The Bailout, Martial Law, & the End of Democracy

I'm going to confess. This week I feel like Chicken Little. This stuff is awkward to write about and even more awkward to talk about. But it happened and continuing to ignore/not know about this is a bad idea.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but lately that is just my role. Unfortunately, a lot of the things I tried to chalk up to my tin-foil hat are happening just as scripted by history. I wish it weren't true.

In late January of this year, I wrote a series of posts about the 10 Steps to Fascism as defined by an article and a book written by Naomi Wolf, a brilliant journalist who has studied the consistent patterns that emerged when democratic societies have been transformed into a police state. Think Italy and Germany in the 1920's and 1930's or Pakistan in the last 10 years. As a quick refresher, the steps she listed are:

1) Invoke a terrifying internal and external threat

2) Create a prison system outside the rule of law

3) Develop a group of thugs to terrorize citizens

4) An internal surveillance system is established.

5) Infiltrate and harass citizens groups

6) Create a list that subjects those listed to arbitrary detention and release

7) Threaten key individuals with their jobs, or worse, if they don't toe the line

8) Control the press

9) Cast dissent as "treason" and criticism as "espionage"

10) Suspend the rule of law

In the last few days, I have been looking into an interview Naomi Wolf gave on Saturday (October 4th). While I'm not surprised, the news she provided appears to be true.

The news is not good. Her timeline (which has been dead-on balls accurate as far as I can tell up until this point) indicates that our time to act ran out on October 1st. If we don't use this overtime period to arrest Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, and other co-conspirators in the next few weeks, in order to get them to squeal on each other and restore the rule of law, we are going to lose our democracy.

The "bailout" has a lot to do with this.

At the end of this post is the interview with Naomi Wolf, but first I'm going to provide you some background on some key recent events that she mentions, because the interview is far more interesting if you know what she is talking about.

Plus, the pieces of evidence she gives are fascinating (and terrifying) all by themselves.

At the end of the interview, Naomi Wolf provides us with a road map to stop this, which is to get a District Attorney to arrest the President and Vice-President, but with the short amount of time we have left (apparently) I don't think there is a snowball's chance in hell this will happen. My goal is just to get some more people to know this is happening.

We can't overcome what we don't understand.

If you are concerned, spread the word.

'Terrorists' Updated


Here is a picture of 23 year old Monica Bicking and her boyfriend Eryn Trimmer. They live in Minnesota and opened up their home to travelers who wanted to go to St. Paul to protest at the Republican National Convention. On August 30, two days before any protests would take place, Monica's home and two others were raided by police and the FBI. After taking a bunch of her stuff, they arrested both Monica and Eryn for "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism".

Monica is now dealing with a quarter million dollars in legal fees as a result of her preemptive arrest.

Mass Arrests Have Started

200 people were arrested on a river bank while listening to a concert on Labor Day near the RNC convention. There does not seem to be any legal reason for the arrests. We know this because we have video.

Videos like this one were widely destroyed by police during the creepy four days that was the Republican National Convention, but the guy who took this particular video buried it in the ground before being arrested. Once he was released, he dug it up, cleaned it up, and released it to the internet media, which is how we have it now.

While watching this, keep an eye out for the National Guard. You'll figure out why in a minute.



"Immigration" Mass Arrests Were Bigger

From The New York Times on Tuesday, August 26;

LAUREL, Miss. - In another large-scale workplace immigration crackdown, federal officials raided a factory here on Monday, detaining at least 350 workers they said were in the country illegally...

As of late Monday afternoon, no criminal charges had been filed, said Barbara Gonzalez, an agency spokeswoman, but she said that dozens of workers had been "identified, fingerprinted, interviewed, photographed and processed for removal from the U.S."

The raid follows a similar large-scale immigration operation at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, in May when nearly 400 workers were detained. That raid was a significant escalation of the Bush administration's enforcement practices because those detained were not simply deported, as in previous raids, but were imprisoned for months on criminal charges of using false documents...

She said no lawyers were present while the workers were being interrogated.

The President Gets $100 Billion from "The Bailout"

After months and years of constantly claiming that our economy was strong, The Club hyped up an economic crisis and rammed through a bill that would give them over $700 billion to spend at will. While we still don't have the text of the economic equivalent of the Patriot Act, known as "The Bailout", we do know that $100 billion of that money has been set aside to be used at the President's discretion, with no oversight at all.

$100 billion dollars.

The Club

Notice that I say "the President"and not "President Bush". It is not necessarily George W. Bush who is looking to permanently rule the United States, although his reign has been devastating in terms of speeding up the fascism process. Despite the extremely effective Bush administration, the momentum towards fascism has been building for a very long time. We honestly have no way to know exactly who is in on it. That's why I (and George Carlin) identify the perpetrators as The Club. It's the best we can do for now.



However, while we obviously can't pin-point everyone who is in The Club, we know that John McCain and George W. Bush are on the same team. If we get to have a real election on November 4th, there is no choice. John McCain must not win or our Constitution and freedoms are toast.

Congress Blackmailed With Threats of Martial Law

One of the ways the Bush administration was able to get cowardly Congressmen to vote for the "Bailout" bill was blackmail. They told our representatives that if they do not vote to give them over $700 billion right this second, then there will be martial law in the United States.

Don't take it from me. Here is Congressman Brad Sherman on the floor of the House of Representatives (it's only 48 seconds of C-SPAN):



October 1st - Army Deployed to the United States

Army Times reported this week that the first brigade of the 3rd Infantry division has been deployed onto the streets of the United States as of October 1st. I don't know if this means anything, but they will be operating out of their home post in Fort Stewart in Georgia (I just wanted to make sure they weren't coming too close to me). They report that while the brigades will rotate, they anticipate that this type of mission will become a permanent type of Army operation.

If you haven't done it yet, look up the Posse Comitatus Act. Be sure to scroll down and check out George W. Bush's signing statement on the related Defense Authorization Act.

If this goes down like I'm afraid it is going to, October 1, 2008 will eventually be considered an important date in United States history. It will be considered the date martial law began.

Americans Are Now Legally Enemy Combatants

A ruling by the fourth circuit appellate court in July has opened the legal door for The President to arrest and indefinitely detain any Americans simply by labeling them an "enemy combatant". Since the beginning of the "war on terror", this has happened only a few times and was illegal. Now, aided by another extreme right-wing court, this affront to the Constitution is law.

Glenn Greenwald, one of the best journalists I know of, explains the details better than I could.

Read his article.

The Warrior's Creed


United States soldiers used to carry a copy of the "Soldier's Creed" with them in their pockets. Donald Rumsfeld, the former head of George W. Bush's Department of Defense and Iraq War starter, changed the oath of office for the Army to the "Warrior Creed".

Robert Fisk, a British journalist, explains one of the ways we went from Glory to Full Metal Jacket:



Naomi Wolf's Warning

Here is the interview that pieces all this information together. If you see cause for concern, pass it on.