Couple of seriously bad things

Sorry to spend Sunday on this stuff, but the Bush people really take the cake. I am not sure how much Bush himself is invested in this, but his administration has certainly taken a "no holds barred" approach to politics, well always, but certainly recently. Some might call it a "scorched earth" tactic. Some might even call it fascism. I know, I know, I have been very uncomfortable with labels. And I still am. But under fascism, we saw a couple of things. One was a a highly corporate economic policy, where the government and business interests are fused. We also saw the government "regulating officially-incoporated social, religious, economic, or popular organizations, effectively coopt[ing] their leadership or curcumscrib[ing] their ability to challenge state authority (Wikipedia)." Hmm. Remind anyone of anything?

Well, this morning's news readings raised a couple of very disturbing trends. I am hopeful, really, that these represent the desperation of an administration that is even losing support in the south east (TPM reports that even in the SE, Bush is at 43%). But it disturbs me very much.

But to the issues. Talking Points Memo has been watching an interesting trend where the Republicans have been planning to trot out active service men and women (in uniform) at partisan events. As Josh points out (and I would love to hear from people with experience in this area) this is a violation of military regulations and actually a very big deal. Our military, while it may have a large number of voting Republicans, is not the instrument of either party. To try and make it such is more reminiscent of South American dictatorships than American history.

Issue two is perhaps worse. In this Washington Post story we learn that the Administration has taken an extra aggressive stance on the media and leaks. Sounds fine, you say?

"There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad."

And remember, this is the same crowd who excused outing a CIA agent for political purposes. It is clear the only leak they really fear is one that undermines their facade of either morality or competence.

Those who love to wave the flag need to remember what our system is about. That flag stands for something, and it isn't just the Star Spangled Banner or some vague notion of freedom. It represents a pretty unique form of government that has served us well for over 200 years. Flag wavers seem to forget that our free press and civilian leadership has separated us from the petty dictators of our neighbors as well as the truly viscious tyrants that we have fought against.

On Bill Maher's show Friday night, someone from Vanity Fair said that if an American had left in 1999 or 2000 and came back today, they would be shocked to see what had happened to America. The country they left was now torturing poeple and defending it; prosecuting leaks that embarrass the administration, but using leaks to further their agenda; the administration had essentially allowed a major US city to disappear; almost entirely squandered American good will around the world, and on and on.

My own disillusionment has been deep. People around me have defended torture and incompetence while telling me that Bush listens to God and so must be followed. Maher, who is notoriously hard on faith and religion, made a very good point about that, btw. He said that previous Presidents acknowledged God as a divine force who they believed in and hoped would like their actions. But they did what they could in this plane of existence. Bush, noted Maher, seemed to think that God had chosen him for president and told him to spread democracy. (DJ Hughley, btw, said that if he heard one more person tell him that Bush was a man of faith, he was going to "lose his mother-f***ing mind. Exactly).

/rant