mate in 1944.
He believed the worst offenders had committed treason. The climate of the current administration would bring investigations into the people who would dare to speak out. They say we fighting for democracy and freedom in Iraq. The sad truth is profit is the major motivation.

RACISM IS CONDONED
The Department of Justice’s enforcement of the civil rights code has dramatically decreased under Bush to the point of near extinction. If a designated enemy is seen as being racist, swift and total condemnation follows. Profiling based on race instead of actions is now the new push. Looking Muslim is considered reason enough for the abuses that used to be visited on African Americans. Trouble is how does one look Muslim?

INDISCRIMINATE KILLING
When the invasion of Iraq started, there was period of thirty days called “Shock and Awe.”

From http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/awe
to awe, (transitive verb) To inspire with fear and reverence.

The majority of shells and bombs used on Iraq during these days were not “smart” bombs. They killed babies as well as Republican Guard troops. This indiscriminate killing was designed to bring fear to the entire country. We gave lip service to “winning the hearts and minds” of Iraqis but our intentions were anything but. This attitude has been carried on through the duration, American troops have broken discipline, and the indiscriminate killing continues.

STEALING ELECTIONS
This is the most glaring cases of hypocrisy. The Bush regime talks about exporting democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan, when it does not exist here at home. Additionally, the democracy in Iraq is a façade; candidates during the elections there were not allowed to advocate the withdrawal of American troops, despite nearly 90% of the population favoring just such a move.

YOUNG LIVES WASTED
This is the most tragic of my points. This includes the dead of the war. This includes the injured of the war, many that come home to find their benefits are non-existent. Soldiers recovering in Army hospitals have been asked to pay for their own food. Those mentally affected find their treatment to be lacking if it exists at all. However, the most tragic part of all this is how the Bush regime uses these young people to garner support for their immoral and illegal war. They have equated support for the troops with support for the war. People do not want to appear to be not supporting the troops so they feel compelled to support the war.

A quick summary:

Having nuclear weapons
Yellow-bellied Chickenhawks
Producing more WMDs
Oppression at home and abroad
Cashing in on war and people’s suffering
Racism is condoned
Indiscriminate killing
Stealing elections
Young lives wasted

Who is the most fascist like, al Qaeda or the Bush Administration?

The motivation for this article is very simple. George Bush has a new term for our terrorist enemies. The term takes the two forms of “Islamofascist” or "Islamic fascists.” In an effort to critically analysis the validity of these terms, I decided to determine just what a fascist is. I had seen this first article before and it immediately sounded like the Bush administration. It seemed to me the only fair thing to do was to compare the administration to al Qaeda and see just who the fascist is.

The following comes from http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_14_characteristics_030303.htm

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism
by Lawrence Britt
Spring 2003
Free Inquiry magazine

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy.

The 14 characteristics are:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Copyright © 2003 Free Inquiry magazine
Reprinted for Fair Use Only.

The following is quoted from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucmg/20060815/cm_ucmg/theislamofascistthreat

THE ISLAMOFASCIST THREAT
By Maggie Gallagher

When the news broke that a gang of terrorists planned to blow up six airplanes, killing thousands of innocent passengers, President Bush took the opportunity for the first time to name our enemy "Islamic fascists." Sen. Rick Santorum R-Pa., among others, has been urging this strategic shift. Terrorism is only a tactic. Would we call World War II the "war on blitzkrieg"? By naming our enemy "Islamofascism," the president suggests our current war is the equivalent of our long, triumphant fights against Nazism and communism.

This made me wonder if I heard correctly. I have heard the term “fascist” many times. In most cases, it was used wrongly to describe almost any dictator. The two terms are NOT interchangeable. Stalin was a dictator but most definitely not a fascist. This “strategic shift” puts the billion and half followers of Islam in a very uncomfortable defensive position. If one were to apply this logic to the situation during WWII, then they would have been Christian fascists. I do not think all the world’s Christians should have been on the defensive because of the actions of Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco. Is this “strategic shift” just a strategy for the upcoming elections? Is it going to cause a dramatic shift in the way we fight the war?

The methodology for my comparison is simple. With each of the fourteen characteristics, I have given al Qaeda and the Bush Administration one of two point values, 0, or 1. Zero means there is little or no similarity. One means there is preponderance of similarities. Each time it will be expressed in the following form: (points this characteristic, running sub-total).

Comparing the adaptation of the 14 Characteristics of Fascism by al Qaeda and the Bus Administration:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Al Qaeda (0, 0); Bush Administration (1, 1)
Al Qaeda is an organization without national identity. The Taliban would have scored much higher, but receiving support from the Taliban does mean that you are the Taliban. I am unaware of any patriotic paraphernalia used by al Qaeda.

The Bush Administration has constantly made use of patriotic paraphernalia. Mottoes like “Fight them there, so won’t have to fight them here.” The American flag is treated with religious fervor. The flag burning amendment is the prefect example of this.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Al Qaeda (1, 1); Bush Administration (1, 2)
Al Qaeda is an organization that cares little about innocent human life, the ultimate human right.

The Bush Administration has justified many of their violations of the rule of law by citing the need for security. I see nowhere in the Constitution where the guaranteed rights can be suspended because of security needs. The wiretapping that has occurred without warrants and the holding of detainees without charge are prime examples.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
Al Qaeda (1, 2); Bush Administration (1, 3)
Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization that can only justify its actions by blaming its victims. They also do so by attacking their enemies for their own questionable actions.

The Bush Administration had the entire country unified on September 12, 2001. Muslim Americans were condemning the attacks just like any other American. Since then there has been a push for racial profiling. Our enemy is not dumb if racial profiling was put in place ways of circumventing it would be found. This administration has declared illegal immigrants from Mexico terrorists. This is just absurd. These are desperate people looking for a better way of life.

4. Supremacy of the Military
Al Qaeda (0, 2); Bush Administration (1, 4)
Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization that has no military structure. This is one the reasons that defeating them with military force is an impossible task.

The Bush Administration has ignored domestic issues to concentrate on the war in Iraq. They have made use of the military by equating support for the troops with support for war. Once the soldiers have completed their service and have returned to civilian life, they fall into the pit of being ignored by the government that used them.

5. Rampant Sexism
Al Qaeda (1, 3); Bush Administration (1, 5)
Al Qaeda treats women as mere possessions and chattel.

The Bush Administration gives lip service to women’s rights and turns around to condemn abortion. Enforcement of discrimination laws have virtually disappeared. Women in the administration are paraded out like the old Southern racists declaring some of his best friends were colored. This administration is highly homophobic.

6. Controlled Mass Media
Al Qaeda (0, 3); Bush Administration (1, 6)
Al Qaeda has no mass media to control. Their mode of operation depends on the secrecy that comes in operating in cells and in the shadows.

The Bush Administration will tell you that the media has a liberal bias. The facts of the situation are quite the opposite. Bias on radio runs very conservative with the number of conservative talk stations out numbering liberal stations by a factor of four or more. Bias in the print media runs at least 2 to 1 in a conservative bias. The bias on cable is even worse, when some network there tries to give a truly balanced report; the pundits are ready and willing to attack their liberalism. This has been done so often that impartial reporting is nearly non-existent.

7. Obsession with National Security
Al Qaeda (0, 3); Bush Administration (1, 7)
Al Qaeda has no nation to obsess about national security.

The Bush Administration are masters of fear. The raising of the terror alert status in order gain political advantage is just one example. This constant implication that the Democrats would be incapable protecting the country is another.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
Al Qaeda (1, 4); Bush Administration (1, 8)
I will concede al Qaeda this point even though they have no nation. Religious fundamentalism is their reason for existence.

The Bush Administration is in office thanks in large part to the pandering to fundamentalist Christians. Their office for Faith Based Initiatives is under staffed and severely under funded. God bless American is used for political purposes not out of heart felt meaning.

9. Corporate Power is Protected
Al Qaeda (0, 4); Bush Administration (1, 9)
Corporate power is the antithesis of al Qaeda. The attack on the WTC was an attack on corporate power.

The Bush Administration has essentially established a government of the corporations, for the corporations and by the corporations. The tax and spend policies of this administration benefits friends of the administration not the people of the country.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed
Al Qaeda (0, 4); Bush Administration (1, 10)
Al Qaeda gets a zero here because they are in a no position to effect labor either positively or negatively.

The Bush Administration has been very successful in keeping the working poor person poor. The middle class labor pool is shrinking away to become part of working poor. Those who make their money through the manipulation of money not through productive labor are the most successful. The administration has been very successful in defining unions as either liberal, socialist, or communist. The most successful union in the country is prison guards.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Al Qaeda (1, 5); Bush Administration (1, 11)
Al Qaeda gets a one here because the truth and reality that would come with education and the arts would destroy their operation.

The Bush Administration is anti-science. Bush himself has said the jury is still out on evolution and Intelligent Design. Funding for higher education is eroding instead of increasing. Educators who dare to speak out have been dismissed. The attitude expressed to the Arts is dismal. There is an emphasis on the negative minority in the Arts and no acknowledgement of the positive majority.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Al Qaeda (1, 6); Bush Administration (1, 12)
Al Qaeda gets a one here because their view of an eye for an eye without trial.

The Bush Administration has taken police power that is unconstitutional and illegal. Warrantless wiretapping and rendering are the top two examples. Condoning torture is another.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Al Qaeda (0, 6); Bush Administration (1, 13)
Al Qaeda gets a zero here because if they were to discover corruption among the ranks execution would be the least that would happen.

The Bush Administration has taken these two characteristics to new heights. “Heck of a job you’re doing Brownie,” ring a bell? Corruption in the form of no bid contracts in Iraq that are not completed and over billed. Many cases of the fox guarding the hen house. There is currently an attempt to retroactively exempt the administration from prosecution for wrongdoing as severe as war crimes.

14. Fraudulent Elections
Al Qaeda (0, 6); Bush Administration (1, 14)
Al Qaeda gets a zero here because if they do not participate in elections since their power is supposedly God given.

The Bush Administration is so good with smear campaigns that a new term has been coined, swiftboating. The current gerrymandering of districts may no matter what keep control of Congress in Republican hands. In 2000, there was unprecedented involvement by the Supreme Court that ended with Bush essentially being appointed President. In both the 2000 and 2004 elections highly reliable exit polls were inaccurate only when the polls showed Democratic victories then to have the vote count say the Republicans won.

FINAL SCORE:
Al Qaeda 6/14
Bush Administration 14/14

I am well aware that Bush apologists will attack my motivations rather than my analysis. All I am asking for the sake of the country is to look at each point with an open mind.

Bush Administration: Cries Wolf, Fires Police, and Hires Army; End Result More Terrorists and Less Security

Today the British proved the most effect way to fight terrorism is through police work not invasion. To fight terrorism one must concentrate on individuals not whole countries. It takes a scalpel not a sledgehammer. When Clinton was in power they fought terrorism by conventional means, after the first World Trade Center bombing, the perpetrators were arrested, convicted, and imprisoned. The same was true of the Oklahoma City bombing with the exception execution took place instead of imprisonment. The Clinton administration put counter terrorism agencies in place. The number and severity of attacks decreased afterwards. In other words, police enforcement and prevention actions worked.

The Clinton administration warned the Bush people, their single greatest threat was al Qaeda. The NeoCons in the Bush regime hated Clinton so blindly that these warnings were ignored. When the Intelligence community tried to brief Cheney on al Qaeda, he said all he wanted to hear about was Iraq. These people had a score to settle and nothing was going to stop them. Even though thoroughly debunked the administration and its shills continue to constantly connect Iraq with 9/11. Had the administration concentrated on al Qaeda and bin Laden from the beginning the twin towers might still be standing.

Before and after 9/11 the Bush administration defanged the counter terrorism entities within the government. Especially after 9/11, intelligence agencies were “encouraged” to tilt reports to fit political points of view. In Bush and Rumsfeld’s post 9/11 world the military intelligence groups are supreme, as is the use of military force. Police enforcement actions like those in England today have been few and far between. Some we have been told about only later to find they were either exaggerated or totally fabricated. The most famous one in Miami appears to have been a pure case of the FBI agent involved creating the terrorist cell and plot, even to the point administrating an al Qaeda oath to the group.

Today Bush spent a lot time thanking and praising the British for their fine work, meanwhile his former head of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, admitted that the terror alert level was raised multiple times for political reasons.

From http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8813.htm

Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002. “More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it,” Ridge told reporters. “Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, ‘For that?’ ”
…
The level is raised if a majority on the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council favors it and President Bush concurs. Among those on the council with Ridge were Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI chief Robert Mueller, CIA director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Ridge and Ashcroft publicly clashed over how to communicate threat information to the public. But Ridge has never before discussed internal dissention over the threat level.

The cry of wolf went up so often that the 2004 election was close enough that it could appear legitimate. Here we are two years later and the credibility of the whole Federal government is in the trash. The quagmire in Iraq only deepens and Israel is again at war. All of this is the greatest recruiting tools that the terrorists have ever possessed. I would not be surprised to find the terrorists arrested in England today were recruited since the invasion of Iraq.

I hope and pray that these were legitimate arrests and not a ploy to boost sagging poll numbers. We as citizens need to remain vigilant that actions concerning threat levels are real not inventions for the upcoming elections. I also hope and pray that the country will not become like the townsfolk in the Boy Who Cried Wolf, when the threat is real, that we can and will believe.

Bush Says No to Supreme Court -- An ACLU Call to Action

I received the following letter as a call to action against a Bush administration proposal that appears to look an awful lot like "Enabling Acts." This is no time for us to be timid. If we value our Constitution and the rights it guarantees, we must stand up now. Remember the Constitution does not grant the rights it merely defines and guarantees them. I have added the letter in its entirety.

Dear Friend,

Only weeks after the Supreme Court declared illegal the Bush Administration's military commissions -- which were set up to try and convict detainees held indefinitely without basic due process protections -- the White House and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales are pushing Congress on an illegal proposal that violates the Supreme Court's decision and abandons the rule of law.


The Bush plan would ask Congress to rubber-stamp these illegal commissions, effectively reversing the Supreme Court decision. It would also violate the Geneva Conventions, which were ratified by Congress, taking away the most basic process protections from detainees who are being held indefinitely. Don't let the White House strong-arm Congress and the Supreme Court.

Go to http: //action.aclu.org/tribunals to send a message to your Senators and Representative that the United States must abide by the Geneva Conventions and uphold American values of due process.

Specifically, the White House proposal would:

• Gut the enforceability of important Geneva Convention protections
• Allow the use of evidence obtained through coercion, including horrific abuse
• Sanction convictions based on secret evidence
• Bar a defendant from being present at his or her own trial
• Allow the use of hearsay evidence

During Senate hearings yesterday, even the Pentagon's top military lawyers agreed that no one should be convicted based on secret evidence and that every defendant has the right to be present at his own trial. They also made clear that coerced evidence -- such as "confessions" beaten out of witnesses -- has no place in any trial.

Your Senators and Representatives need to hear from you that Americans want the rule of law restored. Tell them that any legislation on criminal trials of detainees being held indefinitely must protect the Geneva Conventions and maintain basic due process protections respected by all Americans.

Take action now at http: //action.aclu.org/tribunals

Tell Congress that it should not take away the protections of the Geneva Conventions and basic American values like due process when trying detainees being held indefinitely by the federal government.

Thank you for taking action today.

Sincerely,


Caroline Fredrickson
Director, Washington Legislative Office
American Civil Liberties Union

P.S. To read more about the White House proposal before taking action, go here.

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