Onward, Dark Christian Soldiers

Prognostication Watch

Above is a cartoon by Tom Tomorrow, written and published in 1998. Nearly ten years ago, Sparky the Penguin had everything right, while fools like Dick Cheney, Richard Armitage, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Perle were preparing to drive this country directly into the ditch. Ah, the hilarious irony, if only we didn’t have to suffer the consequences.

Fascism Watch

Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman recently interviewed the author of “American Fascists” about the Dominionist movement in this country, which overtly advocates a fascist theocracy in this country (rather than the slightly-less-than-overt advocacy of the GOP). Chris Hedges knows his theology, he knows his Dominionists, and because of his graduate training, he knows his fascists. And he is angry about where they want to go with this country. If only the leaders of the Democratic party could be half as knowledgeable and angry as he is, we might get somewhere. Fascinating to me is the importance of “husband as the head of household” in this political movement (also prominent in Islamic fundamentalism and the “Promise Keepers” group in this country) and the fact that he nails Pat Robertson on his investments in blood diamonds. Hedges has made an appearance on the Colbert Report, but this is the first long in depth interview I’ve seen with him. The transcript and links to audio and video are available above, but you can also watch it in two parts at YouTube. He talks a bit about the cult-like aspects of their recruiting:

And they talked about targeting people who are vulnerable. They used a technique very common to cults. It’s called love-bombing -- it’s a term taken from Margaret Singer -- where you -- three or four people go and you sort of focus intently on the person and are fascinated by everything that they say. You build false friendships. And eventually, of course, the goal is to draw them into these megachurches.

This movement talks about family, but it is the great destroyer of family. And I would stand up in these -- or I would be in these meetings and see people stand up weeping, and they would be weeping for unsaved spouses or children, because once you get sucked into these organizations, your leisure time, your religious worship time, you end up becoming involved in groups, you’re essentially removed from your old community and placed into this authoritarian community, where there is no questioning of those above you. You’re often assigned -- you’re called a baby Christian when you first come, and you’re assigned spiritual guides to teach you to think and act in the appropriate manner.

Brave Sir Colin Watch

Colin Powell is a fascinating figure to me. Not too many people know much about him, and because of that, they have a good feeling about him. His name is bandied about a lot as a possible presidential contender (or it used to be), and he had high positive poll numbers with Republicans and Democrats alike. But if you look at his actual record, the guy is dirty as hell. He was mixed up in the Mi Lai massacre cover up in Vietnam, and was up to his neck in the Iran Contra scandal as Reagan’s National Security Advisor. (Note that as part of his Teflon persona, neither of these are mentioned on his Wikipedia page. You have to go to the scandal pages directly to find him). Then, he cheerled the way into the US war in Iraq with his famous “Saddam’s Gonna Get You” speech to the UN (which he has since denounced as chock full o’ lies). The guy is a rotten apple to the core. And now, he has the temerity to tell us that he spend a whole 2.5 hours - 150 minutes! – trying to get the dimbulb-in-chief to understand what a disaster Iraq was going to be. Thanks for telling us four and a half years later, Colin. You’re a real profile in courage. From ThinkProgress:

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell revealed that he spent 2.5 hours “vainly trying to persuade President George W. Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by U.S. forces. ‘I tried to avoid this war,’ Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. ‘I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.’” In terms of the current situation in Iraq, Powell said: “It is not a civil war that can be put down or solved by the armed forces of the United States.”

Your Disappearing Rights Watch

The ACLU has obtained a heavily redacted document from 2002 which describes how events should be prepared for El Presidente’s arrival. Though the original document is 103 pages long, the 13 (mostly blank) pages they did release did contain this advice for dealing with Americans exercising their first amendment rights:

Preparing for Demonstrators

There are several ways the advance person can prepare a site to minimize demonstrators. First, as always, work with the Secret Service and have them ask the local police department to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be place, preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route.
The formation of “rally squads” is a common way to prepare for demonstrators by countering their message. This tactic involves utilizing small groups of volunteers to spread favorable messages using large hand held signs, placards, or perhaps a long sheet banner, and placing them in strategic areas around the site.

These squads should be instructed always to look for demonstrators. The rally squad’s task is to use their signs and banners as shield between the demonstrators and the main press platform. If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protestors (USA! USA! USA!). As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the even site. The rally squads can include, but are not limited to, college/young republican organizations, local athletic teams, and fraternities/sororities.

There is much more concerning demonstrators, but apart from the appeal to the young brownshirts for protection against ideas they don’t like, how sad/cheesy is it to have them chant USA! like Colbert’s audience? What children. Sad, funny, fingers-on-the-button children.